Like a temporarily deflated balloon

This meme pretty much sums up how I feel about travel these days. Maybe it's middle age. Maybe it's the fact that we've been traveling regularly for the past dozen years. I'm not sure of the cause, but this is how it seems to go when travel rolls up on the calendar.

In a flurry of anticipation and excitement, I consult my travel bucket list since I'm still working on traveling to places I've always wanted to see. Petra, Australia, Machu Picchu... And yet once the actual travel date nears, I don't want to be bothered. I don't want to have to pack a suitcase, ride on a plane, deal with different currency and plug/voltage issues for my hair straightener. Once I get there and get going with the touring, I'm fine. But the angst and irritation leading up to getting there always seems to put me in a pre-holiday travel funk the past couple years. Once I visit Machu Picchu next month, I will probably curtail travel for a while to focus on finding our dream retirement home. 

Mother-Daughters trip to Seattle

We left behind the husbands and kids, dogs and cats, and hit the road for a ladies-only trip to Seattle. Mother kicked off the flight by popping a Xanax and chasing it with a screwdriver since the booze was free in our upgraded seats. And yes, she's also enjoying a bag of cheddar goldfish crackers.

On our first full day in the Pacific Northwest, we went on a private tour of the San Juan Islands via ferry and car. Friday Harbor and Roche Harbor were picturesque and quite lovely.

The temps were absolutely perfect, with highs in the low 70s and a cool breeze. My sister and mother were sorely tempted to hurdle the fence and pet the furry critters at the alpaca farm we saw on the drive from Roche to Friday Harbor.

The rest of our time in Seattle was spent visiting the usual touristy spots like the Pike Place Market, Chinatown, Pioneer Square, Chihuly Glass Museum, space needle, monorail ride, harbor boat tour, etc.

Every city has its quirks. It's not every day you see some guy in a Star Wars stormtrooper costume cross paths with Buddhist monks at the space needle, I bet.

This breakfast eatery that creates hand forged donuts was about a block from our hotel, and I remembered it from a prior trip with my husband and kids for an Alaskan cruise that departed from Seattle in 2014. So we decided to stop in for a sugar fix one morning.

On the stroll over to get donuts, we passed by this one perfect donut on the sidewalk. As we returned via the same route about 15 minutes later, the donut had disappeared and there was just a bit of a greasy spot on the sidewalk. Not sure if a local dog or homeless person enjoyed it.

I thought for a minute that I was gonna get through this trip without spying some Aggie alum along the way. But then sure enough, there in the Seattle airport waiting for our flight home I saw one guy wearing an A&M jacket and another old Ag with his maroon luggage. As always, no matter where you travel, there they are!

Great, great grandpappy

Cousins on my mother's side of the family recently gifted me with an old picture of my great, great grandfather taken in the 1880s. It had been restored and framed in a gold oval several decades ago by my great Aunt Jodie. She had written a description on the back so future generations would know who he was. 

Since I had all of the current pics on our walls in the remodel house reframed to compliment each other, I spent about $350 to get the old family picture reframed, too. It now hangs next to the fireplace in the master bedroom and I think it looks great in its new housing. My custom framer cut out the description my aunt wrote on the back and created a pocket in the new backing for us to keep her original note, which I thought was a nice touch.

Nephew's Graduation

Last weekend we celebrated my nephew Garrett's high school graduation. The school district decided a couple years ago to kick it old school in the football stadium. Temps in the 90s and mosquitos once the sun goes down for an 8:00 pm program just seems a little primitive to me when so many other schools opt to rent sufficiently large venues with ample parking (not in the grass along the baseball field) and air conditioning. Thankfully, the wind was pretty brisk and so it saved us all from BO and skeeter bites.

The next day, we hosted a lunch for Garret and a dozen family members at a local Italian restaurant he enjoys. 

A local group of the old lady purple hatters were at the tables next to us and so we had a bit of rubbernecking once we took out the cake for a sugary end to the dining experience.

Can't Beat the Heat

It's only June 10 and yet we're already pushing the triple digits. We've recently kicked off our annual summer drought here in the hill country. I'm in hell and the weather forecast is proof.

Even our local wildlife is miserable in this heat, trying to keep cool on the in-law's back porch in the shade early this afternoon.

The husband is promising me that we will purchase my much anticipated house in the mountains on a lake in the next couple years once we get the second and final chick shuffled off to college. This is what I long for when I'm sweating buckets at seven in the evening while hand watering our new landscape plants... standing in the shade. I'm envisioning cool, clear waters with temps that might call for a light jacket in the early mornings/late evenings. I have this dream of making s'mores by the fire pit in our backyard at the lake with our eventual grandkids and we AREN'T sweating while we do it.

Topping my list are several lakes in North Carolina and Idaho. Because even though we can still do fun things like pick fresh peaches during Texas summers...

I'm thinking temps in the 2000-3000' elevations, with blue lapping lake waters included in the view, will pull me north. I'm hoping we can lure friends and family here in the oven that is Texas from about Memorial Day to Halloween up for visits to enjoy a change of scenery and more moderate temps with us. Lakeward, ho!

Mid-Life's New Mantra

It was like somebody threw a switch when I turned 50. I decided to quit being a slave to society and other's opinions of me. No more worrying if I was skinny enough, had the right outfits and lived in a "good" neighborhood. It was past time to just be me, finally comfortable in my own skin. Plantar fasciitis, poor night vision and all.

I recently ran across this t-shirt that expresses my new motto I've adopted for mid-life and beyond. Only change I'd make is that high heel, because it seriously needs to be replaced with a comfy summer sandal or maybe flip flop. If you're happy and you know it, find a t-shirt in a fav color that shows it!

Senior year summer

The finished junior year but hasn't started senior year daughter headed off to her first commitment for 12th grade this morning... cheer camp at UT Austin. I swear you'd think these girls were competing for some prestigious free ride to a fancy pants university based on how the cheer coach approaches it all. That their lives and livelihood somehow depend upon them landing a perfect stunt. Lots of yelling. Lots of drama. Lots of praise one day, and then you're all slack wits the next. You're not even trying. Go stand in the corner and watch the others for a while. 

This summer the teen has to read some books for AP classes. Plus write the rough draft of her college essay to submit to her counselor by July 15. And her chapel talk rough draft has to be turned in the first day of classes on August 22. So she can't be a total slacker in the wind up to senior year. As a fun way to kick off the last year of high school, I found a vendor on Etsy to make a water bottle for the daughter to carry. While some of her snotty peers at her private school may turn up their noses at her top two university choices that are both public, I think there are no bad decisions for her college experience. Come spring time, we'll have an answer for decision 2019.

FYI - I chose the light blue because the orange and red colors on it pop more.

Girly graduation gift

I turned the calendar page to the first day of June, which means we've entered high school graduation season. This year I've decided to gift several girls with personalized combo wristlet/crossbodies in their college colors because all of the big stadiums and arenas seem to be adopting a clear bag policy these days. And aren't they just darling when they're monogrammed in gameday colors, looking mighty cute for tailgating and such. I don't know about the rest of the country or conferences, but I think this is definitely a Saturday down south in the SEC sorta present.

I looked up eating places around each of their respective colleges on Google maps and will put a few gift cards in each purse to make it complete. I swear it doesn't get much easier than that.