A Whirlwind Vacation

Last weekend my niece, Erin, got married in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Since we were making the drive up there for the wedding, we decided to extend our time and see lots of family and friends. I'm always torn about making the trip. I relish spending time in Illinois with people I love and don't get to see often enough. When I'm there, I'm "home". Something about it just feeds my soul. But it's hard to leave home this time of year and be thinking about all the plants we've put in that are now suffering from heat and lack of water...and wondering if we will come home to a green swimming pool. So we didn't want to be gone much over the 11 or 12 days we had planned on. But with folks in 4 different cities to visit with, it felt like a "quick trip". Jessica was here for part of the time to take care of the cat, the flowers and the pool, but then she and Jodi drove up for the wedding so that left about 5 days of "unattended consequences". She took the cat to the vet for safe keeping (keeping the house safe from a bored kitty cat), put water globes in some of the potted plants, put lots of chlorine in the pool, locked the door, set the alarm and hoped for the best. Everything was fine except that the air conditioning went out and it was in the mid to upper 90s every day that we were gone! So it's a good thing kitty didn't stay here.

The trip was great and even though it seemed like we were gone for quite a while, the time we had with each person was actually pretty short. There's lots to remember and talk about and I'll just write about each in it's own time. Maybe that will get me back to blogging. For now I'll just say it was great to get away and, as always, it's great to be back home.

PS: I'd rather drive than fly, especially with all the different places we go to visit. But I sure wish I could click my heels together to get home rather than driving for 13 hours!