The Idaho leg of the trip is usually full and not very restful.
It’s okay if you know that going into it – if you know that you are not using
your vacation time to relax and recharge your batteries. And even if you did
relax more, the travel back to Nairobi, particularly with kids, would undo most
of that recharging. It’s just the nature of the beast.
I’m now in Mogadishu. The hot, dusty breeze is blowing in
the window. The thoughts of our time in the snow seem to be ages ago. One thing
I can say about my life, it’s full of diversity on many levels.
We only had a little over a week for the visit so we had to
plan carefully and move frequently. Day one began with a trip to storage to
pull out winter gear, then dinner at my sister’s and then we were off to
southern Idaho to see my parents. I also
spent time rummaging through tools that that I could borrow for next
spring inn finishing the work on our house up north.
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| skiing! |
My dad has been in hospital care for a few weeks due to a
broken pelvis. We were able to stop in and see him a couple of times. His spirits
were surprisingly good and the physical therapist seemed impressed with his progress
towards walking again. It’s going to be a long road, however, understanding that
such things take a long time to heal at this age. And the therapist was kind enough
to let the girls take over their therapy room given that no one else was in
there at the time. Nonetheless, it’s a sobering place to visit. It’s a reminder
of the unkindness of aging.
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| snow skulpture |
After a couple days there we headed north to the small town
of New Meadows to check in on our new unfinished house. In planning with my
sister who had the key, we were to meet at the house directly. Unbeknownst to
me, two of my sisters (who have houses in the area), my brothers—in-law and my
brother were all waiting inside with champagne to welcome us. Pretty funny, I
have to say. We had no idea. They’d even brought a space heater to add to the “housewarming”.
So we toasted the new house. I showed them around a bit, explaining the plans,
and then we carried on with the initial plan which was to measure and do some
much needed thinking about what needs to be done.
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| steaks and family |
Afterwards we headed back to my sister’s log house where we
would spend the next two nights. We fit in some skiing, built a snowwoman, had some
wonderful steak, enjoyed a nice “campfire”, etc. I love the snow so it was one
of my favorite parts of the vacation. But we needed to head south and carry on
with the trip.
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| nice |
We headed to Boise for three nights. We had our family holiday
party, did some shopping and mostly just enjoyed time with family. Always sad
to leave but we were also starting to get anxious to return home and get back
to some routine. Travel is all well and good for a while but it seems that most
of us do enjoy getting back to our “normal” lives – even back to work.
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| happy land owner |
Travel home went smoothly and we arrived with all our bags. Happy
to slip back into our own beds and know that we could stay put for a while – or
at least my family could. I would be flying to Somalia the coming Sunday
morning. Alas, it’s what I do.
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| house warming |
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