Day 9: Thirty Puppies and Barbeque Rock-n-Roll, Dec.22, 2013

Buffet breakfast by the floor-to-ceiling courtyard windows with its Christmas fountains....

-and we were Indiana bound. 

We had Smiths and El and Sarah in the van, Gembos and Fergs in the trusty Rogue.  Somehow the GPSs were not in agreement with each other, which we discovered when one vehicle was headed for Nashville (Rogue) and the other for Knoxville.  Too late to get back together, so we made the best of it.  Ery had brought prizes for our trip games, and all but one had been given out during our karaoke night.  The final day of the journey was to be the dog photo contest for the much-coveted $10 gift card from Starbucks.  (I just love her view of life). 
Word came in early from the van that Smiths were taking this seriously, and photos of traveling dogs were already being collected.  May the Force be with us all.

I took a brief shift that took us into Nashville…a place familiar to all in my car but me. They wanted to stop at a favorite barbeque place-right in the heart of town!  OK…I just kept driving until Brad said stop here…in the middle of the street in the middle of an area that was a cross between downtown Chicago and the main square in The Villages, Fla.

We all got out with the car running, and ran around swapping places, and Dave and I trundled into the front door of the Jack’s barbeque place to find a bathroom while Brad and Ery drove off to find suitable parking.

It had the feel of an old saloon, and smelled like the inside of Holy Smoke, (the name of Bob’s smoker back in Muncie).  The four of us settled around a little table by the upstairs window above the bar’s neon street sign and stuffed ourselves full of ribs, brisket, and chicken, 

then hopped down to the street headed for the candy and gelato store.

On the way (just a few doors down) my senses were literally bombarded with sights and sensations from a very intense and bustling culture of its own.  Nashville is a different world…a cross between a block party honky-tonk style and a Disney version of rock and roll history. 

It was a drizzly Sunday afternoon, but the street life was booming with musicians playing on corners and in open air bars, people in and out of shops and restaurants, and clubs open to the street with people dancing to country and rock and roll.  It seemed like people were playing roles…like it was a scene in a movie…but I don’t think it was.

Meanwhile, the other car had apparently fallen upon a different adventure…one that seemed pre-planned but couldn’t have been.

At their random lunch stop they happened on a place in the mini mall that was having a puppy sale…yes…a puppy sale. 

They had a puppy-playing frenzy…and took about 30 photos.  Needless to say, Elyssa won the photo contest coming in at 46 photos. 

Just a few hours from home now.

Dave and I dropped off Gembos at Mary’s to pick up their truck and two pups.  Smiths and El and Sarah had preceded us, and were already underway greeting their little four legged kids.  We pulled in about 9:30 pm, having to take the back way to the farm due to the severe flooding that had emerged from the snow storms we braved at the beginning of our trip. (Little did we know then that two months later as the final day of this trip is being posted, those storms would still not have ceased.) As we exited our car the fierce rushing of the river sounded somewhat familiar, like the roar of the waves we had left the day before on our island paradise.  All the Christmas greens in the house had been freshened by Vicki, who wanted to ease our first return to a house without our beloved Misha to greet us.  Gembos followed, stopping to pick up Bucky, and then took off for their own home.

All safe, all together, my chapter complete…and Christmas to look forward to.  A moment of thanks…This is closure for me…my family is around me and flourishing.  It is the way I always wanted it to be.  I had always hoped that Father had a chapter waiting that looked like the one we just finished.  Thank You.

I awakened at six again, as was my habit on the island…as if for the daily appointment with Father and his sparkling moon on the sea waves of pre dawn.  I got up to check out the window just in case…and there was a tiny glistening… the moon offering a softer and more familiar light dancing on our lake. 

I snuggled back in cozily next to Dave…another leg of our journey together.   I remember what he said when he first proposed to me:  ‘We’ve got a lot of building to do.’   So let Father’s next chapter of our story begin.

He makes everything beautiful in His time.  

Day 8 - Cows, bubbles, and Whistlin’ Dixie

Our Holiday Inn was the same one I found for Dave and me for our first encounter with Sanibel years ago…a Great Escape.  It was also the nest of choice for the Smiths on their honeymoon.  It is a tiny resort-like space just a few steps down the trail to the beach, pool, and tiki bar.  I was up early, and got ready in the dark so as to let El and Sarah sleep in, squeezed past all the beds, out the door to daylight.   It was already past dawn, and I spotted Dave walking down the beach the opposite way.  The morning waves were familiar in their calming rhythm and mild chilly temp, but there were lots of people…conspicuous after our week of uninhabited dawns and sunsets of Upper Captiva.  How strange it feels now to realize my slight resentment of the others who had come earlier than I to share the island wonder of sunrise.  Whose beach is it, anyway?  (Father spoils us sometimes…I feel sheepish ).

I found myself once again unexpectedly frolicking in the gulf waters…swimming, giggling…forced myself to be mature and get out, rinsed off by the pool, and on my way so as not to make the others late for our lovely Island Cow breakfast.  Ran into Ely and Josh who had already filmed me in the surf!  Ery and Brad were already half way there evidently on the bikes from the Inn, so off we went.

The Island Cow!  This is indeed the restaurant that must have been created by a TOTAL ‘YELLOW’ PERSON (in the Color Code personality test a yellow is one who values and thinks in terms of play and recreation!)  Cow memorabilia, cow signage, cow menu items, cow themed decorations for Christmas.  

The Santa in a sleigh pulled by 8 dolphins that sits in the lawn out front provided a perfect photo op for several of our party.  Brad, Eliott, and Sarah had never been there.  

During breakfast, Elyssa told a story of a baby bird she was watching that morning - through her story-telling gift of napkin sketching....

The culinary winner of the day was my very own berry-n-cream chilled bisque with champagne finish.

  

The wonderful tropical birds (real) added a perfect zoological touch to kick off our festive morning in Sanibel.

Off to the Bubble Room and its Mucky Duck neighborhood.  Rushing now to make it to Atlanta before bedtime, we all piled into the door of the Bubble Room just before noon. 

That much movie memorabilia and that many colors (I can’t even think of names for some of them) and that many decadent cakes in one location in the span of about fifteen minutes threw my inner wonder equilibrium off for the rest of the day.

Part of my own delight on this one was watching Sarah try to take it all home in photos!  Our circuits were overloaded.  Eliott and Dave talked dive talk around the Christmas-lit-life-size-old-school diver guy in one of the rooms.  El and Brad also mused over some of the early film star photos.  In a tempered frenzy, I ordered three cake varieties for all to sample on the road, and took my place with Dave in the van, providing a very responsible anchor (move over Lisa’s playful side) to help others wrap up their visit and be on time for our date with Atlanta.  Blasted off the islands in a flurry of color, light, and sugar that successfully overshadowed our sadness, at least for an hour or so.  So begins our journey home from …perhaps the most idyllic family trip ever. 

Revolving from driver to driver once again, we journeyed our way in to just north of Atlanta by around 10 p.m.  Ely had discovered a real find:  a Hiatt with a four star rating for about  $90 per room…suites with a discount.  With Ery’s collaboration, they booked.  The Gembos, El and Sarah van arrived first.  Ery got us all a beautiful surprise view of the multi fountain courtyard lit with gorgeously festive Christmas lighting.  That and the fantastic beds and space provided us with a wonderful last night on the road.  

Tomorrow…home. 

Day 7...Au revoir Upper Captiva...Bonjour Sanibel

Sometimes we don’t notice when we are getting attached…to people, a concept, a place, a moment in time…all of the above.  As we finished morning balcony coffee and stretches, I felt a deep panic kicking in.  Returning to life on life’s terms…uncertainties, having to schedule each other into our business, cold and drastic weather patterns all successfully tamped down beneath present joys for over a week. 

The vague sense of loss was now exploding into full on visions of pulling into the farm in the cold winter rain or worse…returning home for the first time without Misha to greet us.  The various aspects of grief that had been eating their way to the surface from somewhere in my subconscious finally burst out, triggered by someone accidentally throwing away my breakfast paleo muffins in the sprint to clear out the fridge.  My sadness spilled over in a deep wellspring from tear ducts that had been forcefully stopped a week ago, subservient to the present joys of family, the wonders of the island, and Christmas.  My devastation caught me by surprise.

As always, the sea had a quieting effect…And the ride to the mainland found us once again in the here and now, 

about to take our land vehicles to our go-to Holiday Inn… by a different and familiar old seaside…The Sanibel Christmas Island Seaside.  

After a lunch at one of our all time favorites, Grandma Dot's, where we feasted on award winning grouper and key lime pie, we spent our afternoon kayaking in the Tarpon Bay Estuary in the sun.  Dave, weary from the long year behind us, took the time to sit on the hotel beach….which left me to kayak as Sarah’s partner.  Eliott and I decided to trade places in the middle of the bay (awkward mental image here) switching me to the solo kayak and El to the Sarah one. 

What fun it is to ride…..(Island Christmas jingles here).  

Back at Holiday Inn we took more couple’s photos in the sunset and lounged at the pool until our evening Christmas meal at the Mad Hatter.   

Along with the delicate flavors of roasted beets, kobe steaks, giant shrimp, crème brulee and mousse au chocolat, we enjoyed the Hatter’s unconventional approach to decor: photos from 

Through the Looking Glass sketched with words from the book, stained glass Alice and rabbit windows, and the upside down Christmas tree with presents on ‘top’.   

As we left we took in the night fire on the beach behind the restaurant where other quiet parties were coming to an end, and the amazing spectacle of uniquely colored lights on the main street that express a creative and lighthearted island approach to Christmas… it must be like a fun day in the Kingdom.  

               Island life with Father agrees with me.  I think it agrees with everyone.

Day Six: Art in the night!

I have become conditioned to look for the moon upon awakening during the night.  Sometimes my reward is those liquid diamonds all over the ocean with the moon reigning just above them all as far as the eye can see.  The difference of a few minutes can limit the span of shimmering to a narrow triangle under a smaller moon, or no moonlight at all. 

Rendezvous with Father tends to happen at 6 am…we have about twenty minutes before sunrise begins to fade the glory of the night to make room for its own more colorful regalia.

Ely and I passed on the stairway…with the same Idea…the beach for moonset!  Magnificent and simple.  We glided down the stairs in stealth mode and slipped onto the beach.  Together we walked, fascinated by the fading moon, children with a treasure, sharing small intimacies as grown up friends do.  A quick photo of our moon shadows…and sunrise coffees back at the house. 

Ery made an amazing red, yellow, green Christmas skillet egg breakfast to accompany our morning ritual of fresh ground coffee/cream/quiet time on the balcony as the tide came in for the morning. 

(The coffee was always freshly made when I got up…never saw who made it.  Kind of like Christmas morning when the gift givers are gone by the time the kids come down.  I never made a single pot on this trip!)  

El and Sarah went exploring in the morning, discovering a path, as is their custom on tropical islands.  They have accumulated an impressive array of Sand Dollars. 

Dave and I accompanied them on bikes to the nature reserve on the remote end of the island…when you come out at the other end, the sea is calm and warmer than in other places.  I stepped in and swam for a moment to cool off.  It was a refreshment of the soul.  We explored the reserve on foot for about 5 miles, and back to the house just in time for afternoon sports.

Dave and Josh decided to brave the ultra-cool temps of the sea with snorkel gear.  Of course some of us were emboldened to go into the surf with them and just dance and swim for a few festive moments (Sarah and Elyssa are good surf companions)…Ery was inside getting well from an apparent after effect of the short flight the day before (earaches are never welcome), and Brad and Eliott were with her relaxing in our amazing island palace.

A delectable seafood meal at the Boathouse (Ery booked them early in the day due to the tendency for places to close randomly around 3:30 if there are not very many reasons to think they will need to stay open!)  Fantastic seafood…AGAIN!  

No movie tonight…we piled 6 deep into our new and zoomier golf cart replacement to get to the restaurant and back (El and Sarah took a turn accompanying on foot this time)…Six in a golf cart: a comical sight by anyone’s description.  

Each couple then spent the rest of the evening packing and one by one we went to bed early…check out tomorrow morning.  Sadness is beginning to surface for me…these four lovely long family evenings…puzzles, movies, karaoke (yeah…Ely’s gift to us)…our Charlie Brown Christmas tree, Ery’s table topics, Dog Whisperer episodes…all together in peace and contentment…my dream come true.  I want to hold on to it all.  The best way is to let go.…letting go.