Back from away...

We have been away traveling.

The purpose of our trip was to attend our oldest grandson’s high school graduation in Minnesota. He made us all very proud.

We chose to drive instead of fly so that along the way we could stop to see friends, sites and the countryside.

We drove into Michigan and arrived at our friends’ beautiful cottage on Lake Charlevoix. What a delight to sleep with the windows open and a wonderful breeze off the lake.

While in Charlevoix, our friends toured us about to see the “mushroom” houses of legendary architect Earl Young. Amazing.

It is a true blessing to have long time friends and to be able to spend time, hear the stories of their cottage through the years and hear about their time spending summers there as they grew up.

After Charlevoix, we stopped in Wisconsin to see friends we have known since our days in Blowing Rock, NC where I served as a priest right after I graduated from seminary. Mary Lois was in my youth group there and now she is married to a wonderful fellow named Tom and has two equally wonderful young daughters. We had a delicious lunch together and admired their beautiful historic home. Again, so wonderful to connect with those we have loved for a long time.

There were many blessings on this trip of being with people we love. There were other stops along the way that weren’t centered so much on people but on places.

We stopped to visit the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and found the museum overall disappointing (poor signage, apathetic staff) but it did have some interesting exhibits. There was a temporary exhibit about Julia Child that was quite good though we could not determine the connection between Julia and Henry Ford. I guess because she was an innovator? No one was able to answer that question.

There were lots of cars. Lots and lots of cars.

There was an early airplane Ford used. It certainly proved he had great courage to trust that plane to fly.

I found it humorous that Julia’s quote about food was posted right above a sign forbidding food and drink in the exhibit.

That night we enjoyed our first taste of Buddy’s Detroit-style pizza and it was absolutely delicious.

I thought about my aunt—my father’s only sibling and my only aunt as my mother was an only child— who lived the majority of her 100 years on the planet near Dearborn. We weren’t close as she had somewhat alienated herself from our family, but I would later do her graveside service when her body came home to North Carolina (her wish) for burial next to my parents. I wondered if she ever treated herself to a slice of Buddy’s Four Corner pizza?

We made it to Minnesota traveling through swarms (literally, SWARMS!!) of what we thought were mosquitoes at the time but have since learned were mayflies. We did not lack for mosquitoes though as there were plenty of those, too and they proved they grow them significantly bigger and hungrier in the North woods.

There was a lively party the evening after graduation with amazing food and lots of laughing friends and family. There were a few moments of family drama thrown in for good measure as we wouldn’t want to think we were the always-happy bucolic Waltons, right?

The special treat of the evening is that our son found a salsa that is made without onions (my deadly nemesis) that is spicy and delicious. We brought back two hefty quart jars of it, only to discover our local Publix carries it. Who knew?

While others went shopping at the mall, Tom and I took a leisurely drive up the North Shore of Lake Superior, stopping at Russ Kendalls’s Smokehouse. We had to resist buying his delicious smoked fish as we were leaving the next day, but we did get a bit of Wisconsin smoked cheese to enjoy.

Soon it was time to make the trek home after two weeks of travel. We abandoned our original plan to visit the Louisville Slugger Museum (next time maybe ) and we substituted a stop in Lexington, Kentucky where we enjoyed some good barbecue at Red State Barbecue and a good night’s sleep.

The next day we came home to Asheville. There is nothing as sweet as seeing those mountains on the horizon as you come down the highway.

It was a great trip. It was an exhausting trip. As we get older we discover it takes a bit longer to recover from extended travel. We need to give ourselves a bit more grace time on the return.

Coming home to a place you love is a gift. Leaving home is a different kind of gift. We are excited that our grandson is setting out on a new part of his life journey. We wish for him what we hope for all of us: