summer memories~dc and philly and friends

I love the east coast of the United States and all of the history I have there. I love the trees there and the flowers that blossom in the summertime, the sound of crickets at night, eating freshly picked raspberries, and seeing fireflies. I love the architecture and old buildings. But mostly I love the people there.

After time with my sister and her family I drove back to DC and met Gary there. We went to see Amma where she was making a stop on her North American tour. We had a great time with Amma and all of our friends in that community, catching up, enjoying the delicious Indian food, meditating and being inspired by Amma. Amma was very happy to see us as she gave us one of her famous hugs.

Then we stayed with some old friends in DC for a few days and relaxed, sans any of our kids, for the first time ever. We played music, sang, went hiking in Great Falls, and shared meals.

We drove back to Philadelphia and visited one of Gary's college friends and stayed with him and his family for a couple days. It was nice to get to know them and their sweet young adult son with his epic long hair.

We surprised my sister's kids one more time, this time Uncle Gary came too. The boys loved reading a book about baseball with their uncle.

My dear childhood friend Dawn met up with me in Philadelphia. She was visiting the area for her mother's 80th birthday. I had rented a room in a beautiful house for us. Gary ended up joining us because his flight back to NY was cancelled. Dawn and I had a great visit, and we got to spend a couple days together, reconnecting after a couple years of not seeing each other. This is a friend I met when we were eleven years old! So a long friendship. I sadly bade Dawn farewell.

Then Gary and I drove back to my hometown in upstate New York and started our time there. We had arranged a house exchange with a family we had traded with several times before. When we got there, we felt immediately at home.