summer memories~pennsylvania

I love the Pennsylvania countryside. My mom is from a small Pennsylvania town, and we spent lots of time visiting our grandparents there when I was growing up. So every summer when we take Shawn to and from camp I am reminded of those happy times.

Sky stayed with my parents and Gary and I headed to pick up Shawn after five weeks of camp. We had an enjoyable road trip. We stayed a couple nights in a beautiful inn. The first full day there we went to Shawn's camp for performance day where parents come to watch what the kids have been doing. It was fun to see Shawn with so many nice kids as friends. He has met kids from all over the world at this camp.

Shawn was a CIT this year so he had less to show us. He had taught drums to younger kids, which was a great experience for him. But he did perform on high trapeze. He did a flip off of the bar and was caught by a highly trained trapeze athlete (phew). It was amazing. I have no idea where he gets that level of bravery and daredevil-ness from! I was a gymnast but I was never that brave.

That night Shawn joined us for dinner out, he was happy to eat non-camp food!!

Gary and I enjoyed the quiet countryside. We took walks, had dinner, watched a movie and really relaxed. The breakfasts at our inn were delicious, family style. Lots of fun.

We were so happy to be reunited with our sweet son, hearing about his adventures on the drive home to my parents' home. Shawn had spent five weeks with NO PHONE and NO COMPUTER. He survived! In fact he was better for it. I LOVE this camp.

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.

swami time

Back in January Annabel and I went on a tour of four Hawaiian islands with Dayamrita Swami, Amma's senior representative. We had such a great time connecting with old friends and we made some new ones too. Gary and Shawn met us on one of the islands, where we stayed in a huge house near the sea. We stayed with a group of over twenty people in different places and spent a lot of time in reflective prayer and meditation. We toured a botanical garden and ate loads of tropical fruits from trees, we heard stories from an attorney who represented Martin Luther King, we hiked and biked along the ocean, we got stuck in an airport for several hours but still managed to have fun passing the time while playing games together, we prayed for world peace during a fake ballistic missile threat, and we were relieved to hear it was just a mistake! Annabel played her bass with the band during sets of devotional songs, and all in all, we had lots of laughter, love and peaceful moments.