On Tuesday morning, we went out to get berries as usual, though I sadly didn't take any pictures. We found very few, since we had gotten so many on previous days. Before we packed up to head out to the airport, we went down the road to a huge rock on a hill across from Sue and Tony's house, a rock that's very special for Bill's family. It's where the ashes of several of his relatives are scattered, including those of his first wife, Eileen. Mom has had our dog Daisy's ashes in a box since Daisy died almost two years ago but hasn't known what to do with them, but when she found out about this memorial rock in NH, she decided that scattering them here would be perfect.

We had a little remembrance of Daisy, peppered with stories about her crazy personality. I remembered how, despite her wild temper, she loved my late stepfather Bill unconditionally — he was definitely her favorite — and all of these mental snapshots flew through my head of the two of them playing together, roughhousing and such, and of Bill trying to pretend like he wasn't as attached to her as he was. I also remembered aloud how if a bunch of us were standing around, talking to each other and not paying attention to her, she'd start drawing attention to herself by chasing her tail wildly. My friends from home, who knew Daisy and her silly habits quite well, still say, "Daisy, Daisy, Daisy!" when one of us suddenly breaks out with a random statement to draw attention to herself. After we told stories, we took turns scattering her ashes and saying goodbye (enter my light-hearted comments about getting "Daisy" on our shoes).

Then it was back to the house for some very creative spatial engineering to get everything to fit in our suitcases, and we were off to the airport.

We had a fairly pleasant first flight and a *wonderful* layover in the Orlando airport. It's a nice place to have a layover, especially since we found a Bahamian bar/restaurant that had some amazing nachos that we made into our dinner. The chips were about seven different colors, including green and purple, and were smothered with cheese, sour cream, a traditional salsa, and some pigeon pea relish (sort of like blackeyed peas, very traditional in Caribbean cooking). The sweetness from the relish gave them such a unique flavor that we couldn't get over how good they were.

The Orlando airport also has these very cool tiled walkways running down the concourses, so we admired those and had some fun walking time with Kent while we waited for our flight to start boarding.

We got in on time, but oh-so-late at night for our little boy, who slept through the entire second flight (from before the plane took off until the moment I stood up to collect my bag in New Orleans). He also fell asleep in the car on the way home, so when we got back to our house around 10:45, we changed him into pajamas (he fell asleep during that, too) and put him right to bed.

It was a lovely trip all around, with many reminders about the importance of family, old and new, and inspiration in unexpected places.

Labels: canines, eating out, family, my stepdad, photography, travel

• posted by erica 8/10/2008 10:34:00 PM
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