I have a record of every day for nearly ten years with the dailypic, and I also have a really good memory for things I have done and dates. So when you know for over a decade that this has been the week the family has been on vacation, it kind of feels wrong when we are not. For the first time in a long time we did not take this week off. Kids are older; one does not even live in the house, she is working at school all summer, the other is looking for a job and getting ready for college. Things I have done on this week, rode a horse in Maine, explored Nova Scotia, left a kid at Busch Gardens (not the best bullet point on my parental resume), visited Rockport, enjoyed a cabin in NH a couple of times, chased waterfalls, ventured to Iceland, ate fish and chips with the most incredible view, watch Anna get eaten by mud, walked the Golden Gate Bridge, drove to the top of Mt. Washington with one then two dogs, took a cruise, and lived what I still refer to the best day I ever had. Today, less eventful and sad by comparison, I am sure the family vacations are not over, they just need to evolve.  That plane in the photo was flying over my house tonight, it triggered these thoughts, it is on it’s way to Italy (I can read the airline when I zoom in, Alitalia Airlines, full of families and soon to be memories, safe travels to them. 

tr/trp