There and Back Again

Happy End of Summer! Or winter if you’re in Australia. ;-) My not-so-little-ones have started school and I finally have a few minutes to think about our excitement for this summer. I think travel is good for the soul, so I do my best to make sure that we can spend some time traveling in the summer. We usually alternate between spending time with friends, family, and framily and visiting new places, but this summer we were lucky enough to be able to do all four and squeeze in a little blueberry picking besides.

Even though the children thought they might *die* missing the last day of school, we kicked summer off early with a trip to Italy to attend Stephanie Parcus’ (yep—THE Stephanie Parcus, illustrator of the Jaden Toussaint books and so much more) wedding in May. It was gorgeous, tucked away on top of a mountain on the outskirts of Perugia, a wildly green, 1,000 year-old city in the Umbria region. Yep. That’s an owl. There was also a peregrine falcon because Stephanie is cool like that.

Then we took a train ride to Paris, because…Paris. The children were impressed by the perfectly arranged fruit stands, how good the bread was, the surprising quantity of street art and motorcycles, and the fact that the Louvre was not a fancy enough castle to suit Louis XIV. Lol. Also, according to them, the only roses that have ever smelled sweet to them were the ones in Paris. Who knew?

And at the tail end of the trip, we were about to spend a few days in Rome with one of my dearest friends from high school. We were all impressed by the street art in the Quadraro neighborhood and gelato so good that we finished it even when we were full. We also spent time in New York, DC, Virginia, Florida, and Canada before the summer was done.

By the time we were finally home for good, the little one said he knew how Bilbo Baggins (from the Hobbit, y’all) must have felt because all he wanted was to be at home in his very own bed. Touché. I’ll give him a little time to rest up before our next adventure. Pacific coast? Tanzania? The Grand Canyon? I’m not sure yet. I’ll keep you posted. :-)