A few days ago we blogged about the things we’re looking forward to once we hit the road in June for 6 months of travel in Europe. Today we turn melancholy, and {{snifff-sniff}} list the things we’re going to miss (somewhat in increasing order of importance).
- Wine in the mail: since last year’s trips to wine country (summer and fall), we–like most people who visit Napa and Sonoma, as we’ve discovered–wound up with quite a few wine club memberships (we’re marked as wine club pushovers apparently). Even beyond the post-tasting euphoria, it’s been a lot of fun getting those pseudo-random wine shipments in the mail. Alas, but we had to cancel our memberships since we won’t be home to receive them.
- Randy’s deer sausage: my brother-in-law the hunter (astute readers know Randy and Susan–Lori’s sister–from previous blogs) often brings us packages of deer sausage. Please don’t send me hate comments, but we are indeed omnivores and deer are tasty creatures. Unfortunately we can’t fly with thirty pounds of frozen deer sausage, so we’re trying to enjoy a few extra grillings before we leave and the rest will have to be left with our progeny, who also happen to be omnivores.
- Having a plethora of shoes: this is definitely Lori’s contribution to the list: I can do just fine with 2 pairs in normal, stationary life, so I certainly can do with 2 pairs in a full time travel life.
- Our hot tub: many people we know who own a hot tub let it fall into disuse after the novelty wears off. Not us. We love our hot tub, especially sipping some wine and listening to some tunes, and have been soaking in it consistently the 4 years or so we’ve had it. Our favorite hot tub music: a Billy Joel Pandora channel and our “Relaxing” play list, which is heavy with Jack Johnson, Phillip Phillips, Jason Mraz, and Ingrid Michaelson. Every now and then Chuck sneaks in some Big Bad Voodoo Daddy or Insane Clown Posse just to keep things lively.
- Choice of things to wear: this is also (mostly) Lori’s addition, but I admit: having only 8 of my t-shirt collection to pick from will be sad.
- Our favorite restaurants: namely Cafe Efendi, Bagel Boys, Spice, Pure Taqueria, and La Parilla. When we come home in December we’ll have to get our fill of doner kabob (though we surely will have plenty in Turkey), sesame and cinnamon crunch bagels, calamari fritti, fish tacos, taco locos, and frozen margaritas.
- Dance: taking dance lessons at our local Arthur Murray studio has been a cornerstone of our recreational lives for the past year and a few months. Chuck has even been the Foursquare mayor for 16 months running (there should be a special badge for that). Mr Lewis, Miss Martin, Miss White, Miss Robinson, and Mr Pazzaro: we’re definitely going to miss you guys!
- Friends: we have the best friends in the world, some we’ve met through work, some through dance, some we’ve known so long we can’t remember how we met. But we’ll be in touch, and we’ll see you again, and you’re always welcome to join us wherever we might be. And as for us, part of the allure of hitting the road is making new friends all along the way.
- Family: of course we’re going to miss our extended family, but we’ll be in touch with them too.
- Our kids: our progeny and their significant others {{sniff}} will be what we miss the most, and they’ll be the ones we FaceTime and Skype with the most. We might even get into a regular weekly habit of connecting with them, which in reality might be more frequent than some periods of time when we’re home. Darrah and Amber, Catie and Ryan, we love you guys 🙂
