"...Excellent Field Trip..." Post 11

We're on the home stretch of this Excellent Field Trip, having made our way from Italy to Belgium where we're staying with our exchange daughter, Elena and her family.  I'd like to report that we navigated the Pisa airport without our typical Silly American Tourist shenanigans.  We didn't, but we arrived here just the same.  If I were to rate the airports we've been through this trip, Brussels is the top of the list, bar none.  Easy to navigate, designed with what felt like common sense in mind, beautiful, clean, filled with light.  In every airport we have been aware of the presence of armed security and police.  Such are the times we live in.

Since our last visit, Elena and her husband George have had a son, Nikitas (Nikki), 3.  They were waiting for us and Nikki literally jumped into my arms and hugged, hugged, hugged me.  How did I come to be so blessed?  Elena is originally from Moldova, George from Greece, they both speak Dutch as they live in the Flemish part of Belgium, and Elena's mother currently lives with them to care for Nikki while they work.  So Nikki is learning Romanian, Greek, Dutch with a measure of English thrown in.  He also speaks love with a capital L.

Love is love is love

I've been ruminating about what this trip has been and meant to me.  The Spousal Unit™ and I had been to Florence and Tuscany in 2006 so the area wasn't brand new to us.  Yet, of course, as so often is the case when you travel, it was.  Being with Jeanie and Bill and family, dubbed The Big Group on What's App, gave the experience a richer and different layer.  So many times, especially when we were sitting on the patio, it felt as if we could have been on the patio in Des Moines or Minnetonka--and someone would look up and say, "Can you believe where we are?"  So it wasn't the same and having this time together deepens the love is love is love we share.  

I loved the villa we stayed in, its location in the Tuscan countryside, being able to travel into Florence or Pisa or any of the small towns that dot Tuscany, then return to the home base where we would cook and drink and play and talk and do crossword puzzles and read and occasionally nap.  The kids scampered in and out of the pool and the house.  If they needed help, which wasn't often as they are capable and confident little people, there was always a willing adult to provide same.  

I loved the Italian culture; its food, wine, casualness and often its vociferousness.  Not so much a fan of how Italians drive, the roundabouts and to Silly American Tourists confusing signage, and I've already groused about the scooters, but it is especially amazing to see women beautifully dressed for work, wearing high heeled shoes, zip through the streets on those things.  

I loved Tuscany.  Vineyards and olive trees snaking their way up not only every hillside but in backyards, along the train tracks, next to the high rises and the centuries old residences.  Laundry hanging from the balconies.  The sun blocked out in the narrow streets, then hanging high in the sky since all streets lead into a piazza.  The sun baked colors of the buildings.  The predominantly green shutters on virtually all windows.  I had lovely visual memories of the area from our previous visit, which have only been reinforced.

I loved train travel, even with all its self imposed perils.  Growing up in Chicago, I frequently took the L and loved passing through neighborhoods, being something of a voyeur as the L rumbled past people's homes and back porches, wondering who lived there and what their job was and if they had a family.  I did the same every time we took the train.  And I loved the cacophony of the train station, even though it was hot and crowded and dirty.  

I loved taking walks, mostly with Jeanie, where we would talk about nothing or maybe dig deeper into conversations and topics we'd had over the years.  Lillie McManus asked if I was her Pop Pop (Bill)'s sister.  That is the usual question, especially at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in West Des Moines where Jeanie is a Deacon and has become my church home.  Especially when our kids were younger and we'd all go to church together.  People would look at them and the girls in particular did look like cousins.  (It's moved to the next generation as Georgia, Lucy, and Lillie resemble each other.)  They'd figure I must be Bill's sister.  I told Lillie I was not Pop Pop's sister, but sometimes, if you're lucky in life, you meet someone who was supposed to be your family and you all just weren't born that way and then it works out.  The answer satisfied her--and me.

So, with thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the time in Italy was, for me and I'll speak for the Spousal Unit™, the best example of love is love is love there could have been.