July 16 - July 20
Sunday - Day OneWe rise early. The sun has come back out and a few wet rays sneak in through the blinds to my eyelids around 6. I snooze till 7, then shower (Philip is already up and showered). We take a short walk down second avenue and stop at a diner for breakfast. We then head back, pack up the car and Jim helps Colin drive us out to New Providence, New Jersey to collect our car. * The drive is largely uneventful. We cross Manhattan up north on the I-95, and set our course for Boston via Connecticut. It's another day where we touch on a number of states, this time five: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and finally into Massachussetts. The first stretch is vaguely industrial, the Bridgeport & New Haven rising up in quick succession amid smokestacks (not at work on a Sunday) and workboats. Shortly out of that area, though, the highway crosses through deciduous forests, the sort I can imagine turning red and bronze and amber in September, and I think of Ben and Ruth. I wonder what Ben, weaned on tall cedars, ferns, moss and mist thinks of these forests, no less dramatic but somehow less wild, magnificent nevertheless. The east coast is so different from the west. It is a shorter drive than a lot of the others but it feels a little strange to get back in the car again after a seven day break from driving. We have not even seen the car this past week, as it was housed in New Jersey for us. After a little over four hours of driving we maneuver our way to Derek's with the help of MapBlast, an internet map service. As we pull in, Derek is upstairs on his treadmill and calls out of the window "Yawl reach eh?" We come straight in, leaving our bags in the car for later removal and our first surprise is that Trish is here. We thought that she was going to be in Nassau but we are pleasantly surprised that she is home and then we are told that David decided, just yesterday, that he was coming up for the conference that he had told us about when we were in Ashland together. So, we settle in and have some lunch and just hang out for the rest of the afternoon. Nico does some laundry and talks to Trish while Derek and I spend time on his computer. After David returns from his various meetings we all settle down to dinner around the dining table. Dinner is great! Not just the food (hens, rice & veggies and salad) and wine but the conversation. It's one of those laugh all night or at least all through dinner conversations. Subjects range from childhood and family memories to us describing how the Bahamian Scrabble game works. We are determined to get a game going sometime during the Christmas holidays when everyone is home. Derek makes his customary Sunday night call to Nassau and the three of us (me, Derek and David) speak to Mummy and Daddy. I'm the first one to crash as Nico and Derek sit downstairs and talk and Trish and David lay upstairs talking. It's so good to be here, having visited three years ago on our way to Pearson, and we look forward to the rest of our time here. |
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