Friday night, after we'd calmed the kids down from the scary movie, it was grown up time. The Big Lebowski -- surprisingly, the first time Don had ever seen it. Daniel was given the DVD by their friend Peter, enclosed in a little plastic bowling ball, of course.
But first, White Russians! Daniel made them up for all of us -- although Tarah opted to stick with wine, because she apparently drinks them like milkshakes and usually regrets it. Perhaps we should have paid attention... the rest of us definitely had more than one over the course of the movie. We blame the dairy, yup, the dairy...
Saturday was sailing day -- Tarah and Daniel had already taken the boat to its winter home in Dartmouth, but it still wasn't out of the water. It was a gorgeous day, so they picked us up in the morning for one last sail. Beautiful but chilly -- we were wearing many layers! The kids had survived the night nightmare-free and were bright and cheery. Grammy packed a picnic, and we had a grand sail from their dock to downtown Halifax and back -- the boat will be being packed up Wednesday (hurricane-permitting), so it was a lovely final sail of the season!
After the sail, we took everyone out to the pub for a thanks-for-taking-care-of-us-all-week last supper, then brought the kids back to Grammy's for their usual Saturday sleepover. More reading and snuggles, and then we got all our stuff packed up ready to leave the next day.
Sunday morning was the usual breakfast club -- a group of multi-generational friends who meet regularly at a local restaurant for breakfast at 8:30 every Sunday. Yes, we were awake for breakfast. Yes, even Alyssa.
Then it was time for us to hit the road. Big hugs for the breakfast crew, hugs and good-byes for the family. Gigantic bear hugs and good-byes from Lilly. And Wyatt... Wyatt... Wyatt? Sitting on the sidewalk, not meeting our eyes, refusing to say good-bye or give a hug. Lilly used to do a similar thing at his age -- I always interpreted it as her punishing me for leaving, but perhaps there's just something at that age? Where they understand that people are leaving them, but don't know how to process it or express it... (Or maybe they were just punishing us, I don't know -- he was super-cheery and cuddly earlier.)
Then we hit the highway for the l-o-n-g drive. Halifax had been preparing for the hurricane, but according to the weather reports, we were actually going to be driving INTO it. So we opted to make it a super-long driving day, so we could hopefully get home before the worst hit.
And so, Sunday was a 12-hour drive -- oy! Halifax to Dorion (just west of Montreal). The time change was with us, at least, so we arrived about 10pm, checked in to the Super 8, and headed next door for dinner, just before the kitchen closed. It was the same place we went on our way home in June -- you may remember the dinner plate full of mashed potatoes -- so we were wise and asked for steamed vegetables instead of mashed potatoes this time. It was a much better portion, thank goodness!
This morning, we checked the weather, and it seems our route is clear. So far, the skies are grey and there are a couple of gusts starting up, but we've gotten past Kingston now, and still no rain or ridiculous winds. Should be home by mid-afternoon, so we should beat the worst of it. Hopefully there's some food in the house, just in case the storm does get bad... can't remember what's in the cupboards!
Oh, there we go, just before I hit "publish" the windshield got a little spattering. Watch our Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/brightsroots), if you're concerned.
Musically,
Alyssa & Don
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