Families are interesting sorts. Just when you think you know
all the people who make up your family, met them all, there are a few stragglers that
pop up in someone’s memory. Not just because Ancestry.com tells you there are
more, but more people that you knew about, but never quite made time to visit
with. I have been married for almost 9 years now, but I have not met my husband’s
half siblings. Two of them, I am afraid, is too late to meet, as they are gone.
But this weekend, I met one of his half brothers, his wife and his only daughter
and her family.
It was like Thanksgiving in … March. Just a big ol’ dinner
and lots of family stories, laughs, and memories. It felt cozy and warm. You
know, when the hugs are meaningful and the warmth you feel is real, not
contrived, and you feel like you belong. Or rather, he acted like he found his
pack.
I am still to meet lots of extended family within my
relatives’ ranks, but I was still happy to witness their reunion and watch
their jokes and unraveling of their common memories, and some not as common but
always shared, in some ways: by the same places or other relatives or common
stories told by people they both knew.
The trip we took for this reunion was around the Norfolk – Chesapeake,
VA area. I had been there before, but I obviously was not paying too close
attention to it. The cities are like postcards of The Old South, with hundred year
old houses, bothered here and there by modern condo buildings.
This is for those folks who think America is the land of sky scrapers: this is the tallest building in Chesapeake, VA - the headquarters of Dollar Tree. In a sandy, salty, flat plane, it does not take much.
Neighborhood pubs and hangouts are at every corner. The
whole area (Norfolk, Suffolk, Chesapeake, VA Beach, Portsmouth, Newport News
etc) is so big, and spread out and in square footage it does feel like a metropolis. Flat and sandy with the ocean
invading the land here and there. But the corner pubs, and bike lanes and hippy
joints, like Yorgo’s Bageldashery give it an extra cozy and small-town feel. The container ships in Norfolk offer a skyline
like no other city’s. The juxtaposition of old, new, and industrial is what characterizes
these parts.
We found a park (Oak Grove Park) to stretch our legs and
burn off the beer calories we gained from The Public House in Ghent the night
before and that was pretty much the extent of our sightseeing. Spring was
peeking shyly through the few popped buds and in the spring in the walking dogs’
step. But it was still windy and chilly. The bright, cloudless, sunny skies did
not do much to warm us up.
Buds popping for spring
After the walk and a stroll in the bookstore, we went to
lunch with my husband’s niece and her husband. Then, we drove to their horse
farm. That was a treat! I had only seen horse farms in movies. The way the land
is partitioned and the barn and the place for the horse trailer – everything was
like out of a picture film. I loved it and was grateful for the opportunity to
experience it.
Sun setting on the farm
It was only a two night trip, but with the roller-coaster of
emotions and new-ness, it felt like a lot longer. Neither one of us wants to go
back to work tomorrow. We want more time with people who get us, more good
food, more story telling, more driving around and finding small, off-the-beaten-path
places to eat, walk, or people watch. If only someone could pay us for those
activities, too! Life is indeed too short.
On the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp. I could only imagine the snakes in there in the summer. Those, and the mosquitoes! But the peace and the quiet this time of the year were true tonics.
An ancient tree rotting but still standing massive and stern. I wish they measures trees, not buildings. This one would win my vote.
