Home!

We're ba-ack!

It was such a nice trip. Nothing really exciting, just a check in with the grown kids and a look at the long distance grandchildren.

I love driving across the country and looking into the country side. Sometimes we take a back road just to see. We went across rural Georgia and stopped at a town called Parrot. Parrot is a semi restored little stop in the road. I bought my #1, Sammy, five pounds of peanuts there. We got something murky resembling coffee and headed on into Florida.

We had stopped the night before in a place called Opelika Alabama to see our daughter Katy. Katy is a safety specialist and EMT at a large cabinet plant. She showed us Auburn and Opelika and the plant. I've never been in a plant before, and it was immense. I can't imagine what it sounds like in full swing.

We made Florida in good time and landed in Fernandina Island where our son, Brendan, his wife Agnes, and their children, Sam, 15, Elizabeth,3, and Paddy (from Patrick) 3 months, live. Elizabeth is a handsome three year old with a sturdy body like William and a gleam in her eye. She didn't like me at first, but we made friends at last over a coloring page and a set of keys off my chicken in an Italian restaurant about 10:00 at night. I think we were too tired to continue the battle. Patrick is the calmest baby I've ever seen. Like a true Lyden, he does nothing but eat.

The house was lovely and the time we spent with them went too fast. We were able to swim in the ocean and collect a few shells and eat at fun waterside restaurants before we headed back, but the gem of the visit was visiting Brendan's new hospital. The Proton Therapy Unit I talk about sometimes is just about up and running. He's the site manager and we were lucky enough to see the whole thing. It really looks like a space station. The gantries are 2+ stories and the magnets and cyclotron go on for rooms and rooms. When you think about saving a child's life who has pancreatic cancer, you are breathless. We were fortunate to meet a lot of Brendan's team, his boss, Vincent, and we realized that most of these brilliant young men are Belgian. They are mutli lingual and speak many of the sciences, yet they are kind, gentle, unassuming, unpretentious gentlemen and ladies who welcomed us into their little circle. My son is so very lucky to have the brains to work in such a special field with such wonderful people. I thank God every day that his interest as a child was building a nuclear accelerator instead of playing video games. I have a nice article that was written about the project I will be distributing. It's not false pride, but it's an attempt at education that I send out this information. When I talked to Vincent, he said so few people are aware that this treatment is an option, I am going to do my part to help save lives. It's the kind of treatment that one can receive at 10:30 and have a lunch and a game of golf at noon.

We returned home via Opelika again, and last night had an outstanding meal in a Cajun restaurant in Opelika.

Along the route, we stopped at a little store and I bought two cookbooks - one is a Civil War book with battlefield recipes and the second is my all time favorite - Critter cooking. I have a recipe for moose, mountain sheep, ground hog, eel, and pigeon. Can't wait to try them out on the kids! I will of course be re-publishing them for parents' delight and amusement. Remember that you can always substitute chicken and pork for nearly anything like raccoon and beaver.

Home was home - and lovely and smelling like cat food - took nearly an hour to fumigate.

Can't wait to start on Monday. I've missed the kids terribly.