Sunday Salon - catching up

Why is it that the older I get the more time I seem to need to recover from a "vacation"? I think the buried answer is in the definition of "vacation":

• a scheduled period during which activity is suspended.
• a period spent away from home or work in travel or recreation.
• A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation.
• A holiday.

So....there you have it.  Our recent trip was NOT a vacation.  It came on the heels of a two week visit from our granddaughter here in Maine.  We filled those days with trips to animal farms, walks on the beach, shopping trips, and an all day trip to the state fair before we headed to Maryland and then on to a family wedding in California.  While we certainly enjoyed visiting with relatives and friends, and we certainly traveled, activity was NOT suspended, we spent hours and hours in cars in traffic, waiting or walking in airports, schlepping luggage, sleeping in strange beds, eating lots of restaurant meals at strange hours, and generally disrupting our routine but not in any way that was especially restful.

Yes, we spent 3 days at the beach.  But we only actually spent about 3 hours of each of those days sitting on the beach.  And when you have to have your eyes on a grandchild AT ALL TIMES because the rip currents were stirring up in the ocean due to off-shore hurricanes, that is NOT restful.  Trolling the boardwalk was lots of fun. Riding spinning, twirling, head snapping rides was NOT restful.

But....I wouldn't have given up the stroll and drive through the gorgeous Assateague National Seashore, on Maryland's Eastern shore - about 15 miles from where we were staying.  It's a spectacular place to take a grandchild- especially one who is reading one of our childhood favorites: Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.  Chincoteague is on the Viriginia piece of the seashore, but the horses in Assateague are just as inspiring for a young girl (and her grandparents.)

So now that we've been home for just over a week, I'm finally getting back into the swing.  The suitcases are unpacked, the cats are home from the "kitty hotel" and finally speaking to us again, the lawn is mowed, I'm back in my water aerobics class, and we have returned to our life of 'retirement.'  Of course that means lots of activities, but at least we can control the schedule and the food, if not the weather.

All of this is chatter is my way of saying that I've been reading, but not getting reviews up as fast as I'd like.  One of my major accomplishments this past week was getting a Book Discussion Group up and running at our little local library.  The group decided on the first two books: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, and The Color of Water by James McBride.  I just finished Bel Canto on Friday (while driving to another library event) and will get my review posted this week.

This week promises to be another busy one:  I have to work on a presentation I'm giving at the Maine State Library Conference in October about blogging (WHAT ELSE????), I have to read books for my mystery book club next week--this month's author is  Margery Allingham and I've never read anything of hers! , and catch up on some fabulous review copies I got in the mail last week. So stay tuned for reviews, get your entries in for the giveaways, and enjoy this fabulous fall weather.