Surprise Visits

A tradition exists in our extended family of surprising each other with unexpected visits. It started (we think) with our niece, Rachael, surprising our daughter, Kristina, at her first vocal recital in college. Kristina repaid the shock when she unexpectedly showed up in Boston for Rachael’s bachelorette getaway weekend. Since then we’ve had multiple surprises with the biggest (before this past week) being the weekend after we retired when our oldest (Katie) managed to get both of her siblings to show up at our celebration dinner. For the week of the 4th here in Maine, we were surprised not once, but twice.

We knew our son, Doug, would be joining us at Becky’s house (Dan’s sister) for a couple of weeks as he waits for a new apartment. What we didn’t know was that we would soon be joined by both of his sisters. On Friday, July 2, a strange vehicle showed up in Becky’s driveway and since we were the only ones here, Amy figured she better go see who it was. Needless to say she was a bit shocked to see Katie and her family climb out of a brand new Toyota Highlander. Becky pulled in right behind them as her attempt to get back before they showed up failed. All this time, Dan was in the RV and unaware of the new arrivals. A quick text from Becky told him she had a present for him and what a present it was.

Even though it rained most of the weekend, we had a great time and on more than one occasion, we all wished Kristina could join us. By Monday morning, the rains had stopped and we took a morning walk before everyone was up and about. Come Tuesday morning, we planned the same thing and upon entering the house to tell those that were up that we were taking a walk, we were surprised to see our daughter, Kristina, hanging out in the kitchen. We wondered who was the owner of the strange car in the driveway. Needless to say we decided to skip the walk for that morning.

It was quite the bustle around Becky and Joe’s house as every spare bed in the place was quickly filled with Doug taking an air mattress in the RV just to make room. Becky’s daughter, Julia, was up from Baltimore for a visit and of course, Kristina’s partner, Rob, was there as well. We all enjoyed our 2-year old grandson, Leo, running from room to room performing a roll call. It is amazing how quickly he got everyone’s name and would greet them by name as they entered the room. When Becky’s son, Lenny, stopped by with his wife and three boys, and later, Becky’s daughter and son-in-law, Rachael and Will, came over, all of those names were added to the roll call. He also took frequent inventory of all the vehicles: “Mommy’s new car, Grampy’s big truck, Grammie’s trailer, Uncle Doug’s car, Aunt Becky’s car, Uncle Joe’s truck, Uncle Rob’s car, Julia’s car, Rachael’s car …”. His 6 month old sister, Willa, garnered her own attention as cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents took turns entertaining and being entertained by her.

We had a feast on the 4th with roasted turkey and a smoked brisket taking center stage. Later in the week, after Kristina and Rob arrived, we had the requisite lobster feast. It’s still hardshell season and the lobsters were chock full of meat and enough was remaining for everyone to have a lobster roll for lunch the next day.

It was a great week spent with the entire family here in Maine. The weather could have been better but we still managed a couple afternoons poolside. Katie and JC celebrated their 4th anniversary with a dinner out knowing the kids would be well cared for with 8 other adults staying behind.

It was sad to see them leave but we will cherish the memories. We will be seeing Katie, JC, and the grandkids again in September before we head south and west. We will not get all the way to Arizona this winter so we don’t know when we’ll see Kristina again. Doug will be staying in Vermont for at least another year and if we make it that far on the Appalachian Trail next summer, we’ll see him then. Until then, we will cherish the memories.

Bonus: We Were Podcast Guests

Our nieces, Julia and Rachael, have a podcast with their friend, Kelly. They are all avid book readers and their podcast is titled What You Should Read. We listen to a lot of audio books so they interviewed us about audio books for road trips.