2017 Life Logs, Day 178: Back Home on Cape Cod
Date: Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Weather: Great Travel Weather with Lots of Sunshine
Location: Back Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today’s 16-hour drive home from southern West Virginia was long, but the memories gained from the weekend with family made the trip well worth it. The entire weekend was just perfect. Despite a forecast of rain for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we had nothing but sunshine. Since there were 40 of us, there was no one location that could accommodate all of us.
We thought that might pose problems, but the two places where we stayed had different things to offer all of us and added new dimensions to our stay. The farmhouse at Creekside gave all 40 of us a wonderful place to gather for meals and conversation. It is such a serene location with the waters of Indian Creek always within view and the grounds around the farmhouse so beautifully landscaped.
And there was a pool and a lawn that went on forever where the children could run and play with abandon. The cabins at Grandview are grand as they sit on top of a ridge.
The views are spectacular and staying there gave us access to a game reserve that we could drive through to see all the animals. As a family, we explored the area of Monroe County in southern West Virginia where my father grew up
and traveled to Mountain Lake in Virginia where he was born. We hiked to the top of Salt Pond Mountain in Giles County, Virginia, where the views were spectacular.
We explored the area of Monroe County in southern West Virginia where my mother was born and visited the farm that Mark and I bought in the late 1970’s and where we built a log home. While there we held a memorial service in Mark’s memory and the grandchildren helped me spread some of his ashes on the one piece of land he loved like no other. It was a beautiful time of closure for all of us.
We then returned to Creekside for a proper Sunday dinner. Some cousins from the area came to have dinner with us and others visited with us afterwards.
And then yesterday, we celebrated Jonah’s 8th birthday by exploring Organ Cave. Jonah loves collecting rocks and was excited to visit a cave that had interesting formations and a very interesting history. This cave was used by the Confederates during the Civil War for mining potassium nitrate, commonly called saltpeter. At that time, saltpeter was a major ingredient in making black gunpowder. We had a great guide, Caleb, and all of my grandchildren thoroughly enjoyed the almost 2-hour tour.
Then last night the whole family celebrated Jonah’s birthday. The local caterer had a birthday cake with a cave-theme made for the occasion and it was over the top. We all enjoyed the three-dimensional cave on top of the cake, complete with stalactites hanging from its ceiling. And I think Jonah enjoyed having all of his cousins with him to celebrate.
I made the arrangements for this weekend which meant I was in charge of making sure things went smoothly. My job was made so much easier by the staff at Creekside, the caterer they arranged to help feed us all, and the help of set-up and clean-up of meals by family members. But even with the help, I was very busy all weekend overseeing the whole affair. I was much too busy enjoying the time with family to take time to write my daily logs or edit and post photos. I will work on doing this over the next few days, but tonight’s log will serve as a summary of the weekend in the meantime. Tomorrow I hit the ground running with the first official day of Camp Oma for Summer 2017. Jed leaves home at 6 am to catch a bus to the airport in Boston. He flies to Japan around 10:30 in the morning. Heather has a speaking engagement on the Outer Cape tomorrow evening, so I will be on ‘Oma duty’ all day and on into the night. Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco left West Virginia on Monday afternoon and are now on their way to England to visit with Jo’s family. Onward.
