August 12 – “Farewell”

Today we are homeward bound.  Our New Jersey “business trip” comes to a close.  So long to our hotel where Abraham Lincoln once stayed on his way to be inaugurated.  We learned that fun fact from a plaque on the wall on the way to our room.  Goodbye to this quaint little town with its “no left turn” signs and Bruce Springsteen’s high school.  No more deer on the side of the road or heavily wooded acres or horse ranches or huge pumpkin patches or boardwalks by the beach.  Oh, by the way, Galveston, at these beaches you have to pay at least ten dollars to park and then you have to pay again to actually walk onto the beach.  How long before we start attempting that?  Someday we may have to come back up here when we can do an actual vacation and really partake of some of these amenities (other than the beach, of course.  We live on an island.  Why would we go on vacation to the beach?). 

Yesterday we joined the Dammeyer’s for church, where we saw many of the folks we met at the wedding.  The bride joined her brother to lead worship, and they both have great voices.  The afternoon we spent taking a leisurely drive through the countryside and then back out to the beach communities.  They are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, so we were able to relate to the sand everywhere and some houses still in need of repair.  We didn’t have time to drive into New York City, so I guess that remains on our long-term bucket list of things of do “in the future.”  I must confess that on the drive I apparently reached my limit of “up” days.  I started feeling really whipped.  I even dozed off and on, which didn’t really help.  I did feel some better after supper.  Ashley and Josh (the bride and groom) and Allen joined Mark and Melissa and us.  We reminisced about the wedding and about the comments they had been receiving.  Sounds like all in all it was a good experience for everyone concerned.  They also asked me to tell about my strangest wedding experience.  Didn’t take long to recall the “wedding from hell” that I did on the beach years ago.  It will be hard for anything to top that one, but that’s another story. 

In an effort to kick the feeling that I was on the verge of a cold (you know it.  Almost a sore throat.  Almost aching.  Almost … just sick), I tool a Benadryl when we got back to the room.  We put on HGTV and watched Brother vs. Brother.  Gave us a link to our routine at home, I guess.  I slept better than I have any night since we have been here.  Of course, the hotel bar band had the night off as well, so that sure helped.  It actually got quiet before 12:30 a.m.  Now we have that three and a half hour flight back to Houston, so maybe we’ll have more opportunity to catch a few winks. 

Kudos to Mark and Melissa for their incredible hospitality while we were here.  It’s always great to see good friends.  Here’s an “Attaboy” to Allen for his worship leading and an “Attagirl” to Lindsey for the job she’s doing raising her two kids and being … well, Lindsey.  And back on the home front, thank you to Bryan and Jennifer for caring for Mom while we were away.  See you soon. 

Psalms 104:31 says, “May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works.”

Father, thank you for our week in New Jersey.  It certainly added many good memories to our life scrapbook.  Amen.