Away

We went away for the past 3 nights.  It was both amazing and frustrating.  Zoë had no intentions of living up to any Norman Rockwell moments of family travel.  She cried, fussed and tantrumed her way through the entire trip, interspersed with some life-saving moments of spontaneous cuddling and sweetness.  I think it's a built in defensive measure.  Right when she gets me to the frothing at the mouth point, she'll turn around and do or say something that defuses my anger and melts my heart.  Stinker. 

It surprised me to realize that it wasn't the much anticipated evening at Disney or a stay in the Castle hotel where we honey mooned 7 years ago that really brought me the most pleasure.  My favorite part of our trip was the last evening.  We stayed at the Shamrock Thistle and Crown Bed and Breakfast in Weirsdale.  We spent the night in the Victorian Cottage.  Again, much like everything else on our vacation, things didn't go entirely as planned.  The fall harvest festival we planned to attend at a local farm started too close to Zoë's bedtime so we had to skip it, but it was no great chore to spend more time in our beautiful, cozy little room with a private hot tub out back.  What struck me was the quiet and the weight of time that hung in the air.  The main house was built in 1887 and remained in the original family until 1988.  I love old buildings and this one came complete with one of those wrap around porches that the south is famous for, complete with white-washed rockers, a porch swing and a friendly, chubby orange and black cat that trotted up to any obliging hand for a scratch behind the ears.  Mike and I rocked on the porch and surmised that maybe this was Heaven.  The only reason I knew it wasn't was because my Poppy, Granny and Aunty Edith weren't there with us.

My other favorite moment was on the way home, Zoë and I lay on the back bench, she was curled up asleep in my arms and the early afternoon sun filtered down gently like a gossamer curtain of pure gold to fall over the folds of my bunched up pillow.  Zoë's lips were pressed against my cheek and she was snoring softly in my ear.  The metallic thrum of the wheels on the road provided a soothing background noise and everything seemed right with the world at that exact moment.