Germans!

Me and Maya by the sea

My wonderfully creative, beautiful cousin Della and her mega awesome daughter Maya are visiting us from Berlin this week. We’re the first leg of their wild American tour.

We’ve walked on a beach or two, had a BBQ party with Helen, Miles and their fams and, just generally, hung out. While The Amazing Bob and I were chemo-ing, they went into Boston and Cambridge to explore. Today, along with Helen and the wee girls, we’ll have lunch in Vegan Central. That's a square, of sorts, within Allston with a thousand and one veggie restaurants. MMMMMMMM. From there it’s on to the New Balance sneaker outlet and the Harvard Pottery Show. And then back to the beach.

It’ll be a relatively quiet day after yesterday’s big party.

Naturally, I fear that I’m a terrible or, at the very least, dull host and am not giving them a proper start to their big holiday. Why? Worry—one of my superpowers.

Della and Maya depart early Tuesday for a week in Florida with older sister Cheryl and then another week+ spent traveling up the coast visiting friends. Just imagine—a whole month of vaca, on the road, away from home. While I'd miss home—the sea, cats, TAB and all—a month in a foreign country, visiting different friends in vastly varied locales, sounds wild.

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”
~Anita Desai

“To travel is to live.”
~Hans Christian Andersen, The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography

from left to right, more or less, Bethanie, Olivia, Jen, Maya, Della, Julianna, Helen and Madison