The short week passed quickly and before we knew it we
were headed to Sky harbor to join the masses for turkey day travels. Little did we know, our hour and forty five
minute flight would come complete with back massaging chairs. At times the occasional pterodactyl calls
from our masseuses hampered our zen like state, however a little distracting
scrabble game helped to keep the air age at bay. Once we landed in the frigid north we drove about 50
minutes to arrive at our final destination
The next morning we woke without an alarm and prepared to
explore a bit before my parents started their day. Having bundled up as best as our east coast living had taught us we started off down the ice hardened road observing snow, ice and, a smidge of flowing water. Upon returning home we stopped to introduce ourselves to Homer,
my newest furry sibling, and my parents first equine. Homer's shoulders come
just above mine and his head is approximately the size of about 3/4 of a wooden railroad
tie. Apparently his head size has been deemed impressive for a donkey. He
was kind enough to let us pet him before we started our morning walk, but gave us a bit of heehaww of discontent that we had not brought his breakfast with us.
Later in the afternoon my dad took Jonathan on a donkey walk. Honestly, how often does one get to say that? Just the boys and a lot of cold
nature. Meanwhile my mom and I chatted and did a little Turkey prep. Upon their return we spent the remainder of the day snacking, reading, watching some good ole football and
eventually noshing on turkey and all the fixins.
Having again arisen earlier than my parents on Friday Jonathan and I went
on another morning stroll. Friday was a bit chillier than Thursday but we made
due. Just as before, we stopped to say
hello to Homer but this time headed up the hill instead of down the road. As we
traversed the woods we came across a tiny cabin, nearly destroyed by two fallen
trees. In all the places the trees of
this older section of the woods could fall they had to land on this teeny tiny
5x8 cabin? Go figure. After verifying
the building was tenant free, human or otherwise, we approached to investigate.
Granted this was not my ideal getaway, I feel Jonathan defined it well as
someone's ideal escape. The cabin was
one utilitarian room with an attached loft area for sleeping. The windows looked handcrafted, and I could
not help but appreciate the effort and love that went into this little hide
away. Not having known who had hunkered down in this tiny space, I felt
genuinely disappointed in their loss thanks to the massive tree trunks now
resting through its wood shingled roof.
Just beyond the time when my fingers went completely numb we started our
trek back to the house.
The remainder is the day was spent catching up on photos, playing dominoes, then much later, watching a slightly drawn out, action packed, poignantly hokey movie about alien ocean monsters battling colossal world peace focused, person piloted robots.
Saturday we assisted with some property clean up, on the hill property next to my parent's house and we both tried out my dad's black powder gun. Jonathan and I expected quite a bit of kick from a gun that is manually loaded, powder, ball and fuse cap, but the most challenging part of the shot was holding the heavy thing up without starting to shake from shoulder and arm muscles protesting the weight. At some point, around 3:30 while we were meandering outside we started noticing the suns rapid descent. We'd been informed about how early the loss of sunlight would be, but by 4pm I was surprised by my envy of the still sun bathed area beyond the hills enclosing my parents house.
That evening we played some intense rounds of dominoes and were continually entertained by the companionship of Larry, our 16 year old, give or take a year or two, box turtle accepting the apparent, unbeknownst to me, courtship of my sneakers. Turns out Larry is a bit of a whore when it comes to shoes, giving each nearby foot a quick or in some cases, lingering visit.
