why I need to travel

Having just returned from a quick trip to Pennsylvania to see Michael, Phuong, and Brian reminded me why I need to go, go, go! Bob had a conference this week so we left a few days early and spent some time seeing the 100th anniversary of the cherry blossoms in D.C. and playing with Team Besancon PA for a couple of days. Sometimes I just need to see and touch people and places to keep those special people and places close in my heart. Leaving the familiar and embarking on an adventure is invigorating and refreshing because it lets a person forget their worries and pretend to be carefree while all the daily responsibilities are left at home.

Growing up we traveled each summer to see our grandparents and/or somewhere in the United States.  One of my favorite memories is going to Neosho, Missouri to visit my mother's parents. They lived at 300 Patterson Street. The house faces the middle of the hill. If you went uphill the street made a sharp left turn at the city park and if you went downhill, the street intersected with a street that ran into the square. Behind the house was the school that my mother attended as a little girl. She would go home every day for lunch and then return to school - right at the bottom of her backyard. There was a stone wall around the side and front of the house. When I was little it seemed so tall, but when I googled the street view of the house, it is not large at all. We would drive up and park on the side of the house. Jerry and I would jump out of the car, climb up and over the wall, and greet my grandparents on the porch. Then we would go check out the toys in the closet and run around the backyard which was on a HILL! Completely foreign to two children from Houston! The best part was when we got to go to the city park through the school yard and down a narrow path through the woods to the swings in the park. It was very exciting and scary all at the same time. Each year we tried to remember how to get there and part of the time we were always lost! The adventure was the important thing and the repetition of the adventure made it all the more meaningful. We would go a few streets over and visit my Aunt Polly and Uncle Jerry and cousins Bill and Steve. The adults would sit and talk after dark and the children would catch fireflies. It was fabulous because we got to stay up late and play with our older cousins. One day of the visit we always  "called on" Auntie who was Aunt Ada, my grandfather's sister. She would make us cookies and something cool to drink while we sat on her very special velvet couch and listened to the adults talk. Then she would take us outside and show us her garden. Auntie raised my mother until she was 5 years old because my grandmother had tuberculosis and was in a sanitarium in Springfield, 90 miles away. She stayed until she recovered and then came home. It must have been a scary time for my mother! One last thing for this post - tomatoes! My grandparents had a friend who grew tomatoes and my daddy and I would go to the man's home and buy HUGE tomatoes from him. They were as big as a plate! We would take them home, slice them, and sprinkle pepper on before we ate them. Special memories!

What is the earliest memory of an adventure you had visiting family?