Fly Over States

May 24, 2012

Fly Over States

So in my last post I mentioned my impending trip to Indiana for my cousin’s wedding.  I have been home since Monday, but I am just now getting my wits about me and emerging from the tunnel that was flightàfamilyàflightàhomeàjury dutyàwork catch up.

For the flight TO Indiana, I was prepared for anything: crying baby, restless baby, meltdowns, etc.  I had stuffed as much toys, food, books, snacks as I could into the diaper bag to take on the plane.  So what happened?  P nursed right after take-off and slept the ENTIRE flight.  Aside from my leg falling asleep because I dare not move, it was perfect.  However, my mom and I were just a little bored; we brought nothing to entertain ourselves because we were prepared to entertain P the whole time.

For the flight HOME:  We were now prepared for a sleeping baby, we even brought books to read (we should have known better).  It was sort of close to afternoon nap time, P needed to nurse and he had an action-packed week, surely he was ready to sleep in the great white-noise tunnel in the sky again, right? WRONG.  He must have caught wind of the fact that he missed an entire ‘vacation event’ the first time around and he was not missing it this time.  Thankfully he was happy for the most part, but he was all over the place.  He wanted to play and climb and flirt with people and eat puffs and nurse, but not sleep.  It was draining for my mom and me, but again, he was happy, so overall travelling with the baby was a success.

Our stay in Indiana was awesome.  Yes, Indiana...corn fields, small towns, flat land, and endless back roads…was awesome.  We saw family and introduced P to relatives I haven’t seen in years.  It was so nice to go ‘home’ (Indiana is more my parent’s home than mine, I am an Ohio/Illinois child, but the Midwest feel is the same, plus we spent a lot of time and miles between those three states when I was a kid) and have people that just know you and love you welcome you into their homes and make you feel special for a few days. P thought he was a celebaby…the world was his oyster and he was all over it.

Over the last two decades I have maybe become too anti-Florida, and I know that there are people who plan their whole lives to come here and retire or even come here and work and build businesses.  It just isn’t my cup of American tea.  I could take or leave the beach, it’s pretty, but it is also sandy and sweaty and salty and hot.  Plus, I have never lived near the beach; I have always lived in the middle. I loved Gainesville when I went to college, but mostly because it was a cool college town, not because it offered anything particularly special geographically or seasonally.  I am a mountain, river, cabin type of person; it is where I find peace.

So not that Indiana has mountains, but we stayed at my uncle’s cabin on a lake.  It was down endless winding roads and the first night there offered cool enough weather to have a fire.  I was in heaven.  The air felt fresh and crisp and even the hot sun on my cousin’s wedding day felt better than the Florida sun somehow…see, I told you I have ‘the grass is greener’ syndrome!