We're finally back on track after nearly a month of traveling. Summer sport commitments ended after the lacrosse tournament, and picked up again this week. We tried to take advantage of every "free" minute and found ourselves bouncing around all over the place. I'm sure stories of our adventures will surface over the weeks to come, but just as a quick synopsis, I'll try to cover the highlights here.

We started off in Iowa, where in addition to our usual trip to a small town near Des Moines, we ventured North to the beautiful town of Elkader (on the Turkey River)where we visited my sister-in-law and her family. We went to the Big Springs Fish Hatchery, George Maier's Rural Heritage Center (where we met George himself who gave us a private tour of his incredible collection in his wheelchair), the Osbourne Visitor, Welcome and Nature Center (we called this the "Elkader Zoo" - the collection included a Black Bear, a Grey Wolf, about 10 birds of prey, coyote, deer, turtles and a Mountain Lion), the State of Wisconsin (our first time and a big deal to my son, a huge Green Bay Packers fan) and Pikes Peak State Park (overlooking the Mississipi River). We hiked every available trail and visited old graveyards (1800s mostly). We returned to Southern Iowa to see the rest of the cousins and to help Grandma harvest some of her amazing tomatoes and corn. (Bushels and bushels of tomatoes the size of softballs!) Picking corn was my personal favorite as I had never done this before and didn't realize how tough it could be. I know now there's a bit of a trick to it -- a sort of holding-in-the-right-spot-and-snapping sort of trick -- until I figured it out, you could pinpoint my location in the corn crop quite easily. Just look for the corn plant that was "movin' and shakin'", and that would be me, wrestling to pull the corn from the stalk. Visits with all the Great-Grandparents rounded off the trip (3 living Greats -- Grandma S. celebrated her 90th birthday, while Grandma and Grandpa Johnson celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary this year...).

We came home to California for a short while, buried our beloved tortoise (as you know), caught up with as much work as possible and even made it to a wonderful Jack Johnson concert before rushing off to New York to visit my side of the family. We didn't even unpack, really.

My sister met us at JFK with her husband and her NEW BABY! (He is every bit as gorgeous as the photos and more!) My kids went out East on Long Island with my parents to the Summerhouse and I stayed for a short while with my sister and her new shiny family. I had 3 glorious days of baby holding, feeding, rocking, cooing, etc. Heavy Sigh. Then off to the East End where for the first time in 20 years I revisited my family's Summerhouse. What a great way to end a hectic month! We went clamming every day in Noyac Bay(my daughter is queen of clamming), took the boat out around Jessup's Neck, visited cemetaries that dated back to the 1600s. We hung out in Sag Harbor, a beautiful old whaling village, and visited my favorite old lighthouse at Montauk Point. Hurricane Irene passed by New York at a reasonable distance out to sea. Close enough to bring in a wonderful swell. My son found the surfers, managed to purchase a used board, and surfed Irene in the green/gray Atlantic. I had a short and glorious visit with my baby brother, an even shorter visit with my Grandfather (90 years young) and Aunt, then back to my sister and her lovely family before we had to say goodbye. It was very hard to leave, but in short, great to come home.

I'll try to add links to this post so I can share some of these spots with you. Right now I have to rush off to pick up and deliver my kids to their various commitments. Back to normal...