And….

It is nearly time to return home. Tomorrow is our last day of holidays. Saying goodbye to our in-law family after the Rosh Hashanah dinner last night was much more difficult than I imagined. Who knows when we may see them again? 

My husband had so much fun discussing Torah and the interpretations of the writings of various philosophers and theologians with the young cousin who teaches at Yale and the visiting young family friend who is very knowledgeable about Jewish beliefs and practises of various sects. He had a wonderful time. We both did. We feasted well, special rabbinical permission was granted for our son to blow the shofar even though it was Shabbat…it was a fun gathering.

Today we woke up feeling rather out of sorts from too much food, too much excitement and social stimulation and too much sadness about leaving on Monday. We forced our limp dishrag selves over to the Townhouse Diner for a final late morning breakfast and kibbutzing around with the staff, wandered from there over to Grand Central to top up the OMNY transportation cards our kids lent to us, and drifted home again in kind of a daze. 

We set up our online declaration forms for re-entering Canada and I will get the items together that each of us will be carrying, along with the receipts, and make our declaration first thing tomorrow morning of what we are bringing back. Most of the books we bought will remain here with our son, who is going to leaf through them before he ships them back to us. There are too many to squeeze into the luggage. The concierge here has booked our taxi for Monday morning at 5am.

Most of the rest of the day was spent reading and napping and my husband worked on a diocesan newspaper article that is due shortly after we get back. We opted out of running out to Roosevelt Island and taking the overhead tram car back to Manhattan because it seemed it would take more energy than we would be able to muster. So, that is one of the things on our “To Do Next Time” list. We still hope there will be a next time and we realize staying in the future for less than a month will not be a great idea. We are spoiled now! Roosevelt Island is the site of an old smallpox hospital and besides that tourist attraction there is a beautiful park and there are apparently good restaurant s and views of the water. That trip, the Guggenheim and the Museum of the Moving Image are high on our priority list, along with another trip to the area around the town of Beacon upstate. Here’s hoping for another long stay here in the not too distant future.

It has been wonderful to be “somewhere else” where thoughts and questions about my possible next hip surgery have not needed to be thought about, where there has been comfort in knowing there is no point in thinking about that, about the battle we will face with Canada Post for not holding our mail despite the exorbitant amount of money we paid for that service, about upcoming preaching and teaching gigs for my husband, about the arrival of frost and fall back home when it is still so lovely here, etc., etc., etc. Those thoughts began to intrude when we woke up this morning and kind of zapped our remaining energy. 

Oh well…..we still have tomorrow to enjoy! Our kids are having us over to their place to make pancakes and share old family photos and stories. Aunty will join us and bring her own stories of flight from Czechoslovakia during the Second World War and subsequently living in Israel and Canada and the U.S. It will be a happy day despite having to  say goodbye.