We had a very relaxing time. There was lots of snow this year, but we pretty much stuck to the usual: swim, walk around, read lots, watch junk television, eat good food that miraculously arrives, and cry.
The one exception was that I took Noah on a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the woods. Err, not alone, there were about 10 people in the sleigh and two very beautiful bay horses pulling the thing. But between Noah and I it was like it was just us. I remembered that my grandfather (the bad one) had a sleigh and he used to sometimes take us for rides by hitching it to his tractor, and it had much of the same qualities: a ride in the woods with bumps and making tracks. Those were not bad times; he had the capacity to make things very magical – a quality which sadly was also turned to evil at times. It was the good times that came to mind and Lynn whispered to Noah about the kinds of trees we were seeing; the woodpecker holes and the stumps and all of it, and that was not knowledge I knew she had. And it was good. Perhaps we will have to try joining in for other things in the future, if we go back. Which I hope we do.
Noah was a brick. Mealtimes were the most challenging times, but since breakfast and lunch were buffets we could load up plates and go, if necessary. We only made it through one dessert of a three-course dinner, but it was not really unpleasant to walk back to the room with Noah and the sweet stuff in hand. (This was mostly a bedtime issue; his cranky period just would hit before appetizer and entree were done.*)
He loved almost everything else. The pool, the halls, the novelty of living in one room with a television in it, the fireplaces and nooks and crannies. He cried leaving. But once we were home he was okay again.
The menu was slightly pared down in terms of number of dishes offered but the overall quality made up for it. I had a simply amazing duck breast over arugula that was to die for. **
There’s more but I’m tired.
The worst part was showing up at the cemetary to find Emily buried. Ha, ha, no, really, under a 5-ft snowdrift. We started digging her out but gave up as Noah was freaking out. So was I. It was just too symbolic and I realized you could not, never, ever dig far enough down, if you know what I mean. I prostrated myself on the grave and wept instead. I really did, because what else is the use of a 5 ft snowdrift if not to make some kind of ironic snow angel statement like that.
I am still SO ANGRY. That is tiring me too.
But the break was truly good. Refreshing. Except… oh yes this is amusing, my old boss was up there on the last day. Went round a corner and there he was! Grr. Of course this great article on his site put him up to the idea… so I have only my enthusiasm from last year to blame.
* And service there is inn-speed, which means this is about a 2-hr process start-finish. Noah is pretty well behaved and fairly accustomed to restaurants, but right now that’s just too long a stretch starting at 6 pm. Before anyone criticizes that, we’re good with it. He doesn’t yell, throw things, or run around; he just gets progressively more upset and asks to get down and sits under the table. We’re not really into trying to force this at this age. When he’s older yes, but right now when the sticker/drawing/reading/table play runs out, we’re all done.
** Noah did quite well with the food. He mostly preferred things that were relatively solo – broccoli & other vegetables, bread, beef tenderloin off our plates, fruit, etc. The kids’ buffet was nicely prepared but very traditional kids’ food – grilled cheese, breaded chicken, fries – and he wasn’t that into most of it, except the fries and we really didn’t want him eating fries every day. Anything with rice was pretty good, but sadly they had removed risotto from the menu and nothing came with rice pilaf or anything by default, so that was mostly buffet fare. The only thing we tried that really bombed was the sweet potato ravioli, where he liked the ravioli but if the goat cheese coated mushroom on top had touched anything he was not ok with it, and when we were taking that out goat cheese got into the sauce… ha.
