Weekend

Well, as you may have guessed from the previous post, we had a not-so-great ending to what was otherwise a wonderful weekend away. Everybody's health improved enough to go ahead with our plans. We dropped the kids off at Luke's sister's house Friday evening and headed up to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, where Luke and I had some much needed R&R away from the kidlets. For all the veteran parent readers, you know how absolutely essential this is for your sanity and the health of your relationship and for all you newbies I suggest you keep it in mind--your kids will thank you for it.

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day and we spent much of it outside. First we headed to an orchard and brewery and got a tour of the sugarhouse where they make their maple syrup and saw how they tap their trees. Then we headed to the shops in town where Luke willingly walked around several different shops with me and even appeared to enjoy himself. After lunch, our last stop was a pottery gallery. Luke has always been fascinated by pottery--the finished pieces and especially the process. While they weren't throwing any pieces that day, the gallery was quite impressive and the artist very nice. We found several things that we really liked but were way too pricey but, thank goodness, they had a sale table and we found a piece that completed the collage that I have been working on for our living room. So, we have a nice souvenir from our weekend and , after over three years in the house, a completely decorated living room.

We had purchased a dinner package deal at the Inn so Saturday night we had a rather impressive meal at a particularly nice restaurant. All was well until Sunday morning when the lack of hot water threatened our newly acquired tranquility. As you recall from my question, the situation was not rectified and I ended up washing my hair in the sink with ice cold water (that's actually painful to the scalp and my head was tingling for a good part of the day) so that I didn't look like an absolute freak with really bad bed-head. They had offered the use of another room but I was not terribly interested in packing up my stuff and traipsing across the hotel in my pj's. When we checked out, instead of being profusely apologetic, the owner did everything he could to get out of compensating us for the incovenience we were caused by assuring us that it was not his fault that the water heater died. Well, you know what sir, neither was it my fault! Finally he begrudgingly agreed to refunding us a whopping $50, much less then even half the cost of one night. At first it was offered as a credit towards our next stay but after facing his rather uncaring attitude, I assured him that we would not be coming back.

It threatened but did not ruin our weekend. We enjoyed it immesely and at least one of our kids was happy to see us when we returned. Lily heard the door and before I even saw her I heard her yell, "Oh YAY! Mommy!" Noah on the other hand did not even look in our direction and muttered a hello and of course cried when we told him it was time to go and he could not play with his cousin anymore (whom he sees every week)! Ah, the love.