What a tornado of airplanes and border crossings and illnesses the past few days! We're back in the US as of about 44 hours ago. Very quick summary of what we've been up to...
Tuesday July 30
Our last full day in Wales. We visited Caernarfon Castle (10/10, immense and you could wander various corridors and turrets for hours and still not have gone everywhere). After lunch we went to the nearby beach. Eric took a group (including Zari, Dio, and Inga) to a faraway little hidden cove another mile+ down the coast, and eventually they called and asked the rest of us to come (including me and Ivy). They were catching spider crabs and said it was amazing. We made the long trek over there and then decided to swim--why not? Inga caught a big crab and was so proud of herself that she caught dinner. Then Eric caught a few more, including one even bigger. Eric convinceed Inga to put hers back and then as he was going to kill his crab, he looked and discovered it was a female full of eggs. So he put it back instead, leading to a crying Inga because she really wanted to eat her crab! It took a long time to console her. And then a very long walk back home.
Wed July 31
We got up very early, drove 2+ hrs to Liverpool, had a flight that was delayed 2 hours, arrived in Nice, hurried to the post office with 4 minutes to spare to pick up 250 kg of books (10 boxes of 25 kg each) and transport them home (the mail carrier refused to deliver them because they were "too heavy" even though we had paid for door-to-door delivery). Then we had to pack, wrap, and label 77 books that evening. I started coming down with a fever around 7 pm, right when the rest of the family left for the Canadian women's Olympic soccer game (I had to stay home to get hte books done). I finished at midnight, right when they arrived home
Thurs Aug 1
We were up at a good hour, in time to carry all 77 books to the post office. The man at the counter made several remarks about how one customer was taking up so much of his time. Well, yes, that IS your job, you know! It's not like we sign an agreement that we will only ship one package or one piece of mail at a time. We got all the books mailed and were on our way to the airport by 10 am.
We were super lucky and only had 2 flights to get back to the US, rather than our usual 3. Direct from Nice to Philadelphia! I was super super sick all day, fever, chills, body aches, sore throat, the works.
We got stuck in a special screening at customs due to having a few pieces of fruit that the kids hadn't finished eating. But we still made it to our next flight. We finally arrived home close to midnight (6 am to our bodies). Everyone collapsed into bed but of course I couldn't get to sleep for a while and slept fitfully and woke up early. It's my curse when I'm sick. Eric, on the other hand, goes into a sleep coma when he is sick.
Fri Aug 2
Unpacking, opening 7 months of mail, looking with horror at 7 months of weeds, pulling weeds despite my best intentions not to (and still feeling very sick...but I just couldn't resist), buying groceries, buying and planting some herbs and perennials (what can I say...they were so pretty!), watching Sherlock. Eric started feeling sick this evening.
Sat Aug 3
I slept ok but not great, was up too early again. Ah well. Did more weeding, unpacked more stuff, ran some errands, bought more plants, went to the thrift store and farmer's market with Ivy and Inga. I still feel pretty terrible and now Eric is super sick. He's already in bed (see: sleep coma, above). Kids are playing games or something downstairs with instructions to go to bed at some point. I made fresh pesto with basil that I bought and planted yesterday.
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