Southern Love

The trip to South Carolina was amazing. It was cool to make so many memories in such a short amount of time: loudly whistling with P to songs I had never heard before by Gilbert Bécaud (L'important c'est la rose)in the back of the car at 11 pm, getting lost on a boat with 5 kids under 9 years old in a place called 'Alligator Alley', being ridden around on a sea-doo and giving new meaning to 'hold tight', visiting the a plantation, bouncing in really strong waves with butt scratches to prove it, sweating like i've never sweated before, and spending a 5 hour delay at the Minneapolis airport happy as clams.

This week has been the longest time P and I have ever spent together consecutively. It was great! We are great travelling partners. It was interesting travelling with his family (Mom, Dad and younger sister) in a car, together, crammed, for 20 hours. There isn't too much to say except, their personalities came out pretty vividly. I've always imagined them as a perfect family. Cool-calm-collected at all times. But in this particular case of 6-days together 24/7, I saw some tensions rise and some tempers flare. This was reassuring to me because it made them all a little more human. The examples are too minute to elaborate, but all in all it was an interesting experience of a real family.

I've (almost) never been on road trips with my family, and never for more than couple of hours in the car until our destination. I'm beginning to think that the success of a family depends more on the idea of 'your' family as a whole, rather than the individual parts. That family is more an idea than anything else. Someone in the parenting article I read the other week said something to that effect.

The whole experience of the vacation (seeing P with his family, seeing him interact with little kids) solidified something in me. It didn't evoke specific images of a family with him, but it reaffirmed the presence of a future together. It feels vague, but I know it's there. That's a nice feeling.

A few favourites: