It's been weeks since I wrote. Feels like years. We've had our fair share of observances since the Lunar New Year. Seth took the kids to visit P-K on the anniversary of his death.
And then we made a wild run down to North Carolina to visit our COVID bubble for St. Pat's. It was so good for the kids to get to see friends, and to be reminded that you can go back.
(And that "going back" to Aunt Nat's and Aunt Leah's means vast quantities of cheetos, and obstacle courses.)
NC magnanimously let us bring some warm weather home with us, and we had a brief but wonderful stint of almost-beach weather to kick off Spring Break. Which even half-a$$ed home schoolers celebrate in the Nieman household, thankyouverymuch.
Naturally, we began our vacation at the impound lot, attempting to retrieve our stolen car. It's a long story, but apropos. I guess.
It didn't go as expected, so we hit the road in a rented Jeep. We got back in vacation mode with a "yes" day at a Wal Mart in Tennessee (note previously off-limits otter pops and other packaged goods) and a- this is a real thing- fish weigh-in at the Bass Tournament.
We also partied like this at the campsite, which was an awesome one at
Pickwick Landing. It was good to be back in family camping mode (even if it involved a lot of cheating at lawn darts.)
Seth was fishing a tournament on the Mississippi/ Tennessee/ Alabama border,
and we had agreed to Spring Break there while he did. It hadn't been the top of my list, but we made the most of our first vacation in over a year. (This is the Coon Dog Cemetery we discovered on an Alabama backroad, and Finley's reaction to having been served butter WITH her fajitas in a Florence "cantina.")
F+F never met a roadside attraction they didn't love. A particular hit in the tri-state area was the amazing
Jesse Owens museum, at which they got to measure their long jumps, watch never-seen footage of Hitler observing the gold medal wins, and check out his sharecropper parents' cabin.
We also visited the lions at the University of North Alabama, who were disappointingly lethargic in the stunning spring weather,
visited the birth places of both W.C. Handy and Helen Keller (the latter homestead at which we accidentally signed up for a Very Personal Tour, but also got to see the Real Water Pump where she had the break-through),
and had the pleasure of enjoying spring, doing camping laundry at a laundromat, and sheltering from a tornado in the electronics section of a Wal Mart. Woohoo Spring Break!
We also discovered that Tuscumbia, AL is killing it, with this incredible park
at which there is a real tank (?), a gorgeous waterfall, and country music blaring. Oddly and wonderfully.
I really didn't expect to be this impressed, and I admit we lucked out with- other than tornadoes- the most beautiful weather of the year... but the Florence area turned out to be a real adventure. We discovered the "Roots" plantation ruins, and the famous shoals.
Also the ridiculously cool
FAME music studio in Muscle Shoals. Of, yes, "Sweet Home Alabama" fame.
We made a trip to Memphis, one of our favorite towns, to pay a visit to the
Peabody ducks and Beale Street,
and pay homage at the
National Civil Rights Museum. Which is truly incredible.
Also, we spent the night at Aunt Jackie's and- as expected- wound up in very few clothes in a creek. Good to know some things never change.
On the way back, we wandered through Corinth, MS, which had a terrific old soda fountain, no apparent belief in masks or COVID, yet another Confederate statue to honor appropriately,
and, incongruously, a lovely addendum to the
Shiloh battlefield- which we had visited earlier- a tribute to the
Contraband Camp through which 6,000 slaves made their way to freedom.
It wasn't easy to say goodbye to our footloose-and-fancy-free tour of the south, but Seth had one more day to fish and I had to work Monday. The kids and I took off in awful weather Saturday night, and hit worse weather in Tennessee- before an awful incident being run off the road by a semi in the middle of a hailstorm in the middle of the night. Airbag injuries and a wrecked rental Jeep notwithstanding, we eventually found ourselves recovering in a Red Roof Inn in Marion, VA. It was not ideal, although I will never stop being impressed by the resilience of kids. (They were excited I let them have flan at a truck stop Mexican joint.)
Jenn, 1.5 hours away, rescued us, and we got one more blissful day of vacation out of it, escaping to Trap Hill and old friends and hoverboards not worrying about the headache of insurance and back-to-work.
Seth rescued us after the tournament, camper in tow, and we made it back home after quite a vacation. We've been recovering all week (having both received our 2nd COVID vaccines, so we're chalking some of our sluggishness up to that + work + quite a "vacation.") Today I finally had the energy to take F+F to an Easter egg hunt at a local farm.
Which included pig races, hay rides, and v. creepy rabbits.
We made it home in time for the worst of all holiday traditions:
So Happy Easter to everyone, and hope your Spring Breaks involved fewer car incidents and tornadoes than ours- but lots of the love, laughter, and adventure we experienced, in the unlikeliest of places.
We had a great time introducing Grandpa to Falls Church,
