Gribble Family Vacation, Part 2

Grammie and Pappy wanted to leave for Rehoboth Beach close to 9 a.m. on Friday morning, July 30, so we all ate breakfast together, loaded up, and said our goodbyes. We drove with the kids to Pittsburgh, where we met Grandpa and Grandma Gribble at the Natural History Museum at lunchtime. We’d brought a paper bag lunch, so we ate at a picnic table outside before going into the museum. We saw a very interesting Egypt exhibit and an equally interesting polar exhibit. I’m fascinated by Inuit art, so I really enjoyed a few paintings they had on display. It was a great, if too brief, visit with the grandparents Gribble. Midway through the afternoon, we were back in the car, navigating horrendous traffic to get to Grandma and Grandpa Hazelton’s house by dinnertime. (We missed it, but they fed us anyway.) The kids are comfortable there, and of course it feels like home to me, so we unpacked and settled in.

On Saturday, my brother Nathaniel and sister-in-law Laura came from near Pittsburgh to see us, and we had a great time touring Grandma’s garden and yard, playing on the playground, riding the Irish Mail (why do I never take photos of that?), playing a ton of Legos, and reading books. In the afternoon, we went over to Brandywine Falls, which was really fun. Benjamin particularly loved a rooster that kept crowing in the yard at the inn. Every time the rooster crowed, Benjamin said “he said it again!” My mom had a worship service in the evening, but she’d made a bunch of delicious food, and we contributed some bacon-wrapped jalepeno thingies to the festivities. Aunt Nancy, Aunt Shirlie, and Martha joined us for dinner, and Dad grilled some spare ribs. We stuffed ourselves and got caught up in person.

Sunday morning we went to church with Grandpa (and he was kind enough to wait and go to the late service so we wouldn’t have to get the kids up extra early—they’d gotten used to sleeping in a bit). The rest of the day we spent playing and hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma. Benjamin and Grandpa are kindred souls; they both have one pointy ear and wear hearing aids, and they find each other hilarious, so there was lots of giggling. Mom and I had a few minutes to spend together on a trip to a few stores, so we got to catch up.

The next morning was Monday, so I got up and ran six miles, which got me near Brandywine Falls and back, partly on the very nice trail. We spent the morning together and had lunch; then we packed up for our short drive to the Otts’ lake house.