Road trip -- a long road trip -- to see Lana. It's just shy of 500 miles. Eight hours exactly. Past bogs, swamps amd muddy messes of trees and shrubs. Dead trees, spring clover, invisible frogs. So much to pass by at 70 miles an hour. Very frustrating to know that stopping adds to the eight hours,so no stopping. And I missed THE moment, at sunrise. It was a National Geographic shot: a corner of the Okeefenokee swamp, with sun backlighting the fog just barely lifting off the water surface. I caught a glimpse of it, and then before I could stop it was all behind me.
Lana had trapeze class the first night. Seeing her run out of school to meet me was all I could ask -- the trapeze was really cool, and she was great -- but her smile and style beats all.
But then, yes, the trapeze studio. Just mats underneath, no spotters: perhaps because the bars were only about five feet off the ground. After a few routines on the hanging bar, suspended from about thirty feet above, Lana casually waltzed over to some fabric dangling from the same height. And as if it were nothing, she twisted the fabric ("silks") around her foot and began to climb, up to about twelve or fifteen feet. There she twisted the silks around her shoulders, back and hips, and flipped upside-down. And like a frog she descended -- in complete control. Really cool!
I told her her cousins would be proud -- and her grandmom in California. And that brought a smile.
The weekend event was her school's garden club demonstrating seed planting. Fun it was, though mostly it was an excuse for the kids to run around the Discovery Museum all day! The rooftop garden had some action, and I was glad to see a worm farmer there. He had a very hands-on display, very appropriate and very popular. Lana and her friend Rachael got to pick up clusters of worms and dare the boys -- who were chicken-- to hold them.
We of course rode the carousel and danced and walked on the pedestrian bridge over the river, and went to all kinds of eateries: falafel, natural food store, pizza, donut shop, a brewery and a bakery.
I had to leave her at school Monday morning, but that was no sweat getting her there on time. She can get up and out the door in an impressive six or seven minutes. Her school is in a half-renewed section of town, but close to the historic train station, which is now a hotel complex with the one remaining train in town: a tourist trolley that we used to take once a week when Lana was a baby. Some parts are renovated -- in fact, the brewery and bakery are there. But turn around and you get scenes like above. A stark contrast to the flourishing natural areas I passed on the way up. (Ignoring the trash.)
Never enough time, we still had a full three-plus days. Can't wait for summertime with oodles of time together.
