As instructed by Judy and Grandma Gracie, we arrived at Perkin’s promptly at nine in the morning for breakfast. We got to see Aunts Annie, Mugsie, and Helen, as well as cousins Mary and Gary, not to mention Judy and Bill and Uncle Michael again. Robert and I did our usual split the steak-and-eggs breakfast: he ate pancakes and eggs, I ate hashbrowns and steak (country-fried with gravy, and quite good). We said goodbye to everyone and split up after breakfast.
Robert went over to the furniture store to help Mark deliver a new recliner to Grandma Gracie’s room in the nursing home. He said he walked into the nursing home and called out, “Hi, Grandma, we’re here!” before realizing what a bad idea it was—about twenty little old ladies perked up and turned around, but he clearly wasn’t grandson to them all. Meanwhile, I rode in Judy and Bill’s new truck back to Uncle Mike’s house, where Josie was home in charge of the kids, and we got Aurora packed up and dressed in order to meet back up with Robert.
With Aurora in hand, and about three hours before our plane was supposed to take off, we drove over to the Mall of America for a final quick stop of the trip. Possibly due to all this summer road construction, we found the mall incredibly poorly marked, with very few signs from the highway, so we decided to gas up the rental car and ask for directions. Once at the mall, we had to stop for an Orange Julius because they’re so rare in Boston, and then we headed straight to Camp Snoopy, the amusement park in the center, where we went on a new spinny roller coaster—a very nice, all around, smooth and pleasant one—and Aurora’s old favorite, the Mighty Axe (or, as Robert likes to think of it, the change-collector). After a super fast lunch of crepes, we went straight to our car and back to the airport.
The rental car return went very quickly (remember, Thrifty’s the way to go), and our driver on the shuttle back to the terminal began an engaging conversation about why he hates Bush and why every vote counts—this seemed meant as much to mobilize us as to create an impression on Aurora, who had just volunteered that her dad planned not to vote in this year’s election because he thought it wouldn’t make a difference. So, after our impromptu civics lesson, we checked in, checked our bags, and went swiftly through security. Aurora then browsed and spent some of her hoarded money in a stuffed cat and dog shop, while Robert and I saw outside and waved occasionally and wondered why we’d thought that there was a Jamba Juice in the Minneapolis airport. (There isn’t. We were disappointed.) Arriving at our gate right on schedule, we found out that our flight had been delayed two hours because of weather in Chicago, which would likely make us miss our connecting flight to Boston. They ended up both boarding our Chicago-bound plane earlier than expected and holding the connecting flight for us, though, so we were able to hug and kiss Aurora, tell her what a great trip we had and how happy we were to have had a chance to see her, and then pass her over to Christine and still make our plane home to Boston. At home, work begins again, but only for three days, because next Monday we head out to Hawaii for our real vacation.
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Created: 8/26/04. Last Modified: 8/26/04.