Today is my little sister's birthday. Lizzie is one of the coolest people I know. She feels deeply, gives freely to those she loves, and shares her many talents with humility and grace. She's fucking funny. She is smart and immensely capable at everything. It's actually kind of annoying LOL
In my journal this month, I've been writing from prompts to add some interest other than what I did on the day and how I felt about it. Last night, the prompt was "What is your favorite memory with your sibling?" There simply wasn't the time for me to write, by hand, my favorite memory with Lizzie. I don't even know if I have one, single favorite memory. We have done so much together and shared experiences that go from playing together as little kids to caring for our dad in his final days.
For the past several years, we have done some traveling together, so I'm going to focus on those trips in this post with "ussies" that we took while we were there. I'm not recounting times I visited her in California or times that she came to see me in Utah. These are all trips away from home. Let's go!
September 2015 - To Barcelona with Mamacita
Here we are in Barcelona near the beach. This is the day we took the hop-on hop-off bus. I remember that Lizzie wasn't feeling very well that day. We hopped off the bus at the Barceloneta to find a restaurant with a view of the water, which we did, and the lunch was really delicious, as I recall, so delicious, in fact, that I wanted to find it this year when MT and I were in Barcelona. (Side note: we did find the restaurant, but it was the Saturday before Easter and the place was packed, so we couldn't eat there.)
A bonus photo for this trip includes our mom, since we were there with her and because of her, after all. I am here to tell you that this is absolutely one of my favorite photos of the three of us. I have it framed in my house. I love it because Mom just looks so low-key annoyed with us, while Lizzie and I think we are the funniest people in the world. We were near the cathedral, and we stopped to sit for a moment, and we were goofing around, and this photo happened. I really love it.
November 2016 - New Orleans
This is our first official "sister trip." New Orleans was a place we both wanted to visit, so it was a pretty easy choice for our first vacation. We went for a long weekend to celebrate Lizzie's birthday. We packed a lot of fun stuff into our days. On Lizzie's birthday itself, we took a streetcar to the Garden District to look at the mansions. Here's a pic of L on the street car.
We stayed at a gorgeous hotel in the French Quarter that has a carousel in it. (It's called the Carousel Bar, appropriately enough.) We got in there early, when the bar opened one morning, and had some drinks and took this unusual ussie.
May 2017 - Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is another place we were both keen to visit, so we got right on it. It was mid-May, and it was already dang hot and sticky down there. We walked all over that town, from the waterfront to Forsythe Park and through every square in the city during that long weekend. Here we are at the iconic fountain in Forsythe Park.
September 2017 - Outer Banks, North Carolina
This trip came to be known as the Sibling Trip. MT's brother, Kevin, was the person who came up with the idea to stay on the Outer Banks. We all pitched in to rent a huge house on the beach near Corolla, and everyone who was there was a sibling to someone. For example, Lizzie is my sister. MT and Kevin are brothers. Kevin's wife, Janet, had her brother, John, there, along with his fiance. My MIL Linda had two of her sisters there, Jennie and Pat. I think that was all of us. A hurricane was passing way off the coast when we got there, bringing in a lot of rain and wind, but it was still warm, just really wet. It didn't stop us from taking daily walks on the beach at all.
The weather did clear up while we were there, and one day we indulged in some epic day drinking. I think MT came out to make sure we were okay, and we took this photo.
See our giant house back there?! Awesome!!
December 2018 - Savannah, Georgia with Mamacita
My mom also had the desire to visit Savannah, but when we went in 2017, she wasn't able to come with us. Dad was really sick in May, and had broken his hip right before we left. Dad died in January of 2018, and it was quite a transition for all of us. We decided it would be pretty wonderful to celebrate Mom's birthday in Savannah that year. It was pretty rainy when we got to Savannah, so we took a hop-on hop-off bus tour around the city, rather than walk in the rain. Here's a photo of the three of us on the bus.
Another day, we drove out to Tybee Island. When we walked on the beach early in the day, it was overcast and windy, but not too cold. We took this photo:
That was a fun trip! When we got back to the west, Mom and Lizzie stayed for Christmas at my house.
June 2019 - Las Vegas
Lizzie had a big year in 2019. She published a book The Hospice Bubble and Other Devastating Affirmations, and went on a book tour across the United States. On her way back west, she stopped in SLC to hang out with me for a few days. We went on a couple of hikes, or as I prefer to call them, nature walks. Here's an ussie we took on a walk in the foothills of Bountiful, UT with the Great Salt Lake in the background.
The two of us then drove to Las Vegas for a couple of readings and some fun time. We stayed at the Rio which has a Guy Fieri restaurant.
2 comments:
Oh! This was such a wonderful recap of our traveling adventures together as a duo and as a trio with Mom! Thank you for this post. I absolutely love it! I have to say though that the June 2020 paragraph has to be changed to 2021! I love you so much!!
I loved this post too!~
I remember that day in Barcelona, you two are quite goofy at times lol
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