Dear Grandpa and et al the rest,
It\’s three a.m. and finally I have time to dash off a few quick lines!
My trip out to Seattle was unusual and not what I expected, but in an odd way, I enjoyed it. It was good to see the other side of the country and a different topography, as well as all the different topographies in between. Flying over Montana and Wyoming was spectacular. I wish I had been able to get pictures during the flight. I managed to get a few nice ones in Seattle, mostly of buildings but some of the sky setting on the Puget Sound. I had an incredible
view of Mt. Rainier above the clouds as the plane flew away from Washington, but we weren\’t allowed to have our electronic devices turned on yet, and I couldn\’t get a picture. Breathtaking. It was good to warm up for a few days out there; getting back to D.C., even for less than 24 hours, was a shock to the system! So cold!
Here in Florida the weather is magnificent. For the first time in months I have been wandering around outside in the daytime with no jacket, no gloves, no scarf, no hat, no extra layers, no sweaters, no shoes, and shorts! Today I
even got to go swimming in the ocean. The locals tried to say it was far to cold for such a thing, but the forest ranger at the national park where we were at had the water temperature posted at 72 degrees, and honestly, I don\’t think I\’ve ever felt it warmer in Ocean City or in Delaware. It was so delightful to get out there in the gentle waves with the warm air and the sun, the with light
breeze, the soft sand, and all the crackling shells beneath our feet. It\’s not mosquito season, the sun isn\’t too strong (and I had on 35 SPF sunblock, and didn\’t get burned), and the humidity is quite low to non-existent, so it is practically paradise here at the moment.
Last night Uncle Elliott took us all out on his boat, which was fantastic. The views are incredible, and it is so relaxing. We watched the sun set and then had dinner further down the beach on the southern end of Springer Island, in a development which is reportedly on the market for a cool 28 million dollars. Whew! Uncle Elliot was showing us the waterfront properties which are quite
gorgeous and get this: while it costs around a million dollars to own a house directly on the innercoastal, you can rent a two bedroom apartment for about $1600. The 600 ft. studio apartment Will and I share has a market value of $14-
1600 (we pay $900 because he signed a lease right before the new management company took over, so he has rent control, which is fortunate). But can you imagine? It baffles my mind. I\’d love to be able to spend $900 for a one
bedroom just a few blocks from the water, just in order to be able to go for a swim every day. Doctor\’s orders, after all, and I can\’t afford the pool! My doctors say the ocean is great for me anyway, because if I stand parallel to
the shore where the waves break, it helps me to build strength in my kneecaps again. Oh well, in a perfect world, climate control would come to D.C., or I would win the lotto and be able to have a winter home in Florida on the beach
and a summer home up in D.C. with my family.
Everybody here sent there love, oh, a few hours ago. I can\’t sleep. Stomach cramps and I can\’t find a heating pad. Uncle Elliot has satellite tv and it\’s one of those deals where there\’s \”300 channels and nothing to watch,\” if you can believe it. Not even the History Channel has anything good going tonight, and I\’m too achy and tired to concentrate on the things I brought to read. Blah.
Will and I have been conspiring a way to bring up all the amazing in season seafood we have been chowing down on, but short of buying an enormous igloo cooler and a lot of ice, we\’ve yet to come up with a solution. That might have
to do, though, because the swordfish right now, as well as the stoned crabs, are incredible. Oh, and I found this lovely little French bakery and I want to bring back all these tasty little sweeties and pastries and things for you to snack on — they\’re so petite and delightful to look at, and so rich and delicious to bite into! Amazing how much flavor you can pack into such a small quantity with the right ingredients.
Anyway, I ought to be going. 4am is coming around the bend and we\’re meant to be up at 9 to head to a local artisan\’s festival… and hopefully, more SWIMMING!
My flight gets back into National really late Monday night. Since it turns out I have doctors appointments on Wednesday and Thursday now, I plan on sleeping all day Tuesday, so I will see you on both Wednesday and Thursday, but only on Thursday for dinner. Wednesday I\’ll be dropping by in the afternoon after my allergy shots in Hyattsville. Back to the daily grind!
Everyone says I\’ve been off galvanting for the past month, but it hasn\’t felt like a vacation at all until we arrived here. It\’s all been cold, and I\’d been cooped up indoors and feeling ill mostly. Even now I\’m feeling rundown, and I guess it\’s getting a little worse and will take me a while to recover, as usual. I like that I got to go to New York and see it in the winter and meet more of Will\’s family, and I like that I finally got to see some of the west coast and go to the arts festival and work with the photographers out there, and I like that I had a week just to spend with my own thoughts, but other than that, since Christmas it\’s felt like I was just getting my butt dragged around the country of my own accord, and for the life of me, I couldn\’t figure out why, because I really wasn\’t having a good time. It\’s not much fun to travel while you\’re ill. But it gave me a lot (more) to think about — so many ideas, so little money and time! I need a small army to carry out all my ideas. How come Donald Trump gets all the fun? I told Dad I was going to write to Oprah and she\’d \”Make My Wish Come True\” like she does on her shows for all those people who do things like give their mom\’s houses makeovers or lose enough weight to fit into a Porsche… all I need is a book deal or an agent or a grant for a quarter of a million dollars or something 😉 small to start out with. Dad just laughed at me and said if it made me feel better to think that Oprah could help all my problems, than to go ahead and think that. I don\’t know what\’s more amusing: the idea that maybe she could, or the idea that my dad maybe really believes that I would write to her?
Okay, bed time for this tired traveling girl!
I miss you all and love you all very much. Stay WARM! I\’m not looking forward to coming back to the cold, but I am very much looking forward to seeing you again. I\’ve missed my family this past month.
Love,
Moi
