The weekend without the child

My wife and I haven't been away alone together in over five years. This correlates nicely with the age of our progeny. (This is not to say that Lydia's never been away from both of us; last summer, while Carol was in college, I dropped her off at Grandma and Grandpa's in Oneonta, about 75 miles away, so I wasn't the position of both taking her to day care and picking her out.)

But the wife and I alone together for more than a few hours? Doesn't happen. Yet our tenth wedding anniversary is coming up next month. Taking off time during the school year is tough, and the summer will be pretty packed, too. This past week, on the other hand, school was off.

So my parents-in-law kindly drove up the hour and a quarter to watch Lydia Thursday afternoon while Carol and I took a vacation in Saratoga Springs. Saratoga? Isn't that only about 30 miles away from Albany? Indeed it is. but we stayed at an inn, and visited places we'd never been before. You know how people in Manhattan never go to the top of the Empire State building unless they're hauling in relatives from out of town? It's pretty much the same thing.

It was near enough that the trip there and back wouldn't be onerous, but unfamiliar enough to be able to explore.

I'll undoubtedly discuss the specific aspects of the trip over the next few weeks, but let me give you some first impressions:

*We end up watching either the Today show or Good Morning America only when we're off work. saw Today on Friday, GMA on Sunday. What depressing shows. No wonder people tune out the news.
*We ate too much.
*We've become near experts at getting around Saratoga.
*We worried that the child would miss us. we called Thursday night and she talked to us, but when we called Friday night, she was too busy watching TV to pick up. (That is NOT a complaint.) However, she (with Grandma's help) called us Saturday morning.
*She has so many things that getting Lydia yet something else seemed undesirable. Ultimately, we opted for flipflops.
*The hotel allegedly had a public computer, but the two times I actually had time to use it, it died after 16 minutes one times and 20 minutes the other. So no, I haven't read any of your blogs lately; I will, I will, eventually.
*The times I did get on my e-mail, I got e-mails from a friend of a friend of Raoul Vezina's and my high school history teacher, both of whom came across me through this blog.

Ah, my wife needs to use the computer. Bye for now.

ROG