I’m back from a much-anticipated vacation with my sister, my ears still ringing from the “hum” that comes with travel. I landed 5 days ago.
Lots of loud talking, phone-obsessed people on the plane and in the airport ~ Girls on bachelorette trips, teams heading to conferences, elders traveling alone. A Mom with 3 under 3, who needed 6 more hands than she had. A doctor, a student, a cowboy, a nurse. I met them all.
It’s weird, traveling post-pandemic. There’s freedom and movement and hesitations. Someone coughed in front of us and everyone looked. Sorry, not sorry.
We met in Phoenix, enjoyed a week + in Scottsdale and, aside from the many conversations two takeaways for me were these:
- Sunshine. Daily. Plenty of it and
- Oranges. Local, fresh off the tree ……………. so delicious!
The golden hour.
The most delicious oranges I have ever eaten!
We carefully applied our 70F and – gasp – didn’t burn – but we quickly learned that morning sun was best, afternoons were too much for two Scandinavian/Irish lassies!
10am sunshine
We laughed, we shopped, we chatted. I found a desert Church we could attend and together we cried throughout the service, so meaningful.
I noticed things, being together a week – she mutters to herself… I hum. I drive, she navigates, announcing everything, trying to be helpful. We laugh hard, so hard tears run down our faces, and we choked and sputtered mid-laugh.
I’m on Eastern time, she’s on Mountain, so I was always up/awake first – off to get coffee for me and tea for her and then sit on our beds and talk like we did as girls.
We say things Mom would have said. We miss her, man do we miss her. We talk about the family – how siblings drifted even further apart once the glue was gone. We get it, we don’t like it, but we move on.
It’s been 5 years since I’ve been to the Canada farm/land – Distance and a pandemic separated the two of us for 3 years. We vacationed together last Fall and again this week and yes, we are making up for lost time. Time moves on and the things that really matter rise to the top, like a beach ball in the pool.
We talked and talked and never ran out of things to talk about; we talked in the dark, in the morning, and late at night. And there were times we just sat together, quietly delighting in the fact that sisters don’t need words.
Me and my sister 2023
Have you traveled post-pandemic? What are your takeaways?
Have you a sibling you’re extra close to? Tell me more!
Ahh. 
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