and I do not stay the same age.
Maxine and I are staying at my husband’s parents’ home in Sarasota for our beach getaway while they are on a repositioning cruise.
Chris first brought me here on our first vacation together back in 2001, two years before we were married. I remember being entranced by the palm trees along the driveway, the pool beckoning as the centerpiece of the house that wraps around three sides of the lanai, and the elegant Japanese dining room furniture they had shipped here when his dad was stationed on Okinawa in the late ‘80s.
Over time, as their three children married and had kids of their own, the oriental rugs became perpetually littered with Legos, wicker breakfast table chairs were pushed aside to make room for a high chair, and the once-pristine pool deck sprouted a fence that ran around the pool.
Our visits here became less frequent as the kids got older and accumulated more obligations at home and his parents began traveling more in their retirement. The frequency with which we came here peaked in the years around 2010, so most of my associations with Sarasota involve taking the kids to tropical playgrounds, going for a run between their nap times, visiting the aquarium so they could crowd around the touch tanks, and keeping them away away from freshwater ponds and creeks.
It’s much more leisurely these days. I have to apply only my own sunblock. Maxine can feed herself her own veggies. I am not in danger of stepping on a stray Lego with bare feet. I am not worried about being judged for letting my baby sleep with me or being inflexible about their nap schedules (this could be its own post, but that’s for another time).
But…I wouldn’t turn down a day with those little ones, wiping their sticky hands and wrestling them to the ground to reapply sunblock in the blazing sun. Then I’d be more than happy to return to watching the sun go down as I sit next to my daughter who has become a young woman and a dear confidant.
My Corner of the Village 