Our summer vacation found us staying in-state this year, going south to visit my “baby” brother and his family (I say “baby” even though he is close to a foot taller me!). The end verdict on the vacation is: spending time with my brother and his family was great; the rest…not so much!

I tend to have bad luck with lines and things like that - whatever line I get it is bound to grind to a halt and move slower than any other line, no matter what! Apparently, my luck extends to roads and construction, as well. On the way down, we hit several construction zones, all barely moving, while traffic zipped along going north. Of course, on the way home, we found ourselves in a road grid due to construction going north, while traffic south zipped along! Both ways, a 3-4 hour trip took 6-7 hours!

One thing I noticed was that I felt right at home the whole trip, traveling and in my brother’s city. Why? Minus my actual house, it was just like home. All the stores are the same, all the malls, all the subdivisions, all the restaurants.  That seems to be a mark of progress in any sweet, pretty rural area - the advent of the Big Stores, or the opening of yet another 1-of-2-million-mart. I appreciate it to a degree, the ability to pull of the highway and find my way to a place I know I can purchase sunscreen, flip-flops, and (once-upon-a-time) diapers. However, most smaller cities and larger towns seem to have lost their identities, becoming zombie-like clones of one another. One of the saddest things was driving through some beautiful back roads in the Texas Hill country, and finding suburban sprawl beginning to spout up, like some terrible blight. Drinking in the trees and hills, knowing that if I come back in a year or two, some of it will have been replaced with the same stores/fast food places/restaurants/malls that can be found anywhere else.

We got to spend Saturday at a theme park that features a large black and white killer whale. We never saw the whale, as the crowds were so large we couldn’t even get in the theater. It was very hot and extremely overcrowded. But, the kids all had fun, the adults all got sunburned, we got to touch dolphins, and we made great memories!

Now I need to rest from my vacation!