I exited the internet superhighway this summer and traveled the skyways and highways, recharging my connections to friends and family.

My travels began with a week in Burbank, CA to visit a childhood friend.  We met in 7th grade when my family moved to Sugarland, TX.  I don’t recall how we met, if it was a shared class or a chance encounter, but the three years I lived in Sugarland I spent with Christine, riding our bikes to Target for Cosmopolitan magazine and the latest cosmetics, trading Sweet Valley High romance novels (carefully preserved in white homemade book covers), and shopping and dining at the mall.  Today, half a country and an infinite number of life experiences separate us, but the friendship endures.  While visiting, we attended the Rose Bowl Flea Market, the Getty Museum, and Last Chance bookstore.  We ate…. a lot!

Her new pup delighted in the discovery that I liked to rise early and spend the morning on the patio.  I painted and journaled.  She chased birds and guarded the perimeter.  Meanwhile the raucous laughs and staccato drills of the local woodpeckers filled the air and the hummingbirds sliced through the air like squadrons of daring WW2 aces- darting, diving, retreating in the blink of an eye.

Second trip of the summer was an overnight Mother-Daughter excursion to Norman and Oklahoma City.  We spent an afternoon marveling at dinosaur bones and the sheer enormity of earth’s history at the natural history museum.  We splurged on a stay at 21C Hotel in OKC- an art gallery and hotel in one.  We ate dinner under a magical canopy of “greenery” and lights at the hotel’s pop-up restaurant.