traveling in grey

we tend to travel during the fall and winter school vacations.  teenage daughter goes to camp – her heart of hearts as it was mine – and that leaves most of the summer as unusable to travel together as a threesome family.  and we like it that way.  we travel well together.   i was worried early on that our daughter might be a wiggly non-distractable traveling companion but she’s happy to sit and read or watch passengers go by while waiting for trains, planes and boats.  we all like to explore in new cities and new destinations – incorporating a big museum or site in but also liking to just walk and watch and be delighted at unexpected findings. 

this trip isn’t new.  we’re out in victoria, b.c. to stay with husband’s family and just all be together.  oldest nephew will graduate high school this year and the adults feel the impending change – the first of the kids to be out of obligatory schooling – so we wanted to have a time together before that happened. 

there is something easy about traveling somewhere that does not guarantee sunny sunny weather.  grey skies and on and off rainy days take the pressure off – we don’t need to be outside but when we are, we see it all from a different often-stormy skyline.   fewer people and more space to let your imagination drift out over the insanely beautiful sea – dotted with bobbing seals and the occasional regal heron perched on a flotilla of seaweed and driftwood.  some people see grey.  i see shades of stormy blue.