It’s been a little quiet here since the travelogue finished. I mean, how can you match Nora relaxing with family in Cozumel?
So I’ll start from the end of the trip.
Nora arrived home and immediately dove into prep for the first family barbequue since 2019. She had a few days of her at-home routine before the annual trip to Greenbrier followed by the family spa trip – which she keeps private. (She can’t share everything.)
In the meantime, I visited my surgeon and decided to go for a right knee replacement the last week of August (to match my new hip from January 2022). That meant three trips in quick order to clear the deck for recovering in September.
In short, we each had much to occupy our time outside of work.
Nora finished the In Death she worked on while in Cozumel. Title and more info to come. Now she’s begun the first draft of the second book in The Lost Bride Trilogy. We’ll have to wait a lot longer for that update.
I dealt with the pre-op checklist those moments I was home.
Then suddenly it was time to depart for the girls + Griffin trip to Greenbrier. We had a fairly easy trip down. I caravaned with Nora, Kayla and JoAnne since I had to leave a day early for family events up in NY and NJ. Traffic flowed pretty well, except for a five mile slow down. We all kept a sedate pace, then suddenly cars ahead of us slammed on the brakes.
I braked so as not to hit Nora then looked in the rearview mirror and the semi behind me was still coming. I swerved onto the shoulder, pausing for a nanosecond to not clip Nora, and somehow we all survived. (The car behind the semi also swerved to the shoulder). The margin for error was small since there was a hill down from the shoulder.
Talk about adrenaline! Nora said later she thought I’d be rear-ended. I saw it more as pancaked. Fortunately, it was the most adrenaline-fueled portion of the trip.
The first order of business was to toast our arrival, then continue with the tradition of a huge hydrangia bloom in the used bottle for the outdoor decor.
One of the nicest things about our stays Greenbrier is that everyone spends the day as they please: Nora and JoAnne worked out each morning before Nora worked a bit more on that In Death. Sarah and I compared notes about books then went back to reading. Kat and Griffin headed to the pool or adventures in the arcade with Kayla.
We all met up again for dinner out on the patio followed by puzzle time and the occasional game of hearts. (Yes, I played Hearts.)
Overall, a relaxing week with one day of media work along with the annual Facebook Live — which you can watch here: https://fb.watch/mrj_tZ94qu/
As mentioned in the video — and in Nora’s letter about the Lost Bride Trilogy — we usually have a full complement of spirits on this trip. Most are happy and entertained to have the rooms full. But we decided before arriving this year to keep one door in the suite closed as the spirit in that room was rather unfriendly in 2022.
But that spirit may have been a little annoyed by the exclusion.
It happened the second evening as we headed up to bed. Now, full disclaimer, there may have been some champagne consumed but we have this on record.
My room is at the top of the stairs, then there’s a hallway and a left turn to another hallway. Nora and JoAnne slept in rooms off that second hall. Oh, and the locked door is down the hall too.
JoAnne and I were talking when we heard Nora say, “Why is there a table in the middle of the hallway? And why is there one spent match on it?”
This is exactly how she found it, blocking off the way into her room and beyond to JoAnne’s on the left and the locked door on the right. (Jo took this photo as evidence.) Much discussion ensued, until finally I moved it to the wall and walked JoAnne to her room.
The next morning we asked the concierge and housekeeping, who all reported no staff had been in the suite on Saturday evening. Kayla didn’t see it when she went to bed earlier than the rest of us — her room faces that hall and she’d have noticed. We also learned that room service no longer uses that type of table. The mystery remained unsolved. Especially the spent match part of it all.
But after that, it was quiet.
Not a mystery is how much we continue to love the glass blowing classes at Greenbrier. We spent a very satisfying Monday afternoon creating with Mike the new owner of the studio.
And since it’s a time to explore creative stuff, I chose to paint some watercolors in the afternoons.
Just before we headed home, it was time to celebrate Kayla’s 21st birthday a few days early.
I left a day early to start the my next trip (up to NY/NJ) which included throwing a baby shower for my son and DIL who are due in October. Here’s the amazing cake we found for our little girl.
Nora and family had an action-packed week at the spa which included the annual paint night. I love seeing how everyone interprets the subject.
And that’s pretty much the update from here.
What’s next? I’ll do the In Death teasers for Payback in Death a little earlier than usual before my surgery, so look for them — in bulk — this weekend. Then I’ll open the discussion thread on September 5.
Then we’ll see what comes next.
Laura