Spring Break 2024: Epilogue

Well, we did it! We gave ourselves Germany.

True, we had been doing this in every way possible since we first moved here almost two years ago. (Yowzers!, it's crazy just thinking of the differences between then and now: what we were to what we are--what we have learned to call normal, just in terms of our everyday lives, school, friends, soccer, culture, public transit, the Williams, compounded by two years of dramatic life development, 7th and 8th grades, 13-14, and 14-15.) With this 10-day road trip, though, we made sure we could remember Germany, not just as a base of operation or a launching pad, nor as a place where the worst of human nature once left an indelible mark, as Americans are all too apt to regard it (--Jimmy Kimmel's Oscars jokes, for example), and as Germans, to their credit, never permit themselves to deny. No, we saw this country vast, and various and on the verge of spring, beautiful, great and generous,

possessed as much of the future as of a many-chaptered past, not one jot less impressive than any other place a person might visit in Europe or anywhere else.

And we saw it together, experienced it as a family, which, for me, is its true worth.

These memories are shared; this whole blog, a reminder of being with and having each other--of giving ourselves singly to a collective moment.

Yeah, yeah, but how did we do in our real-life game of Ticket to Ride? That's what you are all wondering. Okay, okay, let's get down to business. Well, we did splendidly.

With 85 points in large routes (the orange cards), and an astounding 104 points in small routes (the blue cards), not to mention 21 Meeples, which I am calculating as 80 points in all, we earned 269 points! An all time record, no doubt.

(Actually, I am pretty sure Suzy has doubled that score several times in her routine trouncing of Katy, Marvelous, Scout and me, but it was a wonderful trip, nevertheless. And shoot, we did Luxembourg! So take that, Suzy!)

And with that, we round the corner on the last two months of this adventure, sad to see it end, but excited as can be to see all of you! Love the DeStefanos.