Family time...

“Let’s play Scrabble,” Austin says just as soon as we finish dinner.  He is rosy cheeked, scrubbed and clean from his bath, his curls coming back as his hair dries and wearing his BB8 pyjamas. 

            Austin had heard me say to Hayden, “Aren’t you and your Dad going to have your usual Scrabble competition this visit?”  This is the first time he’s asked to play, too. Austin is 5 now and not reading yet but aware and excited about letters and sounding out words.  If it’s a game of any kind, he wants to play.  Austin seems to have been born with a competitive spirit.  He will participate in any kind of game…but then he’ll focus on winning no matter what it takes. (I often find myself comparing him to Hayden when he was the same age because they are alike in many ways.  But Austin really fights harder to win.)

            Last night was a “first” for Austin to follow in his Dad’s and Grandpa’s footsteps and participate in a real game of Scrabble. He paired up with his Dad.  Art played and so did I.  It was the Aaronson family together at what has always been our “signature” game for as long as I can remember. 

            Austin caught on fast by choosing a letter, as we all did, to see who would go first and then telling us we must choose our 7 letters…and not to look at them beforehand.  He sat up alert at the table leaning over often to whisper in his Dad’s ear presumably suggesting where they might make a word or put down a letter. It was priceless to watch and totally unexpected.  He loved the strategizing and each time Hayden put down a word he helped count up the points.  Art, as scorekeeper, duly noted down a number and tallied up the total for each player. 

            Austin then leaned over every time to ask, “How much do we have now?”

            Art would reply and Austin would ask who was ahead. If he and Hayden were ahead he’d issue an enthusiastic “Yes!” with his hand in the air.  If they were falling behind he’d get on it with his Dad to try harder.

            Our family Scrabble games can take an hour or so as Hayden and Art look for the prime spots for words with the highest score. I watched Austin thinking “surely he’ll get tired and lose interest…”  Not for a minute did he waver, his concentration all there even when it was not their turn.  If I made a play he wanted to know my score and then would ask his Grandpa “Who’s winning now?”   The game went on, need I say way past Austin’s bedtime, and he was all there until the very last letter had been put down on the board.

            “And the winners are….Hayden and Austin,” announced Art.  Austin almost jumped off his seat he was so excited. That certainly was a fun way to end our last evening together but I did wonder what if they had come in second or third.  What I like to remember is the certainty I felt that with this one  experience Austin was already "on board" with Scrabble. I can only imagine what he will do when he can actually read and make words and learn the concept of crosswords.  He will beat the pants off of Hayden and Art.  What fun times we have to look forward to as he is growing up and we meet over a Scrabble game.

            Austin’s visit to Asheville this weekend was short but packed with nature walks, looking for birds, hours on the Biltmore Lake playground, tennis practice, lots of bowls of “Grandma’s Granola” for breakfast and snacks. We practised counting to 20 in Spanish and learned some new words.  He was full of conversation about Harry Potter and his life at Hogwarts. He knocked me over by rattling off the titles of all 7 of the Harry Potter books without hesitation. Obviously his listening to Harry Potter with Jessica has stuck with him and he loves it.  Who would have thought that at 5 he could keep that story straight? Austin knows it all and can tell you the story in a sequence that make sense.  I think of many adults who have difficulty with the skill of summarizing what Austin seems to do naturally at 5.

Drawing Harry Potter characters...

Skipping stones...

Arboretum Nature Walk

Tennis practice

Snacking on Grandma's Granola

            The house is too quiet now that Austin has gone home and yet we did so much catching up in just a few short days. While I was cleaning up this afternoon I found a stray Scrabble letter underneath the dining room table and it brought back our Scrabble evening...  unforgettable and with the promise of many fun times yet to come.

Bird watching...

            

Spring Training

          While Spring training brings to mind baseball teams and track practices, we are getting in shape for a walking trip in Brittany, France which starts in early May. It is liberating to finally get outdoors, breath fresh air and revisit our favorite trails in the N.C. Arboretum, on the Biltmore Estate, along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and onto the Biltmore Lake network of walking paths. We are building up stamina for the coastal walks in Brittany that will take us from hotel to hotel.  Suddenly, my Fit Bit is buzzing happily as I clock my minimum 10,000 steps more often than I have in months.

Austin at Little League spring training...

            Our trip in Brittany will be the fifth such adventure with the same British company known as Inntravel.  Our first was four years ago, walking through the vineyards of the Douro Valley in northern Portugal . The next year we did a 7-day hike along the Costa Brava in Spain.  Then one November we were more adventuresome with a 7-day walk through the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco lead by a private guide.  Our most recent was a spring hike two years ago in the Dordogne Valley of France walking from one medieval village to the next. 

 Hiking with "the Slow Holiday People"

Guided by Inntravel ‘s detailed walking notes, carrying a daypack with necessities for what we might encounter along the way, a journal, and camera, we set off each day by ourselves into the countryside. With the entire day to make our way to a destination we have time to take in the world around us.  It took only one such foreign trip to be hooked on this new way of  travel … observing the world  on foot.  Inntravel’s motto is The Slow Holiday People.   Our daily reward is the satisfaction of completing the notes for that day  (without getting lost) and luxuriating on an overnight stay at a charming country hotel.

            Art and I have not been lifelong hikers.  In fact, hiking as a recreational pastime is new for us. We started doing it when we moved to Asheville nearly 8 years ago. Hiking is what everyone does in Asheville regardless of age.  Most of our friends and neighbors are active hikers, and hiking groups are everywhere. Regular hiking requires plenty of free time  (ideal for retirees like us) and the will to push yourself beyond your comfort zone with a focus on the end reward.  Hiking brings with it a sense of adventure but most of all well-being.  The idea that I can spend many hours outdoors in nature breathing, thinking, meditating, visiting, or simply being quiet and observing inspires me to do more. There is a real “high” that comes from hours of walking and miles covered when you are finished.  Hiking is not officially considered a sport because there is no competition. I might differ with that somewhat as there is a subtle competitiveness I hear amongst what I call my super hiker friends.

            Conversations can go like this…

            “We did the 8-miler with the hiking group last Saturday in Bent Creek.  Have you done it?  It was good but next time we I want to try the 12-miler.”

            Or I might hear someone say,  “John and I plan to lead the hike next Saturday down in Dupont National Park.  It’s only an 7-miler but the bonus are the waterfalls. Week after we’ll do a longer one.”

            I’m amused the way the hiking talk turns to mileage and hikes are assessed by how long they are and whether or not you managed it.  To me this becomes competitive which is why Art and I keep our own pace preferring to go at it by ourselves.

            There is rarely a day goes by that I don’t want to be outdoors walking somewhere even if it’s just going from home to the library and back. Heck, that’s a 2-miler round trip! Hiking keeps me tuned in to each season and noticing the subtle changes in nature around me.  When I walk I do my best thinking and often come home with a creative idea worked out or a solution to a problem I might be wrestling with.  Hiking makes me feeling young.  I, too, can brag and say I did a 6-miler in the Arboretum today.  What I don’t add is that I am in my seventies now and can’t imagine a life without this kind of mental and physical exercise..  Most of all hiking keeps me optimistic about life and the world around me regardless of whether I do a 2 -miler or an 8.  

Early spring flowers

            For us, though, the ultimate reward has been our organized European walking trips and we’ll continue to go with the “slow holiday people” for as long as we are able.

            We don’t stop hiking because we grow old –

We grow old because we stop hiking.

Finis Mitchell