These are the Days

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Monday, February 22nd, 2021 - 3:49pm.

We booked a cabin in the mountains for a four-day weekend with friends. Elliot’s been best friends with a girl named Lou since he started school almost 5 years ago, and we’ve become close with her parents. We often take trips together, celebrate birthdays and holidays together. As neither Lou nor Elliot have any siblings, they have kind of adopted each other as brother and sister.

The idea was to go somewhere to let the kids play in the snow and for us to sit around a fireplace, eat way too much food and just generally be On Vacation. Admittedly, when we booked the cabin two months ago we laughed at ourselves for attempting to plan anything in ‘covid times’ and checked the cancellation policy. But, lo and behold, we got to go! After a winter that was colder than usual we suddenly got a warm spell, so the temps were in the 60s and there wasn’t any snow, but off we went and man did it feel good.

Friday night we roasted a chicken and when we woke up Saturday we made chicken sandwiches. The trail was wide and easy with lots of long curves back and forth as we worked our way up above the tiny village where we were staying. We had a beautiful view of the Pyrénées and the snow capped peaks at higher altitudes. After about two hours, with considerable stopping for examining rocks, potential pieces of gold, the testing of many walking sticks and the exploring of many ‘short cuts’ by Elliot and Lou, we reached the peak. There was one picnic table up there, perfect! We were all hungry. The kids had done really well, the sun was shining to the point that we were down to t-shirts, and we hadn’t seen a single soul the whole way up. Just as we were sitting down at the picnic table though, it seemed like our luck was about to change: the wind kicked up and an older couple came around the bend headed toward the table. I had my hands full already, trying to get the kids set up, saving the bag of chips from blowing away, making sure the chicken didn’t slip out of their sandwiches, and now we needed to scoot down to one side to make room for this couple (social distance, etc etc). I was grumpily thinking: ‘we haven’t seen ANYONE all morning! Why did these two have to show up right on our heels?! Ugh.’ We were all alone, outdoors and eating, so obviously didn’t have masks on.

I was a bit leery. As they got closer though, I could see they were smiling widely at us. I’d forgotten how good it was to be greeted by a stranger and be able to see their smile. They settled down at the far end of the table and the kids started happily chattering to them. The couple looked at least 75 years old and they were in excellent shape. They said, ‘You kids are so lucky to have parents who take you to the mountains.’ Now I was smiling, too. A cucumber slipped out of Lou’s sandwich and landed in the dirt under the table. This was hilarious to Elliot (oh to be 8 years old) and as it was a lost cause, he decided to squish it up into ‘cucumber paté.’ I was about to intervene when the man said, ‘Yeah! Go for it! I hate cucumbers. If there’s one in a salad I won’t even eat the salad!’ Elliot thought this was hilarious, too. An old grandpa who didn’t like cucumbers! At this point Lou jumped up on the bench and said to the man, ‘Truth or dare?’ ‘Huh?’ ‘Truth or dare?!’ ‘Ahhh, umm...dare!’ ‘I dare you to eat that squished cucumber!!!’ He and the kids all burst into laughter. Elliot followed up with, ‘So, would you rather eat grass or eat a cucumber?!’ ‘Grass!’ the man says. Elliot laughed some more, totally delighted.

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