Grandchildren highlight vacation

“So,” somebody asked the other day, “what was the best part of your vacation?”
And I had to pause and think.
Was it that afternoon at the Jaffrey Center First Church Fair?
The church fair, one of those distinctly New England events, has been going on for 100 years. We’ve dropped in on somewhere between a half a dozen and a dozen of those.
The church is a United Church of Christ affiliate, but the fair involves the entire little village.
There are no carnival rides. There are no sideshows.
Instead, there’s a tag sale outside the meetinghouse, an antique sale with silent auction inside, an art sale in the church itself featuring items donated from local attics, a plant sale on the lawn, a bake sale and about a dozen little games for kids, including a fish pond and a cupcake decorating station. Oh, and there’s a Model T Ford ride as well.
But great as that was, it wasn’t the best part.
Was it our afternoon out on the Atlantic, taking a boat trip out to the Isles of Shoals?
Nope. Cool as that was, it wasn’t the best part.
Was it our days of labor, working on the upkeep of the cabin that’s been in Connie’s family for more than 100 years?
Those were good, though tiring.
Over the last few years, the tool shed/outhouse has been starting to slide down the hill. So last year, the decision was made to put it on a new foundation and give it a new roof.
Trouble is, that meant moving all of the contents into the cabin for the winter.
This year, that meant moving things back.
There was a certain satisfaction in hauling things up the hill to the tool shed, organizing them and making it functional.
But no matter how virtuous I felt after pouring in all that sweat equity, it wasn’t the best part.
No, the best part was watching our grandchildren — Emily’s rambunctious and irrepressible sons and Maggie’s delightful and charming daughter — bond with the place.
Little as they are, they have already connected with the cabin, with the hill and with the lake itself. They know this place. It is a part of them. It matters to them.
And since they represent the fifth generation of their family to make that connection — Connie’s great-aunt had the cabin built and bequeathed it to her parents who then left it to my wife and her siblings in order to share it with future generations — I have to step back and say, “That was the best part of our vacation.”
Hope yours was at least half as good.