I have the worst sense of direction in our family. This is not news to most people.

This summer we took a family vacation to Quebec City. It was Oldest Daughter’s birthday and we rented e-bikes for a day on L’ile d’Orleans.  We had the bikes for four hours, and we all listened to the guide point out various stops we could make along the way, tracing the route most people took on this large map (it was a self-guided tour).  It was basically a big loop, about 20km.  (12.4 miles for those of us non-metric system people).  At least I thought we were all listening.

Fast forward to the end of our afternoon and we are pedaling along a straightaway looking for the right turn we were supposed to be making.  I wasn’t leading the group because my family knows better. I was 5^th in our “line” with Hubby at the end making sure there were no stragglers.  (ie ME.  He was there to make sure I didn’t get left behind.  Because not only do I have a terrible sense of direction, I am slow. I am the last to finish a meal. I am last in line when we hike. This is also not news to many.)

At some point, it’s just Oldest Daughter ahead of me, with Middle Daughter quite a bit ahead of her, but still in sight. Oldest Daughter’s bf  and Youngest Son were leading the pack, but they were nowhere to be seen.  We’d been on this road for a while, and we’d completely lost sight of them, that’s how far ahead of us they were.

It occurred to Oldest Daughter that we must have missed the turn because we’d been biking for too long on this one road.  She looked back at me and pulled over.  Her face was a mixture of alarm and worry, but I pulled up next to her with this big silly grin on my face. She stared at me wondering why in the world I was not alarmed and worried also.   I was completely unbothered by the circumstances. Probably in part because I also am a bad judge of distance. If you’d asked me how far we’d ridden since the last major landmark… well, I’d have been way off.  I guess I wasn’t worried because it was such a nice day, and I was with all my favorite people (well 2 of them at that moment) and I wasn’t in charge of anyone or anything. It was very freeing actually- it’s one of the best parts about being a mom of adult children.

Hubby zoomed ahead to corral the wayward ducklings, and we figured we’d probably rode 4.5 miles too far.  So that added about 9 miles to our bike trip.  Prior to this, Hubby and I had rolled our eyes at people who rode e-bikes on flat trails.  No more.  We were damn grateful for the e-sisstance, if you will.

The best part of the day (besides not being charged for the 45+ minutes that we were late in returning the bikes) was that we had no schedule that we needed to follow, we could stop when we wanted for as long as we wanted.  There was a farm stand that had the most gorgeous display of fresh produce.  We bought a container of brilliantly red ripe strawberries and some of the biggest raspberries I’d ever seen. We sat at a picnic table outside on a hill overlooking the farm.  The sun was warm on our faces as we passed the fruit back and forth until both containers were empty. We rode a little further and stopped at a chocolatier that was attached to a coffee shop.  So we got lattes and pastries and sat outside enjoying them. Then we spent an obscene amount of time and money in the chocolate shop. We found a bike/walking path along the water where we could see Montmorency Falls across the channel- the falls that we had ziplined across the previous day. We stopped at a vineyard and had another view of the falls from their seating area set on a hill. We sampled wines and munched on cheese and bread. We stopped for homemade ice cream and at a nougaterie (although none of us like nougat).  We were exhausted by the end of the day, but we all agreed it was our favorite day of the week.

A while ago I wrote a holiday letter in which I wondered about “our last family vacation.” Oldest Daughter was in college, and I’d felt like our time all together had an expiration date. Although Youngest Son is the last one at home now, we are still planning family vacations. Over the years, we have driven to Maine for a week and we have flown to Ireland. We’ve gotten lost on back roads and have also planned days to the hour. We’ve steered a canoe for 6 into the reeds and put up hammocks in the forest while our car got towed. We have hiked for miles and also curled up on the couch with good books and mugs of tea.

I guess it doesn’t really matter where we are going, it just matters who we are with.

Love the Journey. May your New Year be filled with people you love to get lost with.