Labor Day weekend away, highlighted by the marriage of my son, who I must say sparkled as he became a head of household. His friend drove 12 hours at a fast clip to be Best Man and at the reception captured in a paragraph what has made my son special.
Covid-19 took its toll on travel, keeping wedding and airline related appointments left me little leisure time except for a precious two hours touring my old St. Louis haunts as the ladies got their nails prepared and my son and best friend did something secretive. Our hotel, in a convenient location for the wedding festivities, lost its leisure travel allure. No pool, breakfast buffet, help yourself to coffee. Comfortable room but without housekeeping service. And unrelated to pandemic restrictions, not a lot of drawer space so they probably did not expect people to stay very long. Minor time zone change but not the reason I felt myself dragging. More likely that was from impaired nutrition. No food until we got to St. Louis and spent two additional hours on an interminably inept auto rental line. Then to Schnucks, the supermarket I gravitated to in the 1970's, to pick up the very munchies that I had successfully avoided bringing into my own house. Plus a bottle of wine that I gave away to the Best Man rather than open for my own use. Protein malnutrition but not calorie malnutrition.
Got to tour my medical alma mater briefly, though primarily the main campus, but only drove through the medical campus. Both have expanded considerably since my days there, not as much since my last stop there five years earlier. For a Labor Day Weekend with classes in session, students seemed sparse. The student center, fairly new when I attended but gutted and remodeled since, seemed mostly vacant. the mini-cathedral across the street had people. The quadrangles had few people. Access to the Library was by ID card. They did not charge me for parking in the garage that morning. As I drove further South, the area seemed less shabby, even gentrified. My National Supermarket had become a Schnucks and there was an Islamic enclave with its own mdi-sized supermarket. Almost no litter, but that was true of St. Louis when I lived there.
Rehearsal Saturday afternoon. Ceremony on Sunday afternoon. It being an interfaith ceremony, by chance the Rabbi was a fellow who we knew as a brand new Cantor who did our daughter's baby naming. He's successfully progressed to Cantor-Assistant Rabbi at a large Reform congregation where he has officiated for about 20 years while he raised two daughters, now both young professors. He had been a serious athlete, an accomplished javelin thrower, and maintained contacts in the sport as a coach and consultant, to say nothing of still looking fit and trim. A lot of picture taking, both at the ceremony and later in a park at an adjacent state university. I really needed to be horizontal and headed back to the hotel to make myself supine once photographic posing was no longer needed. Then the reception. Interestingly, I kept my entire weekend alcohol free except for sip of my wife's beer at a brew pub.
Return home mostly uneventful, though definitely tired and in need of adaptation time.
I knew this was not really leisure travel, as it had appointments and purpose but the Covid-19 restrictions would have run contrary to my mindset of vacation. I would like to take a trip for the purpose of tourism or recreation later this calendar year, probably to fulfill my intention to go to a national park by the end of the year. However, I got to experience the absence of the things I seek when I travel for my own personal escape. I opt for a hotel with a pool, even if I am not planning to immerse myself in it. I usually find time to splash around. Either the breakfast buffet or restaurant breakfast becomes a day-starting destination. Of the things absent this time, I may have missed this the most. Taking what I want, going back for more coffee, watching the weather report of even Fox News or whatever is on the big screen TV. I rarely have lunch except on a cruise, but take pleasure in dinner with a glass of wine or mug of beer. Both essentially absent, or really an ordeal to acquire, this time.
Places that I visit have sites to access, from wineries to historical sites or occasionally a beach. While not off limits, I have come to expect other people on similar tours. The people were not there where I might have expected them to be. Coffee in flight had been cancelled. Coffee at the airport could be obtained though less conveniently than I expect.
While I am getting tired of staying home, the new location imposes a different kind of strain, one that keeps it from being that escape and indulgence that makes vacations targeted destinations in place and in time.
