The Boxes

Our trip to NC was nearly perfect, the only complaint was the mediocre weather. We had been hoping for one last week of summer, but we got an early week of fall. We had the perfect balance of activity, day trips and just lounging around time. It was also really fun hanging out with Dad and Jan.

Highlight for me was getting a chance to visit with my old friend from high school, Colleen, who has settled into a beautiful home near Raleigh with her hubz and 3 beautiful daughters under the age of 5. I hadn't seen her in 12 years! Oh, and the food. Man, we ate good. Weight watchers was no where in sight, but that's OK, I have returned committed to getting back on track.

The boxes. Those boxes I put away over 10 years ago with so many miscellaneous treasures. I expected much of the items I rediscovered...The herd of stuffed animals:

...A million maps and memorabilia from when I sailed around the world with Semester at Sea:

...15 photo albums, thousands of negatives and letters galore. I miss the art of the written letter, now replaced by email. Those letters are so precious to me. Thanks to all of you who took time to write me (Steph and my Dad are tied for first place for letter writing--honorable mention to Penny):

...Tons of school stuff like my high school yearbooks and my college graduation cap (I was an Italian major):

But the creme della creme were the Barbies. I had totally forgotten about the Barbies, complete with their awesome 70s outfits, bad home haircuts and even a Barbie wardrobe and kitchen set:


3 of the boxes made it back with us to NY, mostly the photo albums. The Barbies were left to be rediscovered another day.