Snippets and Side Quests

Apparently, the best margaritas in Texas are at Esparza’s, a Tex-Mex fixture in Grapevine. Never heard of Grapevine, Texas? If you’ve been to DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) airport, you’ve been in Grapevine, although Erika would say you haven’t been to Grapevine. So what brought us there? Was it country music, barbecue, or sports? No! It was BGG Spring, a five day board game convention. BGG stands for Board Game Geek. The convention itself was fabulous. It was in the airport. Literally. The hotel was just outside the C concourse, which seems weird, but somehow worked great. We played three or four different games a day, met a bunch of interesting and fun people, and brought home half a dozen FREE games. What could be better? Texas is known for its friendly people and hospitality, but there can’t be anywhere more friendly than Grapevine. When DFW airport was constructed on the cantaloupe fields and dairy pastures of this small town, this enterprising community shifted gears and doubled down o...

We had never been to Orcas Island together.   Erika has been there so many times. For about a decade her family visited at least once, but often twice, a year.    They camped there annually with dear friends, the two families establishing their own little traditions and rituals. It was a place of exploration and imagination for the kids as they grew up. For Erika, Orcas Island will always be imbued with memory, magic, and saudad e.  Saudade comes from the Portuguese language, describing an intense feeling for which there is no English equivalent. It encompasses both a type of nostalgia for the absence of something much loved but also a longing for something that never happened. Sadness or melancholy is implied, but also a sense on fondness.  Saudade is bittersweet. You may know this feeling if you have a before and after moment that profoundly altered the path of your life. Saudade is the feeling Erika has knowing her grandmother and children never got to meet e...