After the zoo it was nap time, so we decided to drive north and let Gavin sleep in the car. We found a brewery near the AirBnb where we stopped for lunch. Though we ended up playing cards in the parking lot for a while until Gavin woke up. The brewery ended up being attached to a college, which was interesting and gave it a different vibe (so many students). Danielle and Eric met up with us there and then we all stopped at the grocery store before heading over to the AirBnb.
The place we had originally booked - a five bedroom house about 20 minutes from campus - ended up getting double booked. The owner contacted us and offered a different property for half-price. It was just a little farther from campus, so we decided to take it. Instead of a house, we had three two-bedroom apartments. I think that setup ended up working out better, especially with a toddler involved. Gavin could run around at 6 in the morning without waking anyone else up and they could all hang out late into the night without disturbing him (or me).
Unfortunately, that was pretty much the only good thing about this property. One of the apartments smelled like smoke and another like cat pee. The third had a door that didn't always latch. Only one of the apartments had coffee mugs and wine glasses, so we had to move some things around when we first got there. The floors were so dirty that my feet were constantly black, the water pressure so low that I couldn't fully rinse my hair, and the bathroom so gross (or possibly haunted) that Gavin pretty much refused to be bathed.
On the plus side, we didn't spend all the much time at the rental.
The reunion itself was a lot of fun. It was great to see the campus and some of the new, gorgeous buildings. The architecture is becoming more modern, which is both good and a little bittersweet. I still take a perverse pride in having such an ugly campus, but I get that's off putting to a lot of prospective students.
We had great turnout for our class. I think around a third of our graduating class came to this reunion. It was fun to catch up with so many people and see everyone's babies. A lot of people had kids around Gavin's age, and he made some friends. Gavin also had a lot of fun watching the fish in the koi pond, and we returned to that several times throughout the weekend.
After the reunion we spent a night in a hotel close to the airport to make our early morning flights more manageable. Another college friend lives right by the airport and hosted a pool party for us. It was great to see their house and kids, but hearing about all their plans made me appreciate my relatively quiet life.
All in all it was a great, if exhausting, trip. I didn't sleep much and I read about 50 pages in the whole ten days. But there were so many people to hang out with, and that was the whole point of the vacation, so I shouldn't be too upset. Gavin did a great job traveling, and even held it together well when we were constantly missing his naps. But it was nice to get home and get back on a schedule that had both of us happier and calmer.
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