Dreaming of Summer...

Two days ago it was 6o degrees in Boston.
today it was 31.
now I am lost dreaming and pining for summer.

At our house
as soon as the temperature begins to rise
the anticipation begins - even in fickle Boston where you never know, even when summer arrives - if winter is truly gone for good.

I have never been a fancy vacationer
no four-star hotels, no room-service, rarely reservations are made...

When we met 13 years ago we spent 6 weeks driving cross-country in August, camping out in all of the national parks and anywhere else we could find. Romance at it's best! Occasional B&B's over the years. With kids we have stayed at small hotels and beached the sunlight hours away or camped in the mountains of New Hampshire.

Even our annual Family-Week in P-town each year has been pretty low-key. Small place and lots of sun. Cooking our own meals and being together. Tons of ice cream and drag-shows and friends. Annual tattoos for the moms and henna ones for the kiddos. Torin always demands a Winnie the Pooh one! Zion a unicorn or Celtic design. "No needles ones for us, mama! "

I never knew something was lacking on these trips
It was not the being spoiled
It was not the room-service
It was not the chocolate on the pillow
or the sheets being turned down
It was not the location
and clearly not the company

Three years ago we ventured onto the R Family Vacations cruise. Kelli and Rosie O'Donnell's vacation company - really not something in our nature - but it just called out to us,
pulling us in.

What attracted me so much to this -
enough to pull me out of my Taurean sameness - ok stubborness - track,
was the mission
Kelli and Gregg - the founders - wanted this cruise to be....
for gay families and all those who love and support them.
Not a cruise for lesbian moms, or a single dads' event, or even a floating political rally - as many gay events can become.
and definitely not a cruisy cruise (if you know what I mean)
nothing separatist here.
A vacation full of love and fun for all who love "our families"
what a relief!

Words could never be enough...
1200 rooms
straight grandparents, multiracial families, so many daddies and their adopted, surrogated, birthed and fostered children. Siblings embracing. Straight and gay teenagers. Friends and family. Together. Straight women who came because they knew they would be accepted. Performers from all walks of life - gay, straight, white, black, funny, serious, even a professional football-playing opera singer!

It was like meeting the family you always wish you had, you know? and all of these people became our family.
truly
and everywhere we looked were tears - mostly from the relief of finally finding such a place!

For us we also found home. A floating world without bias. Zion could wear a kilt if he wished, sing karaoke, watch Broadway singers and dream his dreams. We could dance all night long without care, spend our time with hundreds of families who worked as hard as we did just to create their families - never taking their little ones for ganted - ever, and as the days went by the power seemed to grow and grow and grow until it filled us all completely.

And the defensiveness, protectiveness, and worries of difference that we all carry on our shoulders every day - consciously or not - just began to break off and float away.

I truly think we all left that ship carrying a bit less tolerance for those who "tolerate us" in the world. We all left with a bit more adamance at what the world should be for ourselves and our children.

They succeeded in creating a world where all people, straight, gay, married, old, single, young, in transition, exploring, adopted, birthed, tattooed, straight-laced, suburban, rural, city, jewish, pagan, christian, and atheist - all lived, danced in silly costumes, sang at the top of our lungs in pseudo-harmony, loved, and ate way too much food - together!

They proved it can be done! I notice now we all seem to demand it a bit more of our "land-based" world.

32 degrees projected for tomorrow
four months to go
four months
can't wait