End of vacation

I saw an old friend the day before we were to leave, and she complained that 'here you are leaving and you have never been to my home' I said ' why don't I come tomorrow morning, before I leave, and you and I can have a cup of coffee together.' She insisted the children come too. Little did I know what this little cup of coffee would become. We were seated in the dining room and never have I seen a table so full of goodies. It was 9-am. There was a mountain of what we call here Danish. In Sweden they are called Wienerbrod. The children were served Coke. Then came the loaf type cake, sockercaka, and spice cake. And then cookies, probably five different kinds. And then a CAKE. with whipped cream. The looks of these riches were enough to make you feel sick. The children even resisted. and I was thinking of what all this sugar would do to their patience as we waited in lines here and there at the Air-port in Kopenhavn. We tried to hurry, but that was difficult, when one considered the labor this woman had gone to to gather all this food. We did, however, hurry.

The night before I had packed and put all the suitcases on top of the car. And I had lashed everything to a fair-thee-well. The rope I used looked almost like some kind of pre-historic embroidery. My father was a sea-man but I had never learned about knots and such. My friend, Tora, gave all the children gifts and all I could think was "where will I put them". When we returned down the lane to Mother's house, there were all the children's friends, all bearing farewell gifts. And my thought was the same. WHERE WILL I PUT THEM. I still had all their wooden shoes and my wooden shoes that did not fit in any suitcase. The packages were all over the back of the car when we drove out of our yard and up the lane. When we passed Grandfather's house, the house he had owned, I drew my first relaxed breath of the day. I had decided what to do about all our unpacked stuff. When we got into Helsingborg our first stop was at a Ship-chandler store. I bought the largest sea bag they had. The kind of bag that you see a sailor have slung over his shoulder as he leaves home in his 'boot cut' pants. I told the children they could keep one gift or one book out. The rest goes into the bag.

We took the ferry to Helsingor. Then drove South to the air port. When we came to the environs I told them I had a couple of stops before we got to the Flyg Station. I found a building that was named BAD. None of us had had a BAD, translated bath, except for the swimming in Oresund and what happened with our ewers and such. We had an enjoyable couple of hours and all of us managed to shampoo our heads. Gilbert had not been able to swim and came out of there a different color. After a wonderful lunch at three in the afternoon, we checked in. I returned the rental car, and we all felt as if we were practically at home. Little did we know we had another eating frenzy when we arrived in Los Angeles.