remember?

Dylan,

I wonder what you will remember. Or if, really. I can't say that I have any memories lingering from when I was 9 months old (or so), but then I couldn't tell you which or when my oldest memories are anyways. I had no sense of time or age at that time and at that age.

So I wonder if you'll remember anything from this fabulous vacation you're on. Will you remember the heat (97F w/92% humidity)? Or the feel of the sand... in your mouth? Will you hold an image in your mind of the tide pools you sat and played in like cool little bathtubs? Or perhaps a gull you stared at, up close, conceptualizing "bird" for the first time?

Maybe years from now you'll have looked at the photographs of you in your special sun-suit with the matching hat sooo many times that the lines will blur -- you'll create memories to match these images. Memories where you'll see yourself from the outside, like those I have of my grandfather and me.

I think if anything you will remember an image of Mom and a sense of happiness.
A feeling of being loved by everyone around you as they joy in a holiday in Maine for cause you won't likely appreciate for many many years: Gathering with distant family, basking in each other's company in the beauty and freedom of summer days away from the routines, the responsibilities, and the compromises of everyday life back home.

Dad