Thanksgiving around the family dining room table, of course, was not an option this year. The challenge was to try to replace some of the pain with something positive. First objective -- avoid the reminders of THE FAVORITE FAMILY HOLIDAY by going somewhere where Thanksgiving is not even celebrated. Mom was hoping for someplace warm like the Bahamas. Dad suggested a more practical (yet considerably colder) Canada. Closest border crossing to Maryland is Niagara Falls -- thus the gift of one last Leonard Family Road Trip consisting of just Mom, Dad and the kids.
Family road trips constitute some of the fondest memories for most families. The Leonards are no exception. As best as we can recall, the last road trip that entailed Mom, Dad and all the kids was over 10 years ago when
we all went to Aunt Sue's and Uncle John's place in Nantucket. During the trip, J.W. celebrated his 21st birthday and thus enjoyed his first "legal" beer while in town. One of John's best friends, Joe, joined us on the trip and provided many memories as well, to include standing in the surf all night long fruitlessly, yet determinedly, fishing if only for hauling all that fishing gear so far. On the way home, J.W., Joe and Mike achieved some sort of "distinction" by reciting almost the entire script of the movie
Dumb and Dumber while traveling down I-95 between Providence, RI and the NY-CT state line.
Many memorable road trips, of course, took place in Europe, such as when Mom, Dad, the kids as well as Mammy & Papa traveled from Belgium to Ireland. While there, J.W. celebrated his 14th birthday. We all stayed in a real thatched cottage, behind which was a cow pasture surrounded by an electric fence. Somehow, John and Mike thought it was a good idea to challenge each other to keep touching the electric fence. Both said that after a while, it didn't hurt as much (of course, the dumb cows never resorted to such actions). Another memory was finding ourselves staring down a 50 cal. machine gun while going trough a border checkpoint going into Northern Ireland for a pizza dinner.
Other trips included Paris (where Dad and the kids had to walk up the Eiffel Tower since we could only afford elevator tickets for Mom & Grandma); Italy where John and Mike brought "switchblades" at Mt. Etna and JW lost in Rome a model Lamborghini car that Grandma had bought him; Heidelberg where Mom & Dad trusted JW to take his brother and sister out to dinner at a restaurant (where they had pizza encrusted with salt) while Mom & Dad went to an event for Dad's graduation from Boston University; and Berlin where all the kids were content to stay in the hotel room watching the video of the
Karate Kid notwithstanding being in one of the most historic cities of the 20th century.
Of course, there is the very first road trip where Mom, Dad and JW went to the Pennsylvania Dutch cou
ntry when he was only one-years old and JW got his train engineer's cap that he kept for so many years; followed by the trip to Myrtle Beach where Mom, Dad & JW joined John's godparents, Sue and Steve and their nephew, Anthony, in a pop-up tent on the beach. Both JW and Anthony cried incessantly until they were blessed by the priest at Mass that weekend. They were both little angels after that.
It was in this vein, that Mom, Dad, Mike & Jessica, joined by memories of John, embarked on one last great Leonard Road Trip. Of course, there will be other road trips to come, joined by new our new daughter-in-law, Gina and a future son in-law as well as grandchildren yet to come, but never again will the "five" of us experience such an opportunity to be together by ourselves. Since we thought the last of such trips was ten years ago, we are, or course, appreciative of this opportunity. The only way it could have been better is if we did not have to settle for just memories of John, no matter how sweet they may be.
We stayed at an interesting
Bed & Breakfast in Niagara Falls, ON. You can see for yourself additional details of the last great Leonard family road trip by clicking on the below picture:
Later that afternoon, after Dad got out of the meeting, we all met outside the National Archives and, like so many other Leonard excursions, we winged it. One of the objectives for that night was to go to the Belgian restaurant on 11th Street by the Marine Barracks. Somehow, it did not seem to work out with reservations, so instead we went to the Native American Museum on the Mall -- not the best choice in retrospect. After that we wanted to go see the German thriller/drama The Lives of Others (Best Foreign Language Film, 2006) at the E Street Cinema,
but the show we wanted to see was sold out. So we punted again and went to Ella's for an early dinner of pizza cooked in a wood fired oven. 
around and enjoy each other's company. We then had some more time to kill while waiting for the next show time so we all went to the ESPN Zone downtown where everyone shot some hoops. It seems Jes was able to get the best of just about everybody that night. 
