First goodbye

June 20, 2018

Today is the day that Aunt Dee left us.  As she often says to me, “I’m not your aunt!” So I guess Katie and Zac’s Aunt Dee left them.  At first, she was not totally convinced about the whole European adventure, but through a combination of guilt tactics from the kids, reasonable discussions from Becky and support from her husband Mike (who couldn’t make the trip), she decided to join us, and I’m relatively certain that she had a ball.  She talked several times about “When I come back with Mike” so I think that’s a good thing.  She connected with the Vigliottis enough that I’m sure that she would stay with them even if we weren’t there. 

Dee’s flight was at 2 pm so we weren’t hurried.  We took our time getting up and eating breakfast with Maria, Mimmo and Josh, and then we drove her the hour drive to get her to the Geneva airport around noon.  After hugs all around, the four Hedricks continued our European adventure with the next stop of Chamonix, France. 

While it’s hard to leave to the Vigliotti’s house once we get here, I never want them to feel like we are overstaying our welcome (which they assure me is never the case).  We wanted to visit Chamonix and spend some time in the Alps so now was the perfect time after dropping Dee at the airport.  Chamonix is an Alpine village in France near the Swiss border that hosted the first ever Winter Olympics in 1924.  It has a view of Mont Blanc – the highest mountain in Europe. 

I first visited Chamonix as a missionary and have loved the town every since although it has been built up quite a bit since then.  I was a little worried because I knew it could be pricey in the high season, and on past trips (the most recent being 21 years ago), we had camped, but Becky and I were younger in those days.  Fortunately, this is still considered off-season, and we found a great deal on a small AirBnb apartment right in the middle of the town.  We arrived in the afternoon and after a short rest, we spent the evening walking around the town and get ourselves oriented.  Pretty cool place!