Aunt Fiona,

It was a real pleasure to spend a week with you and my cousins, Gabe and Sophia. From our long calls during Christmastime, I knew that we’d get along beyond just our family ties. It was so fun to get to know you again after all these years. Thank you for welcoming Evan and I into your home with firm insistence. You gave us your bed, organized our activities each day, fed us richly, and bonded with us over HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries. I’ll remember visiting the seaside with Sophia in tow to stay in your caravan for a night. We agreed to a nighttime walk on the beach and soon found ourselves running after you while you charged over the pebbly quicksand with ease. The sun set and we watched a ferry come in from the ocean as waves lapped below us. In the dark, we clambered over the sandy bluff around a creepy old military fort. I loved the ghost stories and history lessons. Evan and I kept joking that our whole trip consisted of us pointing at a building and asking “so how old is that one?”

You recommended that Evan and I visit Wicken Fen, which ended up being one of the highlights of our trip. We poked around a traditional fenman’s house and were amused by how tiny the rooms were. It smelled just as musty as my parents’ farm. We also got a great whiff of fresh peat, which used to be dried in bricks for the outer walls of such buildings. I remember that you burn peat on the stove at home because it takes you back to your childhood. We then rented mountain bikes and set off across the fen. There was a recommended route around the marsh, but I was determined to pack in a few miles and ended up bringing Evan all the way to Cambridge (30 miles round trip). We stopped for falooda and a quick zoom tour of a rental in Salt Lake City before we checked our watches. Whoops! My scenic route had eaten up some time and we needed to get the bikes back fast. We hightailed it, spurred by a few close calls with aggressive British drivers, but arrived just as the bike shop closed. I felt like I was thirteen again calling you to pick us up from our date, which was only exacerbated by the delicious Indian meal that you took us to. What a great day!

I also really enjoyed our shared craftiness. We talked about making wine, foraging, gardening, being resourceful, and female independence. I admire how you maintain a strong sense of self while also being so close to your kids. And it’s not easy! I had many flashbacks to my own years as a moody teenager and how my mom must have been feeling when I slammed the door on her or brought a tornado through the kitchen.

We got pedicures, lost to Evan at board games, visited the horses, drank a lot of wine, climbed down in to a prehistoric flint mine, shared sausage rolls, made many cups of tea, and had driving lessons.

Thank you for being our respite from a busy month of travel and I hope we can see each other soon. I’ll be sending Emma and my mom your way.

Love, Morgan