Plans commenced months ago for this family visit. Dates included traditional vacation months or early September. Midwest summers have a well-deserved reputation for heat and humidity so we chose after Labor Day to enjoy milder weather. Little success was achieved in trying to outwit Mother Nature. Record breaking heat greeted us a couple of those days, but not even soaring temperatures could melt our enthusiasm at being together.

Ours is a small family that a spacious living room could accommodate comfortably for a reunion. We cherish each relative and miss greatly those who are no longer with us. While some of us have lived across country from each other, rather than conveniently across town, we’ve stayed closely connected through visits, phone calls, letters, and more recently, emails and Facebook. Distance doesn’t have to be a deterrent to lasting relationships if loved ones are willing to make the effort to stay in touch. We work diligently to do that, and encourage any slackers to get onboard. Because geographically we’re rather spread out with diverse jobs and vacation time, we tend to gather together in smaller groups throughout the year.

Visits are casual and a bit extemporaneous just because they can be. We’re not ordering dozens of shirts to mark the occasion, nor holding a block of hotel rooms to accommodate guests. But small doesn’t indicate boring, and what we lack in numbers, we more than make up for in enthusiasm, laughter, and refreshments. This visit was to be a “tour” down memory lane. Touring is literally what we did. It’s easy to take one’s hometown for granted, but seeing it from the view of “tourists” adds a uniquely refreshing way of noticing and appreciating the sights. The tourists in my entourage around town included my sister, her husband, and their adult daughter. The former two grew up in Peoria, and the latter has visited frequently.

Directional ability is sorely lacking on my resume of skills, but even I can get from most points of interest to points closer to home. We visit former addresses looking up childhood houses, schools, and friends’ homes. Some are notably absent, as in torn down, others look so worn that it’s difficult knowing if the structure is the same or if our memory is deceiving us. Larger buildings like schools or churches look smaller than we remember. We visit cemeteries, churches, downtown’s continual renovation, neighborhoods that didn’t exist during our childhood, restaurants we remember fondly, and businesses from our youth. When certain structures look so dramatically different, we’re amazed, forgetting how different we must look now as compared to many years ago.

If laughter adds years to our lives, we’ll be earthbound for a long time to come. Hopefully the good humor will counteract the calories we consumed in visiting our favorite eating-places from years gone by. Each place we visited included stories retold through the years, memories of people we’ve never stopped cherishing, and questions we sadly have no one old enough to ask.

Seven days fly by when having fun. Too soon it’s time for goodbyes, “I love you!” and hurry back to visit! Through pictures, conversations, emails and phone calls, we remember details all over again and smile. And begin plans for the next family visit and Tour de’ Peoria.