Best Friends, As We Are or Could Appear to Be
I am restless and nomadic, fidgety and vagarious. My sister is my float in this river that pushes me towards a bank or a wall. I rest on her.
Each year, we take a sister trip, like our Hanna Sister Spectacular Summer S-cape (to Cairo) and alliteration-free sojourns to Anchorage and Antwerp, all the way out to Valparaíso and Zierikzee.
In 2016, however, we did not go away. Mary and I stayed put and hosted the first Hanna Sister Staycation Retreat (“HSSR”). The HSSR differs from ordinary staycations in that we did not watch television for hours or organize our closets.
This picture story shares all the ways we found to stay, and the ways we are ourselves.
The Prep Work
To plan the HSS, we exchanged lists of 15 things we have always wanted to learn or do. We then transformed that list into a week-long schedule. One of us took on the role of being the Instructor for each program because guest instructors were considered but ultimately rejected. (I am Instructor MH1 because we have the same initials, but I am older.)
We then gathered our many supplies. This photo collage captures only the first Amazon delivery that MH1 received.
The HSSR
The point of the HSSR (for Mary) was to relax. Between us, we have three dogs, who joined us during some of the more serene programs that Mary preferred, including yoga, meditation, and nap time.
The point of the HSSR (for me) was to do as many activities that I ordinarily felt deprived of doing as humanly possible. This was consistent with my international coffee tasting presentation, where we drank about 2 pots of coffee in very short shrift.
We returned to some of the childhood activities that brought us the most joy, like beading and jewelry-making…
Reading and writing…
Dancing and prancing…
Primping and spa-ing (not pictured: aromatheraphy baths)…
And above all eating really, really excellent food. We made fresh linguini, brioche, galettes, pound cake and chocolate chip nut cookies, as well as a low-calorie stir-fry and salmon salad to offset some of the damage. Instructor MH2 (Mary) taught a week-long course, called “The Many Personas of the Egg,” and also created many impressive dinners, highlighted by our Many Tongues of the World International Cuisine Dinner for which we wore the traditional garb of our choosing.
We also tried our hand at new activities during programs like the Circus Acts Seminar: Everything But the Elephant. Among other things, we discovered that some of us are better at face-painting, others of us are better at getting into character, a balloon hot dog is not appetizing, and juggling is really damn hard. (Not pictured: Zumba, our Charities and Special Causes Discovery Session, and our motivational hour.)
We struggled through some activities more than others. For example, we were very good at the local wine tasting portion of Paint Night, but far less adept at the opening of wine bottles or painting. We are excellent snackers, but calligraphy takes more practice than you can fit into an hour slot. We built a telescope, but could not use it because we don’t know what it means to collimate. We listen carefully to podcasts, but mostly stabbed our thumbs raw with knitting needles.
Our shared favorite activity ended up being a 3 hour hike. I was the instructor and had falsely advertised the program as a “Nature Walk and Talk,” so as to not alarm the participants. However, I, like them, was surprised to discover that the trail we followed was described by others as a 9/10 challenge. We held our walking sticks with Wet Ones because we are not nature people.
Inexplicably, by the end of the hike, we both had quite a few nonsense pictures like these.
There was no boarding pass or city walking map, but we made our way somewhere on this trip to nowhere. We made it to the place where, in my mind, we should stay forever—together.
