Home of the Whopper

I'm afraid of bridges. I think I suffer panic attacks when I have to go over them. Even riding as a passenger, I cannot look over the sides to enjoy any view. When driving, I've got a white knuckle grip at 10:00 and 2:00 on the steering wheel, steady deep breaths, and at times get a little dizzy.

Little bridges I'm okay with. The ones on your regular day to day drives, I'm good! It's the big ones, over large bodies of water, way high up in the air that do me in. Driving around NYC. No good for me.  Cape Cod. Yeah. No. Grand Island on the Niagara River. Yes, we will add them to the list.

I had to drive them this weekend. My big girls and I were headed home from a weekend of celebrating my sister and a mommy-in-the-making, and had finished enjoying a few minutes at one of our favorite spots, Niagara Falls.

Two bridges. I nearly passed out.

But, everything happens for a reason, right?

At the end of the second bridge, we approached the exit near the cemetery that my grandparents now call home. I was able to stop and say hello to them after all, something I didn't think would happen this trip.

Unprepared, I told my girls that I wished I had something to leave for them, so they would know I was there. Silly, because they always know, and likely wouldn't use my little trinket. But, still. I wanted them to know.

"Here, mommy," says my blonde smallest of the bigs, "You can give them one of my whoppers."
She handed me a little treat from her goodie bag from the baby shower.

I smiled at her sweetness, and marveled at the silliness. Growing up, my grandparents had lived right down the road from a Burger King. We would always be silly as we made our way through the parking lot to the park on the next block, often tricking the drive thru attendant with our bikes and feet.

It was perfect. I left the whopper nestled in the dirt of a potted plant, next to a sea shell someone else in my family had recently left.

The girls and I headed home after that, a long silly, loud car ride, with singing, movies, some yelling and fighting, and no more bridges to cross.