For many years now, my mom has come to Sweden for a month every summer. She always schedules her trip to arrive a day or two before Petra’s birthday on July 19 and to leave a few days after Tage’s on August 12, and we have a yearly family birthday party for all the kids on the first Sunday in August. So, in addition to the fun of having her visit for a long time, we have plenty of celebration going on. We also make time for a few days away at one or another semi-close camping area — our current favorite is Byske — where we rent a cabin and have a little mini-vacation away from home. So, there’s always plenty going on while she’s here, and as one would expect, much of it is centered on the kids.

Last summer we started talking about doing something a little bit different, both for a bit of grown-up “mommy and me” time, and also to give my mom a chance to see a bit more of this great country that has become something of a second home for her. I’ve been especially eager to give her a glimpse of my own second home, Uppsala, and we started tossing around ideas about how to make that happen. We decided, even before she went home to Texas last August, that this year I would fly down to the Stockholm airport and meet her when she comes to Sweden, then we’d rent a car and take a leisurely road trip up here to Bureå.

The trip is only eight or ten hours if you drive straight through, but we decided to give ourselves plenty of time to explore some of the byways, as well as the ubiquitous flea markets, so we’ve booked hotel rooms for four nights and won’t have to drive more than two or three hours each day. We’ll spend the first two nights in Uppsala, so we’ll have a full day there to see the sights, and from there we’ll make our way north, at an eminently reasonable pace. The kids all want to come along, of course, but for once we’ve resisted their pleas.

I’ve been so excited about this trip for months, and now that it’s so close I can hardly contain myself. I bought my own airline ticket last night, and I’ve started counting down the days (39, at this writing). There’s just nothing like Sweden in the summer, and I’m so looking forward to a road trip through Norrland in the prettiest part of the year, with an easy and agreeable travel companion. I just hope the rental car will have enough storage space to contain all the flea-market treasures we’re likely to find.