The Old Country, as it were

So here we are at our daughter's temporary home in Rockville, MD, making up for grandchild deprivation. Every time we visit the United States, the country where we grew up, I feel odder and odder about being here. We are out of touch, even though we read the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and we follow US news on the web, and we have dozens of friends and relatives with whom we remain in contact.
But what is Rockville, MD to us? Our daughter and her family are returning to Israel this summer, and the apartment they've been living in has a temporary feel to it - hardly any pictures on the wall, hardly any investment in the place beyond the utilitarian. Compared to their house in Israel, which is decorated and cared for, this place seems a bit like a motel room they've been camping out in.
Our son, by contrast, has settled in here in the United States. He attended university and law school, and, after working for a big firm for 6 years, he's gotten a job with the US government. He and his partner have bought a charming house in an area in DC called Friendship Heights, and they've been working steadily at making it their home.
But the Washington area was never my home, and I only know my way around here tentatively. But it's a city of tourists and transients. No one really expects you to know where you're going.
The season doesn't help me feel at home here: winter. We don't really have winters in Israel, not winters with days and days below freezing, not winter with snow permanently on the ground, not winter with cold, dry winds, not winter that makes the landscape bare and abstract.
The whole point, of course, is to be with the grandchildren, to be in their company, to hear their voices, to enjoy their energy, to watch them move with the grace and enthusiasm of healthy children, and to be thankful that they are healthy children whose parents make sure they are stimulated and enriched, without being controlling.
We're going to go to a modest ski resort in Pennsylvania with the family today. I don't imagine I'll see a lot of them! I'm not sure how much fun a sexaganarian non-skier will have up there, but I'm going along for the ride.