Trail walks, walkie-talkies and a tug-of-war between a boy and a dog.

They were all part of our recent trip to the Rochester area to visit my niece and her family.

My youngest sister arrived at my place on a Wednesday evening and the following morning the three of us packed our bags, along with a broccoli salad and zucchini chocolate cake, into my next-younger sister’s car and headed out. We arrived in time to eat lunch, then visited and watched the 2-year-old play with various toys.

We watched him while his mom and grandma went to pick up his older sister from school.

Our afternoon also included a trip to the motel to check in and drop off our suitcases. The place was a bit sad looking, but the beds looked fine, the faucets worked and there was a TV.

We watched the kids that afternoon while my niece went to an appointment. They ran around outside with some neighborhood kids. When the two came inside, the 6-year-old was still in touch with a friend across the street via walkie-talkie.

“I didn’t think it would reach that far,” said my niece, after once more telling her daughter to put the thing away.

In the evening, my sisters and I headed to the motel.

“I think I’ll take a shower,” said my youngest sister. She went to the door of the bathroom and stopped abruptly. “There’s no shower curtain,” she announced.

Somehow that had not registered when we’d made our earlier perusal. We weren’t inclined to make another trip to the motel office. We showered at my niece’s house the following day.

While the first grader was at school on Friday, we took a walk on a nearby trail. The highlight for my great-nephew was getting to pet the little dog a woman was walking. My niece grabbed her son as they approached.

“Is he afraid of dogs?” the woman asked.

“He’d like to pet him,” my niece explained.

It turned out the dog liked to be petted, so everyone was happy. The woman gave the 2-year-old a high-five and we all continued on our respective ways.

The boy was less thrilled with his experience at home later with the family dog. .

After picking up her daughter from school, my niece pulled out cheese sticks for the kids. She handed one to the 2-year-old, who was standing on a stool by the kitchen island. He poked one end into his mouth and was climbing down when suddenly the dog’s mouth was on the other end of the cheese stick.

My niece tried to intervene, but the dog won the tug-of-war and one little boy cried on his grandma’s shoulder. The dog was hustled out into the back yard.

My next-younger sister stayed in her daughter’s guest room that night. When my youngest sister and I arrived the next morning we found my great-niece and my sister busy mixing up banana bread. The 6-year-old had suggested putting chocolate chips in half of it so people would have a choice and that’s what they did.

When the bread was ready to eat, somehow we all chose the chocolate chip end of the loaf.

That morning we took the kids to a park and walked around a fairy garden trail.

In the afternoon, we loaded the car with some leftover landscaping wood that my niece’s husband had been happy to have my youngest sister take, set our bags on top and headed for home.

It had been good to see the family, but it was also nice to get back to familiar beds and tubs with shower curtains.