Last month I stole away to Chicago for a day with my mom and daughter. Just the three of us. A complete surprise to my daughter, a plan in the works for weeks between my mom and I.

This wasn’t her first time on a train but it’s probably the first time she’ll remember.

No seat belts! Leg room! You can ride backwards!

One of my favorite things all day was to watch my daughter study my mom. Mostly my mom is quirky with my kids. A very fun grandma, at that. She is their Grandma Lady. Their Watcher.

But I wonder if my mom notices being watched as often as she really is. Being the understudy to a woman in the making. Silently pacing her path of a future always sure to keep an eye on the women who went before her.

In-between the lines of every sentence. Of every page to turn. Of every word spoken.

She freely closes her eyes to trust us.

More than chocolate, dolphins or Ariel, taxi cabs, amazing restaurants or jelly fish: this is what I’ll remember from that day.