The summer before we moved here, we took a 2 week vacation to the Cape and spent time around the suburbs, scouting out places to live. We were in Minuteman National Park (about 7 miles from where I live now), looking at one of those panoramic battle pictures, with an explanation underneath, outside in front of the Visitor's center. I looked up from the plaque and saw another family that lived in Tempe, that went to the JCC preschool with my kids... 2800 miles from home.
This wasn't an incident, but a foreshadowing. In 2004, we went to Siena to visit my son, who was studying there. He came walking down the street to greet us, looking like a different person, wearing a cord jacket, hair slicked back and gesticulating loudly in Italian to his professor who was walking with him. For the rest of the trip, I felt like the dumb, old mother, whose child had to read the menus, make the reservations, and lead us around... an inkling of what it will feel like in another 25 years.