Tag: travel (Page 6 of 12)

Summer Vacation

June 9, 2016 / DB

Summer got off to a quick start for us. The girls wrapped up school last Wednesday. Thursday afternoon we were flying to Boston for our summer trip.

This was my third trip to Boston, but first one that I would be spending most of my time in the city proper. Overall, we had a fantastic vacation filled with several firsts and lots of great memories.

The first first of the trip was our family’s first Uber ride. Pretty exciting, huh? We Uber-ed it from Logan to our hotel, which was a block down the street from Fenway Park. The Sox were in Baltimore on the night we flew in, so the park was dark and the area fairly deserted.

My first fun experience of the trip came shortly after our arrival at our hotel. We ordered food from a place down the street and I walked to pick it up. The man who helped me looked as if he had been born in West Africa, or perhaps the Caribbean. When he spoke, though, he sounded like your average Irish dude from Southy. It was a jarring, stereotype-crusher of a moment. I loved it! I really wanted to take my phone out and video him speaking to other customers.

Friday began with out second first: we hopped on the T to meet my in-laws, who flew in with us, and S’s brother, his wife, and their one-year-old for a Duck Boat ride. The girls were pretty excited to get on the T; it was their first-ever subway experience. They had a great time, even on the trips when they had to squeeze into one seat together because of crowds.

The Duck Boat trip itself was awesome. I had always heard that was a must-do part of any trip to Boston, but I had no idea how cool it would be. It was a 90-minute trip around the Back Bay, the Cambridge River, and downtown proper. You’re right in the midst of all the must-see sites of the city. Our driver was excellent, too. He was a 50-something guy who sounded like a Boston native. He had all the requisite history down pat, and shared plenty of his own views along the way.

“Right there is a stop for the Boston T, the oldest subway in the country. Just try it, you’ll see.”
“The Pilgrims fled England because they were not allowed the freedom to practice their own religion there. Upon their arrival in America, they proceeded to not allow anyone else to practice their own religion here.”
“That building right there is a wonderful assisted living facility. It’s the Boston city jail.”

It may seem cliche, but I highly recommend the Duck Boat tour of Boston.

We headed back to the hotel to freshen up then jumped onto the T again to head to S’s brother and sister-in-law’s home, which is across the river. This time we had to switch trains, which was a breeze. There was never a moment when we didn’t see terrible traffic everywhere, so riding the T was a great way to avoid all that mess. Even with hot, crowded cars, and some confusing routes, it was way better than fighting traffic in a taxi. Part of the dinner spread were our first lobstah rolls of the trip.

Saturday was our busy day. We took the T first to Cambridge, where we did a quick tour of the Harvard campus. After that, it was back on the T to hit the North End for lunch. We walked through the Holocaust Memorial, the farmer’s market, and many of the amazing streets of the North End before having a tasty, family-style, Italian lunch. We topped it off with cannoli from Mike’s bakery.

The girls headed home but I did not stay at the hotel. My brother-in-law and I crossed the street for the Red Sox – Blue Jays game. Our seats were way out in right field, amongst lots of drunken, yet happy, Canadians. I wore a Royals shirt, but really wished I had worn a Lorenzo Cain jersey.[1] The day began hot in Cambridge, was breezy and perfect in the North End, and turned into a steamy one when the harbor breezes were blocked in Fenway. It was only maybe 80 or so, but the sun was brutally right in our faces the entire time. But, hey, I was in Fenway! And the Sox beat the Jays, which I enjoyed.

Sunday it was rainy, so we spent the day at the Museum of Science.

Monday was our first departure day. I hit the T to head into town to pick up a rental that we and the in-laws were taking to Cape Cod. It was early, so I figured I would have to fight big crowds on the T. Little did I know…

When I hit Kenmore Station, they were unloading a completely full train and taking it out of service. I waited as two totally packed trains came through the station but I had no chance of getting on either one. So I walked. It was only a mile-and-a-half or so, but it was another steamy morning and I was a little sweaty when I reached the rental office.

Off we were to the Cape, with a stop in Plymouth along the way to look at Plymouth Rock and eat more lobstah rolls for lunch. The girls had their first-ever real clam chowdah. L especially loved it. She said it’s her new favorite food. Shame we can’t get chowdah that good here at home. We also just missed the arrival of the Mayflower II, which was returning that afternoon after its winter stay in Connecticut.

We were staying in Hyannis, right in the middle of the upper arm of the Cape. After the girls had a swim, we went to the Cape Cod chips factory, stopped by the JFK Memorial – which we had visited 11 years ago – and the girls dipped their toes in the ocean. M screamed and said, “Dad! It is literally ice cold!” Literally.

Tuesday was another day of driving. We headed toward Provincetown at the far end of the Cape, with the obligatory stop at a lighthouse along the way. P-town is full of interesting people and sites. The girls still aren’t quite old enough to pick up on the gay-friendly vibe of the town. Or at least I think they aren’t. I never heard them giggling when two men or two women walked by holding hands. As we did 11 years ago, we had lunch at the Lobster Pot, which is another near-obligatory trip.

Then yesterday we had a near-perfect day of travel. Not too much traffic between the Cape and Logan, through security in 10 minutes, an on-time flight, our bags waiting for us at the carousel, and only brief slowdowns as we drove home through Indy’s rush hour.

This was my third trip to Boston, but really the first time I spent any real time in the city. I loved it. It reminds me in some ways of San Francisco, just because so much is packed into such a small space. It’s a pretty easy city to do on foot and with public transit. I love the diversity, the history, and the energy of the city. And I love doing my faux-Boston accent whenever possible.

But the traffic is a nightmare, it’s a city that shows its age in many poor ways, and I’m not sure I could deal with the constant crowds. At (almost) 45, Boston is a great city for me to visit, but not one I could see myself living in. I need my Midwestern space.

Since we rushed out of town right after school began, today kind of felt like the first real day of summer. The girls all slept in. We have nowhere to be before their swim meet tonight. The trip was a lot of fun, but it’s nice to be home and taking a breath for a moment.

#HeCanFly ↩

Spring Break 2016

April 11, 2016 / DB

Quite the week-plus it has been. I was so busy in the lead-up to our spring break trip to Alabama that I left two in-progress posts behind when we left town on April 1. My apologies! As they were both time sensitive, they shall be filed away in my local archives in case they can be used sometime down the road.

Anyway, we had an excellent week. A fortuitous week, as well. The week before we went south, it rained nearly every day at our destination, Orange Beach. On April 1 it rained so hard that there were flood warnings. When we arrived on Saturday, there was standing water on the sides of the roads and the retaining ponds in our complex were over-flowing. This coming week, there is a >50% chance of rain four of the next five days. Meanwhile, in our six days there, it was perfect on five of those days. And our on our “bad” day, it was cloudy and windy, but we still went to the beach and spent the afternoon at the go-cart track.

We split the drive down into two days, stopping in Huntsville on Friday evening. We had a chance to run into the old downtown to pick up dinner and it looked like a really cool city. Both historic and artsy at the same time. It would have been fun to walk around a little more in daylight hours. There was a canal next to the hotel we were staying in that was filled with massive Koi and other ornamental fish. The kids loved looking at them. And across the canal was a small arena, that just happened to be hosting a tractor pull or monster truck event of some kind that night. Our room faced that direction and it was a little difficult to go to sleep with the sounds of loud engines every few seconds.

Saturday we completed our drive to the Gulf Coast. We were staying in a fairly new area, recommended to us by the Murray/Reid family. In fact, several of the homes in our complex were still under construction. Our friends the Heberts were staying just down the street from us, so we spent most days either hanging out at the pool or beach with them, then had dinner together most nights.

I was worried about the weather when we went down. Not just because of the previous week’s storms, but also because of the forecasted highs. It was only supposed to be in the mid–70s during our visit. That seemed just a few degrees too cool for ideal hanging out in and near the water. It turned out that was absolutely perfect. While the air temperature was in the mid–70s, the sun generally felt warmer. Warm enough to sit in the sun in just swim trunks. Yet it wasn’t so hot that you were sweating all the time, or that you couldn’t walk barefoot on the sand or pool deck. Like I said, it was perfect.

If you’ve read my beach trip summaries over the years, you know I’m pretty minimalist when it comes to these trips. I’m perfectly fine sitting in the sun all day, having the occasional drink and either reading or socializing with the friends/family who have traveled with us. This trip was no different. We didn’t get out and see any local sites, or make day trips to Pensacola or Mobile. We just soaked up the sun and chilled. It was very relaxing.

Three years ago, on our first beach, spring break trip, we were amazed by how many people from Indianapolis and Kansas City were staying at our resort on Captiva Island. Last year there were a lot of Indiana folks running around the island again. This year, while the people in the house next to us were from the just down the road, Orange Beach seemed to be dominated by people from Michigan and, surprisingly, Alabama. You couldn’t walk 10 feet on the beach without seeing some kind of Michigan sports gear, be it Wolverines, Spartans, or Tigers. And while I was surprised there were so many people from ‘Bama rolling around, I guess they have to go on spring break, too. And that’s a pretty easy trip.

We had seafood four times, which is surely the minimum you can get away with down there. We went out to a couple spots and Mr. Hebert cooked some fantastic grouper[1] on the grill for us two other nights. We also got some pretty fine barbecue one night.

We tackled the drive home in one, long slog. We left Alabama at about 5:30 local time Saturday, and arrived home around 8:00 Indiana time.[2] Traffic wasn’t terrible – only a couple slowdowns of significance – and our girls behaved as well as they ever have on a long car ride. Each of them listening to Harry Potter on their own iPods probably helped a lot.

So we had a fantastic week on the beach. The kids were mostly good. We came home tanned and semi-rested. We are still friends with the Heberts after spending a week together. It was a successful trip.

Indiana had fairly bad weather while we were gone: a couple big wind storms and then snow/sleet on Friday night. Of course, we laughed about that. Perhaps we should have held our laughter, as karma hit us when we got home: our 25-year-old furnace died while we were gone. It’s been a pretty chilly couple of days/nights since our return.[3] We’ve been cranking up our space heater in our room before bedtime and then letting the girls all sleep on our floor, buried in layers of blankets. Sunday we kept the fireplace lit all day. We have a couple chilly nights ahead of us. Naturally it will pop back up into normal spring temps right about the time we will be able to get a new furnace installed.

The girls went back to school this morning. Amazingly, they have just over seven weeks before the school year ends. And then we’ll set off on our next trip: a week in Boston and Cape Cod.

“Grouper? I don’t even know her!” My wife’s favorite thing to say whenever this fish comes up in conversation. ↩
Indianapolis is almost straight north of Orange Beach. But they are in different time zones. That 6:00 AM sunrise was a bit of a bitch. ↩
Saturday night the lows were in the 20s and we woke to hear sleet hitting the roof in the wee hours. ↩

‘Ville Wrap Up

March 30, 2016 / DB

To wrap up my Louisville weekend review, some notes about what else I did down there in my brief visit.

My KC homie E$ flew into Indy Friday and we headed south around lunchtime Saturday. He had been to the ‘Ville many times so had a solid plan for how to spend our pregame hours. First, we dined at Mark’s Feed Store [1], an excellent name for an establishment that specializes in smoked meats. I had a fantastic brisket sandwich, along with a cup of the local delicacy, burgoo, which was amazing.

After lunch we headed downtown. Our first stop, as I mentioned yesterday, was the Louisville Slugger factory and museum. It was 2-for–1 on tours if you were wearing NCAA gear, which was quite the coincidence! Speaking of coincidences, they just happened to be making bats for Alex Gordon on the day a bunch of folks from the Kansas City area were taking tours. What were the odds?!?! E$ and I joked about that a little bit. Later we heard from KU friends who took the tour on Friday that, amazingly, they were making bats for Gordon then, too! I mean, the guy breaks a lot of bats but seriously…

There were tons of KU people on he streets. You never went more than a few minutes without seeing Villanova fans, or even the occasional Maryland or Miami fan, but it was definitely a heavy KU town that afternoon. Plenty of Kentucky fans had their gear on, as well. I learned last year that, surprisingly, Louisville probably has more UK fans than UL fans.

We met some friends for a beer at an outdoor bar, which was fun because it was nearly perfect outside.

Next, we stopped off at the team hotel, where we ran into a few acquaintances, saw Uncle Anthony, Greg Gurley, and Wayne Selden, Sr. We watched about half of the team and coaching staff walk through the packed lobby to the bus before we had to depart to meet our ticket contacts.

E$ has KU friends who live in the ‘Ville, and we were meeting them and a friend of theirs who had our tickets. We went to a place called the Troll Pub Under the Bridge, which was, yes, under one of the bridges crossing the Ohio River to Indiana. You had to go down some steep steps to get to the bar, and the interior was this cool, old-looking brickwork. It felt kind of like a subterranean dungeon that had been there for about 250 years. Being right across the street from the KFC Yum! Center, it was the ideal spot for that last beer (or two) before heading to the game.

Our ticket contact had a very cool story. He was a Louisville native and UL season ticket holder who played baseball at Kentucky. I didn’t get that whole story until later so I didn’t get the chance to ask him how that works when UK and UL play each other. Even more interestingly, his dad was UL’s first basketball All-American, the #2 pick in the 1957 NBA draft, and still the school’s all-time leading rebounder. Which seems crazy.

After the game, we headed to our friends’ house just outside downtown. We commiserated over the game while drinking some very good bourbon. I’ve always been more of a Scotch/Irish whiskey guy, but based on what we drank that night, I could be convinced to drink more bourbon.

In all, I spent less than 24 hours in Louisville. Aside from the 2.5 hours that were taken up by the KU game, it was a pretty fun trip. It is a cool city, with lots to do downtown, especially on days when something big is drawing lots of folks that direction. E$ has been to the Kentucky Derby several times over the years. I’m thinking it might be a good idea to do that sometime in the future and spend another weekend exploring the city.

Highlands location, for those of you who know the area. ↩

More Of The Old This ‘n’ That

November 23, 2015 / DB

The holiday season is officially here! Which you know gets my juices going.

It was weird to be sitting in Arizona last weekend, switching around TV channels while S. was in her conference session, and coming across a Christmas cookie show while it was pushing 80 outside. I spent one year in northern California – we moved west the week before Christmas 1987 – and it was odd to my Midwestern core for it to be in the 50s and 60s over the entire school break. Living farther south, where it is summer-like during the holidays, would be even weirder.

As my Facebook friends know, I got a little head start on the holiday season, violating one of my self-imposed, admittedly silly rules. Saturday it snowed here. Hard. For 4–5 hours. We ended up with about 2” of snow when it stopped. Had it not been near 60 on Friday and the ground been warm, we likely would have had closer to 4”. Between the Winter Wonderland scene and a phone call from my friend Omar in KC, in which she told me she had listened to “Feliz Navidad” on her way home Friday, I cracked and flipped the radio over to SiriusXM’s Holiday Traditions station while I was running errands Saturday. A blatant violation of my prohibition against listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.

I regret nothing.

You know who started their Christmas celebrations too early, though? The jackasses who decided to park a Santa at one of our local malls the FIRST WEEK OF NOVEMBER, that’s who. They need a punch in the head.

Also the Gap, which was already mixing Christmas music into their store music feed back in October. They suck.

I was in Office Depot or Office Max – they’re the same to me – last week and there were Christmas tunes BLASTING on the internal PA. Man, I love Christmas music, but to have to listen to it at that volume for six weeks? No wonder folks in retail get homicidal this time of year.

I began recording Christmas shows Saturday, and C. and L. watched both The Grinch and Elf on the Shelf last night. I don’t have too many years left where they’ll want to watch them, so I have no problem with them watching before Thanksgiving.

And now some other random notes.

A couple travel notes I forgot to share.

While we were waiting to drop our bags at the Phoenix airport, I had a couple interesting encounters. As we inched through the line, there was a family with a young boy, I’d guess he was 4 or 5, right behind us. Apparently he was tired of waiting and began kicking my suitcase. As first he just tapped it. Then he began kicking the crap out of it. His parents didn’t do anything at first. Then, just as I was turning around to give them a look, the dad yelled, “Hey, knock it off!” As I looked back I saw the entire family was wearing Philadelphia Eagles jerseys. I smiled at the boy and said, “I should have known it was an Eagles fan.” As soon as the words escaped my mouth I wondered if I had just made a terrible mistake. Philly fans aren’t know for their warm, fuzziness. Was I about to get my ass beat in the bag drop line for making a sarcastic comment about their fandom?

There was no need to worry. The parents laughed and admitted it has been a difficult fall to be an Eagles fan. I mentioned I was from Indy and the Colts weren’t exactly having the finest season themselves. It all turned out fine.

Later, as we continued to work through the line, we were talking about our friend who always gets pulled out of line for extra security measures. The only reason he can figure is that they do it because his head is shaved.

I mentioned that when I first began flying for work in 2002, I booked a lengthy west coast trip that lasted nearly two weeks.[1] Because of my jumping around the western quarter of the US, all my flights were booked as one-way flights. Which, in 2002, was an automatic red flag. Before every single flight I got pulled out of line at the gate and had my bag and body searched behind the little screen that was just to the side of the boarding area. Twice flights had to be held while security agents went through every single item in my possession. Including, I said to my friends in Phoenix, my contacts case.

As our line doubled-back on itself, a guy behind us chimed in.

“I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you saying they searched your contact case. That’s where my buddy puts his pot when he flies, because they never search it.”

OK then.

There haven’t been any Reporter’s Notebooks in awhile because I haven’t covered any events since the first week of October. We’ve been busy, and I’m finding it harder to make the long drives I’ve made in recent years to cover games for my paper.

I did get to drive down to Milan in late September. Milan, if it doesn’t ring a bell immediately, is the town/school that won the 1952 Indiana boys high school championship. Which was the team that the movie Hoosiers was based on. I was hoping to get to walk around and check out the museum, but didn’t have enough time before kickoff.

The town, in many ways, feels like it’s still stuck in the early 50s. There are hand-painted signs saying “1952 Champs – Straight Ahead” as you enter town. Milan High School are the Indians. Which, whatever. But there is a bar/restaurant down the street that is called The Teepee. Which is a little weird. But the strangest thing was some of the Milan fans let out an Indian war cry when their team does something good. You know, the noise you made when you were little and played cowboys and indians, patting your lips with your palm. I imagine 20 years ago a lot more people did it. And 50 years ago? The sound was probably deafening.

The next week I was covering a game where Broad Ripple, David Letterman’s high school, traveled south to play a school down near our lake house. Now Broad Ripple is not the most affluent school in the world. Or even in Indianapolis. And they tend to suck in sports. Also, it was a chilly, dreary night. But there was exactly one person in the visiting stands that night. And she was the cheerleading squad’s coach or coordinator or whatever. It was so sparse that when I arrived, and the team was still in the locker room, I wondered if the bus hadn’t made it, or we were about to see a forfeit. I felt sorry for the Broad Ripple kids that no one in their families wanted or were able to make the 45-minute drive to watch them get their asses kicked. The final was 56–8.

Finally, I was lined up to cover the Class 4A football state championship game this weekend. IF the Catholic school we cover, RHS, won their semi-state game last Friday. They were on the road, down near Cincinnati, playing a team they beat by 21 in the regular season. I downloaded the app of a radio station down that way that was airing the game so I could listen. RHS fell behind 14–0 early. They had a long drive to start the third quarter but turned the ball over on downs inside the five yard line. They got an interception but gave it right back. They ended up losing 21–0. So no trip to Lucas Oil Stadium this weekend for me.

Big mistake. That was brutal. But I did spend the weekend with friends to break it up. ↩

Weekend In The Sun

November 16, 2015 / DB

We had a relatively fantastic weekend. I say relatively because that only applies if you enjoy fall weekends in warm locales sans children.

After years of talking about it, S. finally signed up for a medical conference outside of Indianapolis. A few years back we were on the verge of signing up to spend a weekend in New Orleans. Another time we strongly considered going to San Antonio. Each time either something else came up or we just put it off too long and weren’t able to plan the trip.

But we finally caved and flew out Thursday with one of her partners and her husband, someone I hang out with a little bit. They had friends attending as well, and when we walked into our hotel, they already had a round of drinks set up for us. Talk about a good start to the weekend!

The conference was at the Biltmore in Phoenix, which was a pretty spectacular location. Amazing architecture, a pretty relaxed setting, and a nice feeling of isolation even though downtown Phoenix was 10 minutes away and the sprawling suburbs of Scottsdale were right over the property line.

The ladies were in sessions most of the day Friday and Saturday. My buddy is a big baseball fan – and a Cardinals fan at that – and came up with the genius idea of going to an Arizona Fall League game Friday. It just so happened that the Royals and Cardinals put their prospects on the same team (along with the Yankees and Rangers) and were playing 10 minutes away on Friday afternoon. We cruised over and walked up to the stadium just before 11:30, an hour before first pitch. There was a line at least 60 people long to get in! Turned out a lot of those folks were autograph hounds, ready to pounce on prospects in hopes they turn out to be stars some day. By the time we procured our $8, general admission tickets, all those people had scurried down to the left field wall where the players slowly came out of the clubhouse to warm up.

The highlight of the day for me – well other than sitting right off the field, drinking a beer in the warm Arizona sun, and watching baseball on November 13 – was getting to see Royals prospect Bubba Starling up close. We were less than 10 feet away as he signed for some of the hounds. I’m not much on autographs, so I just snapped a picture and watched. My buddy got an autograph from one of the Cardinals prospects for his kids.

title

Then we hung out and watched baseball for a couple hours. The ball flew, so we saw a few homers. Bubba was 1–2 and flawless in the field in the six innings we watched.[1] We were sitting near some folks who had to be related to him. He talked to them at length before the game and then they cheered loudly for him during the game.

Also, it was pretty damn cool to walk around wearing my Royals World Series champions shirt. Especially with some Mets and Blue Jays fans wandering around. Not a bad way to spend the day.

Then back to the resort, where we met our wives at the pool. One of my sisters-in-law just happened to be in town as well, so she joined us for a bit. A nice dinner topped off the day.

Saturday was a nice, lazy day. I took a five-mile walk in the morning.[2] S. had a shorter day so we grabbed lunch at the pool and then sat and baked for a bit. I saw a few more folks with Royals shirts on. And sat near a Mets fan who appeared to making serious efforts not to catch my eye. Then a dinner with the two other couples.

S. had a quick session Sunday morning before we departed for the airport at 9:00.

All-in-all, a pretty good weekend getaway. We agreed we have to do this again and more often.

I read that Saturday he got the extremely rare 9–2 force out at home. I assume he was playing shallow. ↩
A variety of old-man ailments kept me out of the gym and from running. ↩

Spring Break

March 30, 2015 / DB

I forget if I warned my loyal readers that I would be disappearing for over a week as we traveled south for spring break. Facebook friends know the deal, and hopefully the rest of you figured it out on your own.

We are back, safe, tanned, and not entirely well-rested. I dropped the girls back at school about an hour ago and S. is off for a couple meetings. So I suppose I should get back in the swing of things, too, and share some details of our trip.

We returned to Captiva Island in Florida, where we spent spring break 2013. This time, though, rather than going alone and staying at the South Seas resort, we rented a large home with a significant chunk of S.’s family. Three of her sisters, who brought two husbands and two kids, and their dad and step-mom came from Indy and Denver.

Our home was right around the corner from the resort, so we were in a familiar spot. We had a pool and hot tub in the backyard and were just a quick walk away from the beach. For the most part, we had exceptional weather, unlike the cool spring of ’13. A little rain marred Monday afternoon, and then Friday was a complete washout as a big storm moved through after lunch that did not let up until the evening. But, as that was our last day, it gave everyone a chance to chill out a little and get an early start on having everything packed for early departures on Saturday.

It wasn’t quite as weird as two years ago, when it seemed like every time we turned around we saw someone either from Indianapolis or Kansas City, but there were still plenty of Midwesterners around. Last Saturday, on our second leg to Captiva, we stopped at lunch at the Siesta Key exit. We walked into a sandwich shop and a few moments later, a family of three came in, the high school-aged boy wearing a shirt from a Catholic high school in Indy. We asked if that was where he went, told the parents our girls were at St. P’s, and they laughed and said that’s where their son had gone to grade/middle school. Nine-hundred miles from home!

Then Tuesday night we were on the beach watching the sunset and the mother of one of C.’s grade-mates came over and said hello. Unfortunately C. got sick while we were in Florida and she stayed home that night, so she didn’t get to hang out with her friend while the parents shared a drink. Two years ago we ran into a couple St. P’s families at the resort, but this was a little more random because this family was actually staying on Sanibel. They had just come up because they said this is the best spot to watch sunsets.¹

Our only real disappointment of the week was that we didn’t see a single dolphin. Two years ago they seemed to be everywhere, and one memorably “walked” along the beach with us for nearly half an hour, swimming as close as ten feet from the shore and staying with us as we walked over a mile. This year, nothing. Not even behind the dolphin cruise boats, which seemed to always have a pod of dolphins jumping through their wakes two years ago. I never heard an explanation for why they weren’t around this year. Maybe it was just bad luck. But we spent time on the beach every day, at different times, so it seemed odd.

Our drives were mostly uneventful. We drove through crazy-thick fog in the mountains of Tennessee on the way down. We laughed at the pimped-out county sheriff SUVs in Georgia that all had a label slapped on the back that said, “Purchased with money seized in drug raids.” I imagine there was some complaining by the locals that the sheriffs had big SUVs with tinted windows and custom wheels and these decals were an attempt to mute those criticisms.

I’ve now made three driving trips through the south. And each time I marvel at how southern drivers will just sit in the far left lane of 3-lane highways and not move even if there is a line of traffic behind them going faster. You can ride their bumpers, veer out to the left, flash your brights. Nothing works. I decided that drivers ed down there must involve a discussion that goes something like this, “Ya’ll jest need to find ya’llselves a lane where ya’ll feel comfortable and then spread out and stay there awhile. Don’t matter how fast ya’ll go. And don’t worry but no one else. They’ll go right around ya’ll.”

Late Friday evening, on the way down, there was a big accident on the north-bound side of I-75 that had all three lanes completely stopped and traffic backed up for miles. We came upon a car doing about 60 in the left lane. After a few moments we realized both the passenger AND THE DRIVER were holding their phones up and taking pictures of the stranded cars on the other side of the road. Idiots.

And we passed a woman in northern Florida going about 65 in the left lane who was putting her makeup on while veering around in her lane.

Keep in mind, most people were going 80-85 in the left lane when one of these yahoos wasn’t blocking traffic.

We stopped in Valdosta, GA for the evening on the way down. Saturday morning at breakfast we sat next to an older couple of snowbirds who were on their way back to St. Louis after three months in Florida. The moment my ass hit the seat, the man began asking me questions and telling me their story. They were really nice. As we were saying our goodbyes, he said, “Watch out for the old people going slow in the left lane!” and cackled. Which made me wonder, was he just really self-aware, or is he the rare old guy who puts the hammer down?

They also told us they had seen a 40-mile backup during their travels the previous day. We’ve heard about these crazy backups but had been lucky enough to never hit one that bad. Until Saturday on our way back. Between Macon and Atlanta, we hit a stretch that Google said would take us nearly two hours to travel under 30 miles. We did some quick map checking and got off of I-75 and used some state highways and get into Atlanta. Which then dumped us right into the eternal traffic-jam that is the ATL. We avoided the big bottleneck, but it still took us about three hours to go around 100 miles.

Between that nonsense, the time commitment, and the way these drives suck the life out of you, we decided our next spring break beach trip will involve planning further out and paying for airfare. We’ll have to pack more carefully, and airports are their own special kind of hell during spring break, but we can’t do the 20+ hours in a car thing again.

My nephew from Denver is five, and he and L. are like two peas in the proverbial pod. He’s really into singing, and one of his favorite current songs is “Uptown Funk.” We’d be walking to the beach and he’d be yelling, in his loud, little kid voice, “Up-town, funk you up. Uptown funk you up!” over and over. Once L. joined in, we got a few odd looks from people.

When we got off I-75 and tried the side roads, we came across something we had never seen nor heard of before: the Chik-Fil-A Dwarf House restaurants. I’m still not sure if these are just supposed to be charming, fairy tale-like attractions or if they’re actually aimed at little people. You never really know in the south.

Favorite billboard, seen in Georgia. One put up by the League of the South, an organization known for its progressive views on pretty much everything. The billboard had a simple message: #Secede

I love the hashtag attached to the ancient, tired, defeated-in-battle cause. Bringing the old to the new.

We laughed to ourselves when we heard it was snowing in Indianapolis during our first couple days on the beach. Despite knowing the spring is almost always reluctant to bloom in full in our part of the world, it was still disappointing to come home to temperatures in the 40s and the lawns not yet fully green and the trees still ugly and bare. There should be a switch that flips while away in warmer climes that makes your home at least look like spring when you return. I could handle a few more weeks where it stays cool if things were just green again, finally.

It was a fantastic trip. We were (mostly) smart with the sunscreen, so only some limited, minor burns for the pale Midwestern folks. Everyone was well-behaved. Other than one big storm, we had excellent weather. And everyone travelled safely.

Kickball practice begins today. Softball Wednesday. And soccer Thursday. And the summer swim team sent out the late April date for the informational meeting while we were away. We’re instantly in the spring crush. Summer will be here before you know it.

They come to Sanibel every year, so I trust their judgement. ↩

Home Again

July 31, 2014 / DB

It was an incredibly long week, but also an incredibly fast week.

Thanks to all of those in Kansas City who helped me out in some way over the past week. Whether you offered me lodging, legal advice, companionship at lunch, a beer and room on your couch to watch the Royals, or just moral support, it was much appreciated.

There were parts of the week that were very good. I saw several relatives I had not seen in a long time. It was good to catch up with some, and really just begin to get to know some others. Our memorial activities were small, but still fine ways to remember my dad.

Others weren’t so great, though. My dad was always a bit of a mystery to me. That’s not a huge surprise given that most of the last 30 years we saw each other occasionally at best, and not at all for nearly a decade. I never harbored ill will toward him. We just went different directions for a variety of reasons. This week I learned things about him that elicited sadness, anger, and left me dumbfounded. It’s unsettling to discover that a person who provided half of your DNA had a profoundly unhappy and difficult life.

I’m not big on regret, and I would not change most of the aspects of my relationship with my dad that were in my control. I do wish, though, that he had found more joy, success, and comfort in his life.

A Quick Trip Recap

April 2, 2014 / DB

A whirlwind of a weekend.

Leave Indy early Saturday, just ahead of a quick burst of snow, heading west through rain and dreary skies. Our traditional lunch stop at the St. Louis Bread Company in Maryland Heights. Into sun and warmth in western Missouri. Finally arriving at our home base for the weekend in Overland Park.

That evening, dinner with friends from S.’s days as a resident. Minsky’s pizza and Boulevard beer.

Sunday morning, an early trip to Legoland in Crown Center. We were a little frustrated by the ticket purchasing and entry process, which takes way too long. But once inside, the girls loved it. I thought the area where many of the architectural landmarks of Kansas City are recreated using Lego was fantastic.

I tried to push a couple of my favorite spots for lunch, but the girls weren’t having it. So, much to my chagrin, we ate at Kona Grill. I say chagrin not because Kona isn’t good; it’s perfectly fine. But we have one about 10 minutes from our house. We can go there any time. The saving grace was it was a gorgeous day so we were able to eat outside. Followed that with a quick stroll around the Plaza and swings by S.’s and my old apartments. Sadly M. remembered that there had been an explosion not too far from S.’s old place so we had to point out the remains of the late J.J.’s as we drove by.

Next, our friends the Belfords were kind enough to host the big get-together of the weekend. We saw lots of good people there. The catching-up is always far too brief, but I’m grateful we get the chance to do it. It was fun watching the 50 or 60 kids that were running around.

All three girls were pretty quick to find kids to pal around with. But M. was especially funny to watch. See was super excited to see her old friends Caroline and Mia. Then throw new friend Liza, who she had met before but not spent much time with, and suddenly there was a flock of 7-9 year old girls acting like they were the oldest of friends.

Everyone was worn out as we headed back to the hotel, but we needed some food. Fortunately, there was a D’Bronx right around the corner. First time I’ve had a hot Wild Bill in six or seven years. And it was taaaaasty.

Monday, lunch at Oklahoma Joe’s. As much as I wanted to go with one of my usuals, it was a burnt end day, and I had never sampled their burnt ends before. So I got the platter. They were awfully damn good.

We did some light shopping afterward. Well, light at first. The girls got new outfits at the Gap since it was warmer than we expected and we hadn’t brought clothes for the heat. Dad got another KU shirt for his collection.

I also made a rather controversial choice for my hat for the spring. I bought a plain Royals hat. I honestly don’t remember the last time I had a (replica) hat like the team wears. I’ve had a whole swath of KC Monarchs hats. I’ve had a couple “fashion” Royals hats in non-traditional colors. But it seriously may have been since high school, or even middle school, since I had the royal blue cap with the white KC on the front.

The Royals promptly blew a two-run lead and lost their season opener 4-3. Blame the cap.

Then it was over to Oak Park Mall, where the shopping got serious at the American Girl Doll store. We didn’t plan on going, so the girls had not brought their dolls. They still managed to spend some money despite that hurdle. They also rode the two-story carrousel, which they thought was amazing. And I ran into a guy who grew up across the street from me. Which wasn’t awkward at all as he A) recognized me and I did not recognize him, B) he remembered my name, and C) I now realize he’s probably either mildly autistic or has Aspergers or something. It was an odd conversation. At least it wasn’t one of the hundreds of scorned women I left in my wake during my single days! Amirite?!?!

And, finally, Monday night we visited the Nesbitts of Jackson County, or at least a good chunk of them.

We were up before the sun Tuesday, to ensure we didn’t get stuck in rush hour in Indy on the way home. We rolled into the neighborhood after seven-and-a-half hours, a new record with kids in the car.

We are grateful for all our friends who took time to host us and/or spend time with us. These trips don’t happen often enough, nor last long enough. In fact, as I write this on Tuesday night, I’m realizing I only took a few photos all weekend, and those are mostly of the kids in front of things in Legoland.

The girls had a great time. In fact, between the weather – they think every day in Kansas City is sunny and 70 – their friends, and the American Girl doll store, they think it’s the best place ever. C. even said when she grows up she’s going to live there.

And now we’re in the midst of the mad dash to get the house ready for the girls’ four-year-old and two-year-old cousins who are visiting from Denver.

Trip Time

March 28, 2014 / DB

As mentioned yesterday, we are traveling for the next few days. We’ll be making a quick trip west to visit friends and family in Kansas City over the first part of St. P’s spring break. We’re hoping to see many of you while there.

Yesterday was the last day of school before break, and in the parking lot there were several vans with storage containers strapped to their roofs. C. was telling me which friends were going where. As usual, Florida is the most popular destination. I made a comment about how it would be fun to go back to Florida again this year, but it wasn’t possible.

“Oh, I don’t want to go to Florida,” she said. “I’d much rather go to Kansas City!”

I’ve taught that one well.

As it is a quick trip, we don’t have too many exciting plans. Mostly eating food and seeing people. The forecast looks good for the two full days we’ll be in town, which is nice.

Upon our return next week, we will have visitors of our own. Aunt K is bringing cousins W and S to Indy for a few days. The girls are very excited about that.

If anyone else is traveling around over the next week, be safe.

Boston

September 10, 2013 / DB

Sorry for the delay on the Boston trip wrap-up. But Mondays are S.’s day off and we did what any married couple who has a morning alone without the kids would do. That’s right, we went through each room in our house and…picked up every damn toy, which we then put in a huge pile in our basement and methodically went through, throwing away the ones with jacked up or missing parts, putting dozens of others into a donation pile, and only keeping the stuff that was still age-appropriate or that we knew we couldn’t get away with throwing away. We still have too many toys, but they are much more manageable than they were a day ago. And we got most of it done before the girls were home, so there was minimal whining and complaining about what was pitched.

Anyway, on to the Boston breakdown…

All-in-all, a terrific long weekend in Boston.

We flew in Thursday night and stayed near the hotel. I went to bed at the same time we put the girls down ¹ and thus missed Peyton’s outburst in Denver. Needless to say, my brother-in-law from Denver stayed up at his hotel to watch the entire game and was thrilled to talk about it the next day.

Friday we drove out to Waltham, site of the wedding. We were staying in a nice Westin, and the girls were loving the amenities that weren’t present at our Thursday night Hampton Inn. They also loved that there were Dunkin Donuts on just about every major corner, so we ate there twice over the weekend.²

The wedding was Friday night, which I like to think was because we set a precedent back in 2003 that you can have a kick-ass wedding on a Friday. Turns out that was just the night the bride and groom could get the band they wanted and they based everything around that. Which I can also respect.

But it was a terrific evening. The ceremony was outside, where it was beautiful and perfect. The reception and dinner were in a museum of invention, which was pretty cool to walk around. The displays spanned from the Industrial Revolution to the computer age. I had to walk C. to the restroom before the ceremony and was thrilled to find an Atari 2600 with Defender plugged in available for play. I got through two levels in the time it took her to do her business, although I couldn’t remember how to trigger hyperspace or smart bombs with the old Atari joystick. Remember when Defender was a ground-breaking game at the arcades?

Saturday the newlyweds rented a bus for the family and we cruised out to the coast where we first ate lunch at Woodman’s. I had the obligatory (for me) lobster roll and clam chowder. A couple relatives got fried scallops, which were pretty fantastic. Well, it was all fantastic. And again the weather was absolutely perfect.

After lunch we went to the beach near Gloucester. The water wasn’t terribly warm but the beach was packed. The girls and their cousins frolicked, with C. digging a hole nearly as deep as she is tall. There was a sandbar about 200 feet from the shore, with the water between no deeper than a nine-year-old’s knees. M. charged right out and was over 300 feet away from us at one point. This is the same kid I basically had to throw off a diving board a year ago. I was pretty proud of her.

After bussing back to the hotel, we kept in the swimming spirit of things and took a dip in the hotel pool and hot tub. I love how the simple act of putting a pool indoors makes kids go nuts. It’s still chlorinated water³ in a large container. Oh well, it entertained them.

No issues flying home Sunday, although the girls did all miss their first soccer games of the season while we were traveling. Pretty good behavior all weekend, a fun wedding, and good times with (most of) S.’s family.

And with that, our traveling for 2013 is complete. I think it’s going to be awhile before we try again to be as ambitious as we were this year.

A few extra notes:

Very cool being in Boston the weekend they were playing the Yankees. Would have been cooler if the games were in Boston rather than the Bronx, though. When we hopped our hotel shuttle Thursday night, the driver had the game on the radio. At the wedding Friday I caught a couple guys checking the score. And Saturday after lunch, as soon as we stepped onto the bus, our driver let us know the Sox were up 6-2.
Saturday morning, as we were walking the girls over to Dunkin Donuts, we were surprised by a large Indian wedding gathering in the parking lot of the hotel. The wedding party, and many guests, were dressed in traditional attire. There was a horse and carriage for the bride and groom. After some ceremonies we couldn’t see, the entire party marched around the parking circle a couple times, dancing along to a drummer. It looked like a lot of fun. We noticed of the non-Indian guests, the white girls were much more into the dancing than the white boys. Just like an American wedding! Also, the schedule for the wedding kept appearing on the hotel’s screen highlighting the day’s events. The ceremony lasted from 9:00 AM to noon, followed by a two-hour lunch. Then there was a reception from 4-6, and a dinner from 6:00 to midnight. They know how to do it!
I saw a license plate in the parking lot I assume belonged to a wedding guest. SWAMI4U.
We saw a traffic sign we’ve never seen in the Midwest. In an area with lots of homes and schools, a sign read “Thickly Settled.” That sounds very New England to me.
In the hotel pool there was a special pool-side menu. The Westin knows how to stick it to you. $19 for a burger, with a 15% gratuity, a 3% convenience change, 7% tax, and a $3.50 room charge. I’m not sure how you can charge both a convenience and room fee, but I don’t think they really need any justification. A sister-in-law tried the breakfast buffet one morning. That set her back a cool $24. Yikes.
We flew through Detroit on the way home. I was amused to see a huge bank of kiosks that featured a small work desk and pay phones. There was one pay phone tucked away in the basement of the Westin in Boston and I explained to the girls that before everyone had a cell phone, folks used pay phones to make calls. Then we see dozens of them in Detroit. It was like stepping back in time.

We had a single hotel room, not a suite or double-room, so there was one TV. ↩
When in Boston, errr, Rome. ↩
And, man, was this water chlorinated. I guess that’s a good thing with all the randoms that can hop into a hotel pool. But every kid had bright red eyes within minutes of their first dip. ↩