We’d barely finished our “Easter eggs Benedict” and put away the chocolate wrappers littering the den area rug when the 5 of us loaded up in my car to head up I-85 north for a Spring Break road trip of national parks in Virginia and the Carolinas. We were still […]
Sunday morning, we boarded the Four Winds II charter boat for some snorkeling and snuba, heading out into the water toward the Molokini crater awaiting our exploration. Sadly, the wind was such that the “weather permitting” caveat for that excursion meant we diverted to the Coral Gardens location, but we […]
We awoke early on Saturday for eggs at Betty’s Beach Cafe and reported to Goofy Foot Surf School by 9am. Brothers Keith and Nick were our instructors, with one teaching my youngest (who’s 7) and the rest of us with his brother. After some instruction on the beach, we went […]
We arose at 4:20am, quickly donned winter coats, and headed out for the winding uphill climb to Haleakala Observatory. We parked the car at 5:30am and walked to the observation tower; it was 20-something degrees outside and windy, but we were determined to experience the famous Haleakala sunrise. Unfortunately, the […]
We awoke early and watched the sunrise from our lanai in Hana and then headed counterclockwise along the road we’d followed the day before (since construction prohibited our continuing clockwise as we’d planned). On the way, we stopped to check out the black sand beach at Waianapanapa State Park–another phenomenon […]
We landed Tuesday evening at Kahului airport, took the shuttle to Avis, and drove our Ford Explorer to Mama’s Fish House for dinner before sleeping at its inn. Our kids’ Christmas present was finally beginning. I had the “traditional Hawaiian” meal for dinner, and the smoked wild boar was the […]
My 7th Dad 2.0 Summit took just shy of an act of Congress to attend, as we had a mandatory drill weekend from Friday to Sunday, and I needed a 2-star general’s approval to miss it. But I couldn’t miss my favorite conference in my favorite city (my 22nd trip!) […]
For over 30 years, I’ve wanted to ride in one of those “air boat” (or is it a “fan boat”?) things in shallow water, dodging alligators like a slalom skier with the wind blowing in my face. Last July, we drove from Atlanta to Florida Everglades National Park to do […]
We left Atlanta on December 27th and headed north, stopping for soul food at Southern Star in Chattanooga, our borrowed Kia Sedona packed for 1,000 miles of exploration across the Bluegrass State. A couple hours later, we were peeing at the Kentucky Welcome Center off I-65, and 45 minutes after […]
We got The Note that schools send when they’re about to delve into “sex ed” a few months ago. Do you know The Note? The Note can make an otherwise good day awkward; I was afraid of The Note. In any event, we decided we should have a series of […]