Recent Posts

spring break in Italy: Venice

We arrived at the Milan train station at 7am and arrived in Venice just before 10. I couldn’t wait to lead my family out of the train station and toward the Grand Canal where we could stand and look across the water at the most beautiful city I’ve ever visited. […]

spring break in Italy: Milan

The children’s Christmas present this year was our first international Spring Break; we landed on April Fools Day in Milan and dropped off our bags at our AirBnB by the Galleria del Corso before walking 500 feet to the beautiful Milan Cathedral. We’d pre-booked tickets to explore the inside of […]

10 days in Colorado’s National Parks

Last Summer, we flew into Denver for over a week of exploring the national parks in Colorado; I wrote a partnered post with Hanes but never fully described the “rest” of the story, so here it is. After we landed, we headed south toward Great Sand Dunes National Park, which […]

the 2019 Mom 2.0 Summit in Austin

I was excited to go to my 4th Mom 2.0 this year for several reasons: 1) I hadn’t been to Austin since 2012 (the first Dad 2.0), and I’d read there are several great speakeasies and dive bars that commanded my attention. 2) my bride had never been, and I’ve […]

a 3-day weekend in New Orleans

It’s been a decade since I’ve gone to New Orleans for anything that wasn’t a) Mardi Gras, b) an Alabama football game, or c) a Dad 2.0 conference. All 3 of these are normally cold events in January or February, so a trip in late March for some warmer weather […]

San Antonio for the 2019 Dad 2.0 Summit

Before this year’s Dad 2.0 Summit, I’d only been to San Antonio with the Air Force. In July 1995, I spent 4 weeks in field training (which is like basic training, but for college kids in ROTC), and all I knew about San Antonio is it was really hot, the […]

Halloween weekend in Las Vegas

When an organization whose Board you’re on schedules its annual conference in Las Vegas, you sign up for the tax-deductible vacation. When you find out an artist you’ve loved for 35+ years has a very rare live performance at the same time, you go early and make it a weekend […]

New York City at Christmas

Ever since watching “Miracle on 34th Street” as a child, I’ve wondered what it’d be like to experience New York City at Christmas. Seeing Buddy the Elf and Kevin McAllister do it in 2003 and 1992 (respectively) only heightened such desire, so when I learned there was a workers’ comp […]

the story of Winnie

About 15 years ago, I bought a house with a yard and made friends with my neighbors, and it took just under a week to realize they all had dogs and bonded on Friday nights in our cul-de-sac having drinks and watching their dogs run and play together while I […]

a weekend in Montgomery and Selma

We pulled into Montgomery, Alabama at the Rosa Parks Library and Museum at 11am on Saturday; a few minutes later, the five of us plus my mother-in-law were inside a city bus simulator traveling through history.  We walked through the attached museum and then drove over to the Alabama Department […]