Dadcation-
Ramadan in Cairo
After 8 hours to Rome and another 4 to Cairo, a friendly brown-skinned man met us to take us to baggage claim, looked incredulous when we told...
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spring break in Italy: Rome
It was Saturday, April 6 when we woke up in Rome, and my kind bride had scheduled the most fitting activity I could possibly engage in at...
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spring break in Florence, Tuscany
We arrived by train in Florence and navigated the throngs of tourists toward our AirBnb, a unit requiring climbing several flights of wooden stairs with steep rises....
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Driving to St Andrews
On Tuesday the 5th of July, I walked a mile in the rain to Hertz and rented what was supposed to be an automatic Audi but ended...
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Edinburgh, Scotland
On Monday, we began our second day in Scotland with hopes of touring the Palace of Holyroodhouse, but the Queen was there, meaning no tours were to...
About
I started blogging in 2007 during an Air Force deployment to Iraq and kept at it when I got back. Since then, I’ve written for DadCentric, City Dads Group, Humor Blogs, and other sites. This site is primarily for our family travels and adventures, because I forget stuff if I don’t write it down. Our family trips include 2 girls with a boy in the middle; they’re led by an archeologist-turned-writer/influencer mom and a dad who’s deployed to Iraq twice, visited all 50 United States, run with the…
For a dozen years, we’ve gone as a family to Saint Simons Island when I have my annual workers’ comp legal seminar (which is either on SSI or neighboring Jekyll), but this year, the children had too many conflicts at school or that weekend, so I went alone. Hopefully, we’ll go down as a family and get one last “on the dog” photo of the 3 children together before the oldest moves out and moves on.
We did, however, return to the Bahamas to Baha Mar for a week, and it was awesome! In 2019, the adjoining water park was under construction, but it’s there now, and we loved it. We also dived with sharks, which was also awesome. The day after we returned, my friends Jody and Jim Bob joined the Mrs and me for VIP tickets to Depeche Mode.
The third week, I went to Dallas for a 3rd legal seminar out of town in one month. Then, a Legion group motorcycle rally, my son’s last mountain biking race of the season(which ended with a fractured clavicle), a vendor’s costume party, and then ending the month with Halloween and our 12th straight family costume, themed “Stranger Things.”
in between all of the above, we have slowly made our 15 acres on the Little Tallapoosa in Alabama a place we can enjoy in inclement weather!
Here are October’s 31 seconds:
September made the long hours of August worth the toil. On Labor Day, we flew first class to Munich–the first time we’ve been able to fly east across the Atlantic and actually lie down + sleep.
I loved Bolzano, Italy, the town that can’t decide if it’s Austrian or Italian, so it’s both–the food, the service workers, the winding and climbing streets or sidewalks–it was all awesome and needed more days, but it was just the bookends to our hike across the Dolomites. We even made time to visit Ötzi the Iceman!
Here are its 30 seconds compiled:
The hike itself was beautiful…most days were fewer than 10 miles, so the mileage wasn’t particularly hard compared to the Hadrian’s Wall walk , but it was MUCH steeper and hotter (some days we climbed up downhill ski slopes!). Still, I loved the company, the landscapes, and the exhilaration of being outside and away from the office for an entire week. My bride got to celebrate a birthday in a refugio in the Alps with strangers from all over the U.S. and Europe singing to her. Who wouldn’t want that memory?
After our hike, we took the train to Munich and attended opening day of Oktoberfest, and it too was awesome. We made friends with folks from the States who tried to keep up with us but gradually peeled off as the day (that started with the first tapping of the keg at 11am) progressed; we stayed out til 11pm, despite our guide’s (a local) saying not to remain in the tents into the evening.
Right after we got home, we saw Matt & Kim live, and a few days later, we drove to Hendersonville, Tennessee for my 30-year high school reunion. Many of the folks there I had not seen since the 20-year or even longer. It was actually more fun than I’d hoped, and how often does that happen?
Near the end of the month, my son turned 15 and had friends stay over, followed by his making them all pancakes, and then they went off to shoot at each other in the woods for a couple hours.
The last weekend of the month, we mountain biked near Oxford, Alabama and stayed on our land in Woodland, which is coming along pretty well! We have a fully functional bathhouse and the beginning of a cabin so far. I hope to make visiting it at least a monthly occurrence. Here’s the Little Tallapoosa River that forms our north boundary:
Bring on October !
August was one of the hardest months I’ve ever had professionally, with more cases than I’ve ever handled and with less help than I’ve ever had (and less revenue to hire the needed help). That said, my sweet bride paid for me to drive on Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Petty car, and I was able to hit 151 during my 8 laps — faster than anyone else in our group and faster than what we were told would be our top achievable speed — that day, and it was AWESOME.
Otherwise, August was extremely stressful and discouraging, and I’m glad it’s over.
I can’t wait for September’s highlights and travels.