Dadcation
In October, I had 5 work-related trips that we did our best to turn into fun. One was to Portland, Maine, so I hit my 43rd U.S. National Park–Acadia ! We started in Myrtle Beach, flew to Phoenix, then drove to Jekyll Island, GA, and then flew to Baha Mar in the Bahamas before flying to Maine. In between, we saw Smashing Pumpkins with Jane’s Addiction and Death Cab for Cutie concerts, and I participated in my first group ride with the American Legion Riders, which was awesome….
For our 16th anniversary, we crashed joined in on our neighbors’ annual vacation destination and experienced our first adults-only, all inclusive, resort at the Excellence Playa Mujeres, and I’ve already booked it again for next November! We visited our country’s newest National Park, New River Gorge, biked the Pisgah National Forest, and got good seats to my 4th Twenty One Pilots show and my 1st Rolling Stones show. I also spent 45 minutes in a cage surrounded by sharks at the Georgia Aquarium. Oh, and the Braves won…
We pushed through a port-o-john door covered in stickers, walked past the urinals, and entered the hidden bar behind Bodega Taqueria for what I’d thought would be a quiet speakeasy like the ones we’ve visited in Denver, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Rome, Paris, Kyoto, Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Antonio. Instead, it was a giant, warehouse-like enclosure with a DJ and dancing. It was a time warp to 2019. “We need to get out of here before we get the Covid!” We closed our tab (the place…
Right before December concluded, we flew down to St. Thomas, exited the American Airlines 737, walked a few paces across the tarmac, showed some locals our negative Covid test results on my wife’s phone, and entered the Cyril E. King airport. We’d escaped the continental United States for the first time in 2020. The next day, we took at cab to the airport to pick up our rental car and headed to Magens Bay, which has been rated as one of the top beaches in the world. It…
I have a National Parks bucket list, and hiking The Narrows and Angels Landing at Zion National Park have been near the top of said list for at least as long as there’s been an Instagram. We concluded our tour of the Utah National Parks with visiting my most anticipated of the 5: Zion. We arrived in the evening and parked by a deer-filled lawn before checking into the Zion National Park Lodge, where I recommend staying at any time, but during Covid-19, I highly recommend it, as…
I’ve had some amazing experiences at the 33 U.S. National Parks I’ve visited: rock climbing in Yosemite, biking through snow above the Grand Canyon, paddling under snakes at Congaree, hearing a ceremonial flute serenade at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. At Bryce Canyon, however, I had 2 experiences that rival the best of the best. Like Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon is an international dark sky park (it got the designation in 2019). Fittingly, one of the ranger-led activities one can choose is a guided constellation tour, so we…
We awoke at Capitol Reef, Utah’s least visited of its 5 national parks, and had a lousy breakfast at Pioneer Kitchen before going by the visitor center for junior ranger workbooks and hiking the 2.25-miles-each-way Grand Wash trail in the bottom of a canyon with 800′ sandstone walls. It was hot as Hell in July, but it included cool graffiti from the 1800s where folks in covered wagons carved their names into the rock, but you can’t add your own, because there are cameras and signs telling you…
*Thanks to Hanes for sponsoring this post* Colorado has 4 distinctly awesome national parks. I saw 3/4 of them in 1987 when my folks drove my brother and me from Nashville in a two-toned ’83 Suburban, and I’ve wanted to go back with my own family and explore the diverse national parks of Colorado ever since. We finally went this summer. Of all the parks we were slated to see, I was most excited about returning to Mesa Verde National Park. It’s my mom’s favorite of all the national…
We woke up early (and cold) in our tent on Friday, April 6. It was my 9th soloversary (I like to remember the anniversary of quitting my job and starting my own law firm; it’s also my late maternal grandfather’s birthday), and we had a very difficult-to-book ranger-led canoe trip scheduled for 10am. But first, we ran to the restroom and to check the inside of my parked car, our youngest following behind nervously. The reason we were interested in the inside of my car at sunrise at…
We arrived at historic Jamestown as soon as it opened on Thursday morning, exploring the glasshouse and fort buildings before going to the archaearium and visitor center (taking in a 360-degree film there–best NPS movie theater I’ve seen!), where I added a cancellation to my NPS passport book. The guide walked us through the area where the first church stood–its floor has recently been removed to allow for archeologists to dig below it and discover even more history. We stood there several minutes, listening to the guide and…