A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a week with my niece Bubba and her family. Her family currently consists her husband – S, their three year old son- Lil B (who will turn four next month), their two year old daughter – Lil K (who was one week away from her 2nd birthday during my visit), and their son – H who, if he follows his siblings’ trend of being born before their due date, will be born in December. A cute little family and I had a fun time. The soon-to-be two year old taught me a valuable lesson and made me realize that sometimes we adults still might act like overgrown toddlers. Continue reading
Super Cool Road Trips
The Itty-bitty Birthday Road Trip of 2017
If you go to Europe in June you probably shouldn’t plan your typical birthday road trip.
That is probably written in some life manual somewhere I’m sure. It makes sense especially since my birthday landed just over a month after my return to the states. Truth be told, the decision to forego my typical week long road trip revolved around work and the fact I didn’t think I’d have enough time to take another week off in August after taking just over two weeks in June. So, no birthday road trip this year. As luck would have it though, my birthday fell on a Saturday which meant I could still sneak away for it. Even if I didn’t go far away at least I could go somewhere. Continue reading
My Europe Road Trip: Part V – Back in the USA
Homeward Bound
At least we were able to sit together on our nine hour flight to Chicago. But the plane wasn’t as nice as our plane to Berlin. The tv screens were much smaller and the movie choices lacked variety and options. No one in my vicinity became sick so that was a plus. Continue reading
My Europe Road Trip: Part IV – The Netherlands
The Netherlands (aka Holland)
I’m going to show my ignorance but before this trip I did not realize The Netherlands = Holland. I learned it right before we left when I was looking over my itinerary and tried to figure out when we were going to be in Holland since it wasn’t listed. Continue reading
My Europe Road Trip: Part III – Switzerland and France
Switzerland
We drove into Switzerland. All of us were a little disappointed that we would not get a stamp in our passports. But on the plus side, we switched countries relatively easy. It only took about a five minute stop. 
Continue reading
My Europe Road Trip: Part II – Germany
Berlin
We arrived in Berlin at 7:00am. Of course, we could not take any time to rest. We already lost one day. Our hotel rooms weren’t ready when we checked in at the hotel so we dropped our luggage in our tour host’s, KG, room and headed out for the day. I wore the same clothes I wore on all the plane rides so I didn’t feel presentable. In fact, I felt rather gross and stinky. The pictures of me on this first day will never see the light of day if I can help it. Not pretty. Continue reading
Amsterdam 2017
My Europe Road Trip: Part I – The Trip Begins
The invitation
GK and I had been visiting teaching partners for about 10 years. But then we were split up and assigned to other partners. From time to time, we try to do lunch or dinner together to catch up. It was at one of those catch up dinners in January 2017 when she invited me to go to Europe. Continue reading
Birthday Road Trip ’16: Mesa Verde
The idea for this year’s road trip came to me a few months earlier. I saw pictures of the cliff ruins in Mesa Verde and wondered where they were located. After looking them up and discovering they were only in southern Colorado I figured I could do that this year. It looked fun.
The next step involved mapping my road trip out. Initially, I thought of doing more of a loop but after certain stressful events occurred a couple weeks prior to my trip, I changed my plans. I’d leave a day earlier and stay at my sisters’ for a day which meant no loop. But it did mean I’d spend my birthday with family and that sounded a lot better than spending it traveling alone anyway. So I left work Thursday and went to the apartment my sisters share in Utah.
In the beginning…
Road Trip in November
Last year I went to Ogden, Utah in November. The roads were a little wintry when I traveled home and I decided never to travel that stretch of road again during winter. And I didn’t. At least, I didn’t again last winter. Imagine my surprise when I realized I planned a trip on the same road at almost the exact time this year.
That’s what you call poor planning.
