First – a quick chat about the trip plans. Our itinerary was bound by a few rules: (1) we needed to get our two Boy Scouts to their trailhead in northern New Mexico by Thursday, June 30; (2) I needed to work 3-4 days of each week we were gone; (3) I wanted to make it to San Diego to see my brother and his girlfriend; (4) we needed to use hotel points for free accommodation wherever possible; and (5) we needed to be back at the Boy Scout trailhead by Tuesday, July 12 to pick them up. With that in mind, the Prof built our itineraries for between the…

We have just returned from a three-week-long trip West. All five of us left home June 26, and drove up to northern New Mexico where we left the Prof and Jack at a Boy Scout Ranch on June 29 for a 12 day backpacking trip. The little boys and I tooled around New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California while we waited for them to come off the trail. We picked them up on July 12th, and got home July 15th. I wanna go back. Before I launch into the exhaustive vacation recap, I thought I’d record here a few things we brought along that were absolutely clutch. For the…

Finally, I am able to start posting my recaps of my fortieth birthday week in West Texas!  I wrote most of this as it happened, saving it to a Word doc on my laptop.  I’ve pasted it in here and tried to edit enough so my tenses are consistent, and then spent wayyyy too many hours fooling with uploading photos, which were giving me fits.  So here it is – the first half! The weekend started stressfully.  I worked – I had intended to use the weekend to clean up a few work items and pack, but no. We won’t dwell on that. Jack had a study session with some…

After saying good-bye to my sister and her family, we drove a short distance away to Fredericksburg, where we got some ice cream and took a short walk along the main street in their shopping district.  Fredericksburg is clearly a town of German origin, and many signs, storefronts, and even their wineries bore German names.  It was a lovely little town, and reminded me of little Fairhope, Alabama, near where we used to live. After scarfing down our cones and taking a quick ride on the wagon wheel rocker, we climbed back into the car and drove on to Luckenbach – less a town, and more just a couple of…

We decided this year to kick off the summer with a short vacation to Texas Hill Country. Our trip, from Friday through Tuesday, would include a couple of nights in San Antonio with my sister, her husband, and their baby. Then we’d head out to a day at a swimming hole and natural springs, swing by Luckenbach for a quick look around, and head to a hill country resort for a couple of days. I’m writing this first recap mid-trip – and it’s been just perfect so far. The trip started with the stressful crush of preparing, as it always does. After a Thursday filled with frantic shoring up of…