Mt St Helens

I was ten in 1980, the last time Mount St Helen’s erupted in southern Washington. Its eruption, although expected, took over fifty lives and forever changed the landscape of southern Washington, and the line of thirteen stratovolcanoes stretching from Mt Baker in northern Washington to Lassen Peak in Northern California. I remember the eruption only […]

Fifteen

When we visualized hitting the “fifteen years of marriage” mark we had big plans. See, it would be in 2020… my fiftieth year. Definitely a momentous milestone to look forward to and enjoy. We would start by gathering with family and friends in Tucson, in early January. That’s where, even after almost eleven years away, […]

The Extra Hour

My kids learned early on to stay in bed in the morning until the light on their “OK-to-wake” clock changes colors from yellow to green. That happens at seven AM, every day, and tells them “ok, you can get up now without fear of attack from sleepy parents.” Every now and then I hear about […]

Halloween 2020

Halloween 2020 was… spooky. Last year was a tough one to beat. We went as Marvel, mostly Guardians of the Galaxy. The occasion was spent surrounded by thousands of our favorite Gig Harborites in the “roads-closed” downtown. Each year the streets fill with Halloween revelers of all kinds… it’s a great community event. We finished […]

2020: The calm in the storm.

2020 has been nuts, hasn’t it. 2019 ended what I considered to be the best decade of my life so far… my fourth. I turned 50 the day before the start of 2020. During my 40’s we moved to a new, beautiful state. Grew a big beautiful family. Advanced at work. Bought a couple houses […]

On the road, again…

Well, it’s been a while… but it’s good to be back. After thinking extensively about where to begin after this wild ride of a year, I figured to start with the now. We can go back later. It really is good to be back. After months of getting sucked into the abyss that is social […]

Windy roads and carne asada fries

Day 25: Travel Day. This morning we woke up and got our rig put back together as quickly as possible, as California was expecting strong winds throughout the state. We have experienced strong winds a couple times on this trip, and it can be a white knuckle experience. We got on the road before the […]

SLO, BBQ, and sleep

Day 24/ Paso Robles and SLO: Today, a miracle happened. For the first time on our trip ALL the kids slept in. Not like, all day… but until about 7:30. I’ll take it and give thanks for the small blessings. After a slow start, we realized we didn’t have much of a plan. We knew […]

Meeting Pedro, day 19

Day 19: Oceanside Admin Day, Owens birthday party, and Pedro. My hope came true… on the heels of a bustling and busy Legoland day, today we chilled. We spent the day with no schedule. Tara asked me “what’s the plan.” I told he we didn’t have one. We started the day building some of the […]

20 days?

Day 20: How in the heck is it already day 20? One part of this trip we enjoyed most was planning it. Before we even rolled out of the driveway. The days, weeks, months preceding where Tara and I stayed up after the kids went to bed and figured out what we wanted to do, […]