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We left the valley yesterday afternoon, loading up the car with everything I could cram inside the car and topper. Our summer in the Sonoran Desert is over. One more day in the mountains before starting another long drive (see re: the trip down in June). In some respects I wish I had written more about our summer sojourn, but I'll do my best to sum up the experience. In surviving the summer in Phoenix you hear a lot about 'beating the heat.' As well you should, the temperatur

We tried something different in Alaska this year, and it took me a bit to decide how I felt about it. But I think I've got it figured out. As you likely know, my wife's sister's family lives up in Alaska, near Homer on the Kenai Peninsula. We visit near annually for about a week and it's always an adventure. I've written in the past about Homer specifically, as well as our ordeals in traveling there (see posts tagged Alaska). We've always flown through Anchorage, gotten to Ho

'It's a dry heat!' It was a comment we heard countless times before reaching Arizona at the onset of the summer. As if that makes up for 115 degrees. But, still, somewhere in my brain it was a sort of consolation. At least I wouldn't sweat that much, even if I was warm. Or so I told myself. As a quick aside I've humorously learned that this saying is also oft repeated here in the desert. For one example I found it on one of my brother-in-laws t-shirts, as a joke. I'm likening

Over the course of our relationship, my wife and I have worked on getting to all 30 MLB ballparks. We're both baseball fans and that was a large part of why we started dating in the first place. Our first trip together was down to Kansas City to see the Twins and Royals. The year after we got married we did a week-long stretch of seeing a game almost every day on the way to my friend's wedding in the northeast. Living in Maryland was helpful in this. Our progress did slow sig

When we visit Alaska in the summer, an annual thing in our family (see Alaska posts), one of the big adjustments is to what we're heard referred to as 'Alaska Time.' As a result of the long summer days, the sun going down at like midnight in July, people stay up late and then sleep in well into the morning. For us this has frequently meant we can get up at, I don't know, 7am (aka 10am in Minnesota), go into town, get some coffee and/or breakfast, mill around a little while, t

We made it. After leaving Minnesota last Saturday afternoon (we're crazy and also did a birthday party first) we made it to Arizona. It took something like 53 total hours, 24 active driving, and involved transversing more than 1500 miles before we reached my parents summer home in the mountains Monday evening. That felt like the end of the long journey, even though it wasn't the final actual destination. Tuesday afternoon we tagged on the last couple hours and landed at last

Last month I visited a friend in Massachusetts. It was unusual for us, as we were both without kids, and we made hay with our limited time. All day Saturday was spent exploring Boston itself, culminating with a trip to Fenway Park. But prior to that we did a lot of walking and checking out sites of the home of the American Revolution. It was glorious. To show its history and impact on the revolution, Boston has an actual red brick trail weaving through the city called the Fre

My wife a few years ago introduced me to the idea of 1000 hours outside . The concept in basic terms is making it an annual goal to spend...

We travel to Alaska about a week each summer, as I've written about before, to see my wife's sister's family. They're homesteading up...

Since moving back to MN we get to see our east coast friends about once a year, maybe. Here I'm talking two other families, all with kids...

This year we were invited by a family in our church small group to a nearby historic Christmas town. In Farmington, MN, like 15 minutes...

A couple friends and I spent last weekend in Nashville, there to see the Vikings play the Titans. It was the first time in Music City for...

In October 2019 we made a weekend excursion up to Maine. We had only one kid, a little over a year old, and I'd been staying home with...

We had the shortest of trips this week, as my wife and I visited Atlanta without the kids. The purpose was twofold. My wife wanted to...

Last week we were in Alaska again and, while it's always a good trip, it brings some challenges both physical and emotional. From MSP...

The original plan for Arizona was to write up Chase Field, the home ballpark of the Arizona Diamondbacks. We saw a game there for the first time and I always have opinions on baseball stadiums, but we went with a big group (6 adults, 6 kids) and didn't get to explore enough to properly rate it. So that'll be on the backburner, until next time, we need to go again. Since returning home I also took in a Twins home game (they were playing Ohtani and the Dodgers and I didn't want

As I've said in the past (The Cactus League), we have family in Arizona and we travel down with some regularity, maybe once a year. At...

Last weekend a couple friends and I were in Las Vegas. As stated previously (see Vegas during Covid), we go about once a year, but this...

Maryland has the 'Eastern Shore' (of the Chesapeake). Minnesota has the 'North Shore' (of Lake Superior). Both are referred to by locals...

Our visit to San Diego included a few run-ins with Stone Brewing. A huge and prominent craft brewing operation based in southern...