Journey Beginnings

"The best vacations are the ones that almost never happened." Every cruise brochure shows smiling couples sipping tropical drinks while gazing romantically into the sunset. None of them show a husband standing in his condo parking lot at 5:30 in the morning asking... "Honey...where's the Tesla?" Welcome to our vacation. Day Minus One: The Curse Begins For months we'd been planning our seven-day Holland America cruise aboard the Zuiderdam from Boston through New England and At

Every great family adventure begins with someone saying, "Hey, I've got an idea..." In this case, the idea was to gather a dozen family and friends, load up the cars in Saratoga Springs, New York, meet one brave soul driving in from Connecticut, head to the Zoar Picnic Area in Massachusetts, and spend the afternoon floating down the Deerfield River. Simple. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out... Quite a bit. Fortunately, every single thing that went wrong made the t

Trading Sandals for Snow Boots We hit the road early on the morning of December 27, headed for Montreal, Canada, armed with a full tank of gas, questionable judgment, and a list of predetermined stops which is just a polite way of saying, “We had a plan… kind of.” This winter adventure was inspired by my grandson, who casually announced he didn’t want to go to California for Christmas because we “do the same old thing.” You know beach days, paddle boarding, sunshine, happines