Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Until next decade
This is it for us.
In 2006, we started this thing as honeymooners traveling throughout Thailand, China, Australia and New Zealand.
When we get home tonight, we’ll have cemented four more of these things - 2012, 2015, 2017 & 2019.
These last four, of course, with the ones we wake up for:
Riley - you were about 4yo, 7yo, 9yo and now finishing up Year 10. Nice ride for you. Keep up the reading. Maybe nothing more important.
Link - you were just 6 months, 4yo, 6yo and now finishing up Year 7. Still not convinced you’re not an elf, but we’re proud of you for trying pancakes today even though they were covered in sugar and icing.
Traveling is humbling.
It exposes our brief moment in time.
Ironically, the more we travel, it seems the less we know.
In this age of information, there’s a lot out there telling us how to live:
What to do when we wake up, how to work, when to sleep, what to eat, how to think.
Yet, when we travel (and we’re biased to road trips) - these big ideas are neutralized by nature’s indifference to how we choose to live our lives. Nature has seen a lot more than us and our conventions and convictions may not always align with hers.
So, as we wrap up this decade in our brief moment in time, this is our way of documenting our experiences and capturing them digitally for our friends & family.
About the last couple days:
Falling Water is an architectural gem, no doubt.
The story goes that a wealthy family, the Kaufmann's, strike up a relationship through their son with
renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The Kaufmann’s want to design and build a weekend getaway from Pittsburgh and hire Wright to design this incredible home embedded into a waterfall. This is dutifully completed in the 1930's and enjoyed by the Kaufmann's until their only son, Edgar, entrusts it to the Western Pennsylvania Conservatory in the 1960's when it is museumed.
However, after reading more about the family's history, this may be the story for marketing purposes.
I would tell it in the context of Jewish history:
An immigrant family arrives in Pittsburgh from Germany and launches a wildly successful department store, Kaufmann's. Merchants at their core, their only son Edgar inherits the family business. Edgar falls in love w/ his first cousin(!) and they are forced to get married in New York b/c Pennsylvania does not accept this arrangement. Edgar and Lilliane, husband and wife (and first cousins - eeww!) have one son, Edgar Jr. who is gay, never marries, can't sustain the financial obligations of the family's weekend getaway and Falling Water is gifted away.
A marvel nonetheless.
Equally as marvelous, though, is discovering the unheralded gems.
On one of these roads trips, that was Hot Springs, Arkansas.
This road trip, it was OhioPyle.
OhioPyle is actually in Western PA, an old trader's post steeped in American history.
Once a center of commerce, there's now some endearing remnants of the old town mixed-in with yoga studios, ice cream parlors, and a book-drop outside a church!
In OhioPyle, the town is centered around the fast water systems - all kinds of white water rafting, waterfalls and rapids.
Cucumber Falls was undoubtedly the winner for us.
We got in a physical hike today and were able to get behind the falls for a really unique and fun experience.
Over these last 7 days and 6 nights, we were simply so lucky to define Spring Break 2019 as we imagined it.
Until next decade...
Peace.
In 2006, we started this thing as honeymooners traveling throughout Thailand, China, Australia and New Zealand.
When we get home tonight, we’ll have cemented four more of these things - 2012, 2015, 2017 & 2019.
These last four, of course, with the ones we wake up for:
Riley - you were about 4yo, 7yo, 9yo and now finishing up Year 10. Nice ride for you. Keep up the reading. Maybe nothing more important.
Link - you were just 6 months, 4yo, 6yo and now finishing up Year 7. Still not convinced you’re not an elf, but we’re proud of you for trying pancakes today even though they were covered in sugar and icing.
Traveling is humbling.
It exposes our brief moment in time.
Ironically, the more we travel, it seems the less we know.
In this age of information, there’s a lot out there telling us how to live:
What to do when we wake up, how to work, when to sleep, what to eat, how to think.
Yet, when we travel (and we’re biased to road trips) - these big ideas are neutralized by nature’s indifference to how we choose to live our lives. Nature has seen a lot more than us and our conventions and convictions may not always align with hers.
So, as we wrap up this decade in our brief moment in time, this is our way of documenting our experiences and capturing them digitally for our friends & family.
About the last couple days:
Falling Water is an architectural gem, no doubt.
The story goes that a wealthy family, the Kaufmann's, strike up a relationship through their son with
renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The Kaufmann’s want to design and build a weekend getaway from Pittsburgh and hire Wright to design this incredible home embedded into a waterfall. This is dutifully completed in the 1930's and enjoyed by the Kaufmann's until their only son, Edgar, entrusts it to the Western Pennsylvania Conservatory in the 1960's when it is museumed.
However, after reading more about the family's history, this may be the story for marketing purposes.
I would tell it in the context of Jewish history:
An immigrant family arrives in Pittsburgh from Germany and launches a wildly successful department store, Kaufmann's. Merchants at their core, their only son Edgar inherits the family business. Edgar falls in love w/ his first cousin(!) and they are forced to get married in New York b/c Pennsylvania does not accept this arrangement. Edgar and Lilliane, husband and wife (and first cousins - eeww!) have one son, Edgar Jr. who is gay, never marries, can't sustain the financial obligations of the family's weekend getaway and Falling Water is gifted away.
A marvel nonetheless.
Equally as marvelous, though, is discovering the unheralded gems.
On one of these roads trips, that was Hot Springs, Arkansas.
This road trip, it was OhioPyle.
OhioPyle is actually in Western PA, an old trader's post steeped in American history.
Once a center of commerce, there's now some endearing remnants of the old town mixed-in with yoga studios, ice cream parlors, and a book-drop outside a church!
In OhioPyle, the town is centered around the fast water systems - all kinds of white water rafting, waterfalls and rapids.
Cucumber Falls was undoubtedly the winner for us.
We got in a physical hike today and were able to get behind the falls for a really unique and fun experience.
Over these last 7 days and 6 nights, we were simply so lucky to define Spring Break 2019 as we imagined it.
Until next decade...
Peace.
Monday, April 22, 2019
Audible
My bad boyz.
Ended up on the wrong side of Lake Erie.
We were supposed to stay high and loop west for a quick stop in Ann Arbor.
Instead, we found ourselves low and headed for Cleveland.
So, after huddling up, we called an audible.
Indians/Braves game in Cleveland (amazing ballpark and host of this years All Star game), post game drive-by of Lebrons incredible iPromise school in Akron and NFL HOF today in Canton.
No Ann Arbor. No problem.
We’ll see you for a hoops game next season.
Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright:
on the clock...
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Magic
Suspended reality?
Illusion?
Engagement?
Experiential?
These last three days have been magic, literally and figuratively.
We got outta the house clean and up 83 thru Harrisburg PA past the iconic York barbell man.
Destination: Corning, NY.
After a quick stop for lunch, the magic of glass was upon us. We missed our glass blowing appointment, but Link Link was still able to get creative and make a glass wind chime which will be sent to us in the mail. It needed to cure in the kiln for a few days.
While institutional, the Corning Museum of Glass was magic.
Morning Star RV Park. Our first sleep.
Magic in its simplest form. This camp ground offered up its nature and its all we needed.
Had a baseball catch w the boyz, Momma made supper and we hung by the fire pit until it was time to turn in.
As magic would have it, this camp ground backed up to a train track, the site of our morning hike - magic in its best engineering form. Rail is no joke and probably underrated in its history and utility.
We left Morning Star headed to Niagra Falls.
Mommy was magical in her programming, keeping us on track yet leaving room for spontaneity like making a stop in Warsaw, NY, an American town lost in time. After lunch at Silver Lake Family Restaurant, we chugged along to our planned destination:
Eternal Flame Trail.
Magic. This 1-mile hike, which coincided w a mini-monsoon, led us through mudslides and switch-backs to arrive at literally an eternal flame - a natural gas emitted from earth that stays eternally lit inside a grotto.
Hard to describe. Magic usually is.
Soaking wet, we’ll be at the magic of Target later today to replace our shoes and get proper clothes for this weather for which we were ill prepared.
It didn’t stop us from crossing the border into Canada to see a wild magic show at the Greg Frewin theater featuring Greg Frewin. So much admiration for this guy. He turned women into real-life tigers, made people disappear, smushed his body into just his head and feet and all kinds of other crazy magic. Google him.
Capped this Friday night w the magic of Niagara Falls, Canada-side style, a ferocious series of water falls, seen best from the magic of a Ferris Wheel.
Enjoy the holidays.
Enjoy the magic of life.
Illusion?
Engagement?
Experiential?
These last three days have been magic, literally and figuratively.
We got outta the house clean and up 83 thru Harrisburg PA past the iconic York barbell man.
Destination: Corning, NY.
After a quick stop for lunch, the magic of glass was upon us. We missed our glass blowing appointment, but Link Link was still able to get creative and make a glass wind chime which will be sent to us in the mail. It needed to cure in the kiln for a few days.
While institutional, the Corning Museum of Glass was magic.
Morning Star RV Park. Our first sleep.
Magic in its simplest form. This camp ground offered up its nature and its all we needed.
Had a baseball catch w the boyz, Momma made supper and we hung by the fire pit until it was time to turn in.
As magic would have it, this camp ground backed up to a train track, the site of our morning hike - magic in its best engineering form. Rail is no joke and probably underrated in its history and utility.
We left Morning Star headed to Niagra Falls.
Mommy was magical in her programming, keeping us on track yet leaving room for spontaneity like making a stop in Warsaw, NY, an American town lost in time. After lunch at Silver Lake Family Restaurant, we chugged along to our planned destination:
Eternal Flame Trail.
Magic. This 1-mile hike, which coincided w a mini-monsoon, led us through mudslides and switch-backs to arrive at literally an eternal flame - a natural gas emitted from earth that stays eternally lit inside a grotto.
Hard to describe. Magic usually is.
Soaking wet, we’ll be at the magic of Target later today to replace our shoes and get proper clothes for this weather for which we were ill prepared.
It didn’t stop us from crossing the border into Canada to see a wild magic show at the Greg Frewin theater featuring Greg Frewin. So much admiration for this guy. He turned women into real-life tigers, made people disappear, smushed his body into just his head and feet and all kinds of other crazy magic. Google him.
Capped this Friday night w the magic of Niagara Falls, Canada-side style, a ferocious series of water falls, seen best from the magic of a Ferris Wheel.
Enjoy the holidays.
Enjoy the magic of life.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
It’s Official
All signed up.
34ft of love delivered to the house.
We hit the road tomorrow.
Spring Break 2019.
34ft of love delivered to the house.
We hit the road tomorrow.
Spring Break 2019.
