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.
