Home Sweet Home

WHAT NOW?

I woke up this morning in my bed, came down to make breakfast and coffee in my kitchen, and right now I am writing this post from my computer. Happy day! I love to travel, to take vacations, to hit the road to new places and experience new things. But, I think one of my favorite parts of any trip I have ever taken has been coming back home. How else can you truly appreciate what you have at home if you never leave it?

The family road trip was a great success. Because it was formed around a business trip for my wife there was the outside chance it would have been a failure, but we managed to give our kids a great trip and relatively no cost and ourselves a nice little break from reality (at least I did...my wife still had those darn work meetings).

There are a couple of things I don't like about vacation road trips, and only recently have discovered them.

1. Eating out for every meal. I don't know if it's because we don't eat out as much when we are home, or if nothing will ever compare to my wife's cooking (let's go with that one, it sounds so much better and might earn me some brownie points). We ate at some really nice places and had some really good food, but at the end of every night my wife and I felt like we couldn't take enough acid reducer. It really did a number on our insides and we'll need 5 days of home cooking just to make those toilet trips more regular, if you catch my meaning.

2. Standard hotel rooms suck for families. In Portland we had a sweet suite with a room off the bedroom. We put the kids to bed, shut the door, and were able to enjoy each other's company and/or watch a little TV. In Seattle however it was one room, for all four of us. We made the best of it by putting the kids down in one bed and curling up in the corner, in the dark, with glass of wine while my wife read Harry Potter and I thumbed through USA Today. After they crashed we could crawl into the other bed and turn on the tube, but couldn't watch the good stuff on HBO. The thought of the girls waking up to First Blood was enough to keep us in the PBS zone for the night.

3. Most people in big cities drive like morons. I know things move faster and you have to react quicker, but come on. There is no need to ride my ass, cut me off, not let me merge and then give me the stink eye when you drive past. Go fuck yourselves and then learn how to drive! Oh, and on the same subject, would it kill the city of Seattle to use bigger and better place road signs? That place is a drivers worst nightmare. But it does make you appreciate life in a small town.

And speaking of small town, we have a nice little Saturday planned. Gonna hit the local farmer's market, then hit Costco to restock our empty cupboards, and then fill up the little backyard pool and try to beat the summer heat. HOME SWEET HOME.

PEACE OUT DADS!!!