While much of Texas is still in drought conditions, our county (Travis) included, the winter and early spring rains have gone some ways toward lessening the severity. In February, I was worried that summer was going to be very early this year, and it may still be, but we’ve enjoyed some pleasantly mild weather in March.

We started our March outdoors! Maya and Ian have little food and herb crops they want to grow in the back yard. We don’t have a whole lot of sun in that area, so they’re relegated to some strategically placed pots and a couple sunny-ish spots in-ground. Maya has a pot full of radishes she started at the beginning of the month. I worried that it was a little early, but we also let her buy a cayenne chili pepper plant as well, and it is thriving. Ian’s preferences run to warm weather plants, so we’ll start his seeds soon.

All four of us also spent a weekend trying to clear out some of the overgrown back yard as well. Between a few injuries, my bad back, and the infernal heat last summer, I just kind of gave up on the yard. Volunteer trees have spread, beds have become overgrown with weeds, and our poor Monterey Oak is still bent over from the big freeze last year.

While we were back there, we noticed that our cherry laurel tree at the back of the yard was almost shimmering with the movement of insect life around it. The tree had flowered, and between the honey bees and the busy comings and goings of red admiral butterflies, things were in constant motion – a little treat for all our hard work.

We whoa-ed up on yard work so I could get Ian over to a Cub Scout den meeting. We all met up at a local fire department to learn about the service they provided to the community. The fire station and the fire engines were pretty neat. Ian and the other kids got to try on some of the oxygen tanks and the big jackets to see how heavy they were. They got to see where the fire fighters slept and ate and relaxed during their shifts. We talked through the plans we would make as families in case of a fire – get out of the house, leave everything behind, meet outside at a designated place, and if you can, close the door behind you to help deprive the fire of oxygen.

We had what I think was our first 90 degree day of the year in early March. Thankfully, the heat has simmered down since then and things have been pleasant.

Maya and Ian’s grade school has a MARE week every year. Each grade level has a different aquatic area to focus on, and this year, at long last, Maya finally has the ocean as her area. Against advice from her teacher (who warned Maya she may have trouble finding information on the topic), she chose to study and report on the Dumbo Octopus. She and the other fifth graders made displays and games that featured their chosen sea creature, and their parents all got to visit and learn and play their games.

And then, since it was spring break for us, we left on Friday the 8th for our spring break vacation to Greenville, SC and Asheville, NC!

Ian and I got some kind of snotty, coughing illness while we were on vacation, and at least for me, I was a little down and out when we got back. I even took a day off sick, which I rarely do. Finally, we all felt well enough and were unscheduled enough to go to our usual bluebonnet spot and grab some photos. This was on the 19th, and from the pictures I’ve seen, we were maybe a little early to see the full, brilliant flush of colorful flowers, but even at that, the display was lovely.

Still, it’s good we got our photos in when we did, because Sean was sick and then Maya became sharply ill yet on top of it. In fact, she stayed home a couple days from school to rest and eventually found out that she had strep!

We more or less did as little as possible for the next couple weeks. We resold tickets to a concert, bowed out of Ian’s spring cub scout camp out, and even got a refund on movie tickets we had bought. Whatever this illness was, it sapped me of my energy, and it was quite a while before I wasn’t sneaking in a nap after work and still going to bed on time AND sleeping all night (which is odd for me).

This kids have decided they’re done believing in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny, but they still want holiday gifts, cash for teeth, and – I came to find out when foolishly suggesting we skip it – to hunt for easter eggs. Thankfully, since we have no illusions to keep alive, we (mostly Sean) decorated eggs with them on Saturday. They woke up to find they had fully loaded easter baskets to root through on Sunday morning. And then after puttering around for a while, we sent them to their rooms so we could take the eggs they had decorated the night before and hide them in the yard.

Sean did most of the hiding, while I kept him company, offering suggestions here and there. We were delighted to find that a beautifully colored green anole had found one of the eggs Sean had hidden. I had to give Sean my phone so he could reach up high enough to take a decent photo.

After the hunt, we decorated easter cupcakes – vanilla for Ian, carrot cake for Maya. I had bought a little kit that had candied ears, nose, eyes, and cheeks so that each cupcake could look like a bunny. Maya and Ian played by the rules for a couple cupcakes and then let their creativity take over. A few days later, the eyes had melted a little, and they freaked Maya out to such a degree that she wouldn’t even look at them. She had me remove the decorations before she was willing to eat them.

We ended the month more or less feeling normal and easing back into our normal schedules. Hopefully April will be a healthier month for us.

Every year here lately, during the long, hot days and months of summer, Sean and I discuss relocating. There are lots of good reasons to move. We’d like to spend more time outdoors. It would be nice for the kids to be closer to their grandparents. Austin has gotten so big that I think it may have outgrown us. With all this in mind, we decided to spend our spring break visiting Greenville, SC and Asheville, NC with the dual purpose of vacationing and scoping the places out as potential relocation options.

Day 1 – Flying to Atlanta

Our most cost-effective flight option for this trip was a round trip flight to Atlanta. We figured, what the heck, we’ll start our trip off with a visit to Six Flags Over Georgia. To maximize our time, we wound up taking a direct flight out late Friday night. We finished up packing after our work days were done and headed out early enough to arrive at what could be a very busy airport about 2.5 hours early. We weren’t allowed to reserve parking, but thankfully, it was no problem. The shuttle driver accidentally shut the door early, bopping me square on the ass – I guess I wasn’t moving quickly enough! We both thought it was hilarious though, so no harm done.

The lines weren’t horrible, and we made it through with enough time to comfortably eat dinner and still relax a bit before boarding the plane. We couldn’t talk the kids into anything more adventurous than East Side Pies, but that’s fine; we’re big on choosing our battles over here. Here’s a funny aside. Because this was dinner, each of us planned on ordering a couple slices to carry us through our evening. At per slice pricing, that would have run us $56. Since eight slices is a whole pie, we wound up buying it that way at $28. Weirdly, the ability to order a whole pizza seemed to hinge entirely on the availability of actual pizza boxes. Word to the wise, I guess.

Our flight into Atlanta was extremely rough. Huge bounces and drops that almost made your stomach turn. Even the kids focus on the screens was nudged enough for at least Maya to wonder what was going on. The pilot came on the intercom at one point to tell us that we’d be on the ground very shortly, and I’ll admit it. For the most fleeting of moments, I had the thought that he sounded awfully cavalier about crashing an airplane.

We didn’t dilly-dally exiting the plane, and still our baggage made it to the carousel before we did. Way to go ATL!

The kids, while waiting for our rental car, were crashing our two roller bags into each other. I told them that their suitcase bumper cars would lose them their screens if they kept it up. Apparently they decided that Suitcase Bumper Cars would make a great band name. Maya on keys, Ian on guitar and singing. His friend Damian plays drums. Their long-time friend Herbie plays bass. I personally can’t wait to go to that show.

Day 2 – Six Flags Over Georgia + Lollipop!

Since we had gotten in so late the night before, especially given the time zone shift, we all tried to sleep in a little. We had a hotel breakfast and then were off to Six Flags to meet up with Lolli and Pop who had driven over from Alabama to hang out with us while we were in the Atlanta area.

We had a near-perfect amusement park day. The crowds were very thin, I guess since it was so early in the season. The sky was overcast and the temperature was maybe on the cooler end of being pleasant. The longest we ever waited for any ride (Superman) was maybe 15-20 minutes, and more often than not, we waited for only one iteration of the ride to run before we were able to board.

Several things were closed, which was a little sad, but I think it was an acceptable tradeoff to have such easy access to everything else. We had a new experience too. After you get seated in the Superman coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia and get all strapped in and buckled down, it actually tilts you such that your back is horizontal to the ground, with you facing downward, so that you can fly like Superman. The ride was fun with lots of twists and turns and odd-feeling inversions. But, at one point in the ride, the positive Gs you experience are such that I and my borked spine will never ride that one again. And if I encounter another that has you sitting in the same way, I’m likely to pass. Be warned!

I think Lolli and Pop were impressed with the kids’ thrill ride mania. They took to calling us the Fearsome Foursome, so willing were we all to try out all the rides.

We managed to get through the park quickly enough that we could leave a bit early and have a more civilized dinner. Lolli and Pop are Atlanta experts by this point, so at their suggestion we wound up at R. Thomas Grill. There were lots of nice vegan options for them, and a whole variety of items both vegan and otherwise that sounded very appetizing. Plus the place was kitschy fun with a relaxed hippy vibe.

On the way in and out, we peeked in on the sleeping or near-sleeping birds hanging out in enclosures outside the restaurant. There were a couple of cockatoos named Peaches and Creme, and a macaw called Ruby. I think maybe Maya is moving beyond her bird phase. She seemed only marginally interested, though maybe she’d have been more engaged if we’d gotten there early enough for the birds to be awake and active.

I think we had about enough energy to make it back to the hotel and fall quickly to sleep. Not only were we adjusting to the time change, but we’d jump forward yet another hour overnight for daylight savings time.

Day 3 – World of Coca Cola, Goodbye to Lolli and Pop, Off to Greenville

The kids had clearly been showing signs of under-sleep the day before, so we tried to let them stay in bed absolutely as late as possible without horking our schedule too much. We wandered down around 9 for breakfast, already mostly packed. After checking out, we headed into Atlanta to visit World of Coca-Cola.

There’s a very regimented way they shepherd you through the displays. First, we entered a room full of “artifacts” and played a guessing game. Then we were ushered into a theater to see a real tear-jerker of a short film that was essentially a lengthy advertisement. Then we got to walk through the big shiny vault where the super secret formula for Coca Cola is ostensibly stored.

From there, we were able to visit some more interactive exhibits. We checked out a wall of aromas. We did our own assembly of flavors and the kids got to taste test those.

The final experience (before the gift shop, of course) was the tasting room. We worked our way through dozens of Coca Cola products. I shudder to think how much sugar and caffeine our kids consumed that day. Bittersweet Beverly was there, as a fond reminder of our Disney World experience. We tried out Country Club – a sort of dry peachy one that was recommended to us on our way in. Bonbon Anglais was tropical fruity. Inca Kola was a banana-forward reminder of our Toronto trip.

We headed over to Mellow Mushroom afterward for lunch. The decor at this place was bonkers. Maya and Ian got a kick out of the punny labels on the bathrooms: Mels for the boys and Femels for the girls. Sean and I had a spectacular Cuban sandwich pizza and some seriously delicious mushroom soup.

We parted ways with Lolli and Pop at that point and started our 2-2.5 hour drive to Greenville, SC. We rolled into our hotel around 5, and not too many minutes passed before our kids were suited up and partaking of the hotel swimming pool. The pool at Drury was cool because part of it is indoor and part of it is outdoor, and the kids could swim beneath a divider to get from one side to the other.

After post-pool cleanup, we went to Society Sandwich Bar for drinks and dinner. I enjoyed Somebody’s Quincineara – a tiki drink with mezcal as the base spirit. Sean had a pina colada that made use of Jagermeister. Both drinks were amazing. We had been a little on the fence about going to this place with Maya and Ian, but the bartender cheerfully mixed the kids up some mocktails, then to their delight, served them in very cute kitty mugs.

The food was solid too. We split some Philly cheese egg rolls to start. Ian had some ramen that he really enjoyed. I thought my fried chicken sandwich with honey, pickles, jalapenos, and pimiento cheese was to die for. Four tired and under-slept Woodses went back to the hotel and crashed after all that.

Day 4 – Greenville Real Estate, Reedy River Falls, BMW Zentrum Museum, Paris Mountain State Park

After again slow-rolling our wakeup and hotel breakfast, we drove into town to meet up with a very nice real estate agent named Morgan. She gave us a bit of tourist advice and talked through our interests and described some of the neighborhoods that might be suitable for us. Armed with information, we set out to enjoy our day.

We spent a delightful hour or more tromping around Reedy River Falls, watching geese and snapping photos. This is right in the downtown area of Greenville, so we really didn’t have far to go to get anywhere. We popped briefly into the Grand Bohemian Lodge, mostly to check out the art gallery. We had fun walking across the pretty Liberty Bridge, and rather less fun locating the public restrooms.

Maya and Ian decided on sushi for lunch, and so we had a pleasant meal of gyoza and rolls and nigiri at Konnichiwa.

We drove out to Spartanburg to visit the BMW Zentrum museum after that. I had been hoping that all of us could tour the plant while we were there, but there was no tour available that would accommodate our younger kids. At least we could check out the pretty cars. I could not get over just how huge that facility was. We spent a solid few minutes circumnavigating the grounds till we finally got to the museum.

The kids got a kick out of the racing cars and the gift shop. Sean and I were enthralled with a video showing some of the vehicle assembly process. I think one of the factoids shared during the video was that the facility employs some 11,000 people, which is incredible given the extent to which robotics and automation are utilized.

Afterward we checked out the Greer real estate scene. Sean’s commentary after driving around a bit looking at houses was that he’s more in the market for a small city than a large town. Greenville would fit the bill, but Greer probably would not.

We stopped in at Bruster’s for a quick ice cream. It was warm enough in the sunshine, and the kids had been fairly tolerant of all our real estate exploration, so we figured it was time for a treat. It was nothing fancy, but it scratched the itch, and Maya and Ian seemed happy.

Since we were in the area, we drove to Paris Mountain State Park to get in a post-ice cream hike and take in the area’s natural side a bit. We hiked along the Sulphur Springs Trail to a pretty, stair-stepped waterfall. There was a photogenically decaying stone tower in front of it that Ian climbed around on a bit. All in all, a pleasant enough hike.

The kids had Poke Brothers for dinner. Sean and I love to eat poke, but we were both pretty full still. The kids didn’t realize until that moment just how much the also love poke. I think of it as relaxed sushi. Sean wound up supplementing with a bit of the hotel-provided dinner. And I dug into some of the pizza we had leftover from Mellow Mushroom.

After “dinner,” I hung out and watched the kids play in the pool for a while, while Sean went to check out a local liquor store. We always like to see if there are interesting things on offer that are either local or simply not distributed to central Texas. Alas, all Sean managed to find was that the liquor store had closed at 7pm. Whoops!

Lolli had brought along some pink-fleshed oranges for the kids to test out, and they did so after swimming. The oranges were extremely aromatic as I peeled them. Maya demolished hers in record time. Ian decided that his needed to be cold before he could enjoy them, so we popped them into the fridge for a bit. (He tried them the next day, but it turns out he didn’t like them cold either. More for Maya!)

Day 5 – Conestee Nature Preserve, Sigal Music Museum, Six and Twenty Distillery

We thought we might wake up early and catch sunrise at Reedy River Falls, so I dutifully set my alarm for 6. When it went off, Sean commented that he didn’t have a tripod along and that it likely wouldn’t be worth waking the kids, especially since it appeared that Ian might be getting the sniffles.

The kids managed to sleep through all that. Sean fell into a fitful sleep, no doubt plagued with guilt at having woken me up for no damn reason. And I relaxed and read my book for a couple hours.

We eventually all got up and moving, had our hotel breakfast, and spent a little time checking out the real estate offerings in Mauldin. We didn’t spend too long at this before we moved on to check out the Conestee Nature Preserve. We tried out the yellow trail at the preserve, thinking it would provide us the best chances to view wildlife. First thing in the morning when critters are more active might have been a better choice. The walk was a good one, if a little hot, but a little disappointing on the wildlife front. We saw some sunbathing turtles, Maya spotted a couple new birds, and we listened to a few geese honking (which I had already decided the day before made me think of Brass Monkey by the Beastie Boys, so I was well entertained). Toward the end of the trail we saw a really neat beaver dam, but no beavers to speak of.

We tried Papi’s Tacos for lunch, and it was fine. The taco game in Austin is pretty strong. I wasn’t really expecting to find anything comparable. Sean and Ian stopped in at a place called Carmella’s for dessert (Maya had had a paleta at Papi’s). Ian proudly announced that he would like to try the chocolate mouse tart please. We were only briefly flummoxed before realizing there was a really lovely chocolate mousse tart in the display case.

After lunch, we made our way over to the Sigal Music Museum. It was small, but really interesting. The first floor featured piano-esque instruments, largely from the 1800s and 1900s (with some exceptions). I wish I could remember the percentage, but they’re only able to display a small fraction of their collection at any given time. The kids were invited to play a couple of the instruments. There was a harpsichord on the way in that Ian tried out. Further in, there was a large Steinway grand piano that we couldn’t convince Maya to play till the very end of our visit.

The upstairs featured a special exhibit, “Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred.” Musical instruments from all over the world were selected from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection. This included a Tibetan percussion instrument that was made with human skulls. There were so many things displayed, the like of which I had never heard of or seen before. Our kids still aren’t big readers at museums, so we didn’t get to linger quite as long as the grown ups might have liked, but still, it was a fun visit.

We wanted to relax a bit, so we stopped in at Six and Twenty Distillery. Not being sure of the expectations in South Carolina, I popped my head in and checked that they were okay with the under-21 crowd hanging out while the over-21s sipped some whiskey. No problem at all, turns out. The kids hung out and sipped ginger beers while Sean and I tried a handful of their offerings.

Back to the hotel for laundry day – woooo! The kids had some pool time while I spent $10 at a coin-op washer and dryer getting our clothes clean and (mostly) dry.

Day 6 – Off to Asheville, Campbell’s Covered Bridge, Hendersonville, Dupont State Forest

We packed and checked out of our hotel this morning and bid farewell to Greenville. Distance-wise, the drive between Greenville, SC and Asheville, NC is not particularly lengthy, about 60 miles, but we added a couple stops, just for fun.

Campbell’s covered bridge was built in 1909, and it’s the only covered bridge left in South Carolina. We spent several pleasant minutes tromping around down by Beaverdam Creek over which the bridge spans. Maya was on a mission to catch frogs and by the end even managed to catch (and release) one of them.

From there we drove up into Hendersonville (which is maybe 20 miles south of Asheville) to check out the area. We stopped first at a visitor’s center where a nice lady gave us some helpful hiking advice. Then we parked along the main strip and had lunch at Arabella’s. Home fries are normally something Sean and I kind of write off as non-specific filler. Take note though: the home fries at Arabella’s are the stuff of legend. Crispy outside, supremely fluffy interior, and a delightful seasoning that I’m pretty sure had the barest whisper of sugar added in.

After that, we stopped in at Kilwin’s for sweet treats. Then we moseyed up and down the street, checking out the shops and, now that we were in actual North Carolina, went searching for Cheerwine. Cheerwine isn’t wine just like ginger ale isn’t ale and root beer isn’t beer. It’s flavor is reminiscent of cherry Dr Pepper and it was born in North Carolina. We found some in a candy shop, and sat right outside to try it out. All four Woodses agreed that it was delicious – a rarity in our household.

Next, we drove out to Dupont State Forest and took in a couple of waterfall hikes. We went first to Hooker Falls (named for Edwin Hooker who used to run a mill below the falls, not the oldest profession), whose trail has the unfortunate distinction of being downhill on the way to the falls and uphill on the way back from the falls.

We have apparently ruined the kids for waterfalls after having taken them to Niagara Falls a couple summers ago. Hooker falls is a whopping 12 feet tall, and the kids just weren’t impressed. Sean and I, on the other hand, enjoyed the lovely light roar of the falls and the cool breeze off the river.

I think I was the only one that still wanted to hike, but Sean and the kids humored me nonetheless. We walked next to Triple Falls, a longer and definitely more strenuous hike. Thankfully, the hard part was on the way to the big payoff (the falls) and the walk back was much easier. While larger and definitely more impressive, Maya and Ian just had trouble getting all that excited about it.

After that, we finally drove up to Asheville and checked into our hotel. We weren’t super hungry, even after all that hiking, so we let the kids swim for a while. And this pool had the same part-indoor, part-outdoor configuration. Hooray! Also, Maya and Ian made pool friends, though Ian was a little miffed that he was the only boy in the pool.

It was probably around 8:30 when we finally tried to eat dinner and it’s amazing how early things shut down. We tried to eat at a joint called Chai Pani, but they were out of room for the rest of the night by the time we got there. In hunting around for enticing choices, we quickly came to the realization that Asheville may be a bit short on late night options. And that’s the story of how our first meal in Asheville was at a Chick-fil-a. Boo.

Day 7 – Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center, Moogseum, RosaBees – the best meal of our trip

We got up and moving a little more quickly today so that we could go try Vortex for local doughnuts. I had a mango chili glazed doughnut that was spectacular, but otherwise, I think the Woodses were a little disenchanted with their experience.

We drove around a bit checking out some of the housing and real estate options because the things we wanted to do didn’t really start opening up till 10 and 11. To kill some more time, we headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center. When I started planning this trip, my Blue Ridge Parkway plan had been to drive north and take the Craggy Pinnacle hike. It wasn’t even on my radar to consider whether portions of the parkway might be seasonally closed, so I had been disappointed to find a wee or two earlier that the road to Craggy Pinnacle would not likely be open in time for us to take that route. Visitor Center personnel talked us through some alternate plans and provided us with a few maps and things and sent us on our way.

By this point in our trip, poor Ian was congested and coughing, and I was headed that way myself, so we stopped in at the Ingle’s grocery store to find some medicine and to stock our hotel fridge with more Cheerwine.

Finally things would be opening up, so we headed back into town to visit the Moogseum so the ids could learn all about making music with modular synths! The museum is small but highly interactive. You get to learn about the story of one Robert (Bob) Moog, who invented his namesake synthesizer in 1964. There isn’t a ton of reading to be done, but still the kids wouldn’t. Luckily, there were theramins to play with as well as a number of different models of Moog synthesizers (Moog Modular, Voyager, Subsequent 37, and Moog Mini) to try to figure out. Maya was bent that she couldn’t play chords, but she seemed to think patch cables were fun, and she really enjoyed the theramin. Ian is more willing to let another person help him figure things out, and so he and Sean worked together to get interesting noises out of the synths. Overall though, I think he was a little bored.

After this, we headed straight to Chai Pani for lunch and waited only a few moments for a seat to open up. This place was worth the wait. We started with okra “fries” which were an absolute hit with our table – cut thin and fried crispy, they had all the lovely okra flavor and none of the mucus texture. Our meals themselves were amazing. I failed to write down what we ate, but Sean and I each ordered a dish and then traded halfway through. The kids ate their food well, in my recollection.

After lunch, we stopped in at Cultivated Cocktails so the grownups could sample the goods. They were kind enough to make the kids some mocktails as well. Plus, at the table we were sitting at, there was a journal, and one of the staff members stopped by and encouraged the kids to write and draw in it.

Maya and Ian had behaved very well at the distillery, so we took them for sweet treats again at Kilwin’s, where I let Maya talk me into letting her get a caramel apple (all of which she ate), and where Ian selected some chocolate-covered and sprinkle-bedecked Oreos.

We thought we’d drive out to do the short family tour at the New Belgian Brewery’s Asheville location, but we arrived just in time to find that tour only ran sporadically and to try calling the next day. Well, I tried calling a couple different times and could never get through to someone to tell me about those tours. Maybe another time.

We took the kids back to the hotel for a quick swim while we figured out dinner. We eventually settled on RosaBees, but they only had a late reservation, so we killed some time by heading up to Tanbark Ridge Overlook. It was a little hazy, but still we had a lovely view of the mountains.

RosaBees is in an area of town known as the River Arts District (or RAD for short), and since we were still early for our reservation, we wandered around and took in the graffiti and checked out the local businesses who had settled there. The art was a lot of fun and the vibe was for sure laid back.

Dinner at RosaBees was phenomenal. Our reservation time was like 30 minutes before they closed and we were all dressed very casually, but they did nothing but make us feel welcome and cared for. We started by splitting a lomi salmon appetizer (Ian is a big fan of salmon). Maya had a poke bowl that was chock full of things she loves. Ian was probably the big winner with his bowl of saimin with gochujang pork belly. Sean went traditional with a loco moko with mushroom gravy. I went for the ube scallops – seared scallops with purple sweet potatoes – and that was lovely too. We ended our decadent evening with a giant dessert that we wound up splitting four ways. I regret nothing.

Day 8 – A Lot of Eating, Drinking, Packing, and Sniffling

Our intention had been to get up early, grab doughnuts from Geraldines, and then spend a few hours puttering on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Amazingly / Amusingly, neither of the grownups thought to check the weather. Four Woodses belted headlong out into drizzle and drear.

We did go and get our doughnuts from Geraldine’s, and everyone seemed much happier with this experience. Sean and the kids each got something called The Henry – a croissant dough doughnut with chocolate cream – they tell me it was delicious. Sugar in the morning doesn’t always agree with my constitution (stupid aging), so instead of doughnuts, I chose an asiago bagel sandwich with egg and cheese, which was also delicious and very satisfying.

We gamely drove back out to Tanbark Overlook and while it was misty and eerie and honestly quite beautiful, the sky was growing more overcast by the moment and the sun never showed, so we gave it up and headed back to the hotel to rest a little and figure out what to do instead.

Sean sagely pointed out that we really needed to have some Carolina-style barbecue while we were here. After some quick local research, we settled on Luella’s, where we enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches and a variety of sauces. Sean had mac and cheese and I had some pleasantly thin and crispy sweet potato chips.

After more driving around and checking out real estate, we tried out Devil’s Foot Beverage Company, whose farm-to-can ethos informs their soda and canned cocktail line. We thought the kids would get a kick out of this since they offered such interesting soda flavors. For my part, I thought their sodas were wonderful, but that’s not too surprising because they had very little sugar. The kids, especially Ian, were underwhelmed. Maya seemed to love her fuego ginger but didn’t care for the cherry limeade. Ian tried both the ginger and the root beer but didn’t really take to either.

Too bad, too, because this was meant to satisfy them for a while, so Mom and Dad could check out a nearby distillery. The Eda Rhyne distillery was exciting because they create a variety of spirits that make use of “heirloom grains and local botanicals,” and the results are indeed unique. Luckily, the place is actually family friendly. There was a no-quarters-required stand-up arcade style video game console to play at. They happily made the kids mocktails to sip on. And there was a juke box too, though the jury’s out as to whether it was accepting customer input.

Meanwhile, Sean had a black Manhattan, made with their nocino (a walnut liqueur). I had a three-sample tasting of some of their fine and lovely bitter spirits. Sean let me choose what we took home from this place – I wound up with an Amaro Oscuro and an Appalachian Fernet, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with them!

We did a little more scoping out of the local real estate after this, and then, though we gave Maya and Ian the option of going to the arcade, they chose to go back to the hotel and swim for a little while instead. Ian and I weren’t feeling super well, and the weather still hadn’t really cleared up, so we we just rolled with it.

We hit the White Duck Taco Shop location back in the River Arts District for dinner. They had frozen Cheerwine on the menu.- hooray! And their taco menu was pretty esoteric. Some of our more interesting choices were tacos filled with shrimp and grits, duck mole, and bulgogi with kimchi. They had pretty good chips and queso too. All in all, a pleasant experience.

And it provided a nice break before we needed to pack. This was no longer “long drive in a car” packing, this was now “suitcases on an airplane” packing, so it took a little longer. We had an astonishingly large quantity of liquor bottles to secure! And the kids had done a good job of finding interesting souvenirs. Most of it was finished that evening, which just a little left over for the next morning.

Day 9 – Blue Ridge Parkway, Heading Home

Our flight out of Atlanta didn’t leave till the evening, and so we had some time to take the scenic route between Asheville and Atlanta and get at least a little of the Blue Ridge Parkway experience.

After a quick hotel breakfast, final packing, and checking out of our last hotel, we were on our way. The weather wasn’t perfect, but we made the most of it. We stopped at overlooks and took photos and admired the curvy, crazy roads.

We even managed to take one small hike – the Frying Pan Mountain Tower Trail. At the end of the trail, we were able to climb nearly to the top of that 70-foot tall fire lookout tower, and the views were nearly as breathtaking as the cold, cold wind that what whipping through.

We climbed back down and made our way back to the car and finished our drive to the airport. One thing that was tricky, since we were early in the season, the facilities were largely closed. Facilities here includes bathrooms. Every one of them was locked. We were warned to make sure the gas tank was full before entering Blue Ridge Parkway, but no one warned us to also make sure our bladders were empty. Lesson learned!

I don’t recall the drive to the airport being particularly remarkable. We returned our rental car and got through the airport without any real issue. We had a layover in New Orleans and right around dinner time, so I thought maybe we could score one more good meal on the way home. Alas, even though it was like 7-7:30, things were closing down. We wound up just sneaking in some hot dogs and burgers and calling it a day.

The big question is, would we want to live in Greenville or Asheville? There are positives to both. I think we generally liked the feel of Greenville more, but it’s hard to argue with the scenery in Asheville. After digging around in the real estate market, it seems like the best we could hope for is a financially lateral move, and we haven’t decided whether it’s worth the upheaval to the kids’ lives to relocate. Now, ask me again in July, and I will personally probably have a more clear opinion. Either way, we had a fun vacation experiencing a part of the country that none of us had been to before.

For all our relative rest in January, February came in like a freight train. Throughout the end of January and right up to the day, Sean and the kids were working on cars for the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby.

It all started with a build day at one of the pack meetings back in January. A bandsaw was brought in by one of the other parents so that everyone could cut their pine blocks into the profile they wanted. I was worried my anxiety might actually immobilize me if I saw that many kids age 11 and under around bandsaws, so I asked Sean to go with Ian to that meeting. He had talked through preferences with both the kids ahead of time. Ian decided that he didn’t care whether his car was fast, he just wanted it to look cool. Maya wanted hers to look like a cat … and to be fast.

To separate the ear ridge in Maya’s car, Sean drilled it out with a rotary tool. At the kids’ request, he bought white wheels to replace the black ones that came in the original car kit. Ian had selected a big metal skull to include in his design, but it took up half the weight allowance of the car (a paltry 5.04 oz), so they ultimately decided to save it for next year.

Pieces and parts showed up from all over. Sean visited the local Scout store, bought odds and ends from Amazon, ran to the craft store for the correct paint colors, and even made a trip or two to the hardware store.

Decorating started with a layer of spray paint for each kid’s car. Maya’s was the base color for her cat, Ian’s ultimately was entirely painted over. Maya painted hers to look like Lumos, our seal point siamese / tabby mix. Ian wanted his to look creepy, and big, veiny eyeballs were his theme. Eventually Maya’s was called the Furball Express and Ian’s was called ICU. Get it? It’s an eyeball pun.

The several days of painting weren’t even the half of it though. I had Sean explain to me all the little tweaks he made to improve the speed of the kids’ derby cars. He added tungsten weights to each car. Evidently the weight distribution is the biggest factor to gaining speed. He carefully drilled holes into each of the cars about 1/3 of the car’s length from the back. He used gorilla glue to secure the weights in the holes. After that swelled and dried to its ultimate size, he used wood filler to make up the difference. Then he sanded the whole apparatus smooth.

Removing friction was another big consideration. He bought some kinda tool to allow the axles to be bent at a precise angle so that the back wheels could ride on the outside edges of the wheels and the front ones could ride on the insides. Further, he used a saw to raise one side of the front axle channel slightly so that the left front wheel wouldn’t actually even touch the ground. This also allowed the car to do something called “rail riding,” whereby the car is pulled very slightly into the rail so that it doesn’t bounce around as much, which would otherwise be something of a momentum killer.

But wait, there’s more! He also de-burred and polished the axles. He achieved this by sticking the axle in a drill as if it were a drill bit, turning the drill on and taping down the on-switch, and then using moistened 1000-grit sandpaper to smooth the axle. And just in case things weren’t rolling smoothly enough after that, the axles were dusted in graphite powder to boot.

My gram scale, which is normally only used once in a while for precise measurements of seasonings for batches of sausage or yeast and salt for bread got a real workout during this whole process.

Check in for the derby cars happened the evening of February 2nd, with the big event happening the next day. It was clear that there was a tinge of unease when Maya and Ian had to surrender their cars for the night.

Sean got the majority of his advice from this video from Mark Rober, the engineer who rose to nerdy fame by creating a stinky glitter bomb to thwart a package thief. As I understand it, these are the easy hacks. A derby parent could go way, way beyond this. To quote a friend of mine, whose son was in cub scouts when he was younger, “Not saying I went over the top with pinewood racing, but I own a bandsaw, scroll saw, drill press, track, books and other assorted tools.” And later, “Note I am also not saying I didn’t go over the top. When I was buying syringes to properly apply wheel oil, I might have had a moment.” Heh.

The day of the race was pretty amazing. The scout leaders and volunteers were extremely well-organized and things went very smoothly. They made sure each car had a chance to run in each of the track slots and then averaged their time. This was done by den, then for the siblings, and later on, for the outlaws. Maya wound up taking second place in the siblings race! Competition was pretty fierce in the bear den though, and Ian, who admittedly had gone more for style than speed, didn’t fare quite as well (though he still had a really fast car).

There were tons of design awards also, and that’s where Ian was hoping to succeed. One of the categories was creepiest car, and he thought that was his niche. Sadly, an all-black car decorated with a tombstone was chosen instead. Then, to add insult to injury, Maya’s car was chosen for the best name award. She was understandably quite excited about her successes, but poor Ian had a rough day. She wasn’t even in scouts! Luckily, the blow was somewhat softened by him getting to go to a friend’s house for a sleepover later on that day.

Back in January, Maya had chosen band for her fine arts class next year in middle school. As part of that process, she attended an instrument test drive that afternoon after derby. She was given a sheet with all the instruments listed and blanks for each instrument’s proctor to assign a rating from 1 to 5, with 5 showing the most aptitude and 1 the least. We started with the flute, which was a little tricky, and she got maybe a 1 or 2 on that, but for everything else she tried, she had nothing but fours and fives, and mostly fives. She knew she didn’t want to do orchestra, so I think she tried everything but the string section.

Maya has perfect pitch. This essentially means she can hear a note and just tell you what it is without any reference note for comparison. She’s constantly dinging glassware and squeaking doors so she can tell you what note she’s hearing. It used to embarrass the heck out of me. Her former piano teacher would try and do solfege with her class of piano students – hand signs to go with do re mi. For what they were doing, the “do” was supposed to be a C, and evidently her teacher didn’t quite hit it, and Maya would loudly point out, “that’s not a C!” Sigh. Luckily her teacher rolled with it.

Anyhow, the folks letting her try out the instruments seemed pretty tickled with this ability, some of them testing her, some of them clearly trying to let her find notes on her own. She had so much fun. Our one hour visit wound up lasting for two solid hours. In the end it was down to oboe or clarinet, and Maya ultimately decided she enjoyed the feel of a double reed instrument over a single reed instrument, though she loved the way both of them sounded.

Immediately after this, we fetched a friend of Maya’s and they had a sleepover at our house. It was so busy that day. You know what else happened that day? My birthday. I don’t make too big of a fuss over things being on the actual date, so we actually went out for birthday dinner the night before. The four of us ate at Musashino. The sushi was excellent, to be sure, but possibly my favorite thing I ate that evening was a dish of salmon skin, fried and served with a pile of interesting veggies.

On the day of my birthday, after all the running around after kids, I baked a cake. I have gotten some amount of shit for baking my own birthday cake (Sean would like everyone to know that none of this shit came from him), but here’s the thing: I like to make them, and since it’s my fucking birthday, I don’t have to care about anyone’s preferences but my own. I made a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing, and I loved it!

The day after my birthday, I spent the afternoon taking Ian on a hike with his cub scout bear den, and then afterward we hung out at home and let me open gifts. This birthday is a weird one for me. I don’t generally get too wound up about my age, but I’m 48 this year, which happens to be the same age my mom was when she died. Her habits and lifestyle and circumstances were vastly different from my own, so it’s not that I’m worried. But it has me thinking about her more than I might normally allow. She missed so much. We’ve missed so much with her. I wonder how Maya and Ian would have reacted to her. She was a good human who didn’t always make the best choices, and in the baggage-free way kids love their grandparents, I expect they’d have loved her just the same.

Anyhow, it was a crazy, action-packed week! The kids had school photos on the 7th. And I thought I wasn’t going to get to post them for February, but luckily, we received them just a day or two ago.

Maya had a rough run in art class during second quarter. She loves making art, but when she decides she doesn’t want to do something, it can be hard to move that mountain. She even got dinged a little for behavior on her report card for it! What could be the cause for all this ire? Self portraits. She didn’t want to do one, at all. She explained it to me every time she had art class. So you can imagine my surprise when I received an email in February that said, “Your student’s self portrait has been selected to represent Davis Elementary in the Austin ISD District Art Show.” I was so shocked, I verified that it was Maya they were talking about and asked for a photo of this much-hated self portrait. Lots of wins for Maya this month!

As the kids are getting older, holidays seem to be a little less all-consuming. For Valentine’s Day this year, I baked the kid a heart-shaped pan of brownies and ordered them valentines from Amazon that they spent an afternoon filling out for their classrooms. They received cool hoodies from Lolli and Pop and Amazon gift cards from Grammy and Grandpa, both of which they were quite excited about.

Our weather has already been unseasonably warm. The daffodils came up sunny and bright mid-month. We have had multiple days well into the 80s already, with one day creeping dangerously close to 90. I could have cried. Please don’t let spring be over already!

I have a sous vide machine that was gifted to me by a friend who couldn’t return a water-damaged unit for refund. The machine (a SousVide Supreme Demi) worked great, and I made only one dish with it. We made that meal with some regularity though. I had planned to make said dish one week and was sad to discover that the machine refused to power on. We poked around at it a bit, tried to decide if it was worth trying to fix and ultimately decided to replace it with an immersion circulator. Somewhere in the past several years, these things have moved beyond professional kitchens and science labs to become a consumer item. The one thing I’ve tried so far – pork belly chashu to add to my packaged ramen – turned out beautifully. Now I make two dishes sous vide! (Maybe I should try more, now that I have the flexibility afforded by the circulator.)

We made onion dip from scratch so that it would be eat-able by a gluten intolerant friend, and it was DELICIOUS! If you don’t like to cook, it may not be worth spending time caramelizing onions, but if you don’t mind, then it is totally worth the effort. Just make sure you buy really sturdy potato chips – even the ridged ones we bought weren’t up to the task.

The rest of the month was ok, I guess. I discovered on unpacking Maya’s school bag that she had fidgeted a pencil entirely through her math workbook. One our friends asked if she disliked math. No, she actually loves math. I suspect she was just bored and may not even have been entirely aware that she was putting a pencil through her work.

Our internet was down for a couple days, which isn’t optimal for two technical people working from home. I discovered very quickly that my phone’s hot spot was not up to the task, not without a serious bandwidth upgrade. The kids’ screen time wasn’t super exciting without internet access either, so we all went out for palliative ice cream instead.

Toward the end of the month, we went with Ian to the Cub Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet. I was on more than one parent meeting where this banquet was discussed as though everyone knew what it was for. I had to look it up. It’s a celebration of the birthday of the founding of Boy Scouts of America. We went and had barbecue, watched Ian get awards for completing another bear adventure and for selling popcorn in the fall. We saw the fifth grade cubs cross over to being actual boy scouts instead. It was all very ceremonial.

In an odd turn, I’m actually writing this up on the last day of February! In the end, it’ll take a few more days to get photos and to post, but I’m sort of on time for a change. Who knew that was even possible!

With the Halloween, Thanksgiving, three birthdays, Christmas craziness behind us, it was finally time to breathe. After getting home late on New Year’s Eve and staying up to ring in the new year, we took it easy on New Year’s Day.

I woke up and made cinnamon rolls from scratch. I realize that doesn’t sound like taking it easy, but I find it pleasant to cook when there aren’t a thousand other things I should be doing instead. I didn’t get out of bed early, and I made my coffee before I started and it was probably 10:00 before we were eating breakfast, but no one was in a big hurry. If anyone’s interested, I used this recipe, and I quartered it.

Maya and Ian didn’t go back to school till January 9th, so they had plenty of time to work their way through some of their Christmas gifts at a leisurely pace. They stayed up late and slept in and seemed to take full advantage of their break.

We lost access to Netflix DVDs and Blue-rays toward the end of last year, so we’re still trying to mentally transition to not just adding things to our Netflix queue when something interesting comes out. Given this, we hustled out to catch Wonka at the theater before school started not knowing whether we’d eventually have access to it via one of our streaming service. I really enjoyed the movie. Certainly I have a soft spot for the original, but this one’s a contender.

Back in November, I had broken down that big ribeye roll. I was determined not to let any of my investment go to waste, so I had ground the meatier trimmings for use in burgers later. Alas, that was going to be way, WAY too fatty for pleasant consumption, so we got a small hunk of brisket and ground that up to mix in. That has made several delightful meals of probably still slightly too fatty burger. The kids love them best if they’re not served on a bun.

Mid-month, the weather forecast was calling for a pretty hard freeze coming up. There was no precipitation called for really, so as long as the power grid held up, we figured it wasn’t too big of a deal. Still, it prompted the bringing inside of tender potted plants and the protecting of hose spigots and our beloved palm tree. When Sean did our regular weekly grocery run, he said things were pretty picked over. Luckily, we weren’t really needing any of the staple items that the panic-buyers scoop up in such strangely large quantities.

For a couple days, it didn’t get above freezing. The kids had a delayed start at school for a couple days. Generally, it was fine. Then things started thawing. Sean had just taken the kids to swim class, and I was just settling in to cook dinner and figured I’d roll in our trash cans so I’d have easy access to the compost bin. As I was rolling the compost bin into the back yard, I heard a weird noise, very much like rushing water.

And that’s when I noticed our new fountain! We have this oddly-placed spigot in the middle of the back yard. It had been covered up, but apparently not sufficiently for it not to freeze and break (we figure it had been stressed in previous freezes). I tried and failed multiple times to shut off our water to the house (we have the correct tool now) and ended up calling an emergency plumbing service to cap the pipe.

During all this hubbub, we were also becoming educated on middle school class selection. Maya is a little nervous but also very excited about middle school next year. The fifth-graders had already gotten to visit the school back in December. We went again as a family one evening this month to talk to the different teachers and understand about some of the different math and foreign language and fine arts classes on offer.

Maya wasn’t sure whether she’d rather be in choir or band. In elementary school, in both fourth and fifth grade, she had a lot of fun in the after school choir group, but they put on a production of a musical each year. We were sad to find that the middle school theater group didn’t do musicals. We went to talk to the choir kids to see if they put on musicals. Maya asked them if they did anything other than just sing. The young lady who talked to us was clearly very fond of choir and happily explained to Maya that no, they don’t just sing, they dance too! Maya audibly noped out of choir at that point and our conversation was over. Luckily, she seemed to find her people in the band group.

I went to a very small school up through eighth grade, so all of this is amusingly new to me. However, I just can’t believe the pressure that’s put on these kids already in middle school to think about attaining high school credit. And then I attended a phone call about how things play out in high school and was astonished at how hard they pushed the kids to start attaining college credit in high school. Sean has looked into it some and has found that entrance into the UT college system can be extremely competitive, even if you’re in-state, so possibly all this fervor is well-placed.

Maybe it’s easier to see at my advanced age, or maybe I’m just not keeping up with the times. Life is short, childhood especially so. I refuse to put pressure on our 11-year-old to take the toughest course load that she’s capable of carrying, and frankly I’m a little put off by the parents who do that to their kids. I’ve even gently suggested that Maya doesn’t have to take the hardest courses, that she’ll want time to play her instruments and hang out with her friends, to read, to be a kid. We’ll see how it goes.

Ian has chosen to be in the after school choir group again this year as well. He participated last year as well and seemed to like it well enough. Plus one of his best friends joined with him, which I suspect is the main motivation.

Maya had signed up for the UIL competition this year. She’s never shown any interest before (her latent competitive streak seems to have been unlocked this school year), and it’s up to her whether she participates in these things, so it’s nothing we’ve pushed. Her fifth grade teacher seemed astonished that she hadn’t been part of UIL before this year.

UIL stands for University Interscholastic League and at the grade school level offers a handful of academic contests for area schools. Maya chose to participate in oral reading, where she would read a couple of poems out loud, and number sense, where she would have to very rapidly do math in her head.

On the day of the North Austin competition, which was held at her elementary school this year, we headed into a very loud and crowded cafeteria and waited for her specific events to start. Her oral reading was first, and it kept dragging on and on. Her number sense competition had already started when she finally got out of the room and headed down for that next event.

After she came out of number sense, I had asked if she wanted to wait around for food and for the awards ceremony. She told me she didn’t think she had done that well and that we could go get something else to eat. I was content to leave because by then I was finding the crowd overwhelming as well, and also, given her heretofore noncompetitive nature, I was inclined to trust her judgement on how she had done in the contests.

We left. We took the kids to have lunch at one of their favorite restaurants (Freddy’s) and then we headed home to relax. The UIL competition was just a thing that we had tried out, and now we were on to other things. No big deal. And then, Maya’s math teacher texted me. Maya had won first place in the number sense competition. She’ll go on to a district-level competition in March.

Since we didn’t stay for the awards ceremony, Maya received her ribbons in school on Monday. It turns out, she also placed 5th in the oral reading competition. Only first through third place go onto the district competition, so she will be competing in number sense but not oral reading. Still though, for a kid who thought she hadn’t done very well, it seems like she made out all right.

In other news, around the 21st of January, the kids started work on their Pinewood Derby cars for Cub Scouts. They even let Maya participate in the sibling’s competition, much to her delight. Sean was hard at work getting kids to start making design choices for their cars so that at the January 21st build meeting, he could have someone with a bandsaw actually cut the cars into the profile the kids wanted. Much, much more work was done on these cars, but I’ll cover that more in the February post, since that’s when they actually raced.

Toward the end of the month, Ian, who is becoming quite the artist, started attending an after school art class once a week. He refuses to show me any of his work, but he tells me he enjoys the class, so we’ll lean into that.

And that’s our January! It provided the slow re-build we needed following our insane October – December. We took things so slow that we didn’t even get our Christmas tree denuded and out to the curb till mid-month, and I don’t even care. It’s been nice to stop and smell the cinnamon rolls.

All of us were ostensibly well again leading into December. We let Maya stay home on Friday the 1st. Even though she’d been fever-free for over 24 hours, she was clearly still exhausted. I had no problem believing here either. For one, Maya hates missing school. For another, Sean and I were still both pretty wiped out, and even Ian, though he’d never admit it, was still running a little slower than normal (and he was awfully compliant about bedtime).

That evening, Anna hung out with the kids while Sean tolerated a Liz Phair concert for me. Right after college, I did field work, and so I would spend hours in the rental car driving this way and that along various fiber routes. This was in the olden days when you either listened to the local radio stations or brought a handful of CDs along. “Exile in Guyville” traveled many miles with me that year, and when I heard it would be performed in its entirety, it sounded like something I didn’t want to miss.

It was a weird experience. She and her band sounded great, and they put on a solid show. But this is an album I listened to in college in my late teens / early twenties. Back then I ran on anger, self-possession, and an overdeveloped “fuck you” attitude. I’ve mellowed considerably since then, so mostly I think I had a mental chuckle at how Ms. Phair, who is slightly older than I am even, felt about singing these songs now. I was happy I went, and I think even Sean enjoyed himself a little (or was saying so just so I wouldn’t worry about it).

We managed to start decorating our Christmas trees some over the weekend finally. Lights, garlands, and stars went up. The kids selected the ornaments for their little tree, and we hung a few on the bigger trees as well. This year, we decided to buy a single reasonably-sized real tree (7-8 feet) and then flanked it with a couple of shorter, skinny tinsel trees. I thought it was very pretty and gave us plenty of real estate for ornament hanging.

On December 3rd, Sean’s birthday, I wound up begging him to take Ian to his scouting event so I could finish making his birthday cake. At his request, I made the same chocolate malt cake that I have for the past several years. The recipe had moved websites, and the link to the icing recipe was broken so I had to improvise a little. I should really write this stuff down.

For Ian’s scout outing, to fulfill their “Fellowship and Duty to God” adventure, they visited a local Buddhist temple! I was so impressed and maybe a little sad that I didn’t get to go with Ian. Sean tells me that that group of 8- and 9-year old kids behaved very well and were respectful throughout.

That evening, For Sean’s 50th birthday, we tried taking Maya and Ian along with us to Uchi, one of our very favorite restaurants. The kids have developed a deep affection for sushi over the past year, and historically Uchi has served us many spectacular meals over our long time in Austin, so we were hopeful. We had the kids dress up a little, and I think that may have helped set the tone. They were so well behaved! Sean and I had the omakase (meaning the chef selects our dishes) and the kids each chose some nigiri, a sushi roll, and a cooked dish. Between the food they picked, which they definitely loved, and bites of our various dishes (many of which they also liked), we spent an entertaining evening celebrating a milestone birthday and mmmm-ing over our food.

The next week saw us decorating the trees in little fits and starts, trying to finalize Ian’s birthday planning, and getting Maya to all the events surrounding her after school choir group. She had rehearsal on Monday, rehearsal on Tuesday, three performances on Wednesday (one of which occurred in the evening so family and friends could watch), and then finally a caroling event in the Balcones Woods neighborhood right near the school on Friday.

Maya’s musical this year was the Broadway show “Seussical,” or rather a school-age adaptation of the same. She had to audition and was placed in the role of Mrs. Mayor. While she had originally wanted to be one of the cats in their infamous hats, she eventually came around, learned all her lines and songs, and did a bang-up job!

And after that crazy week, on Saturday, we drove to Houston for Ian’s cub scout campout at NASA’s Space Center Houston. I had been looking forward to their camp out at NASA ever since Ian decided he wanted to be in cub scouts. The last time we went to the space center, the kids were a lot younger and somewhat less interested. This time, the crazy was different. Just like the camping trip in November, we wouldn’t even be there for 24 hours and a great deal of that time was fully-scheduled.

We arrived early enough that we could wander around and check out the exhibits for a while on Saturday before the schedule kicked in. That was fun. Outside, we of course got to see the full-scale model of the space shuttle and its carrier 747. They also have a Falcon 9 rocket that we could check out. That guy clearly had some service scars from the two missions it was used for. Inside we saw exhibits showing space flight’s history of course, but also displays relating to the new Artemis mission to the moon and what subsequent space flight to Mars might entail. Maya chuckled over how much the Mars mock up looked like Arches National Park. We watched some excellent movies relating to the astronauts on the ISS and how their day-to-day lives ran. The idea of adapting to a space with no formal “up” or “down” boggles my brain a little.

Once the doors closed to the general public, the schedule kicked in. The good folks at Space Center Houston had activities galore planned for the kids, and Maya and Ian wanted to do ALL OF THEM. Meanwhile the parents gazed wistfully at the huge and unique light display (it was called “Galaxy Lights”) and hoped they’d be able to eke out a little time to walk through it.

The kids built rockets, made crafts, built gingerbread habitats (“Repeat after me: do not eat your habitat.”) drove RC vehicles, and consumed more sugar than Sean or I probably want to know about. In short, they had a blast (ha). We even managed to sneak out for a few minutes here and there to wander amongst the Christmas lights.

Once all the Christmas light visitors cleared out, the space center was locked down and we set up camp right amongst the exhibits. We could have camped outside, and I might have liked to, but given the uncertainty of the weather in December, we didn’t sign up for that option.

After a difficult night, we managed to pack up, grab breakfast, and make it to our tram tour on time. We got to see the giant Saturn V rocket, of course, but this time we got to see the Astronaut Training Facility. When we visited several years ago, it was Mission Control that we got to see.

After a stint at the gift shop, it was time to head home. Ian wound up riding back with his friend Malcolm, and Maya was delighted to have a brother-free ride home.

The very next morning, I was on a stupid-early flight to NYC for work – what timing! It was interesting seeing New York City all decked out for the holidays. Because of where the telco sites we visited were located, we stayed down in the financial district. Airport aside, I’m not sure we ever made it further north than maybe 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Still, it was a good trip, and it renewed my interest in getting a family vacation set up sooner than later. There’s so much to see, and honestly with the subway system, it’s not too bad getting around.

I arrived back in town on Thursday in time to drive Maya to her piano lesson. After I got back from that, Sean and I sat down and purchased basically all the Christmas gifts we could buy online for both Missouri and Alabama.

The next day, after work was done, Sean took Ian to get some birthday balloons, and I got his cake baked. He just wanted plain vanilla cake, but we decided to decorate it like a Poke Ball! I have a friend who did this with a spherical cake, if you can believe that. I was not that brave, and instead used a regular old double layer cake. I don’t think Ian minded.

On Saturday, we had Ian’s party at the Move Sport Ninja Academy, a Ninja Warrior gym. He had been to a party there earlier in the year and absolutely loved it, and the same was true this time. The kids played and played for the better part of our two-hour time, interrupted only a pizza and cake break midway through.

The next day, Ian had a caroling event with his cub scout troop. They went to a local nursing home and sang for the residents there. After caroling, Ian picked up his kit for participating in the pinewood derby. Sean will be building his derby car with him, so it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with.

The next day, we spent time making ornaments for grandparent gifts and taking Ian out to his favorite restaurant, Pappadeaux, for his birthday dinner. As usual, he feasted on fried crawfish. He had a celebratory brownie for dessert. Then we went home and opened gifts, and guess what? Ian got roller blades. Both kids will have their own skates for the rink.

We had our Texas Christmas on the 22nd. I had planned to work that day, but I just couldn’t quite figure out how to get everything in before our trip out of town. Ultimately I took the day off and was mentally much better off for it. I could get all the clothes laundered, things prepped for our cat-sitter, and I could relax and enjoy everyone opening their gifts without feeling like I had to make sure I hadn’t missed any emails.

And then the very next morning, we left at ridiculous o’clock to get ourselves to the airport to fly to Memphis! The way we split things up this year was to book a round trip flight to Memphis. Then we rented a car and drove first north to the Missouri grandparents, then southeast to the Alabama grandparents, then northeast back to Memphis. It’s a tolerable medium. I think.

We were really worried about how busy the airport would be given how awful it had been right before Thanksgiving. Then the afternoon before we left, I happened to notice a local news article urging us to make reservations for parking spots at the airport. What? I didn’t even know that was a thing. Alas, those have to be made 24 hours ahead, so we’d just have to show up and do our best.

Sure enough, when we got there, regular long term parking was fully booked. Luckily, there was space available in the more expensive garage parking (we were in the blue garage), so that’s what we did. We got parked and through security with a minimum of fuss, and consequently, we had plenty of time to go grab breakfast and sit down to eat it and still had time to relax before our flight.

Our flight was uneventful and our luggage was readily available after we landed in Memphis. And we had arrived early enough that all the rental car places would still be open! Alas, our rental car place (it was Dollar) had no cars available for us. We had a reservation. Actually, to save money, we pre-paid our rental. They sort of shrugged and told Sean it might be a couple hours before a car was available, maybe more. There was nothing for it but to wait. Luckily (?) our wait wound up being about an hour before we got the most smoke-smelly-then-covered-up-with-perfume funky car I’ve ever been in. I thought poor Maya, who has trouble with certain smells, was going to abandon ship altogether and spend Christmas in Memphis.

Luckily we rolled into Missouri with a minimum of fuss (though both the grownups were unspeakably tired after our early start). The kids got to see their grandparents and stretch out and play.

It was unseasonably warm, so the next day, Christmas Eve, Grammy and Grandpa suggested we go to Tower Rock. First though, we loaded up on a doughnuts from Hoeckele’s Bakery. Grandpa had fetched an assortment and we spent a couple lovely breakfasts having interesting doughnuts (my favorite was the red velvet cake one).

The Mississippi River was low enough that you could actually walk over to Tower Rock. Usually, the river flows around it. On the way, we saw a bald eagle, perched in a field. Dad thought he maybe had his eye out for fresh roadkill.

It was indeed a beautiful day to be outside. The eroded limestone is sort of naturally stair-stepped and easy to climb, and Ian made ample use of this feature. The rope we might normally use to climb to the top had been removed, but I think Ian, given half a chance, might have gone up anyway. Coming back down would have been tricky. Maya seemed to enjoy poking at the sand and casting her thoughtful gaze up the river. We’re assuming she was thinking through Blox Fruits strategies. She did find a hollowed out gar that was pretty interesting to look at.

We had stopped for a late lunch at East Perry Pub. The food was really good and even though they were busier than we expected on Christmas Eve, we got to eat fairly quickly.

That evening, Maya and Ian decided they wanted to go to church and see my sister Rachel’s kids perform in their Christmas program. I worried that we only had casual clothes, but Grammy and Grandpa were quick to tell us that was no problem. We taught the kids how to use the hymnals so they could sing along, and especially Ian was all in on the singing. Maya tells me that she hummed instead. We got to see the older Bachmann kids singing at the front of the church, but the two little boys had fallen dead asleep in Grammy’s lap!

I had forgotten, it’s been so long, but it is customary for the kids to get handed a paper bag full of fruit, nuts, and candy on the way out of church after the Christmas program. Maya and Ian were delighted!

On Christmas day, we did a lot of lounging around. We mentioned to Ian that Grandpa had real guns and that maybe Ian could ask to see them. Grandpa did one better; he let Ian shoot with one! After a very good explanation of gun safety, Grandpa and Ian did some basic target practice with a .22 caliber rifle. Ian struggled a little with the length of the rifle, but was able to aim and shoot fairly well regardless. As we walked down and set up to shoot, all was quiet, but after the first shot, the big white goose that has called Grammy and Grandpa’s pond home, Gus, set to honking and making his way hastily across the pond.

Against all odds, Imo’s pizza was open, and so on Christmas day, we had a satisfying lunch of toasted ravioli and provel-coated pizza. It was at Maya’s request, but I was so, so happy to get to eat there.

That evening, we had the big holiday party at Aunt Sharon and Uncle Doug’s house. All Ian could talk about was getting to play the ball game again. In this case, it is not a traditional sport, despite what the name might imply. A pile of random goods (think stickers, ice scrapers, ornaments, lotion, barbecue tools, etc, etc) get wrapped, layer after layer, in plastic wrap. The initial ball the players are presented with is immense. One player dons gloves and tries to unwrap the plastic wrap as quickly as possible, while the player next to them rolls a pair of dice. The first player can continue to unwrap till the next player rolls doubles, and anything that falls out is theirs to keep.

It results in barely controlled mayhem, and while that may not appeal to every kid, ours love it, especially Ian. We came home with all manner of crazy stuff. Sean and I, for example, now each have an ice scraper to put in the car. There were scads of stickers and wacky ornaments. I hear there was candy, but somehow that all got eaten before it was packed up for shipping.

We played more games, sampled whiskeys (including one that Dad/Grandpa used a home smoke infusion kit on, to lovely effect), and ate finger foods till I thought we might burst. It was a fun, laid-back evening, and I’m so happy we got to go again this year.

The next day, we woke up as early as our late night and alcohol consumption allowed and started cooking! Carol always makes a huge and glorious spread of nibbles that we all graze on throughout the day, and I do my best to keep up and help out a little here and there.

During all the nibbling, we snuck in various permutations of family photos all while the kids slowly melted over how long it was taking to get to the glorious pile of gifts under the tree. After the last photos was taken and the Christmas story was ready, finally the kids could open their presents. With eight grandkids, they were opened faster than Grandpa could hand them out, and I still don’t quite know what everyone got.

Poor Nathan had a rough go of it. He apparently was feeling sick and so he wasn’t up to being quite as boisterous as the rest of the crew, poor kid. That aside though, it seemed like everyone had fun and received things they enjoyed.

We spent an afternoon playing games and chit-chatting and of course grazing grazing grazing. The kids played with their toys and each other and got some solid cousin-time in. We had pulled the car out into the sunshine earlier in the day and opened all the doors in hopes of mitigating some of the perfumed smoke aroma, and that seemed to have helped. And good thing too; we’d have to spend several quality hours in that car the next day.

In the morning, in between packing, the kids managed to play a bit more. Ian did a little more shooting with Grandpa, and by all accounts has a pretty good aim. Somehow several treats, including an entire package of Oreos managed to sneak into our car as we packed. Grandparents.

The kids were annoyed to discover that they couldn’t just have their screens for the whole 7-hour drive. Sean borrowed the last audio book installment in the Magic Misfits series for us to listen to on our trip. In roughly two hour chunks, we made it through probably a little more than 2/3 of the book on our trip from Friedheim to Homewood, letting the kids have screen time breaks in between.

We managed to make it into Alabama in time for dinner with the whole family at Okinawa. Since Maya and Ian have found their love of sushi, this is a favorite of theirs. Plus Steele was there! Ian and Steele have become very good friends this year, and they played well together during this visit. In fact, that first night we were in town, Ian and Steele had a sleepover in the basement at Lolli and Pop’s house!

The next day, Sean and I plowed through last minute shopping and gift wrapping while pop took all four grandkids to the trampoline park! We hopped around a little trying to find restaurant gift cards for the grown-ups’ stockings. We stopped by a place called Eli’s Jerusalem Grill and the aromas were so enticing that we wound up splitting a shawarma snack before heading on to our other errands. We went by a place simply called Sugar to get sweets for the kids’ stockings. It was fun loading up bags from the “by the pound” bins and giant lollipops and oddly flavored jelly beans were nice add-ons as well.

That afternoon, we had Alabama Christmas! Downstairs, everyone dug into their stockings and in the mid-level, we opened gifts. Even with only four grandkids, it was a spirited affair, and I still didn’t manage keep up with what everyone got. Maya was the delighted recipient of a kitty robe and slippers.

You know those huge, rainbow colored lollipops that kids can’t resist but when the rubber hits the road, they can hardly eat a quarter of the silly thing before getting bored? Hero Ian managed to eat the entire lollipop. I think it took him the better part of the evening to do so. I don’t remember them being any flavor but sweet when I was a kid, but he tells me it was delicious. Maybe Sugar does something special with theirs.

The next day, at Ian’s request, we had Nothing but Noodles for lunch, where he proceeded to order plain buttered noodles with a side of shrimp. I demonstrated my culinary prowess by being confused by the skinny, cracker-like breadsticks in my pad thai and trying to use them as chopsticks (whoops). As is something of a pattern for us when we visit Homewood, we went out to the movies that afternoon! The kids chose “Migration,” and it was cute enough. They shared a huge bucket of popcorn with Lolli and Pop.

On our last full day in town, we did a lot of puttering around. We did go out to eat at Aww Shucks for lunch (after fetching some fast food for the kids). Sean and I each had ears of corn with sprightly toppings that were a messy pleasure to eat. (I had buffalo lemon pepper and Sean had garlic herb parmesan. So tasty.)

We spent a little time packing things up that evening, and finished the next day, new year’s eve. Our flight out of Memphis wasn’t till the afternoon, so we didn’t have to rush to get everything loaded up, which was nice. Travel that day was easy. We wound up having a lot of down time to eat our meals and read and play with screens and whatnot. Our flight touched down in Austin around 10:20 that evening, and we rolled into our driveway a little after 11. We had enough oomph left to haul in our stuff and settle in to have a bit of champagne and ring in the new year with the kids.

Starting with Halloween every year, things are kind of non-stop for us through the end of the holiday season. This year, I honestly felt like we were in good shape to get everything done in a reasonable timeframe, but toward the end of the month, things took a turn.

I started the month with an interesting cooking project. We used to be able to get ribeye cap at our local Costco. (A ribeye kind of has two parts – its center eye and the separate round of fat-striated muscle around it.) It was delightful, because it was bar-none some of the most flavorful meat I’ve ever eaten, and it had the added bonus of being unrecognizable to many people. Well, Costco stopped selling it. Maybe people wanted their ribeyes with the caps still intact; I can’t blame them.

One of our local meat experts, Jess Pryles, posted a video showing how to start with a whole ribeye roll, separate the cap (the spinalis dorsi, for you anatomy nerds), and cut the remaining ribeye rounds into thick, lovely steaks. And so Sean bought the single-most expensive piece of meat we’ve every purchased, and I proceeded to try my best to not screw it up.

I separated the ribeye cap, taking care to trim away all the silver skin and weird bits that would ruin the texture of the cooked meat. I trimmed off what Ms Pryles called “the tail” from the remaining loin-like part of the steak. This resulted in huge piles of hard fat and a nice strip of meat that I piled up with some other meaty scraps. Later I ground these meat scraps up and again vacuum sealed and froze for future burgers. Then I tied the remaining ribeye center into good, thick sections and cut it into steaks. I kept out one piece of ribeye cap for immediate grilling. I vacuum sealed and froze the center-cut steaks and the remaining piece of ribeye cap. Later on, I rendered the beef fat to make a nice pile of tallow that I vacuum sealed and froze for future meat-pie projects. (There may be better ways, but I did this by dicing up the fat and cooking it in my slow cooker over low for something like 12 hours, stirring it occasionally.)

The grilled ribeye cap was amazing. In deference to Maya’s aversion to grilled food, I kept a serving aside and cooked it on the stovetop for her. All of this was served with a lovely red wine, Eight Years in the Desert, by Orin Swift (in case I want to remember later). All the Woodses were big fans of the steak, but especially Ian may be our next grilled meat connoisseur. He wanted to know if we could eat that for dinner every night. No, son. Neither our cholesterol-levels nor our wallets can afford that.

The weekend of the 11th and 12th, we went to Inks Lake State Park for the makeup Cub Scout campout that had been rained out in October. We got all of our training done ahead of time. We filled out all our forms. We set out all our things to pack up. We made sure we had non-grilled options for Maya.

We showed up at camp just a little early, so we wouldn’t have to rush before the scouts’ opening ceremony. We had just eaten lunch, gotten ourselves checked in, and were setting up our tent with a minimum of fuss. And then, I went to lay out the sleeping bags. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. We hadn’t brought them. The night before, we had chosen to leave them in the closet when we laid things out, so the cats wouldn’t mess with them. Whoops. After some quick discussion, we decided there was nothing for it but to go back and get them. Sean and Maya went all the way back to our house, a little over an hour away, grabbed the sleeping bags, and then drove all the way back … for a camping trip that would last a grand total of maybe 24 hours.

It turns out, there’s not a lot of downtime on a cub scout campout. There’s hiking and cooking and tent set up and meeting and eating and campfire singing and sleeping and closing ceremonies and camp breakdown and woooooooo, it was nonstop. Even though it wasn’t our den’s turn to handle the cooking chores, I volunteered to help, figuring my ability to volunteer otherwise would be limited. Ian climbed trees, sang campfire songs, and made s’mores. Plus he hung out with his scout friends. I think especially for him it was a good trip.

We rushed home and bathed quickly so we could all go to Maya’s music performance. Several members of her music school did sort of an open mic outdoor event at a small local concert venue. First, there were singers and songwriters performing. The first lady who performed, played her guitar and sang songs that she had written herself. Maya was entranced.

Maya’s performance later on was sort of funny. They usually arrange the piano students in order of increasing complexity, but there was a significant jump in difficulty in the piece Maya played and the one prior to her. So here comes Maya, hoodie pulled up, walking with absolute focus to that stage. She plops down, shoves up the sleeves of her hoodie, and proceeds to play a very well-practiced piano piece. Singer-songwriter lady was sitting next to me, and I heard an audible, “wow” as Maya played. It was awesome.

During the week, in between music lessons and swim lessons and choir practices, we snuck in a concert with the kids. We are in the alleged live music capital of world, after all. We went down to Parish and watched a Korean surf band called Say Sue Me play. Opening for them were a local band called Skateland. I think Maya and Ian liked it well enough, but it was a “standing up concert,” and they got worn out on that after a while. It got late enough that we didn’t even get to stay for all of Say Sue Me’s set. Our elementary school kids did have class the next day.

Maya’s birthday this year was at Playland Skate Center. She invited a handful of friends and they skate-skate-skated the night away. Ian discovered at that party that he really loves roller blades. That kid was flying by the end of the party. Maya for her part at one point contentedly sighed, grinning, and said, “It’s so nice to have friends.”

She had detailed specifications for her birthday cake this year. She wanted a kitty cake, vanilla with orange icing. But the icing couldn’t just be colored orange; she wanted it to be flavored orange as well. We pulled it off! Thanks to combining recipes I have since closed in my web browser, I think I augmented regular buttercream with some orange juice and orange zest. It was really delicious! (I wish I had written it down.)

On the day of Maya’s birthday, we took her out to eat at Maggiano’s. Gone are the days of kids’ menus, so Maya had a giant bowl of shrimp scampi and Ian had a giant bowl of linguine and clams. However, something you can do at Maggiano’s is order a take-home pasta for $6 for every adult entree you purchase. We figured we could put them in the freezer for nights we didn’t feel like cooking. We went home with a baked ziti, a lasagna, and a spaghetti and meat ball to stock our freezer.

Immediately following Maya’s birthday, we all boarded a very early flight to Orlando to spend a few days at Universal! I wrote about that trip in more detail in a separate post (with separate photos). It was an excellent trip and for visiting Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios, I think we definitely had plenty of time to see all we wanted to see with three park days.

Since we would be out of town the four days immediately preceding thanksgiving, I tried some do-ahead magic. We bought on package each of turkey thighs and legs and I made a confit. Then I cooled it completely, ensuring the meat was mostly submerged in the fat, and then stored the whole mess in the fridge to reheat once we were back. I planned for side dishes with easily stored ingredients and shorter cooking times: mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, a green bean saute for which I’d use frozen beans, and the must-have cornbread dressing. I was a little antsy about how well the celery would weather the week in the fridge, so I finally decided to try the “wrap it in aluminum foil” trick. And then, in case the celery would rot anyway, I diced some up and stuck it in the freezer.

I needn’t have worried. The foil-wrapped celery looked fresh from the store. My confit turkey reheated like a charm, and the kids more or less found something they’d be willing to eat from our spread.

Earlier in the month, we had booked a visit to the light show at Mozart’s for the day after Thanksgiving (when I prefer to start considering Christmas). In the past, pre-pandemic, we just kind of showed up and hung out and watched the lights. Now it’s a whole ticketed event. After getting some hot chocolate (some of us got peppermint and some got Mexican with cinnamon), we found our prepaid table and settled in. We saw their light show, synced to popular music. In between light show numbers, they had a college-level music student playing their light-drenched piano (which turned out to be a keyboard set in a piano body). He did an excellent job and it was a treat to hear him play. I bet you can’t guess which composer’s music he performed (it was Mozart). It was a fun way to see the lights this year, but it didn’t feel as festive as it has in years-past.

And then, over the next few days, every single Woods in our house fell prey to some kind of craptacular fever, headache, snotty, coughing illness that lingered for several days and zapped us all (yes even the kids) of our energy. It was all we could do to make sure everyone had food to eat (Maggiano’s and leftover Thanksgiving food, FTW!) and had meds on a schedule. Ian and Sean had the worst fevers – up in the 103 degree range. Maya and I had the worst of the coughing – she finally seems to be past it, but even a month later, I’m still coughing. That’s how we closed out our month: belting down meds and chicken soup, watching our lead on holiday planning dwindle to nothing and then become a deficit. Alas.

This year, over part of the kids’ Thanksgiving break, we headed out to Orlando to visit Universal Orlando Resort. While there are three parks that make up this place currently, we visited only Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We figured Volcano Bay, being a water park, was best left for another time.

We often go to these beautiful places and are so busy, busy, busy that we never leave ourselves time to relax. Well, this time, we chose to arrive as early as possible on a Sunday so we could enjoy the hotel, the hotel pool, and the surrounding area a bit without the pressure of an amusement park schedule. Monday, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday left plenty of time for that craziness.

Day 1 – Arrival

To find the happy balance between maximizing our time and controlling costs, we wound up taking a 6:00 a.m. flight (direct!) to Orlando. Four tired Woodses managed to get to the airport by 4:25 or so, thinking we were being silly since most people must have left for the holiday week already on Saturday. Boy were we wrong. After waiting in a bit of a line to drop our checked bags off, we struggled to figure out where in the mass of people we needed to wait to line up for security. I may not have this quite right, but I believe that to line up for security at checkpoint one, we were backed up all the way to checkpoint two and actually began our wait in line outdoors. I was on pins and needles.

Before we left the house, Ian and I had both had a little something to eat. Sean and Maya elected to have something at the airport. With the line we were in, we’d be lucky to make our flight, never mind waiting in line again to buy food. I had extra snacks along in case we needed a holdover during our park days, but I had helpfully stowed those in our checked bags. Meanwhile, while standing in this massive line amidst throngs of humans whose demeanors ranged between half-asleep and borderline manic in the face of potential missed flights, Ian announced that he needed to pee.

Then we finally, finally made it through the gauntlet of seemingly infinite switchbacks and security personnel, some of whom hadn’t had their coffee yet, I think. And they held my bags for extra screening. And they sat and they sat with no one bothering to check them. Sean took the kids to find a bathroom and food and I stayed to deal with the situation. Eventually they just re-ran my bags through the regular line again, and I was finally free.

Sean had magically gotten Ian a bathroom visit and he and Maya some food and we skated into our boarding area more or less exactly when our group was boarding. It was amazing. I was so relieved.

The rest of the flight seemed to go without incident. The kids messed with their screens, Sean dozed, I drank some much-needed coffee and read. Upon arrival in Orlando, we collected our luggage and found our shuttle bus to the hotel easily enough.

We rolled up to the Loews Royal Pacific Resort, collected our bags, and went to check in. The place was beautiful! Maya commented that it might be a bit too fancy for us, and she’s probably not wrong, but I never found it to be stuffy or pretentious during our stay. The decor was fun – we crossed a bridge lined with wooden frogs playing various instruments to enter the hotel, and the courtyard featured stone elephants, one of whom fountained water from his trunk – and the staff were all pleasant to work with.

One of the big reasons we chose such a nice hotel (“Universal Premier” is the category, apparently) is that it included Universal’s unlimited express passes for all room occupants. These passes are insanely priced (Sean’s remembering something like $120 per person, per day), and we paid less for our room than we would have for those passes, so that’s what we did. The added bonus is that we also got to enjoy a beautiful properly, nice proximity to the parks, and a generally stress-free stay.

We arrived too early to actually check in, but they took care of all the paperwork and key distribution and whatnot so that we’d just have to go to our room once they texted us to let us know it was available. Also, they had a luggage storage service so we could leave the bags and start enjoying our day right away.

All of us were dragging a little by then, but we needed to have some lunch. Universal’s analog to Disney Springs is called Universal CityWalk. It’s sort of a shopping and dining area adjacent to the actual parks. You don’t need park admission to go to CityWalk, but you do have to pass through a metal detector and allow your bags to be x-rayed.

Our objective was a place called The Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. When Sean first told me about it, I was nonplussed, but he assured me they had savory dishes too. He actually made this reservation earlier in the day, right after our airplane touched down in Orlando. Good thing, too. That place was jumping by the time we got there.

Because he had made the reservation though, it wasn’t long at all before we were ensconced in the dark, steampunk recesses of the restaurant. We uncharacteristically had the kids sit to the outside of our booth in hopes that when the proprietor Penelope and her robot friend Jacques came by our table, the kids would have a chance to interact directly. Alas, we only ever saw them from a distance.

The food here was good. We had a fantastic tray of roasted Brussels sprouts and some avocado bruschetta (Maya’s choice). Ian took advantage of the fact that they serve brunch all day and had a giant chocolate waffle. The rest of us had savory meals and the grownups had very delicious cocktails that we hope to replicate at home. On the way out, we secured some pretty truffles from the shop at the front of the restaurant and wandered our way back out into the daylight.

All of us needed a rest after our early start, so we headed back to the hotel and had a siesta. Well, the parents had a siesta. Their foolish children had more screen time. At least they were still.

After that, Sean, Maya, and Ian suited up to play in the giant hotel pool area for a while. I went down and hung out on a lounge chair and poked around at some of the things we might do and see over the next few days and tried to get my bearings a little. The weather was perfect, so I was very comfortable on my chair, and the pool water was warm, so the kids – even Ian – enjoyed playing.

After playtime at the pool puttered out, we wandered back in, pausing to have a swimsuited photo with one of the hotel’s lovely Christmas trees. We went back into CityWalk to do a little browsing and to find some dinner. Our target for dinner had been a place called the Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar, but it was pretty much fully booked, so Sean set a reservation for Cowfish for the following night instead.

We tried out the water taxi on the way back to the hotel – less time-efficient but more fun, and at least this evening, we weren’t in any hurry. Back at the hotel, we had a perfectly respectable dinner at one of the hotel restaurants – Jake’s American Bar. Maya’s chicken and waffles came with what I thought was a really lovely pile of cooked greens, so when our server came by, I commented on them. Maya shrugged and that she preferred cucumbers. Lo and behold a couple minutes later, that woman came back with a treat for each of the kids and some surprise cucumbers for Maya. She sat there and happily ate every one, pronouncing them much better than the ones we get at home.

Day 2 – Islands of Adventure

Sean didn’t have to plan nearly as tightly for our Universal days as he traditionally has done for our Disney days. Thanks to staying at a Universal hotel, we were able to enter Islands of Adventure at 8:00 in the morning instead of 9. Thanks to a long, lingering shower by a certain daughter of ours, we didn’t get in line till around 7:30, and that line was immense.

Our plan was to start our day by queuing up for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. This is the only attraction we cared about going to for which we could not use our express passes. Sean had read (and we observed) that this ride starts out with a long wait and stays that way … unless it happens to be delayed for one reason or another, and then it gets even worse.

Sure enough, it seemed that everyone else had that same idea, and so our wait time ballooned to something like 110 minutes by the time we arrived. My notes say that it was ultimately more like an 80 minute wait, and I think everyone in our group would agree, it was totally and completely worth it.

I had the benefit of having done no research and having very few expectations. There are two to a “row” in the ride train, one person on a motorbike and one person in its sidecar. The kids both had first-ride jitters and decided to sit in the sidecars. Hooray for the grown-ups! On its surface, it’s just a roller coaster, but it was deeply themed and had such a fun variety of elements. The ride has several fun launches, including one particularly intense one fueled by “dragon fire.” I hate to ruin the surprise, but there’s a startling drop element partway through. At one point you head to some dead-end track and wind up riding the coaster backward for a while. Plus there are magical creatures galore. Heck, even the ride queue was fun with all its deep theming. It is saying something that over our three-day visit, we rode this coaster three times at the kids’ repeated request, and the line was nearly as long each time.

Sean had purchased some kind of vacation package that allowed us a breakfast at each of the parks at the signature Wizarding World restaurant. That means we had already paid for our breakfast at the Three Broomsticks that morning. They served breakfast until 9:30, and even with our long wait at what I kept calling the Hagrid’s Motorbike ride, we were still in our line by around 9. This was after we had wandered around for several minutes uncertain of exactly where it was in all the throngs of people. Finally Maya calmly pointed out that it was that restaurant right there … the one with the (wait for it) three broomsticks. We were astonished to find that it had its own rather lengthy queue and we were sweating that we’d miss our already-paid-for meal, but when it came down to time, they made sure that anyone who had a voucher got in to fetch their food.

The decor inside Three Broomsticks is rich and immersive, much like the surrounding Hogsmeade Village. The food was likewise solid. And let me tell you, when you order coffee with breakfast, that sucker is huge and already in a to-go cup. It’s like they know what’s required.

After breakfast, Maya and Dad decided to partake of some Butterbeers. Ian was on the fence about whether to have one, but after trying some of Dad’s decided that he definitely would like to have one later. I passed. For one, I was still working on my much-needed coffee and for another, those butterbeers were very sweet to my tastebuds. A sip or two was pleasant enough, but I knew I wouldn’t make it through the whole thing.

Since we were in the area, we lined up for the Flight of the Hippogriff. This was a relatively little roller coaster. The wait was short and it was pleasant enough, but nothing super thrilling. Seeing the Hippogriff was kinda fun.

We next went to the other big deal ride in the Hogsmeade Village part of the park: Harry Potter and the Hidden Journey (or if you’re me, you insist on calling it “the Hogwarts Castle ride”). This ride is amazing to experience. Your ride vehicle is basically attached to an arm that zips you through various screens and animatronics. And, when you’re experiencing the screens, there are portions of the ride during which they’re actually moving with you. It’s insane and difficult to explain, but this youtube video does an excellent job. As I understand it, this ride has experienced its fair share of breakdowns over its lifetime, but given the ride complexity, it’s not hard to see how it might be a hair fault-prone.

As is typical of our vacations, we had told the kids that we would purchase one souvenir for them. Anything they wanted beyond that, they’d need to use their own money to buy. After some shopping the day previous and some careful examination of the shops in Islands of Adventure. they settled on the most adorable little backpacks. In Harry Potter lore, a niffler is a creature whose favorite thing in the world is to collect shiny treasure in their pouches. Maya and Ian’s backpacks look like fuzzy black nifflers holding coin purses. We even pointed out that if we purchased these, we wouldn’t be buying any fun interactive wands, and the kids both still wanted their backpacks. And to their credit, they happily carried them around the rest of the day.

After a goodly dose of Harry Potter immersion, we made our way to the Jurassic Park portion of Islands of Adventure. The theme music from the movies greets you as you enter the terrifying tropical wonderland. We hardly paused though on our way to what promised to be the most thrilling ride of the our Universal trip, Velocicoaster.

The story is that you’re about to ride a state-of-the-art, “perfectly safe” vehicle through a paddock full of velociraptors. The ride creators do an excellent job of building tension as you wander through the ride queue. At one point you pass animatronic raptors who are entrapped in muzzles and look for all the world like they’re working their way through the mechanics of escape, occasionally rattling their muzzles, pupils expanding and contracting as they take in their surroundings.

Ian was clearly getting pretty fidgety. And as the characters from the Jurassic World movies are warning us of the dangers of what we’re about to do, that it’s a bad idea, that we should definitely be made to sign a waiver, Ian’s little body wouldn’t hold still. That nervous energy needed to get out!

Maya and I were lucky enough to get the front row, and let me tell you, that coaster was absolutely intense. The twists and turns felt unique. The initial launch takes your breath away once (0-70mph in 2.4 seconds), and the giant 80-degree, 140-foot drop over the top hat halfway through takes it away again. They tell you there are no brakes through this entire ride, not till the very end. Velocicoaster has some of the most beautiful and smooth inversions. There’s one point where you’re hanging upside down somewhere in the vicinity of 2 seconds (Sean counted), which is an eternity in roller coaster time. I’m not entirely sure Maya liked riding up front, but I loved it.

Somewhere after this joyous thrill, we had to experience the come-down. Maya at some point realized her almighty screen time would likely not be happening since we’d be spending long hours at the parks each day. This isn’t a new scenario, so it honestly caught me completely off guard that it was going to be an issue for her. Without going into detail, let me just say it was kind of a sore spot on an otherwise outstanding day.

We eventually made it over to Skull Island: The Reign of Kong (aka, the King Kong ride). The ride queue was kinda spooky, but otherwise short. The simulator ride was interesting enough – we saw Kong vs dinosaurs and fell off a cliff.

Sean and the kids rode the Dudley Do-right’s Ripsaw Falls. It’s a log flume type ride, and I hung out and guarded everyone’s bags and things while they all went and got soaking wet. As I waited for them, a fellow wandered out with a grocery bag tied around each foot. I asked him whether that was an effective antidote to walking around with squishy shoes all day, and he assured me that they worked very well. Noted.

In fairly rapid succession, we rode The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman (simulator ride), The Incredible Hulk Coaster, and The Incredible Hulk Coaster a second time, but this time without Mom. I remember really enjoying the Hulk Coaster when we were in Florida for our honeymoon some 23 years ago. These days though, with my messed up spine, I try to be more careful about what I ride. In this one, I felt pretty heavy positive G-forces, and so I opted to sit out a second run, just for self-preservation. It is a pretty fun coaster though.

After a quick baked pretzel snack, we headed back to ride Harry Potter and the Hidden Journey again. Here’s where I’ll point out a marked difference between Disney and Universal. Pretty much anything I rode at Disney, I could just take my backpack along, no big deal. Universal is more particular. At nearly all the rides, you were required to first take a moment and stow your things in a not-particularly large locker. They were free of charge and opened with your park ticket, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle. However, had I carried my normal big backpack that could hold jackets, waters, and snacks for four people, it wouldn’t have fit. They’re so particular about Velocicoaster, they make you pass through a metal detector, so for that one Sean even had to leave his phone and keys in the locker. Only once during our three days at the park did we have an incident where our key didn’t re-open a locker we had secured. Poor Ian was in a panic because it was his locker and it held his beloved new niffler backpack. The park attendant eventually helped us out, but it was a tense few minutes.

We did a little shopping in Hogsmeade, visiting Honeyduke’s candy store and swinging by for some butter beers as well. Sean and Maya this time went for frozen butter beers (which they both decided they didn’t enjoy quite as much), and Ian had an original. We were getting ready to line up for Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure again, so we’d have some time to finish our drinks. As per usual, the ride line was long, and we were maybe three quarters of the way through it before Ian simply couldn’t contain himself. We had to exit to go use the bathroom. One of the ride attendants gave us vague instructions and a slip of paper that maybe would allow us to return to the ride once Ian was relieved. Thankfully, it did work, though it wasn’t at all clear what we were meant to have done. (It sounded like one of us should have stayed and waited for the others to return, but I don’t think we were given that information up front.) This time the kids got to ride the motorbikes and the grownups loaded into the sidecars. I can tell you, the ride was just as thrilling as the first time we rode.

Sean managed to steer us into the right spot to watch the holiday light show projecting onto the Hogwarts Castle. The lights and music were beautiful and I was happy to soak it in, even though I normally have a fairly strict “no Christmas celebrating till after Thanksgiving” policy.

We had a little time to kill before our dinner reservation, so we hopped in line and rode Skull Island: The Reign of Kong again. We hadn’t ridden any of the rides in the Dr Seuss part of the park yet, so on our way out, we took a moment to ride The Cat in the Hat. It’s a “family friendly” ride, which the kids aren’t normally too enthused about, but it is testament to the power of Seuss’s books that they both remembered the story so fondly that I don’t think either of them really minded that it wasn’t especially thrilling.

We made our way out of Island of Adventure and over to CityWalk to get to our late reservation at The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar. The kids are deep into their sushi love at this point, so it was pretty much a sure thing. We had some more lovely cocktails and some perfectly fine sushi. I didn’t even fuss too much when Sean wanted to try a burgushi roll. Yeah, it’s what it sounds like – some kind of bastardization of hamburger inflected sushi, but it tasted good enough and the kids seemed delighted with their meal.

We were four tired folks when we walked back to our hotel that evening, 25% of whom were still actively negotiating for screen time. Sigh.

Day 3 – Universal Studios

The park didn’t open until 9 this morning, so we could operate at a slightly slower pace. I think we meandered in around 8:45 and made our way to Diagon Alley to have our pre-paid breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron. Sean drove us nuts by repeating the line from the movie, “The Leaky Cauldron; that’s in London.” over and over again. (“D’you hear that, Ern? The Leaky Cauldron, that’s in London.”)

We took a moment to take in the Diagon Alley scenery before the crowds really filled in. Again, the experience was deeply immersive. Shops whose names we recognized from the books jumped out at every turn, their whimsical storefronts inviting us to explore. Anchoring the scene is Gringotts wizarding bank and looming large over the crowd is the dragon who sits atop the bank, presumably having recently escaped. Much to Maya’s chagrin (and maybe eventual acceptance), that dragon would, from time to time, breathe real fire. As a fan of the series, it was incredibly cool to be there.

We did eventually make it over to the Leaky Cauldron, waited for a bit, and were treated to another delightful breakfast (and another large cup of coffee).

After breakfast, we made our way over to check out the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride. We started by entering the brilliantly detailed Gringotts lobby and got to see the clever goblin animatronics busy at their work. We rode an elevator down into the depths and eventually boarded our vehicle. This is a roller coaster and a dark ride / simulation ride wrapped up into one. I thought it was fun, though maybe not quite as fun as Harry Potter and the Hidden Journey had been. Maya tells us she preferred this one.

After a bit of window shopping during which Ian finally broke down and bought one of the huge chocolate frogs he’d been eyeing, we made our way over to our appointment at Shutterbuttons to have some magical family photos taken. This is another thing that was included in whatever vacation package Sean purchased, and while I don’t think I’d have gone out of my way to partake of it otherwise, the results were pretty fun. The only bummer is that our reservation was somehow “lost” (along with many other people’s, it seemed) and so we had to wait around for about a half hour before our photo session could commence. This, as you might have guessed, was maybe not the best scenario for our fidgety kids. Still, we have a few fun prints and some special, magical moving photos as well.

After this, we used our express passes to their fullest and binged on rides for a little while. First there was The Simpsons ride, a simulator ride tucked into a gloriously eye-popping Simpsons-themed part of the park. Then we lined up for Men in Black Alien Attack, one of those interactive rides were we got to shoot up our alien attackers. Next we tried out the Fast & Furious Supercharged ride – another simulator that the kids pronounced “cool.”

And finally, at Maya and Ian’s repeated request, we tried out this park’s only real thrill ride: the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster. The coaster was fun enough. The kids seemed to like that you could choose your music at the beginning. Maya and I again got to ride right up front, a situation I’m not sure she’s entirely okay with. Honestly, the most alarming part of the ride is that you climb straight up for the first hill, and I felt like I was going to slide out of my seat.

We planned to have lunch at the Minion Cafe, but since we weren’t super hungry yet, we decided to sneak in one more ride beforehand: Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. The idea is that we’re turned into minions for the ride and get to experience a simulated world as a minion. Things naturally go haywire and hilarity ensues. Cute enough, but I was maybe wearing out on simulators by then.

Lunch at Illumination’s Minion Cafe was outstanding. The kids each ordered ramen, which they only picked up, but that we adults found to be delightful. Our soup and sandwiches were excellent and the minion tots were as delicious as they were adorable. The kids really hadn’t eaten enough, so we did what any responsible vacationing family would do – we filled the gap with dessert. We walked over to the Bake My Day bakery and bought Maya and Ian some minion cookies.

After Bake My Day, we rode the Transformers simulator ride. After that, Dad and Ian wanted to ride Revenge of the Mummy, but Maya has a pretty serious aversion to fire, so I sat out with her. While they were getting chased by a mummy, Maya and I decided to try the Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon ride. Yeah, it was yet another simulator, but at least we weren’t just sitting and waiting. And Maya especially seemed to enjoy it.

After a quick stop by Shutterbuttons to pick up our photos, we rode the Escape from Gringotts ride again. Since it was getting darker now, we decided to wander through Diagon Alley again. Everyone but me had *more* butter beer. I had beer beer. We sat down and enjoyed our beverages and watched as folks who had sprung for special interactive wands wandered around and tried to get various “spells” to work. One particularly fun one involved making an umbrella thunder and lightning and proceed to rain on whoever was standing under it.

I had been gunning for a photo with a Transformer for most of the day. We finally made our way over and had our photo taken with Bumblebee!

Then, at Ian’s request, we rode the ET Adventure Ride. And we finished out our evening by riding the Rockit roller coaster in the dark.

Dinner was kinda tricky because no one was all that hungry, but we’d be ravenous by morning if we didn’t eat something. We first stopped by Voodoo Doughnuts so we’d set for our vacation doughnut fix in the morning. Then we wound up first stopping by some sandwich shop for Maya and then picking up a wood-fired pizza on the way back to the hotel for the rest of us.

Because we’d be leaving town the next day, Sean and I did a fair amount of strategic packing while the kids wound down for the night. We’d need to arrange things so that we could go to the park with our small packs, but then come change our clothes (it was a lot cooler in Austin than Orlando at the time) and repack our carry-ons for air travel.

Day 4 – ALL OF IT – Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, Heading Home

After getting ready for the day and having some delightful doughnuts, we checked out of our room, dropped our luggage with guest services, and headed into the parks for our last vacation day. We started at Islands of Adventure and made a b-line directly for Velocicoaster. While we could line up early for the ride, we could not use our express passes until the park opened at 9. Either way, we didn’t have to wait long and the ride was nearly as much fun in the middle of the ride train as it had been at the very front.

We then hit Hagrid’s Motorbikes for the third time, this time waiting maybe 70 minutes all told. Then we watched the Grinchmas Wholiday Spectacular, which was colorful and silly and fun. Plus we got to sit down!

As it was starting to mist and sprinkle outside, we ducked into Three Broomsticks for lunch. Then we rode Harry Potter and the Hidden Journey again before lining up to ride the Hogwarts Express train from Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios. We had purchased the park-to-park tickets for flexibility, and that is what’s required if you want to take the train between parks. On the chance that your family is really excited about trains: this isn’t one. It’s more of a cable-car. The windows are actually screens, which is a lot of fun. You get to see interesting scenery fly past you and you hear some witches and wizards outside your compartment door.

Back at Universal Studios, we went straight to ride Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts again. After that, we tried out Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast. Here, we were issued a gun and stepped onto a colored dot on a moving sidewalk that led us through a lineup of villains that we were meant to shoot. It was fine. I came, I saw, I randomly pulled the trigger in my impossible to aim gun, I left.

The kids were itching for one more ride on the Rockit roller coaster before we left the park, but the light rain hadn’t really let up, and so the ride was shut down. At Ian’s insistence, he and I went and rode Revenge of the Mummy together (and yeah, I can confirm, Maya would have hated that ride). We were just getting off, when Sean texted and told me they were running the Rockit empty in preparation for opening it again. We rushed back and he and the kids lined up, and they managed to just squeeze in their ride before we had to get back to the hotel to rearrange our bags and catch our bus back to the airport.

All of that went very smoothly. We changed clothes and juggled our suitcases a bit so we didn’t have any TSA no-nos in our backpacks. The bus was right where it was supposed to be, right when it was supposed to be. Security at Tampa was a bit lackadaisical and in absolutely no rush at all, but it was ok. We ate before running the gauntlet and still had plenty of time before our flight left.

We got into Austin very, very late, but bags were acquired and parking shuttle was caught with a minimum of fuss. And the next day was Thanksgiving, so we could take it as easy as we needed to.

Our October was a busy and varied thing. By and large, I love this time of year. Things are finally, FINALLY cooling off, and we have a great big Texas non-winter to look forward to. Plus Halloween is always so much fun.

Early in the month, the kids had school photos for fall. I initially tried my best to get Maya to wear the new dress she had picked out when we were ‘back to school’ shopping. I tried to convince Ian to wear this pretty linen shirt I found that suited his tastes perfectly. Alas, neither kid was interested in what I wanted, and I wasn’t interested having a fight over something as stupid as which outfit to wear. And that’s how it came to be that Maya re-wore the octopus dress she wore last year and Ian wore the fun 70s-era shirt he wore to Lolli and Pop’s anniversary party this summer.

Ian came home from school after picture day telling me that people were roasting his drip. I can’t say that I go out of my way to keep up with young people slang, but I read widely enough that I usually know what people are talking about. Not this time. He completely pulled me up short. I couldn’t even guess what he meant. Turns out in loosely means people were making fun of his outfit. Luckily it appeared to bother him absolutely not at all, so all good there.

The kids had a three day weekend early in October. I had been planning this epic three day trip to San Antonio to see the museums and the riverwalk and do some shopping and to spend a day at Six Flags. When the reality sunk in that I had a work trip the very next week and a whole lot of kid prep for various activities ahead of me, we decided to limit the San Antonio trip to a single day at Six Flags.

That turned out to be a really lovely idea. We had a very fun day at the park, and we could get all the things done that needed doing for me to be out of town for three days. I think I’ve mentioned before that the kids have sort of hit their stride on amusement parks. Maya especially loves all the rides, and Ian is finally tall enough that he can ride pretty much everything if he so chooses. We discovered on this trip that Ian is happier with an over-the-shoulder type restraint on roller coasters, so he sat out one of the big ones that only had a lap bar.

The one Ian sat out was called Iron Rattler. I rode on it years and years ago when it was just the Rattler and even before my back was well and truly horked, I had already vowed never to ride it again. It legit hurt my neck and back, so fearsome was its bumping and jerking. Sean told me it had been completely reworked and was allegedly a much smoother ride now, but I elected to hang with Ian while Sean and Maya field tested it. They tell me it was a pretty smooth ride, so if we ever go again, maybe I’ll give it a try.

We got to try out some really neat ones though. The most interesting may have been one called Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger. This one is unique because it has a greater than 90-degree drop! The ride vehicle has three rows of seven passengers. At the top of the big hill, the front-row riders are treated to a stomach-churning view as they pause, dangling over the edge, just on the cusp of dropping. Sean, with his aversion to heights, refused to sit in the front row. Maya and I thought about it, but the line to sit up front was considerably longer. It was a cool coaster. My only complaint is that it was so, so short.

We had good food karma that day too. We started with lunch at a place called Ray’s Drive Inn, because I couldn’t remember if I had ever tried San Antonio’s famous puffy tacos and this looked like a good place to get those while still having plenty of choices to suit the kids. The people there were really nice, plus on our way in, we got to meet one of the cats they take care of. Bonus: I think we all enjoyed our food!

After the park, we ate at a place called La Gloria in the Pearl District of San Antonio. I could have lingered here. We were seated outdoors, the weather was just about perfect, and the food was outstanding. My mole was among the best I’ve ever eaten, and Sean’s pastor tacos seemed to be making him happy. I don’t remember what Maya ordered, but I know she almost single-handedly took out a bowl of guacamole. Ian, who often struggles to find anything he likes, asked if he could order a hot dog. You should have seen that kid’s face light up when the lady taking care of us asked if it was ok if the hot dog was wrapped in bacon. Emphatically, yes!

I spent several days the following week in Tampa on a work trip. I had been looking forward to Texas cooling off for so long, and then Tampa was a sweltering mess. Humidity aside (and I mean c’mon, it’s Florida), the trip was a good one, but I was glad to be back home.

That very next weekend was the big annular eclipse. An annular eclipse is not a total eclipse. It occurs when the moon is further from the earth and so at best it will appear as a black disc in front of the bright disc of the sun, resulting in the “ring of fire” effect, if one is in the right geographic position. In Austin, we weren’t quite in the right spot, however, we did experience about 90% obscuration, and we had a sunny, cloudless sky, so we could observe the eclipse as it progressed.

For us, it was enough that the sky was noticeably darkening. This was especially obvious when we were in the house. It seemed like things felt cooler, though I wonder how much of this was mental. We had eclipse glasses at the ready, but we also took out a colander to let the sun shine through it and show us dozens of tiny eclipse shapes. You could see it in the shadows through the tree leaves as well.

I tried to take photos with my phone with the eclipse glasses pressed over the lens, and it kinda worked. Sean had software on his phone that allowed him to fine tune exposure settings a bit more, and so this worked better for him. Maybe when the total eclipse occurs in 2024, we’ll spring for better gear.

The kids, especially Maya, were super into it. We started a little early and would check the sky about every 15-20 minutes. She’d then rush in to make notes about her observations. She pasted in photos too, once Sean got them to her. To my knowledge, this information gathering served no purpose other than to suit her own interests, so hooray!

The very next day, Maya had her first big piano recital since starting with her latest piano teacher. You could tell that poor kid was nervous. She had never met any of the other kids performing, so it was almost a complete unknown to her. Maya knew her songs cold, but I think nerves got the better of her. There was one point where she got tripped up, and I literally held my breath for the few seconds it took her to recover. But recover she did, and finished her performance strong! We are very proud of her.

Ian and I rushed straight from Maya’s recital to Ian’s cub scout meeting. One – he earned his “Bobcat” badge. As a new cub scout, this is sort of the initial rank he earns just by learning things like the scout oath, scout handshake, and some safety information. As a third grader, he’s in the “Bear” den, so that’s the badge he’ll work through the year to achieve. Two – he got to carve a pumpkin at the meeting. They had a giant truckload of pumpkins; each scout in the pack was able to carve one. Plus, they got to learn all about pumpkin seeds and how delicious they could be.

We went home with Ian’s carved pumpkin and a plastic bag full of seeds to clean and roast later on. Ian was so excited about those seeds, he single-handedly cleaned the pulp from them. We dried them, seasoned them, and roasted them right away …….. and he loved them! Dude even took them to school for snack the next day.

Ever since last year’s trunk or treat at the kids’ elementary school, they’ve been scheming to have us participate. It would be Maya’s last year in elementary school, so we agreed: this year we’d decorate the car and be one of the trunk or treat stops.

The kids also always have a fall carnival at school – Dolphinfest – to help raise money for the PTA. This year, it was decided that trunk or treat would be dropped and that Dolphinfest would become Boo Fest. Maya and Ian were initially disappointed, but they rallied pretty quickly and seemed to enjoy the Boo Fest. It was held on a Friday night and for the first time ever, Sean and I just kinda hung out and let the kids run. Both kids, oddly, had friends who were dressed like bananas. What are the odds?

The next day, Ian had a small concert with his guitar teacher Chris and a fellow student. It was to be held at a small farmers market in Chris’s neighborhood. As events go, it was delightfully low key, and everyone performed really well. Ian’s guitar was mic-ed for the event, so the sound was quite clear even though we were outdoors and there was at least some amount of ambient noise.

Speaking of concerts, a couple days later, we were supposed to have gone to see Aerosmith, but they broke Steven Tyler. We hear the show may be rescheduled in 2024. Guess we’ll see.

Ian had been learning knife safety as part of cub scouts. Maya, since she was interested, was learning with him. I think she found it soothing to be able to carve pieces of wood. She would often sit outside in the backyard whittling at sticks for half an hour, even a full hour at at time.

Maya enjoyed this activity so much that Sean went ahead and got her a pocket knife as well. He ordered the kids some decent little chunks of wood as well since our backyard sticks vary widely in size and quality. Maya was happily whittling away one day, and I think she either lost focus or got startled and managed to cut into her hand a bit. It could have been much worse, but it did look like it might be deep enough to require stitches. Sean hauled her into the children’s ER, where they quickly cleaned it, numbed it, and closed it up with a combination of steri-strips and glue. She’s still on the mend, and I think is already counting down the time till she can start carving again, hopefully with a renewed respect for the business end of a knife.

We haven’t had Anna watch the kids in quite a while (we really need to get out more), but we did manage to have her over to dinner so we could continue our little tradition of having her draw the kids’ jack-o-lantern pictures. Ian chose a curly lizard. Maya chose a cat wearing a tie. Once it was closer to halloween, I eviscerated the pumpkins, saving the seeds so each kid could roast their own uniquely-seasoned batch.

Ian was supposed to have his big cub scout camp out the last weekend in October. It’s a family affair, so all four of us would be going. Sean and I took training to be able to attend the over-night event. We filled out paperwork. We at least started to gather supplies (we are pretty well-stocked on the camping front, so not much would be needed). And then bone-dry, exceptional drought Texas finally got some decent rain. It rained off and on all week, though it was supposed to have cleared by the weekend. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be, and the trip was postponed a couple weeks. Maya and Ian both like camping, so they were a little miffed that they weren’t getting to go.

Grammy and Grandpa sent the kids gift cards for Halloween. They love getting mail and they love shopping online, so they were both pretty excited. Plus, both kids were in some degree of sniffly, coughing sick, and had just had a camping trip canceled, so it was a pleasant turn in a not-so-pleasant few days.

For Halloween, Ian and Maya chose to be a brother-sister pair from a manga they have both read called Demon Slayer. Ian was Tanjiro and Maya was Nezuko, and oh thank goodness both of these could be procured via Amazon. Their costumes had many layers and much fussing – Ian’s had a face tattoo, Maya’s had a wig – but the kids LOVED them. They seemed very happy with the end result. Maya went trick or treating with a friend of hers (who was also a Demon Slayer character), I took Ian around our neighborhood, and Sean hung out at our house, manning the candy dish. We had almost no trick-or-treaters this year, and so between those leftovers and the kids’ haul, we are awash in more sugary goodness than two middle-aged office types really need access to.

I didn’t even mention the little things like friend birthday parties, fun trips to the asian grocery store, all the fun Halloween decorations. I put Sean in charge of decorating the house, so we didn’t really have any decorations to speak of, but some of our neighborhood folks go crazy. It’s been fun and festive around here. And just like every year, from Halloween on, our life goes full-tilt and doesn’t stop till the new year.

September. The beginning of fall. The air starts to cool, and there’s a different smell in the air. Pumpkin spice everything gets hawked. People start to make chili and roasts and warm apple pies. But not here. We had a couple days somewhere in the middle where I thought we might have some relief, but it was short-lived. Still, whether intentionally or by circumstance, we stayed busy.

Everything started out nicely enough. We had a three-day weekend that we tried to leave mostly unplanned. We had friends over for a delightfully informal dinner, wherein we tried one of my new favorite side dishes – Hatch Chile Creamy Rice Casserole! I like working in the kitchen, and I even like the smell of chiles roasting in the oven. But I do not enjoy peeling the skin from said roasted chiles one tiny little bit, and I still thought this casserole was worth making.

The kids had been asking and asking Sean to re-teach them how to roller skate. Plus, Maya had a skating birthday party to attend and wanted to practice up a bit so she’d feel more comfortable. I hung out and helped get skates on feet, but owing to my messed up spine, I chose not to actually participate. They seemed to have fun, and at least Maya was willing to skate around the rink on her own by the end of that first outing. When she went to her best friend’s birthday the next weekend, she was able to participate without as much worry, which is nice.

We had been battling a slow drain / weird clog situation at our kitchen sink. We had deployed a plunger, a plumbing snake, hot water, even mild cursing, but to no reasonable avail. Well, apparently the clog moved downstream in the plumbing chain, which we found out later when water started gushing from our washing machine’s supply line as I was running a load of laundry!

We eventually gave up and ran Drano through the line, and even that took a couple tries before the clog mercifully resolved. The two (semi-)grownup Woodses were so relieved. Maya and Ian were mostly just curious about the new disaster.

We managed to get cub scout Ian his uniform together so he could dress properly for his September pack meeting. He got to race minnows! His minnow was funny. It took sort of a meandering approach to traversing its swim lane, and Ian was sure he’d lose. Then all of a sudden, that minnow darted to the end and back again, almost too quickly for us to follow. He won the race. Then the kids got to field test every variety of popcorn they’d be selling for their fundraiser. Ian was so thoughtful; he saved some of his popcorn so that I could try all the flavors as well.

We took the kids to the Alamo Drafthouse to watch the “Gran Turismo” movie. Our two little gamers seemed to love the notion that a regular gamer kid could get to be a real race car driver! Also, while anyone who’s watched the underdog makes the grade trope, knew what was coming, it was all new and amazing to the kids. There were audible cheers. They were genuinely uplifted. It was fun to watch.

Maya learned that she got one of the speaking parts in the musical her after school choir group will be performing in December. They’re doing a school-age adaptation of “Seussical” and she’s going to be Mrs. Mayor. On the day the parts were announced, she was very put out because she had her heart set on being one of the cats. She came around though and now is back to being excited about the whole production.

The kids had outgrown the tie-dye shirts that we had made for father’s day a few years back. Sean may have <ahem> outgrown his as well. And because they were father’s day gifts, we hadn’t even made one for me. Sean spent maybe a week or so getting all the variously sized t-shirts ordered and washed and ready to go, and then we spent an afternoon trying our hand at different tie-dye patterns. Maya’s and Ian’s turned out the best – our figuring is that dye distribution is a little easier in a smaller shirt. We each have another shirt or two that we didn’t get to because we ran out of both stamina and appropriately colored dye.

Ian has been learning knife safety as part of his cub scouts training. As a third grader, he’s currently striving for his Bear rank, and these knife safety and usage skills are part of a unit called Bear Claws. Ian knows how to sharpen his bear claw, safely transfer it to another person, and even do some introductory whittling with it. We don’t let him keep his pocket knife in his room, but he’s definitely getting better at safely using it. Maya, who’s historically been afraid of knives, has been willing to chop a few things with my kitchen knives and has even expressed interest in learning the same skills that Ian is learning.

One weekend, Sean willingly woke up super early and drove all the way to Hye to the Garrison Brothers Distillery, maybe an hour and fifteen minutes away from us to be there when they opened the doors so he could buy a bottle of the very limited release of their Cowboy Bourbon. Sean is patently NOT an early bird, except for Disney park days. Apparently he’ll also get up early for hard liquor – who knew?!

He arrived around 8:20 (they had opened at 8 that day) and was greeted with literally a mile-long car line. The release was 9600 bottles, so I think he was feeling pretty good about his odds. Each car was only allowed to purchase a single bottle per adult occupant, so it seemed likely he’d get his bourbon. Further down the line, he heard from a video crew who was on sight shooting that Garrison actually only had a thousand bottles to sell that morning; the rest had been distributed to retail establishments. At that point, it became less of a sure thing.

The folks at Garrison Brothers have this down to a science evidently – the intrepid bourbon buyers don’t even have to exit their vehicle to score their bottle – so after a little over an hour of creeping along in that car line, Sean had his Cowboy Bourbon in hand and was on his way back to Austin. We don’t know when they sold out, but as Sean was leaving, there was still a huge line of cars so no doubt the thousand bottles were sold.

The bourbon acquisition was on a Saturday. That Sunday, it was a hundred stupid degrees outside. Sunday night, a weird freak storm blew through – we got emergency warnings about 2-inch hail and high winds. In Round Rock, that hail was legit – people had car windows and house windows shattered. The car dealerships took lots of damage. At our house, there was some rain and high wind. At one point, we heard a sound like a branch hitting our roof. It was dark, and with all this mess going on, we didn’t really want to go out and examine things right then, but we did see a biggish branch – trunk maybe the size of my forearm – that likely blew into our roof.

Imagine my astonishment on Monday morning once it was light outside. I was blithely making my coffee, not paying a great deal of attention, when I finally looked up to see that a huge branch had crashed into our roof. It definitely damaged one of the gutters and may have messed with some of the roof a bit, but for the size of the limb, we’re probably lucky that’s all that happened. Sean took the morning off and sawed the limb up to at least get the weight of it off of our roof.

I have had a “bad back” for a while. I initially just took it as a sign I was getting older; these things happen. But it seemed like it was getting worse as time marched on, and one day (this was several months ago), I leaned over to pick something up from the floor and felt an intense pain that I’d like very much to never feel again. Over the course of minutes or hours, I don’t recall, that pain dwindled, but it was just another sign that I needed to get my back looked at.

I had X-rays that seemed to show disc degeneration. The orthopedist I was seeing said he wouldn’t make any recommendations without an MRI, and insurance wouldn’t pay for an MRI unless I had tried an 8-week course of PT first. My thinking was that the PT would be good for me regardless, so why not. I did the PT, and while I feel stronger, it didn’t fully mitigate the pain (and I already knew that disc degeneration was irreversible, so I wasn’t surprised). By that time, I was deep in the throes of summer vacations and back to school planning and all those things, so it wasn’t till September that I managed to schedule an MRI.

Sure enough, as seen in the x-ray, there’s lumbar disc degeneration – one disc is completely gone. There’s one nerve pinched, but for the most part, the nerves are undamaged and have plenty of room. Given all this, the orthopedist doesn’t recommend surgery, no spinal fusion, anything like that. This isn’t really a treatable condition apparently. It’s a little frustrating because the post-MRI visit was so abrupt. I think I need to keep doing PT and avoid lifting heavy things. (“Don’t move a couch,” the orthopedist chuckled.) He directed me to another office that could do some sort of injections to help with the pain. He recommended I get a relationship built with them before the pain is severe.

Mentally, I need to find a constructive way to deal with this. Already, every time I turn around, I see another thing I cannot do because of the pain it will cause or the damage it might do. This is all happening at the same time my middle-aged brain is losing track of things and my middle-aged eyes are adapting to a newfound farsightedness that seems to evolve on a daily basis. I’m worn down.

Everything in me wants to preserve what I have left of my spinal function, but I’m a little vague on how to do that. All that orthopedist wants to talk about is pain management. I’m not sure what kind of health care professional I need to seek out to obtain solid advice, but so far, I’m just trying to common sense my way through it, which I fear will only take me so far.

Anyhow, it’s not like I’m bedridden, so hopefully there’s hope. And in the meantime, both kids had really good parent teacher conferences, they seem to be enjoying their extracurricular activities, and we’re all excited that it’s finally, finally managed to cool off a little now that we’re a week into October.

I know in my heart of hearts that it’s foolish to bitch about the heat in Texas, especially in August, but this summer has been a doozy. It’s barely rained since May and the heat has been insane. We broke a record sometime this past month for number of 100+ degree days in a row. 2011 has been the year with the most 100+ degree days (at something like 90 of them), but this year has been every bit as brutal.

I just checked – Lake Travis is at 38.2% full as of September 4th. This isn’t as low as it’s ever been, but it’s worrisome all the same. I just checked our forecast for the next ten days – not a drop of rain in sight. I used to chuckle over some of our tourist literature – “300 days of sunshine” it said. I remember thinking that that was an awfully rose-colored view given our summers.

Thanks to our extreme drought conditions and the subsequent water restrictions, most of the yard is some degree of brown and crispy. We haven’t grilled all summer for fear an errant spark will start a fire. Our cold water currently measures 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Our local weather folks have told us these oppressive temperatures are in part courtesy of something called a heat dome. Evidently there was a huge and unmoving area of high pressure around us trapping in warm air from the gulf and from Mexico. That warm air evaporated the ground moisture from our nice mild spring, and once the ground was good and dry, any evaporative cooling we may have enjoyed was gone gone gone.

Thankfully, we’ve mostly been able to escape indoors this August. Lots of movie nights and family game nights and arts and crafts nights. Anything to not go outside. Even the cacti and succulents are losing the good fight. Even the weeds are browning.

Early in the month, we tried out the Museum of Illusions. It was probably a little expensive for what wound up being maybe an hour-long outing for us, but it was entertaining regardless. Plus, Ian at the time had been on a tear creating “impossible drawings” (things like the Penrose triangle) so it was fun to let him lean into that a little bit.

Maya liked bits of it I think, but spent much of the time feeling bored and audibly wishing she could not be there. She seemed to like trying to solve some of the puzzles toward the end, so at least that part was fun for her. And either way, we got a few fun photos out of the deal.

We had a night early in the month where we hung out with a few friends and played board games. I am ambivalent about board games and so for me mostly it was about trying out some interesting recipes and socializing a bit. For example, we learned that bacon wrapped pickles are friggin’ delicious. The recipe calls for smoking them, but 1 – reference my earlier commentary about our intense drought and 2 – Maya doesn’t like smoke. I made them in the oven instead and they were divine.

For our entire 20-something year history together, Sean has not been a tequila guy, much to my chagrin. However, after sampling this spicy margarita punch that I made for the event, he may be a changed man. Since then, we’ve tested out a handful of tequila and mezcal cocktails together, and I’m delighted to say that he seems to have turned a corner. Hooray!

The kids’ school ice cream social was on August 10th. It’s an opportunity for the kids to meet their new teachers and see their classrooms before the first day of school. The kids, especially Maya, have been looking forward to school starting so they can see more of their friends. Just before back to school night, we learned who the kids’ teachers would be. Maya found out that while she had one teacher, two of her best friends had a different teacher. To add insult to injury, this teacher that her friends were with had student-taught Maya in 4th grade and Maya absolutely adored her. She put on a brave face, but you could tell she was upset.

Ian had a guitar performance at a local coffee shop with his guitar teacher, Chris. It was a sort of low-key open-mic affair and for the first few songs, I’m not sure sure people really paid them much attention. I think it wasn’t till Ian started belting out AC/DC’s Thunderstruck on his nylon-stringed classical guitar, something familiar, that people noticed. He and Chris garnered some polite, coffee-house applause for their efforts.

And then on August 14th, the kids went back to school. Back to lunch rooms and recesses and homework assignments. Back to drop off and pick up and the end of the day discussion of how their days went. So far, the kids both seem to like their classrooms well enough. All the same-grade kids have recess together, so Maya still gets to see and play with her friends during the day.

Every year around August, our local Central Market grocery store celebrates hatch chile season. These delicious chiles are ripe and ready for harvest from Hatch, NM around this time, and Central Market (and many local restaurants) put them in everything. The smell coming from the grocery store grounds at this time of year is divine as they roast chiles and huge open-air drums outside the store. You can choose to buy them hot or mild, fresh or roasted. For me though, the fun is all the hatch-flavored stuff they wind up concocting.

Sean went foraging for goodies this year – he’s our primary grocery shopper. Let’s see if I can remember all the things he came back with (many of which wound up in the freezer): a whole hatch roasted chicken, hatch macaroni and cheese, fresh hatch sausages, hatch marinated salmon, hatch marinated shrimp, hatch crab cakes, hatch marinated chicken thighs, hatch marinated flank steak, hatch burgers, hatch hummus, hatch cheese, hatch tortillas, dried hatch enchilada sauce mix, hatch chocolate chip cookies, hatch creme sandwich cookies, hatch tamales, hatch cheddar biscuits, hatch sourdough crisps, and hatch cheese puffs.

And so far, except for the cheese puffs, everything has been really good! We ate the chicken and macaroni that very evening, still-warm from the store. All four of us really liked salmon and shrimp. And it’s been fun since then taking things slowly out of the freezer week over week and stretching out our hatch chile enjoyment.

On that Sunday, both Sean and Maya started feeling a bit under the weather – sniffly noses, headaches. As a precaution Monday morning (the second whole week of school, for anyone keeping track), we gave Maya a covid test. On the initial 15 minute run, only the control line showed up, but on glancing at the test a little while later, there it was: a faint positive line. I called the school and Maya was dismayed to find out she’d have to stay home for the entire week. She didn’t feel too terrible, so I went ahead and fetched some of her homework from school and that helped occupy her time a little, but for the most part, she was bored and frustrated.

Thankfully, Ian and I managed to avoid infection. I don’t know if it made a difference, but we wore masks around the house during the first few days. We ate our meals separately, and I slept in the living room. (They tested on Thursday evening and once no positive result appeared, even after a full hour of waiting, we chose to ditch our at-home precautions.) But Maya had to miss school for a week already, miss her first swim lesson, and miss her piano lesson for the week, none of which impressed her.

Maya and Ian have played soccer for the past couple seasons. Both of them seemed interested in testing out some other things, so we’ve decided to skip out on soccer this fall. Ian is still taking weekend archery lessons, and they’ve both started swim lessons with an eye toward joining swim team once they qualify. Maya has also again joined her after school choir group. And Ian has decided to try out cub scouts.

Ian’s first pack meeting was toward the end of August, and I’m gonna be honest: all of this is a little overwhelming. I have managed to register him with scouts, buy him a pack t-shirt, and get him to that first meeting. But I’ve not yet bought his uniform or handbook, signed him up for any of the events, nor figured out what’s going on with popcorn selling business. One of his friends from class, who also happens to be in the weekend archery lessons with him, is in scouts as well, so Ian is pretty excited. During their first pack meeting, they made rockets, and Ian’s rocket both held together and flew pretty well. Now his mother just needs to get her crap together.

Every summer, we daydream about living somewhere with a milder climate, but this summer may be the one that finally does it. We’ve floated the idea past the kids a little, just so they know we’re thinking about it. Maya, who is very attached to her friends, is dead-set against moving away from Austin. Even though she wishes she could play outside more, even though she wishes it would snow more, even though she likes the idea of maybe being a little closer to her grandparents, she does not want to leave. We Woodses don’t tend to move quickly, so she probably doesn’t have much to worry about for a while.