Category: Family

This will go down as the best family vacation ever. For the most part it was the same as previous Cape Cod vacations. But the whole vacation had a great rhythm to it.

We had the same neighbors in the beach houses next door, so the girls had friends from day one and they all played great. And the girls are older and more independent.

The weather was spectacular.

Of course, there were great sunsets, lots of crabs caught by the girls, bike rides and friends visiting us. This year we added a whale watching excursion that was excellent.

Pictures and more to come…

I’m off to Cape Cod. Same place as always. Should be big fun. We’ll take the usual pictures, but basically it will be like:

last year

the year before

the year before that

and the first year

I can’t believe this is our fifth year in the same place. But why mess with success?

After my mom passed away, it fell on my oldest brother to go through the picture albums, make three copies of everything (I have two brothers) and send them out. Needless to say, that took a while to do.

The pictures arrived today. Two boxes worth. I got the original wedding album plus a ton of other amazing pictures. They are making me laugh and cry.

My mom and dad looked pretty good…

This past weekend was our nephew (wife’s side) Mike’s wedding. He has been with his bride Sandy for five years and it’s obviously an ideal match. Sandy is from Arizona but went to school at SUNY Binghamton (softball scholarship) where they met. Sandy has been living near Mike’s family ever since graduating and had the wedding there (Dutchess County, NY), not in Arizona.

Mike and Sandy love each other, Mike’s family loves Sandy, we love Sandy, Sandy’s family loves Mike, the two families love each other. Honestly, it’s hard to write because it sounds too hokey.

The wedding was just a big love fest (not in the 60’s sort of way). Some weddings are a big party, some feel a bit odd, this one was just all about love.

It was outside and a million degrees. We all complained about that, but we all had such a good time, what’s a little sweat? (ok, a lot of sweat).

And my girls were junior bridesmaids, so here are the obligatory pictures:

A seriously great wedding…

We have now existed without owning a car for three years. It’s become pretty normal. It’s obviously a lot easier to do in Brooklyn than in other places. I’ve mentioned many times how well ZipCar has worked for us.

But there’s another interesting element in this transition. The train.

I’m not talking about the subway, which is frankly always better than a car in New York. I’m talking about a train ride for an hour and a half to visit my wife’s sister. They are our closest really close family. It’s an easy hour and 45 minute drive (depending on traffic out of the city).

Without owning a car, we would often get a ZipCar for a visit. But more and more we found ourselves taking the train. The total door to door time is a little bit more. A cab ride to Grand Central (20 minutes), 80-90 minutes on the train (depending on whether it’s an express) and then a 15 minute drive to their house.

But it’s so pleasant. In Grand Central we pick up snacks. On the train, I’m not driving, so I can do stuff with the girls. Or just read. We can move around, play cards, draw. I can have a beer if I’m so inclined. The train ride follows the Hudson River and is quite pretty. The views are like this:

I realized that we had become a train family when this weekend I offered to do the ZipCar instead of the train. We were spending New Year’s up there and we wanted to get up there a bit early to see both of our nephews playing in a soccer tournament together. So I was thinking the added flexibility of a car would be useful.

But my wife just said, “but I like the train so much more”.

And I had to agree.