There is a page of half-scribbled notes in my journal from our trip to Austin. They are not about what we did, which might have been helpful in writing this post, but rather small details from what I saw along the way. It has been years since I journaled long-hand and this trip has reminded me how much I miss the process of pen to paper. It has also been years since I’ve traveled alone. That, too, I have missed. We spent Friday night catching up over local beers and pizza at the Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. If you’re ever in Austin, I’d consider this a must. The ambiance…

I read a sentence in a novel the other day that was so beautifully written I had to read it twice. Instinctively, I thought to myself, I wish I could write a sentence like that. Pages later I was still thinking about the sentence, wishing it was mine. By the end of the end of the chapter, however, I came to the conclusion that all of the sentences I was so thirstily coveting would never be mine because they were not my story to tell. When we begin to focus our perspective back onto our own path, wanting and wishing seem to fall away. It didn’t, however, stop me from…

The pace of our adventures has drastically changed over the past two years. This is not a complaint. The toddler in our backseat has become a welcomed time clock, letting us know when we need to stop, or slow, or hurry along the way. As a family we embrace our (frequent) breaks as an opportunity to explore along the way. On our last trip north, we used our break as an opportunity to play along the shores of Lake Michigan. The sun was sinking beneath the horizon, the sand was cool beneath our feet and the water, although cold, happily greeted us home like an expectant mother. We returned to…

When I heard the thunder, waking me from my foggy sleep, I remembered that I was in the south. Storms are not the same here. The thunder groans deeper than it ever would in Michigan. The rain falls harder here, too, like the heavy steps of a man, rushing through his morning routine. June heard the storm as well, from where she slept beside me. But instead of waking she rolled against my shoulder and cradled her blanket between her two chubby thumbs. Awake or asleep, the novelty of vacation and sharing a bed was felt by both of us in that moment. Like our visits the years before, the…