When Jon was a young boy growing up in Illinois, the state observed two individual presidential holidays in February: Lincoln’s Birthday, on February 12, and Washington’s Birthday, on February 22. Beginning in the 1960s, efforts were made to join the two days as a way of giving equal recognition to two of America’s most famous…
We knew we were in for a treat this weekend, with the Snow Moon at its zenith on Saturday night. But we weren’t prepared for the celestial show that awaited us. On Friday and Saturday, we witnessed spectacular sunsets and moonrises, as well as moonsets and sunrises — all from our new favorite perch overlooking…
The weekend weather forecast was almost unbelievable: clear skies and daytime temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s. Even though we had taken Cloud 9 to A&P Vintage Trailer Works for our washer/dryer repair last weekend, we were determined to go camping this weekend, if we could get the Airstream back in time. A…
Once again, MLK Day found us camping out, but due to unforeseen circumstances. We had planned to take Cloud 9 in to the repair shop for a dryer fix, but that had to be postponed until next weekend. And we thought we would have to take Maya in to the vet each day for a…
In the 1970s, comedienne Gilda Radner introduced us to Roseann Rosannadana, a commentator on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment who always ended her routine with the line, “It’s always something,” which was a favorite expression of Radner’s father. Later in life, Radner chose the catch-phrase as the title for her memoir, which dealt with…
Jon’s supervisor asked about our plans for the weekend, and he told her we were headed to one of our favorite backyard campgrounds. She asked why do we stay so close to home when there are so many great destinations just a few hours away. Well, considering we start most weekends on Fridays at 5…
It’s been said that all good things must come to an end, and so we concluded our coastal Christmas with a typical “weekday” breakfast before packing up and heading home to Dallas. Our days at the beach were made memorable by spectacular sunsets, mild temperatures, warm ocean breezes, waves crashing on the shore, and the…
The fourth day of our coastal Christmas found us at the beach, walking barefoot in the surf as we collected seashells. There’s nothing quite like the sensation of warm, wet sand between your toes. At one point, Cliff cleaned his shoes on some Sargassum (seaweed) that had washed ashore. The name seaweed is actually a…
Our third day at the Gulf coast held an unexpected encounter with friends from one of our Airstream groups, an evening campfire, and an unplanned viewing of a classic movie. The day began as expected, with coffee, Bloody Mary’s, and The New York Times. But as Jon was setting the picnic table for our al…
The second day of our Coastal Christmas found us engaged in our typical Sunday activities: enjoying Bloody Mary’s, watching “CBS Sunday Morning,” reading The New York Times. After brunching and napping, we took a long walk along the beach and the seawall, observing pelicans, sandpipers, egrets, herons, gulls and terns along the way. We were…
