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Postmark: China
It wasn't easy to go back to school today after a two-week winter break (I'm a middle school principal), but as I've said before, I'm blessed to get to work with some special teachers in my job. One of our teachers, Mary, has spent a month of each of her past two...
Thanks, Paul and Connor!
Last summer, my brother and nephew took a father/son trip to Italy and did lots of sightseeing, exploring, and even took an Italian cooking class. While their schedules were busy, we really appreciated them taking time out to find postcards to send to us, even when it...
Happy New Year!
On this last day of 2015, it has been nice to reminisce about our year, where we've been and where we'd still love to go someday. Our travels began when we welcomed in 2015 with a New Year's celebration with our parents in the Florida Keys and took us to Estes Park...
Postcards from Alaska
We were just thrilled when Steve's parents decided to go on their very first cruise together earlier this year to beautiful Alaska. Steve's dad had been reluctant to try cruising for many years, so when he suggested he might be willing to "look into it," Gayle didn't...
20 Things I Always Take With Me
Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel weeks in America, so whether you're scrambling to pack a bag for a quick trip to grandma's house, road-tripping to see the big game, or flying out on a weekend getaway to an exotic island (don't we all wish), I thought I'd...
Thanks, Jim and Kelly
Our friends and neighbors, Jim and Kelly, celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary this summer by traveling back to their original honeymoon destination -- The Black Hills of South Dakota. We were delighted that they would take time out of their anniversary trip to...
Crete’s Great Pumpkin Festival
This weekend, our hometown of Crete, Nebraska, hosted its inaugural Great Pumpkin Festival. It was a beautiful fall day, only made better by the site of a diverse community coming together to celebrate our town. And believe me, there is a lot to celebrate in Crete!...
Climb a rock
Where do you need to go every once in a while? What do you need to do?
Postcards from National Parks
Two students from the middle school where I am principal (along with their parents) took what looks to have been a fun trip this summer to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. What a cool surprise that two of my students took time from their vacation to...
Thanks, Meghan!
Our daughter, Meghan, turned 21 a few weeks ago. Sadly, her birthday fell on Labor Day when friends and family were busy with outdoor barbecues and many bars and restaurants were closed for the holiday. Despite reaching the legal drinking age, she wasn't really...
A postcard from the Vatican
As you may already know, whenever we travel, we look for opportunities to purchase postcards and mail them home to our "postcard jar" [read more about that here]. We started doing this several years ago as a way to easily document our travels, remind us where we'd...
Thanks, Kyle and Shelley!
I'm pretty lucky that as a middle school principal, I get to work with some fantastic teachers. Two of them are Mr. and Mrs. Poore who sent us this postcard from their trip to San Francisco this summer. We've heard for years that summers in San Francisco can be pretty...
St. Peter’s Basilica
I'd looked forward to this day since we'd booked our European vacation. I'd been to Rome twenty years ago, so had been to the Vatican, but Ann had not. I'd told her that St. Peter's was something we could not miss on our visit to the Eternal City. I'd been counting...
Postcard from Tampa
One of my former students from Mississippi, Kalessia, heard about our blog, and sent us a postcard! It was such a wonderful surprise to hear from her after all these years. She was in Tampa on business, but tells us that Florida was as beautiful as always. She also...
Thanks, Jo
One of Steve's colleagues from Crete Public Schools sent us a couple postcards this summer from her vacation in the beautiful Ozarks. Table Rock Lake is an artificial lake or reservoir in The Ozarks of southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas. The lake is...
Roaming Rome
The first stop on our European adventure was Rome. Since we were arriving mid-morning after a 10-hour flight, and because we weren't sure how Ann would be feeling due to her illness, we pre-booked a private car tour to give us an overview of the city until we were...
A memorable European vacation
Last fall, our college-aged daughter, Meghan, shared with us that she was interested in doing a summer study abroad in Spain. Since she is a Spanish major (as was Steve), we thought this was a great opportunity and encouraged her to apply. Once she was accepted and...
Thanks again, mom!
My mom has been doing a lot of traveling this year and her most recent trip was to North Carolina to visit her younger brother, Bill, and his family. She had visited my Uncle Bill last fall and had a great time, so I wasn't surprised she wanted to go back. However, I...
Thanks, Melony and Kari!
Lake of the Ozarks is a popular vacation destination for people in our part of the country. You can typically drive there in a day and the rolling hills of Missouri are just beautiful. Last week, we received a postcard from two of my high school classmates, Melony and...
Thanks, Cody and Mikayla!
One of my former students and his wife sent us a postcard with an aerial view of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It was our first postcard from outside of the United States! Cody and Mikayla have recently been enjoying time in Europe. They've traveled to...
Thanks, Jo and Steve!
Our friends Jo and Steve sent us a postcard from beautiful San Diego, California! They said they loved their time in La Jolla where they watched sea lions at the cove. La Jolla Cove is a beach in San Diego that is ideal for snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, and...
Postcard from Kalona, Iowa
A good friend of mine from high school lives in Iowa now and recently sent us a postcard from Kalona, just an hour south of where she and her family live. They've lived there for years but had never been to nearby Kalona which was settled as an Amish community in the...
Travel Tip: Bring an Extra Bag or Eight
We've all been there, next to the hotel pool, debating whether to jump in or not because we don't know if our swimsuit will dry (it won't) before we have to put it in the suitcase. Here'a a tip: Pack an extra bag … or eight. Whether we are traveling to Europe for 14...
We’ll toast to that!
National Martini Day is apparently celebrated each year on June 19. I tried to research this holiday and was unable to find the creator or origin of National Martini Day -- but that's not going to stop us from toasting it! While we aren't big drinkers, on the...
Thanks, Mom.
Last month, my mom checked off another popular destination on her bucket list -- New York City. She had always wanted to travel to The Big Apple and had just never had the opportunity. This spring, she got involved in a fantastic lifelong learning organization called...
Thanks, Piper Family!
Our friends, the Pipers, sent us a postcard this week from one of the best zoos in the world -- Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, which is just up the road from us here in Nebraska. This zoo is absolutely amazing and in our opinion, is a must-see U.S....
How our journey began and I proposed to Ann on a random Tuesday night
Allow me to wax romantic for a moment. June 7, 2011, I proposed marriage and Ann said, "yes," making me the happiest man on earth. It all began the summer before, when she invited me to a College World Series game the last year it was at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha,...
Every once in a while …
Our Inaugural Sine Die Adventure: Chicago
Our first ever Sine Die Adventure was to Chicago in 2012. Our daughter, Meghan, and I planned the trip for Ann and she had no idea where we were going until moments before we boarded our plane. Ann had traveled about 45,000 miles (literally) by car for her job that...
Surprise! We’re going to ___________ .
A few of years ago, I told Ann that I was going to plan a trip, book it, pack her bag, pick her up from work and take her directly to the airport for a surprise weekend away. With a horrified expression, she told me that I should never do that because there is no way...
Postcard what?
Postcard jar. That's right. Here's the story. A few years ago, I read a home decorating blog post from Young House Love about saving postcards from places you visit and displaying them in a glass vase. I loved the idea and from that point on in May of 2011, whenever...
Music for the soul
After my appointments today at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Steve and I spent two hours sitting in the lobby of Mayo’s Gonda Building where we listened to Jane Belau play the grand piano for passersby. We’d seen her play before and enjoyed the music, but today was...
A new view of Key West
I'm one of the lucky ones. My grandparents spent winters in the Florida Keys so I've been to Key West many times. I have seen the drag queen lowered in her giant shoe at midnight on New Year's Eve. I've sipped beers in Sloppy Joe's, Captain Tony's and even the Hog's...
We got trouble. Right here in River City.
I'm talkin bout trouble with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool. Do you know that song? The one about the kids in the knickerbockers, shirt-tail young ones, peekin' in the pool-hall window after school? The first time I heard Steve recite...
Discovering Geocaching
A few months ago, I found myself belly-crawling through the dirt under a merry-go-round. Looking up at the underside of this playground staple, I reflected on how I willingly came to be in such a position for the first time in over thirty years. I grunted,...
Decorating our travel tree with souvenirs
Years ago, I started purchasing Christmas tree ornaments when we'd travel. I loved unpacking the ornaments each year and reminiscing about the places we'd been and the things we'd seen. At some point, we collected enough ornaments to decorate an entire tree and I...
Travel Tip: Keep an extra toiletry bag packed at all times
One of the most frustrating things that has happened to me is arriving at a hotel after a long day's journey only to find that I forgot some essential toiletry item at home. Sure, I could run to the store, but it's late, and cold, and I don't really know where the...
To the Ends of the Earth
When you live in America, it can be easy to forget that there are children all over the world who have never heard the story of Jesus' birth, or received a Christmas gift. As Americans, we tend to get pretty wrapped up this time of year with Black Friday shopping,...
Travel Tip #5 – Wrap shower caps around dirty shoes
I sometimes fret about my dirty shoes touching my clothing when I pack my suitcase. Typically, they are pretty clean when I leave for a trip, but sometimes get dirty during my stay. If I don't have time to clean them, I usually put shoes in a plastic bag (like the...
Nebraska’s Nicest Nine Recap
Earlier this summer, Steve and I took off on a 6-day journey to find out for ourselves if our home state lives up to its new slogan, "Nebraska Nice." We wrote about some of the nicest things we saw -- calling them our 2014 "Nebraska's Nicest Nine." The list was...
Thanks, Mom.
We received our first postcards from a reader this week from none other than my mom, Carol. She had a fantastic time in Mason City, Iowa, the boyhood home of Meredith Willson who wrote one of our families' all-time favorite musicals -- The Music Man. The next time you...
Love me some koh-lah-chee
Cherry is my personal favorite. And it has been since I was a little girl and was first introduced to kolace, usually at the home of my great-grandmother, Olive (Moravek) Rashleigh. She was Czechoslovakian and whenever we got together for family gatherings at her...
Travel Tip #4 – When cruising, book the spa on port days.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoy a trip to the spa. I know a lot of men think the spa is "unmanly" but they only think that because they've never been there. Once you get a good, deep tissue massage with hot rocks, you'll put your pride aside and realize that the...
A place to come Home2
A fews weeks ago, Steve and I were invited to participate in a reception and hard hat tour of the new Home2 Suites in west Omaha. The Hilton property owners and operators welcomed us (and other area bloggers) to a fantastic wine and cheese reception at the Hilton...
Travel Tip – Don’t forget to wipe.
We have a good friend who is an airline pilot. One night, while chatting, she revealed that airplanes are not as clean as you'd think. They typically look clean because they get vacuumed, but considering they spend very little time on the ground between flights there...
Wilber festival is worth Czeching out.
Polka music, kolaches, and lots and lots of pivo (beer), make the small town of Wilber, Nebraska, the place to be the first weekend in August. Each year, the Czech Capital of the United States hosts thousands of Czechoslovakians (and beer drinkers) for the Wilber...
Travel Tip #2 – Put all of your cords in one see-through bag.
I nearly did not make it to our honeymoon. Seriously. Just minutes before (or maybe even several after) we were supposed to leave for the airport for a week-long honeymoon in paradise, I couldn’t find my camera’s charging cord. Not only was the camera cord lost, but I...
Travel Tip #1 – Use plastic wrap under caps.
Don’t you hate it when you return from a great vacation and find that your liquids and gels have leaked through supposed “leak proof” containers? We’ve tried lots of different travel bottles and tubes and some work better than others. But the guaranteed way to prevent...
Nebraska’s Nicest #1 – Innkeeper Jeanne Goetzinger
I met Jeanne Goetzinger several years ago, when my daughter, Meghan, and I were exploring northwest Nebraska. We saw a lot of interesting things on that trip, but none was more memorable than the straight-talking, curly-haired woman who greeted us in the parking lot...
Nebraska’s Nicest #2 – Toadstool Geologic Park
Ann insisted we go to Toadstool Geologic Park on our Nebraska trip because it was such an incredible and unique place. As we rounded the bend into Crawford, Ann reminded me that we had a 19-mile ride on a bumpy road to get to Toadstool. I decided then and there that...
Nebraska’s Nicest #3 – Neon Bar and Grill
The Neon Bar and Grill, located in the Motel Raine in Valentine, Nebraska, makes #3 on our list. Normally, we would not have expected to put a restaurant on our list, especially one located in a motel, but this trip around Nebraska made us learn to open our minds and...
Nebraska’s Nicest #4 – Circle C in Cody
After driving past more than a dozen dying small towns in rural Nebraska, we knew there was something out of the ordinary when we approached Cody, population 155. It's sign read, "Cody welcomes you. A town too tough to die." Many of the towns we had passed on our...
Nebraska’s Nicest #5 – Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park
Ashfall Fossil Beds is located somewhere along Robert Frost's "Road Not Taken" outside of Royal, Nebraska (population 63). The truth is the road to this place should be taken. By everybody. Ashfall, discovered under a cattle pasture, is unlike anything you've ever...
Nebraska’s Nicest #6 – A Kiss on the Butte
Can I tell you something personal? I kissed my wife on the butte. It's okay, though, because there was no one around to see us, and the scenery was so beautiful, I just had to kiss her. On the butte. And she liked it. I know that joke is a little juvenile, but I...
Nebraska’s Nicest #7 – Chimney Rock/Scottsbluff Monument
Any trip through western Nebraska should include a stop at Chimney Rock National Historic Site and the Scottsbluff National Monument in the Scottsbluff/Gering area. I say this, because these are beautiful places with cool history. These monuments are located along...
Nebraska’s Nicest #8 – Wildflowers & Prairie Grasses
Our list of Nebraska's Nicest would not be complete without a mention of the wildflowers and prairie grasses of Nebraska. Throughout our more than 1,200-mile journey across the state, we saw extraordinary displays of colorful flowers growing on the roadsides, near the...
Nebraska’s Nicest #9 – Cody Park
I have to admit, I was pleasantly shocked when I saw Cody Park--I did not expect to find such an amazing park in the middle of North Platte, Nebraska. In my defense, our visit to Cody Park came early in our Nebraska trip, so I had not yet become accustomed to being...
Nebraska’s Nicest Nine 2014
I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled with Nebraska's new tourism slogan, "Nebraska Nice" when it was introduced a few weeks ago. I felt it lacked a certain something and didn't capture all it could. "Nice?" Really? I felt the tourism board could have said "Nebraska...
Getting over the hump
We visited the Golden Spike Tower and Bailey Rail Yard in North Platte, NE, this morning. The Tower features some interesting videos about the rail yard, including a great documentary on the North Platte Canteen. We took the elevator to the 7th floor observation deck...
The Good Life
After spending a lot of time at home the past few months, dealing with the diagnosis of a chronic illness, we decided it would do us both good to get away for a few days … so we're on the road again. Because I am still not feeling especially well, we decided to stay...
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM!
On our way back home from Mayo Clinic, Ann and I stopped in Austin, MN at the SPAM museum. There we learned that SPAM stands for "spiced ham" and there have been billions of cans sold. Believe it or not, the SPAM museum is actually worth a stop. The museum is fun for...
And we’re off!
After months of dilly dallying around with the idea (slash dream) of a travel blog, we decided to just get it going this weekend. We've got a day to kill in cold and gloomy Rochester, Minnesota, before I return for the third time since January to the Mayo Clinic....
Inspiring the next step on your journey