I first want to thank all of you who have contacted me in recent days, checking in to see if all is okay. As is always the case in the end of August, I get swept away in preparing for back to school. This year’s preps were joined by a wondrous trip to Florida (drove down Friday, family wedding on Saturday, drove home Sunday, school began Monday) and starting two new jobs teaching at our local community college and writing for Examiner.com. I also picked up a column in another pub, Mason-Dixon Arrive, earlier this summer, so there’s been a rush of good things here in the last few weeks.

But I’m glad to be back.

My nephew’s wedding was a magnificent event for our family. This was the first family wedding in 15 years (my wedding was the last in 1994), and our children’s first wedding ever attended. Needless to say, they had no idea what to expect.

Driving down was the best option for us, and although I don’t think I would do it again under normal vacation circumstances, it really wasn’t so bad. The kids were great, and my wife and I kept the conversation running for most of the 15 hours it took each way.

Here are just a few of the pics that I took of the wedding. Both of our nephews are in the Army. Kyle’s leave from Iraq was timely for the wedding; Kevin, who was the groom, leaves for Afghanistan in 2 weeks. Needless to say, the event held great significance–even more than a family wedding might normally have. My sister Cindy, who has been battling cancer, was thrilled (as we all were for her) to be dancing during the reception.

Like I said–a truly remarkable occasion.

What a truly blessed day. We have just arrived home from spending the day and evening at the beach, where everybody had a wonderful time.

That is, once we finally secured breakfast.

You see, I learned a very important lesson today: either update your GPS software when they tell you to, or simply open your eyes and look for the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts when searching for breakfast.

I thought I was playing it smart. Get in the Jeep, key in DD in the ol’ GPS, and slay our coffee and donuts with minimal effort. Unfortunately, The nearest DD was 106 blocks up Coastal Highway….a ridiculous drive for caffeine and sugar. Holland and I considered hitting the DD on the boardwalk, but we weren’t sure where we saw it last night, and we didn’t want to waste any time looking for it (for some reason (wink wink), it didn’t show up on the GPS).

So off we went to almost Delaware to get our coffee. It was really crowded once we arrived, and a little too claustrophobic for my taste. However, we got the joe and donuts and headed back home.

We passed the *first* DD at 81st street. That was pretty bad. Holland had a good time for about 66 blocks teasing me about the fact that we missed a DD closer to us….

And then, when we reached that 66th block south of 81st, we had to stop at the red light at 15th, just one block away from the condo. Holland looked past me and out my window and began to laugh.

There, just one block from where we were staying, was a Dunkin’ Donuts.

Needless to say, I’m walking to get the donuts tomorrow…. :)

Anyway…Here are some pictures from our day on the beach. Very muggy, thick air, so the pictures are not as clear as I would have wanted them to be. Still, Bella did a great job in the sun and the sand…

Holland, catchin’ a wave (and sittin’ on top of the world…)

Braeden, building castles in the sand…

Madelyn. Being Madelyn. OMG, honey…you are SEVEN. Ok? Seven years old.

Braeden “I’m David Hasselhoff” VW. :)

While the girls were swimming, we weren’t sure who was looking for lunch just a few hundred feet away…

Now, I’m no Finologist, but those fins could only be on two types of fish: dolphins and sharks. We took our chances… :)

I’m happy to report, we have no need to write the sequel to Soul Surfer…

Gull picture no. 1

Gull picture no. 2. At this point, I felt like I was in Nemo…. “Mine! Mine! Mine!”

Gull picture no. 3. Here’s where he started getting a little angry. Apparently, we didn’t spill enough Thrasher’s Fries for him, not to mention all of his happy-go-lucky friends… :)

Gull picture no. 4. At this point, we began fearing for our lives. Thank goodness his friend, Franklin the Laughing Gull, lightened the mood in the last gull picture, below.

I leave you with a photo that Amy took of Holland, just before sunset, after a meal and a walk on the boardwalk.

It’s amazing what a 3-hour drive will do to calm your tensions and anxieties. When we left Baltimore around 3 p.m., each of us was a little stressed about getting ready for the trip, packing, and taking care of last-minute needs around the house. As we headed toward Ocean City, MD, however, we could feel those tensions falling away with each passing town. By the time we reached the Rte. 50 bridge over the Isle of Wight bay that serves as the gateway to Ocean City, all of us had long-forgotten those worries that plagued us 160 miles to the northwest.

We are here in OC thanks to a most gracious gift from a family back home. I have had the honor to teach their children for the last 7 years, and they offered their condo to us in appreciation for the work we’ve done over the years.  To say we are grateful is quite an understatement; they have given a great gift to our own children, and we thank them.

After we unpacked our bags, I immediately set up the laptop to tap into my beloved world and friends across the globe. What shocked me most, though, was that I learned on Facebook that a wonderful friend, whom I have not seen in 10 years, was down here as well. Thanks to iPhones, Blackberries, and Facebook, we had reunited within the hour on the boardwalk at 8th street.

Andi and I have known each other since our awkward days in elementary school. She is absolutely one of the most wonderful individuals on this blessed earth, and I am so happy that we were able to see each other, even if it was for a few minutes.

As we walked along the boardwalk, Amy took wonderful pictures along the way with her brand new Blackberry Tour. Here are just a few pictures that captured “opening night” of our vacation in OC…

One of the pure joys of being off with my children these summer months is exploring the various tributaries along Chesapeake Bay, as well as the Bay itself. Earlier this week, we revisited North Point and Fort Howard Park along  Chesapeake Bay in eastern Baltimore County. My kids had many questions about the prison cells and cannons that, for the most part, have been left to rot away and fade into the all-but-forgotten history of our great state, our great country.

I begin by saying I’m guilty of being 44 years old and not even knowing the park existed. Yet, there it was, with guns pointed east toward Chesapeake Bay, waiting for an attack from some one, at some time.

What I didn’t know is that North Point and Fort Howard were pivotal in the Battle of Baltimore, which was the occasion when Francis Scott Key penned “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

What I’ve learned since visiting the park is this: The British troops launched their assault on Baltimore on September 12, 1814, and their plan was to more through North Point and converge on Baltimore as other British troops attacked Fort McHenry. The Baltimore troops anticipated the attack well enough to actually initiate the battle, and in so doing, were able to take out British General Robert Ross, a stunning blow both militaristically as well as to the morale of the British soldiers. After heavy battling and casualties, the British troops retreated as Francis Scott Key wrote our National Anthem two days later as a prisoner on a British ship with Fort McHenry in his sight.

And to think that we were on the shores of such an important battle fought for the independence of our nation, nearly 200 years ago.

Today, as you can see in the pictures below, it is hardly treasured as such. The entire place is breaking down, and many of the prison cells (built, I believe, in 1896 by the government to fortify the borders along the Chesapeake in anticipation of battles during the Spanish-American War in 1898), are used now for some sort of haunted house event during Halloween. My younger daughter pondered on the way out of the park, “Boy, for a State Park, the State doesn’t do a very good job of taking care of the things it wants to preserve.”

Well said, Madelyn. Well said.

Happy Birthday Mom. You would have turned 82 today, and not a day goes by that I don’t think of you or our many trips we had taken to Maine, Canada, Florida, and other wonderful places. In every adventure, we seized the day, didn’t we? We lived every minute to the fullest, savored the sunsets, revered the rainstorms, and cherished the winds that breathed a new life in us.You taught me the meaning of Carpe Diem, of patience, and of love. You gave me wondrous gifts that I shall give selflessly to my own children as you so selflessly gave to me.

But most importantly, Mom, you gave me strength to wait out the storms. Suns really do return, Rainbows really do happen, and new days are always just on the other side of the moon.

I talked to the kids today about you and shared stories. Braeden still wonders when you are going to wake up. All I keep telling him is that you are alive and well in his little heart, where you shall always remain with all of your children and grandchildren, helping us get through those moonlit nights to the brand new day that awaits.

I love you, Mom. Happy Birthday. :)

I will contend, to the very end of my existence, that the best trips I have ever taken have been unplanned, spontaneous, with little thought given to much more than choosing a destination.

Yesterday was one of those trips.

We decided at about 9 a.m. to head to Assateague Island, south of our beloved Ocean City. If you’ve ever read Misty of Chincoteague, you know about Assateague and the wild horses. On these sandy dunes that line the Atlantic Ocean, wild horses and silka deer own the land. Campers set up primitive sites on the west side of the dunes, and day-trippers like ourselves park-and-hoof it to spend a day on the beach.

When I started teaching 20 years ago, we would take our ninth graders to Assateague or Cape Henelopen for an extended weekend camping trip. Once they became accustomed to what the word “primitive” meant (the first night they stood in front of us, hair dryers in hand, repeating “you have got to be kidding me” like it was some practical joke), they went with the flow of the weekend and had a pretty good time.

Yesterday, there was no time for getting accustomed to anything. We didn’t even let on to the kids where we were going until we pulled into Assateague’s national park. Immediately, they reacted with unbridled excitement. They wasted no time acclimating to the beach and the strong currents (this was their first time along the ocean’s shores). Braeden, however, was not as keen on the whole water idea. He preferred to build sand castles around him, not to mention on top of him.

We also spent a good amount of time watching the horses and the deer. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good pictures of the deer this time; that’ll be on my list next time we go down (which we hope will be before summer ends).

As we were leaving, we were privileged to see one of the older horses leave the grassy dunes and take to the road, right toward us. Much like Boxer from Animal Farm, he seemed to have many years of hard work and experience under those hooves, and he knew this was his island. We stopped the car to let him cross the road, but he chose to take the road instead.

A car behind me was not patient and swerved around us, blowing by old Boxer as if he had been greatly inconvenienced. Boxer paid no attention to the rude human, though. He kept his slow pace, knowing his destination.

At last, he turned and made his way into the forest.

I didn’t realize it until after he had disappeared, but everyone in the car, for the one and only time during the entire trip, was silent. Was it reverence? Maybe for some of us. Perhaps the kids were just wondering what he would do. Still, Boxer’s presence made an impact on all of us, and it reminded me of the courage it takes at times to walk your own path, regardless of what everybody else is doing.

Hope your Sunday was a good one!

We spent the day yesterday at Six Flags America, which is remarkably close to our home in Baltimore (about a 45-minute drive. My oldest daughter, HG, wanted to celebrate her birthday (rather belatedly) at the park with one of her best friends, AJ (HG’s on the left).

We would never think to leave our younger two kids, MP and BC, behind, so they joined us as well for the fun.

HG and AJ were daredevils the whole day, with every roller coaster–no matter how ridiculously daredevilish each was–on their definite to-do list. The first major roller coaster they rode was the Wild One, built originally in 1917 (which I don’t understand completely, as I doubt seriously that this park even existed 20 years ago, let alone 90).

(They’re somewhere in this picture…I am nearly sure of it).

Unfortunately, most of the roller coasters were down for maintenance at different times during the day (some during the entire day!), so the older girls were a little more than disappointed that their master to-do list would go unfulfilled by the end of the day. :(

MP and BC enjoyed the lighter side of the park as well.

It was an awesome trip! They had a place called Hurricane Harbor that was a huge water park….we could have spent the entire day there. In fact, we’re seriously considering getting season passes to the park for next year. I could see us easily going at least once a week to enjoy the water park alone…That way, as well, we’d be there frequently enough to catch the roller coasters when they *were* running, as opposed to taking a shot in the dark on some random day that, magically, everything will be running as it should be.

We had a phenomenal time…but boy am I beat this morning!

First attempt at bringing my blog back to life with pictures. Maddie joins us below as she works on a very important project at school…

To get this photo in the blog entry, I simply uploaded it from my desktop…something I can do on my PC laptop but not from my Mac, for some reason.

Maybe my life will be much easier blogging from the PC…..

off to school now, but plenty of play time ahead this weekend!

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I couldn’t resist sharing one last summer pic of B enjoying his King Cone…May we all go into the weekend in such a happy way!

Ah, yes. The best of plans often lead to tough decisions. We were faced with such an opportunity this weekend when we traveled north for our annual blueberry-picking ritual. The temps were nearly 20 degrees lower than they were when we went picking last year, so we were all excited at the prospect of spending hours in the blueberry fields, picking the juicy blues as long as the kids held up.

That was, of course, before we pulled into the orchard to learn that they were closed on Sundays. So, to paraphrase Arlo Guthrie, We had never heard of a farm closed on a sunday, a day of givin’, and so we drove off into the mid-day sun, lookin’ for another place to pick the blueberries. We didn’t find one….

Till we came to a welcome center and happened upon a big book of farms in the entire state, what they offered, when, and whether you could go a’ pickin’. We decided on a place called Brown’s Orchard, and boy were we surprised by the outcome of the day.

When we got there, we were immediately drawn into the Orchard Retreat area, where a large pavillion filled with families reading, playing Sorry!, and eating ice cream were relaxing and enjoying the acoustic sounds of Me and Some Guy (that’s the actual name of the duo, and boy were they good). When I walked into the covered pavillion, they were playing Norwegian Wood, and it felt like it was a very good thing indeed that the other orchard had snubbed their nose at us (closed on Sunday, puh-lease). But Brown’s had everything we could have asked for, except…..

That’s right. No blueberry pickin’. It seems as if we missed the season by a good two weeks, and there wasn’t going to be any more picking blueberries till next summer.

The kids were disappointed, as were we, and so we took a little adventurous walk down an old dirt road that led us to the apple orchards. Now, we were nearly sure that this was not a featured attraction to Brown’s Orchards, as we didn’t see another soul around us the entire time we meandered through the apple trees, each picking a single favorite fruit from the trees and eating it along the way. We got to the end of the orchard when we figured it was time to head back, and we felt as if we were in an apple labyrinth, where the trees would come alive at any moment just like in the Wizard of Oz….The kids’ imaginations, not to mention our own, were fully engaged midway through our return, and we were certain that snakes and bees and wild animals (oh, my!) were going to decend upon us at any moment.

They didn’t, of course, but what we did get was a nice adventure out of what could have been a disappointing day.

Turn around and go home? Never! The fun is in the journey, my friends, not always reaching the intended destination!