after my time in covid jail, we had the girls tested twice, four days apart. and even though both times were negative and we hadn’t had anyone show covid symptoms, anna was still required by her school to quarantine for another full week. we decided the best course of action was to take a spontaneous […]
food
september twenty twenty one.

september was a really hard month. we had a close friend who lost their son to suicide. it is the single worst thing i have ever watched someone have to go through. it has cast a sadness over everything. before all of this, anna and i had ourselves a perfect saturday. first, we hit up […]
august mayhem.

well. our epic summer road trip had to come to a close eventually, and we rolled back up to the stupid new house in early/mid-august. we had originally planned to spend a bit more time on the road, but as covid cases began to turn the midwest red, we scooted through that area a little […]
black elk peak hike.

turns out, that lovely ranger from yesterday was right, and the skies cleared up and the sun came out, and anna and i woke up to a picture perfect day for a hike to black elk peak. so, once again, we geared up and packed up and headed to the trailhead bright and early (the […]
teddy roo’s np. north unit.

after our visit to the south unit, on our second day in belfield, nd, we made the fifty mile drive up to the north unit of theodore roosevelt national park. it was definitely a different feel from the south unit, a bit smaller (or at least the drive was shorter), and was way less populated. […]
devils lake state park

when we realized we had a two day layover in wisconsin in our schedule, i reached out to some friends we met on the road who have recently settled in the area, to see if they wanted to meet up and/or if they had any hot tips for things to do. they answered yes and […]
chicago. day three.gifted boat ride, farmers market, stressful departure.

on our third and final day day in chicago, our only scheduled activity was a boat tour gifted to us by the grandlidboms. in fact, i’m like 99% sure that every boat tour i have been on in my adult life has been gifted by the grandlidboms. anyways, we woke up bright and early, threw […]
chicago. day two.sky high views, co-worker hot dogs, bean.

our second day in chicago was another looooong one. we kicked things off with a race against the clock to make it to our scheduled time for a trip to the top of the chicago 360 tower. between driving in downtown chicago, parking in the weird spiral parking garage, getting isaac situated in an allowed […]
chicago. day one.an old house, a museum, inside out pizza.

our drive from indiana dunes to chicago wasn’t all that far, but it was pretty stressful, as most folks who have driven in chicago traffic will attest. we parked the rv in a parking lot and then piled into the car to rush over to our first activity, a scheduled tour of the robie house, […]
indiana dunes miscellany.

we booked four days at indiana dunes, which may have been excessive, but worked out nicely in the end. the campground was pretty nice and actually had showers, so we timed one for our arrival and one before we departed for a few days of boondocking. our campsite was spacious and amongst a zillion ferns. […]