The kids have done well on our road trip so far! We drove through their afternoon nap and stopped at a McDonald's play area in Fort Morgan, Colorado, which was set up for little kids. Oliver got to eat a late lunch and run around. From there, we were able to drive another 45 minutes or so and pulled in for a stop at the Logan County Visitor Center in Sterling. There were nice, air-conditioned facilities there, and we decided to stretch by walking around a small reservoir across the street from the Visitor Center. There were dogs running around, which Oliver loved, and we let him gather some rocks and sticks to throw into the water. We were easily able to spend about an hour out of the car before packing things up and making ... read more

After we put the kids to bed for the night, we gave Andrew's parents the sound monitor and ducked out to get some ice cream together. Our destination: Scoopy's. From North Padre Island, we headed to the causeway towards Corpus Christi. Just before going up on the bridge over the bay, there was an exit to the right. It was a little frontage road, unlit, that wound past some docks and under the bridge. There was ocean to the right of us and puddles of ocean to the left of us, giving it a swampy feel. As we drove under the causeway, we saw a restaurant with its name, Snoopy's, on the roof top. We pulled up and discovered that the restaurant was literally on the ocean. We walked next door to their sister restaurant--an ice ... read more

After a dinner that included some delicous cheesy grits (they were actually quite good!), I stayed behind with Joanna while Oliver dyed Easter eggs outside. He dyed a dozen and a half eggs, and then they let him throw confetti eggs. Confetti eggs are real eggs that have their ends chopped off. The eggs are blown out of the shell, and the shell is filled with confetti and sealed with tissue paper. The whole thing is dyed in bright colors, and confetti explodes from them when they're thrown or (as it was described to me) cracked over people's heads. I asked if confetti eggs were a Southern thing. I was told they're more of a Hispanic thing. Colorado has a pretty large Hispanic population, but I've never seen confetti eggs. I'm not sure if I've just ... read more

Autumn comes early in the high country. The best weekends to go up and see the fall colors are the last weekend in September and the first weekend in October. One of the most scenic drives to look at the changing aspens is up Guanella Pass. You can get up to Guanella Pass by going through Georgetown, which is a cute little mountain town directly off I-70. If we wanted, we could have taken Guanella Pass all the way south to 285 and back home, but we didn't want to make the drive too long for our toddler son. Instead, we took the pass up for only a few miles to Clear Lake. The drive was gorgeous. None of the aspens were red yet, but the bright yellows and oranges contrasted beautifully against the green pines. ... read more

We woke up this morning to a beautiful view of North Beach. We quickly dressed and grabbed a free coffee and danish from the downstairs lobby of our Days Inn hotel. There were no guava danishes, only the usual selection of cheese, cherry and apple. I chose cherry. We took our breakfast with us to the shore (the hotel is on the beach). There were a few families splashing in the waves. Aminta and I decided we had to at least touch the ocean while in Miami, so we scampered to the shore line. Stasa pointed out a washed up, dead jellyfish to us and warned us to stay away. I would have no idea that it was a jellyfish if she hadn't pointed it out; it looked like plastic. We quickly spotted more jellyfish--half a ... read more