Thank you, my new family, for accepting me this way

We sat more than a week back in the living room of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse neighborhood of Eastwood, comfortable in our usual evening hang-out positions of couch and recliner, when my dear wife Karen dropped this one on me. What did I discover about her those precious days we spent in Colorado…

Bringing back the very goods

We saw a lot of nice merch in Estes Park and Denver. Of course, when you’ve got one checked bag each and carry on each that you’re going to lug on the plane at Denver, through the airport for the layover in Atlanta and then back home to Syracuse, you’re not going to try to…

You can get there from here

The 4 a.m. chirp of my cell phone alarm was a harsh wake-up call compared to the usual gotta-go meanderings of Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle. But our beloved rescue mutt was nowhere to be found in the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, dropped off the previous night at the north…

Drink, eat and be merry

To every Family Reunion there must come the Group Meal. When the destination for the vacation is a locale where nobody in the gang resides, that adds to the inherent challenges. Who likes what type of food? What time does everybody prefer to eat? (Don’t forget to factor in the time zones everybody involved started…

Feeling at home in the blue cottage

First-timers that we were, my dear wife Karen, daughter Elisabeth, boyfriend George Three and I did not know what to expect out of anything in Estes Park. When we pulled the rented SUV into the short, weed-filled driveway of the blue cottage with the white 330 on Virginia Drive a little before check-in time that…

Going, going, gone to Coors Field

We gave ourselves an 75 minutes between leaving the Denver Zoo and the start of the game between the Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. After all, GPS told us the trip between the two downtown landmarks was merely a few miles and 15 minutes or so. George Three didn’t fancy the in-city driving,…

A wild time at the Denver Zoo

When my dear wife Karen put a Sunday baseball game on her Family Reunion group page on Facebook, nephew Drew from Alaska quickly indicated that he’d love to join his aunt, the Uncle from Syracuse he’d not yet met, and new cousin Elisabeth and her boyfriend George Three on the excursion to Coors Field to…

Take a hike, gladly, ride a jeep with the gang

The first day we walked around the town of Estes Park, outside a storefront my wonderful daughter Elisabeth spotted a bunch of people hopping aboard a big jeep. We wondered about the adventure awaiting. The next day, we ducked inside, grabbed a brochure, and talked turkey with the woman behind the counter. Well, elk, actually,…