Some of y’all might recall the Club 400, our water craft from circa 2012. I’d long forgotten about her, she who sat deflated in our shed lo these many, many moons. And then earlier this week, LCB emerged from the shed with a giant lump of brightly colored floatation devices, two oars, and a pump. […]
Parenting
A Magnolia Plantation Field Trip: The Second Half
If you haven’t read the first post on this trip, you may want to go here first. I played out the Sam Elliot gator nuggets line in my head a couple of times and imagined the potential reactions of those nearby me. This continued to tempt me to say it out loud, so instead I […]
- Island Life
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A Magnolia Plantation Field Trip: The First Half
As a child growing up outside the city of Chicago, I equated field trips with jaunts into the city. I remember visiting, among other places, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, and the Sears Tower. We’d pile onto the bus and head into the city, mashing our faces […]
- Off Island
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Christmastime in Chicago
I grew up in the Midwest, so I was bred to love the look of fresh snow, whether it’s clinging to branches in woods thick with evergreens or blanketing the rooftops of a city burgeoning with Christmas. And to this day, few things leave me as awestruck as the sight of snow falling from a […]
- Island Life
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A Coastal Autumn and the Nagging Questions of Childhood
Historically, October tends to have some high tides in the coastal Carolinas; this past October certainly attempted, thanks to the excessive rains, to outpace its past outpourings (apologies!). Social media in these here parts was flooded (apologies again!) with pictures of people wading and kayaking across driveways, streets, and yards. Once day when I arrived […]
- Off Island
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Girl Meets West #7: A Look Back at What I Hadn’t Seen Before
If you are just starting this tale, you may want to start with #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6 first. We drove into Grand Canyon National Park around dinner time. The kids were naturally excited, having heard so much about it in years past. Why, yes, we did hit a sprinkling of June snow […]