Yesterday we returned home from the family vacation of the year. We're counting it as a big vacation because (1) considering we have a three-year-old who does not go with the flow, we did a lot of stuff, (2) thanks to Mary, we had a lot of gear, and (3) we had a lot of fun! So it was a lot of vacation--even though it was only two nights in Pittsburgh.
Our childless days of "hopping" to Europe on military cargo planes are gone, as are the days of relying on the baby in the backpack to charm the locals in off-the-beaten-path Turkey. But we travel to see new things, learn about other people and places, and, most of all, create fun family memories. And you don't have to be in Florence or on the Nile to do that. We have abandoned those 10-hour-flights across the Atlantic for 4-hour drives from Dayton; we skip the hole-in-the-wall local eateries for the familiar national chains (so we can keep our kid alive); we traded in our Lonely Planet budget/boutique hotel recommendations for free breakfast and the chance to earn Marriott points. And we like it!!
Pittsburgh was awesome! We had a fabulous trip we will always remember. It was so much fun! Pittsburgh might not be the Isle of Patmos or the ruins of Pompeii, but, by golly, it's getting the same treatment. That means I'm going to write about the things we saw, the people and places we learned about, and, most of all, those fun family memories. This is something I started doing a couple years ago, and this blog and this trip seems like the perfect opportunity to keep it up. So look forward to pics and anecdotes from "P-burgh" (as David calls it).
