What a summer this has been for our family! We probably did as much travel in this one season as we normally would in two years. It’s been a blast, and we’re glad to have visited with so many friends and family members, but all that is behind us now. Jess and the kids are already in their third week of school, and everyone has settled in nicely. We officially have a high schooler and two middle schoolers in the house, meaning Jess no longer has one of her own kids at school when she goes to work each day.
In addition to standard classes, each of our kids has something special to attend at school each day. As mentioned in previous posts, Elise was selected to play the viola in her school’s chamber orchestra. She was a bit nervous about it, but she practices daily and is off to a good start. I can’t wait for her first performance!
Ava is playing the trumpet in her high school’s marching band. She was a bit resistant to this during summer break, but Jess and I knew it would be a good thing for her, and as it turns out, she’s loving it. As we all know, high school is filled with different social groups, and this is a good group for Ava to be affiliated with. They played their first football game on Friday night, so we all came to support her. It was my first time attending a high school football game since I was in high school, so it was fun to be back in that type of environment.
Enzo is now in his first year of middle school and his two extracurricular goals were to join the cross country team and be selected to play the clarinet in the school band. Luckily for him, both of those things happened! Yesterday was a big day for him because he got the official news about both of them working out. Running long distances after school is no joke here, as it’s still around 110 degrees each day, but he loves being on the team and his times are improving constantly. Outside of school, Enzo recently joined a new kids pool team, which is coached by a local professional pool player. They get together to practice every Sunday, and hopefully there will be some tournaments for them to compete in soon. We also play pool together at home every day.
As far as travel goes, since my last post we’ve had one more big family trip, which was a visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s cottage on Lake Huron. We took a red-eye flight on a Thursday night in July, landing in Toronto around 5:00 am. There were wildfires in Ontario at this time, and I remember it feeling like an apocalyptic movie scene as we walked out of the airport, with the sun rising through the smoky skies.
Their cottage is located near a town called Lions Head, which is about 3 hours north of Toronto. It’s a pleasant drive, with lots of cute old towns to pass through on the way. The exhaustion started hitting me during the final half hour, but I powered through, and then everyone laid down for a nap shortly after arriving.
The next week was spent at their place, with a few excursions mixed in. They have a fishing boat, a speedboat, a rowboat, a paddle boat, and a few kayaks, so there was no shortage of options if you wanted to get out on the lake. We went for a couple of evening cruises, did some fishing, and took the kids tubing; there was always a new water activity looming on the horizon. There’s also a public beach about a mile down the road, which we walked to a couple of times during our stay.
Due to the smoky skies and poor air quality, the weather wasn’t ideal when we arrived, but it got progressively better throughout the week. As luck would have it, the best weather arrived on our final day.
Regarding excursions, there’s a lot to do up there on the Bruce Peninsula, and Tom has been going there for most of his life, so he had it dialed. One day we took the fishing boat out to troll for salmon. I had my Canadian fishing license in hand, but unfortunately, we didn’t get as much as a bite during any of our fishing attempts. It was still fun being out there, though, as this was my first time using a deep-water rig.
On another day we visited a town called Tobermory and took a boat tour around the area. We saw various landmarks like old lighthouses, sunken ships, and Flower Pot Island. After the tour, we visited lots of shops around town and had some local fish ‘n chips for lunch.
Our final excursion of the week was to the Bruce Peninsula National Park. There are a variety of hiking trails to explore, but the most popular attraction is Georgian Bay, home of The Grotto, which is a hollowed-out cave that you can swim into. The water in this part of the lake is much colder than we had experienced elsewhere, but also more beautiful. The different shades of green and light blue reminded me of something you’d see in the Caribbean islands. The weather was ideal that afternoon, so we found a little beach to hang out at and splash around a bit.
Our flight home was on Thursday night, but Grandma and Grandpa had their next round of guests arriving later that day, so we got up and left early in the morning, with plans to hang out in Toronto all day. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the Blue Jays had a daytime home game, so the city was alive with fans decked out in baseball gear. We visited Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada, which is rated one of the top aquariums in North America and located directly next to the Blue Jays’ stadium.
A few hours later, we walked down to the waterfront and checked out a variety of ships, as well as water taxis shuttling people over to the Toronto Islands. We’re all fans of street art and murals, so we had to visit Toronto’s famous Graffiti Alley. We were all in the mood to try something new in terms of food, so Jessica found an amazing Jamaican restaurant called Chubby’s, which turned out to be one of the best meals we’ve had in a long time.
Overall, the experience in Canada was great, and we really appreciate the invitation from Grandma and Grandpa to have us out.
After a weekend at home, Jess and I were on another flight early Monday morning, once again headed to the eastern time zone. My team had a series of meetings scheduled at our New York office, and since Jess was still on Summer break, she decided to tag along. Our hotel was located in Hell’s Kitchen, just one block west of Times Square. We enjoyed exploring midtown Manhattan, but it didn’t take long before we were jumping onto a subway train and visiting different parts of the city. Each morning, she would walk me to the office, which is directly above Radio City Music Hall, then go off and explore the city. One of the highlights for her was visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she viewed various pieces by famous artists like Picasso, Warhol, and van Gogh. She even saw “Starry Night”, van Gogh’s masterpiece, in person!
The restaurant scene in New York is world-class, so we ate incredibly well each night. We went to an excellent Indian restaurant called Muna on our first night in town, but we weren’t able to eat together the following night because I had to attend a work dinner at Cafe China. It was easily the nicest Chinese restaurant I have ever experienced, but I felt bad that Jess couldn’t join us. Things worked out well for her, though, because she had a great time attending the Book Of Mormon show on Broadway.
I had to make sure we ate at a nice Italian restaurant while in NYC, so on our final night, we took the subway to the Upper East Side and had an outstanding meal at La Voglia. It was the night before my birthday, which made for a fun way to celebrate. After dinner, we walked a few blocks west to Central Park, and walked for an hour southwest through the park before eventually taking the subway back to Midtown.
Although both of us had been to NYC when we were younger, we didn’t truly realize what made it special until this trip. I was there way back in the Summer of 1994, and Jess was there in 2001, shortly after 9/11. This trip made me understand why people call New York the greatest city in the world, and I can say with confidence that it is now my favorite city. Anything you could possibly want is there, and you don’t need a car to get anywhere. It’s such a vibe too. There’s a chance that I’ll be going back there next month for a conference, but Jess wouldn’t be able to join me, so it wouldn’t be as good. I’ll be happy to go if it works out, though!
Our good friends the Palmers arrived for their annual Summer visit the day after we got home from NYC. It’s always great spending time with them, and we wish they could have stayed longer, but just a few days after they left, everyone was back to school, and this whirlwind of a Summer break had come to an end. Since then, we’ve been laying low and getting back into our routines. It’s good to be back to normal, and Fall (which we’re more than ready for based on this extreme heat) is my favorite season of the year, but we made memories in the Summer of 2026 that will last a lifetime.
