We explored a few new cities/college towns while we were on the east coast before Thanksgiving. We enjoyed all of them and the campuses were impressive in their own way. The highlight was a too-brief lunch with the Milano-Sessines in New Haven.
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Ed and I haven’t had our usual run-ins on the mountain or in Michigan this year. I haven’t seen him since he visited last December for a concert. He came out last weekend for some fall golf and it was spectacular (the weather, not the golf). Glad we finally got to hang out.
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Happy 15th Birthday, Lucas. Sorry you had to spend your birthday leading parent-teacher conferences and being under the weather. Looking forward to celebrating more with you and your friends. We love you!
What are the chances he’ll need AirPods for his birthday next year?
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The kids had a long weekend, so we went up to Seattle for a quick trip explore the city and visit UW. Besides Grace, this was our first time visiting Seattle (it has long been on my list).
Everyone we saw told us how lucky we were about the weather, which is suspicious because it was in the 40s and bone chillingly cold. The clear skies were very welcome and thanks to my buddy Craig, who gave us the inside scoop to visit Columbia Tower next to our hotel instead of the Space Needle. We could see the beauty of all of Seattle from up there and Lucas was especially impressed.
Cameron is a first year at UW and randomly ran into us on our tour. All of us thought the campus was very beautiful. We had dinner with Charles, who was also in town, along with Grace’s cousins, Eugenia and Christine and their families.
We went for a short visit to Pike’s Place Market, which was fun to see in action. There were long lines for most worthy attractions, but we didn’t have time for them. I’m sure we’ll come back again sometime – hopefully for a Michigan football game.
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Matt invited the crew up to Tahoe for another spectacular fall weekend a couple weeks ago. It was a lot like last year, but with less smoke and more hiking. Watching Michigan football is a lot less stressful these days.
Blaine kept us well fed. Greg tried to catch some surf with the Fred Steaks he brought, but those critters are too smart. The polar bear club was a lot tougher before jumping in.
Another great weekend with the guys in the books. We’re getting really good at this. GO BLUE!
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Random Film Roll
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Olivia was experimenting with film photography. I think she took most of these photos, which seem to span a long time.
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We didn’t see the Lees much this summer, so we planned a trip to celebrate the end of summer together. Napa is close and we’ve been to Carneros Resort with them a couple times before. Mike and Amy and other friends were also up at their home, so we joined forces for dinner over there on Saturday.
This seemed to be a turning point in our travels with the kids. We put them on bikes and sent them off. We saved them seats at the family pool, but they never came. They drove themselves to Oxbow to satisfy their açaí bowl addictions. The adults did nothing all day except collectively wring our hands about the impending college admission process. Very relaxing.
We left them on their own while we enjoyed an adult dinner out at Charter Oak in St. Helena. Even after spending all day together, they wanted to have a slumber party. There’s no room for that.
We’re so lucky to have close friends with whom to travel. The kids and adults can have endless fun together. The only thing missing was golf… (Julie!).
It’s been exactly 10 years since our first visit to Carneros and I love it every time. The kids even humored me to recreate a favorite photo they don’t even remember taking. Looking forward to making more memories here in the future.
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Mike hosted Albert’s BFFs for an early 50th birthday celebration at his home in Tahoe. I haven’t known Al as long as his other buddies, so I was honored to be in included. We played golf at Northstar, Gray’s Crossing and Coyote Moon. It’s unclear if the golf itself or devising a game for 7 very unequal players was more difficult. In any case, it was a lot of fun.
Mike prepared Waygu steaks for this special occasion and they were amazing. This was followed by random card games requiring no skill with a goal of getting Mike to bed as soon as possible. The evening was capped off with the last in a string of stunning losses for Brian.
Tom sold us on all riding together in a van and I had grandiose visions of a Sprinter with lay-flat captains chairs. I didn’t know he chose his swagger wagons based on carbon footprint. To its credit, it carried all 7 of us in style with 7 golf bags. Amazing!
This weekend was a ton of fun and Mike is proposing to make the Lee Golf Invitational an annual event. Sign me up and let it not be forgotten that my 22 handicap is not enough. Happy Birthday, Albert!
