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On our extended week-long tripin 2019 that included the Catskills, Vermont, and Walden Pond, Liberty said she wanted to go to Maine and...

My two children, Cade and Liberty, are just 14 and a half months apart. For much of their childhood, they were often mistaken for twins. From early on, their mother and I made a point to spend one-on-one time with each of them. always tried to ensure that we both have on-on-one time with each child. Cade came up with the name for our time together: “Double C Time,” since we share the same first initial. One of my favorite Double C moments happened the day after we returned

If you follow the news in Vermont, you know that the state has been hit by major flash floods during the same time over the last three...

For this week’s Fun Detour, I was thinking about the origin story for Cade’s interest in staying in a cabin in the woods. At first, I...

After my solo trip to Vermont in March 2019, I decided to take my kids on a northbound adventure in the middle July. Cade, who had just turned 10, wanted to stay in a mountain cabin. Liberty, almost 9, dreamed of eating lobster in Maine. I hoped to make it to Vermont and make my own pilgrimage to Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Unlike our first trip, we planned this trip with more intention. I spent evenings researching activities and finding places to stay. Cade lobbied for a

This week’s blog post took us to Walden Pond, so I thought it fitting to stick with a Massachusetts theme for the Fun Detour...

At Walden Pond As we head into the week of July 4th, I am dedicating this week’s blog post to a trip the children and I took to Walden Pond, the site where Henry David Thoreau engaged in his social experiment about which he wrote in his book Walden. As a student and teacher of economics and government, I have long valued Thoreau’s work and ideals. I once ran across a video of a scholar urging all young people to read Walden (or at least a synopsis), as it challenges the econo

I grew up in a home where art was there on the walls. Not multi-million-dollar auction-house pieces, but works by regional artists who had a sense of style. That tradition stuck with me and has become something I have shared with my children. Art brings beauty and memories into our lives. Most of the pieces I have collected over the years were chosen because of how they made me feel: the subject, the style, a personal connection to the artist, or because the piece captured so

My second trip to Vermont started with music. I have long been a big fan of The Band, including Levon Helm’s solo work. Years ago, I thought about seeing him live but never made it. After he passed, I dove deep into the history of The Band and Helm. That is when I learned about his “Barn” in Woodstock, NY, a place where he hosted intimate “ramble” concerts with potluck dinners with the musicians. The Barn still hosts shows, and I had been keeping an eye out for one worth the

While maple creemees were the focus of my this week’s post, the real star is the maple syrup itself. And it turns out, not all maple syrups taste the same. Years before my first trip to Vermont, I was deep into researching sugaring and the process of turning sap into syrup. While maple is the most familiar (and the best tasting), you can also tap trees like black walnut, sycamore, beech, and birch. At one point, I even researched starting a small sugaring venture in the mid-A

How do you know when a family tradition starts? Is it the second time you do something? The third? Or does it simply begin with a conversation prompting curiosity in the van that spurs us to take action? Somewhere south of Middlebury, tired from a trip to Burlington and driving towards the house we rented in Danby, my children and I started talking about maple creemees. My daughter Liberty is never one to hold back, and so she asked where we could get one and suggested we get

This week’s blog was about my attempts over several years to hike the Lye Brook Trail outside of Manchester, Vermont. So, for this week’s Fun Detour, I chose A Walk in the Woods, the 2015 film starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, based on the book by the same title by Bill Bryson. In my family, this film has been enjoyed by multiple generations. My children, my parents, and I all enjoy this movie. There are few movies that hold the same appeal for people of different age

Nestled just outside of Manchester, Vermont, Lye Brook Falls had been on my radar since the early pandemic days. I was at home in my socially-distanced bubble, daydreaming about places to go. I’ve always loved waterfalls. There is something about their constant movement that brings me a moment of peaceful connectedness, oddly similar to stargazing. First Attempt – August 2021 During the pandemic, my children and I returned to Vermont with my then-88-year-old Aunt Reeda, w

Every good road trip needs a soundtrack. Back in 2018, we set out on our first trip to points north with a stack of CDs in the van. Technology (and our playlists) have evolved since then. These days, we usually queue up Apple Music. More than once, the children and I have discovered we have some overlap without even planning it (mainly Lord Huron and James Taylor). Because music is woven through so many of our travel memories, I have created a shared Apple Music playlist titl

In 2018, I packed up my children, a bunch of snacks, and a lot of nerves, and headed for Vermont. It was our first trip like this with just the three of us. And what unfolded reminded me why I explore, and why I want to share my stories. Cade was nine and Liberty was eight, just months away from getting their first phones. I was desperate to make some new memories with them. I had no grand plan, just a loose list of places to visit which were hopefully enough to keep us engag