Long time, no blogs.  I’m sure you’ve all been wondering what we’ve been up to since we got back from Colombia last February.  It’s your lucky day, because after months of “thinking about it” – I’m finally writing this post!

So, in late March of 2022, we packed up the mighty Hyundai and drove to the Austin, TX area to stay with my dad, step mom Mary and younger brother Nick (and dogs Lucy and Luke!) for 5 months.

While we were in Texas we had many adventures. When we weren’t adventuring, it was good to just be able to spend time with the family.

The whole crew hiked Enchanted Rock  –  (Relive Hiking App view)

We all (including Jeff and Natasha) took a trip to Iowa for another one of my Uncle’s epic farm parties – this one coinciding with my dad’s 77th birthday and the “Arlington Days” parade. Sara and I stayed at the farm my dad grew up on.

Back in Texas, we got a chance to hang out with my sister Natasha in Austin as well.

We briefly headed back to Maryland for Sara’s mom’s 75th birthday.  We saw the musical “Six” while in DC.

Sara also went back to the east coast alone for a long weekend to catch up with some friends.

After our time in Texas was up, we headed off to stay with my older brother Jeff in Tahoe for a month just like we did the prior summer.  On the drive there, we stopped for two nights in both Santa Fe, NM and Las Vegas.

Santa Fe was a nice stop and we did a few hikes and explored the old town.

We hadn’t been to Vegas in years, and it’s changed a lot.  There’s professional hockey and football on the strip now!  No real luck at the craps tables – but lots of “free” beers were consumed.

This year Tahoe started off with glorious weather for the first two and a half weeks before we got a sniff of smoky air.  The last week and a half were on again, off again smoky from nearby fires.  We managed to get in quite a few epic hikes. It was great to be able to spend extended time with Jeff again.

Click the link for a map and extra photos of our hike to Azure lake.

Click the link for a map and extra photos of our hike to Round Top.

Click the link for a map and extra photos of our hike to Mt. Tallac.

In mid-September it was time to leave Tahoe, and we started our trek back across the country to Maryland.  We stopped for two nights in Park City, Utah for a few more days in the mountains and got in a few more hikes. Here’s a link to the longer one we did – Deer Valley.

After park city, it was a lot of driving with stops in Sidney NE, Iowa City IA and Columbus OH. The mighty Hyundai performed admirably.

We went to see Hamilton with friends in DC!

Our nephew Adam turned 15!

Then it was another trip down to Greenville, SC – to hang out with friends and look for a place to live.  We found a nice little apartment in a small town about 10 miles away – Travelers Rest.  We packed up all of our stuff in a POD and moved to South Carolina!

Right after moving in, I went back to Texas to play some golf with my dad and Jeff

Well, that gets us to November at least.  I thought I was going to be able to catch all the way up to the present time, but we’ve even done a lot between November and now, so that’ll have to wait for another blog – hopefully sooner than a year from now!