• Archive of "travles" Category

    1st Anniversary Trip to Pelee Island

    July 27, 2010 // No Comments »

    Whoa, 2 full weeks since I posted about the beginning of our 1st anniversary trip to Ohio for a wedding.  Time flies…

    On July 4, like good American patriots, we left Ohio for the promised land of Pelee Island on the Canadian side of Lake Erie.  I get excited for weeks beforehand when I know that I am gonna be able to get up to Pelee.  I love it there.  No hustle, no bustle, no cell phone reception or email.  Just the beach, the water, books, and people I love.

    This time around, our friends Matt and Sharon and their son Deacon were among the number of loved ones that we got to share some time with.

    The weather was hot, but gave us plenty of reason to lay on the beach and play in the water.  We did some boating, some tubing, made smores, shared stories, watched movies, and soaked in the enjoyment of fun and relaxation throughout the week.

    On top of all this, Amy and I continued to celebrate our anniversary.  Here’s our attempt to capture the specialness of the occasion.  Between the hitting, crying, bugs, and neighborly interruptions, I’d say we pretty much nailed it ;)

    We also managed to successfully tote the top of our wedding cake (which had already made its way from Davenport to Elgin), to our hotel in Ohio, in the car to Sandusky, and then on the boat to the island.  It was a well traveled cake, but tasted amazing. Every layer of our wedding cake was different and the top was no exception – tie-dye!

    So here’s to an unbelievable and unforgettable 1st year of marriage that was capped off by helping one couple celebrate the very beginning of theirs and spending time with another couple on the doorstep of a decade.  Cheers!

    Some additional pictures from the trip here.

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    Posted in Amy, love, marriage, travles, video

    1 Year Anniversary

    June 30, 2010 // 2 Comments »

    This weekend will mark year one of marital bliss for Amy and I and it’s be an incredible year in more ways that I can possible say.

    To celebrate, we’ll be heading to Ohio so that I can officiate a wedding ceremony for 2 of my former students who will be living in the Chicagoland area and then we’ll head up to one of my favorite spots in the world, Pelee Island, with our friends the Matt and Sharon for some fun and relaxation.

    For anyone who remembers and enjoyed the recap from 2008, Amy and I are working on a recap of 2009 and hope to have it finished by the time we come back.

    So, you married veterans out there, as Amy and I reflect on our first year as husband and wife and do our best to ask some helpful questions of ourselves as we charge on into the future, what words of wisdom do you have to offer?

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    Posted in Amy, friends, love, marriage, travles, wedding

    San Francisco, Strangers, and Stories: Part 2

    June 22, 2010 // 4 Comments »

    I ended my previous post about Amy’s and my trip to San Francisco by saying that one of the highlights for me was seeing Wicked for the first time on account of its similarity to my favorite recent TV series, LOST.

    The connection I want to make is well articulated in the quote,

    Strangers and enemies are merely people whose stories we haven’t heard yet.

    We saw this at play in LOST inasmuch as our assumptions and assessments about the nature of the main characters were subverted over the course of getting to know their history and background.  Let’s face it, it’s just way harder to be so critical of Sawyer once you learn that someone was responsible for conning his mother out of money resulting in his father killing her and then himself right in front of him.

    Similarly, in Wicked, we are given a story behind the relationship between the “good” witch and the “bad” witch from the Wizard of Oz.  We learn that the “good” witch was actually a fairly empty-headed, spoiled brat who always got her way and was extremely judgmental.  At the same time, we learn that the “bad” witch was a product of years of scorn and ridicule from her father and peers.  Not only did she blame herself for her mother’s death, but she was extremely mindful and caring toward her invalid sister.

    Let’s be honest, life is easier when we pretend that we can engage it in black and white.  Truth be told, our need to control life in this way is probably directly related to our own fears and inadequacies.

    It is when we lack contentment in who we are in Christ, that we default to judging others so that we can feel better about who we are.

    … I am more valuable than him because I work hard and he’s a lazy bum.

    … I am nicer than her because I saw how rude she was to the bank teller.

    … We are a more devoted family than them because they are constantly missing church services.

    Little do we know that…

    … he was born addicted to crack and never had the sort of love and support it takes to help someone to recover from that sort of disability.

    … she just found out that her 2 year old son was diagnosed with Lukemia and their family is uninsured.

    … as a family, they are trying to spend time with their neighbors who think Jesus is a joke.

    Stories change everything.

    Identifying with others by entering into their stories is risky because we almost always discover that we have more in common with the people that we would just assume distance ourselves from as strangers and enemies that we’d like to admit.

    So here’s the challenge before you you and I today (and for the rest of our lives!) – to risk entering into the pain and uncertainly of the stories of the people we consider strangers and enemies that we might identify with them as Christ entered into the story of humanity and identified with it – such is the nature and meaning of incarnational ministry and witness.

    I will never be able to watch The Wizard of Oz with as much innocence as I once did. And regardless of what you and I thought about the conclusion of LOST as a television series, there is something profound about this notion of our salvation being bound up with our willingness to truly know and be known by others, especially those we are most unlike us.

    Stories change everything.

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    Posted in salvation, stories, travles, urban

    San Francisco, Strangers, and Stories: Part 1

    June 11, 2010 // 1 Comment »

    A wedding between our friends Matt and Brianna last weekend gave Amy and I the opportunity to take our first trip to San Francisco.

    The wedding was held at the Guglielmo Winery in Morgan Hill and was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended.

    Thursday and Saturday we stayed in Gilroy, just south of Morgan Hill and apparently the “Garlic Capital of the World.”  Sounded pretty ridiculous to me until we drove into Gilroy and all we could smell was garlic – seriously!

    After the mandatory trip to In-N-Out…

    We of course felt compelled to visit the Garlic Shoppe.

    Amy was even brave enough to taste the Chocolate-Garlic Ice ream.

    We spent Sunday with our friend Jeanelle seeing some of the sights around the city of San Francisco including Hyde St. Pier, Ghiradelli Square, Chinatown, Golden Gate Park and the adjacent beach.  We also took the perfunctory trip across the Golden Gate Bridge.

    Sunday evening, Amy and I went to see Wicked at the Orpheum in the Union Square district of downtown.

    ~~ Lots more pictures here and videos here

    Now, Amy is a musical buff, she’s seen em all (multiple times in many cases!) but this was my first time seeing Wicked and I loved it.  It was probably one of the highlights of the trip for me.  Why? Because Wicked bore a striking resemblance to one of my favorite TV series’ of all time, LOST. Let me offer a quote I heard recently as a prelude to my explanation of that observation.

    “Strangers and enemies are merely people whose stories we haven’t heard yet.”

    More on that in my next post.

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    Posted in stories, travles, urban, wedding

    A Year in Chicago

    April 29, 2010 // 3 Comments »

    Talk about irony.

    1 year ago to the day, I drove from Canton, OH to the O’Hare Airport to pick Amy up upon returning from a trip to the Middle East. This marked my actual move to Chicago!

    Later today, exactly 1 year later, I am taking Amy back to O’Hare to make another trip to the Middle East.

    Crazy!

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    Posted in chicago, travles

    New England & Boston Trip

    November 9, 2009 // 2 Comments »

    Last week Amy and I went on a trip through New England.  I was in Richmond, VA attending a training event with Ecclesia and Amy was in Chicago.  On Friday morning, we both flew into Boston and met up there.  Here was my cool view as we were landing.

    Here’s me getting anxious about seeing Amy again (this was the first time we’d been apart since getting married 4 months ago).

    We rented a car and drove up the coast to Portland, ME.  Here are some pictures from along the way.

    We had a good time exploring Portland.  We ate at this awesome place called Silly’s, somewhere you should absolutely visit – and don’t bother eating for a day and a half before you go, you’ll want the room for the “Gravy Danger.”

    The next day we drove west through the White Mountain National Forest that spans New Hampshire and Vermont.

    A day of driving took us through the really hip downtown of Brattleboro, VT

    where we caught a glimpse of the ever-growing reality of Post-Christian America,

    and had an incredibly delicious maple latte at Mocha Joe’s.

    Then, it was off to Providence, RI where we had a great Thai dinner, saw “A Serious Man,”at The Avon

    and walked around the campus of Brown University.

    The next morning we drove into Boston.

    We stayed at a cool little place in the Back Bay part of Boston, “The Chandler Inn.”  Over the 2 days we walked The Freedom Trail – some of those pictures here…

    But some of my favorite parts were visiting the actual location of Cheers

    Getting placed in an impromptu Diet Coke commercial

    worshipping with the incredibly diverse congregation of the historic Park Street Church amidst their 200 year celebration

    and indulging in my favorite dessert, Boston Cream Pie, at “The Omni Parker House” where they invented it!

    Not to worry, Amy made sure to add her name to the Declaration of Independence!

    Our trip finished up with 2 days in NYC where we got to see our friend Jorge

    who took us to an incredible place for NY pizza.

    We got to spend time with my bother Alex and his girlfriend Michelle.

    We went for a walk through Central Park and Alex showed off his mad bouldering skills.

    We visited Serendipity of John Cusack movie fame and enjoyed a famous frozen hot chocolate.

    Especially meaningful for Amy who has done theater her whole life, we got to attend our first Broadway show, Mary Poppins.

    When we left the show, we walked through time square where a billion people were watching the Yankees game on a huge screen – very cool.

    And to cap off the evening, we hit up Ray’s Pizza (from Elf!) for some more excellent NY pizza.

    It was an unforgettable trip and I’m already anxious to make it back.  Feel free to check out our full collection of pictures and videos.

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    Posted in travles

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