McBerkoBlog

So apparently Little Rock, AR is not a hopping place to be on a Sunday! We had planned a pretty chill day since most of the sights (like Central High School) are closed on Sunday. After two days of museums, I figured we could skip the Clinton library and instead walk around the riverside park and eat at the big food hall downtown. Well, turns out that food hall is closed on Sundays (oops!), so with a hangry Zadie, we ended up at a the closest option nearby, a Flying Saucer. She was happy with a grilled cheese and tomato soup, and we didn’t mind having a beer.  The riverside park was lovely, with a ton of sculptures, nice splash pad, and great landscaping. We spent some time watching all the moss-covered turtles in the wetland area until we started wilting in the heat. This string of days in the 90s is a killer! We’re revising the plan for the next few days to spend more time indoors, especially during mid-afternoon. Thank goodness that almost everywhere we’re staying has a pool. We...

Happy Independence Day from Memphis!  After another hotel breakfast, we drove from Huntsville to Memphis, listening to our 4th of July ‘Merica playlist along the way. Our first stop in Memphis was the National Civil Rights Museum, which certainly lived up to expectations - what a well-done museum. The museum is located at the former Lorraine Motel where MLK Jr. was assassinated, but isn’t focused on his life and death. Before you move through the history of the civil rights movement from early slavery days to the present, there was an art gallery themed “Black Joy” which featured some local artists. Perfect way to spend our afternoon, highly recommend.  We checked into our hotel downtown next to the river - we wanted to be close enough to walk to Beale Street and the fireworks. Before trips, we often make lists of local specialties to watch for on menus, and of course dry rub Memphis ribs made it on the list. We found a place that had one vegetarian option for me, while the re...

Fun day in Huntsville, AL. Another hot day so we were glad to have plans inside. We had a shortish drive and didn’t realize there’d be a time change, so we had extra time at the museum here in Rocket City. We toured the museum, saw a planetarium show about our solar system, and even did a virtual reality experience round-trip to the moon. There were many interactive exhibits here, and Zadie pushed every button she came across. :)  By the time the museum closed at 5, we were ready for some pool time, but a thunderstorm ruined those plans and drenched us in the process. Apologies again to Zadie for not handing her the extra umbrella I was holding, not that mine helped me much! (Arrived at hotel to find emergency vehicles all around the entrance, so we ran through the parking lot. Wouldn’t be a McB vacation unless we get drenched at least once.) In addition to getting drenched, we were also surprised here to find that our kitchenette had no way to cook other than a microwave. Oops! We...

Day 1 Finally made it to trip start time! Day 1 was mostly about getting across the state, so we drove straight to Asheville then stopped for lunch at a yummy vegan place.  After some browsing around local stores and ice cream for the girls, we headed over to a very short visit to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Even though it was a quick trip, we saw several elk and got to cool off wading in the river.  We made it to the campground by dinner time, then Bill & I set up camp while the girls swam. We all needed the cooldown time - hot day! Sushi bowl dinner at the campground with food Bill prepped at home the day before, delicious. Thank goodness it cooled down at night so we could sleep comfortably. We’re in hotels from now on until we reach Colorado.  Day 2 Packed up camp and stopped by Mingo Falls before we left for Tennessee.  Loved the scenic drive along the Ocoee River where we saw tons of rafters and kayakers in the whitewater. We stopped for a picnic lu...

Dear reader - and here I'm speaking primarily to myself, as I'm writing mainly to document these memories for my own future enjoyment - I must apologize. I barely captured anything here about our Costa Rica trip in summer 2024, and nothing at all about our two weeks in Prague and Vienna in 2025. Maybe someday I'll catch up, but in the meantime, let's forge ahead! This summer we're staying in the US. Time for a nearly 6-week long road trip! Why now? Ruth will be a senior in high school next year, so this might (?) be the last time we can all do such a long trip together. Bill quit his job in April (yay for FIRE, aka Financial Independence / Retire Early... but that's a whole separate post), so we've got this short window where we all have the time freedom to do it.  Here's the plan: Leg 1 - Raleigh west to Denver. We'll visit Asheville, Chattanooga, Huntsville, Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, and Great Sand Dunes National Park along the...

On social media, people often only share the best of times, especially during vacation. Let's get real here, however - our Costa Rica trip (summer 2024, finally publishing this previously drafted post for future reference!) did not all go as planned. We usually work through some hiccups on any trip, but this was the first time in a while that we had major airline delays.  Before the "embracing" part Here's a short list of the problems on our trip: 8 delays in the flight from Charlotte to Costa Rica, ending in an overnight delay Decided to make the best of the airport hotel by swimming, only to find the pool was closed Wasted a bunch of time finding a working ATM when the airport one was broken Took way too many wrong turns trying to follow Waze shortcuts on a stressful drive through terrible San Jose traffic Missed one of our two nights in the cloud forest Almost flooded a cabin bathroom with a misfiring jet on a whirlpool tub One of us got sick for a day and a half W...

 Today's post was written by my 7-year-old daughter, Zadie: Hi, I'm going to tell you about our trip to Costa Rica that we are going on in 12 days also I'm the youngest daughter of the person who wrote this blog so the day after school gets out we go on our trip. It will suck. I don't even get a day to relax before our trip. At least it is not like another of our trips when we had to wake up at 3 am. But we still have to get up at 6 am. When we get there, our house only has three bedrooms so I will have to sleep with my sister and I don't want that and she does not want that. But at least we get a tv and our own beds. Oh and the planes we take there are one to Charlotte which is less than an hour long and then one to Costa Rica which is 4 hours long. I don't know the activities so bye. PS - I hope you liked my writing because I cannot see half of the letters on my mom's keyboard so this was hard to type.

 A full 3 months after we returned, I finally put a bunch of our photos and video clips together into a single longer video to remember our trip. Fitting that today is just before Thanksgiving, since seeing this all together makes me grateful we were able to go and experience the culture, sights, kind people, and delicious food in Nicaragua. The video doesn't quite get across either how hot and sweaty we were on a daily basis, or how relaxing it was to read in the hammocks and float in the pool each day. For all the activities we had over the month, this trip overall was calm and restful more than anything else. Thanks for the great time, Granada! Summary of activities: Las Isletas Boat Tour Masaya Volcano Sunset Lava Tour Mombacho Volcano Hike Day Trip to Lake Apoyo Volunteering at English School Spanish Classes Pool party with our Spanish teacher and her family Running of the Bulls La Hipica Horse Festival Celebrating my birthday and Zadie's Visiting churches and climbing bel...

We were fortunate to be visiting Nicaragua in August, when there's a weeklong festival with many events. Officially, it's a celebration of the patron saint of Granada, the Virgin of the Assumption, though not attending church, we didn't see much of the religious side of the festival. From our perch at the top of the main restaurant and bar street, it was a time for lots of outdoor concerts and beer company sponsorships. Toña set up huge displays like this in several places on the pedestrianized street and around the entrance to bars and restaurants that serve their beer, which is basically everywhere since it's the Bud Light of Nicaragua: Immediately outside our front door Two of the especially fun events during this week were La Hipica, a horse parade, and El Tope de Toros, the running of the bulls. During La Hipica, people decorate their horses with fancy braids, saddles, and ropes and parade them through town. The parade was a lot more informal than we're used to...