Foreward

One of my first lucid memories is a dark road, illuminated only by the headlights of the car.  This memory evokes a feeling of awe for the vastness of the world reduced to that simple imagery, the gentle repetitive noise of tires on asphault, the stripes of the median vanishing under the hood of the car only to reappear at the edge of the light.  It's a scene that's stayed with me all my life; a journey.

I've started this log in anticipation of a journey.  A literal one, but also metaphorical.  My youngest child just started college.  For the first time in over two decades, it's just me and my amazing wife Jen.  This event has generated a wide and powerful spectrum of emotions in us both, from sadness at the passing of an extremely fulfilling family dynamic, to eager anticipation of the blank slate that lies ahead.  Doing the things we'd dreamt of doing together when we were a couple of broke, skinny college kids.

Things like travelling.

So here we are.  Going to London.  It's Jen's first time there, first time anywhere out of the US.  She's so excited!  We both are, but it's extra special for her.  I've been, several times, but always on business.  I think getting to relax and be a tourist will make it a very different experience for me as well.

Hopefully this will be the first trip of many, to all corners of the world.

Now's probably a pretty good time to mention that I'm not a writer or a photographer, and, while I'll (probably) improve on these things a bit here as time passes, it really isn't the point of this exercise.  Nor, really, is entertaining the random reader.  This is just me writing things down so I can remember the details a bit better, try and capture the way we felt at the time, and maybe give my kids and grandkids something to read and be amused by someday.