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travel

Reflecting on a family vacation with toddlers - two weeks in the heartland

by Joe Doyle on October 14, 2008

If you ever hear of a friend traveling with a toddler, have compassion. Toddlers are assertive. Always on the go, they hate the word “no”. They can’t talk, but they want to. They are frustrated. The like to explore. They test your boundaries on purpose, just to get a laugh.

It’s a tough gig for one, double crazy for two. Luckily for us our friends and family – everyone rolled out the welcome mat and took control to make sure we had all the necessities and more (thank you thank you thank you).

Still, it was maniacal at times. Katie was sick from motion in the van and on the plane. PJ didn’t want to sleep in his tent. We went from care-taking 25% of the waking day, to 100%. Man was it cruel.

If I’m sounding like we had zero fun, I apologize. Nothing is farther from the truth. We saw old friends and our family got to meet the rest of our families. There was a spa day for Stacey, I was pulled around Palos by Paolo (thanks again for the bike!), Rachel and Ken. We even had 16 people for dinner in Greek Town on the last night.

The trip north reminded us of how much we love tall trees and fertile soil, and miss our friends and family. We’ll do it again soon – maybe when the kids are five or so.

Pictures from the trip are found here.
Here are some highlights:

Sun rise over the pond in Galena, IL.

Aunt Betty plays with the kids.

Katie chasing Aunt Kelly's cats.

PJ and Grandma Jean learnin'.

Katie on the slide at Little John Lake.

PJ and Grandpa Joe at Cloud Gate (The Bean).

Doyle cousins computing.

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Damn, it’s cold in San Francisco

by Joe Doyle on August 13, 2008

The adult Doyles are on the left side - I’m piggybacking on the wife’s business trip to UX Week. It’s the first vacation sans kids and we’re very excited to be here, though we can’t help but think about the fun Katie and Patrick will have when we travel here as a family.

There is so much to do and see. SF has a real entrepreneurial vibe, just like Austin. You get the same weirdness, too.

Without taking up too much vacation time, here are some additional observations about San Francisco, CA:

- This place is filled with Europeans. Damn dollar.
- Speaking of, most Euro males love old Nike Hightops.
- High in the mid 60’s. Friday in Texas is going to be a shock.
- It’s hilly here. Yeah, that’s right, hilly.
- I could eat fresh seafood with every meal if I wanted.
- People are nice and the police, even nicer (seriously).
- Lots of Asians here, too. Damn dollar. Wait…
- The Golden Gate Park is the coolest municipal place I’ve been. Figures that it was built by Olmsted. That man was a genius designer.
- The Haight isn’t what it was, but I like to think about the free thought it provokes.
- Tonight we’re seeing my cousin Billy Doyle and meeting his girl. I’m really excited - I felt thisclose to Billy as a kid.
- Yeah, that’s right, Billy the Kid.
- Turns out, I like to be a tourist. But cool metro places make me miss Chicago.
- Hotel Nikko is the shit. Union Square is not, but I like the place we’re in.
- I forgot how much I love the Land Rover Defender (primer to Twitter info below)
- It’s super expensive to live here. I mean, extremely expensive.
- Hanging out in neighborhood places always beats a downtown locale. Seems to be that way across the board.

I’ve “Tweeted” a bunch more about out visit. “Tweet, what’s that?” you may say. “Sounds silly”.

A Tweet is a microblog post. Here, on my blog, I could write a novel and then post it. But on Twitter (where one “tweets”), you get 140 characters and you can upload images. That’s how I’ve been documenting the trip.

Go to my Twitter page to see what we’ve been up to. If you click on TwitPic links, you’ll see images from my posts.

If you’re still confused about Twitter, watch this fantastic video:

If you join Twitter, contact me so we can follow one another.

A quick note - I want to leave with a huge heartfelt thank you to Karen and Corky. if it wasn’t for your generosity, we wouldn’t be here. Thanks for watching the twins.

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Weird.

by Joe Doyle on July 8, 2008

You don’t read stories like this one too often:

Man struck by bicycle dies

An Austin man who was struck by a bicyclist and hospitalized last week died Sunday after being taken off life support.

Jessie McFarlin, 46, was crossing Loyola Lane at Manor Road about 10 p.m. Wednesday when he was hit by a cyclist traveling 25 to 30 miles per hour, Sgt. James Mason said. McFarlin had not been using the crosswalk, Mason said.

The bicyclist, whose name has not been released, had not broken any traffic laws at the time and stopped to help McFarlin, Mason said.

McFarlin had been on life support at University Medical Center at Brackenridge until family members requested that he be taken off. The nature of his injuries was not known.

Police do not anticipate charges being filed against the cyclist, Mason said.

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