The Drop-Off for Summer Camp at Nonna and Papa’s…
As I write this, my soon-to-be Kindergartner son is having an amazing time at his grandparents’ house. He is staying there for an entire week and loving it! I know this because my mom is keeping me posted via a steady stream of Facebook Messenger picture updates.
With my wife winding down her maternity leave, she decided to fly to Sacramento and visit her large family (she’s one of ten kids!) with our 3 month-old daughter. Since I’m already taking off a week in September for my wife’s youngest brother’s wedding in San Diego, the wise decision was for me to stay here in Tennessee.
What about our son? My parents were happy to entertain him for those 7 days in Fort Payne, Alabama where they live; which is about 2 and a half hours from where I am in Tennessee.
I’ve mentioned before that our family’s favorite thing to do is to take road trips. So it’s no surprise that I planned out an elaborate agenda for our 1st father and son road trip.
Lexus was gracious to allow my son and me to enjoy the 2016 Lexus ES 300h for our trip, to serve as sort of real-life models, I suppose.
They delivered the vehicle with a full tank of gas, which I was never able to deplete during my travels. With it being a hybrid, I was able to travel from Spring Hill, Tennessee, through Chattanooga, over Lookout Mountain (not the Interstate) to Fort Payne, AL, and back to Spring Hill… and I still had over a quarter of gas left. As you can see, I averaged over 35 miles a gallon.
The Lexus ES 300h definitely made our 1st family road trip even more fun, and of course, classy.
Spending quality time is something our family takes very seriously. We have to, since my wife works full-time to.
So think of this blog post as the table of contents for all the fun adventures my son and I had from Friday to Sunday.
(Just simply click on the title of the story to read the blog post.)
Azalea Cascade Trail at DeSoto State Park
I’m so proud of my son that he is old enough and ready to spend an entire week away from home with his grandparents.
The evening I left to come back to Tennessee, my son and I had a special meal at the Thai restaurant before I said goodbye to him, as well as my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and their daughters.
As we were getting ready to order, he casually walked over to me from across the table and discreetly asked me, “Daddy, can I have a juice or some kind of special drink?”
Drinking anything other than water is big deal for him, as strict as my wife and I are with our family’s plant-based, low-sugar lifestyle.
I replied, “Since this is a special event, and I’m so proud of you for being a big boy staying at Nonna and Papa’s this week, I’m going to let you have a very special drink tonight: a Shirley Temple.”
He was fascinated when the server came back to the table with a big glass with a baby umbrella and a pineapple decoration, containing ginger ale and a splash of grenadine (red currant and pomegranates).
Next week, I’ll be sharing the stories that happened at Nonna and Papa’s Summer Camp.
As for now, I again invite you to read any or all of the following 5 letters I wrote to my son, featuring dynamic photo collages of our adventures in the Lexus ES 300h:
Azalea Cascade Trail at DeSoto State Park
2016 Lexus ES 300h Father & Son Road Trip (Table of Contents)
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 