road trip

5 Comments Posted on October 4, 2014October 5, 2014 car reviews, funny, Nostalgia, parenting, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Grandma’s Great Escape!

So last weekend I broke my Grandma out of the nursing home without anyone knowing it, then I pushed her in her wheelchair a mile down the road while she wore a “seatbelt” we made from a rolled up blanket…

Wait, actually, that’s probably not the best way to start this story. Let me try again.

The last time my Grandma had seen her younger brother Bob was back in the summer of 1987, back when I was six years old, when we took a family vacation road trip to Buffalo, New York where my Grandma and my mom are from.

That was 27 years ago…

But then randomly this year, my great-Uncle Bob decided that he wanted to visit my Grandma (his sister) by train with his girlfriend (he’s never been in a plane and he’s only left the state of New York once).

So I decided it would definitely be worth the 2 and a half hour drive from Nashville where we live, to my hometown in Alabama; taking my own family (my wife Jill and my son Jack) to witness this great reunion- 27 years in the making!

And to make things even more fun, we were able to review the 2014 Lexus GX 460 in the process. Which, for the record, was my personal favorite out of all the many Lexus vehicles I have reviewed within the past year.

The way it drove reminded me of the Toyota Tacoma, my favorite Toyota vehicle, which I reviewed on my 33^rd birthday back in April.

My wife Jill appreciated was how spacious the 2014 Lexus GX 460 is. We had to transport some of our son’s toys to my parents’ house; as we are in the process of building a new house (as I recently wrote about when I reviewed the 2014 Lexus GS 450h) and needed a place to store some things.

Meanwhile, my son Jack loved the stadium seating in the back because he could see everything that I could from the driver’s seat. Also, it has a 3^rdrow seat from can fold up from the very back.

He convinced us to let him sit in the very back for the entire round trip! Not to mention, to and from school a few days as well.

I was surprised at how easy it was to hear Jack and Jill all the way back there. (I’m sure many educated people at Lexus have labored countless hours over making sure the sound carries that well!)

The visibility from the driver’s seat also greatly impressed me as well. I can’t remember the last time I drove a vehicle with better visibility than the 2014 Lexus GX 460.

So we arrived at my Grandma’s nursing home and along with my dad’s help, were able to lift my Grandma from her wheelchair to the car.

In the process, I also “re-met” my great-Uncle Bob while there, who of course didn’t recognize me as a grown adult. As we talked, I learned from him that it was nearly 100 years ago, in 1923, that his own parents moved to New York from Michoacán, in southern Mexico; though he nor my Grandma ever really spoke Spanish.

The whole family met as a whole back at my sister’s house, just a mile away from the nursing home.

First, we celebrated by brother-in-law (who apparently happens to look a lot like me) turning 30 years old.

Then we headed outside to the “jumpy castle” as Jack and his cousin Calla burned off extra energy they mysteriously gained from not having to take a nap that day.

And of course, we checked out the storm shelter, which has sort of become the routine when we visit.

Next we had a plant-based (vegan) lunch, prepared by my sister…

Followed by an instantly made-up game of “bean bag bumper cars”…

That’s about the time we got a call from the nursing home. Turns out, none of us even thought to actually sign my grandma out. And coincidentally, no one working there noticed us wheeling her out the front door!

The workers were so glad to hear that we had Grandma with us instead of, I guess, her somehow escaping (?) on her own.

However, by that time she was ready to get back to her home. The thing was, she was afraid to be lifted back up into a vehicle for the 0.925 miles back.

We did what every all-American family would have done in the same situation:

My sister and her husband rolled up a large blanket, then I MacGyvered it into a home-made seatbelt. And now this particular photo collage begins to make more sense…

After all, despite it only being about a mile away, the journey was all hills.

Fortunately, my daily routine of mountain biking during my lunch break had conditioned my body to be able to get my Grandma to her destination in less than 15 minutes. She even got to catch a glimpse of the County Fair a few blocks away.

Before we left the next morning, we made sure to snap a few pictures of our family.

Since my brother-in-law/look-alike turned 30 recently, and until Jack turns 4 next month, it means that we are living in a time when my wife and I are both 33, my sister and her husband are both 30, and their daughter Calla and our son Jack are both 3.

So we figured we should take an official picture of this cool “3-30-33” moment.

And that just goes to show that anytime my family gets together, it’s never “normal.”

But it is fun.

If you were entertained by this story, then be on the look-out what happened after we drove back to Nashville to see a Dierks Bentley concert that my wife won tickets for!

Car Review Stats:

2014 Lexus 9700A GX 460 5-DR SUV

4.6 liter V8, 301 horsepower

17 mpg average, 15 city, 20 highway

as shown: $55,505.00

See all 4 posts on the 2014 Lexus 9700A GX 460 5-DR SUV:

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Grandma’s Great Escape!

2014 Lexus GX 460 Family Friendly Review/Downtown Nashville

Folding Down/Up The 3rd Seats Of The 2014 Lexus GX 460

Syncing Up Your Phone/Using Driver Assist In The 2014 Lexus GX 460

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Leave a comment Posted on July 18, 2014 car reviews, parenting, reviews

It’s Officially Cool To Drive A Minivan Now

October 15, 2013 at 9:12 pm , by Nick Shell

2 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack,

There used to be this stigma with minivans. I was very aware of it.

I figured if I was a 32 year-old dad who drove a minivan, it would be like giving up on being cool.

To me, driving a minivan was like wearing a t-shirt of a wolf howling at the moon and tucking it into jean shorts, with a flip phone in a holder on my woven leather belt.

At best, driving a minivan would be an ironic thing to do- like it was when I did it in high school.

But this past year, I started realizing… minivans are actually pretty cool these days.

Call it perfect timing, but then Toyota let us take one of their 2013 Siennas on our family road trip from Nashville, TN to Louisville, KY this past weekend. That’s what made me realize, it’s officially cool to drive a minivan now.

(By the way, you were pretty sad to have to say goodbye to it today. You waved to it as I dropped you off for school.)

And no, I don’t just think it’s because I’m older now and have a kid that I think minivans are cool.

Driving a minivan is fun.

I can say this, now that I’m back in my normal car, it feels like I’m driving with the emergency brake on. Mommy coincidentally said the same thing today; with this being our first day back in our own vehicles.

She and I both agreed that the Sienna rode like a boat. I mean that in a good way.

It just seemed to effortlessly hover across the road; never seeming clunky or like driving a loaf of bread.

One of my favorite parts about driving the Sienna on our road trip this weekend was when I shuttled the 8 of us around Louisville.

You, me, and Mommy met my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and your cousin there in Louisville. There were 3 vehicles and I figured we would have to do sort of a caravan thing as we drove around the city for the weekend.

But sort of by accident, Mommy discovered the stowaway seat in the very back of the van which could be attached in between the 2 captain’s chairs in the 2nd row.

That meant there were 8 seats for 8 people; 2 of those people being 2 year-olds. It’s not like we felt like a can of sardines, either.

In fact, my mom (your Nonna) commented: “I feel like I’m riding in 1st class!”

(She’s never actually ridden 1st class so we’ll let this count.)

It was a lifesaver for me because I get stressed out when I have to lead, or be part of, a caravan; especially in a city I haven’t completely memorized. Instead, all I had to do was drive (with Mommy riding shotgun) and follow the built-in GPS to the zoo.

Also, we saved money on parking by being in just one vehicle.

So, I’m over my conditioned belief that minivans uncool, or at best, ironic.

Things have changed, now.

We had a great family road trip anyway, but it totally (!) added to the enjoyment factor and subtracted from the stress factor by having the Sienna. Now I don’t like the thought of taking another family road trip the old fashioned way… without a minivan.

Love,

Daddy

Disclaimer: The vehicle mentioned in this story was provided at the expense of Toyota, for the purpose of reviewing.

P.S. To see more pictures of our family road trip, go to The Dadabase’s Facebook page and click on the picture folder, Louisville AdVANture Road Trip October 2013.

3 Comments Posted on June 15, 2014June 16, 2014 Uncategorized

Unboxing Of OkieDog Wildpack Rolling Luggage Dragon: Family Friendly Review

Just in time for our big annual family vacation to Sacramento, Okiedog asked me to review their new Wildpack rolling luggage. So I asked my 3 and a half year-old son to choose between the panda, rabbit, dog, and dragon.

He already has the panda backback, plus he’s really getting into dinosaurs and dragons. So he chose the dragon, which has plush wings. Here is my unboxing video:

Okiedog complies with all safety standards, has high quality and are made from very durable materials. Their children’s bags are PVC-, Phthalate- AZO- and BPA-free.

As you can see, there is a built in, easy-access mesh pocket inside the luggage. Plus, it was very easy for my son to pull by himself; it weighs 28 ounces- less than 2 pounds.

The rolling luggage line featuers a 3D design, is water resistant, and contains an interior write-on name tag. The height, with the handle extended, is 18.9 inches (or 48 cm).

All 4 characters versions of the Okiedog rolling luggage are priced at $34.95.

I have to say, Okiedog products really stand out. They have such a unique look. It’s the kind of situation where with the panda backpack, as well as the “daddy diaper bag,” people just have to ask me:

“Where did you get that? I’ve never seen one like that before!”

Obviously, I just review products, I don’t sell them, but here’s a link to the Okiedog site in case you’re curious to find out exactly where I did get that: Use code “dadblog” good for 20% off purchase at okiedog.us. Good until 7/31/14.

Thanks for visiting the Family Friendly Daddy Blog. You never know what I will review next… could be a recipe, could be car, could be travel spot.

See you soon!

Leave a comment Posted on February 21, 2011March 5, 2024 Storytelling, Uncategorized, Writing

My 500th Post: A Road is a Place (AKA “Kayak to Japan Then Jet Ski to China, Via Google Maps”)

Some of the best advice you can get from anyone is to kayak to Hawaii, then Japan, and finally, jet ski to China.

I have found that for the most part, if you live in America and use Google Maps, it will only help you for traveling within the U.S. But evidently one of the workers for Google Maps got bored on a slow Wednesday afternoon and “planted some Easter eggs” for fun people like you and me. No matter where you are leaving from, if you type in “China” as the destination, you will be instructed to kayak from the coast of Washington state to Hawaii, drive a car to the other side of the state, then kayak to Japan, drive a care to the to other side of Japan, then jet ski to China. I’ll save you the trouble. Here’s a link to Google Maps to try it out.

During the summer before 7th grade (1993) on church bus ride back from Six Flags Over Georgia, I heard a song on the cassette tape playing through the stereo speakers by Steven Curtis Chapman called No Better Place. The main part of the chorus says, “There’s no better place on Earth than the road that leads to Heaven.” That’s when I realized that a road is actually a place itself- not just a means to get to other places. I had never thought about it before. A road is a location, despite its abstract shape and the fact it overlaps countless other places- other cities, other states, even other countries.

As the title proclaims, this is indeed my 500th post. That’s a lot of material from my brain. I spend an average of at least one hour on each one (I’ve spent up to 5 hours on a few of them), and considering that that my average post is 666 words long (strange but true), that adds up to an estimated bare minimum of 21 whole days of writing and 333,000 words used to do it. I would actually predict that in reality I’ve used at least 500,000 words and 30 whole days simply in writing the content of Scenic Route Snapshots.

Sometimes I go back to the earliest posts back in 2009 and dress them up with better pictures and titles. Interestingly, these older writings of mine are not only less physically attractive and appealing, but their content alone shows me that I’ve grown up not only as a writer but also a person. This website, my main hobby, is like a metaphorical road of my life. It shows me the similarities and differences of me now, compared and contrasted to me then.

A road is a place. By looking down it we can see where we’ve come from and we’re were headed. If we should find the road we are on is not leading to where we need to be, there are always intersections. And u-turns.

Content as of February 21, 2011

500	Posts
5	Pages
8	Categories
6,277	Tags

Discussion and Viewership as of February 21, 2011

992	Comments
218,967 views all-time

4 Comments Posted on June 15, 2010March 5, 2024 Nostalgia, People, Recaps, Uncategorized

Movie Guy, at Your Service: My Top 11-25 Favorites

What do your favorite movies say about you?

Our favorite movies are loaded with subconscious connections to our own ways of thinking and our own lives. And that’s why no movie critic can ever truly release a list of the best movies ever made. Because that list would simply reflect that critic, not the general population.

After having recently posted my own Top Ten favorites (Movie Guy, at Your Service: My Top Ten Favorites), here in my 300th post on Scenic Route Snapshots, I am now releasing the list of my Top 11-25 favorite movies of all time:

#11) About a Boy

#12) Elizabethtown

#13) A Christmas Story

#14) Zoolander

#15) Supersize Me (assuming that documentaries count)

#16) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

#17) Mrs. Doubtfire

#18) That Thing You Do

#19) The Wedding Singer

#20) Big

#21) Dumb and Dumber

#22) Napoleon Dynamite

#23) The Breakfast Club

#24) Pineapple Express

#25) One Hour Photo

I have been asked several times about my Number Four favorite movie of my all time, Sideways (2004). It’s one that most people who I know in real life didn’t like, if they’ve even seen it. I can totally see why people wouldn’t like it- a bipolar lead character (Miles, played by Paul Giamatti), a sex-crazed idiot sidekick (Jack, played by Thomas Haden Church), a good bit of comical frontal male nudity (by the man who played Tom on LOST), and no definite plot. But I do solidly love this movie. In fact, I also give it the award for “The Most Re-watchable Movie”. And surely that’s another reason it ended up as #4.

In keeping with the theme of this post, I am choosing to use Sideways as an example of how a favorite movie can say a lot about the person who loves it. I’ve said before that what makes a good movie is not its actors, budget, or plot- but instead it’s all about the characters (and of course the actor’s ability to act).

Sideways is a character movie. The main four characters (and pretty much only four characters of the movie) are all believable. None of their lives are impressive. They are very ordinary people. And they are all quite flawed and that makes them more human than a lot of movie characters.

It wasn’t until I saw the movie for the 10^th time, last weekend, that I finally picked up on the toned-down parallel between the types of wine and the characters, as well as the amount of passion for wine they had compared with their desire for meaningful human relationships.

I love the fact that the movie takes place in Napa Valley and integrates the culture of wine tasting. It’s such a beautiful, unique place. I was intrigued by Napa Valley the first time I saw the movie in 2005.

Of course, three years later I conveniently married a girl from Sacramento, which means that I’ve been able to go wine tasting several times out there where the movie was filmed. Just as Sideways makes it seem cool to take a road trip through Napa Valley and taste wine, the truth is, it really is that cool. A perfect place for a road trip and a perfect place to get lost (which we do just about every time we go out there).

If nothing else, Sideways plays out like an adult, R-rated version of Dumb and Dumber. The climax of the movie makes the “naked in public” nightmare a reality when Miles (Paul Giamatti) has to sneak into a house to retrieve Jack’s (Thomas Haden Church) wallet, after Jack just woke him up in the middle of the night after having ran several miles naked from across town.

The entire soundtrack of the movie, with one exception when the song “Two Tickets to Paradise” is heard in the background of a bar, is jazz. I like jazz a lot. That’s one of the reasons I’m such a fan of The Pink Panther cartoon show.

Lastly, if it weren’t for a few scenes where Jack uses a cell phone, the movie could have very easily taken place in 1993. Or 1989. Or 1986. Sideways has a really timeless, classic feel to it.

So in review, the random elements of the movie that subconsciously connected to my own life were the following: a character-driven plot (I’m a people person), parallels between the wines and the people who drink them (I love undertoned themes), remniscent of Dumb and Dumber (obviously another one of my favorite movies), retro feel (I’m a fan of time travel), a jazzy soundtrack (it’s groovy), a beautiful location (that also doubles as my wife’s hometown region), a road trip driven-plot (I love road trips) and a scene involving a man having to run naked in public (I have that “naked in pubic” dream several times a year, and I plan to do a post on it soon).

How does a movie become a favorite? It’s all about those subconscious connections between our own lives and the images, moods, and stories we see on the screen. Either they’re there or they’re not.

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