Why yes, I am alive.

Been traveling a bit. For those of you following along at home, we took our yearly family beach vacation in St. Louis.

Thank you, BP.

While not exactly the beach, we did have a nice time.

We visited with friends, and did a few touristy things we'd never done before.

We stayed in a nice condo in St. Charles, it's a cute little town filled with history.

I'd show you pictures, but I lost control of my camera ages ago as all 3 kids suddenly want to be photographers.

"Why so far out (from St. Louis)?" You may ask...

OK, you're probably not asking, since you really don't care where I went on vacation, but humor me...

Well, since we are a family of 5, and my dad goes with us as well, we'd need at least 2 hotel rooms/suites (and at least 2 bathrooms), and well, that's not really what I want to pay to vacation in that area.

On a whim, I VRBOed (that is too a verb) "St. Louis", and found a great condo here, and that's how we got to St. Charles.

OK, that may have also been the only result.

I mean, really, how many vacation rentals in St. Louis can one expect?

(Side note: this totally reads like I'm SEO-ing vacation rentals in St. Louis, and I assure you I am not. I'm thinking that wouldn't be too profitable, anyway.)

We had to do a bit of driving, but the location worked out nicely,and for less than half of what we would have paid at a hotel.

Our vacations are always interesting since we have 6 different people with 6 different interests, and, my dad has a bum knee that prohibits a lot of activities.

We defaulted to history attractions, including the Lewis and Clark Center, The Missouri History Museum, and the Cahokia Mounds.

Lest you think we are entirely boring, we did do other stuff including Ted Drewe's and Rigazzis, where "all you can eat" may or may not be "all you are allowed to eat" or, "Youse sleeps wit' da' fishies, capiche?"

That's some authentic Italian, yo.

In the next installment of my life as a travel blogger,Busy D. and Busy Boy's first time ever on an airplane when we flew to L.A. yesterday.

Hey, L.A.?

You are cold.

It's summer.

What up with that?

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