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The 4th of July holiday weekend is really the start of summer in my mind.  At this point even the kids who had a month of snow days are out of school and the weather is genuinely hot.  Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, it's been 50 degrees here at night lately which means our pool is hemorrhaging temp.  There are probably more important things I could complain about.  I'm a little nostalgic this year for the holiday weekend.  Last year at this time I was wrapping up a critical milestone for a project that had to be delivered on July 7th.  So, my distinguished colleagues and I worked 20 hour days straight through from the end of June until we delivered that project on the 7th.  It kind of sucked at the time but looking back on it I have fond memories of the whole experience and it really was a good one.  I distinctly remember trying to determine if I could reach the Ohio river with a good jump from the balcony of the hotel conference room we were working in at the time after just realizing we might have lost a critical piece of work at one point.  Good times...  It did make for a good team building experience and you really learn who you can count on when your neck is on the block.

We took a last minute trip to Newport, RI. last weekend that was a very good time.  We all needed a beach day and I had a some points to use so if the hotel room is free why not?  Newport is not really a beach destination per se but we found a nice spot near the cliffs and the kids had a blast.  There's nothing better than sand and soggy sandwiches to cleanse the soul.  Liz picked up some nice big Portuguese rolls and we stocked a opulent cooler.  The kids lasted a good 3+ hours before Wyatt started to come unglued.  We retreated to the hotel and a swim in the pool there got everyone back to level again.

For dinner we hit the Barking Crab on Newport Harbor which was walking distance from the hotel.  We discovered both kids love Crab & Corn chowder and it was a good meal of fried food washed down with probably one too many Gin & Tonics.  We had a nice stroll to look at the boats and Liz brought Wyatt in to a private yacht club to hit the head.  Nobody asks Wyatt any questions.  He has carte blanche.

Aside from the kids, I was probably the only person in the world who had never seen Jurassic Park so we watched that in between trips to the concierge lounge for more food and drinks.  It was good trip and definitely helped recharge the batteries.