Seek The Substantial

Vacation Talk

Hamilton, Ohio. Yo had the Under Armour National Tournament at Spooky Nook in Hamilton, Ohio. Hamilton was named after Alexander Hamilton, starting as Fort Hamilton in 1791 and is located on the Great Miami River. Hamilton appears to one of those typical Rustbelt sort of towns, but it is actually really vibrant from what I can tell. There’s definitely an area or two that’s a bit down, but this was a manufacturing town, you can just tell, and there are so many old factories near the river, it’s just fun to see that sort of town when you aren’t really accustomed to seeing that sort of thing. There’s terrific statue of Hamilton with his cape flowing in the wind. It’s right in the middle of town. The statue is called “The American Cape” by Kristen Visbal in 2004.

Contact Case Travel. I have experimented with some travel things, namely, that I have a ton of contact lens cases. Every time you buy new solution, you get a new case. So I’ve been hoarding them for some reason and I’ve put them to use. I basically need a few things when I travel: face lotion (with spf); shaving cream; pomade; and hand lotion (really for my elbows, which get really rough). I’ve filled to the brim each of those things with a particular case and other than running out of shaving cream, it lasted Friday through Friday. This is an excellent solution for minimizing travel.

Vacationing in Michigan. The question is if you should and the answer is yes. You should. Previously mentioned, Yo had a tournament in Hamilton. We wanted a place to go on vacation because this week was basically the only week we were going to be available to go do something. We were in the Midwest and settled on vacationing in South Haven, Michigan. Trying to describe it? It’s on Lake Michigan and if you didn’t know, you’re on a beach in the ocean. South Haven is a bit between Durango with shops and walkable places to eat and Gatlinburg in Tennessee. People can own homes basically up to the shore on Lake Michigan (you can walk on the wet sand anywhere even if the beach is private) so I would say that South Beach is very family friendly. We found a beach to the north that was fine. We drove a bit south to Pilgrim Haven Natural Area and that’s a really nice secluded beach. You need water shoes, but it’s out of the way and nice and you can find some shade.

We also traveled to Saugatuck, which is a town that’s a bit more high-end. The town is basically a shopping area and Oval Beach (costs $15/day) is near by and this was the best beach by far on our trip and we went there two days.

This has been a good trip. The beaches are nice. The food is good. The water is cool and refreshing. I definitely recommend vacationing in Michigan for the summer.

A couple of other things. Cincinnati is nice. It’s a good city. Whatever you think about Ohio or Cincinnati (I did not have an opinion prior to this), but it’s a good city. Now things may change significantly in the winter, but summer Cincy is good. We were in the Liberty Heights area, but it’s good. We also spent the night in South Bend, Indiana, and wanted the boys to go visit the Notre Dame campus. It was great. that’s an amazing campus, the buildings hit different than anywhere else I’ve ever been. It’s majestic. The church on campus is great and the golden dome is real, as is Touchdown Jesus. Fits and I ran the campus the next morning and that was also fantastic. I also didn’t realize how close South Bend is to the Michigan border, like 5 minutes driving.

Having a Good Summer. This a fun video and I don’t know who this guy is, but I like him. There are two things that I’d like to add: 1) listen to summer music; and 2) grill your food. Summer music is totally subjective, but you know what summer music is and you should listen to summer music. And grill your food. Even though it is hot and it can be a bit of a beating because you might be grilling at the end of the day, you should grill food in the summer.

Running Things

I’m saving running things until a bit later in the quarter.

Books

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Both books received 3 stars from me. This was okay, sort of a grown up Harry Potter in a way. I bought the entire series and I came off of some books where I absolutely loved the characters, where these characters were flawed. I’m still going to read the other two books in the series.

Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City by K.J. Parker. This is a book for guys who don’t want to read fiction. This is a good story . . . until the end of the book. I didn’t love the ending and I’d love to know why he chose the path that he did.

A/V

Andor. This was one of the highlights of my summer. This is the best show I’ve ever watched. So much thought went into this show, every detail had to be made or built or considered. Fantastic. A++.

Life

Me. Vacation was great. I needed it. Explained above. The boys then went on vacation with their grandfather for a week and so it’s been Miranda and I for a week and that’s actually been lovely in a totally different. It’s been nice just focusing being a dad with the boys on vacation and when they left, just focusing on Miranda.

Miranda. Without sounding terrible, Miranda needed a vacation. She let go.

Fitsum. It was a joy to run with Fits every day during our vacation. I enjoyed every step and mile.

Youssouf. He played in the Under Armour National Tournament and he belongs. He was the best player on the court so many times and he belongs on just about any team.