I always love going to Europe – especially Italy. When I learned that I was going to be speaking at our customer event in Rome, I jumped at the chance to go and bring Deb along. After a few days working in Rome, we vacationed along the Amalfi coast in Sorrento.

“Rob Tour” of Rome

On Sunday, we were asked to recreate our 2014 waking tour of Rome for some friends. We were excited to share our experience witnessing the city sites through our friends’ eyes for the first time.  That said, this is a 7+ mile journey not for the faint of heart.  The bus dropped us off downtown Rome, on the Tiber river looking up at the iconic St. Peters Basilica.

Continue reading Italy 2018 – Rome & Amalfi Coast →

Pardon my hyperbole but the last three days was a perfect weekend in Chicago. It did not start out that way but thanks to the patience of my wife and family and fantastic weather, the weekend was perfect.

We planned the weekend weeks ago so I could use my new camera equipment to take some pictures our boys would want to put up in their apartment – an anniversary gift. After an early dinner Friday, everyone followed me walking over a mile to Navy Pier in a rush to capture the golden hour of light, lugging my Gigapan, camera bag and tripod. When I set up the Gigapan, all I got was a low battery error. The battery was dead! Oh, the light sucked and even after I composed myself, I could not catch any decent shots.

The rest of the night Friday everyone tried to cheer me up but all I could think of was that I wasted a perfect night. I did something that caused the battery to drain. This had to be my fault. Continue reading Perfect Weekend in Chicago →

Deb & I developed a taste for California wine over the past couple years, so we decided to plan long weekend to Napa Valley. Our goal was to relax and enjoy the scene without a crazy busy agenda but we wanted to visit our favorite wineries, find some good food, and get some good pictures. Maybe it was the planning or just blind luck but in spite of 100+ degree weather we had a great time.

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Waking up on Monday morning after returning from paradise vacation 2.0 sucks. There is no luxury cabana by the serenity pool, no beach-side walks, no mid-morning Mai Tai, no afternoon spritzes from Rowena, no casual dining in the ocean air restaurant, and no ocean view bedroom. But those are just some of the reasons we decided to celebrate our 30th anniversary at our favorite location in Maui at the Four Seasons, version 2 of the best anniversary vacation. I spent three months planning for this reboot of our prior visit five years ago. It turned out so great we did not want to leave.

Mountain Top Sunrise

We awoke at OMG-thirty Friday morning to make our way to Hawaii. Three flights and 17 hours later, we found ourselves back home at the Four Seasons, Maui. By the time we drove from the airport to the hotel it was 10:00 PM, we were wiped, and we had an early start, so we crashed for the night…. well part of the night.

If Friday morning was an early start, Saturday was off the charts. We headed up to the top of Mt. Haleakalā and no matter who I asked, everyone at the hotel recommended leaving by 2:30 AM. No, that’s not a typo. I don’t care who you are or where you come from, 2:00 AM alarms are not welcome. Somehow, we managed to drag ourselves down to the lobby for a cup of coffee and a muffin before gathering the blankets and towels for our trek up the mountain top.

Standing on the dark, cold mountain top in the middle of the night, we still didn’t quite understand why we began so early, that is for about ten minutes. When we looked back at the parking lot below the summit, the lot that was empty but for five or six cars when we arrived ten minutes before was completely full. Within minutes, people were jockeying for prime positions at the summit. Lucky for me, the Four Seasons advised us to leave at 2:30 AM, so I had the perfect position and a great parking spot 100 yards away.

Continue reading Paradise Vacation 2.0 →