Ho Ho Ho

What’s better than Christmas with family? Not. A. Thing. Well, maybe Christmas with a little bit of snow on the ground but that is kind of splitting hairs. The lead up to the end of the month was spent listening to Christmas music, taking evening spins through the neighborhood to see the lights, and prodding…

A Full House

Hooray for visitors! The house of four (plus one Lucy) swelled to ten for our first Thanksgiving in Alexandria. Dad and Elaine flew in for a few days with us then Gabe, Laura, and crew joined us for the big feast. We spent our time playing outside during the day and finding reasons to start…

Weekend Adventures

If you live in DC (we’ll count those of us on the west side of the river in that group – blaspheme!), you know you need to escape on the weekends to soak up all the area has to offer. This weekend escape was hatched from a confluence of ideas. We ain’t no strangers to…

August in the DMV

Crab cakes and football are a Maryland thing so I guess crabs and baseball can be a Virginia thing. Summer in the DC area is sure to be one thing: humid. If you want something besides the humidity you need to venture out into the humidity and grab it! We did our best to not…

On The Road Again

Busy schedules at the departure spot and the destination meant separate road trips for the Wiktors. Sophia volunteered to go with dad (and Lucy) and took the lead planner role. After a quick intro to Google Maps, she got to work figuring out good stops on the drive and picked all the hotels. I had…

Sun-downing SoCal

Never enough time seems to be a common theme. June put the exclamation mark on that statement as we readied for yet another move (number six since 2006!). We did our best to spend our days doing the things that make Carlsbad stand out as one of our favorite spots on the map. Sophia closed…

Coast to Coast: Part 5 (the end)

Okay, final push. We wake up on Day 21and fall into our well worn routines. Breakfast, pack, boots, and step off with only 12 miles ahead of us until we dip our toes in the North Sea. For the past 20 days, the focus always seemed ahead of us. Today however, we were often struck…

Coast to Coast: Part 4

After a rest day in Richmond, we readied to set off on day 15 with fresh legs and only about 75 miles in front of us before we could dip our toes in the North Sea! The next stage of the walk is one that gets the most grumbles from A.W. labeling it as a…

Coast to Coast: Part 3

Saturday (14 May or day 8), it was breakfast at The Hermitage and then we stepped off for Orton. From this point forward, the size of the group was down to four as Laura and Gabe headed back to reality. The first leg was a relative breeze at just around 9 miles through the flat,…

Coast to Coast: Part 2

Before I get into Day 4 (10 May), it’s probably worth pointing out that the manner in which the trip is chopped into “parts” and posted at theWiktors, leaves a little to be desired (at least for me). Where one post per month is often the [missed] goal, one post for the month of May…