by Shadra Bruce | Family, Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce I typically do not like Friday the 13th, having inherited a bit of my mother’s superstitious nature. But this Friday the 13th was good luck from start to finish. Not only did Dave and the kids and I enjoy playing tourists in...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce I love traveling, seeing new places, having new adventures…but I love being able to share it with my extended family, and my sister and her family as well as my dad and his wife will be meeting us in Newport in a couple days....
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce We’ve now been on the road for two full weeks. Our kids have been troopers about the time spent in the car, and Dave so far has driven every mile. Today’s drive up 101 from Garberville, CA to Newport, OR was challenging. The...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce My grandparents lived in Barstow, California…which meant I spent a LOT of time in the hot, dry desert each summer. I’d seen most of Southern California…from the beaches at San Diego to Disneyland to Hollywood to trips...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Making Memories, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Cleveland was relaxing and wonderful, a perfect start to our trip. St. Louis was magnificent and friendly. Colorado was majestic and intimidating with it’s high summits and plunging canyons. Utah felt like home, given the family...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Special Needs, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Today we drove into Reno, Nevada. Reno is my hometown. I was born here in 1971 and lived here until almost my 10th birthday. Even after my dad got transferred to Boise, we made regular trips back to Reno. My dad was born here, too, and...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Making Memories, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Saying goodbye to my sister today was supposed to be easy, because we knew we would be seeing each other twice more this month – on the coast and at the family reunion. But the knowledge that we’d soon be heading back to New York and...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Making Memories, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Spending time with my sister has been an extraordinary pleasure. We truly are the best of friends, but more than that, our children – her 15-year old, her 12-year old twins, my 12-year old, her 10-year old, and my 9-year old – love each...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Love, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Growing up, there was a significant enough age difference between my sister and I (I am 5 years older than her) that we did not have a lot in common. When she was starting kindergarten, I was chasing boys in fifth grade; when she was...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce We got up early this morning and said a tearful goodbye to Pete, then headed across the Colorado border to Riverton, Utah. Riverton is a pretty little community at the base of the Bingham Canyon Mine with a gorgeous view of the...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce We didn’t have to drive today. No waking up to an alarm to make sure we had time to get the hotel room packed up and the car loaded and the maps we need to the next hotel. In fact, no staying in a hotel. Thanks to our friend Pete,...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Having survived Kansas and enjoyed our first night of reconnecting with our dear friend James, we once again loaded up the car and jumped back on the road. Rather than 8 or 12 hours of traveling, however, we only faced four. We...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce In 2005, Derek graduated from high school and headed to the Army and I graduated from college with a long-awaited bachelor’s degree in Economics. While I had been accepted to Cornell University with a $20,000 fellowship and we...
by Shadra Bruce | Let's Talk, Travel
Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Having already determined that flexibility is the key to a successful road trip, Dave and I have been modifying our expectations and our plans as we go. Today was a wonderful day, but a rough one too. Because we’d made it much...
