This summer has been a whirlwind, as summers often are, this year made slightly more insane by trips to and from my parents' place in Maine, which means logging many hours in the car.

Thankfully, these are hours I don't regret because we've gotten memorable long summer weekends out of these trips, and Nora and Gabriel, thanks to my generous parents, have gotten a few full weeks in Maine and valuable time with their grandparents, even when I've had to come back home.

Adriana has become an expert road tripper along the way, although she's much more into frequent stops and much less into podcasts than I am.

We'll be headed back up this weekend for one more Maine adventure before we acknowledge some of the looming responsibilities ahead; school, a regular work schedule and not eating dessert every day (probably). There's a lot to think about in terms of scheduling and general logistics but I think that for this one last weekend I'm going to forget all that and concentrate on lobster and sitting poolside and trying to get my almost one-year-old into enticing interview radio shows as we cover all that familiar road once again.