Family Adventure, Go! Here we are in Albany, NY.

More than a year and a half ago, my little family relocated to Albany. Some locals call is "Smallbany," but it is also known to be "in the middle of everywhere." And it is. I am overwhelmed by how much there is to do. All the time. We moved from Birmingham, AL--a beautiful place for a couple weeks out of the year when it's not crazy-in-Alabama hot. Birmingham has a wonderful arts community and one of the best little arts festivals ever in the Sidewalk Film Festival. But we wanted more of an outdoorsy lifestyle for our new family (our daughter is not yet four-years-old).

Our first pick was Seattle, WA. Of course.

When researching Albany, NY, we found that it shared a similar outdoors-lifestyle-potential. The thing is, if we can learn to ski one day--we can have a full twelve months out of the year outside under the natural canopy of life. We want that. Edith Wharton and Henry James both have heroines who come from Albany. That settled it. We are now well-entrenched in the Capital Region--the New York State capital is here in Albany. (It is not in New York City.)

We moved to the base of the Adirondacks, the backdoor of the Catskills, and a hop-skip-and-a-jump-of-a-train-ride to NYC. We can wave to our friends in Boston and real, live New England is within hyperbolic spitting distance. The Hudson river reminds us daily of the Revolutionary War and our freedom while we find pocket parks all up and down her great shores. New York State parks and hiking trails are immaculately maintained. This little world is built to encourage the outdoorsy lifestyle. We, therefore, are on the go all the time.

So this is the story of our adventures. And the story of jazz hands, selfies, restaurants, raising a toddler-to-be-a-good-human-being-one-day, and the testimonial of two working parents who push each other to be outside--to be better than we are right now. We go. We do. We shun the sedentary since we both have office jobs where we either sit hunched over in front of computers all day or we sit straight up listening for our names in corporate meetings. To top that off, my husband is a gamer. He is an expert gamer, and I am super proud of him. It is important that I get him outside so that he gets some fresh air every now and then. To air out a gamer is a noble thing.

We want to teach our daughter about the natural life--about hiking, biking, camping, bugs, dirt, and so much more. We want to prepare her for the Zombie Apocalypse and living off the land. We want to experience as much as we can. We want to learn a lot along the way.

We also like fresh draft beer. And wine. And cheese fries. We like to find surprise restaurants. We trust Yelp. We like to make a family adventure out of the weekend (and you already get that by now). I like to repeat myself and use punctuation to make a point. The Capital Region is honestly the best place on Earth right now. It's spring-creeping-into-summer time. There is nothing like it in the wind.

Cheers to you. I hope you enjoy our ride and learn a little bit about how much awesome there is in every direction in The Capital Region. It's a way of life.