Looking forward to our annual family vacation.

The plan is this: Mom is coming up to Pittsburgh on Friday, Jim's last day of pre-college. She'll stay just long enough for dinner, at which point we hit the road, driving northeast for 3 or 4 hours, then stopping at some kind of hotel for the night. On Saturday we complete the drive to Kingston, in upstate New York, where my dad's mother's family lives, and where we'll presumably be meeting the rest of our family. We do the visiting thing there, then head down to Scarsdale on Sunday to visit my dad's college roommate, with whose family we used to vacation every summer. They have a boat or something.

Then on Monday we drive to Wildwood, NJ, our perennial beach destination. We've been going to Wildwood since I was 3 years old, and while I'm not really a beach person, I have a special place in my heart for Wildwood. It's also close to Atlantic City, where I have no doubt my dad will take me, and where I'll finally be able to accompany him legally into the casino, without having to worry about being kicked out the whole time.

Last year in Wildwood we did a sort of "PGA tour" of mini-golf, playing at least one course every day. This year will probably be more laid-back, as my highly activity-oriented cousin Tom will not be there. In fact, when I come back, after two weeks at the beach out of the last four, I'll probably be too relaxed to move.

Which is fine, really, since my responsibilities at work have pretty much dwindled down to filling out and turning in my time card.

On Friday we drive back down to Baltimore, and on Saturday I catch a ride to Pittsburgh with my Aunt Bette, on her way to take her son back to Cleveland. So apart from all the driving, it should be a good vacation.