Where we’re at: I finished recapping my summer of 2018, of which this is a huge roundup. I’ve been working on this post for what feels like forever. I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. To be honest, I think this draft sitting in my queue kind of messed with my head a little…

I can’t tell you how good it used to feel to touch back down in Albany after long stretches on the other side of the world. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and in this case I’d been away from my home country for about eight months — though due to my crazy travel schedule, I…

Philadelphia’s nickname might be The City of Brotherly Love, but since my little sister relocated there for a new job on the Governor of Pennsylvania’s reelection campaign, it’s been known to be as the City of Sisterly Love to me. And this year, after celebrating the Fourth of July with my family in Martha’s Vineyard, I…

Our Father’s Day reunion weekend in Philly ended with a trip to a classic family activity — a trip to the zoo. And this zoo in particular is a historic destination as well. The Philadelphia Zoo is America’s first, having received a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1859 and opening its gates fifteen years…

Growing up, The Olympics referred not to an international gathering of athletes from around the world, but a gathering of Baackeses from around the East Coast. Once a year, we gathered for the Father’s Day Olympics, an elaborate weekend event involving custom t-shirts, scoreboards and prizes, and games like a egg-in-spoon relays and marshmallow eating contests…

Greetings from somewhere between Philadelphia and New York! This was a very special week, the first time my three sisters and I have all been in the same place at once in six years. On Friday we came from far and wide — okay, from Rochester, Northamptom and Martha’s Vineyard, to be specific — to visit…