It was great to be in Puerto Vallarta with half of Lorena’s family, but it is great to be home now, too. This was my first real vacation in the last several years. It turned into a time for reflection that I hope Lorena and I can repeat more frequently now. We talked a lot about the fact with the kids grown, on their own and paying there own way for over four years now, we have the freedom and responsibility to set some new goals. The difficulty of giving up control of one’s kids is not diminished by the fact that, if you did your job right as a parent, it is going to happen whether you want it or not.

There is a lot that happened over the week, but one of things that cast a pall over some of the vacation is the looming election of a new president in Mexico who appears to have plans to push the country along a similar path as is currently being followed by Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. That happened the day after we returned to Washington. Everyone is pretty worried, but there is nothing to be done about it other than wait to see what happens and hope for the best.