cliché.

mom and pop have been lucky enough to experience a lot of great things in their young lives.

they have traveled a good deal. in america, they have visited places like seattle, san francisco, portland (maine and oregon), boston, houston, nashville, philadelphia, tampa bay, baltimore, washington dc, chicago, new york, pittsburgh, providence, cape cod, virginia, burlington, and orlando. overseas, they've been to london, berlin, frankfurt, paris, montreal, amsterdam, the dominican republic, edinburgh, oxford, cologne, florence, siena, hamburg, munich, pisa, quebec city, nurenberg, and let's not forget, mannheim. they've seen tony award-winning musicals and have been to the tony awards. they've been to major league baseball games to see barry bonds juice one out of the park and minor league games to see the first base coach ejected to the team bus. they've seen major soccer and tennis tournaments, football games, hockey, civil war reenactments, and maybe even some figure skating. they've eaten great food in some great restaurants on two continents. mom and pop even graduated from high school AND college. pop even has a master's degree! they've marched in parades, volunteered for soup kitchens and other charities, lived in 4 different states, met celebrities and famous musicians, visited theme parks, watched live tapings of late night talk shows, watched great classical music at lincoln center, stayed in great hotels and some not-so-great hostels, hiked mountains, and relaxed on beaches. oh yes, mom and pop also got married and had a great wedding.

none of this beats playing with mercer on the living room floor.