After reading and enjoying a travel blog of some friends of ours, I was inspired to consider keeping a journal while on an upcoming trip planned with my mother to Michigan’s lakes and Mackinac Island. I subsequently discovered it’s been a while since I updated this blog. Originally, the blog’s purpose was to provide an opportunity for us to share our Washington life with family and friends. However, over the last two years, Facebook has fulfilled that role.  But now, I’m reconsidering all of this. Facebook is fine as a tool for keeping up with the lives of others, particularly those we don’t see often. But it’s not a tool for journaling, writing, recording vacations, documenting special family moments, or just sharing  thoughts and reflections.  Therefore, this post officially launches Phase II of the newly-expanded “Button Blog.”  And, it explains the two-year gap between this post and the one that precedes it.

So … those interested can read the blog “inauguration” posts before and during the trip with my mother, which begins a week from today … September 23.