I’m back from my family vacation! My family traveled to Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and wrapped up our trip in Washington DC. We enjoyed nature, history and culture- but an added bonus when I was traveling was meeting some of my blogging friends in real life!
My family and I met Michael of My Comic Relief and Kalie of Just Dread-Full , who are romantic partners, for lunch as we traveled between Cuyahoga Valley and Gettysburg. They traveled close to two hours to meet us!

As we arrived at the restaurant first, my daughter asked what would happen if they didn’t show. Was I going to be catfished? But they were there soon afterwards and there was no awkwardness and our conversations flowed as they do on-line. I had been so nervous about meeting them- they both are so funny and write so intelligently, would I be super lame in comparison? But both were authentic to their blog voices and Michael was as verbose as I had expected (and hoped) he’d be. Two hours zipped by, and my entire family enjoyed meeting Michael and Kalie, but eventually we had to finish our drive to Gettysburg.
After we spent a few days in Gettysburg, my family headed to Washington DC. On our first day there we visited Mount Vernon and Arlington Cemetery. Between those two locations, we planned to meet Jeffrey from The Imperial Talker, who lives in the area. He was also accommodating to my family’s schedule, and modified his day to meet us. He and his wife Jen met us for lunch, and he too was as awesome in real life as he is on his blog. Jeff and Michael are best friends in real life, so it was neat to be able to talk about one another, now that we all had met. We even planned for a possible meet up next year in Chicago if something we are working on is approved (hint- it has something to do with Star Wars).

One of my favorite parts of blogging is the on-line friendships that I have established. Until I started to blog myself, I had doubted people’s claims that real friendships could be made without meeting one another. But it’s true! That I truly have met Michael, Kalie and Jeff is icing on the cake. Thanks to Jen and my family who were all amazingly chill about meeting people they didn’t know for lunch, so I could meet my FRIENDS!
-Nancy
(Header picture borrowed from WebDev Studios)
August 6, 2018 at 1:28 pm
Aww, what a beautiful post! Thank you! We were so flattered you wanted to include us in your family vacation plans. We were soooo excited to meet you and I’ll second what you say above. I enjoyed you every bit as much in person as I do on the line. (I will also second that I was happy you were real and not catfishing us :).) You have such a wonderful family and it was a joy spending the afternoon with all of you. Thank you for sharing your vacation with us and for bringing blogging friendships to life in the real world too.
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August 7, 2018 at 9:24 am
You and Kalie were delightful and it meant so much to me that you two were willing to give up a day to travel to have lunch with us!
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August 6, 2018 at 8:11 pm
I second everything that Michael said above. And I agree, he is very verbose, in person and online :).
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August 7, 2018 at 9:28 am
Thank you Kalie! My daughter was listening to The No Sleep Podcast two days ago and then asked me about you! If you check it out and like it, let me know so I can tell her 🙂
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August 7, 2018 at 8:14 pm
I haven’t listened to it yet, but now that you reminded me, I’ll definitely have to. It might even be good material for a blog post!
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