It was never about the vacation

(Column first appeared for Gulf Coast Media in The Baldwin Times, June 26, 2026.)

With Dorinda before the storm-shortened Foo Fighters concert at New York’s Citi Field on July 17, 2024.

“ … If everything could ever be this real forever. If anything could ever be this good again …”— Foo Fighters, “Everlong”

Sometimes the best laid plans …

That came to mind last week when our Gulf Coast beaches were filled with rows and rows of seagrass. The City of Orange Beach posted on social media that workers were trying to remove it, working to clear paths through the sargassum lining the shoreline.

Sometimes vacations go sideways. It rains at the beach. The flight gets delayed. The rental car isn’t there. Maybe there’s car trouble. Any of the above is a potential recipe to wreck a vacation you’ve saved for all year.

Don’t let it. Here’s why.

In July 2024, Dorinda and I had planned a trip to New York for months. It was not just a vacation, but celebrating a milestone birthday for me as well.

She was undergoing chemotherapy treatments that summer. I wanted to cancel the trip in May when we learned that’s what she faced the next few months — a treatment every three weeks at UAB’s Women and Infants Center.

But one morning she said, “Let’s go. We might not be able to go next year.”

Her doctor signed off on it. And so we went.

Now, the centerpiece of that trip was to see one of our favorite bands, the Foo Fighters, at New York’s Citi Field.

An outdoor venue.

You can guess what happened.

It stormed. Severely. Thunder. Lightning. A solid downpour began about halfway through the band’s typical three-hour set.

They said they would come back and play if the lightning stopped. It didn’t. So they didn’t come back.

Sensing the weather clock ticking against them, the band played the opening notes of “Everlong,” our song. Their closing song. And then another huge bolt of lightning ended the evening.

In a perfect world, the band would have played on, “Everlong” would have ended with a huge fireworks display, as had happened at other outdoor venues on the tour.

I’d be lying if I said we weren’t disappointed. We sloshed our way back through the rain that night, looking for the Big Apple landmark to catch the subway ride that would take us back to our hotel.

A bolt of lightning flashes above Citi Field during the concert. (Photo shared via Foo Fighters social media.)

But you know what? We still had a great trip because we were together, me and her.

We saw Chicago on Broadway. We had cheesecake at Junior's Restaurant & Bakery.

We wandered through the halls of the American Museum of Natural History, picking out souvenirs for our grandchildren. We toured the Brooklyn Museum and its Botanical Garden.

Together.

There is one other part of that New York trip that’s even more memorable.

We had tickets to see a Yankee game on a Friday night — a trip to Yankee Stadium.

But that day, she was tired and didn’t feel like going. I wasn’t going to go either. I listed the tickets trying to sell them. She would have no part of it. She insisted I go.

I went alone. She was waiting on me when I returned.

Looking back now, I realize even in the midst of her own battle, she was doing what she always did — taking care of me.

Before the 2024 concert, I bought a T-shirt commemorating the tour. I still have it hanging here today.

Across the back, four words.

Everything or Nothing at All.

Those four words described exactly how she chose to live. We took the trip. We enjoyed the vacation, even though we were among the thousands of fans who had to head for the exit early that stormy night at Citi Field.

This August, I’ll see the Foo Fighters for a fourth time. The first without her. It’s another outdoor venue. If it rains, I have a feeling she’ll be smiling.

These days, I understand something I didn’t understand two summers ago.

It was never about the interrupted concert.

It was always about being with her.

On our flight home from New York in July 2024.

The author’s Foo Fighters T-shirt from the band’s 2024 Everything or Nothing at All tour.