From Iowa and the Harkin reunion it was a quick flight north to Chicago. We have some great friends there, it’s a beautiful and exciting city and – no small factor – we’re doing what we can here in the States to avoid connecting flights. We wanted to get to DC soon enough, but better to fly direct to Chicago, visit friends for two days, and then take another direct flight to DC rather than have a long, ugly connecting flight from Des Moines. So Chicago it is.

Much of our time there was with Chris and Todd. Chris is one of Mark’s oldest friends from college, while Todd is his partner of nearly 25 years. They made us dinner twice and both dinners were amazing. The first dinner included a wonderful Latina couple, Nina & Sonia. The crazy part about it is that Nina is the data director for SEIU’s fast food organizing campaign, in which role she is a serious and regular VAN user. When, just a week or so before our visit, she learned that Chris’s friend had developed the VAN and was coming over, she said she had to join us. Turns out that she and Sonia were both great fun besides filling us in on all the benefits of using VAN for union organizing. (Note to any NGP VAN staff who might be reading this: Nina would love it if the MiniVAN worked better for union organizing…. 🙂 )

Beyond the dinners with Chris and Todd, we had time to visit with Lisa, another college friend of Mark’s. Lisa teaches Italian in the Chicago Public Schools and – to put it gently – filled us in on the challenges there under Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Sounds like a tough position.

And we stopped by the Civis Analytics office in Greektown to see our old friend Ben Fuller. Over the years at VAN and then NGP VAN, we had a lot of great clients, some of whom became great friends beyond any client relationship. Ben was certainly that, having had key roles at both SEIU and the Obama campaign before joining Civis. It was great fun catching up, hearing how all the data work that we’ve done over the years is increasingly embedded in campaigns, recognized as a key part of an organizing campaign rather than just the geeks who are put in some back room and humored. Amusingly, when we first got to the office we ran into Civis’s CEO, whom we also know from campaign work, who introduced us to some guy he was going into a meeting with. You could tell the guy wasn’t interested in meeting us, and didn’t even tell me his name when I shook his hand and introduced myself. Turned out as we were leaving the office Ben observed that he was Eric Schmidt, head of Google and ranked by Forbes as the 138th richest person in the world. Guess I was just supposed to know who he was!

Fun footnote that gives a sense of how … easy … our lives are. While waiting to meet with Ben in his Greektown office, Mark & I had lunch at a Greek restaurant. We were enjoying our meal when Mark said “Maybe we should spend July and August in Greece next year.” And just like that, because we had an hour to kill in Greektown, we’re planning a couple months in Greece and Turkey. So if you want to hang around the eastern Mediterranean with us next summer let us know.

Next stop, Washington D.C. for more friends, family, and colleagues.

Most of our six-week tour of the US is devoted to seeing family and friends. Toward that end, our weekend visit to Des Moines was extremely efficient.

My old boss, Senator Tom Harkin, was hosting his 37th and final annual Steak Fry before his retirement this fall. For all those years the Steak Fry has been a huge political event in Iowa, attracting presidential contenders, political prognosticators, and anyone remotely involved in Iowa Democratic politics. And this year nearly 300 of Tom’s former staff gathered for a reunion the day before the Steak Fry.

It’s hard to explain what it’s like to be a Harkinista. Anybody who has ever worked on one of Tom’s campaigns or in one of his Senate offices becomes part of a big family. And you are part of that family for life. Once you leave you may be called back to duty down the road. And you pretty much can’t say no.

I first worked on Tom’s presidential campaign in 1991-92. It was the first of many presidential campaigns I’ve been closely involved with. It was a super exciting time, but it only lasted six months before we made poor showings in some of the early state primaries, the money dried up, and Tom dropped out of the race.

During the last few days of that fight, we made a desperate final stand in Maryland, and most of our staff, whatever your job was supposed to be, ended up somewhere in Maryland doing whatever they could. Because the money was drying up, we had Xerox machines and printers loaded up with paper already printed on the back. We crashed on supporter couches. I especially remember the last day of duty when I stood on a street corner in Baltimore holding up an old tattered Harkin sign. I leaned over to tie my shoe, and my blue jeans ripped wide open right smack on the behind.

The next morning we all gathered at BWI airport, where Tom announced his withdrawal from the race in front of his teary and devoted team. He promised that he would work his heart out for whichever one of his erstwhile opponents won the primary. Some weeks later, the governor of Arkansas wrapped up the nomination, and Tom made good on his promise, working tirelessly to help Bill Clinton win Iowa and the White House.

Tom always worked hard for other Democrats. And you always knew it was more than just a duty. He cared passionately about politics because he card passionately about people. For 40 years he fought with everything he had to champion those in need. He fought for health care, for medical research, and for fair labor laws. He led a global fight against child labor. And as the father of the Americans with Disabilities Act he profoundly reshaped our country to make it more accessible for millions.

Like so many others who were part of the team, I did additional tours of duty. I worked in the Senate office from 1994 to 1996 and spent four rough months in Iowa on a nail-biter of a reelection race in 1996. In 2001 and 2002 I shuttled back and forth constantly between Cambridge and Des Moines as we deployed VAN for the first time. And for practically two decades I was on call as a consultant, working with the campaign treasurer and my dear friend, Theresa Kehoe.

When Tom took to the podium to say goodbye and thank you to 300 loyal Harkinistas on Saturday, there was hardly a dry eye in the place. It was magical to be with so many friends and so many great memories.

And then on Sunday another 10,000 Democrats gathered at the Steak Fry to say goodbye and thank you. Even that former governor from Arkansas that Tom worked so hard for. He brought his wife, too. And something tells me Tom might go to bat one more time for her.

After nearly three weeks of social engagements in Minnesota, Michigan, and Massachusetts, we headed down to Miami Beach for four days of quiet relaxation. It feels a lot like a vacation.

And there is no place better for a vacation than Miami Beach, one of my favorite places in the world. It’s a truly distinctive place, and I tend to feel especially happy whenever I am here. What’s so special about Miami Beach? It’s a combination of really good things — the weather, the colors, the energy.

The weather is often very moody here. It can be all sunshine and brightness one minute and then suddenly turn to a fierce tropical storm the next. But it’s all beautiful. I have lots of happy memories of leaving the beach for lunch, settling into a restaurant to dine and people watch, then suddenly seeing a wicked storm move in. No problem: have another mojito and watch the fun until the sun comes back for another round of afternoon beach time.

The weather produces some of those dramatic colors I like so much — the milky turquoise water, the deep blue sky that suddenly turns menacingly grey, the orange glow that lights up the ocean in the morning and the bay at night. But I also love the endless variety of pastels of the little art deco hotels that line Ocean Drive for miles and the ubiquitous white-on-white interiors. It all just feels so right together.

The energy is a combination of lots of things one could love or loathe. I certainly love the Latin pulse that permeates everything. I like hearing all the languages and accents of the international jet set that flocks here. I mostly enjoy the ever present trendy lounge music (when it is not too loud!). And heaven knows it’s fun to watch the constant parade of aspiring actors, models, touts, freaks, and all sort of other overly bronzed people. This places attracts many sorts of oddballs, and I hope many of them feel as happy here as I do.