I am a mixture of a stable father and an aspiring adventurer with a deep seeded need to travel. My master plan was never to sell my soul to corporate America, but rent it for enough to provide for my family and my future. Now, my youngest daughter is attending college while my oldest son is set up for success with a great job, house, fiance’ and 2 fur babies. The next phase of my life has now begun in earnest. I love it when a plan comes together! (P.S. Thanks Steve for the amazing cover shot of me)
Corporate Life
I have worked for two (and only two) aerospace companies since graduating from Ohio State with a BS in physics. I like to think I’m smart, and all my friends will agree that I am nerdy. I understand the need for travel and adventure to escape and recharge. I also have some ideas on data visualization that I am totally geeked out about. Luckily for you all, Jenn is around to take the rough edges off.
Family Life
The necessity of resources dictated that I intermix my family adventures with my own personal escapades. The kids have done everything from backpacking Havasu Falls, technical caving trips deep underground, and stomping around Costa Rica. Between family trips, Girl Scout trips, Boy Scout trips, and school outings I have seen it all. These experiences helped create our tagline – Amazing Adventures for Ordinary People. Anybody can have an adventure that takes you out of your comfort zone and into the growth zone.
BRIEF TRAVELOGUE
The first trip I can remember was a family road trip from Auburn Alabama to Toronto Canada in the pickup truck my father camperized. I will not confirm or deny if I am a hick, lol. We even spent July 4 in DC for the bicentennial celebration. That one trip has shaped my life in so many ways. It was my first cave trip and first international trip.
From that trip, I still have a deep desire to live in a motorized vehicle and I keep looking for the triceratops that used to be outside of Smithsonian Natural History. (Any clues?). I went on to be an exchange student in France and traveled quite a bit with my mother’s consulting gig, but I never forget that first big trip.
I graduated from college with a wife and child so there was never a prolonged period of vagabonding for me. We packed everything we owned (kid, cat, and dog) into a minivan and moved to Seattle with no job, relatives, or even plan other than I wanted to travel and escape Ohio. Between Boeing and Microsoft somebody should hire a physicist in Seattle. It turned out to be Hughes in Tucson, and the rest is history. I almost met Jenn on that trip. She was working at the REI and I was working at the Future Shop next door in the Lynnwood Mall. It wasn’t our time and I certainly wasn’t ready for it, but still, the love of my life was that close and I never knew it.
A corporate job does offer travel opportunities. Business trips to Europe, caving expeditions to Belize, camping, and of course Disneyland. Tucson was a pretty cool town too, with lots of great hiking. I was a dang good caver, a competent mountain biker, and aggressive hiker. I enjoyed the hell out of my life in Tucson. After eighteen years I was ready to move on to my life with Jenn. My story became our story and I am loving every day.
Fun Ed Facts
- I was a competitive figure skater
- I hiked the rim-rim-rim day hike in the Grand Canyon
- I slept overnight in a cave in the Belizean rain forest
- Honey Badger is my spirit animal and honey badger don’t care
- I was an ostrich farmer during my senior year of college
- Physics taught me I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was
- My first time to Catalina Island I paddled there with Jenn
- My pickup line for Jenn was that I was the most adventurous nerd she would ever meet 😉
Hi! We are Jenn and Ed Coleman, and together we are Coleman Concierge. It is our goal to inspire you to get out, expand your world, and to seek adventure, even in your own backyard.
