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Back from Break

Back from Break: Bears players on how they spent summer vacation | Story by Gabby Hajduk

The Bears reported to Halas Hall for training camp Tuesday morning, the group energized for their first camp under coach Ben Johnson and his staff. Before the team steps back on the practice field, ChicagoBears.com spoke with five players — Kevin Byard III, Kyler Gordon, DJ Moore, Cairo Santos and Olamide Zaccheaus about how they spent their summers breaks recharging with family and friends.

Kevin Byard III takes on dad duty

As a 10th-year pro, Kevin Byard III has experienced plenty of offseason adventures, but being on "dad duty" made this summer his favorite break yet.

"We traveled just a little bit — we took our kids down to Alys Beach twice, which was really fun," Byard said. "But other than that, full-time daddy duties. I mean, summer camps in the morning, swim lessons in the afternoon. My daughter did horseback riding this summer, which was really fun, really cool to see her do that. And my son was playing basketball. Then we also have a 1-year-old that's just running the house."

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Byard's three children — 5-year-old Eliana, 4-year-old Kevin and 1-year old Amari — had him on a strict schedule. Between his two sons, one of them would be up by 6:30 a.m. every day no matter what, Kevin asking for cereal or Amari crying for a bottle.

He and his wife, Clarke, would then get Eliana and Kevin ready for morning camps before Byard dropped them off and went to train for a few hours. At 1 p.m. the kids would have swimming lessons at the house and on some evenings, Kevin would have basketball while Eliana went horseback riding.

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Watching his kids in their element, growing and learning new things, was well worth the busy schedule.

Eliana gravitated toward horseback riding after Byard and his family took a vacation to Blackberry Farms in Tennessee. While Eliana, who was three years old at the time, was supposed to ride a pony, she wanted to be on the "big horse."

"She got on the big horse, and my daughter, her attention span, she's all over the place, but when she got on this horse, my wife and I said this is the first time we've seen our daughter really have a certain level of calmness in her spirits," Byard.

Byard and Clarke also fit in some date nights together, their favorite being a staycation weekend in Franklin, Tennessee, to celebrate their anniversary.

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Now, Byard is back in Chicago and eager to be back on the field, but experiencing such quality family time made it difficult for him to head out of Nashville.

"I honestly think this is probably my favorite offseason that I've had," Byard said. "We've had offseasons where we traveled to a bunch of different places, which is obviously cool, but it was just very awesome to see my kids. This offseason was more about them — taking them down to the beach, just watching the joy of them running around in the sand, playing in the water.

"So just spending a bunch of time with the kids and the family because once the season starts, I'm locked in. They'll meet me up here in the middle of training camp, but it was even sad to leave."

Kyler Gordon embraces the fashion scene

Kyler Gordon may be one of the most well-traveled players on the Bears after this break, creating his own European summer with trips to the South of France, Milan and Paris.

From the Cannes Film Festival to Monaco for a boat day in the Mediterranean, Gordon soaked up the South of France, which he considered the highlight of his summer.

"Just the fact that every day I could really just eat pasta, pizza, pastries, steak and fish as much as I wanted without feeling bad," Gordon said. "Everything I had every day was insane. The water was beautiful. It's just the way you feel being there, it just feels really good."

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While in France, Gordon spent time training at the same facility where the USA Olympic teams trained.

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Gordon then attended both Milan Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week, watching different shows, meeting various designers and connecting with the fashion community.

The weeks were very different vibes in Gordon's perspective, with Milan being a slower-paced environment featuring more niche fashion, while Paris was more fast-paced with designers and models trying new, unique approaches to their shows.

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Fashion has become a passion for Gordon, who enjoys working with different designers and educating himself on the industry. In Milan, he met with Brioni, an Italian menswear luxury fashion house that created a custom suit for him for his trip to Cannes. He also created a relationship with French leather maker, Berluti.

"I like learning and just knowing what I'm putting on my body," Gordon said. "Getting to know the time and effort, or even just the designer or the story behind how they make it is really intriguing. It's cool to bond with the brands that you feel like you can relate to. It makes you look at the clothes differently, honestly.

"I'm not someone that does photography, but I like the art of making photography. I really enjoy being able to put on the clothes and tell the story of the clothes, so doing the photo shoots and creating the story around the picture. I really enjoy the art of photography."

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DJ Moore goes to Disney World

DJ Moore spent his summer break, which he described as "amazing," enjoying family time both in Chicago and at the most magical place on Earth.

Moore and his wife, Raven, took their three kids — Ari, Bubba and Chi — on a flight to Disney World in June and spent several days exploring all of the parks, including Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

"It was great to spend time with the fam," Moore said. "Of course, we had to go to Disney. Had some good eats every day, did a VIP tour which was cool, rode a lot of rides. We had a wonderful summer break."

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The Slinky Dog ride was a definite favorite for Moore, even though Bubba couldn't ride because he was too short, even on his tiptoes. Moore said Ari had a blast dressing up and shopping, using her own gift cards to pick out her own outfits.

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After their Disney trip, Moore and his family laid low the rest of the summer, taking advantage of some down time to relax at home and visit some some family and friends to celebrate their own milestones.

"We spent time at the house hanging out, got in the pool, had Bubba's birthday party," Moore said. "Went to a wedding and a baby shower. It was just all family time, which made for a really incredible summer."

Cairo Santos hits the road

If Cairo Santos could title his summer vacation, it would be "Core Memories."

Centering his break around his wife, Inara, and two kids, 4-and-a-half-year-old Daniel and 3-year-old Alice, Santos enjoyed a summer full of new adventures and memories.

Before Santos settled into his newly built home in Florida, he went on an unexpected road trip.

With his two favorite soccer teams — Flamengo and Chelsea — set to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup June 20, Santos had a flight booked to Philadelphia for the match, but the night before, he found out that his 6 a.m. flight would be canceled due to weather concerns.

"My two teams were about to play each other, so I had to make that trip at all costs and due to some travel changes and cancellations, I was left with the only option of driving. I thank my wife and two of my Brazilian friends from Jacksonville for joining me on the insane 12-hour car ride."

The group drove through the night and made it to the stadium two hours before the match started, giving Santos plenty of time to meet some of the Chelsea team, hop on a British TV broadcast and exchange jerseys with Flamengo star Leo Ortiz.

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Being fans of both teams was a challenging yet exciting experience for Santos. He's been a Flamengo fan since he started kicking a ball as a kid in Brazil, but has followed Chelsea for over 20 years now. Santos believes Flamengo "played the best match I've ever seen them play," which led them to beating Chelsea, who later went on to win the World Cup, allowing Santos to experience the best of both worlds.

As soon as the match concluded, Santos, his wife and friends had dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse and made the 12-hour trek home.

"It was definitely tiring, but I would do it again for something that I was very passionate about," Santos said. "It's cool to be a fan when I'm usually the player in my world. I'm sure there's plenty of Bears fans that come from all over, like we go play in L.A. or Vegas and half the stadium is Bears fans. So it's really cool to be on the other side and just feeling that passion that I see from our fans."

Back home in Florida, Santos and Inara spent the rest of the summer soaking in quality time with Daniel and Alice.

Now having a pool in their backyard, one of Santos' favorite memories was teaching Daniel and Alice how to swim. Watching them unlock a passion for swimming over the course of a few weeks was a "special experience" for Santos.

Daniel also took a liking to fishing over the past year and polished his skills with his dad over the summer, learning how to cast bait, take a fish off the hook and now, catch fish.

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Being able to share his hobbies, like fishing and golfing, with his son has created immense joy for Santos.

"A lot of core memories were built that I'll always remember, from the game to when the kids first swam to when my son caught his first bass, his first catfish," Santos said.

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Olamide Zaccheaus explores Europe

Once the Bears offseason program concluded in early June, Zaccheaus jetted off to Europe for a 10-day trip. He spent the first three days in London, which marked his first time experiencing the city just for fun rather than for a football game.

"Just being able to explore a new city, see the culture and the different monuments was great," Zaccheaus said. "There were a lot of great people out there too."

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The veteran receiver spent the next seven days in Barcelona, soaking in a completely different culture, way of life and environment. Zaccheaus was particularly enamored with the city's beautiful weather, beaches and historic architecture.

"Barcelona was amazing," Zaccheaus said. "I got to work on my Spanish a little bit, did some good sightseeing, just seeing the cathedrals like Casa Bastilla or Sagrada Familia, which was my favorite. That was the main thing I wanted to see, and just being able to take pictures out in front of it, learn about the history of it was incredible. That was the highlight for me."

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Zaccheaus spent the rest of the summer back in Atlanta where he typically trains in the offseason, while also taking a trip to Nashville over Fourth of July weekend for a friend's wedding.

Between training and seeing friends and family, Zaccheaus also spent plenty of time at the park with his dog, Swiper, who he adopted in 2020.

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His final adventure of the summer was buying an impromptu ticket to one of Beyonce's shows in Atlanta. As a member of the Beyhive, Zaccheaus loved hearing songs from the Cowboy Carter album live and singing along to his all-time favorite Beyonce song, Irreplaceable.

"She's a great performer, great artist," Zaccheaus said. "It was a great time. When she went up in the air on the golden horse, I had a perfect spot, like she was right here. I tried to grab the horse, but she rode away and she never came back. It was a cool show and it was cool to see how she brought the city together."

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