Back at it – Summer 2021
We’ve not really even started yet – still waiting for the rest of our family to join us. But we’re back at it, experiencing the world one campground, one national park, and… Read More
Alaska – An Epic Loop to the Arctic Circle
He was our neighbor for six days in Fairbanks and we spoke every morning and evening, but I knew nearly nothing about the man; nothing except that our dog, who usually barks… Read More
Japan – Coloring Inside the Lines
Contrasted with the sweat and strain of Southeast Asia, we found Japan a nation of sublime balance where strife and urgency are juxtaposed against natural beauty and human aesthetics. We arrived in the… Read More
Prague – Eternally Beautiful
They say that Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but we arrived at night so had to wait until morning for proof. Our train from Budapest to… Read More
Budapest – Where Everyone is a Local
Hungary has been free from the Soviet puppet show for 25 years, but my formative years were in the midst of the Cold War. It was the Eighties with Reagan in office… Read More
Vienna – We See the Fall
It was late October and we hadn’t yet experienced cool autumn weather. Other than our time in Iceland, most of the weather had been warm or hot. We really wanted sweater weather,… Read More
Croatia – A Leap of Faith
Leaving the town of Split in broad daylight was a lot easier then entering it in the dark. We decided to skip seeing Diocletian’s Palace as most of the reviews compared its… Read More
Croatia – An Illyrian Garden
Croatia was a tabula rasa for me. I knew it was part of the former Yugoslavia and that it inhabited a long stretch of beachfront along the Adriatic, which I imagined was… Read More
Venice – The Papal Blessing
We spent quite a bit of time debating whether to skip Venice in favor of somewhere less touristy. Surprising perhaps given the city’s rich history, sheer beauty and standing in the world of… Read More
Switzerland – Wanderwege und Bahnhöfen
BRITTANY TO BASEL…BARELY There should be a Nobel Prize offered for travel coordination. After all, the underlying mechanics are complicated – factoring in distances, speed, language proficiency, transfers, pick-ups and drop-offs, petrol… Read More
France – Normandy & Brittany
ESCAPE FROM PARIS After picking up our rental car at Gare du Nord and navigating a mid-size station wagon out of a compact size parking spot and up an economy size ramp,… Read More
England – London Eye & Mad Eye
The high-speed train from Edinburgh to London’s Kings Cross station was uneventful and put us at our hotel by late afternoon, which meant we’d begin our city exploration the following day. In the… Read More
Scotland – Nessie, Whisky & Naughty Zoot
Our journey was from Portree to Inverness, which has about 60,000 residents and is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe. The route was only about 160 miles but would take… Read More
Scotland – Castles & Lochs
Our travel day from Reykjavik to Glasgow was spent packing, walking, riding, flying, driving and surviving customs and queues, bad GPS and miscellaneous frustrations. It didn’t help anyone’s mood that we woke so… Read More
Iceland – The Wild Finish
Technically it was still summer, August 28th, and the sky harbored a bright and shiny sun. But the air smelled like fall. The hosts at the Hildibrand Hotel had set us up with… Read More
Iceland – Flirting with the Arctic Circle
It was Monday, August 25th, and the weather was blustery and dark with powerful wind gusts that climbed the bluffs and pounded our car. Even the short 50 meter walk to breakfast… Read More
Iceland – The Western Fjords
The rental car shuttle bus that was supposed to pick me up at 9:00a was a no-show, and I stood outside while Angela and the boys left for, enjoyed and then returned from… Read More
California – Ferns, Fires and the Golden Gate
We wanted our final stop to position us for a short drive to Half Moon Bay, our temporary “home” south of San Francisco, and keep us close to the Redwood National & State Parks. Luckily we… Read More
Road – Boise to Vancouver
It was a long driving day from Boise, Idaho to Vancouver, Washington (just north of Portland, Oregon). We stopped only briefly in Baker City in eastern Oregon for fuel and lunch, and… Read More
Jackson to Boise … Sideways a Little
As much as we enjoyed Wyoming, it was time to keep moving toward the Bay Area so that we could coordinate the next leg of our travels. Near Idaho Falls we stopped at Frontier… Read More