Perfect Day in Ireland
On a lazy Saturday in County Cork, Ireland, we decided to do a Camino training day by walking 20 kilometers. After a half-hour morning dog walk (not part of the 20 km), we drove half an hour along the coast to hike the 14km Goortdubh Loop out of Goleen. The winding one-track road took us…
Turning a House-Sit into a Home
We come through the door timidly, respectfully. The host family welcomes us into Their Space, introduces us to Their Dogs, informs us of how to find and use Their Stuff. They are entrusting Their Precious Home (and animals) to us, their Trusted Housesitters, and in exchange for a free place to stay, our job at…
Paris and the Slow Movement Movement
Paris seems like an odd place to muse upon Going Slow. But a Joy of travel isn’t just seeing new places; it’s how they help you reflect and reshape your understanding of your own wacky ways and world. Slow is not my habitual gear. Whether on the soccer field or plowing through the endless Things…
Flavigny-sur-Ozerain: Medieval Magique
Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche fell in love here in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. Belle lamented that “there must be more than this provincial life” in a French town just like this. For one week at least, there was nothing to lament about this Peaceful medieval town. A few hours by fast train South-east of Paris, the long…
Iceland in 3 Days
What can we say about Iceland, or any country, after just three days? For our 25th anniversary we treated ourselves to a stopover in Iceland, just long enough to know that we want to come back for months, not days. A friend asked us for one word to describe Iceland – I’ve managed to winnow…
25th Wedding Anniversary
In celebration of our 25th anniversary, here’s something I wrote just 4 tender weeks into our union. Still every bit as enraptured 25 years later. This time four weeks ago i was a single man, camping with a growing number of close friends old and new along the paths of Mt. Ranier, preparing for a…
Help! Where should we go after Iceland?
As I’ve written before, choosing where to rest our heads when the whole world is our oyster can be difficult. So, we’re asking for your help – where should we go in November? Until then, we have a great itinerary. I’m writing this from the airport on our way to Iceland for 3 days of 25th anniversary celebration. …
3 Ways to Kill Time in Minnesota
Minnesota is a pretty swell place to spend a summer. After selling the house and hitting the road last October, we found ourselves back in the Twin Cities for the summer with the precious opportunity to be with Zekiah for his first professional internship (transportation planning with HR Green, which he rocked!) But at a…
Master Cleanse: Ten Days on the “Lemonade Diet”
After 4 days of Winnipeg Folk Fest, 200 miles of cycling home and a 10-day media cleanse, I was feeling free, clear, strong of body and spirit. It bubbled up in me that it’s time to do another Master Cleanse – the 10-day “lemonade diet” I “enjoyed” 18 years ago. Time to take back control…
Mexico City – the Most Magical of All
I have always been afraid of Mexico City and never wanted to visit. Just as my preconceived notions of Africa paralyzed me my first time there, I somehow envisioned “CDMX” to be a monstrously wide basin so smoggy that it’s dangerous to breathe, so teeming with druglords and pickpockets that leaving the hotel would be…
Mexican Magical City #2: Merida
After the food scarcity of Cuba, Mexican cuisine was an explosion of senses. From the phallic frivolity of street food like the photo above (filled with cream cheese and nutella), to the sophisticated fusion of traditional and modern cuisine of the Yucatan, our final two stops in Mexico were a constant culinary cacophony from market…
Mexico’s Magical Cities: Tekax
After the “boring” beaches of Bacalar, it was time for Ricky to get his small town fix. A deliciously long, slow local bus crawled us to the Mayan town of Tekax, supposedly one of Mexico’s “magical towns” that has been developed to showcase its unique beauty and culture for tourists. Beautiful and cultured it was…
Media Cleanse
Someone told me Trump was shot last week. It bubbled briefly through my bliss then floated away again, unperturbed, unexamined, unrelated to my reality. I’m on day 10 of an unplanned media cleanse. Just imagine: no emails, no New York Times daily digest and Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American”, no facebook, no netflix.…
Mexican Food Market
The photos I shared from the flower market for Mother’s Day only told half the story – the other side had a bounty of fresh, local, mostly-healthy foods, many of which I actually recognized. I haven’t yet found my writing mojo since landing back in Minnesota, but please enjoy another visual walk through this Mexican…
Beach Bummed in Bacalar
I’m bored. Lying under a palm tree beside the famous 7-coloured lagoon in Bacalar, Mexico, a few hours inland from Cancun. Sucking on the fresh slice of pineapple garnishing my virgin mojito, waiters in crisp white shirts conjuring fresh shrimp ceviche and fish tempura. Clear water just cool enough to be refreshing on this 90…
Mothers Day in a Mexican Flower Market
Mothers Day used to mean a walk down to Fleugers Nursery to buy a few pretty potted plants. But nothing in that annual ritual compares to a visit to Mercado Jamaica – the flower market in Mexico City that never sleeps (or at least, never closes). Now that I’ve finished my 3-part Cuba series (see…
Two Weeks in Havana
“Our time in Cuba was one of my favorites in all our years of travel,” declared my extremely well-traveled wife. The culture shock and sober analysis I shared in my last two posts were real, but the overwhelming experience of two weeks in Havana was WOW! Colonial Architecture Every day we jumped in a “collectivo”…
What Went Wrong in Cuba?
Disclaimer: Anything I might proclaim here about Cuba is incomplete, naive, and based on a dangerous combination of ignorance and idealism. I spent two short weeks in Cuba, only in a few neighbourhoods of Havana. My sources are a university graduate whom we paid twice to spend a few hours with us to answer our…
Cuba Culture Shock
I thought I was immune to culture shock. I have visited 41 countries (meaning I’ve slept, ate and talked to people there, not just a layover). I’ve been deported and refused entry from more countries than my mom knows. I’m 57 years wise as of last week. So my trepidation and disorientation upon arriving in…
Everyone is Special; No-one is Extraordinary
No-one can make you feel special like the Monteverde Friends Meeting. After 6 long years away, just walking into the beautiful timberframe meeting house elicits joyful smiles and “So glad you’re back!” waves from long-lost Friends. More surprised delight as more people trickle in. The enthusiastic but appropriately-muted murmurs of “Welcome” after we stand up…
Sweet Home, Monteverde
I think the first hug was from Rita. On that dry-season-dusty-green, oh-so-familiar corner at the base of the hill the boys and I climbed every day to school, outside La Colina Lodge where Greg and Amber used to host Hamburger Night, right by the favorite fencepost where the green-and-blue mot-mot would greet us every morning,…
La Fortuna, Costa Rica
Our overly-affectionate friends from Minnesota treated us to an overnight at La Fortuna at the base of Arenal volcano. The drive there through the rural, mountainous interior of Costa Rica was already worth the price of admission – an easy (3.5 hour, 70-mile, you do the math) drive from Monteverde – rent a 4×4! Our…
Narrowing Down “Anywhere in the World”
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? For most people, that’s either a dreamy party game or a one-shot, two-week opportunity to hit that beach or volcano or mardi gras. For us, it’s an ongoing question – making one selection does little to narrow down the options for the next…
When the Kids Come Home to Visit
How do we show love for our children after they leave the nest? One way is rolling out the red (or, in this case, green) carpet when they grace us with a visit. Yesterday morning, as Zekiah and three roommates were having a last swim at Tamarindo Beach then hopping a bus up the mountain…
Currently in...
Italia! Rick cycling in the Abruzzo Mountains, Sarah hiking in the Dolomites.
Heading to...
Siena & Genoa (Italy), Nice (France), then hiking the France-Spain "Camino" in October. Please share any sites, people or ideas by email.