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Switzerland: 6-Day Itinerary
DAY 1 Hiking, and “trotti” biking, and paragliding, oh my! This will likely come as no surprise to people, but Switzerland has got to be the most spectacular country. Giant craggy, snow capped mountains tower over bright green, rolling pastures, dotted with quaint farmhouses and small towns. Cowbells ring in surround-sound adding to the charm.
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Iceland- 9 Day Itinerary
DAY 1 “There’s the short hike that’s epic and there’s the long hike up the mountain over there that’s even more epic,” our guide Julian said When put like that, was it even a choice??? Said mountain towered over us, with a path that literally zigzagged straight up the ridge, that led to the peak
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Morocco: 10-Day Itinerary
DAY 1-3 It only took us 4 years and 9 months to finally get to Morocco after being derailed by Covid in Spring of 2020. The wait was worth it! After just over 24 hours of travel, we arrived in Marrakech and settled into our Riad (a traditional Moroccan home converted into a hotel) in
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Croatia- 11 Day itinerary
DAY 1-5: DUBROVNIK AND HVAR ISLAND The church bells toll at random times…8:25am one morning, 6:15pm and 7:52pm that evening, then 10am the next day. Kevin has a theory that for €20, anyone can pay to ring the bells and thus, the random nature of it all. I think that it just adds to the
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Portugal- 9 Day Itinerary
DAY 1-2 The first thing I like to do when I arrive in a new city is a bike tour. There’s something about the feel of the wind on my face, the sounds of local people on the streets going about their day, the smells (and yes, not all of them are good and that’s
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Copenhagen: 4-Day Itinerary
DAY 1-2 “28 degrees, but feels like 21” was the weather report for today. Obviously Fahrenheit and apparently considered a “sunny day” here despite the overcast skies. That didn’t stop these intrepid travelers from getting on bikes and seeing the sights of Copenhagen…. From the very underwhelming, but super famous Little Mermaid statue to the
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Komodo Islands, Indonesia
Fardin, our divemaster, frantically waved his arms, pointing excitedly in front of him as a huge dugong slowly swam by us. Definitely a rare sighting. Don’t know what a dugong is? You’re not alone! But in case you are wondering, it’s a huge, funny sausage-shaped marine mammal with a flat nose and no neck that’s
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Bali, Indonesia- 9 Day Itinerary
DAY 1-2 Ok.The irony is not lost on me that within 12 hours of launching my new travel blog, a site focused on getting OFF the beaten path, we found ourselves surrounded by monkeys in what is likely the most touristy spot in Ubud, the Monkey Forest. Here’s the thing…. I might want to avoid
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Vietnam- 12 Day Itinerary
Day 1-2: HANOI “Stick together like sticky rice” our guide, Tuan, coached the kids. This is a must strategy for crossing any street in the Old Quarter of Hanoi where there are 6 million mopeds for 9 million people and few, if any, stoplights or stop signs. It’s chaos. Lots of “beep beep beeps” as
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North Island, New Zealand (Waitomo, Rotorua, Mount Maunganui): 3-Day Itinerary
I have a crippling fear of heights, usually accompanied by crying that I am powerless to control. Despite this, I found myself looking down a 100-meter crevasse surrounded by moss-covered cliffs in the small town of Waitomo on the North Island during the aptly named Lost World Adventure. The task? Abseil down said 100 meters
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Bay of Islands, New Zealand
As we were diving: “Shark! Shark! I want to go back to the boat!!!” signed Michelle underwater after seeing what could have been a mako or great white shark. “She wants to lead the group into the cave????” Wondered the Divemaster. Having not dived in years, Michelle was a bit rusty with her underwater dive
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Galapagos (Land trip): 7 Days
Top 10 highlights from our week in the Galápagos Islands (in no particular order): 10 – Approachable wildlife. There are no big land predators, so the animals have no fear of humans. We could get ridiculously close without scaring the animals away. 9 – Panga rides, especially the one where we saw turtles, eagle rays,
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Otavalo, Ecuador
Jose Cotocachi got tears in his eyes when I showed him the three textiles of his that hang in a prominent place upstairs in our house. He said he was emotional because he hasn’t done some of the designs I have in a long time but was so happy to see his work displayed in
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Cuenca, Alausi, and Riobamba, Ecuador
Llamas, and Guinea pigs, and lambs, oh my! We started yesterday with an early departure from Cuenca via the Pan-American highway, which runs from Patagonia, in Argentina, all the way up to Alaska! The countryside is beautiful with bright green fields, snow-capped mountains, and very simple dwellings. Over thirty percent of the population here are
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Quito, Ecuador
Original time of departure: 7:35pm. Delayed. New time of departure: 8:30pm. Then 9pm. Board. Taxi. Stop for half an hour. Problem with the engine. Try to resolve THAT for a half hour. Go back to the gate to get mechanic……another hour…it’s now past 11pm. They can’t figure out the problem. Flight rescheduled for the next
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Amsterdam, Netherlands
Our European adventure ended today with our return home. The nice thing about an 11 hour flight is that it gave me time to put together my travel video for London and Amsterdam. Speaking of Amsterdam, what a cool city, even for only 22 hours. We stayed on a houseboat on one of the central
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England (London)
Day 1 and 2: It was a little bit of a culture shock going from Paris to London…..we had spent 8 days immersed in French culture, surrounded by French speakers, about half of which I understood, to being surrounded by people speaking English. It felt weird not to say “Bonjour!” or “merci” all the time.
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France (Paris)
Day 1-2 Note to self… do not arrive in Paris on the afternoon the Tour de France ends, esp when your apartment is in the area of all the road closures! Otherwise, you end up having to park and then walk, wheelies in tow, the 20 minutes to the place. Luckily, the driver took his
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Socorro Islands Diving: 7 days
We’ve been back on solid ground for a few days after 8 days aboard the Belle Amie scuba diving in the Socorro Islands. What an adventure! It started with a hurricane passing right over the islands on our day of departure. After a delay of 12 hours, the captain finally deemed the seas “okay enough
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Kauai, Hawaii: 7-Day Itinerary
Day 1-3: It’s amazing how much you can cram into a day while in Kauai. We’ve only been here two and a half days and already we’ve boogie-boarded three times, drove ATVs in the wilderness on a ranch, took a surf lesson, and did a 3 1/2 mile hike around Waimea Canyon. Truly spectacular! I’ll
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British Virgin Islands, The Caribbean
Happy New Year! We brought in 2022 in my happy place… traveling internationally with family and underwater. We got home late Tuesday night after spending 8 days with my in-laws on a catamaran in the British Virgin Islands… a trip that has been on my father-in-law’s bucket list for a long time. The week flew
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Galapagos Islands (Diving): 7 Days
For a year that was expected to have little, if any, travel, I’ve somehow managed to go on three big trips for which I am truly grateful. We just got back from a week spent scuba diving in the Galápagos Islands, with our friends, Emily and Jeff. For someone who loves both marine biology and
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Grand Turk Island, The Caribbean
It’s a tradition after 8th grade to go on a trip with mom. I rafted the Grand Canyon with Josh and I just got back from a week with Tyler scuba diving on the island of Grand Turk. I wasn’t going to post seeing as this certainly wasn’t “essential” travel, but these videos are my
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Athens and Greek Islands
Thousands of years old, a cruise ship, and 39 friends. That was our trip in a nutshell: a whirlwind visit to a really interesting country with an amazing group of people…all to celebrate our friend Patty’s 70th birthday. Here are the highlights, including my travel video -Walking the old marble pedestrian streets in the Plaka
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Grand Canyon, USA
It’s been two days since Josh and I returned from a week of rafting the Grand Canyon. While it’s been glorious being able to shower in water warmer than 52 degrees and use a flushing toilet instead of a bucket, it’s been an adjustment being back in the connected world after 6 days without cell
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South Island, New Zealand
I bungee jumped…. twice! Yes, you read that right. Debra, who is terrified of heights and has cried through more than one high ropes course, actually bungee jumped tandem with Josh (then returned to jump with Sydney three days later!) It was scary, but exhilarating…..way less scary overall than doing a high ropes course for
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Fiji
Day 1-3 Bula from Fiji! Bula is the Fijian greeting for “hello” or “welcome”. Everywhere we go, we are met with a friendly smile and a huge “BULA!!” As promised, here’s the first video from our time at Castaway Island in Fiji. See my previous post from this morning for most of the details…. our