3634 Miles

After three weeks on our road trip, we are home. We traveled 3,634 miles and we visited Asheville, Nashville, Memphis, Clarksdale, Natchez, New Orleans, Panama City, and Sarasota. This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending a family weeding in Sarasota. The entire weekend was wonderful and the wedding was a beautiful event. We […]

Jazz Fest

In 1994, Jane and I, along with our friends Karen and Jeff, attended our first New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In the past thirty years, I have lost an exact count of the number of Jazz Fest’s that I have attended, but I believe it is somewhere in the 16-20 range. In the past, […]

Country and Blues

We heard plenty of country music in Nashville but our preference are the blues, which we got plenty of in Memphis and Clarksdale, MS. Even though we were in Nashville, we did not attend a bachelorette party or hang with Vanderbilt fraternity boys. That said, we did spend time on Broadway and sampled many honky-tonks […]

Road Trip

After spending an amazing six weeks in Asia, we returned home … for ten days. We left this past Monday for our next adventure. We are currently on a 3-week road trip to Asheville, Nashville, Memphis, Clarksdale MS, New Orleans for the first weekend of Jazz Fest, and Sarasota for a wedding. We spent much […]

Remembering my Father

Today marks 40 years since my father lost his battle to cancer, that is two thirds of my life (crazy to think about it in those terms). Life moves on, but what I would give to have him around over the last four decades. When we were kids, my parents bought a 23 foot Terry […]

Great Walls

Soon after waking up this morning in Beijing, we turned on the tv and heard the news of the earthquake in Taiwan. Considering we were there just four days ago, this hit close to home. Our thoughts are with everyone in Taiwan. Late Sunday afternoon, we arrived in Beijing. With a reference from a good […]

Birthday in Taipei

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about Taipei, Taiwan before we got here. Sure, I am aware of the conflict China has with Taiwan (mostly from watching stories on 60 Minutes), but I didn’t know much about the history of this island nation. With its vibrant economy, Taipei is a wonderful place to visit. […]

Custom-Made Tuxedo

Sitting in Da Nang Airport as we wait for our flight to Taipei. We have spent twelve wonderful days in Vietnam with the last four nights staying at the Renaissance Hoi An Resort, where our suite had a beautiful view of the South China Sea. The beach and water were perfect. Hoi An has an […]

On the Train

We just got on the train at the French inspired design Hue Rail Station going to Da Nang. We are sitting in a VIP Sleeper berth as Jane booked these tickets through 12Go.Asia (highly recommend the site) and regular seats weren’t available. Not a big deal because the cost for the VIP Sleeper berth is […]

China Beach

Welcome to My Khe Beach, also known as China Beach. China Beach was a place of rest and relaxing for American servicemen at the start of the Vietnam War. It is also the site where the television series China Beach took place. My Khe Beach is in Da Nang, which is central Vietnam. We flew […]

When Is an Upgrade Not an Upgrade

We started planning this trip in December booking flights and accommodations. In January, we reviewed some of our accommodations and decided to upgrade places we were staying in Luang Prabang and Hanoi. In Luang Prabang we switched to a place that was out of town. Sure it was only 15 minutes out of town and […]

It’s Nice to be Back

Sure it’s noisy, chaotic, busy, congested, and has some weird smells, but Hanoi is an amazing city and it’s nice to be back. This is our second time in Hanoi, we were first here in January 2019 with our kids. Hanoi oozes energy, and during the weekend it feels like all 8.5 million people of […]

Temporary SE Asia Correspondent

We arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos five days ago. This is the first time either of us have been to Laos. The currency in Laos is called Kip —100,000 Kip is USD$4.79. Yes, you read that correctly, 100,000 Kip is less than five bucks. This makes for interesting ATM withdrawals as the limit is 2 […]

Second Cities

This past October we spent nearly a month in Portugal visiting Porto, Lisbon, Douro Valley, and The Algarve. This was our second time in Lisbon; we were first there with our kids in 2012. It was our first visit to Porto, the second city of Portugal, and we fell in love with the city. Now, […]

Relax

For some of us of a certain age, when I hear the word relax, it takes me back to college and the band, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Now it will have an additional meaning for me as we just spent the last couple of days at the Phi Phi Relax Beach Resort. Since my last […]

American Ramble

Welcome to the Andaman Sea. I’ll admit it, I never heard of until earlier today when we arrived in Krabi. We got here today by first taking a 40 minute taxi ride from our hotel to the Koh Samui ferry terminal. Upon arrival at the ferry terminal, we were delayed getting our boarding passes since […]

A Pool and a Pond

The sun just set in Koh Samui and the third day of our stay will be coming to an end tomorrow morning as we are taking a ferry to Krabi. We arrived here Sunday around noon and checked into our boutique hotel, The Privilege Hotel Ezra Beach Club. The hotel is located in Ban Bang […]

Makha Bucha Day

We woke up early this morning as we have a 10:15 flight to Ko Samui. We will be spending the next week at a few Thai islands Yesterday was Makha Bucha Day, an important day in the Buddhist calendar. In observance of Thai law and custom, the National Alcoholic Beverage Policy Committee issued a notification […]

Wat a Day

Back at the hotel after spending most of our first full day in Bangkok visiting different Wats (Buddhist temples). Our first stop was the Grand Palace, the official residents of the Kings of Siam (now Thailand) since 1782. Over 8 million people visit the Grand Palace annually and the complex’s contains numerous gardens and buildings […]

Let’s Take a Walk

We spent some time on our feet yesterday. After another delicious breakfast at our hotel, we went directly across the street to Kowloon Park. One of the features of the park is the Hong Kong Avenue of Comic Stars. There are sculptures of various cartoon figures (out hotel is the building in the center of […]

Our First Day

We just completed our first 24 hours in Hong Kong. We arrived just after 7:00 pm local time last night and after spending 75 minutes to clear immigration we found the Uber pick up area and we soon arrived at The Mira Hong Kong Hotel. After checking into the hotel we took a walk along […]

Halfway to Hong Kong

We are off on our Asian adventure. We arrived in San Francisco last night after spending the day in Alexandria as we celebrated the first birthday of our grand nephew, Charlie. We upgraded our seats to United Polaris. For a sixteen hour flight, it was a good use of cash and points as the flatbed […]

Hello World!

This is our first trip that we are documenting on this platform. We will be visiting Hong Kong, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Taiwan. We have been planning this trip for the past few months. This is the longest trip we have taking together in our 31 years of marriage. Longest in terms of distance and […]