Hoodoo You Love

Wednesday morning in Moab we grabbed bagel sandwiches at Red Rock Bakery and then made the short drive back to Arches National Park. Our first hike was the Windows Trail, where we visited the North Window, South Window, and Turret Arch. We continued on the Windows Primitive Loop, which gives a great reverse view of […]

Arches

Back in September, I received a text from Cynthia, an old friend and member from my days at The Wildlife Society. She invited me to join her in a VIP suite for the Las Vegas Raiders (still tough saying that) vs. Cleveland Browns game. After running it by Jane, I called Cynthia and happily accepted […]

Trains, Birthday, and Castles

After our experience the previous weekend with unreserved seats on the train from Vienna to Salzburg, we decided to reserve seats for our Innsbruck to Munich ride. It was another weekend trip, and more importantly, it was Jane’s birthday, so we couldn’t risk an inconvenient train ride. Well, that was the plan at least. About […]

Ski Jumping to Alpine Views

We arrived in Innsbruck, Austria on Wednesday around 1:30 in the afternoon. It was a short walk from the train station to the AC Hotel. After dropping off our luggage, we set out to explore the town using a self-guided app that Jane had downloaded. The old town center has some beautiful buildings. Since it […]

Rock Me Amadeus

Salzburg translates to “salt fortress,” and it’s also known as the city of Mozart, as in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This dude rocks (more on that later). After a wonderful stay in Vienna (if you haven’t read Jane’s brilliant post, please do so), we took the 11:30 train from Vienna to Salzburg. Much to our surprise, the train […]

Vienna Waits for You

Forty-four years. That’s how long it has been since I last set foot in Vienna, the city that transformed me during my study abroad semester in spring 1981. This weekend, IES (Institute of European Studies) Vienna is celebrating its 75th anniversary, and three of my college girlfriends and I had planned to reunite here. Due […]

Prague: A Quick Return

Jane and I first visited Prague in November 2019, remember way back then, before we’d ever heard of Covid-19? Since we didn’t need to be in Vienna until Wednesday evening, we decided to fly from London to Prague on Monday for a quick 48-hour visit. Our flight arrived around 2:00 p.m., and we took an […]

Getting the Boot in Curacao

Lela, Jane, and I just spent six wonderful days in Curacao. It was sort of a last minute trip. Lela’s fiancée Avery wasn’t able to join us as he already had plans to visit friends in Seattle and Los Angeles. I guess I should mention that Lela is now 75% of a doctor. Last Friday […]

Top Ten and Next Ten

It has been three weeks since we returned from our ten-week journey. We came back to celebrate the wedding of our niece, Codie, and her husband, Alex. It was a wonderful occasion filled with love, joy, and time well spent with family. We had so many incredible experiences on this trip. Here are our top […]

Mother City

Cape Town is called the Mother City because it was the site of the first European settlement in South Africa. We’ve just spent an amazing five days here—coincidentally, the longest we’ve stayed in any one location on this entire journey. Thursday: History and Culture After a delicious breakfast at our hotel, we visited the District […]

Travel Days

Monday through Wednesday were travel days. We started Monday on the island of La Digue in the Seychelles, spending the morning by the pool at Les Cabanes Des Anges Guest House. At 12:30, we walked over to the ferry. Our ferry from La Digue made a stop in Praslin before continuing to Mahé, where we […]

Anniversary in Seychelles

For those that are geographically challenged, the Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands located in the Indian Ocean, off the eastern coast of Africa. It lies northeast of Madagascar and is 1000 miles east of mainland Africa, roughly parallel with Kenya and Tanzania. It is also the smallest country in Africa, with a population […]

New Flower

It is Sunday evening in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and we are watching the Aston Villa vs. West Ham Premier League match. The Commanders vs. Eagles game starts at 11:00 pm tonight. Now that Dan Snyder no longer owns the Commanders, I’m rooting for them. Now back to travel. We arrived in Addis Ababa at 1:30 […]

Radha Radha

As we prepare to leave India tomorrow, it feels fitting to say Radha Radha. In Sanskrit, the word Radha signifies prosperity, success, perfection, and wealth. It is also commonly used as a greeting for both hello and goodbye. During our morning bike ride last week in Jaipur, locals greeted us multiple times with Radha Radha, […]

Midnight Train to Varanasi

After our cooking class on Wednesday night, we had a couple of hours to kill before boarding the bus to take us to the Jhansi Train Station. Our group spent the time chatting in the courtyard of the Hotel Ganpati and strolling through Orchha one last time. This is the first tour Jane and I […]

Kama Sutra

We woke up Monday morning to no water at Alipura Royal Palace. The culprit? Monkeys had attacked the waterline overnight, rupturing it. While it was eventually repaired, I couldn’t manage a hot shower. After breakfast, we boarded a bus for a 90-minute ride to Khajuraho. Khajuraho is home to a remarkable collection of temples. The […]

Taj Mahal

It’s Sunday morning, and we’ve just departed Agra on a train bound for Jhansi. The train, originally scheduled to leave at 7:50 AM, was delayed by fog and didn’t leave the station until 9:15. Ahead of us is a three-hour journey. Fun Fact: According to Manu, our tour guide, 20 million people take 15,000 trains […]

Let’s Go For a Bike Ride

We woke up early Thursday morning at 5:30 AM for a 6:00 AM pickup to start our bicycle ride through the dark, quiet streets of Jaipur. Our first stop was to feed cows—a beautiful experience. We then cycled to the Palace of Winds, where we enjoyed taking photos without any distractions, as the streets were […]

Amber Palace

We departed Delhi at 6:30 AM on Tuesday to beat the city’s notoriously congested traffic. Our ride, a comfortable 21-seat bus, accommodated our group of 13 with plenty of space. The driver even has an assistant and they both sit in a glass-enclosed cockpit. Our first stop, 90 minutes into the drive, was at a […]

Stunning Dentistry

After a five hour flight from Singapore, we arrived in Delhi on Sunday morning. The Singapore Airport is amazing and surprisingly, even at midnight, most of the stores were open (though we didn’t go shopping). We spent a few hours at the Kris Lounge until our flight departed. Jane managed to nap on one of […]

Swinging in Bali

We arrived in Bali on Wednesday evening and took a Grab to The Westin Resort Nusa Dua. Upon check-in, we were thrilled to be upgraded to a spacious three-room, two-bath suite. With the extra bathroom available, I decided to make good use of it and hand-wash some laundry. On Thursday, we embraced the slow pace […]

Random thoughts & observations

We are half-way through our ten week adventure and here are some random thoughts and observations (some are likely pretty obvious): Australia was great but New Zealand, specifically the South Island is amazing. It has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. If you haven’t visited, it’s a MUST! When planning […]

Gold Coast & Brisbane

We arrived on the Gold Coast on Friday and checked into the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort. Over our three days at the Sheraton, we spent most of our time lounging by the pool. On Friday night, we had dinner across the street at Yot Deck (we loved the name). The guy playing acoustic guitar and […]

Cruising Sydney Harbour

Hello from the Blue Mountains, Australia. If you haven’t heard of the Blue Mountains, don’t worry—I hadn’t either until we started planning this journey. Right now, we are having beers at the Mountain Culture Beer Company in Katoomba. We arrived in Sydney on Wednesday evening and checked into Ovolo Woolloomooloo, a Small Luxury Hotel where […]

Green & Clean

We are sitting in Queenstown Airport, waiting for our flight to Melbourne. This was Jane’s second visit to New Zealand and my first trip to this stunning country. New Zealand is green, clean, and breathtakingly beautiful. The lushness of the landscape is hard to describe. Mountains and valleys are filled with trees, wild flowers (lupins), […]

Starry Night & Aoraki/Mt Cook

Over the past 50+ years, I’ve had the privilege of traveling around the world, and when asked about my favorite countries, I always mention New Zealand and Thailand. This year, I was fortunate enough to visit both of them for the second time, bringing Darryl along for his first visit to both. Neither country disappointed, […]

Garden City

Not to be confused with New Jersey which claims the title “Garden State,” Christchurch rightfully earns the moniker “Garden City.” Christchurch has endured significant challenges over the past 14 years. The city was struck by major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The 2011 earthquake was particularly devastating, claiming 185 lives and damaging 70% of the […]

Redwood Forest

I’ve officially passed my initiation and can now call myself a seasoned left-side-of-the-road driver! I managed dozens of roundabouts and left-hand turns without too much trouble. The trickiest part was remembering to get into the car on the right side. Of course, Jane often followed my lead and tried to get in on the wrong […]

Glowworms

We started the day by renting a car—Darryl’s first experience driving with the steering wheel on the opposite side and navigating on the left. Surprisingly, it was a smooth transition. The 2.5-hour drive took us through lush, green rolling pastures and mountains dotted with sheep, cows, and horses. Our first impression of New Zealand is […]

Start of Something Big

Kia ora (hello) from Auckland, New Zealand. This is the start of an incredible journey as we embark on a ten-week circumnavigation of the globe. Along the way, we’ll be exploring New Zealand, Australia, Bali, India, the Seychelles, and South Africa. A Little Background on This Adventure We’ve been discussing this trip for years, and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

That’s quite a soufflé

We arrived in Vang Vieng via high-speed train from Luang Prabang to beautiful mountain views. The shared tuk-tuk dropped all 12 of us in the town and said “everyone get out here” so we walked to the hotel. This town in different – it has a quirky, small town western US vibe with a ton […]

Backpacking then…and now

In January 1991, I left on a solo six-month adventure “around the world.” It was going to be one year but the company I worked for at the time said they’d hold my job for 6 months so I shortened the trip and then it was really a “half way around the world” trip to […]

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 […]

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 […]