Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Art Nouveau-designed Ålesund, Norway, reinvented and rebuilt its wooden-structured self after a devastating fire swept through the town in 1904. Romantic-looking pastel-painted buildings topped with turrets and towers line the harbor and are sprinkled throughout the city center. Stone and brick structures with decorative tile roofs call out … Read More
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince Herb and I first met our German son-in-law’s parents about eight years ago. They were visiting California for the first time, and we had driven to Los Angeles to meet … Read More
Mary Oldenburg. Growing up, I didn’t really care much for my last name. It was long, compared with my friends’ names, and sometimes I would get teased about being old. And it had that “u” in the last syllable, which most people assumed was spelled with an “e,” requiring an explanation or a correction that … Read More
“It was June and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.” ~Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Tib A few months ago, our son Andrew emailed an article about Hamburg titled “The Cool City that German Tourists Keep for Themselves.” Ever since spending time in Germany’s second largest … Read More
Berlin and I have had a rather fleeting relationship. I first met Germany’s capital city nine Junes ago on what could arguably be called a “Berlin in a Day” tour. Herb and I had been traveling on a Baltic cruise that stopped for about twelve hours in Germany’s port of Warnemünde. We’d signed on for … Read More
“Who knows what Romance, what Adventure, what Love, is lurking around the next turn of the road, ready to leap out on us if we’ll only travel that far.” ~Jack London, The Road I almost waited until we were on the plane before publishing this. It isn’t that I’m a superstitious soul, but after two … Read More
“What would you like to do for Mother’s Day?” my LA-based son was asking over the phone last week. Our entire family had been together in San Diego in April, which was the best Mother’s Day I could have asked for – never mind that it wasn’t the exact date to celebrate. This chance to … Read More
“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in – what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.” ~Victor Hugo It’s a sun-filled Saturday morning in San Diego, and the sky is the color of a peaceful cerulean sea. The relentless rains of winter have finally … Read More
“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” ~Pat Conroy One morning last week, I was having breakfast at our kitchen table when a New York Times story about discovering the fossilized remains of … Read More
The Salton Sea. It’s a poetic name for a place that is neither poetic nor a sea. The landlocked body of water in the California desert is actually the state’s largest lake, a saline-filled depression in the earth with a higher salt level than the Pacific Ocean and a story that reads more like science … Read More