When it comes to palaces, it’s fairly safe to say that the Palace of Versailles is the gold standard. Two thousand three hundred rooms. A hall of mirrors. Two thousand acres of fountain-filled gardens. A Venetian-inspired Grand Canal, perfect for boating. Even a maze. And all that gold. It seems that whatever Louis XIV could … Read More
On a sunny January morning in 2017, Herb and I were walking through La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With marble mausoleums that looked like houses lined up on narrow streets and tree-filled grounds dotting the landscape, La Recoleta seemed more like an elegant city than a final resting place. Mausoleums were architecturally elaborate, … Read More
It was mid-afternoon when we boarded the ms Sapphire riverboat at a pier on the western end of Paris, and within a couple of hours we found ourselves heading back to the city. Herb and I had signed on with Tauck Tours for seven-night cruise along the Seine River, with stops along the way to … Read More
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ~Pablo Picasso It’s hard to imagine a more prolific place and time for artists than Montmartre in the Belle Époque. From around 1872 to 1914, the high hill in Paris’ 18th arrondissement was home to a proverbial Who’s Who of the world’s greatest painters. … Read More
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” ~Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast The sun was reflecting off the Louvre’s glass pyramid, casting shadows along marbled monuments, dancing through … Read More
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~Mary Oliver, The Summer Day I never expected to find myself in Paris this fall. But in a way, Paris found me. We were supposed to be in South Africa, sailing from Cape Town to Namibia and around the … Read More
“There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” ~Franklin D. Roosevelt They call it the White Screen of Death. The name is a little more frightening than the actual experience, but when I opened my website to write a new blog post a few months ago, an empty white … Read More
My notes for a follow-up blog post on travel packing have been collecting virtual dust in an unfinished drafts folder for almost two years. What began as an idea for a companion piece to a post called Travel Packing 101 sat waiting to be finished after we returned from our Middle East travels in November … Read More
“We love the things we love for what they are.” ~Robert Frost, Hyla Brook I first fell in love with Carmel-by-the-Sea after being swept off my feet by the movie Play Misty for Me, Clint Eastwood’s suspenseful thriller set in the idyllic town on the California coast. It was 1971, and my teenage self was … Read More
“An ecological treasure at the heart of Monterey Bay.” ~Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve It’s Saturday morning in Monterey, California, and the sun won’t be rising for almost an hour. The air is brisk and biting, causing me to question my decision not to have packed a wool hat along with my warm gloves, … Read More