(re-run) I’ve told the story before. I may have even written it, but that’s the downside of being old. You forget. It was 2014. My youngest was in college on the East Coast. For spring break, she proposed that her older brother and I fly across the country to meet her in DC for ten… Continue reading The Day We Were the Minority
Category: travel
He Wouldn’t Take Non for an Answer
(re-run) Harry was an American soldier. He had survived D-Day. The war had just ended in Europe. He helped free the town of Reims, France, where she lived. She was so beautiful that when he met her on the street, he asked to/walked her/followed her home. She thanked him but wasn’t interested. “What is your… Continue reading He Wouldn’t Take Non for an Answer
Picnic in France
Long ago, my boyfriend and I backpacked our way across Europe. We flew into Amsterdam and saw the Anne Frank house and the Red Light district. Since he was Norwegian, we next went to Norway and spent the coldest week in August that I’ve ever known. Then we popped over to Sweden and stayed in… Continue reading Picnic in France
Looking for Jade in Alaska
(re-run) Sophia lived in Sonoma County and took her new dog to the beach. The black lab needed a name. An old man was there looking at pebbles in the water. She struck up a conversation with him, and he told her he was looking for Jade. On the way home, Sophia decided Jade was… Continue reading Looking for Jade in Alaska
More Machu Picchu
(part two) Christy and I finished our breakfast at the hotel up at the top and looked into the fog. The buses wouldn’t start arriving until noon. “Let’s hike up the big mountain,” she said. “Okay,” I said. My lost and found tennis shoes were too small, but I had cut out the toes so… Continue reading More Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu Before It Was a Thing
(re-run) It was 1977. I was finishing up ten weeks of student teaching in an American oil school in Caracas, Venezuela. My roommate, Christy, wanted to travel for two weeks before we went home to the states. She wanted to visit Machu Picchu in Peru. I’d never heard of it. “It’s the lost city of… Continue reading Machu Picchu Before It Was a Thing
The Spiritual Post
A friend lost his younger sister to cancer last week. I lost my older sister in December to a myriad of health issues. Grieving is a process. It doesn’t end all at once. It comes and goes. At least I’m not crying anymore. When a hummingbird gets in my face or flies close to me… Continue reading The Spiritual Post
The Power of Vacation
(re-run, pre-pandemic) The week after Christmas is dead time for scheduled activities. Chorus rehearsals are cancelled. The city building where I exercise three times a week is closed. There’s a lot of extra time during the day. So . . . . . . for the first time in two and a half years, I… Continue reading The Power of Vacation
Pooping at 28,000 Feet
I’m not a great traveler. I usually can’t poop in a strange environment, or with a roommate, or in a public toilet. My bowels, you see, are shy. Peeing is not a problem. My mom used to run the water when I couldn’t pee as a kid. Now all I have to do is think… Continue reading Pooping at 28,000 Feet
The Princeton Ploy
(re-run) It was Sue’s third day as a freshman at Temple University in Philadelphia. She was riding the elevator with her friends between Hardwick and Johnson Hall when he got on. He had all of his stuff. He was moving in. “School started already,” one of her friends said. “I was in San Diego,” he… Continue reading The Princeton Ploy
