About ten years ago, I promised my nephews (best friends’ kids but don’t tell me I’m not their “actual” uncle) that I’d take each of them on a trip for their high school graduation, assuming they were still nice to me at that point. Well, the first one graduated, and - somewhat surprisingly to me…
Do you all remember last year, when I was invited by Visit St. Maarten to come to their amazing island? I spent a week exploring the history of both the Dutch and French sides, and experiencing some of the culture of the world’s smallest divided landmass. It was amazing, and you can check out my…
I know, I know. It seems like I just got back from Europe. And really, it’s true. After less than three weeks at home, it’s back across an ocean. But this time, it’s the Pacific. Unlike some trips, this one is mainly a “people” trip. Namely, both A and I have family in New Zealand…
It’s hard to believe it’s down to my last month of this Europe trip. This month I’ll be based in Toulouse in southwestern France. It’s the first major stop on this trip that isn’t on the coast, not that this is a major consideration for me. I was in Toulouse for part of two days…
After a wonderful whirlwind month in Genoa and northwestern Italy, it is time to head into France. The destination: Nice. I’ll have roughly a month here, exploring both the city itself and some of the surrounding towns along the Côte d’Azur, Azure Coast. And while February isn’t the prime season for sunbathing by the Mediterranean,…
Welcome to the first installment of the day to day itineraries of my 2026 Europe trip! For this chapter, we are based in Genoa, but exploring the northwest of Italy. Why Genoa? Why not? It’s a large city (Italy’s sixth largest), but not so big as to have too much to try to see in…
For the first time since resuming travel coming out of the Covid shutdown, I didn’t make it to Europe in 2025. And while I had an amazing travel year, that absence was felt, both in that I missed my favorite place in the world and that I didn’t have my “normal” (I’ve only done it…
As most of my regular readers know, my father lives outside Cincinnati. I try my best to make it out to visit him twice a year, and recently I’ve begun to incorporate that into a slightly larger trip. This spring, I began in Cleveland and did some fun things in Ohio before heading down. For…
A couple years back, A and I were talking to her godparents. They have a couple timeshares in Mexico, and said their children (A’s “other” siblings) weren’t interested in going anymore. We jumped in that we would be delighted to adventure to Mexico with them one of these years, and now we are doing so!…
After the 2024 election, I left Twitter. Elon Musk’s acquiring of the platform and subsequent turning it into a right-wing disinformation center was too much for me, and I just couldn’t continue. I joined Bluesky. (By the way, if you are on that platform, please find me here. And if you aren’t on it, please…