By the time you read this, my wife and I will have landed at one of the most treacherous airports in the world in one of the most dangerous cities in the world. The final approach is so nightmarish that passengers often post harrowing videos of their flight through a twisted ravine before landing on … Continue reading Daughter Sparks International Change

Norris’ article describes our daughter, Sara’s non-profit organization.  After she collected books from Chicago and Denver Scholastic Book Fairs, she needed our luggage to help transport the 250 lbs. of books that she hadn’t been able to put in her own luggage allowance.  Of course there were a few bumps along the way.  First, we … Continue reading And now….. booking it to Honduras

In the tradition of Boomerang kids, we joined the ranks by returning home to my Dad’s house!  We had no home to return to unlike most people who come back from vacation, because we hadn’t been on vacation. A friend said we were boomerang kids now, those college graduates who return to the parents’ home. … Continue reading Home for the Holidays, the Boomerang kids

These are moments I noticed and thought about from a teacher’s point of view. 

The sights we wanted to see in Europe were always at the top of the stairs.  Every castle, fort, and cathedral had a tower to climb to see an amazing view.  We had to climb stairs to our AirBnB beds.  Stairs were the only way to the different floors of the museums.  Here’s a collection … Continue reading Stairs and steps in Europe

In New York I was energized just by coming into the harbor.  It was moving to see the Statue of Liberty from that viewpoint. It was also very cold!  Our destination was the TKTS booth where we bought 50% off tickets to see A Bronx Tale. It’s Jersey Boys meets West Side Story. Of course, … Continue reading New York, New York

It’s time to go home. But how? We hadn’t bought a round trip ticket when we left in July. We had originally thought we’d catch a space available flight home from Germany. We had saved about 10 days to return to the Schengen area, to go to the American Air Force base in Germany and … Continue reading Cruise

Even though it looks like it’s burg on the end, it’s actually a form of borough and so that’s how it’s pronounced.  With a few days left between the AirBnB schedule and the sail date for the cruise, we had to find one last place to visit. On several recommendations we flew to Edinburgh. Unfortunately, … Continue reading Edinburgh

The historic docks of Portsmouth have 11 exhibits to tour. We covered most of them on our first visit, but the tickets are good for a year, so we returned to finish.   At the docks we took a Harbor Ferry tour and saw the latest ship of the UK navy- an aircraft carrier.  Next … Continue reading English Day Trips 2- Portsmouth and Salisbury

Isle of Wight-  Osborne House and Victorian falconry. We had already taken a trip to the Isle of Wight, to the West Cowes. This time we went to East Cowes, to Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s summer palace. Now that’s a place I wish would list on AirBnB. The dining room is in the Durbar Wing, … Continue reading English day trips- Osborne House and Winchester