I can’t believe it’s fall already! This summer was so busy, and it just flew by. New House The first bit of news is that we bought a house. It’s a 1907 Folk Victorian with lots of gorgeous original woodwork, plus many layers of “updates” from the 50s, 70s and late 80s. We are slowly…
We arrived back at our apartment Wednesday evening to blessed silence. No kids in the bathroom, nobody there but the two of us. We were a little concerned that some new “extra” would arrive, and hoped fervently it wasn’t a group for a bachelor party. But we had hope because the extra room door was…
Off to Cardiff We were up bright and early Tuesday morning to catch a train to Wales, where our ancestors lived. On the train to Cardiff, we discussed finding a library to research our history and brainstormed other options to find familial connections. The first order of business when we arrived was to find our…
Brussels We treated ourselves to first class train tickets and arrived in Brussels early afternoon on Saturday. We caught a ride to The Hotel Brussels, where we were staying for two nights. The hotel is really nice, except for an odd smell in the lobby. Fortunately, the smell did not continue to the restaurant or…
We made it to London! After a few airport delays, I arrived in London around 10 am on March 20. Natalie’s flight was already there, so as soon as I landed, we grabbed a ride and set out for our rental apartment. After nearly an hour, we finally arrived at our destination, an apartment overlooking…
I have always wanted to see the world and I am so excited and deeply grateful for the privilege of getting to fulfill my travel dreams at this point in my life. I am off to London this week with my cousin Natalie and can’t wait to share our adventures with you! Packing and repacking…
For most of the last month I feel like I have been slogging through a dense fog. It seems as if everything has been more difficult and has taken twice as long as it should have. I can point to several things that may be contributing to this feeling, but I think the biggest part…
Have you ever woken from a dream so bad that it stayed with you for days? I had one of those last Saturday night and nearly a week later my mind keeps returning to that horrible dream. It pops back into my head several times each day and then I spend far too much time…
Right after Christmas Robert and I snuck off to Ottawa, Canada for the weekend. He had to go there for business, so I tagged along, and we made a weekend out of it. We left home early and arrived in Ottawa around 11 am. I dropped R at his meeting venue and set out to…
Here we are in a new year, and with a new year comes a slew of resolutions, intentions, and goals for many of us. And unfortunately, for many of us, a lot of those lofty plans have been left by the wayside before February gets started. Making plans I spent quite a bit of time…
Christmas 2023 has passed, and I must say this year Christmas was much more enjoyable than last year because our son and his family got to come for a visit. It was so great to have them all to ourselves for 8 days! AZ comes to NY We didn’t do a whole lot, mostly just…
I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas. Where did the year go? Part of me is thinking “I just want to chuck it all and move to Mexico”, but the rest of me is trying to take stock of accomplishments. I will revisit that thought later as I have SO much to get done in…
Galway City We arrived at our rental to learn the place is a third-floor walkup. Ugh. I had a suitcase full of dirty laundry, so up three flights the bags must go. The apartment was OK – there were water issues, and we never figured out the in-shower water heater worked. Can we all say…
The Burren It was chilly with sneaky sun the morning we packed up for our trip to Galway. But even sneaky sun works when it’s been a couple of days since you’ve seen it! Galway is only 68km from Doolin if you take a direct route. We opted to detour through the Burren, and man,…
The Rock of Cashel We decided to bypass Blarney Castle and visit the Rock of Cashel instead. It was on the way out of Kilkenny and on our way to Killarney. I can’t say this was off the beaten path – it was pretty crowded even at 3 in the afternoon, but there was ample…
Buses and trains We were up and away early Saturday morning as we had a train to catch. After schlepping our luggage in and out of a taxi, then finding the hidden elevator since the escalator at the train station was broken, we finally made it to our platform. But wait! Turns out there is…
A Brief Visit to the North Since this trip was our first to the Emerald Isle, we were determined to see as much as possible, including some significant sites in Northern Ireland. Since we hadn’t picked up our car yet, and it was a long drive, we opted to go on a bus tour to…
Tired, but happy My friend Alexa and I arrived in Dublin about 11:30 in the morning. We caught a cab to our hotel, but since it was too early to check in, we dropped our luggage and headed out to do some sightseeing, check out the shops on Grafton Street and visit our first Irish…
Getting Ready to Cruise My husband and I have followed a YouTube channel called “Cruising the Cut” for many years. We’ve always thought cruising in a narrow boat would fun, like having a floating camper. Guess what? There is an outfit in Central New York that rents old-fashioned, wooden, packet-style canal boats. So, we rented…
Out on the Water My Mom came to visit the first of September. Since she has some trouble with her feet, I tried to find fun things to do that did not require much walking – which is really hard in our little village. When she was here last year, we planned to do a…
Hello, it’s been a while It’s been a long time since my last blog post. I was really motivated at the start, but now I seem to just jot down an idea in a notebook “for later” and later never materializes. One of my dearest friends recently mentioned it had been one hundred days since…
What is it about seeing the first flowers in spring that makes the world seem brighter? In the past few days everything has begun to wake up after the winter. The bulbs I planted in the fall are coming up, the hyacinths and wild violets are blooming, the birds and squirrels are happily foraging for…
Now we only have two days left in Spain, so instead of spending half a day on the train to go back to Seville, we hired a driver through Daytrip so we could see a few more sights along the way. This was a bit of a splurge, but so worth it! Our driver Richard…
We planned to take the train from Malaga to Granada, but the night before we left we received an email, all in Spanish, regarding our trip. So, Natalie speaks some Spanish, but this was too complicated so we had to find someone to translate it. Turned out that something was wrong with part of the…
The drive from Gibraltar to Tarifa is about 41 kilometers, which should take about 40 minutes. Unfortunately, as we left Gibraltar and the Spanish town of La Linea, it got dark, and started to rain. Plus, the road goes right up a mountain and is full of double s curves. As you can imagine, the…
Monday morning dawned clear and a bit chilly as we packed up and schlepped our suitcases downstairs to catch a taxi to the bus station. We were off to Malaga and the bus had the most direct route. The bus station was not as nice as the train station, but compared to some you see…
Sunday morning dawned much chillier than the day before and there was a distinct dampness in the air, but that didn’t deter us from our plans to visit Cordoba and another UNESCO World Heritage site. Bus Stop Boogie We walked to the nearest bus stop to catch Bus 32 to the Santa Justa train station,…
Natalie and I arrived at our vacation rental in Seville’s Triana neighborhood mid-afternoon on Friday. We were both wiped out but decided to power through our sleepiness in an attempt to avoid jetlag. So, we stowed our belongings, grabbed our crossbody bags and a jacket, and set off to explore. The very first day we…
