Months ago, we realized Columbus Day weekend meant the children had a few days out of school and that it coincided with my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday, and she wanted her daughters and their families to get together somewhere for a weekend of fun, but we also realized we’d miss seeing […]
We left San Francisco and headed south to one of our county’s newest National Parks, Pinnacles. Pinnacles is small in terms of acreage but offers some great hiking trails and rock climbing. It’s also home to endangered condors and bats, among other wildlife, and the trails offer views over the […]
I like that if my children are tasked with a “What I Did Last Summer” essay in school, they can report “Daddy took us to prison!” Upon landing in San Francisco on July 2, we checked into the J.W. Marriott at Union Square, walked into Chinatown, and ate spicy awesome […]
Before we left Egypt, we spent another day in Cairo, so our guide took us to the Cairo Museum (the old one–the new one is still being built as of the time of this post, though it’s like 5 years behind schedule) to see King Tut’s treasures, Ramses II and […]
Out of every country, national park, city, and state I’ve visited, the most awe-inspiring day of travel I’ve ever spent was the one we spent at Luxor, when our Egyptologist guide took us to the Valley of the Kings, followed by the Valley of the Queens. Being smart people who […]
Our driver picked us up early Sunday morning in his ’89 Peugeot for the just over 2-hour drive to Viñales. The road west was 4-lanes, and it would have looked like an American interstate, but it was lined with men, women, and children standing on either side of the road […]
There are lots of pretty islands in the Caribbean, so folks have been understandably puzzled by our going somewhere that requires as much planning as does traveling to Cuba, but ever since seeing his home in Key West last year and his grave in Idaho the year before, I’ve badly […]
Friday morning after breakfast, I wanted an internet card to check email on my phone, so we started walking toward the Hotel Nacional when a local named Reynoldo told us we could get half-priced cigars just down the street, because it was a cigar holiday today! But only until noon. […]
Get this. From Atlanta, you can fly 90 minutes and land in a parallel world. It has 2 currencies: the CUP for locals (featuring faces and colors); the CUC for tourists (featuring statues and shades of brown). Doctors, engineers, and teachers forgo their $60/month, $40/month, and $20/month salaries to buy […]
When I read Bob Goff’s “Love Does” several years ago, I decided to steal his idea of letting each child choose an adventure to take anywhere in the world upon turning 10 years old, but we decided to modify it a bit and let the other 4 of us tag […]