My husband Gary & I have written and photographed our travels for magazines and in four travel guidebooks for Falcon Press Publishing. We’ve been happy travelers as well as the unhappy version. We’ve been traveling for more than thirty years. Planes, trains, automobiles, buses, cruise ships, and pickup campers have carried us on journeys to half of the fifty states and sixteen foreign countries. We’ve traveled for business; we’ve traveled for pleasure. We’ve traveled with a baby, a teenager, and with Grandma.
But it is through our experiences during sixteen years of owning a lakeside resort that we have truly come to know the travelers’ soul. We’ve been a part of family reunions, funerals, and weddings. We’ve hosted one night stands and fiftieth wedding anniversaries. We’ve been cursed at, laughed at, and physically threatened. We’ve been written about kindly and not so kindly. We’ve made life-long friends and thousands of casual acquaintances. We’ve had incidents involving sheriffs, firefighters, and brain surgeons. We could write quite a comedy about all of the things we have seen and experienced at our little resort.
Maybe someday we’ll write a movie script, but the posts here have one purpose: to bring happiness and hope to the travel weary and the travel leery. We want literally, to move you.
Traveling is life at its most exhilarating. It IS life.
We sincerely hope that on these pages you find something to laugh about, something that reminds you of why you love to travel, and at least one “ah-ha” moment that moves you to action. So read on, then start planning your next trip. Here’s hoping it’s a happy one.
Pasta Recipe: Easy Spaghetti Carbonara with Bacon
I LOVE PASTA After visiting Italy for the second time, I felt a strong need to share my love some of my favorite Italian pasta dishes with friends—especially carbonara. The only problem is that making carbonara can get tricky. But you know me—I can find a...
Breaking Bread and Barriers: Lunch with a Slovenian Millennial and a Vintner
Is there such a thing as too much Slovenian wine? Not if it connects you to the people. As much as I love cruising, cruise travel can make it difficult to break through the barriers that separate us from the people of a port city. We disembark...
Milan: The Duomo and the Galleria in Photos
The city center in Milan is a photographer's dream. The architecture unfolds detail by detail, changing subtly with every hour of changing daylight. The image above is titled "Galleria Nights." This is a post for The Weekly Postcard Blog Link-up. Find...
#TravelTruth: Your Kids Need Travel More than They Need Sports
Why Kids Need Travel The number one reason kids need travel is simple. They need to spend time with the travel version of you. I'm not talking about the I-need-a-break-from-life, gotta-getaway travel version of you. Save that for girl getaways or bromance...
Gear Up! For Snorkeling
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Specifically, the photos and some text may link to products on Amazon.com. Read our policy here. Fins for Snorkeling There are two basic types of fins available, open-heel and full-foot. If you dive and snorkel or are serious...
Catch Up on Our Travel Pulse Stories
Stories on Travel Pulse These are often the first stories we write when we return home, mainly because Travel Pulse excites us. We hope it does the same for you. Our spring travels took us back to Bonaire to see the new Marriott Courtyard, which we adored. We also...
Cruise Truth: 17 Reasons You Are Not on a Cruise Ship Right Now
...and what to do about it.It's too expensiveCruise Truth: It is far less expensive than you think. There are always sales and special deals. To see where the best prices are at any point in time visit Vacations to Go where you can search for your perfect dates and...
Shore Diving on Bonaire
Is shore diving right for you? Self-guided shore diving adds a whole new dimension to your diving repertoire. It's inexpensive and leisurely. You start and finish on your own schedule, seeing what you want to see, not what a dive guide wants to show you. If that...
PADI Women Scuba Diving Update
An Update from PADI My recent story about why women should learn to scuba dive got the attention of a spokesperson from certification agency PADI. It seems that my stats on women divers were old. More women are learning to dive every year. Yay! And PADI is determined...
New Sony Xperia XZ Premium vs. Travel Writer
Sony Xperia XZ Premium Travel Writer Review It seemed like fate when Best Buy asked me to review the new Sony Xperia XZ Premium phone since I have been writing a bit lately about smartphone photography and travel photography in general. This phone is set to take...