Our gondola ride was much more than we could have ever imagined.  The travel videos and National Geographic articles cannot capture the nuance of sight and sound nor the sense and emotion of being transported along these ancient waterways.   The voices of gondoliers calling…

Reflections on being in a dangerous situation … Like everyone who travels, for us coming back home is always good. This particular time, though, getting back to OUR country and OUR state and OUR city and OUR house was so special. The terror experience in…

In “The Art of Travel”, Alain de Botton wrote: “Travelers set off to investigate.  In 1739, the poet Thomas Gray undertook a walking tour of the Alps, the first of many such self-conscious pursuits of the sublime, and afterwards reported, ‘In our little journey up…

Well, it’s not Venice or Amalfi or any other exotic place, but I’ve decided that it is our beautiful Smokey Mountains, right here close to home, where I am happiest! Doug and I enjoyed a Fathers Day evening picnic in Cades Cove…best scenery I’ve seen…

The last days of our Italy trip ended with Marcy and I contracting a virus. More on that later, but the after-effects lasted until just a few days ago.  We had visions of blogging and sharing stories of our trip, but we just weren’t up…

 I know I’ve posted a lot of pictures, and I assume that those who have no interest just keep on scrolling. Hope I haven’t aggravated with my frequent posts, but it really has been a thrilling (and exhausting) two weeks. We have learned much, met…