Since we moved out of the hustle and bustle of downtown to the ‘burbs of Portland and squarely into the quirky neighborhood known as St. Johns – named for a hermit who first settled the Peninsula. It is said that he was a quiet, saintly man — and also that he didn’t frequent the local…
Tag: Charity
What a Marvel…
In preparing for our European adventure, we put one city on and took them off the list several times – unsure if we should visit or not. It is Spain’s 3rd largest city and not one of Rick Steve’s Best of Europe. We did, however, enjoy Samantha Brown’s episode describing the amazing aquarium and science…
Poh-ta-gee Revenge!!
So in a way very much like Montezuma’s Revenge wreaks havoc on the poor, innocent traveler to Mexico, Maylene and I have fallen wickedly prey to da Poh-ta-gee Revenge in Portugal. We have both been stricken by food poisoning (we think). I had it for five days and Maylene is now on day 3. I…
They’re Harmless…Really…
When booking our hotel room in Madrid, there were a lot of considerations – as always. A strong one was that since I couldn’t find availability anywhere – including our hostel – for Fri/Sat night, we could only stay for two nights and we needed to be in a central area. I chose a “cheap”…
Playing High Roller in Monaco Baby!!
Before beginning our journey vagabonding around Europe, we knew we wanted to go to Monaco — Maylene’s “things-to-do-before-she-dies” list included playing a round of blackjack there and we wanted to visit a tiny country – we’ve missed them all so far except for Monaco! When I began searching for a hotel, of course I found…
Nice…it’s nice…
We were so happy to arrive in Nice after spending so much time in Northern Europe. This part of the French Riviera is right on the coast and has a broad promenade with a pebble-beach where you can soak in the sun. At least 10 degrees warmer than in Paris, we wore short-sleeves and loved…
Where the Magic Happens
Where the Magic Happens Is there anything more magical than being in Disneyland on your birthday? At any age, I contend there’s not. We had just finished with a wonderful six days of touring Paris and decided to use one of our free nights from hotels.com to stay on the Disney resort at the Santa…
The Parisien Biggies
The Parisien Biggies Eiffel Tower, River Seine Cruise, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Sacre Couer, Latin Quarter On our very first night in Paris, I dragged Maylene immediately off to the Eiffel Tower and we arrived at dusk, staying long enough to watch the sun set from the middle viewing level of the tower. It…
Free Derry – no seriously, free Derry already
Before setting off on our Irish adventure, we had identified a few towns and sites that we really wanted to see. Rick Steves had a show on Northern Ireland and let us know about this little town known as Londonderry. It had these great murals from an uprising incident sometime in the past and would…
The Coach Isle
I know, I know — Ireland is supposed to be The Emerald Isle and not the Coach Isle and truly, it is green – very green — there are at least forty different shades of it – just ask Johnny Cash. But truly, allow me the indulgence of temporarily re-branding the poetic name as is…