This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 We awoke to a delightful morning and sat on the deck, drinking coffee and watching cows. Our breakfast was amazing – a giant fruit plate, blackberry watermelon juice, strawberry yogurt drink, huevos rancheros, and an amazing pineapple coconut pancake drizzled in passion fruit sauce….
View More
This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 We woke up this morning fully intending to go birding bright and early.. Torrential downpours meant we instead slept. We got up, had breakfast and said goodbye to Dev and Harriet. After checking out, we took the car to Rio Celeste. Rio Celeste is…
View More
This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 We woke up at 5:30am for our day of birding, as apparently one does. We had a quick cup of coffee and met up with Jorge, our guide for the day. The first outing today was on the same hanging bridge trail we took…
View More
This post is part of a series called Costa Rice 2014 Kat and I recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica. Due to limited bandwidth and an overabundance of hammocks, we didn’t blog while we were there, but we did keep track of what we were doing. Because of its dramatic historical importance, I’m…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Sunday – our last full day in Italy. We got up early and (after a couple espressos and a pastry of course) caught the bus up to Settignano. Well, that’s what we intended at least. Turns out the number 10 bus to Settignano doesn’t run…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 After the Fiat 500 tour, we hopped a train to Lucca for a quick overnight. We stayed at Guest Apartment Margherita and can’t say enough things about how wonderful our hosts were. Because it’d been raining, Roberto met us at the train to drive us…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Friday was Fiat 500 day. After a quick run to Sant’Ambrogio market, we caught a taxi to Galluzzo for our Fiat 500 Tour. After a quick lesson in double clutching (no syncros – like my Alfa, except my Alfa had them originally and they’d just…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 First thing Thursday, we met up with friends at the Mostra Internazionale dell’Artigianato. Think massive art fair – 10 buildings, hundreds of vendors. Everything from flower pots made out of recycled soda bottles to fine jewelry and clothing. Plus food! And dogs! We were on…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 You know, the Renaissance. Wednesday night was White Night (Notte Bianca), a city-wide, all night party (conveniently taking place the night before Labor Day, so there’s no need to worry about getting up the next morning). White night ostensibly gets started around 7:30, but aside…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 The European Union has, at least from the perspective of this American tourist, been a rather beneficial development. When you ask an Italian craftsman though, you get a very different perspective. Wednesday was our jewelry tour. This was my birthday present to Kat, and I…
View MoreThis post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Right then, where were we? I’m realizing that, given the long and travel-rich future in store for Kat and me, I may need to develop some different blogging habits. Traveling alone, days end relatively early, giving plenty of time for blogging. Traveling with another, dinners…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Catching up a bit – a late dinner last night meant I didn’t get a blog post up. Yesterday was a day of milling about and exploring further. Most importantly, this meant a trip to the Mercato Centrale, wherein I buy far too much balsamic…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 On my last visit, I went to La Specola, the taxidermy museum. La Specola is run by the University of Firenze, and they run a few other museums as well. Today, we ticked some off the list – the Geological and Paleontological museum, the Mineralogy…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 A long, but thankfully uneventful travel day brought us to Florence mid-afternoon on Saturday. A short taxi ride got us to our AirBnB and our host, Marilena. I’ll do a full tour of our apartment in another post – it’s frighteningly charming. I hadn’t realized,…
View More
This post is part of a series called Florence 2014 Shakespeare was talking about gelato right? I don’t think there’s a way to say “heading back to Florence, again” without a fairly high degree of implicit pretentiousness. But hey, it’s me, so there’s always a fairly high degree of implicit pretentiousness, right? Regardless, we depart…
View More
This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Today I took a somewhat odd trip to the Mekong Delta. I had presumed it would be a big bus tour with a bunch of folks from all over. Instead, it was myself, an Australian couple, our guide, and our driver, in a Sprinter. I’m…
View More
This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 This evening, I took the Foodie tour from XO Tours. The gist is that a group of folks travels the city on the back of mopeds, each driven by a woman in traditional dress, stopping to eat the street food that you don’t normally eat…
View More
This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Yesterday, my body (or a helpful bacteria) called timeout and asked me to stay in bed (or the bathroom). So, no big news there. Misery, a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, and more misery. All better now though! I’ve only spent one day wandering…
View More
This post is part of a series called Vietnam 2013 Like Sleepless in Seattle, just a different kind of horrible. Yesterday, I made the trek to Hoi An. Hoi An is part Ye Olde Town, and part beach resort. Because the river silted in, it was basically frozen in time a few hundred years ago…
View More
