Take A Hike Series: Going the Distance and Dropping Our Shorts in Spain’s Cabo De Gata

October 15 – 19, 2013 Cabo De Gata, Spain Far from the freeways that shuttle vacationers between Spain’s (in)famous holiday-home suburbs, the little knob of coastline that clings to the country’s extreme southeastern corner belongs to the Cabo de Gata–Níjar Natural Park.  According to the dinosaurs that roamed the earth prior to the tourism boom… Continue reading Take A Hike Series: Going the Distance and Dropping Our Shorts in Spain’s Cabo De Gata

Take A Hike Series: The Clifftop Walks of San Sebastián

May 22 – 28 San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain After going several knockout rounds against the sublime pintxos bars (pronounced: “peen-chos,” Basque for tapas) in San Sebastián, our latest favorite city and first stop in Spain, we decided to go out for some much-needed exercise.  Fortunately for us, the Gipuzkoa province, one of seven that forms… Continue reading Take A Hike Series: The Clifftop Walks of San Sebastián

Take A Hike Series: The Hill Walkers

February 25 – March 2 Glen Coe & the Western Highlands, Scotland “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves… Continue reading Take A Hike Series: The Hill Walkers

When the Sun Shines In Scotland

February 18 – 25 Isle of Luing, Inner Hebrides, Scotland On a late February day in the northwest of Scotland, we had been given a gift.  It came in the form of a radiantly beautiful day, one in which a low-slung winter sun glazed the pastures and seacoast of the Inner Hebrides with a warm,… Continue reading When the Sun Shines In Scotland

Aotearoa by Pictures: Part 1

July 2010 North Island, New Zealand When I recently purged the hard drive on my Mac in a vain attempt to rid myself of some obscure, persistent error afflicting OS X, I came across several previously unpublished photos from our two months spent RVing in New Zealand during June and July 2010.  Rather than archiving… Continue reading Aotearoa by Pictures: Part 1

She Did NOT Just Do That: Val D’Orcia, Italy

October 15 – 22 Central Tuscany, Italy See this face?  It’s belongs to a young John the Baptist.  It was carved in the 13th century by a member of the  Sienese school, and it is on display in Volterra’s Pinacoteca e Museo Civico. See this face?  It looks familiar, right?  However, it has nothing to do… Continue reading She Did NOT Just Do That: Val D’Orcia, Italy

Chasing Waterfalls

Black basalt columns at Svartifoss

Iceland: August 1-22 Aside from foraging for wild blueberries in the heath, one of our favorite pass times while touring in Iceland has been “collecting” waterfalls.  Few natural phenomena are more emblematic of the county than these examples of cascading water, and many of them are well marked alongside the tourist-trampled Ring Road.  Gullfoss (golden… Continue reading Chasing Waterfalls

The Red Road Through the Never Never

Karijini National Park, Western Australia March 30 – April 3 Ryan was beginning to think he was going blind. It was approaching four in the afternoon, and he had been behind the wheel since seven in the morning, with one stop at a fly-bitten outback roadhouse for over-priced gasoline and a couple of meat pies.… Continue reading The Red Road Through the Never Never