
[Manzanita / Cannon Beach, OR, Jul 5, 2019] Trying to figure out what to do with a couple of free days in the Portland area was not hard at all. I’ve been to Portland a couple of times before, so this time I was expanding to good day trips outside of town. The Columbia River Gorge is an excellent such trip, but I had done that in the Fall of 2013. One… Read More
Category: 2019 - Crater Lake and Portland, All Travel, Oregon, United States Tags: beach, best roads in the US, food, mountain road, seafood, small town America
[Ojo Caliente / Abiquiu / Taos, Sep 1, 2018] We got up early the next day to travel about an hour to Ojo Caliente, where we’d made arrangements to tour the Ra Paulette cave at the Origin resort. This was a very unique experience I have to thank B for finding and arranging. I wasn’t familiar with Ra Paulette, but this 39-minute documentary describes his work pretty well. He started hand-carving caves… Read More
Category: 2018 - Labor Day in Taos, NM, All Travel, New Mexico, United States Tags: Abiquiu, food, seafood, Southwest, Taos
[Seattle, WA, July 22, 2018] And there it was, our last full day on this trip! It’s hard to believe we have come full circle in such a short time. We reluctantly left our cabin in the forest and headed to Seattle, WA, also known as the Emerald City. The term Emerald City came from a contest held by the Convention and Visitors Bureau in 1981. The name was selected in 1982 and… Read More
Category: 2018 - WA National Parks/Ragnar, All Travel, United States, Washington Tags: architecture, city walks, museums, Pacific Northwest, seafood, Seattle, sunset, travel by ferry, US cities
[Los Angeles, CA / Boynton Beach, FL, Dec 22-24, 2017] Last year’s holiday trip to Florida did not start as planned. We were supposed to take a red-eye on Dec 21 and make a beeline for Key West and Dry Tortugas National Park before returning to the Palm Beach area on Dec 23, in time to spend the Christmas holidays with family. Unfortunately, our flight was one of over 200 canceled (many… Read More
Category: 2017 - Florida Xmas, All Travel, Florida, United States Tags: Christmas Travel, family, food, holidays, old friends, seafood
[Hamburg, Germany] Situated on the river Elbe, Hamburg is Germany’s second largest city and its own province with 1.5 million people. 2,000 bridges all over the city have earned it the nickname Venice of the North. Hamburg has the biggest number of millionaires per capita and the second largest port in Europe (Rotterdam is the largest). Two devastating fires 100 years apart – one in 1842 and one in 1943 – have… Read More
Category: 2016 - Bulgaria & Germany, All Travel, Europe, Germany Tags: city walks, German food, Hamburg, history, museums, old friends, seafood
Balabanova All Over