Molto Piccolo

Rome, Italy August 23 – 29 At 4:45pm, we have exactly fifteen more minutes before we are ejected from the Galleria Borghese.  Fifteen more minutes is all the time my family has to run up the stairs to the second floor, past four or five Carravagios, a couple of Titians, and two of Raphael’s more… Continue reading Molto Piccolo

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

Wild Westfjords

A room with a view

August 6-10, Westfjords, Iceland The two young Parisians sharing a farmhouse with us at the base of the Vatnsnes Peninsula were trying to conceal their amazement/horror as I single-handedly attempted to scrounge up a passable meal for our two kids.  It was 11pm and the sun had finally slipped into the Arctic Sea beyond the… Continue reading Wild Westfjords

Deep Breaths

Ready or Not?

“So, are you ready?” My father asked me this question two nights ago as he collapsed into the couch next to me.  My nose was pressed into a map of Iceland, where I had been uttering low guttural sounds in various attempts to pronounce the names of small towns along the Ring Road.  With an… Continue reading Deep Breaths

Queensland Cowboys

April 10 – May 8 Queensland, Australia Through the dense understory of fan palms and fig vines, there, right there in front of us, was the unmistakable blue skin, red wattle and bright black eyes of Australia’s largest flightless bird: the cassowary. In Daintree National Park, Far North Queensland, we were visiting the ancient and… Continue reading Queensland Cowboys

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

One Eye to the Indian Ocean

Kalbarri and Coral Coast, Western Australia March 21 – 29 At long last, we emerge from the island continent of Australia. With some 5,096 road miles logged, it seemed fitting that we were rendered incommunicado for nearly all of two months. After all, with fewer than 21 million people spread over 3.5 million square miles,… Continue reading One Eye to the Indian Ocean