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
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Chasing Waterfalls
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
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
Sunglasses at Night
Reykjavik, Iceland August 1-5 At 1am on August 2nd, Reykjavik welcomed us with a blast of salt air and a lingering sunset. The Midnight Sun had only just given over to a few hours of cerulean semi-darkness prior to our arrival, and to say our small squadron was due to experience some form of “temporal… Continue reading Sunglasses at Night
Deep Breaths
“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