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
Tag: children
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
Under Pressure
For those concerned readers of ours who may have come under the impression that our little traveling band’s definition of a pastime these days solely consists of the following activities in any particular order; A) scaling treacherous mountain ranges in their tourist off-season, B) traversing the uncharted forests surrounding contested international borders, or C) circumambulating… Continue reading Under Pressure
Unleashed On Laos
Luang Namtha Province, Northern Laos Jan 27th – 31st Half a dozen kilometers outside of the town of Luang Nam Tha in northern Laos, Oliver stood in the patchy light that pricked through the rattan thatch roof of a Lenten communal hut and was surrounded by more than twenty of the village children. Some of… Continue reading Unleashed On Laos
Learning to Swim
Southern Thailand and Islands (Ko Lanta, Ko Kradan, Ko Muk, Ko Ngai, Ko Rok) November 6 – 18 Oliver is a good kid. When he laughs, his eyes are like Ryan’s, twisting up into happy crescents. His nose crinkles in his sunburned face as did my sister’s during the long, humid New England summers of… Continue reading Learning to Swim
A Day to Remember
Kep and Kampot, Cambodia October 25 – 30 This is Ryan and I want to wish everyone a good evening from Siem Reap, Cambodia. We just finished dinner (I had Lok Lak, a delicious meat dish on top of a fried egg and Emily had Amok D‘trey, a river fish braised in coconut sauce. Emily… Continue reading A Day to Remember
Almost Famous
Beijing August 26-31 Passing through the infrared body temperature sensors at the airport, I glanced back at Ryan with an enormous, loopy grin. The State Department emails I had been receiving for weeks that warned of potential quarantine in frightening Chinese sick houses, families separated, children shown no mercy; had melted away. We were in… Continue reading Almost Famous
Fashionably Light
I read the other day that backpackers tend to suffer from two afflictions more so than from anything else. The first is the inevitable traveller’s diarrhea (aka Delhi Belly, Rangoon Runs, Tokyo Trots, Montezuma’s Revenge, etc), for which we have enough ciprofloxacin, azithromycin and loperamide to plug a hole in the Hoover Dam. The second… Continue reading Fashionably Light