Sunny and Raining

T: Twelve hours of flying, a trip through customs and a 45-minute subway ride were now in the rear view mirror. Only one thing stood between us and our hotel room for our first night in Japan: A Samba parade. Instead of the orderly, tidy, subdued streets we expected to see (and did later on…

E: I couldn’t help but laugh as we rolled out our sleeping bags on a hard tile floor in the hallway of the old Punxsutawny, Pa., community center. For two people who could have flown standby practically anywhere in the world on this cold February weekend, western Pennsylvania would normally be the last place I…

T: Rarely do we know exactly which way to go after walking out of a train station for the first time. But it didn’t take long to figure out our destination in Mainz. Sure, I had a map on my phone, but it was unnecessary. We needed only to follow scores of excited kids and…

E: It all seemed to match the description perfectly. Third turn on the left after leaving town. Big white house in the countryside. Gate at the end of the long driveway.  At least, that’s what we thought. The darkness made it too hard to tell.

Our little travel blog is one year old! It’s been a wonderful year filled with adventures around the world and at home here in Minnesota. We visited new and exciting destinations that opened our eyes. And we said goodbye to familiar and sentimental places that meant so much to us. 

It’s 8:30 p.m. on a Friday. We’ve been driving for a few hours now and I just caught my first glimpse of the lake. We’re almost there.  We drive over a few rolling hills and turn left onto a little gravel road near a farm. We drive slowly past a handful of cabins and park…

T: Some of our trips are meticulously and cautiously planned and watched. Will there be enough seats? What happens if the flight fills up? What’s our backup? How’s the weather? The what-ifs can go on and on. Other trips are impulsive and reckless demands for adventure, usually after several weeks of bad weather or stress…

T: After hours of driving, with a couple of hitches along the way, we had made it to the Hampton Inn Norfolk (Neb.), and checked in. There wasn’t anything telling about us or where we were headed the next day. But the woman at the front desk already knew.

E: We were sitting at MSP’s Gate G10 with our bags packed, watching Zone 2 get on the plane to Barcelona, when we heard our names over the loudspeaker. “Standby passengers Timothy and Elizabeth, please report to the desk.” We exchanged knowing, wide-eyed glances.

E: We were about halfway through the 1.75-mile hike down to Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho when we realized there wasn’t another soul on this trail down into the forest. The occasional branch we heard moving in the woods suddenly heightened our awareness for wild animals — bears, in particular.