All articles filed in T & E

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.

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.

T: This trip didn’t begin when our plane slipped through the low, dreary stratus clouds revealing a lush, jagged, mysteriously beautiful landscape. It didn’t begin when we got off the plane and first set foot on the damp Faroese ground. No, this trip began with a puzzle, nearly three and a half years before we…