With the fabled California desert city of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley spread far below in a hazy morning shimmer, it occurs to me I have something in common with the large raven I spot scooting determinedly along aRead more
My muscles are screaming, plotting revenge against me. Visualize this: I’m lying on a mat on my right side, stretching out my left leg at a right angle to my body, with my right leg bent and pulled back behind me.Read more
It was 10:00 am and my stomach was rumbling as I walked through the orderly rows of chardonnay, pinot noir, and zinfandel vines in the Morelli Lane Vineyard at Dutton-Goldfield Winery, my footsteps kicking up the fine, beach-like earth thatRead more
Our taste buds stirred when we read that Amélie’s French Bakery was establishing a new outpost near our home in south Charlotte. Amélie’s has been a wildly popular destination on Charlotte’s food map since 2008 when the flagship store openedRead more
Sometimes the best-laid travel plan is no plan. That’s the strategy Bill and I used on our recent trip to Paris, a city we’ve been to several times and one that claims a top spot on our list of favorites.Read more
Chocolate was on my mind as I entered the coolly contemporary apartment we’d rented in Brussels through airbnb. With sacks of groceries from our local produce market in hand, I had just climbed the 78 stairs to our cozy, light-filled, fifth-floorRead more
I spotted a sign on some scaffolding situated in a small park on one side of The Burg Square in Brugge, Belgium, that said “A Place Beyond Belief.” That’s Brugge in a nutshell. Brugge (spelled Bruges in French) is a remarkablyRead more
Bill’s and my visit to the imposing National September 11 Memorial and Museum during a recent trip to New York City was a potent reminder that the horrific events which occurred that day in 2001 bore such monumental significance that they becameRead more
Some of my favorite Frank Sinatra songs – “Come Fly With Me,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” and “In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning” played in my head as Bill and I were driving two hours east fromRead more
I’ve always thought of birds as the ultimate travelers, gracefully able to fly where, when and how they want. While I’ve admired birds from afar, I hadn’t spent much concerted effort learning about them. A couple of my travels haveRead more