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
Historians who say the California Gold Rush is over are misinformed, for I’ve struck it rich in the Golden State. My gold isn’t the same metal whose discovery in the water wheel of a sawmill in the Sacramento Valley inRead 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
The trip takes only two and a half minutes, but you have the world at your feet the entire time. Mode of travel: the Duquesne Incline. Destination: the top of Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh. Ask Pittsburghers where to go for theRead 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
While staying in Brussels, our last-minute decision to visit Luxembourg was almost a V8 moment. Surely you’re familiar with the vegetable juice brand’s classic advertising campaign. An actor consumes a calorie-laden meal or a sugary beverage and afterwards berates himself withRead 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
There’s an old saying in Holland that God made the world and the Dutch made Holland. If they hadn’t, the ground we were standing on at the moment would have been under several feet of water. Bill and I wereRead more