We live in a transient expat community in the Tamarindo area of Costa Rica. Therefore, it is not much of a surprise to meet recent foreign arrivals only to find later they have left after a year or so. But when you lose long-term, contributing community members, it comes as a jolt. Take Steve and …
Wait, what? Didn’t I just write one of these damn dumpster burning letters entitled HNY 2021? Sheesh, the year that crawled by at sloth speed and yet blew by like a freebasing Richard Pryor on fire. Remember him? Yeah, I’ll bet half my friends have no clue. But even in the days before the internet …
In a year like no other, I sit here staring at my computer wondering why even bother figuring what to cover in a holiday letter. Following one train of thought…and then backspacing. “And you call yourself a writer?” says the wicked little War of Art voice in my head. Should I be witty and evoke …
I have explored two fantastic Holocaust Museums – the one in Washington DC and in Cape Town, South Africa. Visiting them left me unsettled in heavy emotions. However, nothing quite prepared me for a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Southern Poland. We visited on a mid-September day – still officially summer on the calendar …
Conservatively, yet elegantly dressed, not a hair out of place in her slightly-big-Texas hairstyle, wearing too much make up for her naturally beautiful face. That is how I remember modern-day southern belle, Jayne Christianson, when I met her over 3 decades ago sipping sweet tea deep in the heart of East Texas. Me, being a …
I recently shared on social media an article I wrote for International Living Magazine. As far as I could see, it was certainly innocuous in its presentation – detailing one of the smaller beach communities along the NW Pacific coast of Costa Rica. In it, I described the close-knit expat community in a very positive …
Seeing everyone’s father’s day posts still stabs me in the heart. My Father, Ace – as he was nicknamed, died 12 years ago, a couple of weeks before that special holiday celebrating dads. I was angry that cancer and Parkinson’s took him away too soon – leaving me anguished and wiser. It is no pleasure …
I have been uploading photos to my social media pages daily while on an epic journey through South America. You know; the drill we all perform on vacation if we are active social media consumers – posting humorous or artistic photos, signs lost in translation, landscapes, architecture, and food – basically giving our followers a …
I have done a few stupid things traveling around the world. Not that I am a naïve traveler or that trouble necessarily finds me. Some events are unavoidable. And others? Well, they were simply stupid, or not researched thoroughly. There is that old saying that God takes care of fools, drunks, and children (or something …
My Safety Precautions for a Woman Traveling Alone Internationally Read More »
I’m fortunate and extremely thankful to have had the opportunity to explore a significant amount of the world in my lifetime thus far; having been to all six habitable continents. People will often ask me where my top 10 favorite places are in the world. Anyone who is a traveler would understand it is ultimately …