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Atop Denali (Mount McKinley) |
During our 25+ years together, we have had the great fortune to travel to many spectacular regions of the world. Join us on some of our past sojourns to over 60 countries on 6 of the 7 continents (only Antarctica remains as our dream trip). Through words and pictures, we hope that our website will inspire you to visit some of the fascinating locales to which we have ventured over the years.
From the tropical splendor of Moorea French Polynesia, to the ostentatious architecture of Moscow, to resplendent Mount Everest, to majestic Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil, to Halong Bay in Vietnam, to the amazing Great Barrier Reef in Australia, to the harbor in Hong Kong, to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, to the Ngorngoro Crater in Tanzania, to the Pitons in St. Lucia, to the stunning beaches of Providenciales Turks and Caicos, to the waterfalls of Plitvica Lakes Croatia, to the tidal pools at Pamukkale Turkey, to the splendor of Denali in Alaska, to the majestic Mount Rainier in Washington, experience some of the most gorgeous natural scenery we have ever seen.
Join us as we visit some man-made wonders of the world, from to the red-tiled rooftops in Dubrovnik Croatia, to the walled city of Kotor Montenegro, to the Great Wall of China, to the Sydney Opera House, to Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, to the Great Sphinx of Giza, to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor Egypt, to the Treasury in Petra Jordan, to the wonder of Machu Picchu Peru, to the gorgeous rocky and wind-swepped cliffs of Bathsheba Barbados.
Enjoy our many wildlife adventures from a “cheetah hug” in Nairobi Kenya, to holding a giant panda in Chengdu China, to cuddling koalas on Hamilton Island Australia, to a brown bear safari on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, to meeting giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands Ecuador, to riding horses into Petra Jordan, to Barbary apes that climbed on our shoulders in Gibraltar, to bottle-feeding baby tigers in Kanchanaburi Thailand, to taking a spin on a camel at a roadside stop in Tangier Morocco, to bathing an elephant in the Nam Khan River near Luang Prabang Laos, to snorkeling with stingrays in Ambergris Caye Belize.
Travel with us using large commercial airplanes, tiny 4-seat planes that land on a field without an airport but with a windsock tied to a tree, seaplanes, helicopters, tuk-tuks, mule-drawn wagons, horse-and-carriage, trains, subways, aerial trams, cable cars, ski lifts, gondolas, hot air balloons, dugout canoes, boats, ferries, vans, cars, bicycles, and on foot. (Our transportation words of wisdom: Never walk when you can ride; never stand when you can sit; never sit when you can lie down.)
Stay with us at some our most memorable accommodations including the over-the-top Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania with a fireplace and a claw-footed bathtub while on safari, to the chic Hotel de la Paix in Luang Prabang Laos where we had our own swimming pool (and which was once a prison), to the Raffles Phnom Penh in Cambodia where we had our first suite of two rooms, to the Le Sereno Resort in St Barthelemy where our cottage had an outdoor Jacuzzi that sat six, to the pampering Palms in Zanzibar, to our hotel within the Diocletian's Palace walls in Split Croatia.
From a drink (or three) overlooking the temples in Luang Prabang Laos, to coca leaf tea in Cusco Peru, to pisco sours in Lima Peru, to gigantic soft drinks in Paris (Are you SURE you want to order a large? it's really BIG!), to climbing through the city wall in Dubrovnik Croatia and climbing down the cliffside to a seafront bar, to the best pina colada ever at the Hyatt Pier 66 in Fort Lauderdale Florida, to coconut almond joy martinis at The View bar at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square New York, join us for our most memorable cocktails. (Yes, drinks/happy hour constitutes a meal!)
Join us as we visit some man-made wonders of the world, from to the red-tiled rooftops in Dubrovnik Croatia, to the walled city of Kotor Montenegro, to the Great Wall of China, to the Sydney Opera House, to Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, to the Great Sphinx of Giza, to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor Egypt, to the Treasury in Petra Jordan, to the wonder of Machu Picchu Peru, to the gorgeous rocky and wind-swepped cliffs of Bathsheba Barbados.
Enjoy our many wildlife adventures from a “cheetah hug” in Nairobi Kenya, to holding a giant panda in Chengdu China, to cuddling koalas on Hamilton Island Australia, to a brown bear safari on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, to meeting giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands Ecuador, to riding horses into Petra Jordan, to Barbary apes that climbed on our shoulders in Gibraltar, to bottle-feeding baby tigers in Kanchanaburi Thailand, to taking a spin on a camel at a roadside stop in Tangier Morocco, to bathing an elephant in the Nam Khan River near Luang Prabang Laos, to snorkeling with stingrays in Ambergris Caye Belize.
Come along on some of our adventurous adrenaline-causing activities, from parahawking in Pokhara Nepal (feeding birds of prey in flight while paragliding), to canyoneering (rapelling, climbing, scrambling) in near an Embrera Village in Panama, to downhill mountain biking on the Irazu Volcano in Costa Rica (where we biked down the side of a volcano – not on any paved trails), to cave tubing in Belize, to snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, to ice climbing on the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska, to climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia, to dogsledding with an Iditarod team, to dune bashing in Dubai, to working an America's Cup sailboat during a race (the boat was nearly turned on its side, providing an exhilirating rush!), to climbing pyramids in Tikal Guatemala, to climbing waterfalls in Dunn's River Jamaica, to whitewater-rafting Class IV rapids on the New and Gauley Rivers in Beckley West Virginia, to simply driving on the windy steep hills of St Barthelemy.
From the ruins of Angkor Wat Cambodia, to ancient Incan civilizations in Machu Picchu Peru, to the Mayan temple complex at Chichen Itza Mexico, to the ancient ruins at Ephesus Turkey (so that's the origin of "Letters to the Ephesians"!), to the legends of the Masaai warriors on the Serengeti plains in Kenya, to pyramid and temple construction in Abu Simbel Egypt, relive some of the history we have learned. Travel with us using large commercial airplanes, tiny 4-seat planes that land on a field without an airport but with a windsock tied to a tree, seaplanes, helicopters, tuk-tuks, mule-drawn wagons, horse-and-carriage, trains, subways, aerial trams, cable cars, ski lifts, gondolas, hot air balloons, dugout canoes, boats, ferries, vans, cars, bicycles, and on foot. (Our transportation words of wisdom: Never walk when you can ride; never stand when you can sit; never sit when you can lie down.)
Stay with us at some our most memorable accommodations including the over-the-top Ngorongoro Crater Lodge in Tanzania with a fireplace and a claw-footed bathtub while on safari, to the chic Hotel de la Paix in Luang Prabang Laos where we had our own swimming pool (and which was once a prison), to the Raffles Phnom Penh in Cambodia where we had our first suite of two rooms, to the Le Sereno Resort in St Barthelemy where our cottage had an outdoor Jacuzzi that sat six, to the pampering Palms in Zanzibar, to our hotel within the Diocletian's Palace walls in Split Croatia.
From a drink (or three) overlooking the temples in Luang Prabang Laos, to coca leaf tea in Cusco Peru, to pisco sours in Lima Peru, to gigantic soft drinks in Paris (Are you SURE you want to order a large? it's really BIG!), to climbing through the city wall in Dubrovnik Croatia and climbing down the cliffside to a seafront bar, to the best pina colada ever at the Hyatt Pier 66 in Fort Lauderdale Florida, to coconut almond joy martinis at The View bar at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square New York, join us for our most memorable cocktails. (Yes, drinks/happy hour constitutes a meal!)
Dine out with us without needing your credit card at the exclusively Spanish-speaking Meson La Posada de Millian in Algeciras Spain, to the last-minute French Laundry reservation in Napa Valley California, to a coveted table at Alinea in Chicago, to some very-hard-to-get Manhattan reservations at Per Se, Blanca, Momofuku Ko, and Brooklyn Fare, to some tasty (and astoundingly inexpensive $1) plates of street food in Laos, to an entire trip to the Pacific Northwest planned around one lucky dinner at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island Washington (which the NY Times named one of the 10 restaurants worth a plane ride in 2011), to an unforgettable sampling lunch in the hills of Sirince Turkey, to our first bite of koshari in Cairo Egypt (which the locals found amusing), to experiencing a weekend fejoida feast in Rio de Janeiro, to a scaldingly hot peshawari dinner in Agra India that we had to eat with our hands, to accidentally tasting the "intestinos" on the mixed grill that we ordered in Colonia de Sacramento Uruguay, to mistakenly ordering the delicacy of fried chicken feet in Chinatown in Boston, to incredibly inexpensive and hearty potstickers in Hue Vietnam, to beignets in "the Big Easy", to deep dish pizza in Chicago, to tom yum soup and pad thai in Kanchanaburi Thailand (our guide Kun told us that Americans were chubby because they didn't eat enough spicy food!), to amazing airport sushi in Tokyo's Narita Airport, to veal peka (baked under an iron "bell") in Plitvice Lakes Croatia, to a dumpling banquet in Xi'an China, to eating pistachios while crossing the Bosphorus Sea from Europe to Asia, to "dirty water" hot dogs in Manhattan. (Can you tell that we love to eat?)
Marvel at our myriad and sometimes hilarious missteps along the way, particularly on our first trip to the Far East in India and Nepal, or when checking into our flight to Xi'an China we pronounced "She-an" like the Wyoming city "Cheyenne"), or when speaking to a native Brit Mr Jaeger and repeatedly asking if he had ever been to Africa, when he answered "Just Mali" more than once, to discovering our first squat toilet on safari in the Serengeti, to a couples massage in Siem Reap Cambodia where the therapists climbed all over us, to ridiculously painful foot massages in Bangkok Thailand.
We suggest that you wear comfortable shoes, keep an open mind, employ a good sense of humor, and bring half the clothes and twice the money that you think you’ll need. Enjoy our journeys!
We suggest that you wear comfortable shoes, keep an open mind, employ a good sense of humor, and bring half the clothes and twice the money that you think you’ll need. Enjoy our journeys!
Note: Our backlog of reviews is significant enough that our approach to posting is to write first, revise later. You’re bound to find errors and typos, so please contact us if you do. Our fingers simply can’t keep up with our travels!
Click on a tab at the top of this page to view our trips to a particular area.Map View of Where We've Been (Visited Countries Shown in Blue)
Tabular List of Where We've Been (Organized by Continent)
About Us:
Age late-40s
Married since 1996
No children
Two cats (Daisy and Lola, and their predecessors, Winston and Churchill)
Homeowners since 1995 (free and clear since 2004!)
TripWow: Our Slideshow on TripAdvisor LINK
Awards and Accolades
- Quoted in Fodor's Moscow and St. Petersburg, 9th Edition, "Word of Mouth":
- Experience Moscow and St. Petersburg Chapter: "In late August/early September, the weather was much cooler than we anticipated, so next time I would pack warmer clothes. I would also pack more stylish clothes; the Russians were beautifully dressed, and we stood out like the tourists that we are."
- Exploring Moscow Chapter: "[The] Russians were beautifully dressed, and we stood out like the tourists that we are next time I would pack more stylish clothes. It was fulfilling to see things that we had previously only read about, like the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, and Red Square; they were more amazing than we had ever envisioned!"
- Exploring St. Petersburg Chapter: "I thought the mosaics in [the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood] were the most beautiful that I've ever seen; very colorful and pleasing to the eye. The outside of the church has colorful onion domes, making this destination a must-see. This church abuts a canal, which makes for some pretty pictures with the church in background."
- Side Trips from St. Petersburg Chapter: "The fountains at Peterhof were amazing! The Grand Cascade is unbelievable! We spent at least two hours walking around the gardens viewing the more than 140 fountains. We loved the Samson and the Lion fountain, Golden Mountain (a smaller version of the Grand Cascade), Chess Mountain (with colorful dragons at the top). Peterhof is a not-to-be-missed sight, in my opinion."
- St. Petersburg Where to Stay Chapter: "We stayed at the Grand Hotel Europe in the City Center. We loved this hotel, and it was five-star all the way! There are myriad choices of restaurants (L'Europe, Caviar, Rossi, Chopsticks, Grand Terrace, Lobby Bar) and shops. "
