Let’s Embark
While the definition of embark relates to boarding a vehicle, it also means to begin a course of action. As we go from moment to moment, day to day, year to year, new beginnings emerge as new phases, mindsets, commitments, relationships, and perspectives change and vary. This blog is a place to share my thoughts and insights on the various adventures and daily journeys on which I, and we, will embark.
Back at College (for the Afternoon)
The other day I went back to college. As a student. For 90 minutes. It was the quintessential autumn day. The kind where the leaves have just begun to turn color, some gently unhinging from their branches and wavering in the air before they hit the dirt below. Or...
Our Civil Rights Journey to the Deep South
Last year in my son’s eighth grade social studies class, they discussed the civil rights era but according to him, they were short on time and (as he explained) “kind of rushed through it.” So when the movie Selma came out last December, depicting the events that led...
Mindful in Morocco
It's hard not to be mindful of your surroundings in Morocco---the North African country that seems to emanate a wondrous overload of the senses. The sights, smells, tastes and sounds can be overpowering and beautiful, startling and thought-provoking. In a country...
Escapades in Aspen
When my daughter, Emily, announced she had one week off of work this summer when all kid activities are cancelled due to an annual sailing race, my mind immediately started working. “What will you do?” I asked casually. “Annabel and I are thinking of going away...
Savoring the Tastes of Puglia
For much of the past 25 years, when I heard someone mention Puglia, I could only think back to the music-filled and pasta heavy restaurant in Manhattan’s Little Italy, where I once threw my husband a memorable and ruckus birthday party before we were married. All that...
Adventures in Argentina: Buenos Aires & Patagonia
When the email arrived from my 20-year-old daughter, I realized she’d learned a few things about travel planning. The subject line read “Argentina”, and the attached Google doc was titled: “Our Plans” Nicole was spending the fall semester of her junior year studying...
Traveling to Find Your Roots
My father was Romanian. My mother is French. As a child, I heard many stories about life in their native lands. I was fortunate to journey with my mother to France several times, visiting the homes, towns, and the convent in which she lived as a hidden child during...
Eating My Way Through Astoria (yes, Queens)
When I signed up for a culinary walking tour of Astoria, I’d expected to learn about the neighborhood while ducking into some of its Greek restaurants. While I am happy to report that some Greeks do remain, I found instead an enlightening mélange of cultures and...
Rolling on the River
There are few things as thrilling as rolling on the river – whitewater rapids crashing against your raft, pushing and shoving as you fight to control the force of the water by digging your paddle deep into the river. It was our first time on northern California’s...
Travels to the Sunshine State
Two of the things I love most are travel, and time alone with each of my kids. A few years back, I wrote about the gift of those journeys and how much I, and they, gain from that time away together. (You can read that piece here.) The latest was a four-day jaunt to...
A Focus on Women and Art in Florence
In honor of women’s history month (March), a new walking tour focusing on women’s role in art has just launched in Florence, Italy. And isn’t it about time? A collaboration between Context Travel and the Advancing Women Artist Foundation (AWA), this small group tour –...
Botswana Beauty: The Okavango Delta
Sunday evening television was pretty sacred when I was growing up in the late 1960s and ‘70s. Although Laugh-In held the top spot in my house, I’ll never forget the mesmerizing wildlife images of Mutual of Ohama’s Wild Kingdom. Fast forward several decades and there I...
