#travel

Mar 29, 2020

A Tad Sad? "The Lonely Tulip"

We spotted you across the field. It was April – tulip month. We were in Holland – divine. Dry dusty earth surrounded you in a sea of beige. Meanwhile, long majestic trains of purple tulips danced in the sunny wind only a few meters from where you stood – stranded, vacant, alone. How could it be that you were left behind? You stood tall in your royal purple, but what if you got tired? What friends could you lean on? No one. We fretted over you. We took photos of you. We

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Mar 1, 2020

...Beyond Grateful "When Did My New World Become My Old World?"

“Oh Caribbean Sea, I want to cup your warm sand in my hands, squeeze lime into my sugarcane juice. I want to hear indigenous drum beats, and pirates calling for rum. Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, and Dutch, oh Latin America, I want to learn all your colonial languages, and sleep under a mosquito net and fans. The Amazon and Rio Grande, I want to peer down into your rivery depths. I want to make friends with the colorful toucan bird, and gasp at the big anaconda sn

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Dec 31, 2019

...Eclectic "My 2019 Mash-Up"

2019 was a great year – at least in my arts & culture universe, a world decidedly far flung from the rough ‘n tumble of modern politics, climate change debate, and all other serious problems. The real world is tough right now. I get it. I feel it. If I can bring a temporary smile to someone’s face, to help them to remember to breathe, appreciate, and feel light, to help them escape from the real world for even just a moment – well then this blog has been successful. So, b

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Jul 2, 2019

...Floral Purple "New York Botanical Garden"

The saying goes that New Yorkers LOVE nature more than the city itself. After visiting NYBG (New York Botanical Garden), I’d agree. Situated in central Bronx, right next to the Bronx Zoo and Fordham University, and not too far from the storied Arthur Ave Italian neighborhood – it's clear this garden was fashioned with love. Standing at 250 acres, it reigns supreme as the largest garden in any US city. And it's an old garden. Founded in 1891, it continues to uphold a tradi

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Apr 22, 2019

...Black New York "Where Old Hollywood Starlets Go to Die"

Yes, yes, no need to tell me. What a morbid post. Let alone in the blossoming pink month of April. What can I say, my lovelies. Even in spring, some of us will keel over, slip away into a forever sleep, and reckon with the ancient Greek god Fate before our morning tea. Kerplunk! As former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “I cannot die washing a teacup!” Beautifully said. She died in 2013, aged 87, NOT washing a teacup. But back to glittery dying st

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Apr 13, 2019

...Happy "A Smile from Guatemala"

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" It is with great pleasure that I unveil my first guest blogger. Ms. Barbara, my dear friend, has graciously allowed me to post her thoughts, feelings, and impressions on her latest service trip to Guatemala in February. I may love to write about the Old World, but the New World is pretty amazing, too. I always tell Barbara that she has a heart of gold. Read below and see why. Let's fly those friendly skies to Guatemala. MUSINGS FROM

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Feb 10, 2019

...Moroccan "I Found You in a Teeny-Tiny Store"

Delicately pacing, over a creaky wooden floor no more than 12x14, I debated buying you. Incense came up through the floorboards – wafted out the windows. My big eyes gaped upon colorful, pointy-toed Moroccan slippers; and bohemian lanterns, and silver-framed mirrors with the smoothest of edges. “Palm trees. Dates. Fez. The Atlas Mountains.” My little pacing. My little chant. There you sat, dear one. But I didn’t buy you – as I’d already bought a Spanish journal the pre

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Dec 8, 2018

...Tongue-tied "Chilly Chile"

My latest travel article was published in InTravel Magazine's July/August issue. And below is my favorite photo from my first Chile trip. Here I am standing atop the San Cristobal Mountain in Santiago. Gorgeous view! Thank you, InTravel! #travel

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Nov 12, 2018

...My Old World Spain "Madrid, and Toledo, and the Prado, Oh My!"

Running hurly-burly through busy, noisy, even construction-filled city streets isn’t new to me. Back in my day, this New York City gal banged around the East Village of Manhattan – my proper black Ann Taylor high heels tragically out of place, but effective in running from over-zealous tattoo parlor owners intent on inking me up. I also once hid out in a café in Santiago, Chile – barely dodging water cannons and tear gas outside, the sound of student protesters filling my e

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Aug 19, 2018

...Sunny "I Glimpsed My Heart in Panama"

The dwarf palm tree was my friend that day. Its swaths of healthy green opened in a gorgeous five-foot-tall flourish – like a wondrous, tropical green rose. Instead of towering high above, the green v-shaped arms bowed in the heavy humidity, their tips almost touching the ground. It was Dali-esque – a perfect, quaint corner of botanical surrealism. My local Panamanian sales rep and I had just finished lunch inside – at the cafeteria of the Panama Canal Authority's corpo

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Aug 4, 2018

...Happy! "'Goin' Rogue in Spain' Wins Fan Favorite"

Thank you to everyone who voted!!! My article called "Goin' Rogue in Spain" was voted "Fan Favorite" for the May-June issue of InTravel Magazine. #travel

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Apr 23, 2018

...Alpine White "My Surprising Swiss Miss Adventure"

My first magical brush with the magical nation of Switzerland was surprisingly through Uruguay. It was early 2007. I flew from my New York City home down to Montevideo with my job. I was working for the research division of The Economist magazine called the EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit). We were hosting a government roundtable, where I was slated to meet President Tabaré Vázquez, future Vice President Danilo Astori, a healthy contingent of Uruguayan bankers and busine

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Jan 15, 2018

...Big City Girl (excerpt 3 from "this is not a memoir")

I am "starting" this new year by "finishing" with my third installment from my newly completed book called "this is not a memoir." I am thrilled to share it with you. It's a snippet taken from chapter 10 of this 21-chapter book. This book focuses on the comedic misadventures and triumphs of a "forty-year-old spinster writer." (Guess who?) I am on a fun (hopefully fun!) mission to get this book published. P.S. Before reading the below post, you may want to refer to the

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Oct 28, 2017

...All Traveled Out? "Never Say Never"

“I’ll have the PANINI!” my friend wailed to me from across the scary, run-down sandwich shop in Fresno, California. We had just spent an hour driving blindly in our rental car, our stomachs growling, through Fresno’s thick industrial wasteland. Imagine mammoth manufacturing plants and ghost-townish strip malls. We were two New York City gals longing for a sign that said “Harlem 125th St.” We could handle the small, crowded, even tough streets of New York City. But this?

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Jul 27, 2017

...Navajo Turquoise "My Land of Enchantment"

During these deep, under water days of summer, my mind wanders – to places I’ve never been, to things I’ve never seen. This summer, I’m all about New Mexico. As I sit on my 10th floor terrace and gaze out at large, healthy green trees swaying in a warm New England wind – me just a New England woman lolling with her 10am cup of English tea and French croissant – I daydream of exotic adobe homes and turquoise jewelry. I ruminate on a world thousands of miles away from my own

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Jul 16, 2017

...Big City Girl (excerpt 2 from "this is not a memoir")

The below is my second blog installment from my newly completed book called "this is not a memoir." I am thrilled to share it with you. It is a snippet taken from chapter 10 of this 21-chapter book. This book focuses on the comedic misadventures and triumphs of a "forty-year-old spinster writer." (Guess who?) I am on a fun (hopefully fun!) mission to get this book published. chapter 10 - b.c.g. Anyway, I became an adult in New York City. Outside of my language, philosophy

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May 7, 2017

...Big City Girl (excerpt 1 from "this is not a memoir")

The below is my first blog installment from my newly completed book called "this is not a memoir." I am thrilled to share it with you. It is a snippet taken from chapter 10 of this 21-chapter book. This book focuses on the comedic misadventures and triumphs of a "forty-year-old spinster writer." (Guess who?) I am on a fun (hopefully fun!) mission to get this book published. chapter 10 - b.c.g. I don’t know if you realize this, but I was forty once already. It was back w

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Aug 19, 2016

...Paas Pastel and Royal Red "The Fairy Tale Called Holland"

I love the U.S. Don’t get me wrong. I was born here in the '70s, grew up in a nice simple throw-back house built in the Baby Boom '50s. As a girl hailing from the little New England state of Connecticut, I attended excellent schools. And I reaped the rewards of the American Women’s Lib movement by playing the once "male only" sport of soccer. I lived near farms that produced strawberries in June and apples in September. (Mmm… I always loved warm apple pies in autumn.) I

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Jan 4, 2016

...Tropical "Even Nuns Wear Bikinis in Miami"

“MÁS SEXY!!!” Flashback: Coconut Grove, Bayside, South Beach at night while standing outside Gianni Versace’s former mansion – with neon green lights and techno thumps filling my eardrums thanks to the night club next door. Oh boy. Or should I say girl. Better yet DIVA! Now breathe… I love Miami for many reasons. It has lazy palm trees. They remind me of loungy, regal Siamese kittens in ancient Egypt (not to dash off to a different locale just two paragraphs in). Mi

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