Ways to be a better tourist that go beyond bringing your own water bottle and refusing single-use plastics. Considering ways to give back to the community you visit, or at the very least to do less harm when spending your vacation dollars.
My first visit to Athens was in 2008 on our way to a cruise of the Greek islands – which also included my first ever stop in Turkey. That trip, we visited the Acropolis ruins in the middle of a sweltering summer day and I was too hot and weary of the crowds to truly…
I opened my eyes and looked out past the lace curtain on my time-capsule 70s hotel room. Without needing to leave the warmth of my bed and its four layers of thick blankets, I could watch the morning fog roll down the side of the mountains surrounding my hotel in La Paz, Bolivia. My eyes…
One of the things I love best about traveling in a foreign country is the feeling of being out of my comfort zone. When I’m in a place where I don’t speak the language, every day tasks such as finding a good place for lunch, catching the right bus or trying to buy shampoo become…
We’ve been in Colombia for two weeks now and have just arrived in our 4th city (5th if you count a day trip to Guatape) so we have a bit of experience traveling around Colombia by bus, so I thought I would pass along a few tips we have picked up along the way. Getting…
When I mention to people that I’ve never been to Portland, they’re always surprised. It’s one of the great food cities of the West Coast, and it’s been on my radar for years but I had never gotten around to making an actual stop there for one reason or another. My cousin Daniel moved up…
The first time I can remember catching a real train (the Sugar Cane Train and the Pearlridge Monorail don’t count) was the summer after I graduated from high school, when I spent three months backpacking around Europe before heading off to college. My friend Meghan and I bought the Europass option that allowed us 8…
The 2014 AWP Conference took place this year in Downtown Seattle at the Washington State Convention Center. It was a great location, just minutes from the Pike Place Market and with easy access to public transportation to take you elsewhere if you desire. We were fortunate to have great weather the first day or so,…
For me, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Seattle – no, not Nirvana, grunge, or even good beer – is fresh seafood. Sure, it’s a bit corny that the fishmongers in Pike Place Market still put on their show for the tourists where they toss around huge salmon like a…
You might say I’m crazy. I just waited over three hours – in the rain – to stand in a room full of artificial rain for all of ten minutes. Oh, the irony. Sweet, sweet irony. Was it worth it? I have to say that it was. But not for the reasons I thought. I…
