Grazing Through Macau

Written by Karen.

We are nearly up-to-date with our blog....we will be posting our latest experiences from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Hong Kong shortly.  But today we went to Macau, China for the day.

Courage In The Streets

 

Written by Karen.

The sun wasn't going to be denied by the shade of the purple jacaranda tree much longer.  It fully intended - as it did every day by 10:00 a.m. - to reclaim the entire community plaza with its unrelenting heat and bright sunlight. 

Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

Written by Adam

There’s just something about being in Puerto Vallarta.  We’ve been there a couple of times before, but in a flash somehow ten years suddenly passed by since our last visit, so we were really looking forward to a two month long revisit after spending a couple of months being on the road in Europe.  

The Norwegian Map Comes Alive

Written by Karen.

We left Averøya early in the morning for one of the several ferry rides we would take on this day.  Our day-long road trip was ambitious - more than 450 driving kilometers in total - but with a car full of five adults and plenty of cakes and coffee packed in the back, we knew that we would be having a great time together.   And, we would be seeing some majestic scenery along the way.  

Grinning Like a Fool

Written by Karen.

My grandfather's family in Norway comes from a long line of fishermen and farmers. While I have always liked scraping the mud from beneath my fingernails and coaxing plants to thrive, I've never been one to grab a fishing pole.  It wasn't so much that I didn't like the activity, but it just didn't seem to have much of a payoff.  What was the point? There never seemed to be any fish caught at the end of the day.  

Land of the Midnight Sun

Written by Karen.

Norway. The Land of the Midnight Sun. A place that makes me feel personally grounded and at ease like few others.  Norway is where my grandfather on my dad's side was born, before leaving in the 1920's to find a way to support himself in the United States.  

The Birds and the Trees in Berlin

Written by Adam
Berlin sure is an interesting place to discover.  One of the things that struck me about it was how truly green it was.  There were dense groves of trees and massive bushes everywhere, easily visible from above when you fly into Tegel Airport.  Once safely on the ground, the unrestrained botany does not let up.  Neither did my allergies, but that was on an earlier visit and I’ve forgiven the German landscape for that casually inflicted agony.  

In the Mood for Some German Food

Written by Adam

Okay, let’s just cut to the chase and get the awful and ugly stereotype out of the way right now:  German food is often described as being heavy, porky, laden with fat, salt, and calories, it's gloopy, and thus only suitable for providing the caloric energy to fuel hard-working farmers clearing rocks from a field just in order to plant the potatoes.

Cologne, Germany

Written by Adam

I’ve been to the City of Cologne twice now within the past five years.  Both times I arrived with Karen by taking the high-speed ICE train from Berlin.  After crossing the verdant German countryside for the greater part of a day, suggestions of Cologne suddenly begin to appear upon the landscape.  Close to the edge of town is a huge sports arena. 

Living in a Tiny House on Wheels

Written by Karen.

We have lived in two tiny and mobile houses recently. Our first tiny rolling home was our 1984 VW Vanagon named Chinook, which we drove around the western United States for several months.  Our second mini home on wheels was our rented 1990 VW Vanagon camper van named Otto, which we recently drove around Germany and France for three weeks.  Although there are age, interior style and functionality differences between the two Vanagons, these cousins do share an interior footprint of approximately 115 square feet.