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A Key West Merry Christmas, and a ‘You Matter’ Message
On the darkest day of the year, does anyone else have a case of the grims? The dictionary defines the word grim as unpleasant, depressing, and difficult to accept. Grim means you grit your teeth. Grim means you’re going to hate this. Grim means you can’t do anything about it. I suspect that ½ of Americans feel rather grim since November 5th, and the fact that the other half of America doesn’t seem much bothered by the grims makes it even grimmer for the rest of us. I checked with the grammar gods to see if I should use more grim or grimmer in that last sentence, and it turns out both work. I like the word grimmer better since it reminds me of dimmer.…
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Scotland: Edinburgh’s Best Buses, Boats, Bookstores, and Tour Leaders (ours!)
In most tourist cities there’s a hop on hop off bus option: Visitors hop on multi-colored double-decker buses outfitted with live guides or taped commentary, and then hop off to visit top sites. Sometimes hohos work well; often they’re slow or unreliable. Edinburgh’s hohos proved reliable and fast, so it’s no wonder Rick Steves, our go-to travel guidebook writer, recommended them. (note: Edinburgh has multiple hoho bus routes – we used CitySightseeing’s 48-hour option). In Edinburgh, we called Uber for short trips and to transfer hotels, but we liked the bird’s eye overview of Edinburgh’s parklands and hills the bus provided, as well as its two-mile Port of Leith loop. I was determined to board…
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SCOTLAND: Castles, Carvers, and The Royal Mile
Excessive dancing? Can there be such a thing? When Mary Queen of Scots returned to Edinburgh at the hopeful age of 23 she danced too much, according to party-pooper Edinburgh preacher John Knox. The last guy you ever want to invite to a party would be Knox, prominent Protestant Reformation leader, who replaced St. Giles Cathedral’s glowing rainbow-hued stained glass windows with plain clear glass. So much sin lurks in gorgeous glass, I suppose. Stained glass picture stories served as the poor person’s Bible of medieval times, so who gets rid of beautiful windows that helped illiterate peasants learn Bible stories? A sourpuss, I’d say. John Knox stood out in…
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Scotland: Outlander Castles, Villages, and More
The wheels came off this trip on the first day, literally, but that was after the cyberattack and the volcanic eruption. ‘Tis but a scratch, as Monty Python’s jesters would say. We finally made it! After visiting Duone Castle, above, where Monty Python and the Holy Grail scenes were filmed in 1975, we recalled those cheeky jesters, who made careers out of mocking life’s tribulations. What would they do in our situation? Why they’d laugh and carry on; it’s just a flesh wound. I mean, why waste some of life’s precious minutes whining about problems? Be like the joyful jesters. All right just a wee bit of whining, since the story’s rather…
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Scotland: Off to Solve Some Mysteries
I finally found Anna Shaw, but then she disappeared. Anna Shaw’s life is such a mystery. She’s one of my Scottish ancestors, prominently featured in the family notes, until….. she simply disappears. And she doesn’t just disappear from my family tree. Anytime she shows up on someone else’s family tree, poof. Nothing, except her name. Dead end. She came from Scotland, I know that, but from where? How? Why? How can one person leave so faint a trace? I discovered a few clues after going down the Ancestry research rabbit hole with a free two-week membership. I love learning the where, how, and why of the ancestors, but Padre, not…
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What We Learned in Singapore, Java, and Bali – and Merry Christmas 2023!
When our Mideast trip went ‘poof’ for obvious reasons, we thought we’d head somewhere warm and relax instead. A cruise to Singapore, Java, and Bali? Sounds good, right? It was beyond good, but it wasn’t the warmth and relaxation that stuck with us. Oh sure, we left our footprints in warm sand on distant beaches, and swam laps in delightful swimming pools. And yet…. We also toured temples, mosques, historical sites, and oodles of museums, and all that learning changed us somehow. The cultural richness of Southeast Asia intrigues us – did you know that ALL the world’s religions originated from here? – and now that we have returned home…
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ICELAND: Coastal Cruising, Myavtn Moonscapes, and What About Those Elves and Bad Santas? 
Cruise ships aren’t for everyone. Never-cruisers shake their heads over the horrors that must lurk aboard a Celebrity Summit-type monster ship, our home for a 12-day Iceland-to-Boston journey. I understand why people with normal reasoning abilities might not want to be smushed together below decks with 2030 passengers sharing plated dinners, swirly martinis, and viral loads.* I get that. (*About those viral loads: No cruising for us for a time, until those pesky loads calm down. More on that situation in an upcoming post). That said, never-cruisers will never watch as deckhands cast off hefty dock lines from immense iron cleats, or lean over a high railing to wave bon…
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Australia Easter: Convicts, Conquests, and Light in the Darkness
I’m having my own Sunrise Service here at sea, waiting for the sun’s rays to peek over the horizon any minute – I’m sure the captain up on the bridge is on the lookout as well. Padre plans to check out the passenger-led service later this morning, but you know Padres. They assess the ministering, just like teachers critique the teaching when they become the students. So I’m staying here to do my own Easter thing, and I’m sure I’ll hear all about it later. Padre has great fun attending the various offerings on board – yesterday, he went to one on men’s mental health (seriously) but he came back…
