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Resolution
I don’t know if I’m afraid of heights, or afraid of getting down from heights–of not getting down–but when the guide said, it looks like rain, let’s start on the roof, I followed her up. Not wanting to miss anything, ready to add to my photo collection, eager to take in every nook and cranny…
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Walking the West Highland Way
Having enjoyed and endured twenty-five years of each other’s company in marriage, we thought it was time for a treat and rewarded ourselves with a trip to Scotland and a walk on the West Highland Way with our kids. I wanted one of those luxurious hikes where you spend the night at a cozy inn…
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Exchange Visits
My mother and my daughter left this week on a two-week trip to Germany, which has me remembering my own trip to Germany with my Oma. I was a year younger than my daughter is now, a high school junior rather than a recent graduate. The first part of the trip was a school trip–our…
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Navigational Accents (Last day in Buenos Aires)
I saw exactly one woman cab driver in Buenos Aires, the morning of our last day (a day reserved for an art museum and a nice lunch, before an overnight flight). I had planned to walk a bit further before flagging a cab–save a few pesos, get some exercise in anticipation of hours and hours…
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Little Notebooks
I always carry a little notebook in my purse. Just in case. Sometimes I’ll carry the same one for years, if it doesn’t fill up fast. When my kids were younger, there would be tic-tac-toe games or weird scribbles on the middle pages, if I’d handed over the notebook in a desperate ploy to entertain…
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Layover Butterflies
Sometimes the butterfly matches its flower. Or the rest stop accommodates the traveler, opens just the right amount of space, offers tasty cookies with that watery free coffee, anticipates what might seem like nectar in the middle of a journey. This is us making the most–the best–of a 7-hour layover in Chicago, enjoying the…
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Fictional Falls
Stories happen, or they’re found, or they’re built. Harvested, gathered, collected, constructed. Sometimes there’s an alchemy of memory and conversation. I wrote about waterfall words–in English and Spanish–in one of my earlier blog post, Iguazú Words. I was preparing for a trip to Argentina, thinking like a tourist (what are my must-sees?) and a…