Stories
Travel, food and wine, life, health, and the occasional sermon on perspective. Here is the latest – the rest, with other categories, is below.
The Latest
Wino Journal
Stories, logs, and blogs on moving on from a life of work and routine.
Notes On The Feeling Of Freedom
When I was 18, I left the house to go to college. I took with me all I owned, a duffel bag full of clothes, a guitar, and my bed to set up in my first apartment. For the next few years I lived in the moment. Now I’m over 50, done working, and have spent the last year roaming the world. I’ve gone from having nothing to having everything, and then intentionally back to nothing again.
Privileged Enough To Have Critera – On Where We Want To Live
I guess it comes down to this: I’m privileged enough to it have criteria. But, meeting all the criteria does not make life perfect. The right place, be it a dwelling or a physical location, is often a feel more than a place. There has to be a spark. There needs to be an emotion tied to it.
Adventure
Stories, logs, and blogs on our pilgrim journeys as we grab our backpacks (and a wine key) and walk through Spain, Italy, France, Scotland, and the great wine regions of the world – hopefully including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Argentina, to name a few.
Photo Journal – Via Francigena
A look back at 2 months living and walking 800km on the Camino de Santiago from France through Spain.
Pilgrim Journal – A Dirtbag Tour Through Tuscany And Other Notes
Here’s an example of one of the more surreal moments experienced on our travels, and other notes on our journey so far…
Finally A Real Airbnb Rating System
For some reason, we travelers seem to develop actual relationships with our lodging and hosts when choosing Airbnb, not allowing for honesty or even well adjusted direct communication. That, my friends, is an unhealthy relationship.
Yet Another Useless Travel Blog – Zadar
We just ended our time living in Zadar, Croatia for 2 months, and as I sit down to write about it, I honestly can’t remember a single thing about it beyond vague memories and fleeting mental images. So here you go…
Finally a real wine rating system
The thing I hate most about wine ratings is the thing that makes them what they are. Wine ratings are subjective. They are one person’s judgement of quality and don’t take into account what really matters – how much you drink, what you can afford, when to drink them,...
How to throw a sensory wine tasting
The whole idea behind a sensory wine tasting is to explore sights, aromas, and flavors of wine beyond just the simple look, smell and sip of casual wine drinking. In sensory tastings, the goal is to actually compare and contrast what you experience in the wine with...
More Stories
Urban Adventure Dublin
We had never been to Dublin and have been told by many of our friends that it was a must-visit. That, and Irish history has always been a bit of a blind spot for me that needed correcting.
Random thoughts and mostly useless observations on the Camino de Santiago
Here are only a few of my observations and random thoughts – with some explanation if I feel like it – on our experience walking the Camino de Santiago.
Photo Journal – Camino de Santiago
A look back at 2 months living and walking 800km on the Camino de Santiago from France through Spain.
CDS Day 1 – Failure, Food, and A Rainy Day Playlist
Please note, typed with my thumbs so be kind…bad grammar and misspellings are a certainty! It was a day of failure. See, I look at failure differently. Failure for me on this pilgrimage started with taking a bus on the very first leg from SJPDP to Roncesvalles due to...
Notes On The Feeling Of Freedom
When I was 18, I left the house to go to college. I took with me all I owned, a duffel bag full of clothes, a guitar, and my bed to set up in my first apartment. For the next few years I lived in the moment. Now I’m over 50, done working, and have spent the last year roaming the world. I’ve gone from having nothing to having everything, and then intentionally back to nothing again.
Finally A Real Airbnb Rating System
For some reason, we travelers seem to develop actual relationships with our lodging and hosts when choosing Airbnb, not allowing for honesty or even well adjusted direct communication. That, my friends, is an unhealthy relationship.
Yet Another Useless Travel Blog – Zadar
We just ended our time living in Zadar, Croatia for 2 months, and as I sit down to write about it, I honestly can’t remember a single thing about it beyond vague memories and fleeting mental images. So here you go…
Photo Journal – Croatia
A look back at 2 months living in Croatia
Another Useless Travel Blog – Rovinj
Make no mistake, I would hang out in Rovinj any day, and for a quick weekend on the beach or week at a resort, it’s top notch. It’s a really cool town to wander through. The history is incredible, the food is more than okay, and there is no way to not have a good time.
On Youth, Passports, and Consulates
Yeah, we had to visit a consulate to check a passport, but more noteworthy part was the encounter with the other American tourists while waiting in the secure seating area outside the consulate functional area, namely two lovely and young American girls.
