Market-Garden: Just Grass
In September of 1944, the German army in the Netherlands found itself in disarray. Only four short months prior, the Allies had stormed the beaches of Normandy, their relentless advance carving through France and now Belgium with an alarming haste. The recent capture of Antwerp, Europe’s second-largest port, brought them close to the Dutch border. […]
In Bruges
https://youtu.be/5mw6VCdR-LA In the flat plains of West Flanders, Belgium, Bruges was our first travel destination as expats in the Netherlands. We had been together a few years ago and while it is a town to enjoy as unencumbered adults, it was also a place that we were excited to show our kids someday. So when […]
#25: French Polynesia.
If there ever was a paradise on this earth, it is Polynesia. These islands, formed slowly over millions of years in a violent but invisible storm which still continues to this day; the inner crust of the earth heaving innumerable tons of liquid rock from the ocean floor, building undersea mountains which over these millenea […]
#24b: Belgium. Bastogne.
Pulling off of the road, I was not sure what to expect. As ‘war memorials’ go, usually there is some sort of informational signage or plaque to help guide you around. Here I was in what was maybe the most anticipated historical place of my entire life and I wasn’t sure if the small gravel […]
#24a: Belgium. In Flanders Fields
I’d have to imagine that they thought we were insane. The birds. With their tiny brains, flying overhead and looking to make a nest or forage for food over the once peaceful fields of Flanders, Belgium; but finding this an untenable task given that we had blown to hell every tree or useful remnant of […]
The Casita
The road from Las Vegas through the Mojave Desert is long. It is straight, and it is peaceful; one can go over 110 miles per hour in their car through these roads without attracting the attention of so much as a ground squirrel. Not that I would have done this on my trip out to […]
On Safari: The Maasai
Being in the backcountry of Africa had presented some incredible opportunities to witness things I never had. An elephant charging our car only to be shouted off by a tiny (by comparison) man with a big attitude. A patient cheetah stalking her prey for what seemed like hours, finally scoring a meal for she and […]
#23. Mexico. Olmecs and Pool Decks.
As a child, I was fascinated by that show ‘Legends of the Hidden Temple’. The one where the Silver Snakes battled the Blue Barracudas in super cool obstacle courses to uncover treasures while being hunted by hidden bloodthirsty native warriors. You know it if you are a kid of the 80’s. I’d hold my breath […]
#22b. France. The Moveable Feast.
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast. – Ernest Hemingway – A Moveable Feast For a nostalgist like me – Hemingway’s time in Paris seemed the perfect life. […]
#22. France. Day of Days
D DAY -1. H HOUR -14 Along the Loire River southwest of Paris was the frontier of Nazi Occupied France. To the south beyond it laid Vichy France, the people there still under the thumb of the Germans, but living to a certain degree more autonomously than the rest of their countrymen subject to the […]
