One day I sat chatting with the children at the orphanage I volunteered at last year in Cambodia and I stuttered into a shocked silence as they casually stretched their fingers backwards—their fingers dipping so far back over the top of their hands with pressure that the tips could actually touch their arms. I had been at …
Happy Fourth of July from the Washington Monument in DC! An old friend of mine from middle school lives in DC while she undergoes training with the government, so I made a pitstop into the city to see her after staying in New York for a week. Being my first Fourth in the city, she …
I haven’t talked much about traveling through Cuba but this image is pretty iconic Cuba in my memories. The cities in Cuba are filled with crumbling houses once painted with an array of blues, yellows, and oranges but the wealth that built most of Cuba decades ago has simply faded over the years—zero maintenance and …
These children made me stop in my tracks when I was hiking through the remote villages in Guatemala—I can just exactly picture my three nieces and nephews in that same exact position and shooting those incredibly sweet grins (well, that baby’s not grinning, but the girls—too cute!). Part of what I love too are …
Ireland is one of those countries that I can’t help describing melodramatically; the country just speaks to my soul. On the Diamond Hill hike in Connemara, Ireland I spotted this sheep among the fully blooming purple heather. The hike brought to mind the lovely song, “Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go,” which I used to sing back …
“Umm, did you hear that sound?” I oh so casually asked Laura as we drove from Doolin—a quaint and inviting village on Ireland’s wild west coast—toward the Cliffs of Moher. Laura, partially deaf in one ear, paused to consider and definitively shook her head before re-launching into her story. But I couldn’t shake the nagging …
Ice cream dripped down my hand as I made my way to the small Fort Augustus bus stop—I was staring down the barrel of another long and drawn out travel day. I had strapped on both my backpacks, and with 20 minutes to kill before the bus arrived, I made my way to the grassy hill …
The faint lilt of a bagpipe rode the gentle breeze as I wandered to the main street of Fort Augustus. The town is small—tiny actually—and most of the action takes place along the Caledonian Canal, which feeds into Loch Ness. This is a busy passageway through the area since the canal connects several of the …