Posts with the category ‘Photos’


In Sedona Everywhere is Beautiful

April 28, 2013

Sometime during my walk in Sedona’s Slide Rock State Park, an elderly man who had been walking on the path nearby looked at me and sighed, “Everywhere is beautiful”. He had dropped a few words from the sentence, but I knew what he meant. Everywhere you looked, there was something beautiful to see and his comment has become the caption to my memories of Sedona. We visited Slide Rock because of my husband’s sentimental attachment to a drive he made in his youth. Shortly after getting out of the Navy, with a new convertible sports car and a beautiful girl in the right seat, he’d… Read More…


In Time for Earth Day, Grand Canyon Locomotive Goes Green

April 21, 2013

If you are looking for an inspiring place to spend Earth Day, where better than the Grand Canyon where the reasons to protect the environment fill the eye in every direction? Four and a half million people from all over the world travel to see where history, geology, biology and botany come together in Nature’s most glorious classroom. So I felt very good indeed when I visited the canyon earlier this week on the earth-friendly Grand Canyon Railway, because this April 22nd, its historic steam locomotive will be chugging from Williams, Arizona to the Grand Canyon Railway Depot powered entirely by reused vegetable oil.  It… Read More…


Part 2 – Autumn Between Summer and Winter

December 10, 2012

(Read part 1 of this post here) In the Franconia region of Germany the Main River separates the towns of Sommerhausen and Winterhausen. A bridge connects them. This is a metaphor for the communities themselves. They are distinctly different in a way that complements both. Winterhausen is architecturally appealing and a beautiful place to spend a few hours aimlessly exploring the twisty cobblestone streets, but the absence of public accommodations, (I counted one bakery and one pub) leads me to believe it is primarily residential – maybe a response to Sommerhausen’s outgoing “drink our wine, visit our galleries” vibe. But stroll or bike along the… Read More…


Helping Fuel a Sustainable Business in Oil

November 4, 2012

The smaller the world gets, the harder it it is to discover something truly unique. So I was excited when on a recent trip to Morocco with Access Trips, I was able to visit the Assous Argan Oil Cooperative about 40 miles east of the coastal city of Essaouira. Previously unknown to me, I learned the Argan tree grows in only a few places in the world and only produces a nut here in Morocco.  The tree drops its fruit in the waning months of summer after which it is roasted and pressed and turned into some really delicious oil. Did I say delicious? I… Read More…


You Are Invited to Autumn in My Little Town

October 10, 2012

If you are one of the 14 million people living in the New York metropolitan area or even one of those who will visit the region this autumn, here’s a tip; Set aside a day, hop on the MetroNorth train to Connecticut and visit Old Greenwich, my little town. For the entirely reasonable price of around $8, an electric train will carry you from the congested chaos of the city to the tranquil Nutmeg State and voila! there you are in New England. Didn’t think it could be so easy did you? You can thank me later. The mantra in our home from the beginning of September… Read More…


Stamps Prove An Air Travel Truth

I’ve written before about my affection for the photo series Earth from Above by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. So I was alert when I read this quote from Joseph Corbett of the US Postal Service. “Once you’ve seen the world from above, you never look at it quite the same way again.” He’s right of course. Corbett makes this observation by way of introducing a new series of postage stamps that show us the world as viewed from airplanes and satellites. The artists who put together this beautiful collection of stamps have taken familiar subjects and given us a new perspective by with a top down angle…. Read More…


The Story of the Friend I Did Not Know

September 18, 2012

Over rice and barbequed eel, Takeo Aizawa remembered the day the bomb fell on his hometown of Nagasaki. He was only six and sitting in his 1st grade classroom when the air raid signal went off. All students were told to go home at once. “Some of the older boys grabbed me by the collar,” he said, demonstrating with his hand at the back of his neck, “and they delivered me to my house.” There his mother took him and his three younger siblings into the garden where they sat out the attack in their homemade bomb shelter, a large hole dug into the dirt…. Read More…


Providence In a Word. GO!

July 31, 2012

When I told the folks I met in Providence, last weekend, that it was my first real touristy visit to their city, even though I lived right next door in Connecticut,  they were not surprised. Seems news about the spectacular renewal in Rhode Island’s capital city skipped right over us here in the Nutmeg state.  I was told all the first time visitors from Connecticut are equally surprised. Judging from the number of people who crowded onto the walkways lining the rivers in Providence on Saturday night, everybody who is not from Connecticut already knows that tiny Providence is not-to-be-missed. Let’s start with the reason… Read More…


Let’s Get Loud in Beijing -Together

June 13, 2012

I couldn’t know it at the time, but that dinner served to me on Air China Flight 982 to Beijing would typify my experience during my week long stay here. It was an unassuming little plate of vegetables, cooked vegetables, not my favorite way of eating greens frankly. But I took one bite and was pleasantly surprised. They were delicious. On first glance, Beijing is the same way, vaguely familiar as large urban centers are anywhere in the world, some traditional buildings, some modern, some over-the-top, “what was that architect thinking?” and lots of people. This is China after all. It’s the second glace, the… Read More…


How Many Chinese Does it Take to Build a Great Wall?

June 6, 2012

There are two ways to get up to China’s Great Wall at Mutianyu, north of Beijing. One can climb the 2,500 feet to get to the access point or do as I did and take the cable car. Later, after more than an hour on the wall, as I gasped for breath and did a hand-over-hand final push to scale the last steps to the point where further access was restricted, I realized I’d made the right decision by riding the first leg. That I, a woman who walks 4 miles every day before breakfast, was puffing like a steam engine on the final stretch… Read More…


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