Alaska, here we come. In seven months, anyway. It wasn’t intentional. I mean, sure, I’d been eyeballing post-Labor Day flight deals, thinking maaaaaaaaaybe. Maybe it’ll be safe to travel by then. Maybe we’ll be vaccinated by then. Maaaaybe. But I still held off from...
It seems weird to think that Mr. Pretty and I had just come back from Jamaica at this time last month, and now the entire world is shut down in response to a global pandemic. While I’m entering my fourth week of working remotely (I’m referring to my dining room as my satellite...
I have seen Friday the 13th and its various sequels (and a zillion other slasher films) more time than I can count–so I know how it goes: it’s always the naked girl in the shower at the isolated campground bathroom that gets killed. So it was with some trepidation–and not a...
I am a delicate flower. The idea of sleeping in a tent with a rock for a pillow, sharing bathroom facilities with strangers does not sound appealing to me. Like at all. Yet I occasionally feel bad for Mr. Pretty, who has been collected camping equipment for many years, all without an...
It’s a real weird time to be flying in and through the United States. About 53,000 TSA employees; 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and officers; and 22,790 air-traffic controllers aren’t being paid but expected to show up to work because of the #TrumpShutdown. Now, about...
If you grew up in the Philly area the Jersey shore is the vacation destination. Chances are that you either spent a summer working down the shore, or your family rented a house there regularly. I grew up farther away, so heading to New Jersey to a beach still seems like a treat (even though...
Some people are born lucky. Some are most decidedly not. Me, I’m pretty lucky most of the time, and that extends to traveling as a nonrev. Over the last several years I’ve taken nearly 80 flights and flown enough miles to circle the Earth around seven times. Until this year...
Queuing up for food makes me suspicious under normal circumstances. I see people getting in line, and I’m positive that whatever is so popular has to be overrated. Of course, I learned my lesson in Budapest at Bors GasztroBár that sometimes those queues are worth every single second of...
There’s this image of people who travel a lot as lean, rugged backpackers, battle-hardened, impervious to conditions. Yeah, I’m not that kind of traveler. I’m a delicate flower. Roughing it is not something I look forward to, and taking trips to places where the temperature is...