Christmas Eve: On ice, ghosts & dreams

December 24, 2013 in Canada, North America, Travelogue

Ice is art when painted on a living canvas: A perfect curlycue of clear crystal clings to the tip of a wisteria tendril, hanging down from a beam of the […]

Winter Solstice: In which we are home.

December 21, 2013 in Canada, North America, Travelogue

At 5:00 p.m. it is solidly dark on Wolfe Island. At 5:00 a.m. it was also solidly dark. I was driving the long, straight stretch of highway 401, between Windsor […]

Family travel instead of holiday gifts, with Thomas Cook

December 17, 2013 in Inspiration

‘Tis the season to buy stuff, right? I’ve been asked several times in the past month “what we do about Christmas” and what we recommend giving as gifts to travelers. […]

Looking with new eyes: On home, and away.

December 16, 2013 in North America, Travelogue, United States

One of the reasons we travel is to see new things. To learn. To grow. To be stretched. To stand outside everything we thought we new and realize that there […]

The gifts we give: Reflections on presents and presence

December 11, 2013 in North America, Travelogue, United States

This time last year we were in Borneo. Orangutans, jungle walks and old head-hunter skulls for Christmas. We rented this house on stilts in Miri, on the border with Brunei, […]

On grumpy elf & ironing

December 9, 2013 in North America, Travelogue, United States

Perhaps the hardest thing about this friends and family tour through the midwestern United States is the pace. Eighteen sets of loved ones hugged tight within the past three and […]

Of fog, family and familiar things

December 3, 2013 in North America, Travelogue, United States

I-94 around Chicago is shrouded in fog. Not the pea soup kind that makes for white knuckle driving. This is the misty, ghostly kind through which leafless black trees reach […]

I am cold: And other news from the Canadian Rockies

November 26, 2013 in Canada, North America, Travelogue

The Canadian Rockies are spectacular. The bony plates along the spines of sleeping dragons, frozen in place under Jack Frost’s spell, curled head to tail in a pile of jagged […]

Notes from BC: Four days was not enough

November 19, 2013 in Canada, North America

The islands off of the northeast coast of Vancouver Island are not well traveled. A double handful of people live on the little dots of land that honeycomb the inlets […]

Re-Entry is kickin’ our butts: Or, the shortest post in the history of this blog

November 15, 2013 in Canada, North America, Travelogue

Re-entry is officially kicking our butts. We’ve been on terra firma in North America for about 63 hours now, following the worst red-eye flight ever. Here is the short version: […]