Pam

Seeing the world. For so many "grown-ups", the idea of the gap year, bugging out, putting it all in storage is the stuff of post-college. Youthful 20-something types who don't care about carrying a pack or sharing a dorm room get to do this, not people with responsibilities or jobs. For those of us with homes and families and obligations, it seems so far out of reach. Now that we're 30, or 40, or 50 ... it's just not something we can do. I will never tell you that everyone cantravel even while I believe that everyone should travel -- that it makes us better humans. There are a million good reasons why you might not be able to travel. I believe that. But often, the reasons people give for not traveling are a reflection of their priorities, not actual obstacles.  Read more >

This morning at the breakfast buffet, I did something a little weird. After I'd emptied the rest of the sugar packet into my second cup of coffee, I filled the little brown package with salt, folded it in half, and tucked it into my wallet. That seemed a better thing to do than stealing borrowing the cheap plastic salt shaker, though I suppose I could have just asked the waitress, who surely has seen restaurant patrons do odder things in her time, for a dish of salt.  Read more >

In the Washington State Park system, there are a handful of places that offer you more than a flat patch of dirt on which to pitch your tent. You can rent a yurt, a little round house on a platform, complete with bunk-beds, outlets, and oh, my, electric heat. A few springs back, we spent a delightful weekend on the south Washington coast, caring not about the weather, which was (this being Washington State) completely unpredictable. We also stayed in a yurt with a billion-dollar view in Hana on the island of Maui -- this one had a little kitchenette and, just outside, a bathroom that was private but open to the sky. It was indeed paradise, possibly the quietest place we've ever stayed, the sound of the ocean interrupted only by the sound of the rain on the little skylight dome.  Read more >

WOW! The planet is showing us who's boss, that's for sure. The global web of airplanes has been brought to a halt because of a volcanic outburst in Iceland. Chaos is reigning across Western Europe [today], with hundreds of flights canceled due to volcanic ash sweeping across the continent. The pulverized rock and glass from the Icelandic Eyjafjallajokull glacier volcano is harmful to the engines of airplanes, apparently. -- Gizmodo (Go on, for fun, say the name of that volcano out loud: Eyjafjallajokull.) WOW!  Read more >

Weather, it's such a critical -- and uncontrollable companion in our travels. We pack for it, plan for it, pick activities that are right for it and sometimes, because it's weather, there's no cooperation from the other side. Pick a snowy mountainside where it's meant to be deep powder or a beachy tropical place, or anything in between, drop the temperature into the 50s or below, and add rain... your day out doors is, well, it's not how you'd planned, is it? Still, you're on vacation, what are you going to do? Any number of things, it turns out.  Read more >