If there’s one thing that scares me more than losing a toe to a piranha, it’s the threat of regret. After a day spent eating grubs and swinging on jungle vines and visiting with pink river dolphins, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling of wanting to swim in the Rio Negro. So as the sun set over the tea-colored Amazon, in I went.
Day # 11,051: Our second day in the Amazon, and breakfast proved to be much more entertaining than I had imagined: the lodge does a great job of serving up local Amazonian cuisine, and breakfast was one of the highlights. Fried plantains, tapioca pancakes made from the ubiquitous local manioc plant (points for style, but […]
My younger sister S is one of my Absolute Most Favorite People of All Time Anywhere. We used to share a room growing up, and when we’d inevitably fight over you-stole-my-this or stop-looking-at-my-that, our mother would come into our room, hands on her hips, and say: “Girls. You are SO lucky to have your best […]
Day #10,294: The alarm went off an hour before the wet winter’s sun rose in Punakaiki, New Zealand. I wanted to visit the Pancake Rocks at sunrise, when high tide meant the famous Punakaiki Blowhole would be at its blow-iest. Armed with a giant umbrella and two paper cups of surprisingly delish hotel room coffee […]
Day #9,473: One of the things that struck me most about Africa- this being my very first international trip- was the lack of warnings. No ‘Stay Back From Cliff!’ or ‘Slippery, No Running!’ or ‘May Cause Cancer!’ South Africa requires you to be adult about things; it expects you’ll make sane choices and leaves you […]
Day # 10,654 1/2: My favorite aspect of Balinese Hinduism is the strong belief in karma, which is why the terrorist attacks that occurred in Bali in 2002 and 2005 (violent Islamist groups set off several bombs in tourist areas, killing hundreds) were even more of a shock to the locals- they just couldn’t imagine why […]
Day #10,654: On our first full day in Ubud, the central mountain village of Bali, we hired a driver to take us around the island. It’s really not as bougie as it sounds, promise. Because Balinese streets either don’t have names or have multiple different names, it’s kinda impossible to drive yourself around. Plus, it’d […]
Day #10,338… (and kinda 39): The Outback. We could see it as we descended from our jostley flight across Australia: a huge expanse of brick-red peppered with silvery explosions of desert shrubs. Feeling like Adventurers in the truest sense of the word- due in no small part to surviving the flight… I always feel a […]
Day #11,040: Like all last days of vacation, this one had a twinge of that Sunday Night feeling. When you start mentally prepping for a return to real life and making checklists and generally acting more serious than being on vacation should merit. To combat this, Mr. M & I went on a morning hike […]
Day #11,039 (Bernese Oberland, Switzerland): At 6:13am, I rolled over in bed and- only 25% awake and an hour shy of the alarm- realized there was a golden ray of sunshine stealing into the room. Oh. My. Gaw!!! I leapt out of bed, threw open the curtains (sadly for Mr. M, who would’ve been just as […]