Travel Addiction

Ok. Really. Travel IS my true addiction. I'm in a constant state of getting over my last trip, or planning my next trip. Here are a few travel photos. There are always more being added...

Here I am in Costa Rica hiding from my tour leader by trying to blend in with the coffee plants.

Here I'm picking grapes off the vine in France. They were the sweetest grapes I have ever sampled. Ralph's mother and I picked pounds and pounds of them and pressed them into juice. I wanted to jump around on them like Lucille Ball did in that I Love Lucy show where she was making wine, but they wouldn't let me. We pressed them through cheesecloth. I know. I know. I would have been more fun to jump around on the grapes to make them into juice. Maybe next time.

Here I am after I fed my first stingray on the Cayman Islands. Now. The fish tried to nibble on my finger as it took off with the bit of food I was holding. I know. I know. That wasn't to be a part of the deal. I know. I know. It isn't like there is somone you can complain to when the stingray refuses to follow stingray etiquette.

I've just climbed up these rocks in Lagos, Portugal trying to escape the ever blowing wind. It's one of the few places on the beach where the wind can't really get you.

Rubio was the camel Cool-guy and I had a ride on. He seemed to enjoy posing for photos.... and put on a big smile every time our camera came out. Really. Walking around the desert on a camel isn't that much work. I mean. For the person riding the camel. Fun. Really fun.

Cool-guy and I were visiting Gran Canaria Island in the Canary Islands of Spain. We thought it would be fun to walk over the sand dunes back towards the ocean after lunch. Because. Come on. It was only about a mile walk. Um. I know. That would be only a mile if there weren't for all the up and down and up and down of the dunes. I figured it had to be closer to ten miles with the extra dune time thrown in there. After the first quarter mile I was hoping for a camel taxi to come along and save me from the walk. Um. No such luck. The ocean on the other side welcomed us for a nice, long swim.

I went with Mark and Lanie to Barcelona. Lanie and I spent ALL day searching for the La Merced holiday festivities. Man. We couldn't find them anywhere. At the end of the day we sat on a curb, heads low, feeling left out. There was a party going on, and we couldn't find it. Lanie kept asking if I were sure I could speak Spanish, because there was a general shrug of shoulders whenever I asked where we might find the festival. Nobody wanted to help us. Right then the parade started. Yup. It ended right at our feet. We got to see all the giant, dancing puppets and posed with our favorite.

Here I was in Park Guell in Barcelona, Spain. The artist, Gaudi, had quite a few pieces of art here. I sat down to play in the water with the hundreds of other people who were there to take a photo near the famous lizard. This little Spanish boy approached. Lanie picked up the camera. As if by magic, everyone backed away allowing Lanie to take photo after photo of me trying to talk the little boy into sharing the water with me. "But." He said in Spanish. "Who wants to play with water from a lizard's mouth?" Yeah. He had a point.

My new program, The Story in You, got off to a great start with my fifth classroom visit being to a first grade class in Kingston, NY. The students were concerned that I picked up the wrong pointer to use during the readback. I used the pointer for the "Star of the Week" rather than the regular pointer. After my massive begging, they let me used the Star pointer. Hey. Come on. It was all glittery. Who could resist? And be sure to read Column #164 The Story in You, Pinetop Arizona, which is about a high school classroom visit. Check it out!

Here I am in ShowLow, Arizona, a town named after a card game. The man who showed 'low' in a game of twenty one got to keep the town. I know. Nothing like a bit of wild west in real life. I stopped by to play a bit of cards with ghosts during my stay. (I lost.) The columns that go along with this visit include, #162, Foggy. Then Sunny. A Lot of Bathrooms. Oh. And. I Almost Got Arrested. , #163 The Steam Had Its Say, and #165 My Laughing Place.

Cool-guy and I traveled to Otto, North Carolina to visit his mother. Otto is known for having water spilling over rocks, everywhere you look. I happily posed for several waterfall photos. But. The real story here was getting to meet Tia Tiger, the pet tiger that a woman kept in her backyard. There's nothing quite like seeing the real wild right next door. Column #168 A Tiger Cures Fearlessness tells about our visit, which my boyfriend insists included the scariest moment of his life.

In Hawaii we hung with the green turtles on the beaches on the Big Island, played checkers with coconuts in Maui (pictured here) and explored forgotten beaches in Kauai. Check out the columns: #175: The Hawaiian Bikini Stumble, #176: Don't Drool at the Pool, and #177: Call of the Wandering Boy.

My college buddy, Rich, decided to drag my through New York City, insisting I could see the whole fruit in one day. Yeah. No. After twelve hours, we barely scratched the sidewalks.

In November 05 I went to Nappa to attend a conference at the Culinary Institute. I was sure to eat anything that was gluten and dairy free, and enjoyed seeing how insulted the famous chefs were when I asked if their foods had gluten in them....um...no...they cook their soups down...down...down till they thicken....no gluten necessary. Yum. Pure yum.

It was during Jan of 06 that I was coerced into trying snoeshoeing for the first time. The mountain was higher than enough, to put it lightly. I stopped to take photos every ten feet or so, but still found it difficult to breathe. Though the scenery was breathtaking (see previous sentence) this may be my last snowshoeing trip. How come nobody ever snowshoes where it's flat?

In April 06 I went to Venice to help Mark celebrate his birthday. Twelve of his closest friends from around the world met to help him ring in a new decade with everything from Italian opera, boat rides, multi course meals, to live music at his amazing party-of-the-century. Column coming soon.