The last week has been the most crazy stormy summer weather imaginable in Minnesota. One moment the sky is blue and then without warning enormous, black thundery clouds sweep in and take over the sky leaving us in a downpour of electric lightening and roaring thunder. It has been so wet that I haven’t even…
We arrived on the North Shore of Lake Superior mid-afternoon on a Thursday. The weather was perfect and amazingly cool compared to Minneapolis, just a few hours south. We made a few stops along the way to Gooseberry Falls and also pulled over to take a shot of the most photographed site in Minnesota, the…
The state of Minnesota may have some severely cold winters, yet one thing that makes up for it is the fact that we do have lakes. Lots of them. Recent estimates have put Minnesota’s lakes in the 11,000-13,000 range, depending on what you count as a body of water. Lakes not only provide us with…
I felt like I needed to spice my blog up a bit. Lately I’ve done an awful lot of posts on Minnesota and even have another one in the queue. When I started this blog it was mostly for sharing my stories and photos from traveling somewhere else. Yet I came to realize that many…
Last Friday, we finally had a sunny day! As they love to say in Minnesota, April showers bring May flowers. However, this year due to an extremely early arrival of Spring, things have played out a little bit differently. The flora that we would normally be seeing in mid-May has come about a month early…
View of Xela from the school roof. I woke up to the sound of the eternally barking dog outside my window, wondering for a moment where on earth I was. I checked my cheap plastic travel watch and it read 6:50 am. The sun had yet to light up my bedroom and I was exhausted…
Author’s note: This post was originally published on March 16, 2012. For some reason, it had attracted daily spam comments for one year straight so I moved it to drafts. I’m experimenting now by republishing the post to see if the crazy spanners from all across the world find it again. I enjoyed this post…
I landed in Guatemala City on an excessively windy day on Sunday, March 4th. After a fitful night’s sleep at a mediocre airport hotel I was ready to leave Houston and finally continue my way south to Guatemala. I had the usual feelings of excitement and anticipation which I always get before I land in…
Photo above taken on our last day in Auckland, New Zealand. The sun was shining warmly and spring was in the air. November 2002. Never in my life had I not wanted to leave a place and return home than during my two weeks in New Zealand. The pure beauty and laid-back, carefree life of…
We landed on the emerald-green South Island of New Zealand into sheets of rain. After three flights and twenty plus hours of flying, we had finally made to Christchurch, New Zealand. Middle Earth as it is known in the fictitious, yet sensational Lord of the Rings. The initial relief and excitement of finally arriving in…
Yesterday was a gorgeous winter day here in Minneapolis. The sun was shining brightly, launching its powerful, magical rays across the glittering white snow-packed ground. The birds were chirping cheerfully and it was unseasonably warm. Almost 40 degrees F which is considered balmy in Minnesota (if it is above 20 in January or February,…
Who ever said that getting there is half the fun is hugely wrong. Getting there or anywhere in China, alive, is the best part. Our young rookie cab driver testing it out. Officially there is one death every seven minutes (in China). Road crashes cost 1 percent to 3 percent of the country’s GDP…