This summer we were given this great opportunity to travel to Alaska for some adventure and much needed family time. Luckily I had some summer time that I could devote to a little adventure before my big move to the Midwest for a new job. We flew into Anchorage and hit the road in our chariot (read RV), stopping to gawk at the amazing beauty of the glaciers, wild berries and scenery. In Seward we split so that half of us could go Halibut fishing and the other half of us visited the incredible aquarium in town, walked the shops and got some killer clam chowder. After this adventure we then hitched a ride on a Kenai fjords trip where we took in sights including puffins, sea otters (my favorite) and for a lucky few, a ... read more

Graduation time came and went, and in order to celebrate this milestone I have had the great opportunity to go to Disneyland! A childhood and adulthood dream come true! On the way we stopped and visited the Seven Magic Mountains "art" collection of rocks, the beautiful desert, a tortoise and the world famous Baker thermometer. Disneyland has proven to be much more and much different than I had imagined. We went on several rides including the storybook canal, It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, Haunted Mansion, and a few more. It's a small world - that about blew my brains out. It was just so much going on, it was complete sensory overload for me. To finish all of it off we waited and saw the Disney Parade of Lights which ... read more

Back in the good ol' United States just in time for Christmas in this winter wonderland that is to be found at the base of the Ruby Mountains. I learned a lot about myself, about Peru and about life in general on this latest trip. As is my way, I did learn most of these lessons the hard way. My lack of preparation, perhaps better described as complacency, is responsible for both our Bolivian visa saga as well my extreme altitude sickness. I did enjoy seeing the landscape and the differences between Bolivia and Peru as well as intra-country differences between the Lake Titicaca region, Machu Picchu and the Nazca area. Peru is definitely one of the more developed of the developing countries I've been to and I do believe that with greater investment in infrastructure ... read more

Right now I'm sitting at a beautiful restaurant in the town of Aguas Calientes which is the starting point to get up to Machu Picchu. The area is beautiful with huge mountain scene that is incredibly green right now in the rainy season and a beautiful river raging through the town. Okay so just a little background on my situation here. I have been extremely sick with altitude sickness. and I just share that with you not to get any pity but just to let you know that these things happen. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't but that doesn't mean you don't do everything you can to enjoy your trip. So today I paid for a late departure at the hotel and then tried to get a little more sleep. And then it ... read more

Hello! Today we are in Bolivia. It was an aweful trip to get here but we made it. The flight was awful but what really got me was that at the airport they charge you $160 American for a visa to get in and they won't take any twenties that have a single minute rip on them. So you already feel violated, like Bolivia does not want you here, having to pay this massive extortion fee and then they won't take your perfectly good money. Just to warn you think twice about a very short Bolivian trip. It is not cheap at all to get into this country. I made a rookie mistake and didn't check visa reqs before coming here as I've never needed them south of the border. Learn from my mistakes! We arrived ... read more