After leaving Sarah to her fate (she is safely back in the US), Jess and I headed south to Moneglia, a tiny seaside town on the coast between Genova and the more famous (and once-upon-a-time quaint) Cinque Terre. Our goal was to slow down and relax for a few days. Mission accomplished. Honestly, there’s not much to say. We took […]

Last week, after finishing our alpine adventures, Jessica, Sarah, and I headed south to the Piedmont region of Italy. Specifically, we set out to trek from town to town in the region around the city of Alba, an area famous for its Barolo wines, rare black and white truffles, and for being the birthplace of Nutella. Sadly, I actively dislike […]

WARNING: Take your time with this one. There’s a LOT of photos. After our adventures in Milan, we were looking forward to a more straight-forward (and less disastrous?) time in the Valle d’Aosta, the area of the Italian Alps bordering France and Switzerland. Three years ago, Jess and I had hiked from hut-to-hut and town-to-town in Switzerland, following the “Hiker’s […]

Well, I didn’t intend to write another post until after our first hiking expedition, but it turns out our first day in Milan was more intense (and our stay in Milan a bit longer) than expected, so I thought it was worth sharing. Let’s cut to the chase — Sarah got pickpocketed. If you don’t know, Jessica and I met […]

The last few weeks have been spent visiting family in St. Louis (mine) and North Carolina (Jessica’s) as well as a few friends. It’s been over a year since we saw any of these folks in person, so it was really lovely to have these reunions. I’m not going to bore you with too many family details (sharing my feelings, […]

Driving to St. Louis we stopped overnight in three different locations. Our goals were (1) to see a bit of the beauty of the west, (2) to get a bit of exercise, (2b) to make sure Jessica kept up her 10,000 steps per day streak, (3) to avoid the heat of the middle of the day, and (4) to make […]

We left Santa Cruz to start our year away from home (Jessica’s sabbatical, my year-long leave) in late June. The first leg of our journey involved a cross-country drive from Santa Cruz, CA (home) to St. Louis, MO (my parents) to Asheville, NC (Jessica’s parents) with the eventual goal of leaving our cats with Mark and Sue in North Carolina. […]