Category: Oh, The Places I’ve Gone!

50 (or is it 48?) states, 28 countries, 1 overseas territory, and always on the move. Check out some of the stranger places I’ve been at my Atlas Obscura profile.

Sixteen Things for Sixteen Years

Did you know that Montenegro (tied with Serbia) is the world's third most recent sovereign nation? Montenegro split off by a referendum in which 55.5 percent of people voted for independence. The threshold to approve was 55 percent. As you might imagine, people still hold many strong feelings about this decision on both sides of … Continue reading Sixteen Things for Sixteen Years →

Cards and Tests and Masks, Oh Yes!

Since the saying is "thank god for...", it's tempting to start this post with "thank god for vaccines." But "thank science for vaccines" is the more logical statement, even though it doesn't roll off the tongue naturally. In any case, yay, vaccines! Thanks to science, I recently took my first international holiday since the start … Continue reading Cards and Tests and Masks, Oh Yes! →

Return to The Top of The World

I've had a pretty rough spring/early summer. As long-expected as it was, the death of my dog affected me more than I wanted it to. Lingering in bad feelings is not my thing. I'm very much a "life is too short, buck up and move on" kind of person. But my subconscious fought me on … Continue reading Return to The Top of The World →

And I Would Hike 500 More

When I started tracking my unique hikes a few years ago, Trotsky and I took 107 weeks to do 100 of them. This time, we really put ourselves to the task and crushed the goal in 91 weeks. And that's despite a six-month period when we did almost none. I reached a kind of hiking … Continue reading And I Would Hike 500 More →

Time to Move On

For more than a decade, I tried to leave Colorado. When I arrived in August 2008, I planned to get my graduate degree and immediately head back overseas to work in international development. Yet somehow, that never happened. Jobs, romantic relationships, friends, the writing community, athletic aspirations, and financial goals all conspired against my inner … Continue reading Time to Move On →

The Vacation Non-Race

Last week, I returned from a much needed vacation to Glacier National Park. This was supposed to be our annual girls' trip to run a half marathon with Vacation Races, but, unsurprisingly, the race was canceled. We sat tight for awhile, watching to see what would happen with the state and park. On June 1, … Continue reading The Vacation Non-Race →