Author: Lisa

Secret views and maritime history in Greenwich

Secret views and maritime history in Greenwich

Three weeks in London has given us the luxury of time — time to just wander around and see what we find. On our first visit to Greenwich, I was intrigued by the narrow, hilly streets, cute rowhouses, and little shops that I spotted from 

The best free / cheap things to do in London

The best free / cheap things to do in London

London is expensive. Finding free or cheap things to do is tricky — you’ve got to be creative. At least the majority of the national museums have free admission for their permanent collections, so you can always duck inside on a rainy day. But maybe 

Brighton…looks like all there is to do here is shop, eat, and drink…?

Brighton…looks like all there is to do here is shop, eat, and drink…?

We settled into the train with a sigh of relief. We’d made it: woken up before noon, even gotten out of the house at 9am on the dot, navigated tube closures (damned UK planned maintenance, why can’t you let problems build up then fix them 

The best views of London

The best views of London

All the guides say that the best way to arrive in Greenwich is via water taxi. Why not depart Greenwich via water taxi instead? And you’ve got to go to Greenwich. Before the London Eye was built, one of the best views of London was probably 

Where is next?

Where is next?

Over the past eleven months, we’ve thought a lot about what we want to do and where we want to be after our trip, and we’ve made a decision. Well, we’ve made a decision for a year, at least. It feels too scary to commit 

First impressions of London

First impressions of London

First impressions…are usually wrong, but sometimes right. My first impression of London is that it’s a mashup of Paris, Chicago, and Boston. Everything is truly becoming global: if we wanted, we could watch only American TV shows, drink only Budweiser, and eat at Subway, KFC, 

Things we’ve missed

Things we’ve missed

This isn’t about places we’ve missed — it’s more about the simple things we’ve missed. The things that you take for granted, the things that are there every day, the things that you don’t miss until you don’t have them. On our last night in the 

Our last night on the road

Our last night on the road

We didn’t intend for this to be our last night on the road. The plan was to break the Kansas drive into two days; to arrive in Kansas City on Monday. Then Friday started with a stupid, foolish fight about…cleaning the windshield. Fight summary: we 

Falling into canyons at Black Canyon National Park

Falling into canyons at Black Canyon National Park

I keep having this recurring nightmare: Paul and I are standing on the edge of a canyon. One after the other, we fall in. Paul falls in, then I fall in. I fall in, then Paul falls in. Over and over. Sometimes we fall in 

Hello to an old friend at Colorado National Monument

Hello to an old friend at Colorado National Monument

I’d made my peace with saying goodbye to the desert at Dinosaur National Monument. Then we made a last minute swing through Colorado National Monument and my composure was shaken; my closure was ruined. You know how it is: you’re moving out of town and 

Cross-country bikers and meteors lead to a serious case of introspection

Cross-country bikers and meteors lead to a serious case of introspection

We met our first cross-country biker of the trip in Baker, NV. We’ve seen plenty of serious bikers on the road and have heard about others (my parents’ friends’ daughter and son-in-law recently completed a trip from Syracuse to San Francisco, you can read about 

Dinosaur National Monument gives us the perfect desert goodbye

Dinosaur National Monument gives us the perfect desert goodbye

Yes, Dinosaur National Monument has dinosaur bones. The best bones have long been removed and placed in museums, but they’ve left a few in place to illustrate the amazing forces that made these bones find-able in the first place: first, lots of animals and dinosaurs died in