The food experience in Gujarat definitely merits its own post. For starters, it was all vegetarian, all the time. What was surprising was how many different distinct dishes they could make out of...
Travel
On the day we arrived they were doing Mehndi for the ladies. Mehndi is what we would call a henna tattoo in the States and is very common before an Indian wedding (for both the bride and the women...
Nothing excited me (or freaked me out) more than the clothes. I was given this basic information in advance: – There will be five events over three days. – People change clothes for every...
Hello Readers! This is the 5th and final installment of my Gujarat Wedding series. Today’s post will be on the various ceremonies that we got to witness as guests. I’m gonna be honest, I...
Cairo Hi — This is Nia and I’m writing my first blog post ever. It was my idea to do a post and I’m really excited about it! This blog post is about my trip to Egypt last week. I...
As you learned from Nia’s post yesterday, we just returned from a seven-day-trip to Egypt. And I definitely agree with Nia, it was a pretty fantastic trip. It’s just impossible to do...
It was truly an incredible trip folks. Egypt really does live up to the hype. Nick did a great job crafting our eight day/seven night trip. We worked with a tour company called Cleopatra Tours out of...
Hello again. Hopefully you aren’t sick of Egypt yet, as I still have one more post to do. Here are the first three in the series, in the event you missed them: Nia’s Blog Post (As in, Nia...
After 35 days away, I am finally reunited with my family and back in my own bed again! And boy oh boy does it feel good. As you might imagine, being away was quite novel at first… no demands...
Greetings all – The Novaks are a little over halfway into our month-long R&R trip. We kicked things off by parting ways in Mumbai with Nick heading to South Africa for two weeks of diving...
Twas the night before Disney and wouldn’t you know it, a frickin’ tornado hit the cabin, took down 10 trees and forced my parents to have to back out of the trip. There were lots of tears...
Like many children, I have strong memories (and emotions) tied to Disney World. My first visit to Disney World in Orlando, Florida took place in the Fall of 1991. I was 11 years old and not only was...
We just wrapped up our fourth and final week of our 2019 R&R trip in a place that was about as opposite as you could get from Minnesota and Florida–Innsbruck, Austria! We found a lovely...
What do you think of when I say the words “Hare Krishnas”? Most likely, you think of orange-clad devotees singing and proselytizing in airports in the 1970’s. And yes, you’d...
We were delighted to welcome our first visitors to India last week — my parents! Since all of us are working full-time, we had to jam a month’s worth of fun into a 10-day-trip. Thankfully...
Hi – This is Nia. This is my second blog post. We got to go to Bhutan last week and see this really cool Dzong (or fortress) in Punakha. I’m going to tell you about it in this post. And...
Happy Holidays all. I hope things are grand in your world. We just wrapped up a one week trip to Bhutan, also known as the Kingdom of Happiness. Since most people haven’t been to the Kingdom, I...
As I’m sure you can tell from the pictures and blog posts I’ve shared thus far, Bhutan as a whole was pretty darn special. However, there are three experiences we had that stood out from...
A lot has happened this I last wrote from Bend. In late May we decided to make a cross-country trip from Bend, Oregon to St. Paul, Minnesota. We broke it up into six days and took a day of rest in...
I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. Forgive me. It’s just that I don’t feel much like writing lately. Mostly I blame COVID-induced malaise. And the fact that I’m rarely without my...
HELLO READERS! I’m back. Yeah, I know. I’ve been gone awhile. I swear, I wanted to write, I really did. I knew I SHOULD write, that you’d be wondering what I was up to. But I just...
I bet you didn’t know that Iceland has it’s own set of islands just off the Southern Coast! They’re called the Westman Islands (also referred to as Vestmannaeyjar). The largest...
Remember when I said in my last post that Nia and I were most excited about seeing Puffins and Icelandic horses on this trip? Well, not so for Nick. Ever the adventurer, he decided his “must...
Yes, Minnesota may be the land of 10,000 lakes but I think Iceland should get it’s own distinction: “Land of 10,000 Waterfalls”. I kid you not, there are waterfalls EVERYWHERE here...
In the second week of our trip we made a last-minute decision to extend our trip by one day (leaving Sunday July 11th instead of Saturday July 10th) so that we could try and see the active volcano...
Things that Make Iceland a Great Travel Destination The sheer amount of things to do and see (it was very hard to narrow and we had two weeks!) The natural beauty (Iceland is GORGEOUS, right up there...
Nick is away for several weeks on a TDY (temporary duty assignment) in Abu Dhabi. In order to break up what would be a very long stretch of solo parenting, I decided that Nia and I would need to go...
Hello again! This is a continuation of yesterday’s post, so if you haven’t read that yet, do so first to give you some context! We spread our sightseeing out over three days in four hour...
Pic by Kristen Our auto-rickshaw sped through the streets of Jodhpur, careening this way and that, locked in a tight race for God-knows-what with the motorcycle next to us. I close my eyes as...
Hey All — It’s good to be back with you again. I’m thrilled to report that Nick is home after 22 days in Abu Dhabi. We missed him immensely but were so proud of the amazing work he...
We arrived in India 38 months ago. It was August 2018 and our first time having a three-year tour (which we later extended for a fourth year). It felt like I had all the time in the world as I busily...
Hi Everyone – We spent the morning hiking amongst the beautiful ruins of Hampi, an ancient civilization from the 14th century. I am trying out a more detail-oriented style writing for my book...
Last Thursday marked the end of our first “adults-only” trip in four years, to none other than romantic, stunning Udaipur–the Venice of India–complete with tours of the...
Day 2 in Udaipur The plan for our second day in Udaipur was a daytrip to two sites that I’d heard were worth the effort–the great Mewar Fortress of Kumbhalgarh and the splendid Jain...
It’s 6:30 AM and dark as night. I cinch my blanket tighter around my arms and neck, a largely futile effort considering that the searingly cold air is smacking me at 30 mph and clearly has the...
As the morning progressed, I couldn’t help but compare this safari experience to the ones we’d experienced in Africa. The first big difference was that there were far more cars around...
Hey All – Sarah here for our semi-regular touch-base! Has it really been three weeks since we last talked?? Ughhh. I blame February. It just seemed to evaporate! It’s crunch time here...
Mention the word “Pakistan” and danger and/or violence are pretty much the only things that come up for me. I couldn’t tell you any good things about Pakistan, likely because...
Hi Everyone – If you haven’t read PART 1, you should definitely start there, as it provides some great historical context for this post about our time in Amritsar...
Our time in India is winding down (less than four months to go, can you believe it??) and one of the few remaining places on our “must see” bucket list for India was the city of Amritsar...
May 2nd marked Nick’s and my 13th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we planned a five-night, adults-only trip. But where to go? A tropical getaway to the Maldives? A hidden spot in the...
For Memorial Day weekend we decided to do a short road trip to the nearby Shenandoah Valley, a place knowing for its peacefulness and stunning vistas. We had the good fortune of getting a unique...
I am woefully tardy on this update, but here goes, because late is better than never, right? So, about Paris. It was grand. But you knew I was going to say that. Because who DOESN’T like Paris? Oh...
On Saturday morning at 6:30 AM, Nick and Nia set out for their first ever father/daughter road trip. This was very much an impromptu decision; one made just 36 hours prior. Nick had been restless as...
Sarah here. Coming live to you from the beautiful Regal Princess. We’re on day 11 (out of 13) of our British Isles cruise. Nick and I are seeing the sights with 3500 of our new cruise buddies—98% of...
It was our first port day in Cork, Ireland and we’d decided to rent a car to explore the countryside. In Ireland they drive on the opposite side of the road, but we’d driven that way in Malawi and a...