Author Archives: Tiffany

Travel Home; Day 2

About 10 years ago, Brian and Tiffany read a magazine article about a new museum focused on American Art that had a huge endowment 4 times that of the Whitney. Unlike most museums, it would not be housed in an old palace or renaissance/marble equivalent. This was to be in a new facility nestled inContinue reading “Travel Home; Day 2”

Travel Home; Day 1

It feels like we’ve been slowly making our way home since we left London at the end of June. We’ve been creeping westward with each of our destinations but the main focus of our New York, Leesburg and Union Pier stops were fun and family. Today was different. Today was all about making rapid progressContinue reading “Travel Home; Day 1”

Union Pier, Michigan; Day 4

Today the Adventurers gave themselves a challenge – the ‘PentAquaPalooza’. This was a challenge to get in five different sources of water today. The last one was the easiest – a shower – so it was the first four that we set off in search of under sunny summer skies. Our first stop is anContinue reading “Union Pier, Michigan; Day 4”

Union Pier, Michigan; Day 2

Today was a very pleasant SW Michigan summer day full of small Adventures for these travelers. We enjoyed a pancake breakfast with Busha and Grandpa Mike and then some time playing in the pool. After pool we headed to the local steakhouse for a tasty dinner – we were joined for desert by Brian’s sisterContinue reading “Union Pier, Michigan; Day 2”

Leesburg, Ohio Part 4; Day 2

Today, like many people across the United States, we gathered with those we love to enjoy food and each others’ company. For us it was at the Bailey House hosted by Nancy and Stan Purdy. It was great to be back there, particularly since Pa has had some health issues over the past few months.Continue reading “Leesburg, Ohio Part 4; Day 2”

New York, New York; Day 4

Today didn’t have a particular agenda but we had some things we wanted to do. They were all somewhat in the 40s and 50s street-wise so we’ll call this our Midtown day. When we arrived on Wednesday the forecast said that today would be rainy and this morning was warm but a bit grey andContinue reading “New York, New York; Day 4”

New York, New York; Day 2

We were all awake much earlier than usual thanks to our 6 hour time change so our day started unusually early. We had a quick breakfast at a nearby cafe and then hit the subway. Brian pointed out that in the last month we’ve ridden 3 of the oldest subway systems in the world –Continue reading “New York, New York; Day 2”

London, United Kingdom; Day 5

For our last day in Europe we packed in a few more activities around London. Our first stop was the Tower of London (with a better view of Big Ben on the way). Initially built in the 11th century the Tower of London served as a royal residence, a defensive structure and a prison overContinue reading “London, United Kingdom; Day 5”

London, United Kingdom; Day 1

Our travel days are dwindling and based on today’s experience we’re ok with that. We ended up booking a flight to get from Amsterdam to London rather than continuing our Eurrail Adventures. We missed out on going through the Chunnel which would have been novel but at the time, booking a quick flight seemed theContinue reading “London, United Kingdom; Day 1”

Amsterdam, Netherlands; Day 3

It’s been almost 6 months since we celebrated one of our Adventurer’s birthdays. Brian took his second turn today – he’s the only one to have two birthdays on this trip. His first was in Yosemite Valley. His big day started with homemade cards from the family. We’ve traveled the whole year with paper, coloredContinue reading “Amsterdam, Netherlands; Day 3”

Amsterdam, Netherlands; Day 1

We continued to get good use of our Eurrail pass today with a journey from Brussels to Amsterdam. We’re relieved it was uneventful because there was a railway strike in Brussels today but it was scheduled in advance and over by noon. By the time we arrived at the station it was very crowded butContinue reading “Amsterdam, Netherlands; Day 1”

Brussels, Belgium; Day 4

One year ago today we waved goodbye to our San Clemente house and hit the road to our first destination in Monterey, California. Since then we’ve had so many Adventures they are hard to count and since we’re not quite done, we’ll wait on the counting for a little while longer. But it’s a bigContinue reading “Brussels, Belgium; Day 4”

Brussels, Belgium; Day 2

We had one Adventurer a bit under the weather today. Seems a summer cold has been working its way through the family and today it knocked Brian back a bit. So the other 4 had some fun around town. Our first stop was a well known landmark called Mannekin Pis. Dutch for ‘Little Pissing Man’Continue reading “Brussels, Belgium; Day 2”

Brussels, Belgium; Day 1

When deciding our destinations in Europe, the kids chose Belgium as one of their picks. They were very specific that it was for the waffles and chocolate and they don’t really care about anything else. At least they are honest. Perhaps we’ll find some ways to round out their experience. Oh, and get some ofContinue reading “Brussels, Belgium; Day 1”

Bailly-Romainvilliers, France; Day 3

Today was what the kids call a ‘do nothing’ day. They would argue that we don’t have enough of them – these are our days to relax with no specific agenda. Since today we are still at our Marriott vacation club, it offered some options. In the morning, the kids took themselves to the Kid’sContinue reading “Bailly-Romainvilliers, France; Day 3”

Bailly-Romainvilliers, France; Day 1

This morning we did our normal ‘packing up to go’ routine. Tiffany does a lot of the packing, Brian usually makes breakfast and cleans out the fridge/ cleans the kitchen. Today’s effort was sized to the kitchen – which in our little kitchen was not very big. We traveled out of Paris today but lessContinue reading “Bailly-Romainvilliers, France; Day 1”

Paris, France; Day 6

We enjoyed our quiet Friday. We put a pause on most of the touristy stuff to do some normal life type things – Paris style of course. The first stop was the Laverie to get some clean clothes. Our apartment is quite small so it doesn’t come with a washing machine. A short walk solvedContinue reading “Paris, France; Day 6”

Paris, France; Day 4

Today’s big Adventure took us to the Musée du Louvre. The forecast called for rain and we got a little damp on the way to the Metro. This experience just reinforced our pleasure at the plan for the day which was to spend time inside an old palace with hundreds of fabulous pieces of art.Continue reading “Paris, France; Day 4”

Paris, France; Day 2

On the first day in a new place we try to walk around to get oriented and to see some sights. Paris is much bigger than many of the places that we’ve been to but we still wanted to spend most of our day on foot. To start, however, we took our first Metro ride.Continue reading “Paris, France; Day 2”

Chamonix, France; Day 5

Our last day in Chamonix started with bright spring sunshine and stayed that way all day. We were very pleased since our plans included going back into the nearby mountains for some high altitude Adventures. This time our mode of transport was a cog wheel train that took us up 2,900 feet of altitude inContinue reading “Chamonix, France; Day 5”

Venice, Italy; Day 3

We woke this morning with a continued threat of rain. After a hearty breakfast in the apartment we saw grey skies but no moisture so we headed toward the water taxi. Our destination was the island of Murano – home of the famous glass blowers of Venice. Many of you are aware that we aren’tContinue reading “Venice, Italy; Day 3”

Venice, Italy; Day 1

The 5 Adventures have made it to our last major stop in Italy – the beautiful city of Venice. But first, we had a fresh breakfast at our farm stay lodging (cold cuts and cheese, pastries, scrambled eggs with bacon – a mixture of European and American). After we packed up, we spent a coupleContinue reading “Venice, Italy; Day 1”

San Gimignano, Italy; Day 6

Today was our last full day with 7 Adventurers so we didn’t want to spend it driving all over the countyside. Plus we hadn’t spent enough time in our temporary hometown. One of the joys of staying in a Tuscan town is that there are wineries everywhere you look.  There was one right down theContinue reading “San Gimignano, Italy; Day 6”

San Gimignano, Italy; Day 4

Today’s Adventures took us on a short drive through the picturesque Tuscan countryside to the town of Volterra. A walled city dating from the 8th Century BC, it featured narrow streets, charming outdoor eateries and a couple of playgrounds for the kids. We wandered the 2800 year old streets to check out the ancient architectureContinue reading “San Gimignano, Italy; Day 4”

San Gimignano, Italy; Day 3

Today we visited our host town of San Gimignano and we also learned a bit about the train platform in Florence. Our rental house has a wonderful view of the Northwest side of San Gimignano which sits about 4 km across a valley of vineyards. Our 5 Adventurers piled into the rental car to driveContinue reading “San Gimignano, Italy; Day 3”

San Gimignano, Italy; Day 2

We spent our first full day in Tuscany settling in to our house and working with our host on a couple of issues like no gas for the stove, no hot water – you know, small things. Everything got sorted out by mid-day so we headed out to one of the kids’ bucket list itemsContinue reading “San Gimignano, Italy; Day 2”

Rome, Italy; Day 5

Today was our last full day in Rome (for this trip anyway). We had left today open in terms of planning. We had figured that there might be something that we might want to return to or add to our Roma list so it was easy to decide to head back to St. Peter’s Basilica.Continue reading “Rome, Italy; Day 5”

Rome, Italy; Day 3

Today’s Italian adventures started with French Toast in our apartment. From there we did a famous sites 5K. Our first stop was the Colosseum and then to the Roman Forum. We were a bit hot and tired from the walk there – but as we approached the walls of the ruin our spirits lifted.  OurContinue reading “Rome, Italy; Day 3”

Rome, Italy; Day 1

Today was a travel day for the 5 Adventurers. We knocked the cobwebs off our backpacks, bid a fond farewell to our Rota apartment and made one last trip to Seville. We returned our reliable but small manual transmission rental car and caught our discount carrier to Rome. Our list of things we like aboutContinue reading “Rome, Italy; Day 1”

Rota, Spain; Day 29

Today marked the last road trip Adventure from our Rota home base and it was back to Seville. We got an early start because we had a few things to do and the temperature was predicted to hit 90 degrees in the afternoon. First stop was the Setas de Sevilla which was new for BrianContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 29”

Rota, Spain; Day 25

Our original plan for the day was to head out to another SW Spain destination for some cool Adventures. But one of the kids turned an ankle last night (CreeperPuppy) and it was still a little sore this morning so we decided to postpone that activity. So today was a day of normalcy. We satContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 25”

Rota, Spain; Day 23

Today our Adventurers took to the road again on a trip through the SW Spain countryside. Known as Andalucia, this area is known for many things, one of which is the Pueblos Blancos or ‘white villages’. They get their name from the whitewashed buildings that make up the towns – initially colored to keep theContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 23”

Rota, Spain; Day 21

Today our Adventurers took to the road for a 90 minute drive to Seville. Since it’s somewhat close to Rota we decided the 3 Adventurers that missed it the first time would get a chance to visit. Tiffany and Suaram took advantage of the second trip to see even more. Our main activity for theContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 21”

Rota, Spain; Day 15

Today’s academic activity was to take some practice tests for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. The kids did math and language arts. As a small homeschool our students don’t have to take the actual tests, but we figured that the practice tests would be a good way to gauge their readiness forContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 15”

Rota, Spain; Day 13

Much of our Monday was spent as normal life-type Adventures. School for the kids, administrative type work for the parents. In the evening, we ventured out to take a walk on the beach and check out the reef/tide pools just north of our apartment. At low tide we can see very defined lines of rocksContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 13”

Rota, Spain; Day 11

Today’s weather was definitely an improvement over the blustery wind and rain of yesterday. But it was still very questionable for any significant outings with all of the Adventurers. The kids wanted to spend another day at home playing games and legos so Dad agreed to keep them company (and out of trouble) . HeContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 11”

Rota, Spain; Day 9

Today is our first day in two weeks with all 6 of our Adventurers out of isolation so we took the opportunity to explore Rota. We set off from our apartment for the 20 minute walk to town. We chose the boardwalk-through-the-trees route rather than the beach or street routes and it was quite pleasantContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 9”

Rota, Spain; Day 2/Seville, Spain; Day 2

Rota Adventurers The day in Rota was pretty chill. We didn’t venture out much other than onto the sun deck. Brian found the washing machine, tripped a circuit breaker and got the boys showered. Minor setbacks, minor accomplishments and minor Adventures today for our recuperating boys. Seville Adventurers Tiffany, Tracy and Suaram’s first outing ofContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 2/Seville, Spain; Day 2”

Rota, Spain; Day 1/Seville, Spain; Day 1

Rota Adventurers Our convalescing boys and their tireless Dad finished the long drive from Barcelona late yesterday and are settling in to our apartment in Rota. We choose this place for our 4 week ‘stay-in-one-place’ place which was scheduled to start Friday. The hosts moved some things around and were able to get us inContinue reading “Rota, Spain; Day 1/Seville, Spain; Day 1”