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FABULOUS ADVENTURE IN TUSCANY ON 2 WHEELS.

My good friend and inveterate world traveler, Tom, ask me to join him on a Butterfield & Robinson bike tour of Tuscany. I told him with all my travels this year I was in pretty mediocre shape. He said “Come anyway, and use an e-bike and you&#8217…

A SIMPLY MAGICAL DAY WITH…ELEPHANTS

After lunch our driver drove us to Elephant Eco Valley an hour north of Chiang Mai to visit the elepants. Everyone was excited to see how they live in this unique protected environment. We climbed into the truck and headed up the bumpy dirt road. Elephant Eco Valley is a…

EXPLORING BEAUTIFUL TEMPLES ON DOI SUTHEP MOUNTAIN IN CHIANG MAI INCLUDING A SECRET JUNGLE TEMPLE.

We planned a big exploration day for the grandsons in Chiang Mai with fabulous temple visits followed by an amazing immersion with elephants. AP Good Travel was our guide for this trip and we can’t recommend them highly enough!. We used them previously in 2019. Our first stop…

WONDROUS CHIANG MAI…MY FAVORITE CITY IN THAILAND…GRANDSON VAUGHAN PLAYS CHESS WITH THE 9 YEAR-OLD CHIANG MAI CHESS CHAMPION!

Chiang Mai was one our our prime furniture/accessory/antique sourcing areas for many years when Marla and I had our business. Only an hour flight north of hyperactive Bangkok, it has an unique old city charm with walls and moats and hundreds of beautiful and often elaborate Buddhist temples…

LAST DAYS IN BANGKOK & THE MOST UNUSUAL SHOPPING CENTER I’VER EVER VISITED!

Our grandsons loved the vibrancy and energy of Bangkok. The city of Bangkok ranks 12th in the world with 11,000,000 population. We explored and shopped at fascinating and trendy shopping centers as well as gigantic weekend markets. The photo above was taken from our hotel room terrace showing…

THE WONDROUS JIM THOMPSON HOUSE IN BANGKOK. VAUGHAN’S FIRST SILK SHIRT. A STORY OF “THE SILK KING”, AN ART COLLECTOR, A SPY, AND HIS MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.

The nice thing about Bangkok hotels on the Chao Phraya River is that their boats take you places, most importantly, Central Pier (Sathorn), where you can walk to the Saphan Taksin station for the air conditioned BTS Skytrain close by. Our hotel boat was running about every 20 minutes so…

BANGKOK’S FASCINATING KLONGS (WATERWAYS) AND…A 5′ LONG MONITOR LIZARD!

Our first day touring in Bangkok included a canal tour on a long-tail boat. Bangkok is often called the “Venice of the East” because of it’s many klongs, or canals, which crisscross the city. There are about 1680 canals of various sizes in this amazing…

A BIG ADVENTURE WITH OUR GRANDSONS VAUGHAN AND OWEN TO SOUTHEAST ASIA. FIRST DESTINATION WAS THAILAND AND AMAZING BANGKOK

Marla and I took our grandsons Vaughan (18) and Owen (15) to Southeast Asia for a fabulous adventure last July. We took our oldest grandsons on a similar trip in 2019. Thailand was our first destination, an area we new well from both business and personal trips beginning in 1995…

A VERY SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY…A LOVE STORY

Marla and I are celebrating our 55th wedding anniversary today. To be perfectly honest, I really can’t grasp the magnitude of this special anniversary for both of us! 55! Yes it’s a big number…but filled with love, a wonderful family, triumphs and trials, personal…

CRYSTAL FASCINATION

I have loved crystals and mineral specimens since I was a small boy. I still have my first book on rocks from my mother. My mom and grandmother took me to interesting locales in northern California looking for fascinating specimens. Their enthusiasm for the outdoors really helped ignite my interest…