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Category: Enchanting places

FAVORITE DINING EXPERIENCES SHARED BY FAMILY & FRIENDS

This week on Facebook I asked family and friends for favorite restaurant ideas. I’ll share their choices as we travel a culinary journey far away and close to home. Pour yourself a glass of wine and let’s see what people people loved. I’ll begin…

SO MANY THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR THIS THANKSGIVING

The Thanksgiving Holiday for me is a magnified reflection on all the many blessings in my life. I have been very lucky to have reached an age where almost every day is a day of Thanksgiving and of supreme gratefulness. I am very happy and thankful to have Marla as…

JOIN ME FOR A TOUR OF BEAUTIFUL FLORENCE

Florence is one of those totally unique cities which beckons one to return again and again. Like with most beautiful cities in Europe, early visits are like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw. I was fortunate to return and spend a…

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…

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 LOVE LETTER TO SAN FRANCISCO

My favorite city is hurting and could use some love and special care. Drugs and the homeless continue to be a gargantuan problem to solve. Many national retailers have departed downtown diminishing some of the vitality. Prices are atrocious for both rentals and for retail. Some of the press ( especially…

ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITE PLACES…A REDWOOD FOREST

My earliest memories of growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area always have one common component,…redwood forests! My mom and dad as well as my grandmother and grandfather, loved taking picnics among the redwoods in the Oakland Hills and around the Bay. I think my mom enjoyed…

NEW PLACES I WOULD LOVE TO VISIT…FRANCE

It will not come as much of a surprise but I often have “travel” on the brain. This is a first in a series of posts on “New Places I Would Love To Visit” and I chose France for my first one. The top 10 countries…

AWE…STARTLING EMOTIONAL AWAKENINGS

I listened to a fascinating program on NPR featuring Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. He is the author of “Awe…The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life.” The…

A RETURN VISIT TO THE ENCHANTED ISLAND OF GUERNSEY WITH MARLA AND OUR GRANDSON PAXTON

The enchanted island of Guernsey has a very special place in my heart. Marla and I were overjoyed to make a return trip in early August with our grandson Paxton who just finished a month of study in Paris. We had to cancel a Guernsey trip last year due to…