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Happy place. A memory, situation, or activity that makes you feel happy. Cambridge Dictionary. November 2019. I’m on a nonstop Delta flight from Seoul ICN to Minneapolis MSP on a brand new Airbus A350. I’m contented, sipping wine, snacking on nuts, and anticipating the Korean dinner I’ve preordered. I look out the window and see… Continue reading Happy Places

Just over three weeks ago we flew from New Zealand’s South Island to the north of the North Island. With the subsequent rapid spread of COVID-19, three weeks seems like a long time ago. We flew into Kerikeri/Bay of Islands KKE, picked up a rental car, and drove to the little town of Paihia on… Continue reading Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Every morning we read the New York Times, the Washington Post, and our local paper, the Star Tribune. We took out subscriptions to all three newspapers within days of the 2016 presidential election because we need to support good journalism to hold the US Administration accountable. Today, the news is uniquely disturbing. Most of us… Continue reading Balancing Coronavirus Risks

A few years ago we arrived in Cairns, Australia, off a flight from Guam. Our backpacks alerted a friendly customs official we might be carrying hiking boots. We proudly showed our squeaky-clean boots (thanks, Dwight), but in the process she spotted our trail mix, which contained dried banana pieces. Dried bananas carry a pathogen that… Continue reading Reducing Pathogen Transmission on Long Trips

We drove almost as far as we could to the northwest of New Zealand’s South Island to Golden Bay, named for the gold mining that took place here in the 19th century. Our VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) cabin stood on its own, above a beach, at the end of an unpaved road. En route,… Continue reading On Golden Bay

Until now, we’ve avoided Abel Tasman National Park on the north coast of New Zealand’s South Island: it’s just too popular. We prefer to even the tourist load and enjoy a quieter experience by visiting less popular “B-list” places. We would be passing right by Abel Tasman on our way to a remote VRBO (Vacation… Continue reading Abel Tasman National Park

Last week we hiked the Queen Charlotte Track for the third time. Including a rest day we took five days to walk 72 kilometers along a well-engineered and maintained trail. This was a walk in the park, especially as our backpacks were transported ahead of us by boat. We took a boat to the start… Continue reading Queen Charlotte Track 2020

The snow was piling up as we waited to ride the light rail to the airport. At Minneapolis/St. Paul MSP, snow-clearing crews were keeping ahead of the snow: across four departure boards, I saw only two cancellations, probably due to inbound cancellations. The weather delayed our departure. An engineer arrived to deal with a frozen… Continue reading A Week in Honolulu