Pennsylvania Girl Abroad

In 1953, a recently married 21 year old from Tower City, Pennsylvania graduated from trade school. Life was good and his future was taking shape. His priorities were clear…find a good paying job in his trade, save some money for a house, and most importantly do everything he could to prepare and provide for his […]

12-hour plane ride passing by Africa Somewhere in the middle of that uncomfortably long journey, at which point my legs and neck seemed permanently cramped, I clicked on the airplane’s video map. As the map zoomed in to pinpoint our location, I was shocked to realize we were directly above South Sudan – flying over […]

Now that England has been my residence for over one full year, I’ve adapted the British attitude about the weather; the definition of a beautiful day is when it doesn’t rain and you’re lucky enough to catch one or two “sunny spells” (e.g. when the sun stays out for 20 minutes or so before it […]

Known for its red light district and open drug laws that allow marijuana to be smoked legally, I wasn’t sure what to expect when we booked a cheap flight to Amsterdam for the weekend. I was not looking forward to walking past women displaying their barely clothed bodies like mannequins in shop windows, and though […]

Jim and I went to the top of the Shard Building in London a few days ago, currently the tallest building in Western Europe (see my recent post on this).  A wonderful experience  – but it brought back memories of the last time I visited one of the world’s tall buildings, in March of 2011 […]

Tunnels, Tolls & Easy Driving  Milan Malpensa airport to Courmayeur was a 130 mile drive. Our GPS didn’t work but we decided to venture on anyway using only the directions we printed out online. In a foreign country with no knowledge of the roads, I would usually not recommend this strategy! But, surprisingly, it was […]

My husband Jim discovered “wassailing” in a regular beer publication he reads.  We are always looking for opportunities to see something new, and especially to check out local activities in and around England.  When we spotted an event at Westons Cider Mill, we embraced it as a chance to see more of the English countryside and […]

There are times when I dislike being labeled as a tourist.  When I’m visiting a new place, I prefer to blend in with the crowd and try to imagine what it must be like to live in that city. It’s not possible to do that often, especially those in which I’d have to be fluent […]