Behind the Pen: Life Experiences Through a Poetic Lens
Most Recent Addition: January 27, 2022 | Original Publication Date: Sept 7, 2016 It’s been almost exactly 14 years since I wrote my last poem titled, “Who I Am.” I highlighted the final lines of this poem in my post – The 4-Year Gap: My Blogging Blackout Period – my re-entry into the blogosphere. At the time, I chose to introduce those final lines as a way to connect the closure of one period to my life to the beginning of another. While I may not currently have the same creative energy to write poetry again, I still feel that I have […]
A Tale of Two Italys
Italy: June 22 – July 20, 2016 As I was peering outside my window of the Italo high-speed train from Rome to Napoli, enjoying the southern Italian landscape, I was flooded with memories of how this country has both inspired me and challenged me over the years. My initial Italian experience was one of my most difficult (linguistically) back in 2006. I’d studied the language on my own for the previous 6 years and took a trip to Tuscany and Liguria to test myself and expand my skills. Yet, within two days, I had completely shut down and returned home […]
Two Weeks Outside Schengen – Coastal Croatia
Split, Croatia: June 7 – 22, 2016 Red roofs atop white stone buildings, pristine sunlit gravel beaches, and sharply rising mountain landscapes are some of the first thoughts that come to mind when thinking of Croatia. Prior to visiting the country, I didn’t even have that much in mind. Croatia had been one of my wife’s long-held dream destinations for many of the reasons mentioned prior. For me, as a 20th century history enthusiast, I had visions of a war torn country with limited economic prosperity – a former member of Yugoslavia beset with a personality rough around the edges. […]
One Last Iberian Peninsula Getaway
Albufeira, Portugal: June 3-4, 2016 There’s just something about the beach that draws you in and keeps you coming back for more. We sipped our first taste of the beach during our weekend trip to Valencia in mid-May, and just 6 days later, after returning to the dry lands of Sevilla, we took an impromptu trip to Cadiz to dip our toes in the sand once again. Yet, with only one weekend left in Southern Spain, we debated whether to finally pull the trigger and endure the 3-hour bus ride to the Algarve region of Southern Portugal. Should We Stay […]
60 Days of Springtime in Spain
Spain: April 8 – June 7, 2016 It’s 5 months to the day, we set out on our adventure and here I sit in a place that wasn’t even on the original list of destinations. But this post isn’t about my current state of awesomeness, sitting in a recliner next to a warm fire in a cabin in a tropical paradise. Nope, instead, somehow I’ll try to retell the adventures in our first destination, Andalucía, Spain. It’s fairly challenging to summon the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of a place experienced more than 150 days ago – even more challenging […]
Soul Food, Slave Marts, and Symbolic Sun-scapes
Charleston, SC: April 3 – 7, 2016 Not many folks heading out on a world tour would place Charleston, SC as their first destination. Yet after a 10:30pm Saturday night flight from San Francisco (SFO), we arrived dazed and groggy in Charlotte, NC just as the sun rose on the first day of our new adventure. We were so exhausted from our last week in Cali and the red-eye flight that I barely remember anything from the 30-minute wheels up to wheels down flight to Charleston. Why Charleston? We chose Charleston for a couple of reasons. First, I have a […]
Tales from the Nomadic Adventure: Life on the Road
Most Recent Addition: January 27, 2022 | Original Publication Date: Aug 20, 2016 In April 2016, my wife and I put our life in the San Francisco Bay Area on pause and set out to explore the world. We had already traveled extensively during our first 5 and half years together. Yet, life in the Bay Area was becoming more financially and psychologically taxing. Given our reasonably good health and fairly young age (mid-30s), we decided it was an opportune time to enhance our relationship and life experiences before truly settling down. The Nomadic Adventure Series Throughout this mini-series, I’ll reflect […]
Tales from the Nomadic Adventure: The Back Story
It was the evening of February 27, 2011, while sitting on the sandy, rocky, sunlit shores in Pacific Grove, CA that I looked up to the sky and saw a sign that would forever change my life. I’d been working in the corporate world for about a decade and at my last “employer” for the previous 7 years. When I joined them back in 2004, I had every intention to stay 5 years and eventually leave to start my own thing. But starting your own thing back in 2004 was considerably different than doing so in 2011. In that brief […]
Behind the Power Curve: Private Pilot Stories & Videos
Throughout my last 8 years of private pilot flying, I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the skies with 46 different passengers in my 2-seat and 4-seat aircraft. Nearly half of my passengers have been first time general aviation flyers, hence their first time sitting in the right seat behind all those dials and switches. I’m sure each can remember one simple line from my pre-engine start briefing – “Before you touch anything, ASK ME FIRST.” 🙂 As I’ve stated in a previous post, I took a 4-year break from sharing my pilot adventures online. During my blogging blackout period, I […]
Self-Care Chronicles: 30-minute Mondays
Freedom is a privilege, an opportunity, and a responsibility. Being able to wake up everyday and practically do whatever you want is amazing and I wish it for everyone at some point in their lives. Yet, like most things in life, after awhile the awesomeness wears off and we find ourselves mentally shackled by our good fortune. Back in May, my wife and I hopped on a train for a weekend trip to Granada, Spain. At this point, we had been a month into our round-the-world trip journey and living in Sevilla, Spain. As someone who has been location independent […]
