Recent Posts
Eric’s 50th: Madrid sites
Our only full day in Madrid was spent visiting free museums and getting our steps in! Our first stop was Museo Geominero, where one of us had to show our passport to enter. This museum was surprisingly detailed with three floors all in one large room. Here we saw lots...
Eric’s 50th: Madrid food and drink
On our first evening in Madrid, we took a leisurely walk up Ponzano Street to check out the tapas spots the area is known for. Our first stop, Bokaxankla Bar, had a young vibe. Lots of tables were marked reserved at 8pm mid-week but the place was mostly empty. Our...
Eric’s 50th: Madrid, where we stayed
Madrid: Hyatt Regency Hesperia Madrid We had a nice quiet room at the end of the hallway that faced an inner courtyard, which was perfect for sleeping. The bathroom was a good size, but the frosted glass door was a bit weird. Thankfully they had a shade… and the...
Eric’s 50th: flights, trains, and rental cars
RDU > LHR > MAD Our flight out of Raleigh was on time and Eric managed to snag us main cabin extra seats in the bulkhead area so we had two seats to ourselves. Neither of us slept that well but we weren’t cramped at least. We made the Heathrow T3 to T5 terminal...
Eric’s 50th: overview and planning
When thinking about where I wanted to spend my 50th birthday I knew I wanted good food, moderate weather, and somewhere at least a little new to us. Northern Spain really fit those criteria: we loved Asturian blue cheese on our previous trips, plus the Albariño and...
Wilmington, April 2026
Since we have an annual pass for Airlie Gardens (in order to get us into Selby Gardens) we figured we should take an overnight trip to Wilmington to visit Airlie too. We left Durham on a mid-April Friday afternoon and were in Wilmington 2.5 hours later. Our first stop...
WRAL-TV Azalea Gardens on Good Friday
The azaleas are in full bloom right now, so we decided to stop into the WRAL-TV's Azalea Garden to check out the blooms. Wow! Definitely worth a stop in and completely free to park and wander around! You can see all our photos from this day on our Good Friday...
Boone, March 2026
On the last weekend in March, we drove up to Boone for one night to see a good friend's son in his dance performance at App State. We stayed at a mutual friend's house on top of a mountain near Blowing Rock with some amazing views! We decided to do some sight-seeing...
Our Itinerary
2026 Trips
Parrish, FL (Jan)
Medellin, Colombia (Feb)
Wilmington, NC (Apr)
Madrid, Spain (May)
Asturias, Spain (May)
Galicia, Spain (June)
London, UK (July)
Costswolds, UK (July)
Long Island, NY (July)
Ireland (Aug)
Vietnam (Nov)
Laos (Nov)
Cambodia (Dec)
Singapore (Dec)
2025 Trips
Tampa Bay, FL (Jan)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Feb)
Villa la Angostura, Argentina (Feb)
Bariloche, Argentina (Feb)
Iguazu Falls (Feb)
Miami, FL (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Mar)
Boston, MA (Apr)
Kathmandu, Nepal (May)
Bhutan (May)
Doha, Qatar (May)
Bristol + London, UK (Jul)
Long Island, NY (Jul)
Slovenia (Sep)
Treviso, Italy (Sep)
Bologna, Italy (Sep)
day trips from Bologna (Oct)
Turin, Italy (Oct)
Greensboro, NC (Nov)
Featured Video
Eric and Leandra in Orient Point, NY :)
Hello! This website chronicles the travel adventures of a computational biologist and a WordPress website developer (with past entries of our 😇 rescued mini schnauzers, Riesling and Pasha).
We’ve steadily increased our travel over the last several years and that is the focus of our blog currently, but you can read older ‘daily life‘ and ‘canine‘ posts by clicking on those links.
Eric and Leandra in Orient Point, NY :)