We spent six days around park, moving every two days from east to north to west. Our plan was to do one big hike per day in the park. Brez to Canal de las Arranedos The morning started overcast with...
Blog posts from Travel
Eric’s 50th: Picos de Europa food and drink
Potes La Soldrería doesn’t take reservations, so we decided to go on the early side to see if we could snag a table. The regular tables were all full at 8:30pm but luckily there were two seats at...
Eric’s 50th: Picos de Europa, where we stayed
We wanted to be close to certain hikes and sites and ultimately chose three different towns around the park. If we had to do it again I would have skipped Las Arenas and added an extra night in...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Colombia: Medellin sites
We don't normally sign up for tours on our travels, but some of the places we wanted to see weren't great areas for tourists to explore on their own, so we made an exception on this trip. Medellín:...
Colombia: Medellin food & drink
Poblado Restaurante Malevo - Our Comuna 13 tour started and ended at the Poblado metro station, so we decided to stay in this neighborhood for dinner. Empanadas sounded good, so we grabbed a table...
Colombia: Medellin, intro and where we stayed
We like to go somewhere warmer in early February, so when we saw inexpensive airfares to Colombia we jumped on the opportunity. From North Carolina it took roughly as long as reaching the US West...
Florida 2026: Gainesville sites
Thursday The Harn Art Museum was partially closed for renovations during our visit, but several galleries were still open. The museum is free to visit and made for a pleasant hour. We especially...
Florida 2026: Gainesville food & drink
Wednesday Humble Pie Wood Fired Pizza - Ordered two pizzas for takeaway, which were delivered to our table at the brewery next door. Nice! We got one margherita and one with walnuts and pesto. Crust...
Florida 2026: Sun Coast breweries and restaurants
Corporate Ladder - one of our favorite breweries, we visited twice. 1st visit! I got the coconut and chocolate Doppel Monitor (doppelbock) and Eric had a small pour of the Cherry Amaretti Cookie...
Florida 2026: Sun Coast sites
Celery Fields - one of our favorite places to view birds, this free park has a few boardwalks into the wetlands and lots of parking. On this visit we saw a huge group of very noisy Nanday parakeets,...
Florida 2026: introduction
We generally like to visit Florida sometime in the winter, and this year we stayed at a friend's house to pet sit for part of our time. The weather was up-and-down, but it was always better than the...
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)