With the map of Ireland spread before me like a buffet table crammed with one delicious dish after another, I struggled to decide where to go on my family’s first visit to Ireland this past March. From Donegal in the far north to Cork and Kerry in the south, from the west coast’s Cliffs of
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Colorado
Uphill Skiing With Astrid at Ashcroft
We had barely gotten started and Astrid was already done with cross country skiing. “I hate this!” she yelled in frustration, her long, narrow skis and poles splayed in four different directions as she slid slowly backwards down the hill. I was about to launch into another explanation of how to go uphill on cross
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California
Friends, Horses & Paparazzi in Half Moon Bay
The main reason for our visit to Half Moon Bay was to see Ondine, my twelve year-old daughter, Astrid’s, best friend. Half Moon Bay is approximately half-way between San Francisco, where we live, and Davenport, a speck of a strawberry-farming town along the so-called “slow coast” just north of Santa Cruz, where Ondine’s family moved
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Florida
A Visit to the Original Florida Tourist Trap at Jonathan Dickinson State Park
On the banks of the Loxahatchee River, in a remote corner of southeast Florida’s Jonathan Dickinson State Park, is the site of the one-time homestead and jungle zoo of a man known as Trapper Nelson — the “Wildman” or “Tarzan” of the Loxahatchee. What, you’ve never heard of him? Well, I doubt I would have
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Florida
Singer Island New Year’s Resolution
This year, like most others in the past decade or so, I made my New Year’s resolutions on a beach in Florida. It was my first time doing so, however, on Singer Island, where I rang in 2018 with my husband, our two daughters, and my husband’s parents. With more Bingo than BeyoncĂ©, Singer Island