The Great Wall is absolutely stunning. It stretches far into the horizon, zigzagging from peak to peak. The structure is simple and elegant. It was designed to be impressive, making the inhabitants feel protected and potential intruders intimidated. While the view of the surrounding mountains is picturesque, it also struck me as a little lonely at the top. Perhaps this is because we had just come from the crowds of Beijing and this section of wall was shockingly, and thankfully,…
The Forbidden City encompasses nearly 1,000 beautiful red buildings with intricately painted ceilings and wing tipped gold roofs. Dragons and lions stand guard. The vast complex of symmetrical edifices, courtyards and pathways, reminds me of a college campus. While the Imperial Palace emphasizes long, low horizontal lines, the Summer Palace celebrates with towering temples, designed organically around the lake and a steep rocky hillside. I’d prefer to live in the trees at the Summer Palace. Summer in Beijing is hot, muggy…
During pre-trip negotiations with Jens, I only agreed to go camping in the Australian winter on the condition that we also come to Sydney to visit The Opera House. Btw, I’m so glad we did both! Ever since I was a girl, I’ve wanted to visit the Sydney Opera House. It captured my imagination and expanded my view of what art and architecture could be. More than any other iconic skyline, this building inspired my desire to travel. It did…
Traveling in an RV is pretty sweet. You get to unpack all your bags once and travel around the country. If you get hungry, you can make a snack; if you get tired, you can take a nap. Motorhomes make ingenious use of space in every nook and cranny. The boys love crawling all up, over and through it. Jens, who had become enamored with the title of Captain while skippering the boat in Tonga, suggested we continue the salutation,…
All over Frasier Island are warning sings to protect your children from the dingoes by keeping them within arms length at all times. Before we even arrived on the continent, my children had informed me that the most deadly animals on the planet reside in Australia. As 10-year-old boys, they are naturally drawn to bizarre and dangerous animals. Luckily, the peskiest creatures we’ve run into have been mozzies and sting’as (that’s Australian for mosquitos & jelly fish). Jens ate several…
Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef is like swimming in the giant tropical exhibits at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Only better, because it’s real! I was laughing underwater as brightly colored schools of fish expertly wove around me. Ryan remarked that fish are lucky to move freely in three dimensions, and now we could too. I love that observation! That is exactly what this trip is about – living in 3D. The most amazing creatures are the giant clams with…
You know how in Alice in Wonderland, one pill to makes you larger and one pill makes you smaller? I’ve been feeling like that – disorientated and out of proportion to my surroundings. It started with jet lag and then continued with the wooziness from living on a rocking boat in Tonga and now a rolling RV in Australia. Things are just a bit off from how they are back home, like driving on the left, and sailing back into…
The best meal we had in Tonga was served in a palm leaf hut. We were the only guests, well, except for the goat. We disembarked on a deserted beach, followed a hand made sign up uneven stairs, past sheep, goats, chickens, and pigs. The structure at the top of the hill was primitively made out of particleboard on three sides and palm leaves on the veranda facing the bay. We would have turned around at this point had the…
The boys are so happy on the boat, even the 78-year-old boy. Everyone has a job sailing a 39 ft catamaran: setting the course, hoisting the sails, lowering the anchor, even driving the dingy. Everyone likes the vantage point of sitting in the captain’s perch. There are many mechanical components on the boat that attract a boy’s attention too: there is a control panel with lots of switches for the generator, batteries, lights and pumps; the captain’s chair has instruments for…
It’s hard to capture the beauty of a thousand islands in the Kingdom of Tonga. Small, perfect islands dot the horizon everywhere you look, overlapping in shades of green. Each one ringed by halos of sand, turquoise, then indigo. It really is a little slice of heaven. The islands sprout palm trees on top, against the sky’s own pantone shades of blue. Warm winds blow from the East. The air is humid, the water warm. The islands are sparsely populated…