Welcome

CURRENTLY VISITING HAWAII!!

Hawaii

Hawaii
Akaka Falls

See the World for Free

The idea here is to TRAVEL THE WORLD regardless of time or budget. It dawned on me one day that even if I had unlimited time and money (which I definitley do not), I still couldn't see everything in the world that I'd like to see--I'm simply not going to live long enough to do it.

But I had a bit of brain wave and soon after the travel envelope was born. This is an actual physical envelope. I typed the name of every country in the world, plus every state in the US on little slips of paper which I then put into the envelope. In the beginning we (myself, my husband, Dave and daugher Catherine) would draw out a slip at random at the beginning of the month and that's where we would go---at least in our minds. We grab some books about the country from the library and put them in our bathroom to look at. We also check out some videos about the country if any. We check it out on googleearth, listen to the music, try the food, maybe even attempt to learn a dance or celebrate a festival.

After the first two years we discovered that even virtual traveling can be tiring, so we travel now whenever I happen to be in the mood.

It's great fun. I especially love it when people I meet have been to the place I'm "visiting" in real life, or get excited and have some virtual adventures of their own. I hope that anyone who comes across this blog will feel welcome to come with us on the trip!



You have a standing reservation to see it all!

Feb 27, 2010

How's the weather out there?

One major misconception I have--still have, even though I know better, is that Afghanistan is an unrelentingly hot. This idea isn't helped by pictures of Kabul, which seems to be mostly brown, and the nightly news which seems to always show the soldiers hunkered down amidst the blowing sand.  It just LOOKS hot.   It isn't.  The climate (at least in Kabul) is a lot like Denver, Colorado with hottish summers, but gorgeous springs and falls and snow in the winter.  Multiple sources talk about breathing the fresh, intoxicating air.  Who would have guessed?

Feb 22, 2010

Cheese!

Okay, the cheese really worked!!  It tastes just like milk---surprise!  The dinner was lots of fun.  Mom, Dad, Christine and Riley came up.  Some of us ate on the floor--those with problems, I allowed to sit on the couch with TV trays.  Everything turned out quite well, even the eggplant salad.  Nobody really liked it, but it's just not anything we would want to make twice.  The meatballs were excellent and the sauce, which was just tomatoes with some garlic, boiled itself down, picked up the spices from the meatballs and turned out quite rich.  Mom brought up some pastries, that she claims are authentic, made with cornstarch and a sweet syrup.  Sticky honey type stuff is definitley in the right spirit. 

In the background we had aol radio playing "World Caravan."  It's supposedly music from all around the world, but it seems to me that the majority of the songs sound middle Eastern, so that worked well.