Just-because solo trip to freezing Chicago
I went to Chicago! I’d always wanted to go, and I had some unexpected time off in early January. I braved the awful winter we’ve been getting near the Great Lakes and flew out the day all the airports opened back up. This was my first trip alone after the end of my long-term relationship and after moving back home with my parents. Needless to say, the time to myself was well-appreciated. Chicago ended up reminding me a lot of Toronto, one of my favourite places. The new-ness mixed with familiarity was just what I wanted for a solo trip.
Avoiding turbulence: Keep in contact with family at home while traveling abroad
When we started planning our first international family trip, we had a few co-parenting hoops to jump through; negotiation and compromise is often the name of the co-parenting game. For this trip to happen, I had to assure my son’s father that he would continue to have the routine contact he enjoys in our daily life, and that we would keep him apprised of our travel plans. As I sat down to work all the kinks out in this travel agreement, I learned several valuable lessons we will continue to employ as we enjoy traveling as a family and keeping all branches of our family tree satisfied and smiling.
I was in a plane crash: here’s how I deal with flight anxiety
In August 2005, I was a passenger on Air France flight 358, a flight from Paris, France, to Toronto, Ontario. Upon arriving over Toronto, our plane flew into a sudden storm, landed too far down the runway, and slid right off the end, bursting into flame. We had to evacuate down the emergency slides, and all of our luggage burned up with the plane. But I still fly.
Take a virtual trip around the world with this open-ended, world-traveling honeymoon
We both LOVE to travel, over the course of our relationship we’ve gone on a number of international hosteling/backpacking trips together. We’d been joking about going around the world, but when we found out that Alex would be getting laid off the same week that Sara would finish grad school it seemed like the perfect opportunity to actually do it!
Get your kicks on this Americana-fueled road trip on Route 66
Technically, our trip was all of Route 66 (through: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California), plus the driving it took to get us to the start — we came from Nate’s folks house; so, Ohio and Indiana. And then from California to Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois. We spent the better part of a month living out of our car and tent, traveling across America together.
A three-day road trip and hiking getaway in Yosemite
We took a road trip up to Yosemite National Park from where our wedding was held in Temecula (Southern California). I won a three-night stay at the Redwood Cabins in the southern tip of the park at an auction for one of my firm’s nonprofit clients, and it ended up being just what we needed.
4 secrets to living in another country for a few months on the cheap
Traveling to another country for an extended amount of time is only for the filthy rich and privileged. You can’t possibly afford international travel to some other country! Let alone live there for months at a time! But traveling internationally on the cheap all comes down to a few simple tactics. Though they are not always that simple to implement…
Language barriers, boredom, and giant floating heads: My experience as an expat in Austria
In the fall of 2012, my husband surprised me with news: his graduate adviser proposed an opportunity for him to live and work for six months in Austria as part of his PhD research. o without school obligations or kids, we took the plunge to move to Europe for six months. Two to three weeks, one Bar exam, and one packed up apartment later, we were in Chicago to pick up our visas, then we took our flight to Vienna.