Grief, how love overcame it last week.

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Berkshires Babe

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Amsterdam; City of Canals and Cannabis

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The Gilded Age, Mountain Mamas, Goth Youth, and River Arts of Asheville, North Carolina

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Literary Retreats In The Sonoran Desert

Literary Retreats In The Sonoran Desert

I recently attended my second Literary Retreat in Arizona’s Sonoran desert. Peace, tranquility, female bonding, and literature discussions are my goals on these retreats. It’s 4 days of finding “the gift of presence” as meditation teacher, Caroline Welch says. The first Literary retreat was held at Miraval Resort: https://www.miravalarizona.com/ and the second was at Canyon Ranch…

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Shenanigans About My Yacht Trips

Shenanigans About My Yacht Trips

Over the years I have been lucky enough to charter a yacht, be a guest on a yacht, own a yacht with friends, and sell a yacht. As luxurious and posh as that sounds, there have also been unhinged shenanigans and outlandish tales that occurred onboard these sea vessels. This is the story about those true events. Our Yacht, “Breakaway” On one of our first yachting adventures, our children were…

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Laying Low In The Lowcountry

Laying Low In The Lowcountry

“I have heard it said that an inoculation to the sights and smells of the Carolina Lowcountry is an almost irreversible antidote to the charms of other landscapes.”—Pat Conroy, “Lords of Discipline” I’ve been spending some time lately in the South Carolina, Lowcountry. Wind-blown sand sheets, dunes, saltwater marshes, spike-leafed palmetto trees, Spanish moss, and humid days have all led to my…

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Live in the 1960's: Stay at the new TWA Hotel at JFK Airport

Live in the 1960’s: Stay at the new TWA Hotel at JFK Airport

On one of my latest trips, I had the opportunity for a layover in New York City. Since I would be flying out in two days, I opted to decline a drive into Manhattan and stay instead at The T.W.A. Hotel in J.F.K. Airport. It’s the only on-airport hotel, and it’s a “trip!” The hotel is housed in what used to be the T.W.A. (Trans World Airlines) flight center which was designed in 1962 by noted…

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Salute to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Salute to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico A late springtime trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, promises warm weather and reduced crowds in the lively cantinas and outdoor cafes. The town of San Jose Del Cabo is now abundant with art galleries, hide-away watering holes, and some chic home-good stores. I recently visited Cabo to check out hotels for a potential party venue for a friend of mine. Here’s my take on some…

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Driving The Civil Rights Trail; Southeast USA

Driving The Civil Rights Trail; Southeast USA

As a child who grew up in California in the 1960s, I was alive when Martin Luther King Jr. made his monumental “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, when “Bloody Sunday” happened at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and when the assassinations of King, Kennedy, and Malcolm X all occurred. In school, I learned about how Jim Crow laws limited the rights of black Americans, I…

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Florida Keys

We decided to experience Southern Florida by way of a road trip through the Florida Keys this March. Having flown into Miami, our first stop was 90 minutes away in Islamorada. Known as the “village of islands,” it encompasses six of the Florida Keys. The Islands lie along the Florida Straits dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest. Prior to 1900, they were…

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Bermuda Bae

Bermuda is my happy place. I visited for the first time in 1989 when I stayed at The Coral Beach & Tennis Club. The club names their rooms and cottages, and mine was named “Midnight Mushroom” because it was the least expensive room, somewhat dark, with mismatched left-over furniture, and located directly above the scooter rental shop. Since that time, I have returned on several occasions and…

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The Serenity of Sedona, Arizona

The Serenity of Sedona, Arizona

I had heard of a magical place in the Arizona desert where the harmony of the earth provided a serenity to all those who entered it’s red canyon valley. After six months of pandemic isolation, I felt in need of such a place. Sedona, Arizona is a seven hour drive from Los Angeles, or a 2 hour drive from Phoenix. As I drove into the canyon, I was literally breathless looking up at the towering red…

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Selling Our Home

Our prior home in Pacific Palisades is once again on the market. To see the new remodel our home-buyers did, check out the link at the end of my original blog. Robin

Part of the Size It Down & Travel It Up Experiment was to lease our Pacific Palisades, California home for two years, and then decide whether or not to move back in, sell it, or continue to lease it. In the meantime, we leased an apartment in Santa Monica, California by the beach. As it turns out, we have been forced to decide after 11 months, what our decision is. Our tenants that accepted a two…

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Renting A Home During Covid-19

Renting A Home During Covid-19

If you are like me and live in a small apartment, you may be seeking a brief respite in a home with a yard, a den, and extra rooms to share with your adult children. Over the last four months, Scott and I decided to rent three different vacation home properties within driving distance of our apartment, and enjoy the time together with our family. Here’s what happened.

Vacation Rental Number…

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The Light Within

“Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.” – Maya Angelou.

In these times of quarantine, it sure has been hard for me to keep that internal light shining! Being someone who travels a lot, and writes about traveling, a “stay at home order” seems to me like a challenge from the depths of hell. My “size-it-down” concept of selling our home and moving to a tiny apartment has worked so…

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How to Indulge Your Wanderlust During the Coronavirus Pandemic. Some creative ideas to satiate your travel cravings – safely and responsibly – during the uncertain coronavirus period. How to Indulge Your Wanderlust During the Coronavirus Pandemic.