03 Tuesday May 2016
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We depart the Gare de Lyon with all the fanfare of a taxi departing a stoplight. A quiet and really fast taxi. But unlike any taxi I’ve ever known, and even though the Gare de Lyon is Paris’s central train station, we’re out of the city and watching grazing sheep on grassy knolls before we’ve even removed our coats.
25 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Accommodations
In the last episode of Louise of the Jungle, I was fleeing an iguana next to our pool. Now Iggy and I are great pals, meaning I no longer shreik or panic, but I do keep a close eye on where he’s going. As well as the other 6000 iguanas in Tamarindo.
14 Thursday Jan 2016
Posted in Accommodations, Gallery, Travel
Louise at El Vaquero; Tamarindo Beach in background
According to Wikipedia, Portland, Oregon has at least sixty breweries within the city limits, more than any city in the world. Many attribute this to our natural resources (hops, barley, and our remarkable Bull-Run water), but I’m convinced it’s because I live there. When it comes to beer, I am the industry’s greatest asset.
11 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
When we started planning our Costa Rica trip, I filled out one of those online quizzes from the tourist bureau about what I wanted to do and see. Rain forest? Sounds hot and humid. Cloud forest? I live in Portland; don’t need no cloud forest. Ziplining? No. Fishing? Um, no. Volcanoes? Not really. Jungle trip to see crocodiles, poisonous frogs, howling monkeys, boa constrictors and crocodiles? Absolutely NOT. I cannot stand anything even vaguely reptilian.
I was able to check Beach and Lunch, but there was no little square for Shopping. I abandoned the quiz and just Googled “Best Beaches in Costa Rica” and found one that had a cute town attached. That was Tamarindo.
09 Saturday Jan 2016
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It’s a breathy, guttural roar, echoing above the tree canopy like something from Jurassic Park. When it awakens you in the darkness before dawn, your eyes fly open, the hair stands up on the back of your neck, and the flight or fight response kicks in, leaning decidedly toward flight. Run!
Trouble is, there’s a jungle outside your door. Things with teeth live out there, and one of them is looking for breakfast.
06 Wednesday Jan 2016
Posted in Accommodations
Louise covers a dainty rivulet of spittle leaking from her Novocainned lips while waiting at the Portland airport.
This will be short. I’m using my phone and I’ve had two beers.
Which is nothing compared to Louise, who has had three martinis. Doubles. She’s pictured above, in gate C7, hiding her face but happy. Really happy.
21 Wednesday Oct 2015
Posted in Accommodations, Gallery
The back yard in Uglich
In the small town of Uglich on the Volga, which has its medieval charm and also its unpainted tumbledown shacks, we visited Olga in the new house she built after retirement. It was a largish but simple two story white brick house. In the back was the vegetable and flower garden that every Russian householder wants and treasures,
Viking Cruise Lines arranges for its passengers to visit with real locals. This was our home visit.
08 Thursday Oct 2015
Posted in Accommodations
The Moscow Radisson
In our last episode, we were tossed out of gate C30 in Copenhagen because our visas would not be valid until the next day, therefore, we could not yet travel to Russia. “The Russians are very strict about this,” the Danish gate woman said. Of course our generation was brought up to be terrified of Russians, so we sure didn’t want to push it. Besides that, we were dog tired. I was secretly wishing for a real nap.
04 Sunday Oct 2015
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
Fuel in the tank: check.
Battery charged: check.
Tire pressure: check.
Oil in the crankcase: check.
These are the things one must do before taking a cherished car out of retirement after months of inactivity, and these are the things, figuratively speaking, we’re doing here at the Almanac.
14 Tuesday Jul 2015
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Last week we escaped to the unique Oregon Coast town of Seaside for a few days.
The Expat Almanac 