Travelin' About

I started this blog a very long time ago.  My intent was to share photography tips and travel information.  Through the years I did write about both local places to visit while living in Austin, Texas and some great big trips I got to enjoy - France, Cuba, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, America's National Parks and more. The archives are here if anyone at all is interested. If nothing else, it has served as a journal for me.  I certainly don't believe anyone else is reading this. This year has been bizarre with Covid 19 taking over our everyday lives.  No travel...not even to local places that would be so cool to explore.  We moved to Columbia, Maryland this year and I still haven't ventured to see Washington, DC. I believe my last post was about exploring Annapolis which is 35 min. away and my daughter and I just stayed 90 minutes and had to get back to our safe zone (where there were bathrooms we could use).  I would never have believed you if you had predicte...

Between Covid 19 and moving from Texas to Maryland, I really haven't seen much of the world this year and that is hard on this travel-loving girl.  Here I am living an hour away from Baltimore and Washington, DC and we are stuck in an unending state of quarantine.  I needed to break out so I asked my daughter if she'd take an early morning trip to Annapolis with me. "How early?" she wanted to know. She is not normally a photographer and, with two young children, unaccustomed to our "pre-dawn" starts.  "As early as you can," I tried and she and the kids showed up slightly after 7 am.  Popsie stayed with the kids who grumbled that they just wanted to go back to sleep, but Nova was game for a new adventure and we happily drove 35 minute southeast to the beautiful city of Annapolis.  Court house showed some signs of life. Mask covered guards stood at the door. Maryland's capital city, located on the Chesapeake Bay is a lovely, his...

Whew. This has been some year. Not only are we all dealing with Covid 19 which has forced us indoors, but we made a cross-country move in May from Austin, Texas to Columbia, Maryland.  As a friend reminded me, we were lucky that we were so all-consumed by the move and didn't obsess on the world's problems.  But as a photographer who loves traveling and documenting the beautiful world around us, I was getting extremely antsy. So, last week I woke up early and took a trip to beautiful downtown historic Ellicott City.  I had actually lived in this same neck of the woods 40 years ago and I knew that Old Ellicott City had a charm that includes history, art and architecture, nature and food.  The streets are hilly but you never know what kind of cool shop you'll stumble upon. I am just dying to explore this cool, old Fireman's museum.  There is also the oldest surviving train station that I'm dying to share with my grandsons.  And oh, I had forgotten...

We've been unpacking boxes since moving to Maryland two weeks ago. A lot of my "stuff" seemed so important to me when I packed it and now that we are in a new place, it seems so excessive. I need to get rid of a lot of things. But yesterday, unpacking my earring trees, I felt like I was welcoming old friends into my new home. There's the earring I got for my sister's wedding, and the one's someone gave me when I was diagnosed with cancer. I wonder if she knows how meaningful they were to me then and how I think about her every time I wear them...24 years later.  There are the natural rock ones my daughter, Kiryn gave me because she much prefers rocks than gems. There are the very first pair my husband, Andrew gave me. There are ones I inherited when an aunt died and many I received as birthday or Christmas presents. Moving is difficult and unraveling all of the stuff that we carried along is confusing and stressful.  But finding my old earrings, even t...