Travel

Greece and virtual travel

~ MaryG ~ 16 Comments

What’s a country that’s at the top of your bucket list?

I’m not sure if or when I’m ever going to make it back to Europe, but I’d like to see Greece in person before I kick the bucket. I was a history major in college. I want to see the birthplace of Western civilization. Also, I hear the food is amazing.

In the meantime, we’ve been doing some “virtual travel” through a company called Indigare. The trips are offered to us as a free benefit through our bank. At first, I thought that this was just a sad holdover from the pandemic lockdown and the “tours” would be totally lame. But I’ve actually enjoyed these virtual trips, which include a private tour of a major site, followed by live Q & A with scholars and experts. I always like it when I ask a question (in the chat) and they answer it live. It’s done through Zoom.

So far, we’ve done virtual tours of:

Machu Picchu and the lesser-known Inca ruins of Chachabamba with famed explorer Peter Frost

UNESCO’s Alhambra (Spain’s Royal Masterpiece) in Granada

Olympia, Greece: The Birthplace of the Olympic Games

India’s Architectural Masterpieces: the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Itimad-ud-Daulah (the Baby Taj)

King Tut at the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids in Egypt

Next up is “Japan’s most extraordinary art destination” this Thursday at noon.

Aaaaah, no airports, no jet lag, no huge bill$, just a fresh cup of coffee and expert tour guides showing me something really cool.

Alhambra (image from Pexels)

Tell everyone it’s your birthday

~ MaryG ~ 18 Comments

What’s the best way to meet new people while traveling?

I wrote many posts about my trip to Ireland in 2025. I turned 60 on that trip and it was my first ever extended group tour. I think we had 28 people in all, including me and my husband. We were together for about a week.

I was nervous about how I’d like traveling with strangers, but wanted the ease of not driving or needing to book every attraction and meal myself. I researched a lot of tours and chose Rick Steves, largely for the price and the fact that Steves is a well known Trump-hating liberal. I figured the chances of me getting stuck making small talk with some Texan in a red hat were minimal.

It was great. I decided on Day One to be open and friendly and our group had great rapport. Our Irish guide Joe was a deeply intellectual and thoughtful artist type (bit of a tortured soul), but honestly, what better type of person to show you Ireland? When it rained, he played us haunting songs like Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and Grace by Rod Stewart on the bus’ sound system.

That’s Joe on the right paying our tab in a pub in Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland. The other man is the pub owner and son of the famous Irish playwright John B Keane (author of The Field)

I was not shy about jumping in with my questions (like is “paddy” a slur or not? Short answer: yes, but they can use it). Joe teased me—a lot—but that was OK. He needed someone to play off and help him lighten up at times. Plus, it was MY birthday, which I made clear.

Blowing out my 60th birthday candle in Dingle, Ireland

I’ve kept in touch with a few folks from the group, including two sisters from Minnesota who came to Boston, where I met up with them. They gave me credit for our group getting on so well. They said I just came in and announced “it’s my birthday this week and I want everyone to sing to me” and that broke the ice. It turns out there were two other birthday girls on our trip, so we celebrated them too.

So, I’d say go ahead and try a group tour on your next foreign excursion, but do your research about the company you choose. Make sure it matches your personality. And then, don’t be shy. Don’t be obnoxious, but don’t be shy.

Rick Steves Group Tour photo near Gallarus Oratory, Dingle Penninsula, County Kerry 🇮🇪

Oh, the places we went (without Siri)

~ MaryG ~ 34 Comments

What’s the best way to explore a new city?

I just gotta point out that before smart phones, “exploring a new city” was completely different. Young people have no idea.

First, if you were driving there, you could get completely lost just finding the city, because you had to rely on maps—fold-out paper maps or atlases (books of maps). There was no Siri, there was no Google Maps, there was no MapQuest or Waze. There was no phone in your car. There were road signs and your own God-given sense of direction.

In the olden days, the absolute best way to explore a new city, was to meet up with a friend (or a friend of a friend) who lived there. If you were lucky, they’d let you crash on their couch. At night, they would take you to some local dive bar where you met their friends and got a feel for what it was like to actually live in their city.

In the day, you wandered around visiting record stores and coffee shops and tourist sites that you’d heard of by word of mouth (talking to other humans).

My friend Julie and me kicking around San Francisco in 1988. We stayed with a high school friend of hers. We’d driven up from LA where we’d also stayed with a friend in West Hollywood. Fortunately, it was hard to get lost on that drive up from LA. We knew if we kept the Pacific Ocean on our left, we’d get there eventually.

Brooklyn

~ MaryG ~ 25 Comments

I have returned from a busy weekend in Brooklyn—the borough of NYC from which my mother’s parents hailed. They left Brooklyn for another great immigrant city—Worcester MA—long before I was born, so I had never been to Brooklyn before. All my prior trips to NYC were Manhattan only.

We were there to celebrate the marriage of a beloved nephew in his early 40s and got a glimpse into his life there. A very urban life.

Due to Amtrak cancelling our train, we had to drive from Massachusetts. A last minute detour sent us over the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, from which we could see the Statue of Liberty, which was very cool. It almost made up for all the traffic we hit in Connecticut.
This part of the Brooklyn waterfront is called Pebble Beach. There are great views of both the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges.
Manhattan Bridge
Blue steel is a feature of the Manhattan Bridge
Jane’s Carousel, built in 1922
View of the financial district from under the Brooklyn Bridge. That’s the Freedom Tower with the black spire.
Lady Liberty in the distance
A bison puppet in Brooklyn
A herd of bison puppets 🤷‍♀️
My son and his girlfriend in front of a chain link fence with a heart on the Lower East Side/Chinatown (Manhattan), where we went for an interesting dinner
Both jellyfish (top) and chicken feet (bottom) were served as appetizers. I tried both.
I couldn’t bring myself to try the “live fish” because I was too afraid of getting a bone stuck in the back of my throat, which happened to me once as a kid.
The happy couple sharing their absolutely beautiful vows 🥹
Weather was pretty rainy so this lovely patio area was a bit soggy, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

We made it back to Massachusetts in much better time. (The traffic gods were with us.) But my ears are still ringing. Brooklyn was loud. From the constant sirens to the extremely noisy restaurants and bars, I’m happy to be home and can’t say I’m dying to head back to NYC anytime soon.

The Great Elephant Migration

~ MaryG ~ 27 Comments

If your pet an elephant could talk, what would be the first thing it says?

100 life-size elephant sculptures, each hand-carved from the invasive plant lantana camara by roughly 300 Indigenous artisans from India’s Nilgiri Hills and modeled after real, named elephants, are on display for free along Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue Mall. They’re all facing in the same direction—moving as a herd down Comm Ave.

So, what would they say? Thinking…

Maybe, “stick together – we’re all we’ve got”

Independent People

~ MaryG ~ 22 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Have you ever regretted reading a book — which one and why?
View all responses

Once, for my Book Group, I selected a classic that was highly recommended by the author Ann Patchett on the Instagram account of her Nashville bookstore—Parnassus Books. The book is called Independent People by the Icelandic author Halldór Laxness. It was written a long time ago and considered a seminal work. It led to the author getting a Pulitzer Prize.

It was awful. Nobody in my book group made it through to the end, but I felt like I HAD to finish it, because I chose it.

I’ve mostly blocked it out, but let’s just say I know more about sheep and their various disgusting ailments than I ever wanted to and Iceland is permanently OFF my Bucket List. 😉

Graveyard installed

~ MaryG ~ 22 Comments

I am happy to report that the young fellow we hired to install some new garden beds and a deer fence for my husband was successful. Matt was our “plow guy” last winter, but we discovered he also does landscaping (as many plow guys do). Matt brought along two actual children with him as helpers and they worked all weekend long. When I asked if the boys were his nephews or younger brothers, he said that they were just two industrious boys who asked for work. It turns out they were 14 and 15 years old. I have never seen boys that young work so hard. I was a bit worried about them, but the weather was perfect and they seemed fine. I brought out snacks a few times and my husband gave them each a cash tip.

Matt in the new garden area on Saturday morning
Here’s how it looked Saturday night
And here’s how it looked last night after they left—my husband entering the raised bed enclosure for the first time.
Does it remind you of anything??
I’m sorry, but to me it looks like a bunch of freshly dug graves 🤣
If we got more trick-or-treaters, I’d attempt to create a graveyard scene for Halloween. I mean, it would be PERFECT.
A blank slate for my husband to pursue one of his great loves (plants) in his upcoming retirement. You can see two of our fruit trees behind the raised beds, and the big clump of cannabis plants on the right. (They’re going to get moved inside the fence next season.)
If this were an actual family graveyard, I think I’d want to be buried in one of the big containers inside the deer fence. This big grave seems too exposed. It is slated to become a butterfly garden 🦋

So, back to the prompt (sort of):

What’s the kindest thing someone has ever done for you?

I think it was pretty darn kind of me to help make one of his retirement dreams a reality. (I found Matt and had the bright idea to contact him for this job.) Last weekend was supposed to be my Bucket List trip to Acadia National Park, which I canceled mostly because my husband was not feeling well enough to travel. (Weather would’ve been perfect for it too.)

I trust my kindness will be repaid in organic vegetables, pretty flowers and cannabis galore in the coming years. And I’m sure I’ll make it up to Acadia – eventually.

Related posts:

We have germination

Harvest morning

Fine dining in Boston

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments

Which is the best restaurant in your city?

For the purposes of this prompt, I’m going to claim Boston as “my” city, even though I live about 20 miles northwest in suburbia.

And the winner is:

Deuxave

Wonderful food

Classy, intimate atmosphere

Great service

Terrific location in Boston’s most beautiful neighborhood—the Back Bay—at the corner of two of Boston’s most iconic streets: Massachusetts and Commonwealth Avenues, thus the name. DeuxAve (get it? French for two avenues)

If you’re coming to Boston and you want to splurge on fine dining ($$$), I recommend a meal at Deuxave.

My family and me in the bar at Deuxave on my 50th birthday (11 years ago). The restaurant has been in business since 2010.

Sea to Table

~ MaryG ~ 24 Comments

What’s the best local dish you’ve ever eaten while traveling?

Summer is far and away my favorite season in New England—my lifelong home. I generally stay within its six states in summer. Why leave? I know it’s been very hot here, but I’m a swimmer. Outdoor pools and oceans beckon me. The water temperature at Rhode Island beaches was 70F last weekend. Perfect.

A plate of fresh, farm-raised oysters at Westport Sea Farms in Westport, MA
Jonathan Richman—a Boston original.
He gets it.

OK, if I HAD to rank them, I’d go:

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

Connecticut

But they’re all great – in the SUMMAH.

Pumpkin spice, stay away!

Lens-Artists Challenge #408 — Over the Top

~ MaryG ~ 36 Comments

Posting for Egidio’s Lens-Artists Challenge: “Over the Top” 🤩

Nature was showing off last night as my oldest friend and I dined at The Boat House restaurant in Tiverton, Rhode Island. (And by oldest, I mean that we’ve been friends since junior high.) This was the view from the window at our table, as captured by my iPhone 15 through a pane of glass.

1.
2.
3.
4.

Does anyone else have this problem: you take multiple photos of the same scene and can’t decide which one is the best? Opinions welcomed. If you were me, would you share photo 1, 2, 3 or 4?

I am also very moved by Egidio’s recent post “Walls that Need no Wall” on his blog Through Brazilian Eyes. It’s about the heartbreaking effects of the massive border wall construction project on nature in “one of the last places in Texas where wildlife still moves freely along the river corridor.” Combined with his great photography, it’s a powerful post.