The first story opens in the Place des Vosges, the first planned square in Paris, where Victor Hugo resided in the 19th century. His home, situated in the southeastern corner of the square, is a museum open to visitors. The ghost of Victor Hugo appears in the square and engages in humorous dialogue with a former teacher of his works. Thus begins Redkina’s romp around the city.
Read MoreWith a title like Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland's Elves Can Save the Earth, I was both intrigued and wary of a tome on the supernatural. Having read a prior well-researched book by the academic author, though, I cracked open the first page ready to go wherever Brown decided to tred.
Read MoreI’ve read 8 books, which means I’m on track. This does not give me great comfort - I like to start the year off further ahead!
Read MoreThis post will be far more spare than five days spread across these two cities suggests because the bulk of our time in these spots was to visit with family - first to attend a wedding in Seattle and then to visit other relatives at their home in Spokane.
That doesn’t mean that we didn’t see anything at all, though!
Read MoreOur 11-day road trip that would carry us across international borders twice started with a couple of days in Vancouver before we headed to Washington state and ultimately north again to Banff.
Read MoreHorsepen Trail is part of the large Carvins Cove Natural Reserve in Roanoke, Virginia. The cove is comprised of over 12,000 acres and includes a 630-acre reservoir. It is nestled in the Roanoke Valley near Tinker Mountain and has pretty mountain and water views, depending on your exact spot. The Reserve is half in Roanoke County, half in neighboring Botetourt County (pronounced bot-uh-tot).
Read MoreWhen I dream of hitting the road for an extended road trip to just go and explore without any time constraints, I mostly picture spots out west. It makes sense. There is ample open space, more solitude, fewer cities. I often picture spots from this particular trip - most particularly Banff, in Canada’s Alberta province, nestled in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Read MoreGil has decided it is time to make a change in his life and so, sight unseen, he purchases a home in Arizona and heads out - on foot - from New York. After months of walking across the country with long, desolate roads, truck stop food and truck stop companions, he arrives at his new home in the Arizona desert, a home he later nicknames “the castle”.
Read MoreI have always been a voracious reader. That is, once I started reading.
In kindergarten, my teacher did not believe in forcing kids to start reading and operated under the perspective that they’d learn it when they were developmentally ready. The science supports this, but many parents and schools still feel the need to push kids along. For most of my youth, I was the youngest (or one of the youngest) kids in my grade so yeah, I was not ready to read in kindergarten.
Read MoreBooker T. Washington was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1856, into the so-called Peculiar Institution of American slavery. At the tender age of 9, Booker and other slaves on the Burroughs family plantation were freed, and Booker began a journey that would make him a well-known and important figure during the Reconstruction Era.
Read MoreAs we close out 2022, we are coming up on our four year anniversary of To Make Much of Time! It’s hard to believe we’ve been at it almost four years! Who has the (dripping with sarcasm) good fortune to start a travel blog one year before a global pandemic hits?! Of course, our blog isn’t only about travel - our tagline is “a blog about travel, life, and the pursuit of the unknown” and 2022 gave us plenty to experience and write about in all facets.
Read MoreVermont, in the winter, is cold and depressing.
Especially for a man from Mississippi who moved there to follow his ex-wife for the sake of staying close to his son.
Read MoreIn the summer of 2019 we spent 10 days in Scotland on an amazing trek from Edinburgh through the Highlands and to Skye.
We stayed at several great bed and breakfasts along the way, and one of them - Firhall Bed & Breakfast started each morning off with a bowl of porridge before delectable breakfast entrees. Their porridge was amazing with just the right amount of heartiness and texture to avoid the risk that always accompanies the meal: mush. They kindly shared a few tips with us about the couple of types of oats and the tip that they soak one overnight.
Read MoreOn our final day staying in Watoga State Park in West Virginia, we checked out the Greenbrier River Trail and rode a chunk of the route on our bikes. The day started out a tad overcast so we headed from our rustic cabin to the trail head, a short distance away, cognizant that time was likely not on our side.
Read MoreI am not a deep attention-to-details type of person, so the idea of building anything like a model has never appealed to me. (In this, Dustin and I are polar opposites.) So, I’m surprised as anyone that I decided to tackle building a gingerbread house this year. And not only that. I actually enjoyed it!
Read MoreIt’s time for our annual gift guide, just in time for the holidays! This year we have compiled 9 ideas inspired by our own interests and activities this past year.
Read MoreAfter weighing the weather report for the day and the following day, the Cranberry Glades area won out. Everything we had read about the area sold us on this decision. The Cranberry Glades are a unique bog environment, not typically found so far south. A more common location of a bog is Canada or far northern areas in the United States, not a spot a 7+ hour drive south of there. A bog is a freshwater wetland area with an soft, spongy ground because it is filled with peat, partially decayed plant matter.
Read MoreThe Sleepless is a one-of-a-kind novel: part mystery and crime novel, part science fiction, part dystopian futurism, and at the same time grounded in a topic very timely and relatable: a pandemic. In addition to its multi-genre aspect, the novel explores important questions about how we spend our time, the meaning of life, and the meaningfulness of relationships. At its core, The Sleepless considers one of the future potential paths we are on as a civilization - towards ever-increasing technology incursion into our private spaces and thoughts and the fundamental changes that can occur.
Read MoreCandles have the power to transform a room with their low, flickering light adding warmth, coziness, and ambiance. Particularly in the seasons of the year with longer nights, we enjoy striking some matches, lighting the wicks and relaxing with the low candle light.
Read MoreAfter swinging by the main park building to access wifi from the parking lot to get driving directions on the phone, we drove the 25 minutes or so to Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park. The route took us through the small area of Hillsboro, past the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace – a gorgeous, white house sitting along a rural thoroughfare. There were some steep altitude climbs and very windy roads, but it was overall an easy drive.
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