Travels with Valerie

Well, we’re here! We had three days on our own in San Diego to prep for our marine biology debut. The sunset above is from right in front of our Del Mar hotel. Our first warm-up whale watching activity was to drive to a Patagonia store and clear the 40% off sale rack. Then, to […]

When I was thinking about fun things I could plan to celebrate Ron’s winter birthday, I realized that I spend a lot of time on our morning walks – looking for whales, talking to Ron about whales, pointing out things that might be whales and/or logs. My love of marine biology is not hampered at […]

Well, it’s time for us to head back home. It’s been a trip with a bigger footprint than my usual planning – France, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and now London. The overriding world theme has remained one of political peril, diplomatic failures, and bewildering aggression. The personal themes of the trip are far easier to […]

Wicked tells the story of the two witches from Oz – Glinda and Elphaba – the good witch and the wicked witch. The London production we saw had a fantastic set and great singers – especially the woman playing Elphaba. I felt like I got the general gist of the plot in Act One and […]