I hardly consider myself a great world traveler, but I love to travel and have been to a lot of places considering I got a late start. Until my sophomore year in college, I’d been to a total of six states, all in the northeastern USA. Since then I’ve been working hard to make up for lost time.
Until the Covid-19 pandemic hit, I was constantly either on a trip or planning the next one. In 2019 I took a four-week tour to eastern Germany, Czechia, and Poland. In January 2020: a short getaway to Michoacán to see the monarch butterfly migration, and in February, a week-long tour to Cuba. Since then, I’ve been stuck at home, which isn’t a terrible thing, since my home is now a beautiful town in Mexico. But now that I’m vaccinated, I’m thinking about being on the move again. In May 2021 I took a ten-day road trip, and I’m hoping to do another one this fall. Then in February and March of 2022 I have a trip to the Middle East that has been rescheduled twice and hoping will finally happen.
I am a retired software architect living the good life in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico. One reason I chose this spot to retire is that it is close enough to an international airport that I can still get away for the travel I long to do.
When I’m not traveling, and when there isn’t a global pandemic, I can usually be found playing bridge at the Lake Chapala Duplicate Bridge Club, playing pub trivia, taking my dog for walks on the malecón, or enjoying the many fine restaurants in this community of about half locals and half expats from the US and Canada.
See my list of favorite travel blogs and websites
Countries I’ve visited
(in chronological order)
- Canada
- France
- Switzerland
- Germany
- Austria
- Hungary
- England
- Wales
- Liechtenstein
- Italy
- Ireland
- Mexico
- Denmark
- Sweden
- Estonia
- Finland
- Iceland
- Croatia
- Slovenia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Montenegro
- Belgium
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Chile
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Costa Rica
- Czechia
- Poland
- Cuba
Airports I’ve flown through
US Airports (in random order)
- Ted Stevens Anchorage
- Seattle-Tacoma
- Seldovia (Alaska)
- Phoenix Sky Harbor
- Los Angeles
- Palm Springs
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose
- Boulder Municipal
- Tampa
- Harsfield-Jackson Atlanta
- Honolulu
- Lihue
- O’Hare
- Chicago Midway
- General Wayne A. Downing Peoria (Illinois)
- Barkley Regional (Paducah, Kentucky)
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans
- Portland (Maine)
- Baltimore/Washington
- Detroit Metropolitan
- Minneapolis-Saint Paul
- St. Louis Lambert
- McCarran (Las Vegas)
- Reno-Tahoe
- Manchester-Boston Regional (New Hampshire)
- Newark Liberty
- Buffalo Niagara
- LaGuardia (New York)
- John F. Kennedy (New York)
- Long Island MacArthur (New York)
- Syracuse Hancock (New York)
- Westchester County (New York)
- Charlotte Douglas
- Cleveland Hopkins
- Dallas-Fort Worth
- William P. Hobby (Houston)
- George Bush Intercontinental (Houston)
- San Antonio
- Ronald Reagan Washington
- Dulles (Washington, D.C.)
- Boeing Field (Seattle)
- Juneau
- Homer (Alaska)
- John Wayne (Santa Ana, California)
- Philadelphia
- Austin-Bergstrom (Texas)
- Talkeetna (Alaska)
International Airports (in chronological order)
- Charles de Gaulle (Paris)
- Frankfurt
- Munich
- Shannon (Ireland)
- Milan Malpensa
- Leonardo Da Vinci (Fiumicino, Rome)
- Schiphol (Amsterdam)
- Zurich
- Heathrow (London)
- Keflavik (Iceland)
- Oslo
- Copenhagen
- Helsinki
- Zagreb
- Dubrovnik
- Brussels
- Bergen (Norway)
- Trondheim (Norway)
- Mataveri (Rapa Nui, Chile)
- Jorge Newbery (Buenos Aires)
- Santiago (Chile)
- Bariloche (Argentina)
- El Tepual (Puerto Montt, Chile)
- Presidente Carles Ibáñez del Campo (Punta Arenas, Chile)
- El Calafate (Argentina)
- Cataratas (Iguazú, Argentina)
- Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil)
- Galeão (Rio de Janeiro)
- Mexico City
- Juan Santamaria (San Jose, Costa Rica)
- Drake Bay (Costa Rica)
- Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (Guadalajara)
- Václav Havel (Prague)
- Lech Walesa (Gdansk)
- Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (Puerto Vallarta)
- Jose Marti (Havana, Cuba)
US National Parks I’ve visited
(in alphabetical order)
- Acadia
- Arches
- Badlands
- Bryce Canyon
- Crater Lake
- Denali
- Glacier
- Grand Canyon
- Grand Teton
- Joshua Tree
- Kenai Fjords
- Mammoth Cave
- Mesa Verde
- Mount Rainier
- North Cascades
- Olympic
- Rocky Mountain
- Yellowstone
- Zion
Mexican Pueblos Mágicos I’ve visited
(in chronological order)
- Tepoztlán, Morelos
- Tlaquepaque, Jalisco
- Ajijic, Jalisco
- Pátzcuaro, Michoacán
- Tequila, Jalisco
- Mazamitla, Jalisco
- Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco
- Pinos, Zacatecas
- Guadalupe, Zacatecas
- Sombrerete, Zacatecas
- Jerez, Zacatecas
- Asientos, Aguascalientes
- San José de Gracia, Aguascalientes
- Calvillo, Aguascalientes
- Nochistlán, Zacatecas
- Teúl de González Ortega, Zacatecas