Author: Nancy

We left Idaho Falls for the two hour drive to Jackson Hole; we planned to spend the night at a downtown hotel and meet the naturalist from Jackson Hole Wildlife Tours early the next morning who would guide us through Yellowstone for the next several days. Skies were heavily overcast but as of yet there…

Yellowstone has long been on my bucket list but the logistics of getting there as well as tales of summer traffic jams, large crowds and lines to hike its iconic natural attractions was a deterrent. As COVID hit and shut down dreams of international travel, we started seriously looking at the US National Parks on…

Like yesterday, today dawned cool and overcast in Southwest Micigan with one difference – a gusty breeze had blown in from the west overnight.  Collars turned up against the wind, we walked downtown looking for breakfast and hopefully, a short wait.  Fortunately, we found Caffe Tosi, a small Italian style café in downtown St. Joes…

I love Chicago, but sometimes the urban congestion and traffic are overwhelming, especially in the fall when nature’s colorful foliage beckons. So one late autumn weekend during the height of the pandemic (2020) we opted to meet my son and daughter-in-law from Chicago outside the city for a weekend of hiking in southwestern Michigan. Leaving…

The historical fiction novel, America’s First Daughter, opens with seven-year-old Patsy Jefferson’s recollection of her family’s hurried departure from Monticello across the mountains to Poplar Forest, a small plantation her father had inherited from her maternal grandfather. Her father, who was Governor of Virginia at the time and a vocal separatist, had been warned that…

We’d seen an advertisement for an alpaca farm that gave tours, located about twenty miles south of Roanoke near the Smith Mountain Lake Reservoir. Per its website, Pacabella was open till 4pm – our plan was to tour the farm, play with those cute fuzzy alpacas and then find a restaurant on the reservoir for…

Each fall, I get together with my friend and former work mentor for an extended weekend of talk, travel and fun. Ten years ago, she retired to a small town in Tennessee equidistant between Nashville and Knoxville. Depending on where we are headed, I fly into one of these airports, she picks me up and…

Friday, our last full day in Vermont, dawned overcast and drizzly but with the promise of clearer skies and sunshine later in the afternoon. We were ready to hike in the Green Mountains regardless of weather. Fortified with another inn breakfast of blueberry pancakes and scones, we packed our raincoats, filled our water bottles and…

We woke to the steady drum of raindrops on the roof. The forecast was for all day rain, the continuous precipitation that comes from low cloud cover, not exactly great weather for hiking and enjoying expansive mountain views. So we pivoted and decided to drive to Hildene, the summer home of Robert and Mary Lincoln,…

The drive from Lake George to our inn in Vermont is just over 50 miles as the crow flies but twice that distance via road. Traversing mostly two lane county roads, we wound around hills and across streams occasionally passing through small hamlets. Ahead in the distance, we see the Green Mountains, the state’s namesake;…