Vacations and Trips

Wine tasting notes from trips we have taken.

Desert Rhino Camp featured photo

Desert Rhino Camp: Respect for Rhinos and More

I always like to see exactly where I’m going on a map before I get there. The vastness of Namibia (it’s twice as big as Spain) and its relatively small population (2.5 million in 2017) mean that almost every location outside of the capital city of Windhoek is remote. And sometimes difficult to find on a map. But remote and […]

Namibian Wine Tasting featured photo

A Day of Wine Tasting in Namibia

Wine was not the primary reason we traveled to Namibia, but once we discovered there are several commercial wineries located in this arid African county we made it our mission to taste wine from as many of them as we could. It took two trips, but we have now tasted wine from all four commercial wineries in Namibia and visited […]

Fish River Lodge featured photo

Return to Namibia: the Fish River Lodge

As it turns out, one visit to Namibia was not enough. Namibia has everything we enjoy when traveling in Africa: wide-open space, spectacular scenery and wild animal sightings. But it was a discovery we made as we were leaving Namibia on our first visit that made a return trip feel urgent: the Fish River Lodge. This is the brochure that […]

Sonoita sign featured photo

A Wine Sojourn to Sonoita

The Sonoita AVA is the first Arizona AVA we visited, so it will always be special to us for that reason. That was back in 2011 and I remember being astonished to discover high-elevation grassland in Arizona dotted with windmills, grazing horses, cattle and antelope. I was even more surprised by the sight of vineyards growing in what looked like […]

Willcox Vineyard

Return to Willcox, Arizona – Part 2

A two-day trip to the charming railroad town of Willcox in 2013 left us longing to return. We fell in love with the high desert grassland, the mountains that ring the Sulphur Springs Valley and, of course, the wine. In Part 1 of this post we shared our hiking experiences and introduced you to a historic B&B where we stayed […]

Willcox featured photo

Return to Willcox, Arizona – Part 1

We first visited Willcox, Arizona in August 2013 to taste the wine and see for ourselves the vineyards planted in Arizona’s high desert. Two days spent in this beautiful, southeast corner of Arizona left us wanting to return for a longer stay. It has taken us five years to return, but return we did this May, and we had to […]

Iglesia Bien Viaje in Remedios featured photo

In And Around Remedios, Cuba

The second leg of our people-to-people exchange in Cuba took us to the charming city of Remedios, just a couple of miles from the north coast of the island. But, before we reached Remedios, there was there was much to see in the rural parts of Cuba between Camagüey and Remedios. I discovered the small cities are just as interesting […]

Cafe Ciudad

Camagüey: A Colorful Introduction to Cuba

Looking at a street map of the city of Camagüey is not at all helpful in navigating this historic Cuban city. The maze-like layout of the city was completely confusing to me, not that I minded being lost in historic Camagüey, it provided a delightful opportunity to interact with local Cubans. Pete and I had only a couple of opportunities […]