Professional Eater, Storyteller, and Wine Traveler
The Best Toro I have Eaten this Year (and more)
Dear Followers of Bliss,
Juliet and I depart for Italy in the early hours on Monday. I will post my traditional Haiku post tomorrow and a little Italy surprise on Monday and then my wonderful guest bloggers will be featured for the next 3+ weeks.
For this evening I wanted to share just a few shots of Juliet’s farewell dinner at Sushi Den to celebrate the end of her assignment. [Read more...]
A stirring week of fortune has left me creatively bankrupt.
I seek home and the familiar places of solace.
Yet it has been some time since I knew this place on a map. [Read more...]
Interior of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Saigon
Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City as it is now formally called is easily one of the most vivacious places I have seen in my travels.
Rising from the ashes of war and abject poverty, Vietnam as a nation is firing on all cylinders. The changes in culture, quality of life, and wealth are all over Saigon.
This is a country that has gained almost 40 million people since the end of the war in 1975. These are industrious, friendly, and perhaps the happiest people I have encountered anywhere on the planet. [Read more...]
Photo from djsets.com
At last the final installment detailing the trip that began my life as a traveler and storyteller. This is 100% True.
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5
There was not much time between my return from her hotel and our scheduled farewell dinner that night. The other folks who had been part of the scuba trip not mentioned here in these stories now seemed to be all around me. I did not like any of them and did my best to steer clear of the stubby business guy, the used car salesman, and of course the snobby teens who had all been there for Scuba.
I had not been there for SCUBA, I was there for discovery of a much more telling variety. I was at the time a little sad I had not made friends with the main-streamers and over the course of the next 20+ years of travel I would learn why. I do not tick off boxes on a life agenda. I do not go where lines are long and patience is a requirement. I don’t obey traffic laws when the law is not applicable to good sense, and I have always known that what goes on in Mexico does NOT stay in Mexico, it lives within us the rest of our lives. [Read more...]
View from my Memory
This is the penultimate chapter in the story of how I came to be enamored with travel and imbued with wanderlust.
I would suggest reading the first 4 parts before reading this one if you want the back story; otherwise, just dive in and let me know your thoughts.
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4
She wore tight denim shorts. That is the memory that pervades the images in my mind as I consider our walk through the streets of Cozumel that day. I had completely forgotten where I was as I looked often at my new friend and could have cared less about the sea, the sun, or even investigating some new part of the island. Her body and how each component of it made me tingle in places and ways I never had before, was all the exploration I wanted. To this day the physical discovery of a woman is easily the most powerful curiosity I have ever experienced. No drink, drug, or thrill has ever surpassed the initial few hours of intimacy with a heavenly creature of the opposite sex. [Read more...]
Image from TruckChamp.com
Now I begin the final 2 chapters of this story that shaped my life into what it has become. This is also Free Write Friday and the theme is Your One Amazing Summer.
Since this is part 4 of a continuing story about “my one amazing summer” I want to enter it for #FWF consideration; however, I do not intend to follow the rules so perhaps they will let me audit this week’s assignment.
Here are links to the first 3 parts
I travel because trips make memories and unlike cars or furniture memories last forever
My father said this to me sometime before we ever took this famed first trip together. To this day I believe it and live by it. I have nothing of great substance as far as possessions go, but my memories are woven into the fabric of my existence. [Read more...]
I cannot even remember her name.
I know that the donde boys and I strolled into the Disco Scaramouche that night along with some stragglers and the other kids my age on the trip, who I am certain turned out to be teetotalers, to find the place was busy but not jammed like my father’s experience in the past. [Read more...]
Travel has been in my blood for nearly 25 years and this is the account of how I became infected.
Here are links to the first 2 parts, written in 2011
That night my father said we were going to dine at Pizza Rolandi. I had been hearing about this great pizza joint, in Mexico of all places, for years. I was starving all day after my flailing snorkeling experience and Pizza sounded perfect.
Bear in mind at this age I had never been anywhere, so when we entered the dimly candlelit outdoor patio with high walls it felt like we were in a cave of European royalty; some hidden part of a castle with classical music and nice linens. I was a bit nervous as I thought this was only going to be pizza. It was much more to me at the time, it was another in a series of great escapes on this amazing journey. [Read more...]
This is Part 2 of How I became a passionate traveler. If you missed Part 1, click here :-)
The Island
After dinner the first night I walked around the central Plaza. I was not sure what to expect, but the charm of the buildings, the distant sounds of the Caribbean, and the fact that I was left to my own discoveries made this night very appealing to an independent spirit. That same disheartening spirit that led me to quit every dinky summer job was now a quiet awakening of wanderlust. I strolled through the streets uninhibited by friends at home, girls that wanted nothing to do with me, and the fact I possessed absolutely no money but the few pesos my Dad had given me for soda. I was truly surprised and filled with joy at the simple feeling of walking and not knowing what lay around each corner.
My Dad Has This Book
In 1988 I had never left the state of Texas, nor had I ever been on a plane. My father was an assistant scuba diving instructor and he traveled often to Belize, Honduras. and Mexico. In fact, my father traveled so frequently that I thought it was his job (and in some ways it was).
It came as an enormous surprise when my father approached me that summer and told me my step-mother accepted a summer teaching position and could not go on their planned trip to Cozumel. He then asked me if I would like to go. I was overwhelmed and I remember calling my Mom to ask for permission (even though I did not need permission to travel with my Dad). [Read more...]
