In Case You Missed It:

The Rotating Nest

On the way to an empty nest, life happens. The little birds sometimes come back between schools, between jobs, between relationships. Sometimes they bring more little birds back with them. We’ve got a funny economy and expensive higher education. Baby boomers and Gen X-ers can’t figure out the Millennials. It’s harder to get started...(read more)

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep: August 2016

When you sell your house to travel, you give up your own bed and some privacy. But you might gain something else, like new friends or a new perspective. During this year of travel, I’m sure I’ll sleep in houses, hotels, and hostels. However, I also hope to find some unusual...(read more)

So Close and Yet So Close

How do you survive a cross-country trip in a Mini Cooper with loved ones? Especially if you're an introvert, and the loved ones are affectionate, open, devoted extroverts? Here are my tips. 1. Go against your better judgement and encourage everyone to be on their electronic devices as much as possible. This includes you. I got through most of...(read more)

Solar Roast Coffee

You know what I love? I love people who have a great idea and work really hard to make it happen. I love it when people dream big. I love cities that welcome unique, even radical ideas. I also love coffee. All those things came together in Pueblo, a city I love because it’s been good to my sister, whom I love. Solar Roast Coffee roasts coffee beans using...(read more)

36 Hours in Aspen

If you have only thirty-six hours to spend in Aspen, you can have a great time and scope out the place for future visits. Here are my recommendations. By the way, we visited in the summer, so things might be different for a winter trip. Stay at Mountain Chalet Inn. If I were a professional hotel reviewer (is that a thing?), I would give this...(read more)

Zion and Me: Happy at Last

I first visited Zion National Park in 1992. My husband and I went there for our first married vacation. Because we had no money, we camped. We were terrible campers. We borrowed all the equipment, packed it up in Sam’s ancient Mercedes diesel sedan, and drove from our home in Southern California to Utah. We had trouble setting up the...(read more)

Toilet Gallery: SFMOMA

It starts innocently enough. You decide, like you do many times a day, to go to the bathroom. At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, you walk innocently down the dimly-lit white hallway, past the coat check. You pull the bathroom door open and BAM you are shocked and amazed by a flood of red. Red ceiling, red floor, red walls. It’s like...(read more)

SFMOMA Cafe: Restaurant Review

I took Kid 3 to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last week. We checked out the cafe. I learned something that day: take it easy, and go slow. Here's why. When Sam and I were first married, we had no money for vacations. He hadn’t been raised having vacations (Hong Kong is one city--no matter how far away you go, you might as well go...(read more)

Mental Health and Your Adult Child

During the last few years, one of our children went through a mental health crisis. We were at a loss, not knowing what our options were and being thwarted at every turn by our insurance company and conflicting medical advice. Eventually, with love, hard work, prayer, medications, doctors, and flexibility, things came right again, albeit at a...(read more)

Send My Bag: My Review

We’re going to spend eight months in Hong Kong, using it as a base for part of our round the world trip before we move to Paris. (If you think reading that sentence was confusing, you should try living that sentence.) Anyway, we’ll be staying in a furnished apartment, so we only need to take clothing and personal items. Because of our weird travel...(read more)

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep: July 2016

When you sell your house to travel, you give up your own bed and some privacy. But you might gain something else, like new friends or a new perspective. During this year of travel, I’m sure I’ll sleep in houses, hotels, and hostels. However, I also hope to find some unusual sleeping accommodations, like a yurt, or a hammock between palm...(read more)

Carlsbad Caverns Lunchroom: Finding Joy in the Mundane

During our Big Southwest Road Trip, I decided to show Kid 3 Carlsbad Caverns. I was there as a child, with my dad, so even though I knew it was an awe-inspiring, majestic, magnificent place, I had already seen it. It wouldn’t be the thrill it had once been. Therefore, I decided...(read more)

​How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love to Travel

​Since we started planning our round-the-world trip and move to Paris, people have asked me a lot of questions about our motivation and purpose. They wanted to know why I like to travel so much, why I want to move to another country. Some think it’s an great idea. Some...(read more)
I'm Yvonne, and this is my blog. 
The kids are leaving, I’m retired, and I’ve got miles to go before I sleep. If you are as perplexed and excited as I am about the second half of your life, come eat, travel, and figure it out with me.  
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