It’s been a whirlwind at home for us as we’ve moved back to Houston, picked an apartment, moved in, and started new jobs. That’s at least my excuse for such a long delay in wrapping up our travel blog. But on we go with the final round of posts and the next port-of-call on our cruise, Athens. We happened to visit on the hottest day of the year – a high of 42°C/108°F. But we both grew up in Houston and thought,...

Our ship stopped in Italy twice, once on the way into the eastern Mediterranean in Sicily and once on the way back to Rome at Naples. The Sicily port was at Messina, which in itself is nothing too special, so we worked our way to the bus station and rode up and around to the town of Taormina. The main attraction there is a remarkably well-preserved ancient Greek theater (the design plan and arrangement are considered Greek) located in an...

We just got back from a ten night cruise through the eastern Mediterranean. Traveling on the Celebrity Equinox is a completely different mindset than the way we’ve been seeing the world the past year. I would call it “postcard tourism” because the itinerary only gave us enough time to take pictures at signature views before moving on in the evening to the next port of call. Being on this behemoth ship definitely inoculated...

From St. Paul’s to St. Peter’s, did you know it’s possible to climb the dome on top of Saint Peter’s Cathedral? Saint Peter’s is the heart of Catholicism and Vatican City and considered as the greatest church in all Christendom. We found out about the cupola climb (as it’s called here) and put it on our to-do list for this trip to Rome. Although it costs money, the views are absolutely worth the euros and...

We’re in Europe right now on an Eastern Mediterranean cruise with Celebrity, a sale we found following Arthur Frommer’s blog. We had three days in Rome before the cruise set off, so we tried to visit some of the sites we missed the last time we visited, almost five years ago. One stunning sight is the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. With only a fraction of the crowds at Saint Peter’s in Vatican City, this cathedral...

On our drive to Atlanta we spent a night in Little Rock, Arkansas to visit the Clinton Presidential Center & Library. It’s an impressive piece of land that seems to have gentrified the area. Multimedia displays chronicle his two terms of office, and it’s easy to see which accomplishments he takes greatest pride in (the economy, welfare reform, peacebuilding). Of course, there’s the obligatory collection of all the gifts...

We returned from Latin America about one month ago, and one of our first stops was a visit to my brother and sister-in-law in Fort Worth to meet my one month old (at the time) nephew. When we arrived, they told us we had to drive over to the Dallas Arboretum to see the special Chihuly installation. We’ve seen his work all over the world, but only one or two pieces at a time, nothing close to this scale. He had free reign to integrate...

The last days of our trip were spent in relaxed Placencia on the southern end of Belize. With easier access to the mainland, Placencia is only a tad more lively than Caye Caulker, but when you arrive via Hokey Pokey Water Taxi like we did, your mind prepares for a slower pace of...

We headed to the ocean for the final stops of our Latin America trip for a plunge into the Belize Barrier Reef, the second longest in the world (you get one guess at the longest). We first visited the northern cayes and stayed in Caye Caulker, a very small town with sand streets and golf cart taxis. From Caye Caulker, the reef is just a short boat ride from the...

Crossing the border into Belize, we also crossed into the sites of the Mayan underworld. For the Mayan culture, underground chambers were where the spirits dwelt and could be appeased through food and even human sacrifice offerings. We learned only royalty, priests, and sacrifice volunteers (and they were volunteers… except for the children, I assume) journeyed into the caves. Led by flickering torches and caverns that amplified every...