Antarctica

My mother inspired our trip to Antarctica. At 72, she’d visited six of the seven continents and had only one more left to go—Antarctica. My brother and I weren’t about to let Mom go on this adventure of a lifetime alone; so we joined her that January of 2010. On the ten year anniversary, it seems a fitting time to revisit that moment in time.


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Thailand

There are so many things to love about Thailand! One of my favorites is the melodic Thai greeting, “Sawasdee Ka,” pronounced sah-wah-dee-khaa. To get it right, I draw out the khaa like the last note of a favorite song. Then I fold my hands in front of me, as though praying, and bow.


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Hong Kong

Hong Kong's soaring and seemingly endless skyline is unforgettable. Whether I viewed it from high above the skyscrapers on Victoria Peak or from the Star Ferry crossing Victoria Harbor, my gaze was always drawn to its sheer size and magnificence.


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Macau

I confess I’d never heard of Macau until six months before I arrived, in 2019. I told a friend that I’d be visiting Hong Kong and she exclaimed, “Macau is a just a ferry ride away. You have to go.” The former Portuguese colony, just a stone’s throw from mainland China, with its mix of European architecture and Portuguese restaurants turned out to be the highlight of my trip.


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Buenos Aires & Ushuaia

I didn't know what to expect when I landed in Buenos Aires on a blistering day in 2010. It was January and a suffocatingly hot summer in the Southern hemisphere. I had just flown in from the Triple Frontier, the northern part of Argentina that borders Brazil and Paraguay.


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Shanghai & Zhouzhuang

In 2006, and I was dying to visit China for the first time. When I overheard two friends discussing their upcoming trip to Shanghai, I jumped at the chance to join them. With less than a week to secure my visa from the Chinese embassy, and a tentative standby slot on my friends’ flight, the trip was meant to be as both came through just in time.


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