Global-Trekker.net

Happy Birthday to the Oldest City

Today marks the third day of festivities for St. Augustine, Florida’s 445th birthday celebration. (Note: if you haven’t made your reservations yet for the big bash in 2015, you might want to book a room at http://www.bayfrontmarinhouse.com/.)
St. Augustine was officially declared a city on September 8, 1565 by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles. That makes it the [...]

She Knew You Way Back When

As some of you may know, the hub and I restored a house in Galveston Texas a couple of years ago. (And by “restored”, I mean we bought a house in good shape, watched it fill up with nine feet of water during Hurricane Ike, and then “restored” it to its original good shape. With [...]

The Star Drugstore: A Lot of Firsts, and a Good Place for Seconds!

I had lunch today at the Star Drug Store in Galveston (http://www.galvestonstardrug.com/).
It’s a great little historic place. They claim to be the oldest drug store in Texas, and it’s a pretty sincere and non-falutin’ place, so I’m inclined to believe that their research is correct.
The history doesn’t end there: the porcelain Coca-Cola sign is [...]

The Serial Killing Gardener: Back to School Edition

There are those gardeners who are trainable. They make mistakes, they learn from them, they improve. They are in a constant state of evolution to a higher-functioning mind. And a better looking garden.
I’m so not one of them.
Case in point: as I write this, the heat is still sweltering. The corn in my county looks [...]

Work Stay of the Day

Last week was my company’s strategic planning session.
We strategically used the facilities at the Mount Washington Conference Center, strategically located in Mount Washington, just a few minutes from downtown Baltimore.
Mount Washington is a cute little area, lined with serious looking Victorians and well cut lawns. Of course, you’ll only see that if you go there [...]

Photo of the Day: Mackinac Island

I’m not a photographer. I don’t understand light, F-Stops are as confusing (and useless) as video games to me, and composition always has and always will mean writing.
The most artsy thing I do when taking a photo is to put the subject off-center.

But some days, the PhotoGods shine on you and give you a [...]

Trying Anything Once

They say that nothing is perfect. But imagine, for a moment, that the second that a particular activity was imperfect, it would be banned forever.
This no tolerance policy would change our world forever.
Sushi restaurants would close, of course. Most hair stylists would be out of business (at the very least, they would never give a [...]

Grandma Knows What She’s Doing

Mike’s Grandmother turned 96 yesterday.
If you haven’t met her in my blog yet, please check out my favorite post about her here.
Incidentally, she is still trading on the phrase “I’m old and I don’t know what I’m doing.” But she knows. Oh, she knows.
What she’s doing right now, for the record, is living with [...]

For Better or For Worse

We interrupted the first weekend of living with our in-laws to attend a wedding in Newton, New Jersey. (Why are they living with their in-laws, you may ask? Tune in next week for the whole unbelievable story).
Back to this story: we had this out-of-town wedding for two people that I had only met once. The hub thought we [...]

Organic Truths in Washington DC

Despite popular theories, I am not Amish.
I grew up in an Amish area. I was not allowed to travel more than 5 miles from home. And I worked hard as a kid. I envied those cushy sweatshop jobs in China. The ones where the kids got to be a kid for two or three [...]

Well, Shucks!!!

Good morning, fellow travelers!!!
I woke up to thunderstorms in Galveston Texas, which dampened my otherwise vacation-happy heart. I’m mostly upset because we’ve been working on a 3-day roof project here since March of this year. Even translating that timeframe to the contractor’s calendar, he is Over Due.

But then…the skies parted…the sun shone down…the angels [...]

What’s in a Name?

Okay, a few months ago I promised that I wouldn’t write any more blogs about our house in Cape May.
Technically, however, the house is no longer our house. So I’m really just writing about A house in Cape May. Not MY house.
This weekend, it became painfully obvious that it wasn’t my house anymore.
When the hub and [...]

Traveling with Friends (And living to tell about it)

Don’t look for me at the Parkville Home Depot this weekend, because I’m taking a break from the home improvement/gardening/mrs-fix-it projects, and I’m heading out to Cape May.
I’m going with 11 of my closest friends and family members (not that family members can’t be friends). We’re renting a house–our house, in fact. Our old house. [...]

Gardening as a Competitive Sport

If one more person asks me if I garden because it’s relaxing, I am going to jump up off my cushioned knee protector (and by “jump up” I mean that I will hobble to a fairly-straight and upright position, groaning the whole way), ball up my little fist (little, of course, is relative, as presently [...]

Asking Me To Remember is Just.Plain.Mean.

It’s not fun to have a memory deficiency. I don’t know if it’s a sleep deprivation thing, or a pre-menopausal thing, or if it’s just…
Wait a minute. What was I talking about?
That’s what it’s like now around the Wieber Ranch. I’m constantly walking into a room, stopping short, and saying (usually out loud) “Why did I [...]

God Made the Universe, But the Navy Made This Island

When HTG was just a G, she spent a couple of weeks in the Netherlands. While she was there, she spent some of those weeks with a boy named Rolf, with whom she spent some of that time…talking about international politics.
HTG didn’t know much about international politics then, but Rolf was older and a little more versed in….international [...]

Trees of Life: The Passing Nature of Art

HTG’s mother was an artist. She painted porcelain, which is a very Victorian lady thing to do.
One of the things I loved about her art was that it was beautiful, but exceptionally fragile. One rambunctious two-year-old could wipe out years of work in about 4.7 seconds. (Yes, I’m talking about you, Lukey!)
Porcelain painting has a [...]

March Sadness: The Last Guest to Leave the Pity Party

Okay, this is going to be the last one. I promise.
If you haven’t already guessed, this is one more blog about the love of my life: my house in Cape May (with apologies to the hub). We got an email last night from the new owner; they said “we love the house.”
I’m sure that was [...]

You’re Feeling Sleepy, Sleepy…

That’s what one hour less sleep will do to you.
My husband has long declared that, if he were to run for office (insert here the incredulous sound of your choice…such as HA, or TSK), he would run on a platform of having the sun go down at 9:15 every night. His theory is that the [...]

A Few of My Favorite Days

They say a house is just a place to live, but a home is a place to love (do they say that? If they don’t, they should.)
We didn’t live in our Cape May house, but we certainly did love the time that we spent there. Even the time that we worked there (which was pretty much of [...]

A Few of My Favorite Days

They say a house is just a place to live, but a home is a place to love (do they say that? If they don’t, they should.)
We didn’t live in our Cape May house, but we certainly did love the time that we spent there. Even the time that we worked there (which was pretty much of [...]

The Worst House in Town

Cape May, New Jersey is a pretty competitive town.
Like, if your town suggests it has more Victorian houses then they do, Cape May will accept your smack down invite and throw back with all sorts of b.s. about the number of “restored” homes that they have, and how they are the true “queen of the seaside resorts”. [...]

No Business Like Snow Business

Well, it’s another week that there isn’t a whole lot of traveling going on for this historic traveler.
But dang, this winter is nothing if not *historic*.
According to the weathermen, the snowiest year on record for Baltimore was 1994-1995, with 62″ of the white stuff falling. In this winter season, we’ve seen 79″ of snow already. And [...]

I’m a Baby Seller

This weekend, I started packing up some of my things from our Victorian house in Cape May.
I know–even before I write this blog–that this post won’t technically be about historic travel, unless you include traveling down memory lane. Which I am. Because it’s all that I can think about.
We bought our vacation house in 2001. It was [...]

Turn the Lights Out When You Leave

Last night, the lights went out on the ten-week long Nights of Lights in St. Augustine. If you missed it this year, make your reservations for 2010-2011. It’s a pretty magical place…enlightening, as the poets and the artists say!

Thank goodness for that warm Florida weather, and the beautiful buildings that still shine day or night, or today [...]