There is something about the human condition and the underdog story. Whether it is a sport’s team cast as the underdog, the team without any chance to win or a historical tale without hope on paper, being stacked up against the odds and fighting back romanticizes a world that at times can seem very far from romantic. I rise early to see Texas’ ultimate underdog, the Alamo. Rain is starting to drizzle, hence the tourist ponchos making an appearance. I turn the corner and in the truest of underdog fashions, the Alamo lends those feelings of being inadequate. The small little façade of the Shrine Continue Reading
Rocky Mountain National Park Wishes You Were Here
I picnic at Hidden Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park, a scene similar to that on the bottle of the brand’s ranch dressing. Only I have fewer vegetables. A simple sandwich always tastes better outside in fresh mountain air. I hear something just beyond my perch. It’s a brook babbling, almost on cue. The scene is laughably perfect and I guess in many respects what you see on that bottle of ranch dressing. I’m spending a few hours at Rocky Mountain National Park simply because I can. When you live in Colorado all of your life, you sometimes forget people come from all corners of the Continue Reading
Risking Life and Love for Texas Barbecue at The Salt Lick
“Take me to Texas,” I said. I wouldn’t be the first to utter such a demand. I can only imagine what this request would mean for a fourteen-year-old orphan from Mississippi in the late 1800s. This was Bettie Howard’s predicament. She just wanted someone to take her to Texas. Bettie would find her transport in James Howard, a surveyor rolling through Mississippi. She made him a deal. She wouldn’t promise to love him, but if he married her and took her to Texas, she would bear his children. It’s not a deal you hear everyday. I feel bad for poor James for a moment. This woman was seemingly Continue Reading
A Taste of Spain in Texas at Mission San José
I step inside the walls of what could be a motel compound. Wooden doors line up a uniform fashion, equidistant from one another just like at a single-story motel. Checking in to these rooms wasn’t of the travel variety. The spaces weren’t used just for a night’s sleep. Checking in to these spaces meant giving up one’s own beliefs to follow one god and one king oceans away. I am within the confines of the Mission San José, part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. While the park encompasses four missions south of San Antonio, I am focusing my attention on good old Saint Continue Reading
Wine Tasting Back in Time in Mallorca
I have been on wine tastings before, but never one that takes place in a time machine. The bus screeches to a halt where the landscape has changed from sparkling beaches to rows and rows of vines. I’m in between the towns of Inca and Muro on the Balearic Island of Mallorca. Wine tastings often take you through the winery, vineyards and onto a tasting room, where you learn just what you should taste and why. The Son Ramon vineyard however doesn’t produce wine in the ordinary manner. Set up on an estate with vineyards from 1760, a glass comes with the uncanny ability to transport the sipper Continue Reading
Alcúdia, Mallorca Wishes You Were Here
Early in the morning, I board the bus in Palma half asleep and wake at the Port d’Alcúdia. It feels as though a great deal of time has passed judging from the window-face I now adorn, but I’m just 54 kilometers from Palma. I have crossed the island to another world that knows no time. Alcúdia sits in northeastern Mallorca. While the historic center is the main attraction, I begin by exploring its waters at the port. The area affords over 30 kilometers of coastline, littered in sun-seekers, sands and holiday homes. It is possible to cruise the Badia d’Alcúdia, but not entirely Continue Reading
Berlin Through The Camera’s Cool Eyes
I arrived to Berlin on two hours of sleep in 48 hours, clearly at my best. Perhaps due to my lack of sleep, I saw Berlin in a two-day daze. From appreciating the breeze while biking through Tiergarten to feasting on Vietnamese food as my first meal with Anjelica Huston lookalikes at neighboring tables, I came home and wondered what was real and what was a figment of my jetlagged, zombie-like imagination. Throughout my time in the city, the words “trendy”, “dynamic” and “hip” could be heard through every nonexistent sleep cycle. Berlin did seem too cool for me, the sort of place where you Continue Reading