Blooming Cherry Trees

Blooming Cherry Trees

Nothing says Spring like the blooming cherry trees along the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC. I don’t make the hike through the pink blooms every year, but when I do it’s something special. This year I learned that the existence of the cherry blossoms is a story of rejection and perseverance of a lone travel…

Hiking the Prizren Ruins

Hiking the Prizren Ruins

Hiking up to the remains of the Prizren Fortress in the city of Prizren, Kosovo, requires fortitude, imagination, and a few extra breaths. Our hike was steep and burdened by unreliable knees but lightened by the questions of young and curious minds. My hiking companions ranged in age from two and a half to thirty-five…

Journey or Destination?

Journey or Destination?

Is it the journey or the destination that matters? Last month, my husband and I walked the Sanders-Monticello trail outside Charlottesville with his parents. The four-mile round-trip walk through the forest on a well-constructed wooden pathway was lovely and relatively easy. Little did I know, it was inspired by Thomas Jefferson himself. “Of prospect I…

Rocky Road of Fiction

Rocky Road of Fiction

A few years ago, I visited Boulder, Colorado, and hiked the trails in Chautauqua Park. The evergreen trees that patchworked over those razor-sharp hills took my breath away (literally). I had almost reached the peak when I came upon this steep and rocky road. Winded and fatigued from the previous few hours of my frolic…