(In)Visibility and (silenced) voices are a big part of my PhD research, but three real life events recently gave me new ideas about visibility, and reminded me of old lessons I had forgotten. These events made me more aware of my ‘bubble’, and how the film of its membrane clouds my vision (kind of like [...]
Nestled between a lush mountain range about an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai resides a 250-acre sanctuary for elephants and many of their smaller friends at the Elephant Nature Park. Several weeks before heading to Thailand we reserved a spot on a tour to the park. We were surprised to find the [...]
We have been visiting Thailand for the last week. We spent a couple days in Bangkok and explored some temples around the area. We then hopped down to Phuket and took in some sunshine and lounged on the beach. Finally, we’ve arrived in Chiang Mai. It’s a historic and holy city speckled with temples connected [...]
As Sarah and I gear up for our upcoming trip to Thailand, I made a last-minute stop at the local travel clinic to ensure I was up to date on my vaccinations. Here some things that the doctor recommended when traveling to Thailand this time of year. Vaccinations If traveling primarily in only urban areas [...]
My Ironman journey started about two years ago, when I purchased my first serious road bike. After watching and volunteering at the 2015 Ironman, I made the decision to compete in 2016. It was a new world of races, sweaty clothes and Cliff bars. I spent an enormous amount of my free time training, eating [...]
I’ve been trying to decide how to react to valuations of “home,” “groundedness,” and “engagement” that I’ve come across in blogs and newspaper opinion columns recently. Reading these makes me feel I have to justify my lifestyle, but I don’t know if I can. I don’t travel with the express purpose of creating distance from [...]
I know, I know, it’s healthy to go on vacation and leave work behind. But when you travel often, you have to redefine vacation. I first learned how to redefine work from my one-time bosses Paul and Amanda, the wonderful folks who manage King Hill Farm in Penobscot, Maine. Running a small organic family farm [...]
Many don't stray far from the strip when coming to Las Vegas. The densely-packed city center encourages visitors to spend as much time and money at the casinos, clubs and restaurants. After spending a few days on Freemont and then Las Vegas Boulevard, we decided to venture outside the area and take in a piece [...]
I had an interesting nine miles up and down the strip. This week I am in Las Vegas, NV with a couple of my friends on a golf trip. We typically go once a year to golf in the southern United States to escape the cold and snowy weather of the northern Midwest. I've been [...]
Maybe there are some places not worth visiting during their off-season (try carrying all the water you need for backpacking in the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park after the sources have dried up in mid-summer**), but here I’d like to advocate for a few that I’ve found especially charming in their shoulder or off-season [...]
