Seeking Beauty on Roads Less Traveled

"Okay, I think I have our itinerary all figured out.  We can fly to Frankfurt then to Warsaw, spend a few days there and then take a train to Prague.  Yes, that will work," I say to my Mom with about 10 days to go until vacation. "Okay," she says. "Okay," I say. And that's when I know, despite all the plans and research, something is definitely not okay.  It is difficult to explain to people how Mom and I decide on a particular vacation destination.  We do not have what one would call a very traditional (read as "normal") methodology for selecting a travel destination.  Sometimes we detour to see the World's Largest Potato when other people would just stay on the interstate.  Sometimes we detour because we see a sign that reads "Fussimanya" and we simply have to find out what a "Fussimanya" is (turns out it is both a beautiful town and an excellent restaurant in Spain).  Sometimes we just get a feeling; something...

“ You've Got Mail” seems like an innocent phrase. Checking my in-box, I see I have an article from Mom about the puffins that like to call the Farne Islands home for a few months out of the year from late April to sometime in June. “ Where are these Farne Islands, Mom?,” I ask her across the kitchen table because for some reason a lot of our Where Are We Traveling to Next conversations just happen to take place at said table. Turns out the Farne Islands sit off the eastern coast of the United Kingdom kind of close to the Scottish border but officially in the U.K. The islands belong to the National Trust. Other than a lighthouse that houses some park rangers, the islands are uninhabited...at least by humans. And so it begins. The Quest to See the Puffins of the Farne Islands. Mom loves puffins. I love puffins.  I even like cereal called Puffins (not made out of puffins. mind you.  They have a picture of a puffin on the box.  If one collects the bar cod...