Category: General

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Travel, Food & Taxes

It’s Been  Almost One Year

Stew Ross and Family in ParisSandy and I left for Paris (with Dan our nephew) last Spring to conduct research on the first two walking tour books (which by the way, will be going to print shortly).

It’s been almost 24 hours since I completed my taxes for 2013. Part of the process this year was to figure out the contribution Yooper Publications made to the family tax situation. Yooper, as you may recall, is the publishing company I started in 2012. The intent is to publish all the walking tour books under Yooper’s label.

I spent a good part of the day going through the costs of the Paris trip including going back to every receipt. As I read ones from the restaurants, my mouth started watering. I remembered the experience of eating at those restaurants and I’d like to share these with you.

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Petting a Lethal Snake

“Is Common Sense in Travel Dead?”

Christopher Elliott, writing for USA Today (February 7, 2014), asks that question.

Coming off a vacation in which we took a cruise to the Caribbean with Sandy’s parents, I’m going to answer in the affirmative.

In fact, I’m going to go further. I think the American traveler has lost their perspective of not only common sense, but also common courtesy. I’ve seen enough to conclude the Ugly American has returned (or did they ever leave?).

For the time being, let’s stay on track with the extinction of common sense.

We’re on a shore excursion in Guatemala, in a bus, and full of the ship’s passengers. Sitting diagonally across from us is a woman who is hacking up such a cough that I honestly thought she was going to die (her companion told her to quit smoking—we found out later that she was deathly ill in addition to the smoking issue). Common sense would have told her to stay on board the ship so as not to potentially infect the rest of us. Perhaps that falls under common courtesy?

Our bus stops at the local cemetery. Since the water table is about a foot below the surface, people are buried above ground. Our guide makes it a point to tell us this. Boxes, coffins, and other assorted final resting places were stacked one above another. Sometimes these were 12 high. The colors were beautiful. Everything was painted in pastel colors: orange, yellow, blue, mauve, purple, etc. I thought I was in Miami Beach. Read More Petting a Lethal Snake