After a 10-year Pacific Northwest hiatus, it was finally time to be reunited with the city where it all began...where Greg spent seven years of his life as a professor at Charles University before meeting Mandy in 2007, who had recently moved there to be an English teacher. See that story. We were more than ready to return...to be wrapped…

Continue ReadingExplorations in our Second Home: Prague, Czech Republic

Our favorite thing to do when we lived in Prague was leave the city behind, often via the wonder paths of the Czech trail system. Trails weave through cities, villages, pastureland, valleys and hills, natural attractions, and historic sites. All with easy-to-understand color coded trail markers that even the most navigationally challenged can follow. Geography fun fact: the Czech Republic…

Continue ReadingCzechia: Off-the-Beaten Path Day Trips from Prague

There is so much more to Czechia than Prague. In fact, when we were teaching English in the mid-2000’s, it was a well-worn joke that all of our students had “a house...in the nature” and they would tell us stories about weekending in the Czech countryside, amongst emerald deciduous forests, sweeping rock formations and tinker toy villages. The nature of…

Continue ReadingOff-the-Beaten Path Czechia: Ardspach, Nachod & Hradec Králové

We had officially entered Moravian Czech wine country, a magical place that seems to be plucked out of the Mediterranean, and dropped into southeastern Czechia. Moravia, a lesser visited region of the country has a distinctly more Croatian/Italian feel, lightness, and warmth about it than its sister region, Bohemia. Not to mention, with a four-hour train journey between them ($10/ticket)…

Continue ReadingEastern Czechia: Magical Moravia in Mikulov & Znojmo

It’s been one year since we left Portland, Oregon. One year since we left behind our steady jobs, steady friends, and a steady and comfortable life. We traded in our beloved apartment management positions where we paid no rent in a very desirable neighborhood in a truly lovely city. To some, giving up all this security and comfort might seem…

Continue Reading12 Months • 12 Moments • 12 Lessons

Growing up inside a snow globe… in Leavenworth, Washington At the age of 6, my mom moved me to a new home. A magical and otherworldly wonderland home. The welcome sign at the entrance road to this unfamiliar land proclaimed that you were entering Leavenworth, Washington, the “Bavarian Village.” The sign included a new, unfamiliar, and strange looking group of…

Continue ReadingThe Making of an Explorer Gene (His Story)