Why Write?

 Why Write?

Travel is all about the adventure. Thoughts about writing.

By Jay

Why write? Maybe for a lot of the same reasons we take pictures when we travel. To help us recall events, impressions and experiences in the future or to some degree share those same things with friends. When we write we should be mindful of our reasons for recording these things and adjust the writing style to suit the purposes. Our friends don't necessarily want to hear about our disappointments but we might record them for future planning of similar trips; to remind us to plan better or discuss options with traveling partners.

Digital cameras have made it possible to take many more pictures than we did with film cameras, to sort and filter them when we get home. Most modern digital cameras even allow us to record short video clips. Likewise, we can record a lot of information with tablets and economically send stories back home as we are going. The tablet of course is also a great resource for researching the where and how, but I digress.

If writing for friends do we know what will interest them? It's likely they don't want to hear about our bad days because they may be having a few themselves. They might want to hear about your screw- ups and problems if you share them in a humorous way or is instructive and will help them avoid similar problems.

Writing helps us clarify thoughts that lie under the surface, bring out details of events that we initially thought unimportant. Writing may help us make distinctions or decisions by summarizing seemingly disconnected details. Our subconscious thoughts brought to light.

Writing is fun.

Literally thousands of images and thoughts pique our minds while traveling because we are in unfamiliar surroundings, while at home

we take many things for granted. Because of these unfamiliar images we tend to record more details during a given period than we do at home and this recording of details can become a distraction from the experience that we seek. Watch some vacationers peering at these experiences through a camera viewfinder. Observe what they are not seeing in their periphery. Sometimes people are so intent on capturing “the moment” that they miss the experience.

We have had people applaud our stories as a vicarious experience for them and we hope that by doing this we are encouraging our friends and family to overcome the inertia that is preventing them from having similar experiences. We know there are many more reasons than inertia that prevent them from traveling, but a little encouragement can't hurt. We are also hopeful that our stories might save someone from having a bad travel experience through the information that we share.

Our Twelve Days in Bali

Our Twelve Day in Bali 

Different format

Our Favorite Recipes

Our Recipe Book

 

Broccoli and Cheese Quiche

Here’s a change of pace dinner delight, a broccoli and cheese quiche. It’s just eggs, cheese, milk, and broccoli. The hardest part was the pie crust I made from scratch because I was too lazy to go to the store. But if you have one of those frozen store pie crusts you can whip up this dish in a flash.

Start by steaming a couple handfuls of broccoli. Be sure to cut off the yucky stem.  Don’t overcook it cause it will continue to cook in your quiche. Once cooked give it a little chop. If its broccoli quiche people want to see broccoli, not guess why a bunch of tiny green buds are floating around in your quiche. In a bowl, whisk some eggs and milk. Add a few drops of Tabasco, dash of salt, pepper and cayenne. I am not big on measuring but it’s about 4 eggs to 1 ½ cups of milk. Beware, if you use too much milk your quiche will not set up and if you use too many eggs you will end up with a rubbery mess. Lastly, add 2 big handfuls of your favorite cheese. We used cheddar because that’s what we had, but Swiss, Parmesan or even Mozzarella would be nice.

Cook at 350 degrees and watch TV for ½ hour. Then use a toothpick to see if it’s done. If it comes out clean it’s dinner time. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, a simple green salad and a glass of champagne.

Shaggy Cat story

I'm sure you have heard a "Shaggy Dog" story at some time in your life and I'm going to tell you a "Shaggy Cat" story, because it's about our rescue cat, "Abbey", and she is definitely shaggy

.

With the COVID situation we have had to curtail our usual travel agenda and are spending much more time at home than previous years. We had cats before and our last cat, "Katie", died of old age several years ago. With all of our traveling we decided to do without a pet. Sadie and Katie never suffered boarding as we always found someone to live in our house and mind the cats but it is a worry.

Anyway, it doesn't look like traveling will return to our past "Normal" any time soon; maybe never. So we decided to search for a cat, completed the adoption procedures and went looking. We talked about getting a kitten and dreaded the period of over the top activities, thought about a senior cat and looked at a few. Long story short, we fell in love with "Jonny", a three year old female tabby, jumped through the hoops and brought her home. Well, "Jonny" didn't seem like an appropriate name for a girl cat, so we renamed her "Abbey". No good reason, it just seemed to fit. Without knowing much about her history, other than she had been chipped and spayed, had all her shots, or so we thought. A trip to our local vet, got her a couple more shots and her exam revealed nothing to be concerned about. In order to acclimate Abbey, we restricted her to the laundry room for a couple of days. She seemed quite nervous, and it took awhile for her to find all the rooms in the house and of course all of the hidey-holes and places to prevent detection. It didn't take too long to coax her out by shaking a bag of treats but she has remained quite a recluse, especially after what the vet must have subjected her to. To make matters worse, I think I resemble the vet and she seems more inclined to be with Jain. She is definitely not a lap cat and maybe she just doesn't like me. She does, sometimes, sleep on our bed.

One of her hidey-holes was, not surprising, behind the washer and dryer in the laundry room. [Have you looked behind yours recently?] Concerned that she might get tangled up in the machinery, prompted research on methods to make that space inaccessible. I decided on a shelf and a tight partition that would make it impossible for her to get back there. I acquired the material and plan and proceeded to study various wall mounts and attachments for the partition. Well (the shaggy cat story begins) the wall behind your washer and dryer is full of electrical circuits and plumbing. I have had, for years, a very sophisticated combination laser level, stud and metal detector which has had very little use. A new battery and review of the instruction/safety manual didn't do much for my confidence. Some experimentation only heightened my anxiety. I continued to have nightmares about piercing some plumbing or shorting out an electrical circuit that would require cutting a large hole in the wall, interruption of essential laundry appliances and the requisite repairs and painting. For two days, I fretted over this challenge of my resources and bravery.

I did what all suffering husbands do and slept on it (a couple of nights). I awoke this morning from an epiphany in a dream. I'll tell you about my brilliant solution in hopes that some other suffering handyman will benefit and go forth with confidence on a future adventure. The solution was so simple, I can't believe it's not on Google Search or YouTube.

You know the punch line of a Shaggy Dog story is always a slap on the forehead experience, right?

Drum roll, please….

I turned the shelf brackets around, attached them to the washer and dryer and pushed both back into position against the wall.  

 

 Our new family member, "Abbey".

Adopted 9/17/20 from Carson Humane Society

 

 

 

  

Fahrt Table

German phrases we learned while traveling

Fahrt	Journey
Aus Fahrt	Exit
Fahrt Zum	Go To
Freie Fahrt	Free Ride
Fahrt zum vollen preis	Ride at Full Price
Eine Fahrt	A Ride
Fahrt plan	Time Table
Fahrt nur in der nacht	Only in the Night
Abfahrt	Departure
Fahrt nur Samstag	Only on Saturday
Fahrens	Proceedings
Nett	Nice
Grof	Large
Stille	Silent
Laut	Loud
Wahrend in der Kirche	You better not…

 

World Travelers

Jain and Jay

Article: Travel to the Middle of the World - Quito | Travelling Ecuador Part 6

Have you ever heard the words "Mitad del Mundo" or "middle of the world"? I hadn't either until I had a chance to visit the "Mitad del Mundo" right outside of Quito Ecuador. I had no idea there was …

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Article: Cuenca, Ecuador - Stepping Back in Time

Cuenca, Ecuador is a UNESCO World Heritage city and the charming, colonial capital city of Ecuador. Going there is like stepping back in time, to another world, quite different from my own world. …

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Fwd: FW: Article :: "The Fragility of the Woke" ...

Subject: Article : "The Fragility of the Woke"

The Fragility of the Woke Victor Davis Hanson - The Daily Signal A TikTok video that recently went viral on social media showed a recent Harvard graduate threatening to stab anyone who said "all lives matter."  In her melodrama, she tried to sound intimidating with her histrionics. She won a huge audience as she intended. But her video also came to the attention of the company that was going to give her an internship later this summer, Deloitte, which decided it didn't want to add an intern who threatened to kill strangers who said something she didn't like. This wouldn't have been much of a story. But then the narcissistic Harvard alum posted a very different video—one that showed her weeping in a near-fetal position. She fought back tears while complaining how unfair the world had been to her. Her initial TikTok post had earned cruel pushback from the social media jungle she had courted. Deloitte, she sobbed, was mean and hurtful. And she wanted the world to share her pain. The Harvard grad instantly became an unwitting poster girl for the current protest movement and the violence that has accompanied it. What turns off millions of Americans about the statue toppling, the looting, the threats, and the screaming in the faces of police is the schizophrenic behavior of so many of the would-be revolutionaries. On one hand, those toppling statues or canceling their own careers on the internet pose as vicious Maoists—the hard-core shock troops of the revolution. Their brand is vile profanity, taunts to police, firebombs, and spray paint. In homage to Italy's blackshirts of the past, they wear black hoodies, don makeshift helmets, and strap on ad hoc protective padding—part lacrosse attire, part cinematic Road Warrior costume. The televised stereotype of the Antifa activist is a physically unimpressive but violent-talking revolutionary. He seems to strut in laid-back, blue-city Minneapolis but wisely avoids the suburbs and small towns of the nation's red states. He spits at police when standing beside fellow agitators but would never do that when alone confronting an autoworker or welder. When police march against the Antifa crowd and their appendages in order to clear the streets, they often scream like preteens, objecting to mean officers who dare to cross them. When arrested, the trash talkers are usually terrified of being jailed or of having an arrest on their records. Federal authorities are currently searching thousands of videos to ferret out looters, arsonists, and assailants. Perpetrators who are caught are shocked that the evidence that they once posted online in triumphant braggadocio is now being used to charge them with felonies. What is going on? Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and their large numbers of imitators and loosely organized wannabes are mostly made up of middle-class youth, often either students or graduates. They deem themselves the brains of the rioting, the most woke of the demonstrators, the most sophisticated of the iconoclasts. In truth, they are also the most paranoid about being charged or being hurt. What explains the passive aggressive nature of these protesters and rioters? Many no doubt are indebted, with large, unpaid student loans. Few seem in a hurry to get up at 6 a.m. each day to go to work to service loans that would take years to pay in full. While some of those arrested are professionals, many are not. Few seem to be earning the sort of incomes that would allow them to marry, have children, pay off student loan debt, buy a home, and purchase a new car. Historically, the tips of the spears of cultural revolutions are accustomed to comfort. But they grow angry when they realize that they will never become securely comfortable. In today's high-priced American cities, especially on the globalized coasts, it's increasingly difficult for recent college graduates to find a job that will allow for upward mobility. The protesters are especially cognizant that their 20s are nothing like what they believe to have been the salad days of their parents and grandparents—who did not incur much debt, bought affordable homes, had families, and were able to save money. Earlier generations went to college mainly to become educated and develop marketable skills. They weren't very interested in ethnic and gender "studies" courses, ranting professors, and woke administrators. For the students of the 1960s who were, protesting was a side dish to a good investment in an affordable college degree that would pay off later. But when such pathways are blocked, beware. The woke but godless, the arrogant but ignorant, the violent but physically unimpressive, the degreed but poorly educated, the broke but acquisitive, the ambitious but stalled—these are history's ingredients of riot and revolution.

340 Tamarack

Some things we did to the property during our stay in June 2020

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dBot8Ytr3mxis1cu5

4 JULY

This has been an incredibly long week. 

Greece 2016

Greece 2016 Album

Hiking near Auckland 2019

Day trip from Auckland

Blog Post

These are difficult times with all the travel restrictions. We had Taiwan scheduled for February, just as the virus thing started; cancelled and opted for a second cruise Sydney to Sydney via New Zealand's South Island. We left the ship in Sydney 28 February and there was no sickness, as far as we know. Now we have cancelled a month in Ecuador as the country has closed it's borders and our trip to the U.K. at the end of May is in jeopardy. We have, so far, been fortunate in getting all of our paid expenses either refunded or credited for future use. We are hopeful the virus thing will be resolved in a month or two. Wondering if this will be another seasonal flu season in years to come. In the meantime, we can revisit some of the 120+ countries that we have visited, here at https://www.2travellight.com

World Travelers

Jain and Jay

Why Write?

Travel is all about the adventure. Thoughts about writing.

By Jay

Why write?  Maybe for a lot of the same reasons we take pictures when we travel. To help us recall events, impressions and experiences in the future or to some degree share those same things with friends. When we write we should be mindful of our reasons for recording these things and adjust the writing style to suit the purposes.  Our friends don't necessarily want to hear about our disappointments but we might record them for future planning of similar trips; to remind us to plan better or discuss options with traveling partners.

Digital cameras have made it possible to take many more pictures than we did with film cameras, to sort and filter them when we get home. Most modern digital cameras even allow us to record short video clips. Likewise, we can record a lot of information with tablets and economically send stories back home as we are going. The tablet of course is also a great resource for researching the where and how, but I digress.

If writing for friends do we know what will interest them?  It's likely they don't want to hear about our bad days because they may be having a few themselves. They might want to hear about your screw- ups and problems if you share them in a humorous way or is instructive and will help them avoid similar problems.

Writing helps us clarify thoughts that lie under the surface, bring out details of events that we initially thought unimportant. Writing may help us make distinctions or decisions by summarizing seemingly disconnected details. Our subconscious thoughts brought to light.

Writing is fun.

Literally thousands of images and thoughts pique our minds while traveling because we are in unfamiliar surroundings, while at home we take many things for granted. Because of these unfamiliar images we tend to record more details during a given period than we do at home and this recording of details can become a distraction from the experience that we seek. Watch some vacationers peering at these experiences through a camera viewfinder. Observe what they are not seeing in their periphery. Sometimes people are so intent on capturing "the moment" that they miss the experience.

We have had people applaud our stories as a vicarious experience for them and we hope that by doing this we are encouraging our friends and family to overcome the inertia that is preventing them from having similar experiences. We know there are many more reasons than inertia that prevent them from traveling, but a little encouragement can't hurt. We are also hopeful that our stories might save someone from having a bad travel experience through the information that we share.

 

Musing by Jay

Jain writes stories as we travel and shares them with friends via email as we go. One email address lands here is our Live Blog.

Jay also writes from time to time and posts his musings at jgunsauls.com

Drop us a note and let us know how our writing inspires you to travel.

💁

Mallorca, Spain

Our 2019 stay on the island of Mallorca

Album

Videos Archive

This page has links to our video Archives

NCL Cruise New Zealand

Jain's stories have been compiled and posted in our Stories Library.

A Word About Cruising

A Word About Cruising - "Contemplation". 
By Jay

Cruising gives us a lot of time for contemplation; about future ports of call, accomplishments we have gained, cultures we have experienced, how our lives have been, or will be, changed by the adventure.

Contemplating why we would spend upwards of 500 dollars a day to live in a box traveling through open seas,  intersecting with this diverse (at times odd) collection of humans who are only contemplating their own lives while we share food, drink, and entertainment on a schedule, not of our making. 

Common perspectives are confirmed or denied as we progress along our itinerary, our anticipations become reality, or not, based on variables such as weather, sea conditions, decisions made by the staff and crew and various port authorities, occasionally by the behavior of our fellow passengers. 

Our anticipations have been based on brochures, port descriptions, former passenger reviews, research we have done in planning and selecting this particular route, ship and company. 

Our realities depend on the accuracy of, and our interpretation of, these same factors so we can usually conclude that we, ourselves, are to blame most of the time when things don't go right. Occasionally, "Mother Nature" throws us a curve ball and sometimes our chosen mode of transportation breaks down but these little (sometimes not so little) detours lead us to further contemplation about how we might have done it differently or how we might do it differently in the future. Thus, we are always learning.

Africa 2016

Click Here for pictures from Botswana and Zambia

Aboard the Norwegian Gem

Pictures taken aboard the Norwegian Gem on our cruise from New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal.


Norwegian Gem

Colette Video

This is a short video for my sister, Colette, compiled from family pictures.
Colette Persley Donovan

Around the World in 3 minutes.mp4

jgunsauls@gmail.com has shared the following video:

Around the World in 3 minutes.mp4

A great video created by a local, Steve Noble

Open

Google Drive: Have all your files within reach from any device. Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

2019 Travels

I thought it might be fun to add up the days that we traveled away from home in 2019.

Our 2019 Travels
New Zealand	Mon  Jan-14	Wed  Jan-30	16 Days
Ecuador	Mon  Feb-11	Wed  Feb-27	16 Days
Shanghai	Sun  Mar-17	Thu  Mar-28	11 Days
Keswick	Sun  May-5	Sat  May-25	20 Days
Mallorca	Sun  May-26	Wed  Jun-26	31 Days
Lake Tahoe	Mon  Aug-5	Fri  Aug-23	18 Days
Malta	Mon  Sep-9	Thu  Sep-26	17 Days
Victoria, B.C.	Fri  Oct-18	Sat  Oct-26	8 Days
Thailand	Sun  Dec-1	Thu  Dec-26	25 Days
		Total	162 Days
		2019	44.4%