His sign read, “I’m 91 years old and I’ve never protested before today.”  The daily headlines exclaimed hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of the United States from coast to coast on the last day of the month of June 2018. With a message of opposition to the current administration and a resounding message that all immigrants are welcome, the people marched.

It’s a fairly bold statement, “Why Everyone Should Visit Ashland, Oregon” but sometimes you just gotta make a big statement.  And, as long as you can back it up, why not go bold?

We continue to wait.  Six weeks plus three days and counting…  To silence the inner countdown clock, if even for just a few hours, we took ourselves on a bit of an adventure to Great Falls National Park where we took a good long hike and spent the afternoon communing with Mother Nature.  And then we stuffed ourselves with hamburgers, fries and a decadent milk shake topped with whipped cream and a cherry.  It did the trick.  Unfortunately, today the inner countdown clock is ticking louder than ever.

As you’re mapping out your 2017 travel plans, keep in mind our national treasures; our national parks.  I’ve often said I would love to pack the car, plot a map course and just take off to explore each and every national park.  We have definitely visited our share but we still lag woefully behind.  And, I don’t remember a more relevant time than right now to pay attention to our parks.

I’ve always said that walking in the path of those who came before us is by far the best lesson travel can teach.  Standing on the stairs at the Chateau de Fontainebleau where Napoleon abdicated, or walking through George Washington’s Mt. Vernon home, or walking across a civil war battlefield, are all moments in time.  Moments in which we can choose to stop and consider the idea that we, as a nation, cannot move forward if we do not recognize how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.  It’s what I love most about history.  And, it’s what I love most about travel.

Washington, DC has been getting more than its fair share of headlines in this time of political and seemingly social revolution.  Is there anyone in the world who does not know where Washington, DC is and/or the fact that the city is synonymous with politics?  It is after all the heart beat of the United States.  But what many may not know is that the city itself has a lot to offer.  And, while tourism to the nation’s capital may not exactly be trending right now, don’t let the politics of the day keep you from visiting.

What can I tell you about Niagara Falls that you don’t already know?  Probably not much.  But what I can tell you is it’s true what they (who’s they?!) say, the view from the Canadian side is the view to see.  Okay, I say that even though we didn’t visit the falls from the US side, but when you’re on the Canadian side, there’s no arguing the point.

When you think of spring, what comes to mind? Cherry blossoms maybe? The start of a new year, a new season or maybe, new beginnings?  I’ve always tended to wonder why we don’t celebrate the new year on the 1st day of spring, it seems so much more fitting.  A new year with the onset of spring daffodils sounds so much more serene than a new year in the dead of winter.

“One day I heard someone talking about ‘sifting sand’. I liked the sound of those words and scribble in my notebook ‘old man sifts sand’ tells stories…’ and forgot about it.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…”  ~ John Muir

I am not someone who will sleep under the stars, or in a tent, or in a rustic cabin or go anywhere near anything that creeps, slithers, buzzes, flies, sneaks, spins a web, etc. etc., –