Living a Dream

Early in our travels, Jenna and I developed a theory called "follow the music." This simple plan was based on the idea that anytime we were in a public place and heard music (not just a crazy person humming to themselves), we should follow that music and see what was going on. The first time we tested this theory was in Brussels. We were in a big public park with tall hedge-rows and heard something through one of them. We ducked through a small opening and were surprised to see a small stage-area with 15 or so people singing to a group of about 70. We were delighted by the songs even if we didn't understand a single word of any of them, and when the group onstage started inviting audience members up to sing with them it became a real treat. The size of the choir doubled and everyone sang along as if they had all been part of this choir as kids. Thankfully we weren't invited up to sing. Anyway, it was a fun experience and gave us the lesson: If we hear people s...

Jenna had the idea that we should go to Verona for Valentine's day of our year abroad. Thanks to Romeo & Juliet, Verona claims to be the city of love and pulls out all the stops to make Valentine's day extra special despite the fact that Shakespeare had never been there and Juliet's balcony is a sham. In any case, this was our third stop in Verona but this one was on a mission. The city hosts something called "Verona in Love." They basically set up chocolate stands everywhere and put hearts on almost anything in the city that draws people. This is great if you like chocolate and even better if you know, unequivocally, that chocolate is the best thing in the world. We fall into the 2nd category. There's more than just chocolate though: They have photo-ops, rose gardens, markets, entertainers, and much more. A walk through the city is somehow even more alive on Valentine's day than it is on any other day, which is an accomplishment. There's ...

I know I haven't posted about travel in a while now, and that's a shame for the handful of you who liked looking at photos from around the world. On the other hand, it saves you from having to read about it all the time. I'm going to try to temper all of that by instituting Travel Tuesdays. I'll post something about travel on Tuesdays and Tuesdays only. In a happy accident, I posted a brief write-up of our honeymoon last Tuesday, but we're pretending that this whole idea starts today. To start off this new idea, it only makes sense to start close to home. Upon returning to the USA, Jenna and I moved to the west side of Cleveland despite how it has almost nothing in common with Italy. She got a job on the far-west side and I followed. While there are ups and downs in Cleveland, we've picked out a couple of favorite, beautiful spots. And then we bought a nicer camera than our cell phones so we could take some cool photos, starting with the Rocky River reservat...