The White Sands National Park amazing. It's about a five hour drive from Tucson and it one of the coolest places on the planet! I had the fortunate opportunity to take a jaunt over there during a holiday break, December 2021. From the Nation Park Service White Sands website: "Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert, creating … [Read more...]

The Great Pyramids at Giza. The tomb of Khufu. Camels and dust. Travelling during COVID, there weren’t many tourists – definitely worth the price of admission (loads of paperwork and carefully scheduled Covid tests and wearing masks for 24hrs+ during trans-Atlantic travel). Cairo smelled like an ashtray. Maybe because Egyptians are fond of smoking or because of the poor air quality, likely due to carbon emissions from the 25 million inhabitants. I did some color corrections on a few of these … [Read more...]

In June 2021, Elizabeth and I were having breakfast at Prep and Pastry. She was talking about her upcoming trip to Egypt with her parents, a trip that has been cancelled in October 2020 due to Covid. I thought about how the lockdowns had one positive spin - I had a lot of vacation time available. I said that out loud, and she told me that I should join her. So I did! I arrived in Cairo at 11 p.m. Egypt time (UTC + 2:00) on Oct. 9, 2021. Even at that late an hour, in a city of 25 million, … [Read more...]