That's What Jenni Said

  Looking over my trip report entries (ZERO!) for 2012, one would think I got hit on the head and decided to hang up my suitcase and stay home last year. Never! I think I was still struggling under the heavy burden of grief from the tragic deaths in my family the previous year and so I lost the motivation to put my heart into journaling the trip experiences at the time. Our travel adventures in 2012 started with a trip out to Los Angeles to visit my Uncle Lucien and Aunt Hazel. They live in Upton, California and invited us for a weekend of family time. While we were with them we enjoyed a few fabulous dinners out on the town, a few scenic jogging sessions around the neighborhood, and visited the tar pits and associated museum. FYI, the tar pits are pretty damn cool. One of my favorite activities was when we visited a farmer’s market so lovely I was ready to uproot and move to California on the spot. The asparagus was so fresh and vibrant and the blood oranges were heady and delic...

Over President’s Day weekend in February, Jonathan and I led NoVA Travelers on a whirlwind tour of Madrid. This was my second trip to Spain since Autumn and I found Madrid to be quite different in landscape, cuisine, and culture than what I experienced in Barcelona in October. We had a lovely group of 10: Jonathan, myself, Literary Elly May , David, Sharon, Matt (son of David+Sharon), Bridget, Janice, Susie, and Whitney. None of us had been to the city before so it was a new and exciting experience for us all. The thrill, of course, was predicated on actually arriving in Madrid, which appeared to be beyond possibility at first glance due to a freak snowstorm in the metro DC area that mucked up our flight schedules. I spent at least an hour on the phone wheeling and dealing with the Delta platinum desk in order to get our entire party rebooked on same-day available flights (when just about everything was reportedly oversold). We ended up on a DL ticketed, KLM operated flight with a f...