Mar 8
I’m in America’s capital today.
The District of Colombia is a walking museum of history, power and influence. 67 square miles of wide criss-crossed boulevards lined with trees bursting into blossom, monuments, memorials and just about every federal government building you can imagine.
Please click for moreI woke up this morning in Denver, Colorado.. as you do.
Flew here yesterday afternoon via New York, and arrived at the hotel at 2am. It was quite the hike. Snow lightly fell as we checked in and the photo is from my hotel room window just now.
Please click for more🔝5️⃣ My next 2022 Top Five is places. Travel was better in 2022 if not extensive and if I tell you until recently Accrington was on my list, then that tells me I need to get out more..
We did a few trips, nowhere new or too far, but were lucky to sample some new parts of some old places. Here are my 2022 Top Five Favourite Places 🏞️
Please click for moreThe only other time I went to Barbados I stayed with my son up in the north of the island at Saint Peter.
That was 19 years ago, but this past year I was in Barbados twice, both times (first) and (second) to watch my daughter represent Bermuda swimming. Those trips centered around the Aquatic Centre, which forms part of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex on the outskirts of the capital Bridgetown. The national football stadium Wildey Turf is also there.
Please click for moreSan Francisco’s streets were more like how I remember them last week when I was huffing and puffing up and down those towering hills.
I was staying at the top of Nob Hill, one of the seven famous hills in the city, although the list of the city’s hills is nearer to 50.
Please click for moreI’m in Sarasota, Florida for a few days, the first time I have been inside our house since Hurricane Ian. Happy to report it is still standing!
On Saturday, not long after the end of the Addicks’ FA Cup game, I fly to Las Vegas for what my daughter charmingly calls a ‘work vacation.’
Please click for moreWe were last in Puerto Rico in 2009 and was enchanted by the Isla del Encanto, and one afternoon in August sat in our kitchen in Sarasota we decided on a very last minute trip back there.
The last time we were there, 13 years ago, my unknowingly-pregnant-other-half and me spent a large chunk of our time sampling the charms of Old San Juan. We danced to very loud music, drunk piña colada’s and tumbled late out of bars onto its shiny blue cobblestones.
Please click for moreWe haven’t done anything spontaneous for a while. Years ago we would regularly make last minute trips bound for unknown places, but children and life got in the way of such whims and a global pandemic of course.
Anyway that outlook changed suddenly yesterday when we went online and booked a hotel and a flight to Puerto Rico for this morning.
Please click for moreWhilst in East Sussex last week I wanted to take my parents somewhere a little different, and I found an absolute treasure trove of a place just 10 minutes from their home.
To say the Rathfinny Wine Estate is tucked away is hardly legitimate when it occupies 600 acres, with flawless rows of vines growing on the south facing hills of the South Downs. Yet the entrance gates to the estate are located just beyond the chocolate box village of Alfriston near the Deans Place Hotel and one could easily drive past them.
please click for moreBarbados was a blur. I couldn’t decide if it went by in a blink of an eye or it seemed like we were there for weeks.
The reason we were in Barbados was that our daughter was representing Bermuda at the CARIFTA regional swimming championships. Like a Caribbean youth games for under 18’s.
Please click for more🔝5️⃣. Next up on my look back at the year that wasn’t of 2021 is My Top Five Favourite Places. Not quite as limited on exploration as the year before, nevertheless the five were relatively easy to select.
There was nowhere new, but plenty of places revisited, one in particular was long overdue. Here are my 2021 Top Five Favourite Places 🌇
Please click for moreBack home indoors after almost a month away in the United States. The dog was ignoring me, but we rekindled a little on our morning walk earlier.
It was pretty restorative being away from this small isle for the past 4 weeks, travelling East Coast to West, and back again. When I left at the beginning of December Covid was in the rear view mirror and now it is back in the front seat. California and Florida have a complete different mindset when it comes to the pandemic, and one could easily see that after spending time in both States.
Please click for moreAt home in Sarasota, Florida this evening after a whirlwind and exhausting eleven day work trip, or as my daughter calls them work vacation’s.
A Five night kick-off in Las Vegas is not to be recommended, although the time there was more dominated (other than work) by sports more-so than gambling. I actually didn’t even get to sit at a table to lose any money. One reason I wasn’t that bothered was due to mandatory mask wearing at all times within the casinos.
Please click for moreI got an unexpected sunny welcome landing at Heathrow Airport this morning. Fast forward ten hours and I’m sat in my parents conservatory looking out at the South Downs which are quickly becoming shrouded in November darkness.
Please click for moreJust back from a little trip to Florida, a couple of days in Miami followed a couple in Fort Lauderdale, just 40 minutes north along the coast, and a place I hadn’t been for 13 years. It had changed significantly, and grown like a sunflower.
Neighbouring towns of Hollywood and Oakwood Park have been engulfed by Fort Lauderdale’s expansion. Once a renowned centre for spring-breakers’ high jinks the dive bar and burger joints had all but disappeared and have been replaced by boutique hotels, upscale apartment buildings and a burgeoning restaurant scene.
Chicago Addick 