I'm just trying to walk myself home.
Coast to Coast: Children Welcome We had been watching for them all day, expecting to glimpse them around almost every corner. My husband, Taido and the kids were joining us for the weekend. After five days and eighty miles, the distraction of their arrival was a welcome one, keeping my mind from focusing on the …
Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye Happy Weekend friends! We got back yesterday from our first visit to the Isle of Skye! We camped for three nights in the middle of a field and spent our days wandering around + falling in love with the wild west coast of Scotland. The sunshine on the …
A voice came from the taller figure before we came around the fence. If we had known you were coming, we would have made you a cup. They were sitting with their backs to us on some old gate posts when we caught up to them, two older gentlemen, having tea. We had seen them …
How’s your week been y’all? Mine has been about catching up on life here in Aberdeen + taking care of sick kiddos. Today is the start of our Tattie Holidays, the two weeks where everyone used to get out of school to help their families bring in the potato harvest but now is just pure …
Coast to Coast: Beginnings Rising to the Occasion A year ago I had never before heard the name of Alfred Wainwright, but I had recently met one of many great hillwalkers who have walked in his footsteps. Hillwalker was a term with which I was just beginning to become familiar, having previously only used the …
Happy Weekend friends! I’m getting settled back in from my epic walk across England. I plan to start sharing stories next week, one per week for the next eight weeks or so. One of the most fun things Diane and I did every day was make silly YouTube video updates. I put together a remix …
Well, my month of posting about Switzerland has come to an end, and next week I will be turning the page on the summer and begin sharing all the fun from my latest adventure of walking Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Trail with my friend, Diane. But my memories of Switzerland would not be complete without …
Our last walk in Engelberg began like so many others. Heading up, up, up into the forest. Morning light catching the forest floor and making me wonder if I was going to be too warm in my long sleeves. Then we would emerge from the forest and be up high, where we could see a …
I mentioned yesterday that we walked to and from the village of Engelberg several times every day. Sometimes we went for groceries and other times to the visitor center to use the WiFi. Most days we walked through on our way to another hike in the area or to reach the local abbey to buy …
Because this hike was the closest one to our house in Engelberg, we did the walk to Fluhmatt several times, and often as the beginning or ending portion of another hike. For that reason I almost did not do a blog post about it as its own walk. But then I decided to go ahead, …
I’m excited about sharing new Expat Stories with you this month while I’m on the road instead of the usual Pipeline. Today’s story is from Shauna who lives even further north in Scotland than I do. Tell us a little bit about yourself. My name is Shauna Reid and I live in Inverness, Scotland. I …
Taido has always longed to see the French Alps, and specifically, the mountain town of Chamonix, which is nestled just underneath Mont Blanc. Engelberg is about five hours away so we loaded up our camping gear and spent a couple of nights in this little French campground. When we first arrived, the clouds were covering …
One week in Switzerland the rain seemed to settle into our valley with no intention of leaving, so one morning we got up and drove the incredible Swiss tunnels through the mountains to a different valley in search of sunshine. And we found it. In Unterschachen, which was up the road from the town of …
After hiking so many trails right from our front door, you would think we would have run out of walks to do in Engelberg, but Taido always managed to find us another one. Sometimes they would begin the same way, with a steep hike up the town stairs and a view overlooking the village, but …
I’m excited about sharing new Expat Stories with you this month while I’m on the road instead of the usual Pipeline. Today’s story is from Kate Metcalf who spent a year in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now lives in London. Tell us a little bit about yourself. My name is Kate and I …
I think it’s probably clear by now that while we were in Switzerland, we were so taken with Engelberg that we would have been happy to never leave our little mountain home, but we decided that we should spend at least a few days seeing some other parts of Switzerland. Also, Taido was very keen …
Here’s the thing about choosing a favorite walk in Switzerland. It’s kind of hard because the whole month of walking the Swiss Alps is my favorite. But this walk to Stefali. Well, it was very special. Maybe it was the bright blue sky, or the crazy rushing waterfalls after several days of rain. Maybe it …
One of the most difficult hikes we did from the village of Engelberg was a climb up to this gorgeous alpine lake. Trubsee. It had rained the day after Peter and Whitney and our cousins went home, so we sat around the house and moped. They left from the train station in Engelberg with all …
The walk to the End of the World or to End der Welt was our last walk with our cousins before they left town. It was a hot, sticky day in Engelberg, but the skies were clear and the views of the mountains unobstructed. We walked from the village, past the Engelberg Abbey into the …
I’m excited about sharing new Expat Stories with you this month while I’m on the road instead of the usual Pipeline. Today’s story is from Sarah who lives in New Zealand. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Kia Ora! My name is Sarah, I am a native Minnesotan living in beautiful New Zealand with …