
Castelo de São Jorge & Lisbon Cathedral
The Castle of St. George overlooks much of Lisbon. That made it the ideal place from which to rule the city, so it was the seat of power under many different regimes, from the Romans thru Portugal’s early monarchial era. Getting to the castle was fun! We rode trams most

Portugal: Arrival
We spent the first week of our trip in Lisbon, staying at the Holiday Inn Express Lisbon Liberdade, which we loved after we got them to move us into a room that wasn’t right above a loud and smokey restaurant. Portugal allows smoking in outdoor restaurant areas (and many other

Portugal!
We may be establishing a pattern: last year in October we went to Italy (Rome, Florence and Venice). This year we went to Portugal. It was a lovely trip, which I’ve written about in a series of posts. I’ve also started compiling an “international traveling tips” list, which you can

Great Smoky Mountains
We were recently in Asheville, North Carolina for a wedding. Because we wanted to extend the trip to spend some time in Great Smoky Mountains National Park1, we flew in and out of Atlanta and drove the rest of the way. Asheville and the wedding (and the Biltmore Estate) were

Vector: A Review of a Remarkable Book
A Surprising Story of Space, Time and Mathematical Transformation,by Robyn ArianrhodUniversity of Chicago Press Science fiction readers are familiar with being confronted with real scientific or mathematical terms they don’t know. For me, one of those terms was tensor. Which is a mathematical entity or structure that I never encountered

A Winter Day in Pacifica
We ate lunch at our favorite shoreline Pacifica restaurant today, the High Tide Cafe & Crêperie. Great salads! After which we hiked up to the top of the hill between Pacifica State Beach and Rockaway Beach. The views were, as always, spectacular. Plus, we got to meet this cute little