Mary Allan recalls: When I was about nine years old I had two large closets in my bedroom. One was for me, and the other one was a mystery. My mother had told me not to open the closet door as she had some valuable clothes hanging there. … Read the rest
Have you ever wondered about ancient traditions and ceremonies in the new world? My new friend Willy Barreno is a shaman of the Mayan people in Guatemala. Today he has sent me a video of”one of our ceremonies in the highlands of Guatemala!… Read the rest
Mary Allan writes:
A friend asked me what was my favorite type of vacation. The answer was easy…a cruise.
From an early age I went sailing in Canada with my father, and later my Uncle Lorne. My family had always been sailors, whether on a sailboat or one of the ships of The Allan Line.… Read the rest
Thanks to Ty Rossmellia, an article on my computer caught my eye, “Fly With An Astronaut at Kennedy Space Center”. I’ve been almost everywhere else, why not space?
When I met my son’s father, he was working on the Apollo Space project in St.… Read the rest
Here’s an introduction to Mary Allan’s travel journals we have been featuring. Some of you have asked where these journals and memories come from.
When you’ve been a professional travel agent, you are often invited on “fam” trips and cruises to familiarize you with a tour/cruise operator’s product. … Read the rest
Faced with the disastrous impacts of the growing climate crisis, the Marshall Islands, a remote Pacific island nation, has taken a decisive step towards the preservation of the planet, as well as its own land and people.
On Sunday, Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) President Christopher Loeak announced his country would be the first small island nation to submit to the United Nations a clear climate target for 2025 ahead of the upcoming Paris climate summit.
I’d just become engaged in Tahiti, and my fiance had left for the rest of his round-the-world business trip via Fiji.
I had two days in which to join my group of travel agents’ familiarization tour. The Inter Continental’s front desk checked me in. … Read the rest
Americans “smell like freedom” says one fellow in this video about how people from other countries spot people from the USA when they travel overseas. It seems we are fat, loud, greedy, sloppy and uptight. Well, gee, tell us how you really feel!… Read the rest
Mary Allan has a series of posts on her adventures as a travel agent. Here is part of her trip to French Polynesia and the dark stranger who stole her heart!
As I travel I keep a day-to-day diary of where I go and what I see. … Read the rest
Just cuz they pretty, here are some extraordinary toroidal vortices produced by dolphins, beluga whales, humpback whales, volcanoes, hydrogen/atomic bombs, and well, you will see!.
… Read the restA toroidal vortex, also called a vortex ring, is a region of rotating fluid moving through the same or different fluid where the flow pattern takes on a toroidal (doughnut) shape.
Mary Allan shares another overseas adventure:
As I travel, I begin to realize how large our planet is, the endless countries with towns and cities…the diversity of each city and country’s language and dialects and, in many cases, occupation by another country. … Read the rest
Today Mary Allan shares her memories of moving to England.
In the 1970’s my nine-year old son and I and moved from the States to England with my new husband who worked there. I sent my furniture earlier by sea, and we flew to London. … Read the rest
ThinkProgress says France will ban supermarkets from tossing food in the trash, no doubt much to the dismay of gourmands who have even made haute cuisine cook books of dumpster derived delights. The news paints this as a victory against food waste, but Mikee says it is just an effort by the French government to discourage bin-diving, containering, shopping at the D-mart, dumpstering, tatting, skipping, or as they say in Australia “skip dipping.”… Read the rest
At Tuskegee’s 2015 graduation First (African American) Lady Michelle Obama was blunt about life for “folks like you and me, because while we’ve come so far, the truth is that those age-old problems are stubborn and they haven’t fully gone away.”… Read the rest
In Spain thousands of holograms paraded past the lower house of the country’s parliament last month says Fusion. The augmented reality protest was just the latest in activist groups’ campaign against a series of “citizen security” bills, which received final passage in March.… Read the rest