8 of 40 Birthday Experiences! June 2023 - Celebrating Rick’s Birthday in Newport, Rhode Island. An easy train ride to Providence And an uber out to Newport for a weekend of exploring, eating, and relaxing. Day One: Made it to Providence early - around 10am - after an easy Acela ride from New York City. We walked around Providence for a bit until we were ready for a lunch and a beer at The Malted Barley (Craft Beer + Pretzel Sandwiches). Then an uber out to Newport for the wee

4 of 40 Birthday Experiences! April 2023 - We spent a long weekend in Mystic, Connecticut! One of the wonderful things of living in NYC - is the ability to get to places on the train. We hopped on Amtrak and a few hours later - we stepped off for a half mile walk into the historic district of Mystic. We stayed at the fabulous Whaler’s Inn: https://www.whalersinnmystic.com/ We’ve walked by this hotel every time we’ve stayed in Mystic - but seem to always plan our trip on a whi

3 of 40 Birthday Experiences! March 2023 - we headed to Central America with a group of friends to celebrate Allie's Birthday! We stayed at the Occidental at Xcaret - a resort in Playa del Carmen, along the Yucatán Peninsula's Riviera Maya strip of the Caribbean shoreline. Details and links: The hotel is spread out quite a ways - and has a central area (get a room there if you can!) with a river, restaurants, trails, lots of animals, ruins, and a beach, a gym, and plenty of s

We spent a week in Morocco with Morocco Immersion Tours! https://moroccoimmersion.com/ - Highly recommend. We wanted to see a lot in only 7 days - and to have a private guide so we could move at own pace. It was amazing! We had Sallam as our guide/driver - and he was phenomenal. Sharon planned our whole trip and we got to meet her and Abdou while in Morocco! Details and links: Day 1: Flew into Casablanca and drove to Chefchaouen - even with a missed and rebooked flight - we m

I opened my eyes to see the tall grass swaying above me; the orange sky above it. How many times have I been here now? I was so exhausted that I didn’t jump to my feet to try to desperately to make it to the town I could never reach. Instead I continued to lay there gazing at the sky and allowing myself to enjoy the lack of physical pain in my prematurely aging body. This dream allowed all of the body aches of the previous weeks to drift away. Or was it months? This time was

A groan fell out of my mouth as I thudded to a seating position on the hot gravel and waited hopefully for a wind to cool the sweat that ran down the side of my face and into the rough hair that grew around my chin. No wind came. I sighed audibly to no one and watched the trucks speeding past my resting spot. I could almost see the thoughts behind the wondering eyes of the drivers as they thought, who is this idiot sitting on the side of the road . I tugged at the sleeve of m

There was nothing but a hollow feeling as I walked down the clean paved road and away from the home of the man who died. If I was waiting for an immediate change or shift in myself, some kind of revelation, that would turn my feet and send me running back towards the empty house behind me, none would come. I was still a shell. An empty host who was still waiting to feel something remotely human. My body slowed and I stopped moving; standing in the middle of the empty road. An

I died today. I found myself slowly falling back to the earth, feeling weightless as I floated down and down, stopping with a light thud