travel

Plank Story: Montgomery, Alabama Civil Rights

Outside the Dexter Parsonage Museum, MLK’s home in Montgomery.

Matt and I were headed to Montgomery, Alabama to see the abandoned, dilapidated set from Big Fish. I was planning a weekend for us in Montgomery and started to worry that there wouldn’t be much to see. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was the Big Fish set still cool to walk through, but Montgomery is steeped in civil rights and civil war history.

What is unique about the civil rights component is that some of the people living in Montgomery today were alive and in Montgomery during the 1950’s. Some knew Martin Luther King and lived through the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The civil rights history in Montgomery isn’t that old. I’d say now is the time to visit, because once the sites are actually history and not told from a firsthand experience, a piece of the story will be lost.

In a couple decades, you could go to the Dexter Parsonage Museum, MLK’s house, and get a great tour about his story in Montgomery, but probably won’t hear Dr. Shirley Cherry’s, our […]

Plank Story: Montgomery, Alabama Civil RightsMaggie Downie2017-12-29T20:27:45-05:00

Plank Story: Vihno Verde, Fado and Portuguese Mussels

Before Matt and I left for Portugal people recommended all sorts of food and experiences we should try. One recommendation was Vinho Verde (an immature, white wine) and another was Fado (a somewhat melancholy, traditional music). We wound up trying them on the same night. A view of Lisbon from above. Somewhere down there we were racing through the streets to get to Fado.

We’d gone out to dinner and were stuffed, but ran through the streets and staircases of Lisbon to get to the Fado bar. The music was supposed to start promptly at nine. People and restaurants were spilling out into the cobblestones streets, so we zigzagged down the small alleyways beneath colorful streamers hanging above and amongst the excitement of everyone watching soccer in the streets.

We arrived at the Fado bar just in time. They had one table left. “We’ll take it,” we said. “You’ll be eating dinner?” they asked. Oh, we were so full. We didn’t want dinner. We just wanted to listen to the […]

Plank Story: Vihno Verde, Fado and Portuguese MusselsMaggie Downie2017-12-29T20:55:13-05:00

Welcome to Jordan

“You are welcome to Jordan” was the phrase we heard from almost everyone we met on our recent whirlwind trip to the Middle East. “Please, go home and tell your friends and family they are welcome to Jordan too.” Jordan, like Turkey, is a predominately safe country with some very difficult neighbors. It doesn’t have any state issued travel warnings. Mexico does. (Just to provide a little perspective.)

The curbs were the most colorful part of Amman.

I was nervous about traveling to Jordan until I got there. Even though the flights were long, it was worth the trip. We had three days in country which gave us time to see Amman, the Dead Sea, Petra and spend the night in the Wadi Rum.

Amman had some good local food and dabbled in interesting graffiti, but in my short stay there I didn’t see much else worth discovering. It’s a very beige city—the Earth and buildings are the same color.

Floating in the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea disappointed in its beauty […]

Welcome to JordanMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:24:29-04:00

Amazon Appreciation

In Peru, I stayed at a lodge on the Yarapa River in the Amazon Basin. We traveled everywhere by boat and saw small villages of approximately 100 people. Seeing the way some of the people lived made me both jealous of the simplicity of their life and so grateful for the technology and convenience life in the United State provides (which while making life easier, often makes it far less simple).

Everyday I watched women washing clothes by hand, one garment at a time, in the river. Instead of mowing the lawn, men cut the grass with machetes. Road workers swept up debris with a straw broom. At night, I checked my bed for scorpions and tarantulas and before putting on a pair of shoes I turned them upside down and banged on them.

I can’t help but wonder, would you rather have a simple life or an easy life?

Amazon AppreciationMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:26:05-04:00

Travel and Exercise

This time of year a lot of us will take long car, train or plane rides. When you travel you don’t have to forgo exercise. You can stretch in the airport or at the gas station. Stop along the way to take a short stroll and see what you’ve been passing by at 65-miles-per-hour.

Before I left Peru, lots of people asked if I would do Pilates and keep my core engaged while traveling. “Of course,” I told them. And I usually do. Unfortunately, in Peru I often found myself sick from the altitude, motion, or food. The last thing I was thinking about was whether or not my core was engaged. Sometimes life just doesn’t work out the way we planned, in which case, we have to try not to get too discouraged.

I will say, though, that for a 10 hour car ride, I was very grateful for a strong kegel. I guess I wasn’t completely disengaged.

The picture above is of the plane we took to see the Nasca Lines. It […]

Travel and ExerciseMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:24:26-04:00