Author: Michelle Heiser

It was everything I had hoped and so much more!

I grew up in a home that celebrated Christmas German style (my mom is from Germany) but no one else in my neighborhood did. Our celebrations started with advent (4 weeks before Christmas by lighting the wreath with candles and ended on Christmas Eve. We had strong traditions including specific foods and decorations that seemed unique to my family. But when I got to Germany…I found the origins for our traditions all around.

My goal was to experience as much Christmas as I could. So we went to Christkindlmarkts in 5 cities in 7 days. We rented a car our first stop was Nuremberg.

A city that was nearly flattened in WWII. (you would never guessed it when visiting today.) It is also known for the Nuremberg trials where the big time Nazis were prosecuted.

The old walled city was beautiful by day as well…

Our time included a trip down memory lane for Jim as well. We went to the town where he went to school many decades ago to be trained in glass technology. He was excited to find the school was still there and operating…and we snuck inside to take a peak.

On we drove to Munich and found many different kinds of Christkindlmarkts in such a beautiful city.

After two days of eating sausage and drinking gluwine in Munich, we drove south near the border of Austria to see the famous Schloss Neuschwanstein (it’s the castle Sleeping Beauty is based on)and then back north to Heidelberg. We had beautiful weather to see the alps along the way.

What a fantastic way to spend the week leading up to Christmas…and the best was yet to come. We returned to Cologne and Wiesbaden to spend Christmas with my Aunt and cousins and their kids. We were warmly welcomed and we loved having extensive time to visit and get to know my cousins and their kids more deeply. It was such a wonderful three day reunion.

The German side of my family is quite international and spread across many countries. They say it all started with my mom moving to Chicago when she was 18.

Definitely a Christmas to remember! We left with hearts overflowing and so grateful for the warm hospitality we were given.

And the road trip continued…we headed south again to Bologna, Italy for a quick visit with a friend I taught with in Seattle.

Bologna is a beautiful city with so much incredible architecture and beautiful archways. It also has the oldest continuous university in the world. (My sister happened to get her Masters Degree there). And it claims to have the best gelato….but we are going to keep testing as we go to make sure.

We had a blast visiting with a good friend, walking the old city and trying the local flavors.

After 2 short nights we headed north again stopping in Freiburg, Germany where we were greeted by snow flurries. We put on extra layers and explored the city.

It’s an another quaint German city. One unique feature of the old city are these interesting mini-canals that get decorated periodically.

As we left Freiburg and headed to the airport, we were giving thanks for all the family and friends we have gotten to spend time with in 2025. We lit a candle and said a prayer that 2026 will bring new hope and light to sustain all of us.

Much love to you all,

Jim and Michelle

We stepped on the plane to Santiago for our 24 day Patagonian adventure with only one night booked. (I don’t recommend that) We had ideas of what we wanted to see but no solid plans of how we were going to do that…and very little Spanish language between us. We learned as we went.

We landed in the Bellavista neighborhood known for its street art and music. From there we started to plan. We knew we wanted to use the bus system to head south into the lakes district. So we found the bus terminal and bought our first tickets. We were headed 6 hours south to Concepción. Everything was new to us and it must have shown on our faces, plus we were relying mostly on translation apps to communicate. But just when we needed an “angel”, someone would show up and help us along the way. (like arranging to get into the apartment we had booked)

We had heard from some people we met in the airport that Valdivia was a nice area to visit, so that was our next stop. Our first big lesson we learned was that you should buy the bus ticket before the day you want to travel. So it took us two busses and 3 more hours to get to Valdivia.

Valdivia was nice stop near the coast. We took a boat ride, went to the Mercado (I still love a good market) and walked through a local park and saw ponds and horses.

Next we were headed on bus #4 to the heart of the lakes district in Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas. We had great views of some of the 17 active volcanoes in the region.

We rented a car and drove to a sweet little town on Lago Llanquihue called Frutillar.

We took a day trip to the island of Chiloe which was a highlight! We traveled by ferry and loved the unique folklore and culture of the island as well as seeing the coast of the Pacific Ocean and beautiful waterfalls.

Puerto Varas was our favorite stop in the Lakes Region of Chile. It has easy access to many beautiful places and we had great Chilean food.

From there we took the bus (#5) into Argentina to see the lakes region from Bariloche. We had remarkable weather so we went on a couple hikes to see the views and of course ate more asado.

Chile is more than 2,600 miles long, so we jumped on a plane for this next leg to move from the lakes region to the Patagonian Mountains . We flew to el Calafate and took a bus (#6) to el Chalten. We had front row seats to the most incredible scenery.

El Chalten is a sweet walkable town filled with hikers, bars and restaurants. The hikes all start from the door of your hostel. We had unusually great weather to enjoy the views!

We bussed (#7) back a couple days later to el Calafate to rest, do laundry and see the famous Perito Merino Glacier. We enjoyed a walk around a bird sanctuary and saw flamingos. The birds in Chile and Argentina were so interesting.

On Thanksgiving we bussed (#8) to Los Glaciares National Park on a beautiful day. This glacier is rare in that it is stable and not yet retreating. It is about 19 miles long and part of the world’s second largest ice field. Being so close we could hear it shift and see pieces of it calve. It was remarkable.

Back on the bus (#9) we left el Calafate to head back to Chile to the town of Puerto Natales. This is the town closest to Torres del Paine national park. The host at our hostel helped us get park passes and explained the routes in the park to us. We rented a car and drove about two hours into the park.

Our final stop on our Patagonia adventure was to Punta Arenas. So after two glorious days in Torres del Paine we hopped on our last bus (#10) and headed to our most southern stop. We had hoped to go on a boat to Magdalena island to see the Magellanic penguins but the winds were too strong. So we rented a car, explored this historic port town and then drove to the tip of the South American continent (only about an hour) and walked the beach to San Isidro Lighthouse.

We flew back to Santiago for one last day to explore the city and then back to the states.

The first thought that comes to mind when we reflect on our time in Patagonia is “The genuine goodwill of strangers”. Over and over again we were greeted with so much kindness and people offered help in so many different ways.

The natural beauty we saw was unparalleled but it’s the beauty of the people that made our trip so memorable.

As Christmas approaches know that we miss you, we think of you often and we wish you all a joyful and peaceful Feliz Navidad!

Love to you

Michelle and Jim

From Spain we returned to Asheville North Carolina for a very special occasion…my mom celebrated 90 years of life!

The planning started 6 months earlier with lots of text messaging and coordinating. Family gathered from all over the US for a few days of celebrating in Asheville.

Since we are so spread out: Seattle, Chicago, Nashville, Connecticut, and Asheville, we don’t see each other that often. So it was great to have an occasion to be together!

The day of the party everyone was busy getting 90 balloons, setting up table decorations, and doing sound checks.

The celebration was such a joy! About 60+ of mom and dad’s friends from Deerfield (there home) joined us. My sister had put together a beautiful video and my brother was the master MC. Even my mom’s sister in Germany and her kids sent a video singing Happy Birthday. The room was filled with laughter and tears at the stories shared. What a gift to celebrate my beautiful mom!

Oh and I almost forgot it was Madeline’s 30th birthday…born on the same day! 🤗

Two of the most amazing women in my life!

Since this will arrive on Thanksgiving we want to let you all know how grateful we are for your love and friendship!

We miss you and love you

Jim and Michelle

We just spent two amazing weeks in Spain! They were amazing for many reasons but mostly because of the beautiful people we spent them with.

Background: Last year we hosted two Spanish teachers and we got to know some of their friends over the year ❤️

When we started planning our year abroad we knew we wanted to see them again and visit their communities. So we started in Barcelona…

We walked, road bikes and ate our way through Barcelona for 2 1/2 packed days

We then took a train to Valencia to meet Lucia and Javi.

We got lucky, there was a Paella celebration and we got to try many kinds of Paella…

Another favorite place for me to visit was the Mercado (Market place). Full of life and history and food!

We explored the beauty, culture and history of Alicante and swam in the Mediterranean (only tourists do that in October)

And we ate some memorable delicious meals together

We got to see another friend, Victoria, and visit a sweet coastal village called Altea together.

With full hearts and bellies we left Alicante with hopes for our return…and caught the train to Valladolid to see Carla and her family

We all headed up to the north coast for a couple days including Rodri, which was so much fun!

We had a few more sites near Valladolid then the train to Madrid

We finished our time in Spain in Madrid. We had 3 full days to explore this cultural capital.

We enjoyed some great traditional food and drinks

We spent a whole day walking through Parque de El Retiro. Such an incredible, beautiful park with gardens and statues and fountains throughout.

Madrid at night is all lit up and beautiful.

We finished our time in Spain and we are so grateful for all the wonderful memories and experiences we had.

Thank you for all the hospitality you extended to us! We will return again!

Buen Camino

To be honest, before we started planning, if someone had said find the Balkans on a map, I would have been lost. In 26 days we only scratched the surface of this diverse part of our planet. We traveled through 5 of the 7 countries that make up this area. We traveled by the Adriatic Sea and in the Albanian Alps and lots in between.

The Way: We rented a car and drove 1750 miles and crossed 8 borders (some repeated). For the most part, we were on two lane roads in good condition, often curvy. Since we went over several mountain passes, the roads occasionally became 1 lane with pull outs for passing. 😬

And on occasion we had to share the road

We stayed in apartments and guest houses mostly and this allowed us to get to talk with locals in the communities we visited. It was interesting to hear peoples stories. Most had grown up in their community and lived through the transition of Yugoslavia to what it is today. The pride and joy that people felt about their communities and shared with us was very special to witness. In many cases it came with a lot of pain and loss and we saw evidence of this especially in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina and also in northern Croatia.

We also witnessed a deep sense of community and family everywhere we went. It was not unusual to hear of 4 to 5 generations living on the same land and developing it- growing grapes, olive trees, farming sheep and cows, having a family restaurant and inn. Tourism is now the fastest growing industry but it appears locals are still holding strong to their culture and communities.

Stari Grad or old cities…

We visited many of these ancient cities, thousands of years old throughout our travels. These towns were built with a wall surrounding the city for protection.

The mountains were beautiful! We visited a few areas in the Albanian Alps also called the Accursed mountains which cross three countries: Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro.

We saw many waterfalls

And the coastlines were breathtaking

As we traveled the crowds of tourists were less and we saw signs of fall. Many places close at the end of October.

We loved our time exploring and we definitely want to return. Tourism is relatively new to many places we visited and the hospitality we received was incredible.

Thank you for your kindness!

Hvala-Croatian, Montenegrin and Bosnian

Faleminderit– Albania and in Kosovo

Love you and think of you often!

Jim and Michelle

We spent 15 amazing days traveling through Scotland by car. Jim drove on the left side and I did my best to navigate and not show how nervous I was and we made it.

We moved on across the country to the east coast but stopped in some quaint towns along the way and saw some castles and our first up close Highland Coo! A royal coo on the property of Balmoral.

We made it to Stonehaven on the east coast to see the spectacular castle Dunnottar and stay in a sweet B&B with a view.

A short drive south to walk along the coastal path through Pittenweem and visit St Andrews was next.

And the circle was complete when we retuned to Edinburgh for our final few days.

We only scratched the surface but loved our time here. In contrast to our coast to coast drive through the US (3684miles)we only drove 974 miles. Scotland is much smaller, but with serene country sides and coastlines and a long interesting history. The people we met, both travelers and locals were so kind and made the visit even more memorable.

Bonus side trip we took the train to Manchester England to visit a good friend who we met 7 years earlier on our Camino and had a fun time catching up.

We say see you later to the UK as we head to warmer weather in Croatia.

We are grateful for the time we have spent here!

Jim and Michelle

We started our year away with a cross country road trip! We curved our way through the country. Now that I think about it, none of our travel this year will be in a straight line!

We started by visiting family in Boise and then set off to see the Tetons, Yellowstone and the Badlands. We packed our tent and did our only summer camping along the way.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife including a black bear cub, a red fox, mountain goat, pronghorn, moose and we were stopped by buffalo taking their time to cross the road. All of it reminded us again of how beautiful and diverse and vast our country is.

Then the corn and soybeans and sunflowers started as we continued east through South Dakota and Iowa and Illinois….

Spending time with friends and family was such a gift. We left Chicago and headed south to St Louis. What a cool city with so much history. I didn’t know the smallest national park is Gateway Arch.

We continued south to Nashville to spend time with my sister and hear some great music.

And our final leg of the trip was to Asheville, North Carolina to see my parents.

We had 5 days laughing and catching up and spending time with their friends. Jim and I unpacked our road trip things and packed for our next leg and did lots of walking…fall is in the air.

We feel refreshed and ready to go…off to Scotland. Im looking forward to see 🐏 and Jim is nervous to drive on the left side of the road. But overall we feel grateful to be able to go and we miss you already!

“One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things” — Unknown 

Hi everyone

We are heading out on the road again soon. Busy packing and saying our goodbyes. We will be adding to this as we go. More to come soon.

Peace to you all

We hadn’t planned to go to England when we left home. It all began when we walked the Camino back in August and September. We met a fellow pilgrim named Brian and we walked over half the Camino with him. He is from Manchester, England. Somewhere in the process of enjoying the Camino we mentioned Hadrian’s Wall. Brian had never walked it and thought it sounded like a good idea. So when we parted ways in September, he went back and started making a plan. By October he had it all scheduled and in May we were flying into Manchester to meet him. We flew into Manchester and spent a couple days exploring the city and resting. Brian was gracious to let us stay with him, which included doing our laundry and he was our tour guide. He plays bass in a band and they had a gig while we were there, so we got to experience a real pub band. He also hosted a gathering with family and friends, who we had heard about while we were walking the Camino, and we were delighted to meet them.

After a few days we headed up to Bowness on Solway to start our six day walk, west to east (mostly) on Hadrian’s Wall. We had set housing for the week which meant we didn’t have to carry our heavy packs, thank goodness! But it did involve some transportation coordination from the beginning and ending of each days walk, which could get complicated. We took buses, we used Brian’s car, a taxi and we even hitchhiked once. The walk was beautiful and peaceful with very interesting history. The scenery in northern England is incredible, hilly in spots but great views North into Scotland and south into the Lakes District. We walked through many pastures of cows and sheep, it was lambing season. We had all kinds of weather including hail but we tucked into a pub to miss that. The rhythm of walking for multiple days felt good after so much fast paced travel, and we took our time.

Jim and I added a day because Brian had to get back for another concert, life of the rich and famous. So all in all we completed about 60 miles of the wall, which was good enough for us. We then took a train down to York to visit the historic city and a few days of site-seeing. We walked the city wall, sipped tea, learned about some of the gruesome history and how the Harry Potter series got its inspiration for Dagon alley from here. After a few days we hopped on a train back to Manchester to have one more evening with Brian and a farewell bonfire in his backyard. It felt like a quick trip and there is so much more to explore and so much more walking to do, another time. The highlights definitely were visiting with our friend again and walking together.

We left Manchester for two quick stops in the States. First we flew to Boston, rented a car and drove to Burlington, Vermont for Emily’s graduation. She finished nursing school and we celebrated over a long weekend, including her best friend Morgan who flew out to join the party. Burlington is a nice, little city. It reminds me of Seattle in some ways with all the microbrews, cafes, good coffee, and street musicians, plus the lake and the mountains. It was a great visit and a festive occasion!

We then drove back to Boston, flew to Atlanta, rented a car and drove to Asheville, North Carolina to see my parents and my youngest daughter who goes to school there. We had six days to catch up with everyone including meeting my nephews wife and brand new baby. That makes me a great aunt for the second time! We ate southern barbecue, went to my daughters house warming party, and attended a pig roast to see another Camino friend. We also rested, drank coffee of course, and spent time with family. It was perfect.

It was good to reset our batteries back “home” for a little while before leaving on our last leg of this adventure.

Ecuador, Peru, and Columbia

Here we come!

Turkey was incredible. I had no idea what to expect. I had heard about Istanbul and the spice markets and beautifully tiled mosques. That was only the beginning, it was all that and so much more.

Let me give you a little view into how we plan each leg our our trip. About two weeks before a new country we mention to each other in passing that we should probably start planning for the next country. Then we put it off for another week because we are trying to soak in all we can about where we are presently. About three days before we get to our new country we get serious. We Google “0ne month itinerary in Turkey” and look for something that fits us. We compare a couple of sites together to get the not to miss places. We then come up with a loose schedule and consider the transportation options. We then start looking on Booking and Airbnb for places to stay. Hopefully we get the first half to 3/4 set in place before we arrive. We always check the cancellation policies in case something comes up after we arrive. If we are lucky we have a connection to someone in that country who can provide insider tips. That’s how we planned Turkey.

-Start and end in Istanbul.

-Rent a car after Istanbul to travel around the country.

-Visit 12 different locations.

-Start in Istanbul and travel counterclockwise following western and southern coast along Mediterranean Sea then cut back inland northeast to the center of the country and finally continue northwest back to Istanbul. 2400 miles!

There are many pluses to driving: 1. you can purchase more things and leave unneeded things in the car 2. you have a flexible time schedule 3. roads are great in Turkey 4. listen to books on CD for long stretches. I highly recommend Becoming by Michelle Obama.

We loved it all. Istanbul was full of activity and life. We visited many historical sites and learned about the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empire’s. So much of it is still beautifully preserved and restored. I have never loved learning about history, sorry Dad, but seeing it firsthand made it come alive and seem real. We then drove to Selcuk to see Ephesus, another ancient city. Understanding the geography and the proximity to Egypt, Israel and Greece made it all make so much more sense.

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting my cousin and his wife in Urla. Their family has a home there. She grew up in Turkey and showed us around and introduced us to some of the history and culture of the country.

Before heading down the coast, we stopped off in Pammakale. This area has travertine rock formations created by mineral rich thermal waters. Also a Roman spa city founded around 190 BC. There were many tourists but we were glad we visited.

The Mediterranean coast is filled with sweeping views and coastal fishing towns. In several towns we saw fishermen coming off their boats to sell their fish to the locals on the docks. One of our favorite cities was Kas. It was very picturesque. There were markets and fishing boats in the harbor, as well as mountains surrounding the city, and beautiful beaches. The Lycian way, which is a 340 mile hike that goes along the coast, comes right through this area.

After leaving Kas we went to Olympos, a town that has held onto the hippie tradition of the sixties known for their treehouses. We stayed in a sweet cottage amongst fragrant orange blossoms. It was owned by a delightful, quirky couple who made us a delicious dinner. We wished we could have stayed longer.

We then left the coast and headed to Cappadocia. Honestly at this point I had seen a lot of rocks and history and didn’t know if I had capacity for much more. But Cappadocia was so unique. The history and geology of this area was very different from the other places we have visited. We hiked in and around these interesting rock formations and into underground cities marveling at the ingenuity of people 1800 years ago.

We left Cappadocia and drove to our last stop in the UNESCO world heritage city of Safronbolu. This is a very quaint city with lots of Turkish delight shops, apparently where the popular dessert originates. The 18th-19th century architecture in the Turkish Ottoman style is very well preserved and so is the traditional lifestyle.

The hospitality and generosity again humbled us. One example was here in Safranbolu. In our hostel, they provided us with slippers to wear while we were in the home. I really liked them and asked if they sold them in town. Remember we had a car so we could accumulate stuff. The gentleman working that night said he would ask. In the morning the innkeeper told me he wanted to give me the slippers as a gift to remember them by. After fumbling over myself to explain, I just said thank you and accepted his kindness. This is just one example of the many interactions we have had during our travels here. As we spoke to many people while we traveled and told them we were from America, almost everyone said please tell your friends and family it’s safe here and to come visit. We had nothing but positive experiences and we would recommend a visit to Turkey.

We loved everything about Turkey.