My partner Rick got his entrepreneurial genes from his dad. Prior to becoming an expert on European travel, he was a pre-pubescent magazine seller, a teenage rare coin trader, and a college student piano teacher. His sister Jan Steves is entrepreneurial, too, but she’s got something more. She has the adventure gene, courtesy of herContinue reading “A Real Amazing Race: Jan Steves and the Iditarod part 1”
Category Archives: USA
Scenes from a Guide Summit
Name 20 countries from the European Union. Imagine the “typical” citizens of those countries–their features, their demeanors, their gestures, their accents. Now picture a collection of 120 people from those countries who are passionate aficionados on the history, art, culture, politics, and people of those motherlands all descending on a small town just north ofContinue reading “Scenes from a Guide Summit”
Dale Chihuly’s Garden and Glass Museum: Art Rivaling Nature
Imagine columns of aqua blue starfish, seashells, and kelp bulbs. Visualize ceilings of tire-sized flowers of every color hovering above you and radiating a rainbow of sunlight with your body as the canvas. Picture rowboats piled with Technicolor orbs, wispy rods and belled vessels, floating atop a sea of black glass, reflecting the surreal masterpiecesContinue reading “Dale Chihuly’s Garden and Glass Museum: Art Rivaling Nature”
Being a Tourist in Your Own Town
I love Seattle, and after nearly four years of living here, it finally feels like home. It’s a dynamite town. It’s small yet metropolitan. Neighborhoods like Ballard, Capitol Hill, Freemont, and Magnolia boast distinct personalities yet feel cohesively Seattle. We have a good baseball team, a stellar soccer team, and a phenomenal football team (GoContinue reading “Being a Tourist in Your Own Town”
Right Place, Right Time: Visiting the USS Missouri
With our moving experience at the USS Arizona Memorial completed, Odile and I have just enough time for a blitz visit to the USS Missouri before scooping up her little cherubs from preschool. As we drive onto Ford Island, the tranquil solemnity I felt on the Arizona quickly gives way to mild panic about havingContinue reading “Right Place, Right Time: Visiting the USS Missouri”
A Date Which Will Live In Infamy
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941–a date which will live in infamy–the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” Seventy-two years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in response to the “dastardly” surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and speaking on behalf of himself and the peopleContinue reading “A Date Which Will Live In Infamy”
A Star-struck Traveler
In the previous article, I shared what it was like to be at a travel show. But I left out one really fun thing: meeting travel celebrities. I admit that I get star-struck pretty easily. Sometimes my neck gets sweaty, my heart feels like my body must be doing a 100-yard dash, and my earsContinue reading “A Star-struck Traveler”
Before You Travel, Why Not Check Out a Travel Show?
When you think of winter, you might imagine trees enveloped in velvety white snow, marshmallows slowly dissolving in molten hot chocolate, scarves wrapped twice around the neck in defiance of the wind, or the crackle of reds, yellows, and oranges in a just-what-I-needed fireplace. Lately, when I think of winter, I picture immense convention centerContinue reading “Before You Travel, Why Not Check Out a Travel Show?”
Iditarod: The Official Start
As Rick Steves’ sister, Jan Steves (with her team of sixteen canine companions) mushes her way through the snow-blanketed Alaskan wilderness of her second Iditarod Trail Race, I’m wrapping up my three-part series on my behind-the-scenes perspective on what it was like last year at her debut in the “Last Great Race on Earth.” TheContinue reading “Iditarod: The Official Start”
Iditarod: Ceremonial Start
As Rick Steves’ sister, Jan Steves, continues on her second Iditarod adventure, I’m continuing my three-part series on what it was like last year at her debut in the “Last Great Race on Earth.” The original article was posted on Jan’s blog on March 4, 2012. Snow dances its way onto the ground and ticklesContinue reading “Iditarod: Ceremonial Start”