Hungry Times Two

In the 13 months Scott and I have lived in Oregon, we've done our best to visit the varied landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. To mark our 12th wedding anniversary in April, we chose the coast. Or, as the highway signs here redundantly declare, "the Ocean Beaches." We've twice day-tripped to Astoria, camped at Bullards Beach State Park near Bandon, and spent a terrific weekend in Pacific City . On that last trip, we visited Neskowin's Ghost Forest on one of the lowest tides of the year, and we were eager to return.  We tend to be procrastinating trip planners, so we we decided to go about 10 days before our anniversary, which fell on the Easter holiday. A quick Airbnb search later, we had a condo with a kitchenette reserved at Proposal Rock Inn in Neskowin, a funky creekside condo complex with views of the Pacific Ocean and, of course, Proposal Rock. The Inn allows dogs, so our pup Loretta came with us.    The view from the condo balcony As a Sout...

Telling people you've just returned from a Viking River Cruise will earn mixed reactions. A few people smirk and ask how old I really am (yes, I know from the PBS Masterpiece Theatre underwriting promos that I'm a little under their target demographic). Some want to know what makes it a Viking cruise (no, I didn't don a winged helmet and pray to Norse gods, but that would be pretty amazing ). But most seem interested to hear about the Danube River trip and what I enjoyed the most.  Spending some relaxing time with my mom on the cruise was tops, as well as taking advantage of all the ship's perks: unlimited espresso drinks and sparkling water whenever, fully-catered meals for nearly all of the eight-day trip, and a lovely "Aquavit Terrace" lounge to sip drinks and in our case, refine our Scrabble skills, while the ship cruised upriver from Budapest, Hungary to Passau, Germany.  And the CHEESE. At every breakfast, there were at least 3-5 different...

After our Budapest stop and a cursory tour of a pleasant-but-not-incredibly-memorable Bratislava, Slovakia, our ship cruised on to Austria's capital city of Vienna. I'd visited Austria before in the mid-1990s during a high school spring break trip, but my tolerance and appreciation for art, architecture, and history thankfully improved since my teenage years. The Viking ship was docked at a remote location away from the main city center, so we were bussed and taxi-ed into and out of the Ringstrasse, a main boulevard loop of the city. For fans of classical music, art, Baroque buildings, cafe culture, and royal history, Vienna is your place. The Hapsburg monarchy was based here, and the Hofburg Palace and surrounding complex of related residences, museums, monuments, and gardens could take days to see. My mom and I did a cursory walking tour with our group and then once that was over, we unintentionally toured a good bit more of Vienna by foot on a gray day. Traveling wi...

Something is amiss. I'm not waking up to breakfasts of small hot cups of macchiato, a ridiculous range of soft cheeses and breads, or eggs made to order. I'm not checking my daily agenda for included and optional excursions, and there's no one to make slightly awkward small talk with at meals. Nope, I'm definitely not on a Viking cruise ship anymore. Last summer my mother invited me to join her for an eight-day Viking cruise on the Danube River, a trip Viking coins " The Danube Waltz ." I'd never taken a cruise of any kind before, and she and I travel well together, so I quickly agreed. So on April 30, we took off from Charlotte, NC, enjoyed a brief layover in Munich, Germany, and touched down in Budapest, Hungary. We boarded our ship, docked at the famous Chain Bridge  on the eastern Pest side of the city, and took the first day to get our bearings and, most importantly, eat and sleep. We'd flown over on Lufthansa and while the service was eff...