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Destinations

Argentina, Buenos Aires, Destinations, Food

Hidden Treasure in Buenos Aires: Jueves a la Mesa

November 21, 2013

At home in Portland, Oregon, I love to grow and shop for fresh produce, cook in my own kitchen, share meals with friends, and advocate for sustainable, nourishing food systems.

On the road, few things are better than visiting farmers markets around the world, discovering outstanding restaurantstaking cooking lessons from wonderful teachers, and meeting people who also possess a penchant for celebrating the unadulterated joys of food.

During our four week stay in Buenos Aires during the sweltering hot summer months of February and March, we managed to find a clearing in the haze of steak and pasta: a breath of fresh air at a closed-door-dinner hidden in a nondescript apartment building in our neighborhood.

Jueves a la Mesa, Thursday at the Table.


Red wine runs freely in Buenos Aires, but cool, clear water and bright vegetarian food on a hot summer night gave traditional Argentinian fare a run for the money.

Our friend Kaylea was visiting us from Oregon, and booking a spot at the mysterious un-restaurant seemed just the kind of adventure we were looking for. There is no publicized address. No walk-up table service. You must make reservations ahead of time, and only then do you receive directions to the hidden meal prepared and hosted in the owner’s home.

We three headed out into the night, following instructions to reach the gold-knobbed door to the lobby and the dated elevator leading up into the unknown… Continue Reading…

Destinations, Photography, Short and Sweet and Scattershot, Thailand

Memories of Hua Hin

November 12, 2013


So, Hua Hin.

The vacation city overlooking the Gulf of Thailand was our final stop in Southeast Asia. A spot where we dropped our bags, dropped our go-go-go, and took time to indulge in slow days, fast motorbikes, fresh fish, old gardens, hot coffees, and torch-lit dinners along the sandy shore.

Prior to arrival, we’d explored Wats in Bangkok, taken the overnight train to Chiang Mai, relaxed among the dragonfruits growing in the northern Thai countryside, dabbled in the kitchen, crossed into Laos and floated two days down the Mekong River, bused into Cambodia in time to join nationwide mourning for the death of a king, and eventually ended up full circle back in Bangkok, prepared for one final Asian adventure before departure to New Zealand. Continue Reading…

Musings, Oregon, Tidbits About Us

Seven Years and Six(ish) Continents Later

July 1, 2013

We met when we were seven and nine and married at 22 and 24. Such babies, I know.

When I have a thing for something, I have a thing. Ted. Travel. Oregon. The Pacific Northwest… Seven years ago, on July 1st (Canada Day, hey-oh!), we stitched our life-passports together, celebrated with family and friends, and set out to make our way, together, in the world.

This morning, what started as an effort to dig up wedding pictures for a Facebook profile picture turned into a nostalgic walk down memory lane…

Happy Anniversary, sweet Ted!
xo, Bethany


Grandpa’s old Model-A out on the family farm…


Josiah, Ross, Wayne, AJ, Darian {Ted & Bethany} Jenna, Heather, Sarah, Erin & Melanie

Continue Reading…

Destinations, Meditations, Musings, Spain

Semana Santa: Observing Good Friday in Barcelona, Spain

March 28, 2013

On a dreary Friday afternoon near the end of Holy Week, Semana Santa as it’s known in Spain, the weathered streets of Barcelona pulsed with pilgrims and onlookers mesmerized by the beats and passions of the traditional Viernes Santo procession commemorating the sorrow of Christ’s sacrificial crucifixion.

Ted and I found ourselves standing in the Spanish city’s Good Friday throng mere hours after disembarking from our transatlantic ship crossing. Leapt we from lavish cruise ship surroundings and memories of blissful blue ocean waters into the brooding atmosphere of a seaside city in mourning. Easter on the horizon, but death and darkness first. Continue Reading…

Cambodia, Destinations, Landscape Architecture, Musings

Preah Khan: Architecture Education Rising from Ruins

March 12, 2013

For the past nearly quarter of a century on the flip side of the planet from my Pacific Northwest nest, the World Monument Fund has been helping bring modern day workforce training opportunities to would-be architects, engineers, archaeologists, and artisans in the midst of a still-recovering country tangled in layers of civil war and jungle-eaten ruins. This is the story of the Preah Khan Project at Cambodia’s Angkor Temples.

I grew up in a land of peace and plentiful resources.

When landscape architecture wormed its way into my curious mind at age 14, I’d already squirreled away countless years of urban planning and city management experience (ahem, they’re releasing a new version of SimCity this year, by the way…). But seriously, when I chose to pursue landscape architecture in university, my world was rife with opportunities to study, to travel, and to gain practical experience in modern-day design, construction, and management.

In other regions, access to higher education and workforce training is not so simple; in other regions, entire generations of skilled artisans and professionals have been lost to war.

Countries like Cambodia, filled with natural and cultural landscapes in need of preservation and protection, riddled with histories of instability, are all too often left to wither alone or to be plundered by foreign governments, unscrupulous business ventures, and outside interest groups.

Happily, I share an encouraging story today. One of foreigners banding together to partner with Cambodian citizens to increase education, skills, and ultimately care for the Cambodian people’s cultural heritage. Continue Reading…

Cambodia, Destinations, Landscape Architecture

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – Scenes from Angkor Thom, Bayon, and Ta Prohm

February 27, 2013


Frozen Portraits at The Bayon

Don’t laugh. I have an admission to make: we followed Angelina Jolie to Cambodia. She beat us to Angkor by a dozen years, filming scenes for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in 2000 among the picturesque ruins of the Khmer Empire, and as round the world travelers with a stop in Siem Reap, it was too hard to resist the cheesiness of a little star-stalking during our visit to the ruins.

The Lara Croft: Tomb Raider route includes a visit to the many-faced Bayon Temple within the bounds of the ancient city of Angkor Thom and a trip through the tree-entwined bones of the similarly aged 12th and 13th century Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university of Ta Prohm. Continue Reading…

Cambodia, Destinations, Landscape Architecture

Six Hundred Years After Sunrise, or, Angkor in a Day

February 20, 2013

Angkor is perhaps the greatest of Man’s essays in rectangular architecture that has yet been brought to life.
– Arnold Joseph Toynbee, East to West


Exhibit A: Sunrise at Angkor Wat – The Clichéd (and Beautiful) Pilgrimage Point of Cambodia

Ankgor.
A spread of ruins; archaeological remnants of an ancient civilization.

Iconic.
A bit bewildering; there for the seeing, for the picture-taking, with secrets lost from time.

Unmissable.
Take several days, they said. We took one, and filled it as full as we could. Continue Reading…

Musings, Oregon, Photography, Tidbits About Us

Happy 154th Birthday, Oregon!

February 14, 2013

*Ending Radio Silence*

Hot on the heels of a year of globetrotting, this past month of life in Oregon shaped up to be one of near-complete digital retreat. Aside from Instagram snapshots, our online travel stories died down and we ditched most writing and photography in favor of spending time on in-person reunions with family and friends and our dear home state…and today, a resurfacing to say hello and show you what we’ve been up to! Continue Reading…