Disneyland Paris – Summer Trip 2026 Part 2

August 14, 2026

There are a couple of advantages to staying at a Disney property. One, which we never actually used this trip, is early entry to the parks. The other is hotel specific character interactions. In the past, when we stayed at the Santa Fe, we often saw Pluto against a Route 66 background. Here, the background was wilderness and that first morning, our character was Donald Duck.

We’d discovered earlier in the trip that the autograph book Monki had bought specifically for this trip had been left at home. Therefore, while Rasa waited in line, Monki and I went into the nearby giftshop to find a new autograph book and a special pen for signings. We made it back in time for Monki to get her first autograph and some great pictures with Donald. We also started our Photopass. Doing research, we’d been told to get a temporary Photopass card and at the end, if there were enough photos to make it worthwhile, then upgrade. So that’s what we did.

Continue reading →

Watching the Sun Go Out – Summer Trip 2026 Part 1

Two years ago, in April of 2024, there was a total solar eclipse across the United States. This made an impact on Monki. She’s always been into science and the planets and stuff, even has the National Geographic YouTube video about eclipses memorized, so when this event happened, we watched it live on TV. We even ordered eclipse glasses so she could see the partial eclipse in Kaunas in March of 2025. Ultimately, though, she informed us that seeing a total solar eclipse was “on her bucket list.”

That’s right. The 8-year-old had a bucket list.

Continue reading →

Comic Con Baltics 2026

“Let’s do this one more time.”

I got confirmation I’d be back for the 8^th installment of Comic Con Baltics back in February, which meant I could build it into my syllabus nicely. This would be my 6^th time working for the con and my seventh time attending*. I also got asked if I would do another lecture, like I did last year. Last time, due to the Superman film opening, I did a brief history of the character. This time, we settled on doing the same thing about Spider-Man, knowing the film was coming out this summer.

Continue reading →

Seasick Mermaids – Crete 2025 – Part 3

July 2 – Day 5

One of the other places we wanted to visit was Balos Beach. This is the location of the pale green, almost crystal waters you’ve seen in all the adverts. It was also someplace Rasa’s friend had been to last year when she visited Crete. The only problem seemed to be it was down another long slope from a high mountain parking area. Since we’d just done this, we wondered if maybe there was another way.

Continue reading →

Caves and Hearts – Crete 2025 – Part 2

June 30 – Day Three

We were to meet the car rental representative in the hotel lobby at 9:00 a.m., so we arrived bright and early at 8:55. He showed up promptly, and there was no problem signing all the paperwork. Honestly, one of the easiest car rentals I’ve ever done. The only issue came when we had to pay for it, and he couldn’t take cards. Of course, they never told us this. If they had, we could have gotten the money while we were out the day before (or even brought it with us). Instead, I took the car into town, following our rep to an ATM. I got the cash, paid for the car and headed back to the resort. The fun here was that I don’t usually drive. Rasa is the driver in our family. It had probably been a couple of years since I’d been behind a wheel, so driving a manual transmission up the narrow, windy 2km back to our place was a little nerve-wracking (not as nerve-wracking as driving in the UK a few years ago, but still…). I made it back safely and met the girls in the restaurant for breakfast.

Continue reading →

Back Again – Crete 2025 – Part 1

June 28 – Day 1

There were a number of options for our annual summer break this year. So many, in fact, that it took us a while to finally settle on going back to Crete for a second year in a row. Remember, we also went last year, with my folks, right after Monki’s birthday. This year, we’d booked another all-inclusive for the week before her birthday, at a different resort in a different part of the island (Crete is the 88^th largest island in the world). We also decided to rent a car this time, to get out and explore a bit more.

Continue reading →

And so it begins – England 2022 #1

Prologue

Back in February or March, Rasa was informed of a conference in her field coming up in Manchester, England at the end of June. We talked it over and decided it would be a good idea to go. It would be her first in-person conference as a PhD student (due to the pandemic) and was scheduled to include a number of big names in her field as participants, including her unofficial supervisor (whom she would be able to meet in person for the first time).

Continue reading →

We Bought a Car!

A couple of years back, we got a car. It was a much needed balm at the time and over the past few years, it has been a real life saver. Our little “Silver Car,” as Monki dubbed it, allowed us a freedom of movement which was vitally important.

Sure, Kaunas has public transportation, but the car let us go and explore places public transportation made extremely difficult to reach, if they went there at all. This was how we were able to visit the beaches and hiking sites in nature and even make day trips to the zoos and dino parks which aren’t in our backyard.

Continue reading →

Did you have a car in high school?

We’ve got ourselves another deceptively simple question here. As a journalist, I have a fundamental problem with these closed questions. Queries about “favorite something” or “tell me about your” prompts are great for sparking a lengthy answer or discussion, something which can get to the heart of something bigger, perhaps, but “Did you have a car in high school?” A simple yes or no, followed by what kind (if the answer was affirmative) or maybe what you desired (if the answer was negative) and you’re done. Continue reading “Did you have a car in high school?” →

Tell me about an adventure you’ve been on

This seems like an odd question to me. “Tell me about an adventure you’ve been on.” Sure, but really, isn’t that the same as a number of the questions I’ve answered already? I suppose it depends on what we consider an “adventure” right? But also, due to my having blogged about trips and travels regularly since the summer of 2013 (and a bit more haphazardly before that) haven’t I already covered most of my adventures?

Do I take the easy way out and just say “well, life is an adventure” and leave it at that? I don’t think that’s in the spirit of the game. So no, I need to think of an adventure I’ve not talked about before or delve deeper into one I have. But this also means I need to explore the idea of what, exactly, an adventure is. Continue reading “Tell me about an adventure you’ve been on” →

What was your first big trip?

aj-1 Here it is, my first question from StoryWorth and already off to a rocky start. I read the question and immediately started pondering what was meant by “big trip?” How far back did I go? Was it in reference to an important trip or one of a huge duration? Naturally, it was Rasa who solved the dilemma. Continue reading “What was your first big trip?” →

A Day at the Beach – July 20, 2019

Having a car has meant that we have many more options available to us. For instance, when we were going to bed on Friday night, Rasa turns to me and says “let’s go to the beach tomorrow. We can get up early, load up the car, and head out to the coast.” Well okay then! Let’s do this thing!

And we did. Got up early (well, no earlier than we usually do), loaded up the car, made a stop for snacks and gas and away we went. Continue reading “A Day at the Beach – July 20, 2019” →

Bubby and Pa Come to Visit 4/23-5/14, 2019

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA So, for the last few weeks, starting on Rasa and my anniversary (April 23) through to the morning of May 14th, my folks have been visiting us. I previously wrote a bit about the first few days but I wanted to catch up and speak a bit about the whole trip.

Unfortunately, when people are visiting, it throws your whole schedule out of whack and I wasn’t able to get as much writing done as I would have liked. Thankfully, though, mom did. So I’m going to do something I’ve never done before on here – co-author a piece. Using mom’s facebook posts as a starting point (you’ll see her notes in red), I will comment, add, reflect, and ponder my own thoughts and feelings on the three weeks.

Enjoy! Continue reading “Bubby and Pa Come to Visit 4/23-5/14, 2019” →

2 Men and 40 minutes

We’ve been looking for a new place to live for a while. Every day, Rasa would scour the listings, hoping to find something in our price range, in a decent neighborhood, and which fit our criteria of more room than we currently had. Then two weeks ago, she found something. We made an appointment to see the place on Friday at noon, discussed it for about 3 seconds, agreed to take it, signed the papers on Saturday and just like that, we had a new place to live. Continue reading “2 Men and 40 minutes” →

Coffee and Rain, Postcards and Plays

March 12 &13, 2019

Tuesday was my last full day and I had only made one plan for the afternoon to meet a friend and Lin had tickets for me to see a show that night, so I figured this was a day on my own. I was up and out of the house before Lin knew I was gone.

I had arranged to meet my friend Ian near the South Kensington station so I headed that way. I found a place just outside the station called Muriel’s and treated myself to a “Little English” breakfast while I wrote out a few postcards and watched the rain fall outside. This is what my vacation was all about. I wasn’t rushing around to see stuff and take in all the sights and wonders of a new place, instead I was just relaxing, watching the world go by. It was wonderful. Continue reading “Coffee and Rain, Postcards and Plays” →