Welcome to the 2023 (and 31st overall) edition of the Weissler Holiday Gazette, our annual year in review. Otherwise known as, the pandemic lingers on! Did any of us think it would last this long? We didn’t. But we’re having fun in spite of everything.
For the last couple of years we contemplated a special trip for our 40th anniversary (in Dec 2023), maybe back to Switzerland where we honeymooned. But then thought…why not go somewhere warm? :-0 And go birding! Wings Birding Tours had a trip that fit the bill perfectly…endemics of the Lesser Antilles. Who doesn’t love the Caribbean?
Continue reading “Lesser Antilles – Nov 2023”We had planned to revisit Scotland after going in 2019 (Liza’s Outlander reality tour plus birding), but, of course, the pandemic got in the way. In June we made our return, with a grand plan of birding in the Outer Hebrides with Birding Ecosse, and visiting the Scottish cities of Glasgow, Inverness, and Edinburgh; from there moving south to the Yorkshire Dales, Oxford, Dorchester and the Jurassic Coast, and finally London.
Continue reading “UK Scotland and England – June 2023”
Morocco had been on our list for awhile, and became a reality once we knew our Ronda-based bird guide and friend Álvaro Peral / Wild Andalucía offered a “Grand Morocco Birding Tour”. So in late February, armed with new binoculars for Robert and plenty of COVID tests, off we went!
Continue reading “Morocco and Spain – Mar 2023”The pandemic is still with us but that’s not holding us back! Welcome to the 2022 (and 30th overall!) edition of the Weissler Holiday Gazette, our annual year in review.
We had been to Australia twice – 1994 in the southeast (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Blue Mountains, Snowy Mountains), then again in 1996 (far northeast Queensland). Back in ’96 we said, we need to go to the Red Centre! And the Top End! Well, it only took 26 years to get there.
Continue reading “Australia (Northern Territory, Tasmania) – Nov 2022”
Our second annual family trip, after last year’s Lake Tahoe Big Bear trip was to Indio, California! (Why Indio? Because Palm Springs doesn’t like AirBnBs too much these days haha.)
In August our schedules all aligned so we could do a “tour of two nieces” – San Francisco to visit with Margaret and her boyfriend Micah, and Eugene, Oregon to visit with Rachel (that’s Dr Weissler to you :-).
Continue reading “San Francisco and Oregon – Aug 2022”
After over two years of trying to return to Portugal (with the trip planned four times…and cancelled), we finally made it there! Instead of cycling and birding, the original plan, we decided to be “regular tourists” – as much as we ever are – and get to some places missed on a 2017 visit, south to north (see map below). This trip was also an opportunity to meet up with Robert’s cousins Rob and Linda from Maryland and a few of their friends.
Continue reading “Portugal – June/July 2022”
For years we wanted to visit the Asa Wright Nature Center on Trinidad, but it closed recently (although it might re-open later in 2022). However, that didn’t stop us, as in March we went on an “Ultimate” 12-day birding tour of Trinidad and Tobago with Naturalist Journeys / Caligo Ventures.
Continue reading “Trinidad and Tobago – Mar 2022”