Travel Writing
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Guatemala: Trip #2 with School the World
I returned from Guatemala two weeks ago – my second corporate service trip with School the World. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, then you might remember that I went to Panama in 2024 for my first corporate service trip and came home with a broken foot. I’m happy to say that I…
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School building, fractured bones, and other Panamanian adventures
I went to Panama in one piece and came back with my left foot fractured in two places. Other than that, it was an incredible experience. I feel a bit overwhelmed trying to write it all down at the moment, so here are some photos. Day 1: Arrival in Panama City Day 2: Our welcome…
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Vacation 2023
It’s been some time since my last update, and I have a lot to share. I suppose I’ll start with our vacation. We took our camper up to Thompson, Ohio — located in Geauga County between Cleveland and Erie, Pennsylvania. We stayed at the Thompson/Grand River Valley KOA Holiday. We usually like to stay at…
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Here comes the sun
Despite the chilly start to the month, May is warming up nicely. And the garden is responding. I’m doing my veggie garden in containers this year since the raised beds are dismantled and we still need to clean up that entire area. But grow bags and 7-gallon pots are working quite well. I have Yukon…
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A Quick Trip to Cleveland and Tudor England
My mom and I got back yesterday from a mini vacation. We drove up to Northeast Ohio to stay at my aunt and uncle’s house in Lake County, just east of Cleveland. Our main reason for going was to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art to see The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England.…
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A Memory from the Emerald Isle
It’s St. Patrick’s Day, which stirred up a particular memory from Dublin, Ireland — a brief moment, an interaction with a complete stranger — that stuck with me all these years. In the summer of 1999, I was among a group of Ohio State English majors studying British and Irish literature at Bath Spa University…
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A Hankering for Pancakes
It’s Throwback Thursday, so I am going to share this little travel narrative I wrote in October 2005 after a day trip to the quaint village of Thorn in The Netherlands. And by pancakes, I mean pannenkoek — a Dutch pancake that is about the size of a dinner plate and just a bit thicker…
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Blast from the past: Ancient Aachen
I’m looking through some of my old travel writing — stuff I wrote when I was living in Germany. I’m sharing this article about Aachen, a place I visited frequently. This was a commissioned piece, though it was never published. Long story. I must confess that I just did some copyediting on this. I wrote…
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The land of chocolate, cheese, horses, and buggies
To celebrate the end of my master’s program and my mom’s birthday (November 11), Mom and I went to Amish Country last Sunday and stayed through Wednesday morning.
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A woman in the great outdoors, part 3
Please read parts 1 and 2 before reading this. Ohio Women’s Outdoor Adventure, Day 3 I tried, unsuccessfully, to sleep in on Sunday morning. Breakfast was at 8. I made some coffee in my room to tide me over (powdered creamer, though, ugh) and grabbed my lens ball out of my camera bag to get…
Karyn Johnson 