Nowhere on earth is more history packed into a single square mile. This walled city is shared uneasily by Jews, Muslims, Christians — and especially tourists, each on their own pilgrimage. Our pilgrimage led us to the Western Wall where we each scribbled a prayer. Once you’ve walked through the streets of Jerusalem and experienced […]
FRANNY AND FINN PRESENT PETRA
They’ve taken you to Machu Picchu. They’ve shown you the Forbidden City. Now your two intrepid young guides lead you into Jordan for a private tour of Petra, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and unquestionably one of the most magnificent destinations we’ve encountered on the planet.
PROFILES IN CHUTZPAH: AN AMERICAN IN ISRAEL
Chutzpah (pronounced huuts-pah) is a Yiddish word that is used by Jews and non-Jews alike to describe someone who is particularly audacious or has a lot of “guts.” Meet Miriam Shler, visionary, feminist, mother, wife, pioneer, friend.
FOUR REFLECTIONS ON THE DEAD SEA
Sister: When people say the Dead Sea, I think of the crystal clear sea and the oily salt water keeping me afloat as I lay back effortlessly. It is magical how the water let me sit down like I was sitting in a chair, but there was nothing underneath me. The turquoise water was so […]
FINALLY, ISRAEL IS REAL TO US
Israel is a revelation. Though we’d read about the country for years and formulated many opinions (“There must be a two state solution!”), we never truly understood the complexities and the nuances of the country until we stepped foot there. (As a side note, we are beyond impressed how Obama struck such a perfect tone […]
AN ARTISAN IN MARRAKECH
Wandering the globe, we’ve discovered unlikely artists creating perfect cups of coffee in Kyoto, and devoted masters fabricating papier-mâché puppets in Barcelona. For the third installment in our series, we present “An Artisan In Marrakech.” A few years ago, a couple American expatriates named Sam and Caitlin arrived in Morocco and found that there were legions […]
FOUR SEARCHERS
Watch our family chase the myth of the “Perfect Moment” deep into the Sahara Desert.What we actually discovered out there was the meaning of “irony.” Once we arrived at our overnight camp in the desert, and darkness forced our cameras to stop rolling, the ephemeral “Perfect Moment” was quickly shaken off. It was replaced by […]
WHAT EXACTLY IS A KASBAH ANYWAY?
We spent a fair amount of time in Morocco trying to wrap our heads around this question. At first, we understood a kasbah to be another word for “fortress,” and in some ways that’s true. But often entire towns are considered kasbahs and sometimes just a single building is. Every Moroccan village has a kasbah where either […]
PERSPECTIVES ON CAUTION, FEAR AND JUDGEMENT ON THE ROAD
As we were strolling into the Fez medina at sunset the other night, strutting casually, feeling completely at home, we all laughed at a memory from six months ago. Way back in Buenos Aires in August (which seems almost like a different lifetime), we were warned that the train station is dangerous and don’t have […]