Hi! We're Catherine and Steve
We’ve been traveling together since 1995 and now that we’re retired we want to tell you ALL about it! (Okay we wanted to earlier but I could never find the time to build this website.) We’re from the USA, land of chain hotels, chain restaurants, and limited to no public transportation. We try to avoid the first two and use the last when we travel.
Catherine is the words person
So when you see I, that’s me. My love of travel began when I went to Europe solo the summer after college. I ended up staying for six months. I also lived there for a few years back in the 80s, in England and Finland. I’ve been to every country in Western Europe except Portugal, Ireland, and Switzerland, and I’m working toward those.
Steve is the pictures person
He’s responsible for most of the photos you see on this site. And a lot that you don’t see; we do a lot of culling. Yay digital photography! Before we met Steve did a lot of US road trips, often by motorcycle, and a lot of camping, hunting, and fishing.
Our 1streetover philosophy
Our one street over philosophy began on our first real road trip together, in San Francisco’s Chinatown. We walked through the Dragon Gate and up the main street. And noticed that everyone kind of looked like us, and all the businesses were for tourists, like us.
So we said, “Why don’t we go one street over and see what it looks like?” And there it was. Ducks hanging in windows. Live fish swimming in buckets. Fewer people who looked like us.
How we follow it
We’ve been following that one street over philosophy ever since, stretching ourselves just a little more each time.
Steve conveniently had siblings living in Arizona, Florida, and California, so our first joint travel experiences were to visit them and see some of the country while we were there.
We stayed at all-inclusives in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Foreign countries, yet easy travel, especially if you get a package that includes travel to and from the resort. And I speak Spanish, sort of. (Not that we needed it.)
Different country but our native language, sort of. And I lived there for a few years so I’m familiar with the culture.
We don’t speak the language but I’ve been there a few times and found it very welcoming. It’s still my favorite place to travel and I wanted to share it with Steve.
Since then we’ve been to several other countries in Europe (France, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark) and back to Great Britain and Greece.
To escape winter back home we’ve been to Costa Rica, Belize, and a bunch of Caribbean islands. We’ve ventured further too, to Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia.
Our travels within the USA often feature national parks and are usually road trips. By the end of 2027 (if everything goes according to my evil plan) we’ll have visited every state west of the Mississippi. With Connecticut and Rhode Island to complete the set I think I need to plan another trip to New England …
Each trip we look for new experiences to try, large and small. New places. New activities. New foods. Quirky places to stay. New means of travel.
How we travel
We don’t live on the road
We’re planners
Well, I am anyway, and I do all the planning. I like planning trips almost as much as taking them and I want each trip to be the best version possible. I mean, camping in northern Michigan isn’t as exotic as island hopping in Thailand, but it can still be a great camping trip.
You can learn about how I plan a trip here.
We’re frugal travelers
I won’t say “budget” because we don’t budget. We do try to save where it makes sense and spend on things we value.
- Flying: We used to fly economy. Now that we’re older — and can afford it — with worse knees (me) and a replaced hip (Steve) it’s worth it to pay for a seat with more legroom. And I would like to try a transatlantic cruise someday.
- Sleeping: Having our own bathroom is essential. A TV? Not so much. We prefer a location that’s walkable to bars and restaurants, ideally with someplace outside to sit, since our idea of nightlife is a quiet drink (or few!) while we reminisce about the day.
- Eating: We’ve tried fine dining and it’s not really us. Trying local food – and local drinks – is part of the experience for us and it’s often less expensive than tourist-focused restaurants.
- Playing: We’ll spring for a guide if we need to – don’t try to find Costa Rican wildlife without one – but often a brochure or free audio guide is enough.
We’re not very niche
We enjoy walking and hiking, nature and wildlife. But we also like architecture and we’ll happily walk in towns and cities too.
We like a good castle, cathedral, or ruin; things we don’t have a lot of back home, where anything from the 1850s is old. We also like museums, and we’ve found that we like those that focus on everyday life the best.
We’re more about absorbing the local atmosphere, less about thrill-seeking.
Okay, enough about us.
Here’s what’s on our blog and some tips on how to use it.
You’ll see articles and photos related to our trips. Lots of photos! (Did I mention my husband is a shutterbug?) But you won’t see photos of us. We know what we look like and we’re both camera shy. Besides, this is about the places we go, not us.
A few words about AI
And by the way — because nowadays I feel I should mention it — anything you see here is our lived experience. Not AI. (I do occasionally edit random strangers from photos out of politeness.) We take all the photos. We do all the writing. We did all the things. We used all the things we recommend. We paid for all the things.
- The home page highlights our most recent trips and our upcoming trips. Look there for what’s new.
- The Trips page lists all of our trips to date, alphabetically. Check out these for examples of real-life itineraries. I won’t call them perfect because I believe perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone’s different!
- If you’re more focused on a city or region, check out the Destinations pages, which includes any place we’ve spent at least one night.
- Where available, I include links to official sites for accommodations, restaurants, tour companies, attractions, and also any sites I found notably helpful while planning … Whatever I think might be useful to other travelers.
- The Tips menu has general suggestions for planning and packing, based on our experience.
- Have a question or comment? Use the Contact Us page to reach out. I promise your email address will be used only to respond to you.
Beyond reporting on what we did, you’ll also see information about the planning behind each trip and whether that plan worked well. We learn something new each time we travel, about the world, ourselves, and how we like to travel.
Learning how you want to travel is a great way to have better travel experiences.
What you won’t see on this blog
You won’t see ads, prompts to sign up for a newsletter seconds after you arrived at the site, or notices about affiliate marketing, because we don’t do any of those things. I’m not saying this to disparage other bloggers, many of whom make a living from their blogs. We don’t. We’re retired and this is a hobby, so I have the luxury of avoiding things that annoy me on other sites.
I do sometimes feel like we’re shouting into the void, so if you found something helpful or are otherwise appreciative, please drop us a line using the Contact Us form. We’d love to hear from you. (And we’re glad if you are interested or we were helpful even if you don’t tell us so!)
A note on dates (and updates)
The date on a post is the date it happened in real time; when we were there. As of 2026 I’m going through and updating everything, checking that accommodations and restaurants still exist, and so one. Which will not happen overnight! As I do, I’ll add a date updated so you know how current the information is.