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personal: places lived 1

Places lived, 1970-1975, USA

Scrolling through Twitter, I discovered an account by a Canadian guy who lives in Japan. He’s celebrating turning 50 by going through boxes of his possessions that have just arrived by boat & posting the contents online… an interesting way to look back before reaching a milestone. I’ll turn 50 this year as well! The exciting combo of lockdown + unemployment gave me time to organize all my photos by year. Task complete, so I thought of this series: a look back at all the places I’ve lived. This will take several posts because I’ve moved around a lot, but feel free to come along…

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personal: becoming a tour guide

Robert Wright, Rick Steves, tour, Portugal, 2018
• Telling the tragic love story of Pedro & Inês, Portugal · 2018

Help me celebrate a very special anniversary: my first tour as lead guide with Rick Steves twenty years ago. I’d hoped to invite tour members to a surprise party right now, but coronavirus has us in quarantine around the world. At least we can raise a toast together online! To commemorate these past two decades, I thought I’d answer in detail one of the most-asked questions for every guide: how did you get started with Rick? Get comfy cuz this is the long version…

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personal: mom, ten years on

Elizabeth Gae Philby, Liz Wright

How can this be? Already a decade has gone by since my mother passed away?? I decided to write about her life here, inspired by a friend’s blog who recently lost his mother. My mom was a complicated woman —she gave some of that to me, no doubt— and there are many gaps in her life story that I will never know. But…

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year in review: 2018

2018, travel, year in review
● Where was I? Spain & Portugal

Here we go again! As always, I write this for personal reasons, but you’re welcome to revisit the past year with me. Ahhhh, looks can be deceiving. From the above graph, you might think I stayed at home more than last year. Well, kinda but not really…

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year in review: 2017

2017, travel, year in review
● Where was I? Spain, Morocco, Portugal, France, & USA.

It’s back! As always, I write this for personal reasons, but you’re welcome to revisit the past year with me. This year turned out to be as crazy as last, so I’ve grouped events into a few broad categories to help make sense of it all.

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year in review: 2016

2016, travel, year in review
● Where was I? USA, Argentina, Japan, Spain, France, & Portugal.

It’s back! As always, I write this for personal reasons, but you’re welcome to revisit the past year with me. Sorry there was not much of a 2015 review but believe me, some things are better left unsaid 😉 It’s all más que bien ahora. The insane pace of 2016 makes a month-by-month summary impossible to write & even worse to read, so I’ve grouped events of the year into a few broad categories. Let’s go!

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year in review: 2014

2014, travel, year in review
● Where was I? Argentina, USA, UK, Jordan, Israel, Portugal, & Spain.

Welcome to the fifth edition of my year in review… I write this for personal reasons, but you’re welcome to revisit the past year with me. I’ll go out on a limb & say it. 2014 turned out to be one of the best years ever, in every regard except a major one. Let’s focus on the positive for now, shall we?

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