WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 3 2016
Wine Dine & Travel Magazine takes you where Martians & camels roam, at Wadi Rum, Jordan. And a super shore excursion in France. Celebrate the Christmas Markets in Germany and it's all aboard on the HMS Britannia.
Wine Dine & Travel Magazine takes you where Martians & camels roam, at Wadi Rum, Jordan. And a super shore excursion in France. Celebrate the Christmas Markets in Germany and it's all aboard on the HMS Britannia.
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RON JAMES<br />
publisher/executive editor<br />
Ron James is the "wine, food and travel guy." He<br />
is a nationally award-winning print and online<br />
journalist, graphic designer., television producer<br />
and radio personality. The native Californian's nationally<br />
syndicated wine and food columns have<br />
appeared in newspapers and magazines around<br />
the world. He is passionate about great wine and<br />
food and enthusiastically enjoys them every day!<br />
MARY JAMES<br />
publisher/editor<br />
Mary Hellman James is an award-winning San<br />
Diego journalist and editor. After a 29-year-career<br />
with the San Diego Union-Tribune, she<br />
currently is a freelance garden writer and a<br />
columnist for San Diego Home-Garden/Lifestyles<br />
magazine. Mary and her husband, Ron James,<br />
travel extensively. Upcoming next month is a<br />
four-week adventure in the land down under.<br />
EDITOR’S NOTE<br />
HOME SWEET HOME<br />
We’re getting ready for our next travel adventure, flying out in two days for<br />
Hawaii and then on to New Zealand and Australia. It seems as if we just<br />
got back from our last outing – six weeks of travel in the Middle East and<br />
Europe that ended right before Thanksgiving.<br />
Obviously we love to travel. But, we also love to be home as well. It’s our current yin<br />
and yang of living.<br />
The adrenalin rush of travel is addictive. Different cultures, politics, places and people<br />
– in fact just being “out there” invites thrills both good and bad. It also can be exhausting.<br />
Unpacking and packing, moving from place to place, coping with the unexpected<br />
take a physical toll after a couple weeks.<br />
Then there’s the discovery of different cuisines and beverages. Yes it’s a top reason<br />
hopping on a plane or ship, but it too can be problematic, causing great discomfort<br />
for a few days. Being on the<br />
road also exposes you more sick<br />
people than you are likely to encounter<br />
if you didn’t travel. On a<br />
cruise, elevators, cafes and such<br />
can seem like hospital wards,<br />
given the cacophony of coughs,<br />
sneezes and nose blowing going<br />
on around you.<br />
Our beloved cat Shadow also is<br />
a bit confused by our prolonged<br />
disappearances – although we<br />
provide her with very loving<br />
house sitters, who make sure she<br />
gets her quota of kitty treats and<br />
playtime. Almost all travelers feel<br />
guilty about leaving their pets – especially when they curl up in your suitcase as you’re<br />
packing or follow you around the house with sad, accusing eyes. All traveling pet owners<br />
wish they could explain – “Don’t worry – we’ll be back soon.”<br />
So after three weeks or more travel adventure, the safety, normality and certainty of<br />
home becomes very attractive. Absence makes you appreciate home life and everything<br />
connected to it. You look forward to starting new projects, relaxing on the couch<br />
and petting a kitty. You yearn for the relative tranquility of no shore excursion mishaps<br />
or conversations with strange strangers at dinner.<br />
So travel makes home sweet home even sweeter, and life as a whole better. But as<br />
good as home can be, in two or three months the siren call of travel has us checking<br />
airfares and making hotel reservations. Pretty soon we’re packing our bags, again in<br />
the company of a sad eyed kitty.<br />
This issue illustrates all of these points – whether on a camel ride on “Mars” or tasting<br />
wine in Provence, visiting the royal yacht or pigging out on sausages and beer at a<br />
German Christmas Market. We hope you enjoy our stories and make some stories of<br />
your own on your next travel odyssey. We’re ready for another adventure, but we’ll<br />
inevitably be looking forward to being back in our sweet home with our reluctantly<br />
forgiving cat Shadow.<br />
Have safe travels and happy homecomings,<br />
Ron & Mary<br />
Wine Dine & Travel <strong>2016</strong> 5