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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

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