Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

The Moors

Since our arrival in England, we have seen a great deal of the moorlands – high open country where wild ponies run and farm animals graze.  We spent some time in Devon County at Dartmoor National Park, and saw the Tors (rock hills and formations) there as well.   Fortunately, the weather cleared while we were […]

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Some More Time in Cornwall

Another couple of days in Cornwall, and it has been pretty busy. We started off Sunday by going to Mass (and praying for all of you:). Then it was off to breakfast in St Ives, where we missed the rain. Temporarily. The rain eventually won. Anyway, shortly thereafter we headed out once again. This time […]

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Merry Olde England

Well, here we are in Devon, England at the Mill Inn. We had to cancel the first part of our plan which was a Road Scholar trip to Wales. Mary Anne managed to salvage the second part—a visit to see our friends Sally and Michael Oxlade. We have now begun a trip with them through […]

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At the Fairfax County Fair

Fairfax County had its annual county fair this past weekend—and it was packed. There were about a million very young kids there, with parents of course. The makeshift parking lots were stuffed with cars, and at $10 a copy over 4 days, the fair probably did pretty well.  The fair was sponsored by a local […]

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Roll Out Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer—First recorded by Nat King Cole in 1963. So yesterday on July 4th,  in the spirit of Nat King Cole, we went to a baseball game—the visiting Boston Red Sox vs. the Washington Nationals—the home team. In a word, Boston crushed Washington. Just crushed them. Mark Twain […]

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Home Again

All good things come to an end, and so has our cruise. We enjoyed several months of seeing interesting new places, learning a lot, and even enjoying lots of gelato. Our ship docked in Barcelona yesterday, and we spent the afternoon at the Picasso museum. Today we tackled Park Güell (lots of Gaudi) and got […]

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St. Paul de Vence, France

Our ship anchored today in the Mediterranean and we came ashore at Villefranche, France.  We took a drive through Nice and neighboring towns, on our way to the village of Saint Paul de Vence. On our drive we passed the Hotel Negresco, where we stayed for vacation about 40 years ago. Today is the 80th […]

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Pisa

Our ship stopped in Livorno, Italy and many passengers opted to head into Florence or other areas of Tuscany—we decided to take a walking tour of Pisa.    Pisa is another medieval walled town, which today houses approximately 90,000 residents, and an additional 50,000 students at the three universities in Pisa.  The town has huge […]

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A Visit to Castel Gandolfo  – the Apostolic Palace 

Today was very special—we went to see the summer palace for Popes—Castelo Gandolfo.  Opened to visitors in 2016, it has served as the summer palace for Popes since the Seventeenth Century.  Castelo Gandolfo is about 28 kilometers outside of Rome.  Pope Francis never spent a single night there, which is probably why it was opened […]

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