Podcast episode 152 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

The concurrence of spring break season and tax season doesn’t sit well in our household, so we use the Joke and the National Day to poke fun at it. The Husband’s Travel Quiz preamble makes me think we’re some sort of travel trendsetters, but it turns out that’s not quite the case. Instead, we learn all the places we’re supposed to go in 2025 but haven’t been. The Bucket List destination gets two wary thumbs to the side. After that, I reassure all the listeners of my restoration to health, I reveal that one of my 5th grade students is better traveled than I am, and I surprise the Husband with my new personalized Gold Medallion luggage tags, causing paroxysms of envy from the opposing mike. We start off our Mexico trip discussion where all good travel stories should start: the plane journey, but decide it’s prudent to table (mesa?) the rest of the trip until next time.  The Husband reveals the mini-bombshell he dropped on the penultimate day of our trip, which leads to a great story I only have time to tell part of, forcing us to end on a cliffhanger. Until next time!

Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:

Podcast episode 151 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

It’s a shorter one this week, folks, not because we’re being economical with our words, but because my body is being economical with my health. That’s right. Once again, I’m falling ill right before travel. It’s happened too many times to count and here we are again. So strap on your sympathy and send me good vibes as I whinge my way through the episode, which starts with an apropos joke, then segues to a National Day we very much hope to celebrate south of the border. I fumble my way through the Travel Quiz, not because I’m sick, but because it’s pretty hard. It’s two thumbs down on the Bucket List Activity, and then we discuss random bits and bobs, including how it’s taken me two months to get Delta to cough up the Skymiles I’m owed. We reveal a new short summer trip we’re taking and the perils it involves, and we learn of yet another irritating change to our Caucasus flight itinerary. To your health (and mine)!

Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:

Podcast episode 150 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

Instead of his usual preamble, the husband launches into a passionate monologue (read: drones on and on) all about his recent blog post and cameras, cameras, cameras. I used the time for a quick power nap, and you can, too. Eventually we get to the joke and, after that, the National Day, which will surely have you packing on the pounds. I’ll just go ahead and give you the title of the Travel Quiz. It’s “Delta Destinations,” but hold up—it’s not what you think. The Bucket List Destination not only gets two thumbs way up, it also goes straight onto the Husband’s travel itinerary for his solo spring break trip next year. Next, we move on to some happy updates from the last pod. Finally, I inform the Husband of several travel planning updates, some of which he’s neutral about, and others of which he tars with his usual suspicious and surly brush. And just like that, time’s up.

Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:

Podcast episode 149 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

My Pigs in Space lunchbox, ego boosts for Delta® Medallion members, Nordic skiing, and possible school cancellations are all touched upon before we even get to the joke. The National Day—which was chosen both for its ridiculousness and also to honor the Husband—contains a surprise imbedded a bonus joke! Downhill skiing rules the Travel Quiz, while the Bucket List destination gets two thumbs down before the words are even fully out of my mouth. It also begs the question: Where was Babylon? Next, we bemoan yet another change to our return flight from Tbilisi, after which we detail our previous day’s excursion to the Minneapolis RV Show. Finally, there’s more bemoaning as we learn that the Husband’s hoped-for chance to see a World Cup Football/Soccer match may be dashed by price gouging.

Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:

Podcast episode 148 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

We start by learning a few Britishisms, and then move onto a Valentine’s-themed joke and a deliciousness-themed National Day. The Travel Quiz will give you a chill, but perhaps, like me, you’ll do well despite falling on your face again and again. The Bucket List destination sparks a conversation about the ethics of traveling to fragile ecosystems, which ties into a new book on the Pre-Departure Reading list. After that, the Husband commits to being ready for a travel excursion at 4:30am, a promise I know he will come to regret. Next, we learn that I don’t have to go to Harry Potter World in Florida to scratch that magical (w)itch. We congratulate a friend for a recent travel accomplishment, and then go on to discuss some of the roadblocks I’ve encountered and workarounds I’ve had to make in planning the Caucasus trip, as well as pondering the reasons for certain rules and regs in both Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:

Podcast episode 147 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

Welcome to our first podcast of 2025, where the joke is a couple weeks too late, but the National Day is right on time and celebratable all year long. The Husband’s Travel Quiz highlights not just the predicted travel trends of 2025, but also his teacher-honed skill at creating distractor items. We disagree over the Bucket List destination, leading to a Pod Pledge from the Husband to me, with all of you as ear witnesses. Then it’s onto a whole mishmash of topics, from a new Delta Airlines gripe, to using the inflatable escape slides on a plane, to the annoying new requirement now being imposed on anyone with a mere layover in the UK, from which I should clearly be exempt.

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Podcast episode 146 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

Well, here we are in the In Between Time. Christmas is finished but we await the new year. After a brief discussion about all the contradictory information on the internet, I launch into a January-themed joke. Next, one of the Husband’s loves is the star of the National Day. Apropos of this time of year, the Husband presents a “Year in Review”-themed Travel Quiz that has me feeling Dumb and Dumber. We both give a thumbs up to the Bucket List activity, but only one of us would do it barefoot. After that, the husband breaks one of my house rules: no discussing plane crashes within a year of me getting on a flight. To cheer everyone up, I breathlessly relate the multi-faceted Companion Fare drama that I couldn’t tell you last time when we ran out of time. (The Husband thinks the pod is a form of catharsis for me. He’s not wrong.) Then we get depressed again when I reveal how we are now landing in Armenia at 1:20 a.m. instead of 9:30 p.m. and, despite my best efforts at travel re-architecting the flights, there’s not a darn thing I can do about it. Wishing you a safe and happy New Year. See you in 2025—the Year of the Snake!

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Podcast episode 145 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

We start off with a dark joke that’s apropos given the main discussion topic of this week’s pod. The National Day isn’t dark, but it does beg the question: how many types of pasta can you name? Then we pull the curtains shut, turn off the lights, and dive into a Travel Quiz all about dark travel, after which you will learn the first of three new terms coined by the Husband during this pod*. If you’re a beer drinker, you will love the Bucket List destination. I stunned the Husband, however, when I gave it an immediate thumbs down. A few random updates are given before we resubmerge ourselves in Dark Tourism and learn what it means, how long it’s been going on, where you can study it, and several sites that fit the definition, as well as several that we deem questionable. In the end, we run out of time, so I have to wait until next time to tell you why I’m so mad at Amex, the provider of our travel credit card. Until then!

*twilight tourism, wurst averse, cookie-jarring

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Podcast episode 144 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

There may be four pecks to a bushel, but how many dozens to a gross? Twelve! Twelve times twelve is 144, or what is sometimes called gross, and with that, we’ve reached my daily limit for math. We begin our gross episode with a seasonally appropriate joke before moving onto a duet of National Days that, while not particularly quirky, are delicious. The Husband manages to maintain his buoyant mood through a Travel Quiz that will have your heart bleeding for Africa. And despite his willingness to shell out extravagantly for booze and bikes, he claims he can’t afford the Bucket List destination. We discuss our pre-departure wine tasting from the previous evening, which included some lovely travel-themed gifts from a generous friend and travel partner. After that, we wallow in the woes of the typical travel-planning equation . . .

time x sites ÷ experiences + pets³ = FOMO (more math )

. . . before beginning our Charleston Chat, part II, much of which is light-hearted, but some of which grapples with the intersection of travel/tourism and dark historical periods.

On a happier note, we wish you celebrants a Happy Thanksgiving, and if you’re traveling, may it be trouble-free!

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Podcast episode 143 is available by clicking below.  It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.

After an unintended long absence from the pod (due to illness, travel, visitors . . . in other words, life), we’re back and itching to chat about Charleston. I get the ball rolling with my joke, but then we take a detour with a National Day that all you male chefs out there may not appreciate. The Husband zigs us back to our theme with his Travel Quiz, which showcases my poor memory, and I zag us out with the Bucket List destination. We zigzag through some bits and bobs, including several new additions to the Pre-Departure Reading page, and finally we zig to the main entree: Charleston. We talk food, accommodations, and all the reasons I want to move there, plus all the reasons I won’t.

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