I knew at first glance that our featured artist, Jan Clizer, truly understands how to share the essence of place. Her paintings are utterly evocative, and whatever the subject, take us around the world. I love them - and so will you.

This past fall, while watching the costume contest at Grand Rapids Comic Con, I was weary. I was sitting up front near stage left, so that I could get a glimpse of the incredible costumes as they exited the stage. However, as you know if you have seen a costume contest, they take a while.

The summertime may bring opportunities to travel for business or pleasure, but hitting the road may also bring on aches and pains if you live with rheumatoid arthritis, or RA. So how do you cope with common travel conditions that may lead to an increase in pain from RA?Here now to talk about ways to help managange travel triggers, are rheumatologist Dr. Grace Wright and Maria, a woman living with RA.

Wandering the Artist Alley at Grand Rapids Comic Con, we were stunned with the talent everywhere we glanced. Like everyone in the hall, we looked and marveled, and then the next booth came, and we did the same, ad infinitem. When we discovered artist Melissa Cordes, though, we actually stopped (never an easy feat at a busy comic con) and talked. So impressed with her talent, beautiful art, wide variety of styles, and joy in creating, we knew we had to share her art with our wandering educators. 

Whether you’re making a special dinner for St Patrick’s Day, or you’d just like to infuse the goodness of Ireland into your meals, chances are that you’re probably looking for some excellent Irish recipes. Never fear, dear reader! I’ve collated the best of Irish recipes, from travel writers in the know (you’ll recognize many of them from our Best of Ireland: An A-Z Guide), and a few B&Bs in Ireland.

Ted Nelson is an outdoor adventure travel blogger based out of Chicago who runs the travel blog Traveling Ted. He specializes in cross-country skiing, canoeing, hiking/backpacking, and international budget travel. He prefers to count jungles, rainforests, and national parks visited instead of countries and states; however, the latter count is 30 and 42. 

Top Ten Things to do in Edinburgh

Currently an associate professor of English at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Patrick Foss has been a teacher in Japan for more than 20 years. He is the author of Across Tokyo, an ebook about an “urban hike” through one of the world’s most iconic cities. You can find it on Amazon here.

Educators can learn quite a bit from the technology used during the Olympics. The Olympics – similar to a classroom? How can this be? 

This month at the Travel Blog Mob, the theme is Stupid Questions (although we all KNOW that there are no stupid questions, right?). It's all a matter of perspective.

So, our Stupid Question to answer this month: What is there to do in Michigan during the long cold winter months?