A smattering of our finest facepalms. Because sometimes getting it wrong is half the fun.
Mexico 2025
War and White Women
Jardin Conzatti
Oaxaca, Mexico. December 23rd, 2025.
A lovely little plaza in Oaxaca (they are all lovely).
Morgan leans over and whispers, “that sign said, ‘A world without white women is possible.’”
And I (Nessie) thought…I mean…fair? Shrug.
It was still on his mind a while later and I suggested he look it up.
It’s a book. A WHOLE BOOK.
Two little ladies, sitting in a plaza, promoting a book to rid the world of light-skinned women.
A (highly nuanced, context-dependent) term for light-featured women in Spanish is güera. The sign HOWEVER said, “Un mundo sin guerras es posible.”
Guerras (with two “r’s”) means…wars.
And THIS is why research is important.
We’re not at all fluent (obviously), but one letter does seem curiously close.
I guess white women can stay.
Australia 2025
I Have No Idea WTF That Is
We lost count of the number of times we said this in Australia.
Turns out that’s a goanna. It’s not deadly.
Australia 2025
The Metric System.
Big River Ranch
Kalbarri, Western Australia. June 5th, 2025.
We wanted to camp.
The owner asked us how big our van was.
I (Nessie) told him 170 meters.
That would be ~558 feet.
He laughed “with” me.
Australia 2025
Karl.
Kalbarri National Park
Western Australia. June 3rd, 2025.
He %^(&@# us.
We were to ride him across the river with our climbing gear.
Instead we went in the river.
We had a plan. It did NOT work.
Thankfully nothing ate us. Hopefully no one saw us.
0/10
italy 2025
Quién Es
Carvevale di Venezia
Venice, Italy. February 23rd, 2025.
The problem with rented campervans that look exactly alike, is that they look exactly alike.
It was dark. We’d Venice Carnival’d ALL day and night.
The very last thing we did was sip mulled wine by a canal before taking a public bus back to our campground (where Angus was waiting). Romatic, hey?
We laid down to sleep. Stomachs started churning. 20 minutes apart we both rushed to the bathroom to vom.
Morgan made it back just fine.
Nessie…entered a strangers campervan. A-hidden-by-the-darkness-woman shrieked in Spanish. Nessie apologized and ran. Morgan laughed.
Lo siento!
Germany 2025
So Naked
Camping Brunnen
Schwangau, Germany February 14th, 2025.
It was Valentines Day.
Nessie and Angus made it to Germany. Their first time.
It was snowy. They’d driven a bit.
A sauna sounded nice. There was one at their campground.
Nessie went.
It was a STRICTLY NAKED experience.
There’s going to the movies or to a meal by one’s self on Valentines Day. And then there is (unknowingly) solo doloing it to a naked sauna experience in Germany…
spain 2025
Agua con Gas
Alcalá de Henares Spain. February 5th, 2025.
Amiright?
Cuidado.
spain 2025
Rotten Meat
Alcalá de Henares Spain. February 5th, 2025.
You know how smells take you back? Like they’re tied to memory?
My freshmen year of college I (Nessie) lived at the “beef unit” at Cal Poly. Meaning I helped take care of the cattle and facilities. One spring break we got a call that a freezer full of meat at the meat processing center on campus had gone down…a few days previous. The professor was asking for our help to clean it out. When I talk about the smell…of 100’s of pounds of rotten meat. Bruh. It was bad.
Anyways, when I opened a cupboard in our little apt in Spain. Boom. Right back to that day at Cal Poly. Some s$%t was hella rotten. Turns out some of Angus’ wet food. Yes, we brought some (with Angus) all the way to Spain. Yes, the cat is spoiled and we are ridiculous. Anyways. Some of them exploded in transit and had leaked in the Ziploc and it smelled BADLY. So I washed the good ones and threw away the rotten ones.
But I hadn’t taken the trash out yet.
Two buzzes and then the sound of keys in the door.
I’ve never put pants on so quickly in my life.
A woman and two men entered.
I didn’t have the vocabulary in Spanish to say: I’m really sorry if it smells like rotten flesh in here. I was just sorting and washing the rotten cat food and haven’t taken out the trash yet. There isn’t a body in a closet. And also sorry it’s generally a little chaotic in here…
So I went with, “hola.”
(Sp)Angus meowed at them.
tennessee 2025
The Cat Comes or We Walk
Morgan was selected to teach a study abroad in Alcalá de Henares, Spain! Europe for a few months! They’d put us up in a condo!
We have (beloved) pets…We knew Tally would have a great time at the ‘rent’s farm in Florida (seriously she always seems disappointed to come back to our house after being spoiled by the grandparents). But we couldn’t imagine leaving Angus for months. So we boldly said, “the cat comes or we walk.” And walk we nearly had to do 🙂
We think he had the time of his life.
