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Are you planning an epic adventure and want to get started in 2026?

You can do it!

I started traveling solo at age 49 and have been adventuring in the world now for 21 years, all of my midlife.

You can read about it at the above link.

Now that I’m 70 I’m even more enchanted and enthusiastic about full time wandering.

Two resources for you:

1:1 Call to nail down your itinerary and adventeure plan

Join us for my annual Seductive Siracusa Sicily Photography and Food Retreat

January 18 to 25, 2027

In the spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Site of Siracusa Sicily and foodie capital of Sicily you will be astonished at the remarkable restaurants and the friendly Sicilians you’ll meet everyday and the cool people on this retreat, capped at 4 people, it will fill up!

Accommodation included in a boutique hotel on the Mediterranean Sea.

Apply to join us!

See my video on Solo Vacations here

And subscribe to get the expert guidance you need to start traveling the world in 2026.

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Apply for my Seductive Siracusa Sicily Retreat here and see accommodation, what we’ll do and how you’ll return with amazing photos and friends for life. Capped at 4 people it will fill up!

You can apply to my Seductive Siracusa Sicily Retreat here and see photos and video testimony: capped at 4 people, it will fill up!

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Hi, I’m Mary, award winning photographer, speaker, and author; I sold 99% of my belongings and started solo traveling the world 21 years ago. Before nomad, location independent, and solopreneur were nouns.

Launching my new life from the heart of Silicon Valley, AKA Palo Alto, and soon becoming the CEO of fun traveling, working, and living in 34 countries.

Let’s get into it!

You don’t have to listen to unasked for advice,

“You shouldn’t go to that country because you won’t be safe.”

34 countries later, I don’t regret going to any country I’ve discovered.

And you can tell people to f*ck off.

Don’t overthink everything.

Why?

Because you can think yourself out of doing anything if you give it your attention.

1. Attention is a gift.

You aren’t required to listen to anyone. Your attention and where you put it is your choice.

Whatever you set your mind on blossoms and takes off.

This works the same with negativity and voices in your head saying you can’t do something.

So if you listen then you can’t do it.

Example: many people warned me not to solo travel overland to 6 countries in South America. But I did it at age 49 and had my 50th birthday in Barra Grande, Brazil.

Side note: my favorite comeback as a 5-year-old when some one was attempting to bully me, “You’re not the boss of me!”

Put your attention on what you want to happen. Act as if it all ready is happening.

So this happened to me in India:

I bought a ticket for a Women’s Only coach on the train.

Boarded this train solo at 2AM to discover the entire coach was bursting with smoking men in a no smoking zone.

You either leave or accept it.

They didn’t listen when I told them to stop smoking and cut the crap so I could sleep but that’s another story.

However I envisioned myself not being assaulted and it worked.

2. Time is not the hours on the clock face.

Time is your life span from birth to dying.

What do you want to do with your time?

I want to travel and see the world. Work and play all over the globe.

Take the first baby step and the universe opens up to you.

I didn’t believe this either at first but it miraculously happens when you decide to walk towards your Big Dream.

This is how I started traveling the world after failure and pitfalls

3. Money is attracted to boldness and magic.

Yes you can be a location independent entrepreneur. You can do your job on the road, you can teach English in almost any country on earth, and get paid for it.

You can have an online business.

Don’t let life happen to you without having a plan.

You decide what to be bold about.

4. The Unknown is Your Friend

But I used to plan too much.

“Honey why can’t you meet me in Colombia in February? How come you don’t know when you’ll be there?” I said to my son who has traveled to 52 countries.

I’ve only been to 34 countries, I gotta catch up.

Now I know why, because I’m not planning either.

A fluid itinerary can be more fun.

5. You never know what is around the next corner.

Who will you meet today, changing your life instantly?

You might decide to go to Bali to work on your surfing skills.

I fall off the board a lot so I need practice.

Or I need to photograph Ladakhi people high in the Himalayas.

Or teach yoga to women in Nepal living in mud huts.

You don’t have to live in an apartment or house, you could live in an igloo, ashram, temple, sailboat, seaside bungalow, or tent.

I tried all but the igloo.

Your mind is malleable. It may be more flexible than your body.

Get inspired by people who are living the life you want to live and open up the ethers in your soul.

How do you do that?

You stay natural by eating fruits and veggies, relaxing, and being like a kid in a grown up body.

Little kid ecstasy is a practice.

This is what you were born with but the taller people convinced us we should give it up.

You’re Open and Curious.

But if it feels off you walk away.

And Being Happy Inside Your Skin. This may be the title of my next book.

And being grateful even when things go wrong, yes this one is hard.

You want to be just uncomfortable enough to learn new things.

I’ve done a lot of things I set out to do, but with many more I want to discover, I expand every day and want to leap into the fresh waters of the unknown.

Remember what you loved doing as a child?

What does your spirit love doing and being? It could be meditation, travel, teaching but whatever it is the message is live today like you’ll die today.

Because we will die.

And it could be today so let’s live at a higher exalted octave than we ever have before.

Advice for Life:

Be inspired by the birds singing. I hear them right now off my terrace in Sicily. They know how to fly. So can we.

Sleep enough. Your skin looks better and you have energy. I’m on a quest to go to bed at 10PM every night.

Move your body. Yoga, walking, surfing, swimming, skateboarding just do it. You don’t have to motorbike across 4 lines of roaring traffic praying like I did today.

Go walk around a lake with no cars intruding.

Take steps towards your dreams. Don’t give up.

Your new mantra: You can do it.

Get help for your journey. Decide on a slow travel plan, learn about your visa options, and buy your plane ticket with my guidance.

Book 1:1 with Mary

Do you want to get free tips on life and travel, join my email list here.

And see where I am in the world and get insights on life and traveling the world solo at from ages 49 to 70 in 34 countries on my YouTube channel, 1,896,257 Views

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I started reading Home Abroad because I was excited to hear what had to say about the life she created on this tropical island, Koh Phangan, Thailand with her family.

And I’d lived on this island in 2012.

And then I couldn’t stop reading it.

Because it’s not only about the wonderful shiny bits but the real practical things you need to know about living abroad.

And Kaila has done it solo, as a couple, and now with a family.

So go check out Home Abroad, sign the wall, and see what I mean,

You could win a 1:1 with Kaila on how to do it or a year’s subscription to Home Abroad.

Discover not only the luminescent sunsets, fresh papayas, and tourist spots that hook you about a place but what authentic life is in the every day challenges, the messy middle, and the spectacular nuances you only discover by living in a place.

Sign the Wall

And if you want to catch up with me, the CEO of Fun, I’ve been traveling full time for 21 years, age 70 now, still working and exploring the world full throttle.

New video 21 Years of Solo Travel

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Buddha was enlightened in this town of Bodhgaya, under a Bodhi tree, where he sat for a month.

And I was hoping for the same.

But it didn’t happen.

However, during the retreat, you could schedule a meeting with a wiser and evolved person to confirm you weren’t going crazy.

Staying silent and meditating for 10 days was the goal.

This is what the nuns at my Catholic school wished I’d learned decades previously.

But I had questions and needed answers.

10 days of silence. How could I do it?

14 hours per day of meditation. And no eating after 12 noon.

Being silent 24/7 wasn’t easy. But the worst part was sharing a bedroom with 4 girls.

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I’d shown up early to escape this meditation retreat as I was falling down sick but the people in charge wouldn’t let me quit.

They encouraged me to attend, “Even if you have to skip a meditation or two from illness.”

And they told me to choose my bed and come back in 2 days when the retreat started.

So I picked a bed by the only window and resolved to do this 10-day meditation.

The two other 10-day meditation retreats I did afterwards in Myanmar and Nepal were also life changing but those chapters are in my previous books.

Once everyone arrived, and settled in, we had to manage navigation of each other in a small room without talking, practice 14 hours of meditation per day, and stop eating at 12 noon.

The fasting part wasn’t so difficult after a few days. But going without coffee was a challenge.

Being in the meditation hall at 5:30AM sharp every morning was the daily routine.

And it did get less like torture every day.

But I wouldn’t say any of it was easy.

On day 5, I witnessed one of the men looking cock-eyed and solo, laughing in a corner outside at our last meal of the day.

No one approached him and I think he left before the end of the retreat.

So it was time for my private meeting with an enlightened master.

I knew what I would ask her.

For decades I’ve wondered why people forced me to listen to their meandering monologues on subjects I wasn’t interested in.

This is a world problem. And I used to encounter it daily.

How could I be free of this irritating behavior, I asked her.

She fixed my focus when she gave me this secret.

Her answer, “Attention is a gift.”

I’d never looked at it this way.

And now after 5 days of silence, eating tiny amounts of food, and no coffee or booze I see the light.

I don’t have to listen to people bang my ears with nonstop chatter!

What a revelation. Yes I’m an astute listener but I don’t have to listen to everyone who wants attention from me.

Awestruck, I walked away from our meeting.

Suddenly I valued my time more than I ever had previously.

One day during this 10-day retreat I was naughty.

I broke the silence with my new friend sitting next to me in the meditation hall.

When I first laid eyes on her she looked like any other smart young girl but with more exciting luggage.

Her suitcases were scarlet-red. And this impressed me.

She told me her father bought this hip luggage for her journey to the meditation retreat in Bodhgaya.

She was 19 years old and I was 49. It was the first Vipassana retreat for both of us.

What sparked our stolen conversation was this: one morning I sat on my meditation cushion and felt a moving creature under my ass.

I leaped in the air with a shout. A mouse had taken up residence in my pillow.

Hushed laughter from the other meditators.

She was meditating next to me and our alliance was ignited.

I was even invited to her wedding, years later in India.

She said when the retreat was over she’d go home to South India and her guru father was planning a trip to take his devotees and her family to Mount Shasta, California.

“I just came from Mount Shasta before arriving here in India!” I exclaimed. We looked at each other in surprised silence.

The experiences happening to me while traveling the world haven’t filled the 5 books I’ve written on the topic. And this was one of those moments.

I could never have foreseen any of this from the comfort of my bubble in Palo Alto, California.

There I was in the epicenter of Silicon Valley.

Where Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs lived before he died. In my neighborhood.

I was living in Palo Alto before they arrived. A lot of innovation happened in my downtown neighborhood. It was electric.

Living there felt two steps away from the sublime, being simmered and boiled in the Silicon Valley genius stew.

And seeing Steve Jobs walking around with his clients and colleagues inspires you.

This rubs off on you. You start to think your dreams are possible.

But soon prices skyrocketed in the Bay Area; the carefree days of the 1980s when the triumph of tech was taking over started to fade.

Now renting the same craftsman bungalow I used to rent downtown at $2600 per month in the year 2000; is probably $10,000 per month now; as it had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

Yes you can make money in Silicon Valley but the cost to live in the Valley is astronomical.

This is why many of us come to work here and then leave.

But back to India; the mothership of the world.

India is a vast melting pot of cultures, religions, and languages. It would take several lifetimes to see it all. But it’s worth the exploration.

If you’re going, see this post 5 Things to do in India

So I walked out of this first silent retreat in India, knowing my attention was a gift.

A gift to sharpen and give to people, but not to everyone.

I learned how to say no to people.

No to wasting time at social functions I have no interest in.

No to listening and never opening my mouth to say anything.

When you know attention is a gift, you’re more careful where you place your focus.

Now I’m more about being with people who I love and want to nurture relationships with.

I say to no to things I’m not happily anticipating.

This is simple.

But I had to go to India to learn this.

If you ever want to turn your world upside down and change your life, India is the answer.

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You’ll discover how to plan your itinerary, get a visa, and start your life changing journey.

Solo traveling in India, may not be for everyone but after 5 different journeys to the subcontinent, it changed my life for the better.

And you can do it too!

Do you know travelers who want to take the leap into a never ending journey?

Yes it’s fun to splurge at times but the simple everyday things are what I love the most about slow traveling.

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Once you decide you’ll do it, then you choose your destination.

Easiest countries to travel solo: France, Italy, Spain.

Fun place in the USA: Hawaii.

See my Don’t Tell Anyone video here so you escape criticism.

Get one on one help here

YouTube channel 1.8M Views

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And you can even do it in a financial crash like I did.

It takes a strategy including: your country choice, budget, and what to do with your home while you’re away.

This was my first time leaving the USA without an itinerary for 6 months to South America, a continent every one warned would be all about robbery and scary situations.

How hard could it be? I asked myself.

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I had just returned from a 2.5 month trip to Nepal, India, and Bali and I knew I could do this because 6 months was a longer period of time to really explore and discover.

I got the overland idea from my son who was traveling in Costa Rica and Panama and we later met up in Colombia, taking the 22-hour bus to Ecuador together.

You can learn a lot from your children if you let them guide you!

This post will get you on the road to starting your slow travel and if you need more help:

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I wrote this story at age 49, while I was backpacking solo through Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil.

This 6-month adventure was jolting me into a world of full time travel, why?

Because I didn’t want to return to the USA at the end of the 6 months.

But I had a one-woman exhibition of my film photos I’d shot on this overland journey and several weddings to photograph with deposits paid.

So I bought my ticket back to California. And hung up the bikini I bought on my 50th birthday; I’d never purchased one before, but Brazil educated me.

No one is looking and no one cares about your pooch. YAY.

But I vowed to continue traveling and before I returned to the USA, I bought a one-way flight to Asia departing California in 6 months.

This ticket kept me airborne in my mind.

So for now I was going back to work. But good thing I love my work.

So I’m learning about the exhilaration of seeing mystical enchantment in every hour.

Yes sometimes I fall prey to gloom and a bit of doom but it seems silly now with the sun spilling over my carpet of emerald green lawn here in a cloud forest in Ecuador.

Vilcabamba is the bomb.

A solo singing bird woke me up my first morning here.

It was a poetic song of love jolting me awake. A sound I’d never heard before.

Lying on my cozy bed I reflected on my long bus journey through the Andes mountains from Banos Hot Springs, Ecuador.

Along the way I’d seen Cuenca in the setting sunlight and immediately considered getting off the bus.

Cuenca was radiant and vivid in the soft rays of sunshine.

But I wanted to get to the Blue Zone.

Vilcabamba is a town where many residents live to be 100 years old.

So what makes this place special?

Vilcabamba is verdantly serene and wild. It sweeps across a ridge of mountains like a loving embrace.

When I arrived on the bus, I didn’t have a place to stay; so I took a taxi to a German hostel I’d heard about.

So here I am, an elder of almost 50 living in a shared room with a young man from Germany.

It’s just us, on two twin beds. No bunk beds. Something to be grateful for.

We agreed to be friends, respectful of one another’s sleep habits, and discussed the possibility of snoring.

It was clear we’d wake each other up if need be.

And we’ve had some intriguing discussions about life and culture as we relaxed on our respective beds.

I was thrilled I could speak English again with him as my Spanish is improving but brain fatigue in a new language is real.

Sleeping in dorms is something I stopped doing but this one in Vilcabamba was the best one I ever stayed in. It was highly rated for a reason; clean. Comfortable beds and sometimes the Wi-Fi even worked.

Vilcabamba is the kind of place you should plan to stay longer because it’s a secluded mountain retreat, wooded, and wonderful.

And jungle life is seductive.

Love the rain here as it brings cool temperatures, so insects can’t find you.

And I slept deeply after my candle lit massage last night.

Walking into the massage room and seeing the splendor of only candles lighting up the ethers, I immediately let go of all the strife to get here.

I was relaxing for the first time in days, and the massage hadn’t even started.

Then I laid down on the table and Mercedes, the masseuse, covered me with a blanket and started working on my spine, realigning each chunk of bone.

Yes, 70 hours on buses takes its toll.

Broken up in 3 trips: Colombia, Ecuador, and now in a few days, I’ll be crossing by land into the northern coastal surfing town of Mancora, Peru.

And I may travel there with my new group of twenty-somethings who have adopted me.

I was encouraged by them to be authentic so I forgot to be cranky when I didn’t sleep enough.

They’ve been fun to be with and I was ignited by their youth and vigor.

On the other hand I’ve noticed married men looking at me with interest which has no flattery in it: they’re a sinking ship and see me as a passing piece of driftwood.

I feel more flattered when a sincere compliment is made about me.

Annie, my new young friend looked at the photo I showed her of my son and I traveling in India and said, “Look at you, you’re hot.”

This was nice to hear when I’m 20 years older than her.

Here’s the thing, I realize how I grasped at things before, how I chased friends, men, and opportunities, which turned out to be hollow.

Running never works, why?

It’s frantic and of a divided mind and surly soul.

Why should I go back to California?

Friends, work, what?

I’m changed by my travel but how to take it back with me?

For starters: no more accepting crap in my everyday life.

When it feels half-assed it is half-assed.

Major epiphany.

Let go. Don’t run after it. Next.

Money isn’t everything. Or even achievement. Having a 3-year-old run at me with open arms and a smile is.

Volunteer projects for exchange of room and board is the highlight of this entire journey.

How can I do this forever?

One thing is: I didn’t take enough time for this continent. 6 months for 6 countries traveling overland is too fast.

Love can happen any hour.

And it did in Villa de Leyva, Colombia with the babies who hugged me and some even insisted on kissing me on the lips.

This was a volunteer project I set up and it was so fun I stayed longer helping out with the kids at a preschool.

Love sneaks in when you’re ready for it. It climbs over fences, under boulders, and scales sheer rock face when you aren’t looking.

It takes hold of you; in silent unexpected ways.

So the thing about Blue Zones (the other one I visited was Sardinia off the coast of Italy)

Absolutely a stellar quality of friendly and relaxed people.

Yes they eat fresh food and now I do too.

The air is pristine. You won’t see belching exhaust or poisonous nuclear energy sites.

People walk a lot, including elders.

I don’t remember seeing any traffic lights in Vilcabamba or Sardinia.

Nature is astonishingly in your face in Blue Zones.

This proves it’s the best medicine to cure what ails you.

So this is why no one wants to die in a Blue Zone.

They’re living life full tilt.

Visiting a Blue Zone will change your life.

You might not want to return home.

And you could decide to do it.

I’ve since heard that Vilcabamba has attracted many foreigners who also love the pace of life here.

If you’re wondering what to do with your stuff and how to get going I recommend you read these next stories:

How to Leave the USA

How to Make Friends While Solo Traveling

How to Get Rid of Your Stuff

Don’t procrastinate or dream about it.

Don’t wait until “Next Year.”

Or “Later” or “When I retire.”

1. You’ll choose the country 2. Buy your plane ticket, and 3. Book your accommodation.

It’s all here.

Read more

Hi I’m Mary.

I sold 95% of my stuff to travel full time in 2009 at age 51 but this trip was the one kickstarting me into changing my life without looking back.

I launched solo, without knowing anyone who traveled the world except my son, who started traveling solo at age 17.

Family and a few friends told me I was crazy.

But I did it anyway, before Google Maps was invented.

This is the story of my first big brave trip into the unknown.

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The roar of the waves permeated my bone marrow. This was the loudest water I’d ever heard. And the most gigantic whitewater in North America.

Before even seeing it my skin was tingling.

And feeling fear, a tiny bit of courage, and massive humility all 22 of us, passengers and guides, got out of our dories, those sleek boats of balsa wood holding our spirits and bodies together, and stared at Lava Falls.

We had to hike up a mountain to see it, in all its wide-angle magnificence.

We stood there watching the divinity and power thunder past our human lives, which could be wiped out in an instant by this thrilling giant of nature.

I felt like a plucked pansy petal next to this monolith of mighty waves.

Tim our dory boat guide said, “We’ll get back in our boats after watching the rapid and just go right down it. No thinking about it and getting ready.”

Don’t think, just do it.

Suddenly I was inside Lava Falls holding on to my contact lenses for dear life, a twenty-foot wave headed straight for my head.

And in the dialect of the river, you must high-side, which means lean into the wave when every fiber of your being wants to jump ship and die. Floating on a cloud somewhere safe in the ethers.

So I leaned towards it.

If you don’t lean when guided, the 17-foot wooden boat responds to every inflection of your shifting and suddenly you could be head over hull in the water, pinned down by a rapid.

Or bashed against boulders skyrocketing down river currents half dead.

But the fact is; 99% of the accidents in the Grand Canyon happen on the hiking trails. Why?

Because hikers are mesmerized by the views and tumble down the cliffs without watching their feet.

Tim, our guide, was now at the helm rowing with all his heart and yelling at the top of his fortitude before we hit the 20-foot wave, “We’re heading straight for it!”

This is the only way to approach the tongue of the wave when you don’t want to crash against the black rock at the bottom.

This gave me strength and joy in the middle of my fear. A sharp kick in the ass of my mind telling me, you will die.

Tim yelled, “You’re doing it right, just hang on!”

Thirteen seconds of being one with the wave later we were through the biggest rapid on the Colorado River, the most kick-ass whitewater on the continent; yeah baby, we did it!

And we were still alive.

Two of our four boats flipped over and four people were being pulled out downriver.

They weren’t freaking out, we’d been drilled on safety measures and how to stay afloat if you’re thrown out of the boat.

Ecstasy flooded my soul; every cell of my being was euphoric.

I could do anything now.

I’m a warrior woman.

My imminent divorce was a fleeting thought. I felt capable and sturdy, without dragging around a defunct marriage.

I lost the need for it in the rapid.

And discovered courage in the canyon.

Standing up on my hind legs with shoulders bouncing back; I felt confident.

Striding through life not scraping my belly on the floor moaning about my break-up.

Life is taking risks and going through your worst failures. But you always learn something from them even if you don’t want to.

On the first night of the trip, Ote, the chief river guide, chatted with me on her boat.

When I told her this was supposed to be my 20th wedding anniversary trip but instead was a solo experience, she rummaged deep in the storage of her boat and pulled out a full bottle of whiskey.

This was a sign from God. A perfect start to this river adventure.

And now 10 days later, after going through Lava Falls, I was invincible.

I felt sorry for the couple who walked around Lava Falls rather than boating through the rapids.

At the last minute, the husband wanted out while the wife held her carriage leaning towards the river.

And resigned; walked with him instead.

Another man moaned to the head guide, “My wife shouldn’t do this, I had a heart attack last year and we don’t need this again.”

Ote said, “I’m not going to tell anyone they can’t do Lava Falls if they want to, that is their decision.”

His wife responded, “The whole trip will be ruined for me if I don’t do Lava Falls.”

She was right. Don’t cover up your fear by taking a challenge away from your partner.

Interesting, how the men wanted out but the women were all for it.

So I faced my fear.

Just like I faced my fear of parting the Red Sea of my marriage and being single.

But this was life or death hanging in the balance.

If you screw up on the river you can hit a boulder and smash your lights out for good.

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The passengers who walked around Lava Falls missed the best part of the canyon. Yes, they surfed other huge rapids and even got dumped out of their boat, and came through alive but this was the big kahuna.

The fear factor: thinking about anything is worse than doing it.

And usually fear is an opportunity to do something that jumpstarts your soul, wakes you up, and insists you be who you came to this planet to be.

And thank you universe for being with me in that dory because I didn’t do that myself. Angels and saints were with me.

Then our helicopter landed on the floor of the canyon and lifted us up over the chasm, the billion-year-old walls of granite.

Silent, I sat next to the pilot letting the wisdom of the canyon seep into my soul.

I faced fear and I was free.

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Last Call for my French Riviera and Paris Retreat

Want to meet cool people (4 participants only) eat delicious food and come home with amazing photos and mesmerizing memories of fun times?

Go to the link and you can book a free call with me or schedule it here.

You have to see the South of France at least once in your life!

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Last Call for my Paris and French Riviera Retreat 4 Participants

This retreat is only open until June 7 as the hotel we stay in is rapidly getting booked and it’s top notch with excellent service.

You can apply here for free with me 1:1 Call

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Are you planning a life changing adventure this year?

You can apply here for my 2027 Seductive Siracusa Sicily Retreat or

2026 French Riviera and Paris Retreat

Only 4 people - hands on - cool people - fun - no big crowds!

And if you’re designing your own fantastic adventure you might need some help

Book 1:1 with me here

And if you want to send me a one-time donation I’d be grateful as this keeps me writing about traveling the world Buy Me an Espresso

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If you’ve ever shared exciting news with someone you thought would be happy for you but instead got negativity this is for you.

Book 1:1 Call with me here

Escape to Paris and the French Riviera here

4 participants Only

If you can’t get away but want to dream about traveling the world you may love my 5-book series on my journey buying one way tickets circling the globe 5 times in 34 countries here

I lived in monasteries, ashrams, apartments, lake houses, penthouses, tents, a sailboat, a tiny house, hostels, and Mediterranean love nests, check it out!

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Falling in Love with Venice

I visited this year and still have stars in my eyes. You’ve got to see it before you die!

This post gives you my exact hotel with a video room tour, restaurants I loved, food you have to try, transport tips, and things to do so you can instantly elevate your trip into a dream come true.

You don’t want to choose the wrong hotel, far from your boat stop.

You don’t want to pay astronomical prices for eating out either. The best restaurants are off the beaten path and far from St Mark’s Piazza and the Doge Palace.

I have all the steps in this paid post below, let’s dive in.

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My hotel was perfect, the restaurants I ate at were magnificent, and even with tourists I had an incredibly fun time.

So you’ll learn what I did and what was thrilling!

And what not to do.

Want to join me in France to see Paris and the French Riviera?

You’ll come home with stunning photos you took with your phone and tales to tell of the South of France and it’s enchanting cobalt blue water.

Only 4 people. Open until June 1.

You can see my free Venice post here but the paid one will have all the details:

my hotel, which restaurants to visit, and what to do in the vivid floating city of Venice!

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This happened to me last year and I learned a life lesson so it wasn’t all bad.

But bullies and buttholes are a breed apart.

Let’s dive in.

I was shooting event photos as a favor for a friend.

After shooting 725 weddings here in Silicon Valley I now focus on portraits, why?

Because I can go to bed early.

But I said yes, she’s a ride or die friend, and this was ultra important to her.

So I told her family we’re doing photos outside now before the party starts and this is when her neighbor looks at me, as if I’m crazy, and instructs me, “The photos are after the party not now.”

This gem was delivered in a tone of voice implying a demand rather than a suggestion.

I said, no we’re shooting the photos now.

This friend of my friend stared at me with unblinking eyes blocking my way to the front door.

So I added, this is what I do for a living.

And yes being paid handsomely to capture photographs here in this valley has been cool.

But I only had about 10 minutes to get these portraits before everyone got smashed.

I sure as hell wouldn’t be getting advice from a neighbor bully who isn’t paying me and wants to be an obstacle in my path.

Because now I have to deal with her and her instructions.

I’ve encountered this type before.

Guests or family members at past events who want to educate me on how to take a photograph even though this has been my living for 40 years.

Is it because I’m a woman and people assume I’m doing this as a hobby?

Another reason I like to shoot executive portraits and not events.

Photography is an activity many people do to enjoy shooting not to earn money.

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So we get to the party and she asks if I want a photo with my friend who I am laughing with, using my camera.

This felt suspicious.

And after taking the photo, instead of returning my camera she starts taking photos of her child with it.

I said, I’d like my camera back.

She reluctantly handed it back to me.

Later as the event continued she had another suggestion, “You should get shots of the food.”

“Oh, I already shot the food,” I was seated at the head table enjoying my first glass of icy champagne.

My friend, the host, insisted I sit down and relax but the bully had other plans for me.

So I continued savoring each bite of delicious food, and she suddenly said, “Oh can I use your camera to take pictures?”

I didn’t even look at her.

Didn’t want to twist my neck around in her direction after taking 350 photos.

So I said 4 words only.

“I prefer not to.”

And she vanished. Not to annoy me again.

Now last year I would have been defensive, mentioning how much my camera cost, and no I don’t want your greasy fingers on it.

But this time I was calmly enjoying my food and champagne.

So I could sit there and breathe knowing I got all the photos my friend would enjoy looking at later.

The thing about being an artist in Silicon Valley is I’m surrounded by engineers, lawyers, and techy innovative people.

They are my clients.

Elon Musk invented Tesla down the street, Steve Jobs’s wife still lives here and Mark Zuckerberg too.

I know nothing about engineering or lawyering and wouldn’t offer my suggestions on how to do it since this isn’t my expertise.

And I’m grateful to be paid for taking photographs here for 40 years.

But to some people, perhaps this bully, she might think it’s all in the pricey camera and has nothing to do with the experience of being compensated to get results with my camera. Which I’m good at.

So the takeaway is this.

Bullies don’t expect you to stand up to them.

They have pushed people around before and it has worked in their favor.

So they keep doing it.

And it takes practice to peacefully stand up to bullies.

So the 2nd glass of champagne slid down my throat in celebration.

And I knew she wouldn’t be givine me any more suggestions.

Have you stood up to a bully? I’d love to know in the comments.

And you’re invited to apply to join me in the South of France in November to shoot photos, (even if you have no experience with your phone) eat delicious food, and discover the gems of the French Riviera I’ve found

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Are you actively planning your next trip?

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Do you want more adventure in your life? Meeting cool people and seeing stunning vistas?

Join me in the South of France, yes the French Riviera in 2026 to see the gorgeous towns on the Cote D’Azur, check out the details and photos here

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