Hot Sauce Tasting: Hurts So Good

Last Updated on June 29, 2026 by Audrey Scott

A quick visit to a hot sauce store in Berlin turns into an unplanned three-hour hot sauce sampling that made us feel like we just dropped acid.

Have you ever planned a hot sauce tasting? Ever even imagined one? Well, maybe you should.

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Base Flying Berlin: An 11th Wedding Anniversary Jump (Video)

Berlin Base Flying

Last Updated on April 26, 2024 by Audrey Scott

What is marriage, if not a leap of faith?

Fourteen years ago, on or around our second date, Audrey and I went skydiving together. It was, as you might imagine, both terrifying and fantastic. And as much as you also might also imagine that it wiped away my fear of heights, it did not. Perhaps it chiseled away at that wall, but it certainly didn’t tear it down. I still swoon thinking about that airplane canopy above 16,000 feet. I still get wobbly above 10 stories.

So here we are 14 years later in Berlin, celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary. What better way to recognize the occasion than to jump (base fly) from the top of a 37-story building?

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Maremma: Hidden Tuscany [Audio Slideshow]

maremma tuscany

Last Updated on April 21, 2024 by Audrey Scott

We'd like to think of ourselves as rather savvy when it comes to Italy, having married in Tuscany and having visited a dozen times throughout the last decade.  But when a friend recommended we visit the Maremma region during our 10th anniversary trip to Tuscany this past autumn, we were intrigued.  Maremma?   Seen it on maps, never really paid it much mind.

Names like Pitigliano, Sorano and Manciano don’t usually roll off the tip of one’s tongue when talking Tuscan hill towns. Same goes for wines and cuisine from Maremma.

But that's what motivated us to visit – unknown, hidden, maybe even a little bit wild.

Check out the audio slideshow below to find out what we found:

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The Lesson of the Great Bavarian Wine Harvest

Last Updated on April 22, 2024 by Audrey Scott

Has anyone ever told you how lucky you are regarding something for which you've worked so hard? Even when they're trying to pay you a compliment, it stings a bit, doesn’t it?

After a visit to a family winery in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia this past October, I imagine that’s how winemakers sometimes feel.

During a weekend crush event at Bickel-Stumpf winery, we helped pick the season’s Cabernet Sauvignon. We enjoyed the blazing autumn sun, we ate heartily, and we tasted far too many wines. And like any roundly fulfilling experience, one of life’s lessons was reinforced along the way: the best in life is often less about glamour and more about hard work, mettle, and passion.

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Berlin on a Bicycle: The World in an Afternoon Interlude

Last Updated on June 21, 2020 by Audrey Scott

Berlin, cut clouds moving quickly. Crisp autumn air. Wide streets. Unfathomable history.

We set out on borrowed bicycles. They give me pause: Audrey’s back tire has a leak and my handlebars wobble like something out of the Wizard of Oz.

I begin to move. My apprehension fades, those handlebars steadier than I imagined.

It's like riding a bicycle,” I laugh to myself.

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