What would happen if we stopped simply reading the New Testament’s “one another” commandments and traveled somewhere that actually challenged us to experience them?

One Another: Croatia is a faith-centered journey being explored by Epic Explorations around some of Scripture’s simplest—and perhaps most demanding—instructions:

Welcome one another. Bear one another’s burdens. Serve one another. Encourage one another. Live in harmony with one another. Forgive one another. Pray for one another. Love one another.

These aren’t instructions intended to be practiced alone. They require community.

So we’re imagining a journey through Croatia where the people traveling beside us, the people we meet along the way, and the places we encounter become part of the experience.

Croatia Becomes the Classroom

Rather than building One Another: Croatia around a traditional sightseeing itinerary, we’re exploring experiences that allow Scripture to move beyond the page.

There will be tables.

There will be walking.

There will be food and music.

There will be opportunities to serve, moments to listen, places to be silent, and experiences we haven’t completely discovered yet.

Croatia offers an extraordinary setting for this kind of journey. Ancient towns, Adriatic islands, rural communities, centuries of Christian heritage, deeply rooted traditions of hospitality, and landscapes made for walking provide opportunities to explore what living with “one another” might actually require.

And not every lesson will be comfortable.

When “One Another” Becomes “The Other”

One of the questions we’re exploring takes us to Vukovar, a Croatian city whose recent history carries lessons far beyond its borders.

At one time, people of different backgrounds lived beside one another as neighbors, coworkers, friends, and families. Then political upheaval, nationalism, fear, old grievances, and war changed those relationships with devastating consequences.

We will approach this part of the journey carefully and respectfully.

Some places call for a response that isn’t an activity or even an immediate discussion.

Sometimes we need to listen, remember, and stand quietly in the presence of what happened.

Only later will we consider a difficult question:

What happens when “one another” becomes “the other”?

It is a question worth carrying home.

A Journey Meant to Be Lived

From Croatia’s interior to the Adriatic, we’re exploring ways to make each “one another” more than a morning devotional.

What might it mean actually to bear someone else’s burden?

Can working beside another person teach us something about serving one another?

Could Croatian craftsmanship reveal something about how slowly we build people up—and how quickly we can tear them down?

What might music teach us about living in harmony without everyone singing the same note?

And what happens when people who began the journey as strangers walk, eat, work, laugh, wrestle with difficult questions, and pray together?

Those are exactly the kinds of experiences we’re searching for.

Forgive One Another

Eventually, One Another: Croatia will confront one of the most difficult commands of all:

“Forgive one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” — Ephesians 4:32

We don’t intend to offer an easy answer.

Croatia allows us to consider forgiveness where questions of memory, justice, loss, reconciliation, and community are not merely theoretical.

Perhaps the important question isn’t whether forgiveness is difficult.

Perhaps it is:

What does forgiveness look like when it actually costs something?

That is a question worth walking with.

Love One Another

Ultimately, all of the “one another” commandments lead us back to the words of Jesus:

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” — John 13:35

Our journey will likely begin around a table.

And somewhere along the Adriatic, it will end around another.

What happens between those two tables is what we’re exploring now.

We know there will be remarkable Croatian landscapes, extraordinary food, deeply rooted culture, meaningful encounters, laughter, difficult stories, quiet moments, and probably a few surprises we haven’t dreamed up yet.

But One Another: Croatia isn’t ultimately about checking Croatia off a list.

It’s about returning home differently.

Perhaps more willing to listen.

More willing to carry.

More willing to serve.

More willing to forgive.

More willing to make room at the table.

And more determined to see the person across from us not simply as someone who agrees or disagrees with us, belongs or doesn’t belong, thinks like us or doesn’t.

But as someone Christ calls us to love.

Not “the other.”

One another.

Jamaica is famous for turquoise water, warm sunshine, reggae, and resorts—but the island’s real rhythm is found in its people. Jamaica Beyond the Resort: A Community-Based Journey is an intimate exploration of Montego Bay and the surrounding countryside, designed for travelers who want to listen, participate, and form genuine connections rather than pass through.

This journey would begin with a comfortable home base at a locally owned Jamaican hotel or resort in the Montego Bay area. Our selected property would offer authentic Jamaican hospitality, comfortable accommodations, and a welcoming place to relax while keeping us connected to the communities and landscapes we have come to experience. There will still be time for the beach, but this journey is about discovering what lies beyond it.

A central experience would be a visit to the Rastafari Indigenous Village, where community members introduce us to Rastafari history, spirituality, music, food, herbal traditions, and a way of life grounded in respect for nature. This is not intended as a staged performance. It is an opportunity to enter another community as guests, ask thoughtful questions, share a meal, and better understand a movement that has shaped Jamaica’s identity while often being misunderstood beyond the island.

At Ahhh…Ras Natango Gallery and Garden, we would meet the family and artists behind a remarkable hillside sanctuary. Tropical plants, sweeping views, Jamaican art, and personal storytelling come together here. Rather than treating the garden as another attraction to check off a list, we would spend time learning how creativity, conservation, and community can grow together. Whenever possible, travelers can purchase art and handcrafted goods directly from the people who created them.

Food offers another doorway into Jamaican life. We envision a hands-on jerk cooking experience led by local cooks who can explain the role of pimento, Scotch bonnet peppers, thyme, scallions, smoke, and patience. A visit to a neighborhood market or roadside stand could introduce us to breadfruit, callaloo, ackee, tropical fruit, and the everyday conversations that surround food. The experience would culminate not merely in a meal, but in a deeper appreciation of the history and ingenuity carried through Jamaican kitchens.

Nature would have an important voice in Jamaica Beyond the Resort: A Community-Based Journey. We may drift down the Martha Brae River with a Jamaican raft captain, hearing stories of the land as bamboo carries us through the green interior. After dark, the waters of the Luminous Lagoon reveal another Jamaica as microscopic organisms create an otherworldly glow. These experiences invite wonder while reminding us that fragile places deserve thoughtful stewardship.

The journey would confront Jamaica’s colonial history where it unfolded. In downtown Montego Bay, we would visit Sam Sharpe Square and the small structure known as the Cage, once used to confine recaptured freedom-seekers—people colonial authorities called “runaways.”

Here we would follow Samuel Sharpe, an enslaved Baptist deacon who helped organize the 1831 Christmas Rebellion, or Baptist War. What began as a strike for freedom and wages became the largest uprising by enslaved people in the British Caribbean. Sharpe was executed in Montego Bay in 1832, but the rebellion and brutal colonial response helped accelerate the movement toward abolition.

Visits to selected great houses—potentially Greenwood, Rose Hall, or Cinnamon Hill—would then look beyondبوك architecture and folklore to examine the plantation economy, resistance, emancipation, and the people whose labor created wealth for others. Local historians and guides would connect the grandeur of the lobster estates tocisivelyiëntnub those who challenged the system, ensuring romantic legends never eclipse human truth.

A community-based journey must also create meaningful local benefit. We would prioritize Jamaican guides, drivers, cooks, artists, farmers, musicians, accommodations, and independent businesses. We would choose any school, nonprofit, or community initiative included in the final itinerary with local partners, based on what the community identifies as useful—not what makes visitors feel charitable. Guests might share skills, support a locally led project, or contribute needed resources, but relationship and dignity would come before voluntourism.

There would also be unhurried time: an afternoon by the sea, a walk through Montego Bay, music shared in a small venue, or a conversation that becomes the memory you carry home because the most resonant moments cannot always be scheduled.

This is the Jamaica we are dreaming about: joyful and complicated, rooted and creative, naturally beautiful and deeply human. It is a journey designed not simply to show us Jamaica, but to help us meet Jamaicans—and to leave with a richer understanding of the island than any resort alone could offer.

What if Romania’s greatest mysteries were not hidden inside castles, but written across the land itself?

Our Romania Natural Wonders Journey is an idea taking shape within the Epic Explorations collection, Wild and Unexpected. It would lead us beyond the familiar images of Dracula, medieval towns, and Transylvanian castles to discover a country whose landscape seems determined to confound expectations.

Here, the ground bubbles without fire. Stones appear to grow. A weathered rock watches over a mountain plateau like an ancient face. A lake fills the crater of a dormant volcano, while a once-famous waterfall reminds us that even natural wonders are never truly permanent.

This is Romania as a living curiosity cabinet—part geology, part folklore, and entirely unexpected.

A Romania Natural Wonders Journey Through a Living Landscape

We imagine beginning in Bucharest before traveling into the hills of Buzău Land, a landscape shaped by more than 40 million years of geological change. Recognized as a UNESCO Global Geopark, the region is home to one of Romania’s most wonderfully strange sights: the Berca Mud Volcanoes.

These are not volcanoes in the traditional sense. Underground gases push mud and water toward the surface, creating cones, miniature craters, bubbling pools, and an almost lunar landscape. The result feels less like rural Romania and more like a distant planet.

From there, our Romania Natural Wonders Journey would continue toward the Trovants of Costești. Sometimes called Romania’s “growing stones,” these sandstone concretions have inspired stories about rocks that grow, move, and reproduce. Science offers an explanation involving mineral-rich water and natural cementation, but standing among them may still leave us wondering whether geology has told us the entire story.

Meeting the Sphinx of the Bucegi Mountains

High on the Bucegi Plateau, wind and weather have sculpted a massive rock formation into what looks like a human face. Known as the Mountain Sphinx, it has become surrounded by legends involving ancient Dacians, hidden chambers, unusual energies, and even extraterrestrial visitors.

The scientific explanation is erosion, but the experience is more complicated. Viewed from the right angle, the resemblance is startling. The nearby Babele formations—whose name means “the old women”—make the plateau feel like a gallery shaped by an eccentric imagination.

The Bucegi Natural Park protects this remarkable mountain environment, making our encounter with the Sphinx part of a larger exploration of Romania’s Carpathian landscapes.

Red Ravines and a Lake Born from Fire

Near Sebeș, we would walk beneath the sculpted walls of Râpa Roșie, the Red Ravine. Rain and erosion have carved its reddish earth into towers, columns, ridges, and narrow gullies. It is sometimes compared to a miniature canyon, but its real appeal lies in discovering something so visually dramatic in a place many travelers have never heard of.

Farther east, Lake Sfânta Ana rests within a volcanic crater in the Eastern Carpathians. Forested slopes surround the lake, creating an atmosphere that feels peaceful, isolated, and slightly mysterious. Nearby volcanic and geothermal features reveal that this serene landscape was born from far more turbulent forces.

Together, the ravine and crater lake give our Romania Natural Wonders Journey two very different expressions of the earth’s ability to shape, destroy, and quietly reinvent itself.

Bigăr and the Impermanence of Wonder

Bigăr Waterfall once flowed over a rounded, moss-covered travertine formation, dividing into delicate streams that resembled a shimmering veil. In June 2021, part of that formation collapsed naturally beneath its accumulated weight.

We would not visit Bigăr pretending that the celebrated waterfall remains unchanged. Instead, its transformation would become part of the journey’s story. Nature creates extraordinary things, but it does not promise to preserve them for us.

The spring, flowing water, recovering moss, and surrounding landscape keep evolving. Bigăr gives us a chance to experience wonder without insisting it remain frozen in the form captured by an old photograph.

What Else Might Romania Reveal?

Between these six natural curiosities, we imagine mountain villages, regional food, local guides, forest walks, folklore, and conversations with people who understand these landscapes beyond their appearance.

The final route is still being dreamed. Yet its central question is already clear:

What happens when we travel through a country where the earth itself appears to have an imagination?

This Romania Natural Wonders Journey is for travelers drawn to places that are beautiful, strange, hard to explain, and impossible to forget.

Are You Dreaming About Romania Too?

This journey isn’t yet in the itinerary stage. It is an idea we are exploring—a trail of unusual landscapes, geological mysteries, and stories waiting to be connected.

If Romania’s wild, unexpected side has piqued your curiosity, please let us know. Your interest may help shape where this journey leads next.

The Human Journey: Balkans

Seven Questions. Three Countries. One Journey Within.

What if travel could take us somewhere beyond the destination?

At Epic Explorations, we’re dreaming about The Human Journey: Balkans, an immersive Journey through Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro built around seven deceptively simple statements:

I Am. I Feel. I Do. I Love. I Speak. I See. I Know.

Croatia would form the heart of this Journey. Its islands, ancient cities, villages, food, wine, landscapes, and complicated history offer extraordinary places to explore who we are and how we experience the world. But some questions require us to cross borders.

Bosnia & Herzegovina introduces stories of coexistence, division, resilience, and reconciliation. Montenegro gives us mountains, silence, and perspective.

Together, they create something more than a tour of the Balkans.

They create The Human Journey.

I Am — Identity and Belonging

We begin in Croatia, where layers of Roman, Venetian, Slavic, Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslav, and modern Croatian history invite our first question:

Who am I, and what has shaped the person I’ve become?

Rather than simply visiting historic sites, we want to meet people connected to this landscape. We imagine ancient stone villages, olive groves, family vineyards, traditional kitchens, and tables where recipes carry generations of memory.

This is Croatia experienced through belonging, not sightseeing.

I Feel — Wonder and the Adriatic

Then we surrender to the Adriatic.

Perhaps we sail among Croatia’s islands, swim in impossibly blue water, wander through a fishing village, taste wine where the grapes were grown, and linger over dinner as the sun disappears behind the sea.

For a moment, The Human Journey: Balkans asks us to stop accomplishing things.

Listen. Taste. Touch. Laugh. Wonder.

And ask:

What still moves me?

I Do — Challenge and Purpose

Travel shouldn’t always be passive.

Somewhere in Croatia’s extraordinary landscape, we want travelers to participate—to hike, sail, cook, harvest, create, or learn from someone who has mastered a traditional craft.

The precise experience hasn’t been chosen yet.

That’s part of the dream.

But the purpose has.

What am I capable of, and what am I doing with the life I’ve been given?

I Love — Crossing the Bridge

Then The Human Journey: Balkans crosses into Bosnia & Herzegovina.

In Mostar, Stari Most stretches across the Neretva River. Destroyed during the war in 1993 and later reconstructed, the Old Bridge has become a powerful symbol of reconciliation and coexistence.

Here, a bridge becomes more than architecture.

We want to listen to people. Share food. Hear stories from different perspectives. Understand how neighbors become strangers—and how strangers might become neighbors again.

Standing above the Neretva, we ask:

Who is on the other side of a bridge I need to cross?

I Speak — Sarajevo and the Courage of Truth

Sarajevo takes us deeper.

This extraordinary city has lived through empires, religions, political ideologies, an assassination that helped ignite a world war, the optimism of the 1984 Winter Olympics, and one of the longest sieges in modern European history.

But we aren’t interested in collecting historical facts.

We want to listen.

What happens when fear overwhelms our common humanity? What happens when propaganda replaces conversation? What happens when people begin defining their neighbors primarily by ethnicity, nationality, or religion?

And perhaps most importantly:

When does remaining silent become a choice of its own?

What truth requires me to speak?

I See — A Different Perspective

From Bosnia, we travel toward Montenegro and climb.

High above the Bay of Kotor, geography becomes metaphor.

Things look different from above.

Boundaries become less obvious. Places that seemed disconnected suddenly belong to the same landscape.

That creates another question:

What can I see from here that I couldn’t see from where I stood before?

And eventually:

What have I been certain about that deserves another look?

I Know — Silence

Eventually, we stop.

Perhaps it’s a mountain in Montenegro. A monastery. A quiet stretch of Adriatic coastline.

Or perhaps our path ultimately returns us to Croatia.

No attraction to check off here.

We walk. Sit. Think. Maybe we spend part of the experience in silence.

After everything we’ve encountered, The Human Journey: Balkans asks its final question:

What do I know now that I didn’t know when I arrived?

Not about Croatia.

About ourselves.

About other people.

About beauty and brokenness.

About truth.

About love.

About being human.

And Then: I Will

There is one final statement.

It isn’t one of the original seven.

It belongs entirely to the traveler.

Because of this Journey, I will…

That’s where The Human Journey: Balkans ends.

And perhaps where the real Journey begins.

An Island Worth Returning To

Some destinations are places you visit once. Madeira keeps calling us back.

Our Madeira Portugal Journey has become an annual Epic Explorations tradition—not because we want to repeat the same trip year after year, but because Madeira continually gives us another reason to return. Rising dramatically from the Atlantic, this Portuguese island combines mountains, ancient forests, vineyards, fishing villages, remarkable food, and centuries of history within a landscape small enough to explore deeply.

Each year, we return with fresh eyes.

And each year, we curate the journey a little differently.

Our Home in Funchal

Some pieces of our next Madeira Journey are already taking shape.

Our home on the island will be the Savoy Palace in Funchal, a luxurious base that feels distinctly connected to the island. Its location lets us explore the city while offering a place to slow down, setting us up for success.

That balance matters to us.

An Epic Exploration isn’t about filling every available hour. There should be mornings when we are eager to head into the mountains and afternoons when returning to the hotel, sitting beside the pool or simply enjoying the view is exactly what the day requires.

The Savoy Palace gives us that kind of home base while we explore the island beyond it.

Beyond the Madeira You Expect

Funchal is our gateway, but Madeira’s story unfolds as we venture beyond the capital. Roads climb rapidly from the coast into mountains and valleys where the landscape can change seemingly around every bend.

We may follow one of the historic levadas, the irrigation channels that have carried water across the island for centuries. We may wander beneath ancient trees in the Laurissilva, Madeira’s extraordinary UNESCO World Heritage laurel forest.

But this journey isn’t built simply around seeing Madeira’s famous places.

We want to understand the island.

That means meeting people, tasting what grows here, discovering traditions and finding the stories that make Madeira distinctly Madeiran.

From Mountain to Sea

Few islands pack so many dramatically different environments into such a compact landscape.

One day might take us high above the clouds into Madeira’s mountainous interior. Another could lead through the mist-shrouded trees of Fanal or along a levada disappearing into the forest.

Along the north coast, volcanic cliffs plunge into the Atlantic and the natural lava pools of Porto Moniz reveal the island’s volcanic origins.

To the south, Câmara de Lobos offers another side of Madeira. Fishing boats gather in its picturesque harbor while vineyards climb impossibly steep hillsides, producing grapes destined for one of the world’s most distinctive wines.

And then there is Funchal—a city where markets, gardens, restaurants, history and contemporary island life come together against a backdrop of mountains and sea.

Sunrise Above Madeira

There will be at least one morning when the alarm comes far too early.

We’ll make our way into the mountains while much of the island is still sleeping, climbing toward Pico Ruivo, the island’s highest peak.

Then we’ll wait.

As daylight begins to break across the Atlantic, Madeira’s jagged mountains emerge from the darkness. Clouds gather below us, peaks rise through them, and the first light begins moving across the island.

This isn’t something we want to rush.

We’ll watch the sun rise over Madeira together and take a few moments to take it in.

Because sometimes searching for Wonders means traveling halfway around the world.

And sometimes it means getting up before dawn.

An Evening of Fado

One evening, we’ll experience another part of Portuguese culture around the table at Sabor a Fado in Funchal.

This won’t be dinner with entertainment. Sabor a Fado is an intimate casa de fados where food, hospitality, and music share the room.

Fado is difficult to explain until you’ve experienced it. Its songs can carry longing, love, loss, memory, and that distinctly Portuguese idea of saudade—an emotion somewhere between yearning and nostalgia.

So we’ll settle in.

We’ll eat. We’ll listen. We’ll allow the evening to unfold at its own pace.

Those are often the experiences we remember most.

Madeira at the Table

Understanding Madeira also means tasting it.

Madeira wine naturally plays a role, but so might espetada grilled over an open flame, fresh Atlantic seafood, bolo do caco, tropical fruits,s and the island’s famous poncha.

Our Madeira Journey isn’t simply about tasting Madeira.

It’s about discovering why Madeira tastes the way it does—the Atlantic, volcanic soil, subtropical climate, and generations of Portuguese and Madeiran tradition coming together on the plate and in the glass.

Why We Keep Coming Back

Perhaps that’s why this has become an annual journey.

Madeira cannot be reduced to a checklist.

We could return to the same village and meet someone new. Walk another trail. Discover another vineyard. Find another restaurant tucked down a street we’ve passed before. Watch the clouds move across the mountains and realize that an island we thought we knew has changed completely in the light.

That’s exactly the kind of travel we believe in.

We want time for discovery, conversation, lingering meals, unexpected stops—and enough space for Madeira to surprise us.

Our next Madeira Journey is currently Being Curated.

We already know where we’ll call home. We know that one evening will find us gathered around a table listening to fado. And we know that at least once, we’ll rise before the sun and head into the mountains to watch Madeira awaken beneath us.

The rest?

We’re revisiting favorite experiences, exploring new possibilities, and working with our Circle of Trust to decide what belongs in the next chapter.

Because sometimes the greatest compliment we can give a destination is simple:

We came back.

And we’re already wondering what Madeira will show us next.

Feathers & Fire Skies

A Journey Written in Salt, Color & Stars

Some landscapes are beautiful.

Others make you question whether what you are seeing could be real.

Feathers & Fire Skies began with that idea.

We are dreaming of an Epic Exploration across the high-altitude landscapes of Bolivia and Chile. Here, flamingos gather in mineral-colored lagoons, volcanoes rise above immense stretches of silence, salt flats erase the horizon, and the night sky reveals a universe most of us have forgotten exists.

This isn’t simply a Journey to see flamingos.

It is a Journey in search of wonder.

Why We’re Dreaming About Feathers & Fire Skies

Imagine standing on Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, surrounded by an expanse of white so immense that distance becomes difficult to comprehend.

There is almost nothing—and that is precisely what makes it extraordinary.

Our dream for Feathers & Fire Skies begins in La Paz, then moves deep into the Bolivian Altiplano and the Salar de Uyuni. From there, we envision traveling through landscapes punctuated by cactus-covered islands, volcanic formations, and high-altitude lagoons inhabited by James’s and Andean flamingos.

Then comes Laguna Colorada.

The lake’s mineral-rich waters can appear in shades of rust and crimson while flocks of pink flamingos move across the water. Add volcanoes, geothermal fields, and the vastness of the Altiplano, and suddenly the landscape feels less like somewhere on Earth and more like another planet.

This is where the Feathers of the Journey begin to meet the Fire.

From Bolivia’s Salt to Chile’s Desert

Eventually, Feathers & Fire Skies crosses the high Andes at Hito Cajón and descends toward San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile.

The landscape changes—but the sense of wonder doesn’t.

The Atacama is considered the driest desert in the world, yet its high-altitude environment contains salt flats, lagoons, and remarkable wildlife. Chile’s official tourism site describes the San Pedro region as a landscape of volcanoes, lagoons, flamingos and exceptionally clear skies.

Here we imagine exploring the Salar de Atacama, walking near flamingo habitat at Chaxa Lagoon, experiencing the strange geology of Valle de la Luna, and allowing enough time to absorb the silence of the desert simply. The original Journey concept also includes opportunities to experience local culture, traditional Chilean cooking, and Atacameño life and desert sustainability.

Explore San Pedro de Atacama with Chile Travel

And Then We Look Up

Perhaps Feathers & Fire Skies saves its greatest wonder for after sunset.

The Atacama’s exceptionally dry climate, elevation, and clear skies have made northern Chile one of the world’s extraordinary places for astronomy. It is home to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and an international community of scientists studying the universe.

We aren’t promising an ALMA visit yet—its general public visit program is currently suspended—but its presence tells us something important about this landscape: some of humanity’s most sophisticated instruments for looking into the universe were placed here for a reason.

Discover ALMA Observatory

And perhaps that is exactly where we should spend one evening doing almost nothing.

No agenda.

No rushing to the next attraction.

Just a chair, a dark desert, and the universe overhead.

What Could Feathers & Fire Skies Become?

We’re still dreaming.

The itinerary isn’t finished. We still need to find the right local storytellers. Experiences to explore, meals to taste, guides to meet, and perhaps a few unexpected rabbit holes waiting for us in Bolivia and Chile.

That’s exactly what What Are We Dreaming About? means.

We can already imagine private 4×4 exploration across Uyuni, an alfresco meal surrounded by salt and sky, flamingos moving through Laguna Colorada, evenings around a fire, remarkable Bolivian and Chilean food, indigenous stories, and a final night beneath the Atacama stars.

But an Epic Exploration should leave room for something we haven’t discovered yet.

Because ultimately Feathers & Fire Skies isn’t about collecting photographs of flamingos or checking the Salar de Uyuni off a list.

It’s about standing somewhere extraordinary and remembering how enormous, strange, beautiful, and wonderfully improbable our world really is.

And maybe returning home with a little more wonder than we left with

 

 

Beautifully Obsessed – Kansas City: Art

What Happens When a City Becomes a Canvas?

Kansas City is known for barbecue, jazz, fountains, sports, and its crossroads location in America. But look a little closer, and another Kansas City begins to emerge.

A city shaped by artists.

Painters. Sculptors. Ceramicists. Photographers. Muralists. Architects. Designers. Gallery owners. Collectors. Curators. Teachers. Restorers. And wonderfully creative people who became beautifully obsessed with making something and, in the process, helped shape the way Kansas City sees itself.

That is the Kansas City we’re dreaming about exploring.

Beautifully Obsessed – Kansas City: Art

isn’t envisioned as a museum tour or a checklist of galleries. We’re curious about the people behind the art, the stories behind the canvas, and the creative energy that has quietly made Kansas City an extraordinary place to experience art.

Beautifully Obsessed – Kansas City: Art Begins with the Masters

Any exploration of Kansas City’s artistic story eventually encounters Thomas Hart Benton.

Benton lived and worked in Kansas City for decades, creating art that told distinctly American stories. His influence remains visible throughout the city, from his preserved home and studio to important works held by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

But seeing Benton’s paintings is only the beginning.

What did he see in America that others didn’t? How did Kansas City influence him? Who did he influence in return? And what can his studio, brushes, sketches, surroundings, and unfinished ideas tell us about the person behind the celebrated name?

Those are the kinds of questions we want to follow.

Beyond the Museum Walls

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art would naturally be part of the conversation, as would the Kansas City Art Institute and the creative neighborhoods surrounding them.

But Beautifully Obsessed – Kansas City: Art should take us beyond institutions.

Into studios.

Behind gallery doors.

Down alleys covered in murals.

Into neighborhoods transformed by creative people.

Perhaps into the workshop of someone who restores paintings or the studio of an artist whose work we’ve just encountered.

We want to meet the people who make art, preserve it, collect it, teach it, champion it, and sometimes challenge us to reconsider what art even is.

The Artists Who Tell Kansas City’s Story

Some of the most meaningful encounters may come from artists whose stories aren’t found on the traditional visitor’s map.

One artist may introduce us to a creative legacy passed from one generation to another. Another may help us understand the evolution of Kansas City’s contemporary art scene. A gallery owner might explain what makes them stop in front of an unknown artist’s work. A muralist might reveal why a particular wall, neighborhood, or story needed painting.

These aren’t simply opportunities to look at art.

They’re opportunities to understand why someone felt compelled to create it.

That’s where Beautifully Obsessed becomes something different.

A City That Creates

The Crossroads Arts District gives us another thread to follow. Warehouses and commercial buildings became studios and galleries. Murals turned blank walls into enormous canvases. First Fridays brought artists and the public together.

But even that raises more questions.

Who were the people who saw possibility in those buildings before everyone else did? How did artists influence the rebirth of the neighborhood? Where are Kansas City’s creative communities emerging next?

And how does a city’s architecture, public sculpture, fashion, photography, music, food, and design become part of its larger artistic identity?

Perhaps the boundaries of this Journey aren’t nearly as clear as we first imagined.

We like that.

What If We Learned to See Differently?

There may be an even bigger idea behind Beautifully Obsessed – Kansas City: Art.

What if the Journey isn’t ultimately about art?

What if it’s about learning to see?

Artists notice things most of us walk past. They see color, shadow, shape, emotion, contradiction, beauty, decay, humor, injustice, and possibility.

Spend enough time with people who see the world that way, and perhaps we begin noticing things differently ourselves.

So somewhere along this Journey, we may create something. Not because anyone needs to become an artist, but because making something forces us to observe.

And at the end, perhaps the question isn’t:

What art did you see?

It’s:

What do you see now that you didn’t see before?

That is the Journey we’re dreaming about.

Kansas City is the canvas.

The artists are waiting to tell their stories.

And we’re curious to discover where those stories might lead us.

Explore Your World Epically.

I AM — Portugal

What if we didn’t simply study the words of Jesus—but traveled through them?

Scripture offers moments when Jesus answers one of humanity’s most profound questions: Who are You?

His answers are among the most recognizable words in the Bible.

I am the Bread of Life.
I am the Light of the World.
I am the Door.
I am the Good Shepherd.
I am the Resurrection and the Life.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I am the True Vine.

With I AM — Portugal, we are exploring the possibility of turning those words into a journey.

Not a traditional religious tour. Not a succession of churches, monuments, and lectures. And certainly not an attempt to recreate biblical Israel in another country.

Instead, we are asking a different question:

Could Portugal become a living classroom for discovering who Jesus says He is?

A Journey Through the “I AM” Statements of Jesus

Portugal gives us an extraordinary canvas.

In Porto, where bread remains part of the rhythm of everyday Portuguese life, we can begin with “I am the Bread of Life.” Around a table, perhaps with a baker or local family, bread becomes more than food. It becomes conversation about sustenance, dependence, hospitality, and what truly feeds us.

From there, the journey could move into the Douro Valley, where light transforms steep, vineyard-covered hillsides. Here we explore “I am the Light of the World” while experiencing a landscape shaped by generations of human hands.

In Óbidos, its walls, gates, and narrow passages offer an intriguing setting for “I am the Door.” What does it mean to enter? To be welcomed? To discover that a doorway can represent both invitation and decision?

Portugal’s countryside gives us another possibility.

Among shepherding traditions and rural communities, “I am the Good Shepherd” moves beyond metaphor. We can meet people whose lives remain connected to livestock, land, responsibility, and care—giving new texture to words written two thousand years ago.

In Évora, surrounded by layers of Roman, medieval, and Christian history, we contemplate “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” The city reminds us that civilizations rise and fall, generations come and go, yet questions of life, death, meaning, and eternity remain.

Eventually, the road brings us to Lisbon.

For centuries, people departed from Portugal’s shores without knowing exactly what waited beyond the horizon. Against that history of departure, discovery, uncertainty, and courage, we encounter perhaps the most encompassing declaration: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

And then there is the vine.

Around Sintra and Colares, one of Portugal’s historic wine landscapes gives us a remarkable place to explore “I am the True Vine.” Walking among vines, meeting growers, tasting wine, and learning how vines are tended gives you a chance to think differently about abiding, pruning, fruitfulness, and connection.

We Are Still Exploring

That is exactly where I AM — Portugal stands today.

We know the biblical framework. We see the possibilities. Now we are searching for the people and places that can bring the life journey to life.

We are looking for the shepherd who can explain what caring for a flock actually requires. The baker willing to welcome us behind the counter. The winemaker who understands that a vineyard is as much an inheritance as agriculture. The historian who can reveal layers we would otherwise walk past. The pastor, theologian, artisan, farmer, chef, and local storyteller who can add another dimension to the experience.

Portugal already possesses a remarkable tradition of spiritual journeys. Pilgrimage routes cross the country toward Fátima and Santiago, while centuries of Christian and Jewish history remain visible in its cities and villages. But I AM — Portugal will follow its own path.

This journey isn’t about checking religious landmarks off a list.

It is about slowing down.

Listening.

Sharing meals.

Walking landscapes.

Opening Scripture.

Asking questions.

And allowing ancient words to become unexpectedly tangible.

We don’t know every stop yet.

We don’t know everyone we’ll meet.

That’s what makes this stage exciting.

I AM — Portugal is being explored.

And somewhere along the road, we may discover that the most important question isn’t simply Where are we going?

It is:

Who is He?

Argentina — Fire, Wine & the End of the World

There are places you visit. And then some places seem determined to remind you just how big the world really is.

Argentina — Fire, Wine & the End of the World is our dream of a journey through a country defined by extremes: sophisticated cities and enormous wilderness, vineyards beneath the Andes, fire-grilled meals shared around a table, immense fields of ancient ice, and a final horizon where the mountains disappear into the sea.

This isn’t about seeing Argentina.

It’s about feeling it.

Begin with Fire

Our exploration would begin in Buenos Aires, a city with an unmistakable pulse. Grand European architecture stands beside neighborhood cafés, historic markets, intimate restaurants, music, art, and tango traditions.

But the fire in Argentina — Fire, Wine & the End of the World is more than the flame beneath an Argentine parrilla.

It is the passion of the country itself.

We imagine experiences that introduce us to the people behind Argentina’s traditions: chefs, artists, historians, musicians, gauchos, winemakers, and local characters whose stories reveal a country far more complicated and fascinating than any checklist of attractions.

There should be time to wander. Time to sit at a table. Time for conversations that weren’t scheduled.

Because sometimes the unforgettable part of travel happens between the things we planned.

Then Comes the Wine

From Buenos Aires, the journey turns toward Mendoza and the Andes.

Mendoza is Argentina’s great wine country, internationally recognized for Malbec and surrounded by one of the world’s most dramatic wine landscapes. Vineyards stretch toward an enormous wall of snow-capped mountains, creating a place where wine, food, agriculture, geography, and human ingenuity become inseparable.

Here we wouldn’t simply taste wine.

We would explore why the wine exists.

We want to meet the people who cultivate these vineyards, understand the influence of altitude and climate, walk among the vines, explore distinctive wine regions such as the Uco Valley and Luján de Cuyo, and gather around tables where exceptional Argentine wines accompany food prepared over fire.

The Andes are always there in the background, reminding us that nature ultimately wrote the first chapter of this story.

Into Patagonia

Then the scale changes.

Southward lies Patagonia.

The cities become smaller. The roads become longer. The horizon expands.

In Los Glaciares National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, enormous glaciers descend from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field toward glacial lakes. Perito Moreno becomes more than something to photograph. The ice’s cracking and movement create one of those rare travel moments when conversation stops.

This is exactly what Searching for Wonders is about.

Not declaring what everyone else must consider wonderful, but standing somewhere extraordinary and asking ourselves:

Why does this move us?

The End of the World

And then we continue south.

All the way to Tierra del Fuego.

Ushuaia sits between mountains and the Beagle Channel at Argentina’s southern edge, a gateway to landscapes of forests, lakes, islands, wildlife, and sea.

Here we can explore Tierra del Fuego National Park, navigate the Beagle Channel, discover the history of the Indigenous peoples who lived in this demanding environment, and learn why Europeans looking toward the shore saw distant fires and gave this place a name that has endured for centuries:

Tierra del Fuego — Land of Fire.

Suddenly our journey has come full circle.

We began with fire.

We traveled through wine country.

We stood before ancient ice.

And we arrived in the Land of Fire at what feels remarkably like the edge of the world.

What Are We Dreaming About?

We’re dreaming about an Argentina that isn’t rushed.

A journey filled with extraordinary landscapes, certainly, but also winemakers, cooks, ranchers, historians, naturalists, local guides, and unexpected conversations.

We dream of long dinners and longer horizons. Malbec beneath the Andes. The thunder of breaking ice. A boat cutting through the Beagle Channel. Standing quietly somewhere in Tierra del Fuego and realizing there isn’t much world left to the south.

Argentina — Fire, Wine & the End of the World isn’t finished yet.

That’s precisely why it belongs here.

We’re still exploring the possibilities, finding the right people, asking questions, following interesting roads, and imagining what could happen when we connect these extraordinary places into one Epic Exploration.

Because sometimes the best journeys begin with a simple question:

What would happen if we kept going south?

Panama — Between Two Oceans

We visit some places because of what happened there. And then there are places where geography itself seems to have written the story.

Panama — Between Two Oceans is an Epic Exploration into one of the most consequential crossroads on Earth—a narrow isthmus connecting North and South America while separating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Here, geography has influenced biodiversity, migration, empire, commerce, engineering, culture, and the movement of people and ideas for centuries.

This journey begins with a deceptively simple question:

How can one narrow strip of land change the destiny of the world?

The answer begins long before the Panama Canal.

Millions of years ago, the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama connected two continents and separated ocean ecosystems, transforming the natural world. Today, Panama remains one of the planet’s remarkable centers of biodiversity. At Panama City’s Biomuseo, designed by Frank Gehry, we can begin exploring the extraordinary story of how Panama’s formation changed life on Earth.

Then humans discovered the strategic importance of the same geography.

Spanish explorers and merchants crossed the isthmus carrying treasure and goods between oceans. Colonial routes, Caribbean fortifications, and places such as Portobelo and San Lorenzo reveal an earlier version of globalization—built on ships, stone roads, rivers, fortresses, ambition, and empire. Panama’s historic trans-isthmian routes remain so significant that UNESCO recognizes them as part of the country’s World Heritage.

And then came one of humanity’s great engineering achievements: the Panama Canal.

Rather than simply watching ships pass through the locks, Panama — Between Two Oceans explores the Canal as an idea. Why here? How was it built? What did its construction cost in money and human lives? How did it change global commerce? How does water—not machinery—make the Canal possible? And what does this century-old engineering achievement mean to the interconnected world of the 21st century?

But the Canal is only one chapter.

We venture beyond Panama City into landscapes where another Panama emerges. Tropical rainforest surrounds waterways that have carried people for generations. Indigenous communities, including the Emberá, offer an opportunity to encounter living traditions and consider how people maintain cultural identity in a rapidly changing country.

In the highlands around Boquete and Chiriquí, the story changes again. Cloud forests, volcanic soils, extraordinary birdlife, agriculture, and some of the world’s most celebrated Geisha coffee reveal how elevation and microclimate can shape an entirely different landscape. Here, coffee becomes more than something we drink. It becomes a doorway into agriculture, terroir, economics, craftsmanship, and the people behind one of Panama’s most fascinating products.

Throughout the journey, nature remains inseparable from the story. Panama lies along one of the world’s great biological corridors. Rainforest, cloud forest, coastlines, marine environments, birds, wildlife, and tropical ecosystems remind us that the same geography that made Panama commercially important also made it biologically extraordinary.

And eventually, we reach the water.

Perhaps the Pacific. Perhaps the Caribbean. Perhaps both.

Because Panama — Between Two Oceans isn’t about collecting destinations; it is about following a question across a country.

We may walk colonial streets, watch an enormous ship rise inside a lock, listen for birds beneath a rainforest canopy, meet people whose families have lived along these rivers for generations, stand among coffee trees on a mountainside, and finish a day looking toward an ocean that once represented the edge of someone’s known world.

Each experience reveals another layer of the same story.

Two oceans.

Two continents.

Ancient cultures and modern cities.

Rainforest and engineering.

Colonial trade routes and global shipping lanes.

Tradition and transformation.

Panama — Between Two Oceans explores what happens when geography creates opportunity—and humanity responds.

This isn’t simply a journey through Panama.

It explores how one small country helped connect the world.