With Matthew’s help, I have been playing around again with some of the website code.
I have made the background for the page a light pink-beige, and chose a similar color for the background of captions that go with pictures.
I have also moved back to a serif typface after a couple years of a san-serif face. This one is “Georgia” which is a nice all-around simple font. The serifs lend a bit of elegance and assist with reading when eyes are tired.
I will probably play around with things a little bit more as the vacation goes on.
I just want to say that I really enjoy WordPress as a platform for the website. It is (mostly) intuitive and generally works as advertised. I love the ease of trying out new themes and adapting and amending them. It’s a good interface for beginners with enough flexibility for people with more experience.