COVID gives us the finger If you've traveled at all during the pandemic, you may be familiar with the phenomenon of the 'grab bag' in lieu of the breakfast that most fair-to-middlin' hotels include with your room. We found this at once disappointing and hilarious, although in truth we'd be unwilling to eat from a … Continue reading Vacation Travel 2021, Part the Second: Asheville
Vacations
Travel Story: Wilmington, NC at the Solstice
summer solstice 2021, Wrightsville Beach The Chef and I are home one week now after our exploratory trip down in Wilmington, North Carolina, where we'll soon count ourselves as residents among the local population. David had some promising interviews and we managed to find a place to live, a gigantic list item ticked. These images … Continue reading Travel Story: Wilmington, NC at the Solstice
Frozen Moments: A Memory
Impressionist-like landscape Leaving work last Friday afternoon, and even a couple of moments earlier in the week, I paused to drink in the landscape around our office campus, so eerily quiet just now. It always possesses a bucolic beauty, even on the bleakest winter days. But at some point when I was too preoccupied with … Continue reading Frozen Moments: A Memory
Journal Entry: A Holiday Reflection
Today is my last ‘official’ day off in a week with a couple of holidays plunked smack into the middle of it, courtesy of our Gregorian calendar. I exercised a little opportunism, nudging some unclaimed vacation time around what was already coming, like a pair of bookends. There is still the weekend ahead, which will … Continue reading Journal Entry: A Holiday Reflection
Travel Story: (I Wish We Could Go) Fly Fishing Out West
But since we can't right now (never mind that neither The Chef nor I knows how to fly fish), we'll live vicariously through one of my talented colleagues at the marketing agency where I work. Jeremiah recently shared the exquisite video he and his girlfriend Kara made documenting their trip to Montana and Wyoming, where … Continue reading Travel Story: (I Wish We Could Go) Fly Fishing Out West
Vacation Postscript: It’s Still Summer, Dammit
But you’d never know it from the ‘seasonal’ departments in all the big box retailers. I defy you to visit one and find that thing you had your eye on for your backyard deck or patio a couple weeks ago, but decided to think on it: ‘Tis gone, gone, gone now, and in its place—Crayola … Continue reading Vacation Postscript: It’s Still Summer, Dammit
Travel Journal: Knoxville in a Day
I feel less connected to Knoxville every time I go back there, a thing that makes me all kinds of sad, but also somehow helps propel me forward, make my peace with where I am now. Don’t get me wrong: I shall never be a proper Yankee, but will remain forever a Southerner, wherever I … Continue reading Travel Journal: Knoxville in a Day
Travel Story: We Visit Fallingwater
Let me start backwards with stories of our Way Down South trip, that is to say, start at the end, while the images and sounds and smells from our special day at Fallingwater haven’t yet faded or grown too stale. We drove out of our way to tour this exquisite Frank Lloyd Wright house, widely … Continue reading Travel Story: We Visit Fallingwater
Journal Entry: Travel Crunch Time
It is what Chef David calls the days and moments leading up to our road trips, which we anticipate eagerly all year, and embrace giddily in spite of all the feverish preparations before liftoff. Crunch time has arrived, and entails not only planning the so-called ‘capsule’ wardrobe one takes on a trip, and unearthing the … Continue reading Journal Entry: Travel Crunch Time
Travel Story: Road Trip to Tennessee the WPA Way
Looky what came in last week’s mail. The only thing better would have been stumbling across this in a Vermont antique store or at a local tag sale. Well, that, and maybe a first edition, instead of this third edition. I did locate a first edition in excellent shape in another online vendor’s inventory, evidently … Continue reading Travel Story: Road Trip to Tennessee the WPA Way
Sycamore Stories 