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
Travel
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
Nine-ish years in Vermont: A Retrospective
Woodstock, Vermont It is possible I’m already growing wistful for Vermont, and we still live here, I mused aloud to The Chef a few days ago. Incredulous, he asked, Do you mean to tell me when we’re down in North Carolina, you’ll miss Vermont? Mm-hm, I answered. He’d have face palmed, except we were in … Continue reading Nine-ish years in Vermont: A Retrospective
A Family Memory: Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax and Surprise Connections
From The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gillman, 1966 I can still see the dog-eared paperback clear as day on the guest bedroom nightstand in my childhood home in Memphis: a mystery novel by Dorothy Gillman titled The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, my great-grandmother Gracie’s reading selection on that visit. On the book jacket a woman … Continue reading A Family Memory: Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax and Surprise Connections
Travel Story: A Vacation Lamentation
O, Plague that has stolen so much from so many, will you truly deny us our annual purgative pilgrimage? (Unmoved, Plague replies through a yawn, a pox upon your house.) Back in February we began the calculus as always, surfing for dog-friendly digs, option weighing, and atlas consulting—the old-school version with the spiral binding, a … Continue reading Travel Story: A Vacation Lamentation
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 Feed Goats in Chattanooga
Goats were not specifically why we traveled to Chattanooga (we got there by way of Christiansburg, VA, thence to Knoxville before finally arriving), but the goats proved an entertaining and comical diversion one sultry evening on Missionary Ridge; they also made splendid subjects to photograph. I’ll get to them. A theme that popped up again … Continue reading Travel Story: We Feed Goats in Chattanooga
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
Sycamore Stories 