Eugene, Round Trip

With Mom in Eugene and Brother in Portland, we run up and down the interstate more than we’d like to admit. The drive doesn’t get any better, though there are some pretty stretches when you get to the bridges in southern Washington and right now, you can roll your windows down and fill the car …


…read more.

Wanderlust: Sickness and Sin

Note: While some things about this post are as true today as when I wrote it, close to exactly one year after I published it, I was eating dinner at the night market in Saigon.

I was in the airport last week and after I dropped off the husband, I walked past the Hawaiian Air counter. There was no line. “What if…” I thought, feeling in my jacket for my wallet. It happens in the movies all the time. Some disenchanted broken hearted misdirected soul wanders up to the counter and asks for the next flight to the tropics. They hand over a credit card and the camera cuts to a montage of – hey, there I am, shopping for a swimsuit, a towel, some flipflops, and a sarong! Moments later, to the sound of cheesy 70s pop, I’m frolicking in the surf, cut, drinking a cocktail with an umbrella in it, cut, walking in to the sunset, a silhouette against an orange sky. Believe it or not, I’m walking on air, never thought I could feel so free eee eee!

Sigh. As if.


…read more.

The Seattle Travel Show: A Festival of Big Ideas

With little understanding of what, exactly, a consumer travel show is, we wandered down to the exhibition hall at Seattle Center. It would never occur to me to go to a travel show to plan my next vacation. I don’t want to join a group, hire a travel agent, stock up on brochures, buy a …


…read more.

Traveling Poetry

And now, a little Tom Waits for the traveler. Anyone got chords? I think I need to learn to play this. Foreign Affair when traveling abroad in the continental style it’s my belief one must attempt to be discreet and subsequently bear in mind your transient position allows you a perspective that’s unique though you’ll …


…read more.

Rain Soaked Vancouver

It is important to dress well while traveling. I realize that this is stating the obvious, but without an wool overcoat and warm hat and long underwear and big umbrella, the day would have been spent in relative misery. Either we’d have stayed in, napping and drinking tea – not so miserable but beside the …


…read more.

Fish Wednesday, Vancouver Edition

My ex-downstairs neighbor very kindly offered us the use of his West End studio apartment so we could export Fish Wednesday to the north. We left the slushy streets of Seattle and pointed the Tercel towards Canada. After a brief stop at our favorite patchouli scented bagel joint in Bellingham, we crossed the border with …


…read more.