We arrive relieved and a little breathless from the din. We almost didn’t find it; I had considered giving up. But there it is on 6th Street, just past the tortilla place. Here is something different from the rest of Las Vegas: low ceiling, warm light, a host who enjoys the word “patio.” He invites […]
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Thursday, 21 September, 3:30 PM The post was on Instagram: a gorgeous seaside photograph, the image drenched in sunset. A lone figure stood looking at the ocean, her back to the camera. The caption: “Goodbye, summer.” This was a month ago, maybe more. That time when college students return to campus, but nearly a month […]
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And because it was so beautiful, it set me longing, always longing. Somewhere there must be more of it. C.S. Lewis, Til We Have Faces Before our son’s wedding in July, I had never been to the Pacific Northwest, never seen British Columbia, never been in Seattle. Well, okay, I had been in the Seattle airport. […]
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I feel as if I’ve done a lot of traveling lately. It’s that time of year, right? Summer vacation. We’re gone, we’re here, we’re gone again. Definitely not complaining. I love to travel. But lately it’s got me thinking about how I pack. Like most people (everyone?), I’m guessing I have the normal categories: clothes, […]
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We are in New England for the week, staying on a farm in a quiet corner of Rhode Island. It’s beautiful here–because it’s New England, because it’s green and wooded, because it’s about ten degrees cooler than any July at home. Of course we want New England to look as it *should,* and Rhode […]
Read moreIn winter, Route 19 splits West Virginia in two,and the mountains lean back from the road:old men with thinning hairyou can see right down to the roots. Everyone lives up close:a farmhouse with tire swing and tractor, pushing snow and pulling snow and piled upto windshield with it, white and idle; double-wide trailer wedged on […]
Read moreCotignac, France Provence has a basically Mediterranean climate, one wafted by winds that give it a special character. The most notorious is the mistral (from the Provencal mistrau, or master– supposedly sent by northerners jealous of the south’s climate), rushing down from the Rhone and gushing east as far as Toulon and west to Narbonne. […]
Read moreWe’re coming to the end now and no one could possibly argue otherwise. Though the children have two weeks left (not really, not exactly, as their first day is two weeks from yesterday), I have only tomorrow and the weekend, and then I’m back in it–back in the school schedule that fills my days and […]
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