Kona Coffee

So I went to Hawaii and got almost no knitting done. So much for my big plans to finish my new shawl. Can you tell I’m not sorry? Here is my one-and-only Gratuitous Photo of Yarn, taken at Java on the Rock, a great coffee house in Kona. Maybe I didn’t knit much, but I […]

To the sea again

After a short time in Colorado, we returned to the ocean. Most of my friends are in Wisconsin right now, facing an Endless Winter, and I’ve been conflicted, deeply conflicted, about the privileges I enjoy, and the beautiful places I get to see. Author Stephanie Pearl-McPhee recently wrote a post about the guilt she felt […]

Chichén Itzá

When I found myself within striking distance of the Yucatan Peninsula, I knew I had to go to Chichén Itzá. I got up before dawn and took a ferry through rough waters from Cozumel, then climbed on a bus and headed across the swamplands to the Mayan ruins. Exhausted but happy, I arrived at noon […]

Coast of Haiti

On the way home from my holiday, I met a group of men in bright yellow shirts at the Miami airport. They’d been in Haiti, building shelters. We chatted about their work, and I asked one of them if he had a background in construction. “No, ma’am,” he said. “We’re just a bunch of knuckleheads […]

To the sea I went

To the sea I went, my heart full sore For the Norns, whose wrath I would now escape; But the lofty billows bore me undrowned, Till to land I came, so I longer must live. –from Guðrúnarhvöt (Bellows 1923 translation) One of my favorite passages about the sea, Gudrun’s Lament is from The Poetic Edda. […]

Bryce Canyon

We hit the road Thursday, heading for Utah’s Bryce Canyon. On the way over the Continental Divide, we stopped at the Royal Gorge, crossing the highest suspension bridge in the world. [That little tram is hanging a thousand feet above the river.] We made it to the Queen’s Garden by sunset on Friday. Luminous hoodoos! […]

Road to Vegas

We took our first short vacation without the puppy, and of course we missed her terribly. Dulcinea stayed at home, in the kind of fancy kennel that assigns glamorous names to all its suites. Meanwhile, we stayed in a casino, in the kind of generic hotel room that looks just like all the photos on […]