'Travel' Archive

Your Fugitive’s Name Is…

We’re stuck on a plane at La Guardia airport, waiting for a ground stop in Chicago to lift so we can return home from a weeklong romp through the east coast. I’ve just seen Ja Rule in the airport terminal, and I figure this random sighting will provide me with some conversational fodder back home.
But [...]

Boston, I’m Here To Meet Yo Babies And Eat Yo Food

Roughly nine million of our friends had children over the past year, which means that our annual east coast swing has become a bit of a baby meet-and-greet.

It’s such a burden, let me tell you, what with their endearing little smiles and their… well… their HATS.

We’re trying to eat our way through as much of [...]

Get to Know You Better

After a year of planning, two of my close friends quit their jobs last month to travel the country in search of a new home city — an undertaking that strikes me as remarkably brave, though completely in character.
Maybe you have friends like these; tirelessly curious, fearless, and fascinated by the aspects of everyday life. [...]

Field Notes: Stateside

The last post from our weeklong visit with my mother-in-law Nina in southwestern Germany:
Chicago you really know how to roll out the red carpet. After nine hours in a flying tin can, we collapsed into a cab at O’Hare on Saturday night. Minutes later we sat in a traffic jam on 94, courtesy of the [...]

Field Notes: They Got a Church in a Rock and Everything

The sixth post from our weeklong visit with my mother-in-law Nina in southwestern Germany:
We popped over to Idar-Oberstein yesterday where they got a church in a rock and you should see it.

I imagine two enterprising builders of yore sitting at the Nahe river’s edge, chewing on grass stalks and staring up at the massive cliff [...]

Field Notes: Slovenia Is My Lovely Mother

The fifth post from our weeklong visit with my mother-in-law Nina in southwestern Germany:
On a country highway several miles outside of Ruschberg stands a modest house covered with hand-painted messages, written mostly in English. The signs praise the United States and NATO; they warn enemies away from Israel; they praise peace-loving countries.
The homeowner, an older [...]

Field Notes: Storming the Castle

The fourth post from our weeklong visit with my mother-in-law Nina in southwestern Germany:
For those following along without the use of an RSS reader, I’ve posted my notes from Koln and Bonn chronologically, so skip down to the next post for the recap.
Back to the castle portion of the program:
German word of the day: Kartoffelplätzchen!
My [...]

Field Notes: Koln and Bonn

The third post from our weeklong visit with my mother-in-law Nina in southwestern Germany:
German word of the day: entshuldigung!
I could smell Germany all day. It’s like fireplace smoke and snow 24/7. I could also eat Movenpick yogurt and pretzel bread all day.
Four German cities later and I have yet to see a piece of litter. [...]