Oh, the things I wish I’d known when I was young. Take the ingredients for a basic bake pictured at the top of this post. They look simple enough but for me they represent small lessons learned over decades. Mise en Place I enjoy the calmness of preparing and laying out all the ingredients for…… Continue reading Zen and the Art of Casserole Assembly
Category: Plan
My Kagoshima: Chunking the Map
I’m filled with questions when I look at a map of a place I have never visited. How do I chunk up a manageable journey through this place? How do I get there? Which areas do I visit? Where are the hiking trails? Where are the trailheads? How do I get around? How do I…… Continue reading My Kagoshima: Chunking the Map
Superior Trail Planning
Damp day: a good day to plan a Superior Trail hike. (Any day is a good day to plan a hike.)
Iron Road to the Capital of Latin America
Tomorrow I leave Savannah for Miami, the end of the line on Amtrak. A journey from a world constrained by history to a place that is still inventing itself. For tourists, Charleston and Savannah are about colonial times and early independence through the end of the civil war. A white history with selective amnesia. Miami…… Continue reading Iron Road to the Capital of Latin America
Iron Road to the Capital of Latin America
Posted Iron Road to the Capital of Latin America.
Iron Road to Gotham
This week I head slowly to New York City by Amtrak. In Life, Phase 3, you don’t have to rush or be perturbed by inevitable delays. Each night I’ll be in a hotel rather than a train, which gives me a chance to go walkabout in Chicago and Cleveland. My partner will join my in…… Continue reading Iron Road to Gotham
Iron Road to Gotham
Mile zero of 2,700 Amtrak miles. Posted about the first leg of the journey.
Long Trip, Light Backpack
Kauai in a Box
A couple months ago, my partner, Dwight, announced he had some spare vacation days. That was my cue to rush to the computer and put together a trip to the island of Kauai (Hawaii) based on previous visits: Kauai in a Box. How you approach Kauai depends on your definition of activity. The Kauai.com list of…… Continue reading Kauai in a Box
Dreaming of Kyushu
This winter I’ll be back in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. I will have visited Kyushu three years in a row: 2013, 2014, and 2015. I go back for the gentle subtropical climate while Minnesota’s long winter refuses to budge. Kyushu is a manageable size, about one-sixth the area of Minnesota or…… Continue reading Dreaming of Kyushu