Category: Adventure
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Leaves through the Looking Glass
The three days Nicole and I spent in Victoria were star-studded with beauty and color, but nothing was quite so breathtaking as the Butchart Gardens, just a few minutes north of the city. Now a Canadian National Historic Site, the Gardens were the private grounds surrounding the home of Robert and Jennie Butchart. So the…
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Tea for two
No stay at the Empress is complete without sitting down to Afternoon Tea. Now, I love a good cuppa no matter where I am, but leaning back in a squashy chair and gazing upward at something like this makes every sip a little more special. The Empress has been pouring tea every afternoon since it…
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Oh, Canada!
Yeah, I know. It’s a week before Christmas, and Hanukkah starts tomorrow. Our tree is up, and we even had our mega-huge holiday party last night (62 people—a new record!). But somehow, my mind is occupied with red-gold maples, not flocked evergreens. Maybe it’s the fact that everyone’s lawns are at their greenest at this…
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Cabinet of wonders
You already know that I have a thing for hidden, quiet spaces tucked away within large cities. So imagine my delight when Jessica turned me onto this place. Bell’occhio has quickly become my favorite (and most regularly visited) haunt in San Francisco. It’s easy to miss—it’s just a few steps off of the main drag…
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Secret garden
Since I’ve had parrots on the brain for so long, I thought it would make a fitting end to my San Francisco trip to go in search of them. You see, according to legend documented fact, San Francisco has a wild population of feral parrots—if that isn’t nautically themed, I don’t know what is. Yarr!…
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Even Keel
It’s hard to think of a better weekend activity than taking a quick trip to San Francisco. First of all, Jessica and I got to visit the lovely Sarah and Jesse, who live here— and whose back yard contains this. And then we got to raise a fantastic ruckus and make guerrilla street art with…
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We Heart SF
Splurging on a giant bag of salt water taffy is probably a weird way to research a new project, but I swear it’s relevant. That’s right—Jessica and I are carving again. We’ve been invited by the good folks at the San Francisco Center for the Book (big shout-out to the amazing Rocket!) to be among…
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When in Rome
Many of my favorite towns (Boulder, Missoula, Portland, the other Portland, Duluth, Tacoma, Providence, etc.) seem to be kindred spirits to one another. There’s something about the coming-together of historic architecture, blue-collar grittiness, a population full of creative types and surrounding natural beauty that … well, for which I’m a total sucker. So based on…
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An anniversary
All this week the radio, the blogs, the instant media, and I’m sure the television, too, have been blaring with recaps and riffs and reflections and rage, on repeat, about that day when we all learned a little more about the nature of fear. And it’s not that I’m avoiding thinking about it—it’s that I…
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