goatee

°2025.07.08.Tue | Train to Portland

We try visit Portland at least once a year, always by car. This year we took the Amtrak Downeaster. The benefit is we didn’t have to worry about driving, parking, and traffic. We did have to be a bit more patient in waiting for public transit, but that was fine: Amtrak was pleasant and three buses regularly run up and down Congress Street, Portland’s main thoroughfare. For example, on our last day we checked out of La Quinta at 11:00 am, walked 20 minutes to the train station, hiked along the nearby Fore River Park Trail, cooled off at the station, got on the train, got into Boston’s North Station, stretched our legs along the nice walk across the Charles River Damn and Revere Park to Cambridge Crossing, got dinner at Bon Me, then took the #69 from Lechmere to within a block of our building. We missed stopping at Fort Williams Park on the way back, but we got our fill of views and old battlements via the ferry to Peaks Island and Battery Steele. (BTW: the Wikipedia article on the latter still uses my photo from our 2015 visit!)

The most important thing, though, is that Nixie enjoyed playing fetch on the beach.

°2025.04.22.Tue | New Orleans, LA

We’re back from NOLA, where I presented at the 2025 Popular Culture Assocation Conference. I didn’t care for the French Quarter (too many tourists and addicts) but I did note a few things, that can be seen in my photos.

• We made much use of the 12 and 57 tram and bus lines, respectively.
• The RTA public transit ferry ride to Algiers Point was a nice and inexpensive way to float on the Mississippi.
• Stores were more casual about dogs than those in Boston; the buses were okay and the trams more strict—even when we had Nixie in a bag, as permitted by policy.
• Folks there like their floats! Weekend nights are lit by open air buses and floats full of women drinking and partying (in Ward 7 at least).
• City Park is not a nice walking-about park; rather, it’s a bunch of athletic fields.
• Audubon Park is a lovely place to walk about (designed by an Olmsted).
• The Garden District is beautiful.
• I enjoyed Oak St. neighborhood, in Ward 14.
• Breads on Oak is one of the best vegan bakeries I’ve ever been to.

°2025.03.10.Mon | Newport, RI

We took a weekend trip to Newport, RI. It wasn’t freezing, but it could be windy. Nonetheless, we enjoyed some beautiful views, including those from cliff walk, the sunset from old observation tower at Brenton Point, and of the bay at Fort Adams.

°2024.08.26.Mon | The lost rock of Lake Michigan

While visiting Michigan for a family wedding, we came across the Lost Rock of Douglas Beach, Lake Michigan.

°2023.07.27.Thu | Pittsburgh visit

Given we are thinking about the next stage of our lives, we visited Pittsburgh as a place we might move to. We enjoyed the city. There was plenty to do and see, we got around easily on bus and POGOH shared bikes, and we were taken with some of the neighborhoods. Our favorite were:

• Lawrenceville
• Friendship
• Point Breeze North (near East End Food Co-Op)
• Mexican War Streets in Central Northside
• (Bloomfield and Garfield are also okay)

°2022.08.30.Tue | Sunday River, Maine

Visiting a ski resort in the summer makes for beautiful views. We took chair lifts up the mountain and hiked along a trail.

°2022.03.14.Mon | Caladesi via Clearwater

In 1985, Hurricane Elena filled in the Dunedin Pass, separating Clearwater Beach from Caladesi Island, though it is a bit of a (lovely) hike.

You know you’re near the boundary, when you see the shell trees.

And you know you should hurry back, when the tide starts coming in.

°2022.03.13.Sun | Gulf Coast Sunset

Something that tickles me, as a New Englander, is an aquatic sunset.

°2021.09.07.Tue | North Shore, South Shore

This labor day weekend, we got a car and explored the coast around Boston.

On Saturday, we explored the North Shore and happened across Gerry Island, for which there is a path when the tide is out.

Monday, we explored the South Shore, and enjoyed the rocky beach of Webb Memorial Park.

°2020.12.21.Mon | What counts as meat?

Rebecca Schuman’s Schadenfreude, A Love Story reminds me of my favorite zines from the naughts, and I’m enjoying her stories of high-school angst and collegiate travel from that era.

Last night I laughed with recognition when she learned, as a vegetarian in Germany, that the little cubes of ham on her broccoli and cheese was not meat but ham (“Das ist doch kein Fleisch – das ist Schinken.”)

I’ve had similar experiences traveling the world as a vegetarian:

• In Europe and Asia, ham, chicken, and fish are not necessarily “meat.”
• In Asia, a “vegetarian” dumpling can have fish sauce.
• In Asia, asking for “vegetarian” food can also mean no onion or garlic because the diet is closely associated with Buddhist monastics who swear off pungent vegetables.