Dreaming of better times, when the possibilities seemed endless. As much as I miss traveling, it hardly seems worth it right now. It’s just one more thing to add to the list of “Things I never thought I’d say.”
ByGD
Historical Haul
In July of 2016 I went on a pilgrimage to Powell’s Books in Portland with my mom and my two kids. We spent two full days in Portland and we did a lot of touristy stuff. But we spent several hours at Powell’s each day, and we bought a lot of books. To this day, it remains one of my favorite trips. And I’m still reading books I bought then.
ByGD
Travel TV
Armchair travel is the only kind of travel these days. But even when times are normal, most of us can’t hop on a plane every time we feel like it. That’s why there’s travel TV. I recently wrote about my love for inflight movies, and mentioned that on my last trip, I watched a Chinese travel show. It was a surprisingly educational experience.
ByGD
Old Bisbee Brewing Company
I was a kid when I lived in Arizona, so I don’t really know anything about its drinking culture. But I never had the sense of it as a craft brewing kind of place. So I was a little bit surprised to find The Old Bisbee Brewing Company, a microbrewery with intriguing and unfamiliar flavors when I returned for a touristy visit. I don’t remember exactly what this was – I think it had something to do with pears? – but it was tasty and unique and we bought extra to bring home.
Of course it was in Bisbee. As a shop lady in a neighboring town told me, “They’re kind of weird down there in Bisbee.”
Bisbee is my kind of town.
ByGD
The Universal Dog
Few species are as diverse as the dog. From chihuahuas to Irish wolfhounds, dogs have been bred into almost any variation humans can imagine. There are at least 200 official dog breeds in the U.S., and one international organization recognizes 344. But for all their variety, there is a universal dog. Whatever you start with, if you let dogs mix freely, this the dog you’ll get in a few generations. I took this picture in Qingdao, China. But I once owned a mutt that looked like this in the U.S., and I’ve seen his doppelganger in India and Thailand. I have no doubt I could find this dog anywhere that stray dogs roam. He’s the universal dog.