OFFASSIGNMENT: 6:32 a.m. at Boudhanath Stupa
6:32 a.m. at Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu is a rapid current of silence and hope, a clockwise ritual that welcomes me without question. I can come. I can go. I can pray. I can walk and pretend to pray. It is the hour of the observant, of chants and prostrations, of prayer and potential…
AAA MAGAZINE: London calling: In search of nostalgia and surprise on a return trip
Only hours after arriving in London—my fourth visit to a city I claim to know so well I refer to it as “my first boyfriend”—I botched the English language. Famished after traveling across 8 time zones, I walked up to the hotel bar, glanced at the menu, and blurted out, “Can I get chips and guac?”
The bartender gave me a quizzical look…
TORONTO STAR: Instead of arid emptiness in the California desert, I found resilience in Joshua Tree National Park at a time when I needed it most
Under a gorgeous blue-ribbon sky, a breeze catches the door of a decaying 1930s pickup sinking into the desert, and slams it open and shut, like some ghost truck. It is a classic American Wild West sound, that desolate creak captured in movies, but contrary to mythmaking, the truck — one of the relics of fortune-seeking miners, found on the hiking trails of Joshua Tree National Park — is surrounded by beginnings and life…
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Little Blue
It was 10:30 in the morning Mountain Time when I landed in Missoula, Montana, and was standing half-awake in a rental car agency parking lot. A train snaked past, and its loud whistle perked me up some. It had been a whirlwind morning: I had left my house in suburban New Jersey at 2:45 a.m….
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Summer Travel Must-Haves
There are many things I am not good at, and blogging is one of them. In fact, I’m wondering if I should open every blog post with a self-deprecating “I stink at this,” just to see who sticks around—a litmus test of your dedication, dear 2.5 readers. But now and then, there’s something worth blogging…
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The Doughnut’s First Year: A Retrospective
Just over a year ago, I started traveling with a giant plastic pink doughnut floatie. I can’t tell you where I got the idea, but I can tell you the doughnut made its debut in a private pool in Coral Springs, Florida, Christmas 2016. It’s public debut happened in Sedona, Arizona—a rather magical place to…
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