The Building that Elvis Has Left in Shreveport
The Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport is famous because it’s where America’s favorite singer, Elvis Presley, got his big start. We toured this beautiful edifice built in 1929 today and got a chance to go backstage and see the dressing rooms and even listen to a few tunes sung by an Elvis look-a-like. […]
Fertitta’s Deli Is the Only Place Around to Buy a Muffy
What’s a Muffy? You can find out at Fertitta’s Deli in Shreveport, Louisiana. It’s the only building left standing for blocks around. Once there were 31 other small simple houses, but they’re all gone. Inside this wood-framed building is a local institution, so beloved that a street was named after […]
A Glimpse of Baton Rouge and LaPlace Louisiana
We started the day in a swamp, and moved on to view a museum of rural life, the biggest Antebellum plantation, and the Lousiana state museum in and around Baton Rouge today. A group of 27 writers, we enjoyed getting to know each-other with little time to dawdle.
Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and New Orleans Louisiana Await
I’m packing for a trip that starts tomorrow with a flight to New Orleans. I’m joining a group of journalists on a road trip through the great state of Louisiana, and on Saturday morning I’ll take a swamp tour in New Orleans Plantation country. Then we’ll visit the city of […]
Everywhere I Go, Everyone is Sick of This Winter
We’re all just so sick and tired of winter here in New England that we can’t even joke about it any more. On Thursday I drove to Boston with Paul Shoul for a lunch with some Atlantic Canada tourism people. We parked on a street where every car was perched […]
Fort Hill Brewing: A 50-Barrel System with Hops Growing Next Door
Fort Hill Brewery’s big grain silos loom before you out of farm fields driving up Fort Hill Road, off Ferry Street in Easthampton. The footprint is huge, with the towers and a new steel building that looks like a medium sized factory. This new Easthampton brewery is by far the […]
The Lives of Others
In our little country neighborhood, we enjoy watching the parade of people walk by, and the pulse of the neighborhood during different times of the year. We watch our neighbor’s kids on their playset, the single men next door clearing their driveway of snow, and the passing parade of walkers […]
Helsinki Restaurant Week: 3000 Pop-up Eateries For Just One Day
Paul Shoul and I are planning a May trip to Helsinki, Finland. Fortunately, we’ll be there right in time for Restaurant Week. This is a really great idea, considering how many people I’ve met in my life who harbor hopes as budding restauranteurs or food truck operators. From the Helsinki […]
The Roller Coaster Goes Up…and then Down
Do you go from despair to delight, back and forth up and down and sideways? I am startled this week by how great I feel, how optimistic and positive I feel. This contrasts mightily with two weeks ago when I was fretting about the weather, felt down and depressed about […]
North Amherst’s Newest Restaurant, Bread & Butter, Is Open
When I met Cinda Jones at a party on New Year’s Eve, she was very happy to talk about her nascent Mill District and the new businesses that would be opening up there in 2015. Today we ate at the new restaurant that occupies the second half of the Trolley […]
It’s Always Good to Be Back Home
To me there’s nothing better than getting back home to my very comfortable and familiar routine. No matter how much fun I have on a trip and no matter how relieved I might have been to bask in the balmy temperatures of California, just waking up at my usual time […]
Chinatown’s Secrets Revealed with Dorothy of Wok Wiz Tours
If you’ve ever wandered through San Francisco’s Chinatown, you probably did what we did last time. We had no idea where to go, what to see, and ended up in a souvenir shop with no clue about what to see or do. We wanted to know more about the history […]
Kayaking Across Morro Bay, Never Out of Site of the Smokestacks
Morro Bay is a long protected body of water with a big sand bar that keeps the ferocious Pacific breakers away. It’s teeming with bird and mammal life and the waters in the bay are clean enough to raise oysters in. We got a chance to see the bay up […]
Mark Tognazzini Knows His Way Around a Fish in Morro Bay
Mark Tognazzini knows his way around a fish–any kind of fish. He’s a fisherman who lands big King salmon off the California coast in his fishing boat, and when it’s time to come to shore, he emails his loyal following in the town of Morro Bay California and all of […]
Oceano Dunes Are a Good Place to Take a Spin in a Humvee
Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreational Area in California’s Central coast looks like a busy street, except that it’s an actual beach and nearly every vehicle is a large 4×4 truck pulling a long camper. We joined another couple for a beach excursion in a 1987 Humvee, painted desert brown, built […]
Edna Valley: Tasting Wines with Pattea and Her Friends
We drove four hours south from San Mateo yesterday through the agricultural heart of America, Salinas Valley, through towns like Soledad and and Atascatero, where few of the signs were in English. It was Mexican farm laborer country, and all around us were the vast fields where our nation’s vegetables […]
California Can’t Come Any Sooner
Gazing out at the crisp white snow and the icicles that hang from all the roofs, boy it’s sure time to get out of here. After speaking with my daughter and grandchildren from their 80 degree vacation spot in the Dominican Republic on Facetime, seeing the sun hitting her face […]
Sleeping in a Parked 767, Delta’s Gate Employees Were Ready for Work
Last week’s snowstorms brought out a host of questions, such as, what do airlines do to get staff to the airports and keep their planes safe during storms. In the WSJ, I read a story about how Delta Air Lines set up a ‘war room’ and used their own planes […]