I had no idea what a huge deal a snowflake’s refusal to morph into an Olympic ring could be until the global coverage of the snafu at Friday’s opening. That such a commotion was made about a snowflake seems to be a part of a pattern of negative coverage of sports events in Sochi. I’ve…
Saving Lily Bart in San Francisco?
Watching Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine on DVD, I am once again, and surprisingly so, drawn to San Francisco. An unlikely tourism vehicle, the film focuses on a selfish and largely unlikeable society woman played by Cate Blanchett who married up and desperately needs to do so again to save herself after her husband, played by…
10 Degrees in New York and Wishing I Were in Russia
Living on a lake in a small town in New York, I can’t help but think about winter and warmth and living through the cold. When it’s 10 degrees and even my wood floors are cold, I long for an old country house in Kizhi that I saw when visiting the Church of the Transfiguration,…
Losing My Veganity in Key West
As a vegan, I’ve ordered omelets hold the eggs (because otherwise I tend to get steamed vegetables for breakfast when I actually want fried ones), had many a B.L.T. and asked to hold the bacon and the mayo, and requested shrimp scampi with the shrimp on the side (a vegan the Brawny Sherpa is not)….
The Ghosts of West Martello Tower
The Bashful Adventurer encounters some ghosts at West Martello Tower in Key West, FL
The Duval Crawl
Standing at the corner of South and Duval Streets in Key West, the Brawny Sherpa and I are tempted first by the Southernmost on the Beach Cafe, which is an easy commute from our room at the little La Mer Hotel, which is part of the Southernmost Resorts. There’s no way we’re going to have…
Southernmost Shelter
Finding our bliss in Key West at La Mer, a part of Southernmost on the Beach
We Brake for Giant Lobsters
Traveling on U.S. 1 and desperately trying to spot mile markers, which seem to have shrunk over time, the Brawny Sherpa and I are in no particular hurry to land on Key West. If we see a curiosity, we’ll stop for the curiosity. We are barely out of our hotel parking lot before we come…
Chug-Chugging on the African Queen in Key Largo
On the second leg of our Florida Keys fling, the Brawny Sherpa and I head from Key Biscayne over to Key Largo, where we stay in a one-bedroom duplex at the oddly named Key West Inn at Key Largo where we inevitably wonder whether there is a Key Largo Inn at Key West. Our plans…
Biscayne, Largo, West
The Brawny Sherpa and I head to the Florida Keys while everyone else is obsessed with the holidays, or already hungover from them, or still regretting the government shutdown and embracing the frustration of Obamacare websites and this truly miserable economy. It seems the perfect time to flee, so we escape to a place guaranteed…