Happy 4th from Mount Vernon!
Mount Vernon - the main house as seen from the East - you can see it's early spring as the big tree hasn't budded yet. Yesterday I was hunting [...]
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Jul, 2013
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Jun, 2013
Solstice Fires
Sunset as seen from the Geisberg near Salzburg, June 21, 2005 While I am here at the Kenyon Writers Workshop where the sun shines with abandon, I am reminded that [...]
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Apr, 2013
Returning from “Writing Camp”
Now I know how my kids feel when they come home from summer camp because that's how I'm feeling having returned home from what my kids call "writing camp:" exhausted, [...]
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Apr, 2013
Serenity at Mount Vernon
This photo of the kitchen garden at Mount Vernon captures the serene and peaceful week I am having amidst my friends at the conference my former writing group puts on [...]
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Mar, 2013
A Walk through the Master of Nets Garden in Suzhou
Moon gate at the Master of the Nets Garden in Suzhou, China - If you remember my earlier photo essay about the Blue Waves Pavilion - moon gates like this [...]
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Dec, 2012
Favorite View of 2012
Mono Lake, California, August 2012 In following Rebecca Murphy's Relish12 challenge, the 12.14 prompt asked about my favorite view of 2012. I instantly knew which picture I would choose. Even though [...]
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Nov, 2012
The Garden of the Cang Lang Ting (Blue Waves Pavilion) in Suzhou, China
Walkway along the canal outside of the Garden, as seen from The Fish Watching Spot For a long time I have been meaning to share pictures from my visit to [...]
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Sep, 2012
Photo Essay: Alcatraz
Pulling out of the dock, Alcatraz comes into view. We had the perfect slightly gloomy day when we visited Alcatraz on our family vacation to California in August. [...]
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Sep, 2012
The Library at Alcatraz
In the library at Alcatraz From all my pictures of our recent visit to Alcatraz, this one has stuck in my mind, and so, since I was on the topic [...]
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Aug, 2012
Vacation Serenity
I've been quiet on this blog because we have been on vacation, including four rather blissful days without Internet access while we were staying at a beach house in Marin [...]
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Jul, 2012
A Spanish Colonial House in Shanghai
After featuring a renovated Shanghai lane house, I want to give you another insight into living in contemporary Shanghai with a few shots of the home of Patricia Lambert, which [...]
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Jun, 2012
Photo Essay: Tiger Hill, Suzhou, China
These days I am craving some serenity (Our kids' school year is over and the summer chaos of camps, summer school and entertainment has begun.), so I thought I'd put [...]
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May, 2012
Photo Essay: Shanghai – The Bund
The Bund at night - the clock tower building is the former Customs House, farther along you see the green steepled roof of the Peace Hotel. Typical tourist pictures of [...]
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May, 2012
Photo Essay: Bikes in Shanghai
Just as the laundry hung out to dry on eletrical cables, parking signs and telephone booths, the prevalence of bikes in the streets of Shanghai struck me as so very [...]
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May, 2012
Photo Essay: The Dry Goods Market in Shanghai
Outrageously kitschy and cute - baby ponytail holders at the Dry Goods Market in the Nanshi District of Shanghai. Being an indoor bazaar, the Dry Goods Market is indeed "dry," [...]
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May, 2012
Photo Essay: A Market in Shanghai
A tea shop - my favorite photo from our stroll through the market in Nanshi, the Old Town of Shanghai. This area used to be the old walled city of Shanghai [...]
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May, 2012
A Lane House in Shanghai
I really should have started my Shanghai series with sharing photos of this lane house in the Jing'an District, as it was the first place my friend took me to [...]
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May, 2012
Photo Essay: Laundry in Shanghai
One thing that struck me in Shanghai is that laundry is everywhere, except the strict business area along the riverfront. Otherwise, in any halfway residential area, laundry is hung out [...]
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Apr, 2012
Photo Essay: Shanghai’s Former Jewish Ghetto
Old meets new in this view of Hongkou rooftops sharing the sky with the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center, built across the Huang Pu River in Pudong, which [...]
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Apr, 2012
Shipped off to Shanghai
The Bund, Shanghai's turn of the century waterfront. I took this photo on my first evening here from a rooftop bar. Just in case you were wondering why it's [...]
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Feb, 2012
Mitbringsel
Today I am going to impose on you the German word "Mitbringsel" because there's really no succinct term in English for these things we bring for someone from a trip. [...]
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Jan, 2012
Space Camp
My favorite spot at Space Camp this time was the Davidson Center for Space Exploration, a new hall built to exhibit the Saturn V. When I was a space camp [...]
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Sep, 2011
Photo Essay: The Spoils of Travel or What Do You Bring Home from a Trip?
A month has passed since we returned from our road trip to the Southwest, and only today have I unpacked the last suitcase: mine. It always works like that: I [...]
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Sep, 2011
Photo Essay: Indiana Beach
Who wouldn't fall in love with sights like these quirky saucerspouring into each other? Amusement parks are closing as the season ends, and so I'm thinking, wistfully, of our trip to [...]
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Aug, 2011
Road Trip Report 13 (the last one): Homestead National Monument
Then, as now, windmills dot the flat landscape. They provide the crucial source of power to pump up water. After catching our breath at the alpine views of the Rocky [...]
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Aug, 2011
Road Trip Report 12: Mesa Arch Photo Essay
Mesa Arch @ Canyonlands National ParkMy son has this view as a wallpaper on his computer, and I have to admit I always thought it was fake until I spotted [...]
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Aug, 2011
Road Trip Report 11: Arches National Park Photo Essay
To quote my daughter: "This is cooler than Monument Valley." Some whining from my sons was involved because we were "hiking again" until they realized the arches offered climbing opportunities. [...]
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Aug, 2011
Road Trip Report 10: Salt Lake City
My number one goal for our visit to Salt Lake City was to float in the Great Salt Lake. A few years ago on a trip to Israel, we'd all floated [...]
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Aug, 2011
Road Trip Report 9: Las Vegas with Kids
One thing I liked at the Hoover Dam: Those cool 1930s Art Deco towers. What to do in Las Vegas with kids? First of all, I must say Las Vegas, [...]
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Aug, 2011
Road Trip Report 8: Wild Horses near Las Vegas
My daughter's number one wish for this road trip (every family member got one) was to see wild horses. I was nervous about that - after all, they are wild, [...]
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Aug, 2011
Road Trip Report 7: Death Valley Photo Essay
This photo is a tribute Cath Barton's cover photo "Eleven" of Prime Number Magazine's Issue 11 that also features my essay "Waiting in the Dark." I was about to take a picture [...]
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Aug, 2011
Road Trip Report 6: The Canyons
I haven't quite figured out yet what it means to visit great places like Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park a second time, except that it is [...]
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Jul, 2011
Road Trip Report 1: St. Louis – Oklahoma
Some impressions from the Big American Road Trip with my family, driving from Chicago to explore the Southwest this summer. City Museum St. Louis - the name does it a [...]
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Jul, 2011
Oklahoma City Memorial: Every Item Had a Story
We visited the Memorial of the Oklahoma City bombing on Thursday, and it saddens me how oddly fitting that visit now is given Friday’s rather similar tragedy in Norway. Visits [...]
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May, 2011
Note from Charlotte: Visiting Niki de Saint Phalle
Last weekend I was in Charlotte, NC for the alumni conference of the Queens MFA Program in Creative Writing, and I made a point of swinging by downtown and the [...]
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May, 2011
Note from Savannah
My shot of the outside of the synagogue. I love the mix of palm trees and live oak! Today a short note from my travels: I spent the early afternoon [...]
