We recently stayed at the Los Angeles Athletic Club (a private membership only club but with hotel rooms available to the general public - the first private club in Los Angeles, founded 1880). We stay in a fair amount of National mid to higher end chain hotels and it is very refreshing to find a hotel such as this one with its uniqueness, elegance and history. As soon as we arrived we shot up to the rooftop for some relaxation with a cold one … [Read more...]
Yosemite – Mariposa
Mariposa was originally founded as a mining town and during the height of the gold rush had a much larger population than today which is currently under 2000 people. The town boasts a number of small family owned shops, galleries and restaurants as well as many items of historical significance. Mariposa County has one fast food restaurant and no stop lights. The one fast food restaurant is in the town of Mariposa and opened before a loophole … [Read more...]
Day 1 – New Orleans
Any trip to this part of Louisiana should start with a stay in New Orleans, specifically in the French Quarter. What better a place to call home for a few days than the Hotel Monteleone . This hotel dates from 1886, is still family owned and is located in the heart of New Orleans's French Quarter. It is definitely "the" hotel to stay at in this district. In the mood for decadence and elegance - Hotel Monteleone serves this up by the dishful. … [Read more...]
Day 2 – New Orleans
Breakfast Cafe du Monde is an ideal location for breakfast located at 800 Decatur Street. It is the original Cafe du Monde location - with a number of other branches mostly in and around New Orleans, as well as a large international presence exclusively in Japan. The cafe is located near the shores of the Mississippi River in the French Quarter this is where you come for the French-style beignets pastries and the coffee. You can drive … [Read more...]
Day 3 – Donaldsonville
Donaldsonville is a small town along the Mississippi River about 55 miles west of New Orleans. With friendly locals, quaint shops, galleries, two museums (Historical Donaldsonville Museum and the River Road African American Museum & Gallery), a historical district and nice restaurants you can easily spend a half day here. The nation's first African American mayor was actually elected to office in Donaldsonville in 1868, merely three years after … [Read more...]
Mt. Rainier, WA – Seattle
Seattle is young, vibrant and modern looking city. It boasts the second tallest building west of the Mississippi. It is a city of coffee shops (not just Starbucks!), twenty and thirty "somethings", parks, an intimate relationship with water, and mountaineering & high tech companies. Due to its proximity to the Olympic Peninsula, Cascade Mountains and Puget sound, Seattle is really a city that loves to be outdoors. There are many outdoor … [Read more...]
Walking with Ghosts
Hurricane Katrina had no favorites. She picked equally on the weak and the strong, black and white. She stomped on the rich and the poor and she stopped life in its tracks. Imagine life with all your possessions in the front yard or in the gutters. Worse yet, imagine you have no possessions, no house. Imagine searching for your friends, your family or your pet weeks after they disappeared. Yes, just imagine! This is the reality for thousands … [Read more...]
Los Angeles, CA – Downtown
For the nation's second largest city LA's downtown is actually very small and is eerily quiet on the weekends. On a number of occasions we have been standing in the middle of a major 6 lane boulevard in downtown just laughing to ourselves about the total lack of people and cars present! Certain streets are surprisingly empty. Depending on where you are (compared to the congestion of the freeways), even on weekdays parts of downtown can feel … [Read more...]
Los Angeles, CA – Colleges and Universities
These are a few of the universities that we have visited in Los Angeles and vicinity. Additional universities will be highlighted here over time, as this is by no means an exhaustive list. Cal Poly, Pomona is located just south of the 210 Freeway in Pomona. Originally a satellite campus of what was known then as California Polytechnic School in San Luis Obispo - the two schools became separate entities in 1966. One tradition however did not … [Read more...]
Swiftboating the Mekong River
Pnomh Penh, Cambodia Dec. 19, 2004 After a hot and sweaty bus ride south from Saigon, I thought we reached the South China Sea when we first came across this open body of water. Then the driver filled us in that this was the Mekong River, still sixty kilometers inland from the sea. It is a truly massive river, a good deal wider than the Mississippi River down by New Orleans. From its headwaters in Tibet it has traveled about 4300 kilometers … [Read more...]