2024

  • New York and Leiden

    New York and Leiden

    We arrived at my father’s house just after midnight, to find my stepmother trying and failing to handle a plunger.

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  • Sweet Home Chicago

    Sweet Home Chicago

    From Iowa, we pulled into Chicago, where we took a taxi to Hyde Park. Hyde Park is a culturally flourishing neighborhood on the South Side, dominated by the University of Chicago. Since I both attended college at the University of Chicago and lived there for another three years after that, when I married someone who…

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  • In case you were wondering…

    In case you were wondering…

    Naomi and M did make it to Chicago, and then to New York. Where N’s father had just tested positive for COVID-19. Thanks to paxlovid he has improved enough that N felt that it was safe to leave him, after setting him up with DoorDash for getting deliveries from drugstores, which mostly don’t deliver in…

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  • Colorado and the Midwest

    Colorado and the Midwest

    Wednesday, March 27. Our second day on the California Zephyr was alleged to be the most beautiful; indeed, the most beautiful on any passenger train in the United States. It lived up to its billing. First, though, we passed overnight through Utah and into the high desert. There’s a reason they call it that —…

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  • Oakland and the Zephyr

    Oakland and the Zephyr

    We pulled into Emeryville, CA — a subsection of Oakland, as far as I can tell — at 8:30 in the morning, and set about dragging our enormous suitcases behind us to the Sonesta Hotel. It’s a lovely hotel and I would use it again, but when they say it’s within walking distance of the…

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  • The Coast Starlight

    The Coast Starlight

    Saturday, March 23. We began our trip this morning, boarding the Coast Starlight out of Seattle at 9:50 this morning. This meant getting up much earlier than we normally do, as there were things to pack which had to be used overnight or first thing in the morning, and a lot of general scurrying around…

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  • Who knows where the time goes?

    Who knows where the time goes?

    … and what was that about the best-laid plans? A lot has happened in the year and a half since our last entry. Among other things, we missed a whole trip! Naomi, her husband G, and I went to the Netherlands, staying in Leiden and Amsterdam with a side trip to Utrecht. We might be…

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