The score was tied at 2-2 at the bottom of the ninth inning at Fenway Park. Boston Red Sox fans groaned in disbelief as the Baltimore Orioles took a 3-2 lead in the tenth. And then the magic happened. With men on first and third base, a walk-off home run for Boston ended the game at 5-3. The crowd jumped to its feet, belting out “Dirty Water,” the 1966 Spandells hit. So much fun. So much singing! The voices of thirty-seven-thousand people rejoicing to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline in the 7^th inning stretch (so good! so good! so good!) and Take Me Out to the Ballgame in the 8^th. It all added to the palpable feeling of camaraderie. These folks know how to have fun.

It was like déjà vu all over again. Rushing into the Snowy Owl Theater at Icicle Creek Center for the Performing Arts in Leavenworth, a sculpture near the entrance stopped me in my tracks. Could it be? The artist had to be Richard Beyer, whose whimsical aluminum sculpture of a couple holding marketing baskets I’d just seen in the Mercer Island Town Center, and whose Waiting for the Interurban - a group huddled at a bus stop near the Fremont Bridge - epitomizes Seattle. A quick Google search during intermission confirmed my hunch.

“You are so lucky,” my waitress told me. “It’s gonna be sunny and warm through Friday.” 

“Isn’t it like this most of the summer?” I asked, unaware that the peninsula in southern Washington is famously foggy and cold. Earlier that day, I’d cursed the sun as it beat down while I struggled to sync my phone app with an electric charging station. On an 85-degree, cloudless day, sweating with palpable range anxiety, I worried I’d never get my electric car fully charged. After driving 172 miles, I had 106 miles left. Not enough to explore the peninsula, let alone get home.

In a presidential election year, huge conventions for the Republican and Democratic parties give prime spots to former presidents and luminaries from past campaigns. But Gen Z’s, some of whom will be voting for the very first time in November, couldn’t possibly remember the policies and accomplishments, let alone the challenges and controversies that plagued former presidents, especially those who go waaaay back to before they were born. You know, like 30 years ago! Outside of history class, how are former presidents remembered, and how much control do they have over their legacy?

My whole family was gathering in Chicago for a bat mitzvah. I arrived at Union Station a few minutes early to meet my son’s train, due in from New York. But the reader board posted a delay, so I waited. And waited. And waited. Frustrated, I went to the information booth to ask, “What’s going on with the train from New York?” 

Long pants, long sleeves, and a head net covering my face did nothing to prevent a horde of mosquitos from devouring me. With nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, I tearfully admitted defeat. Together with my husband and then-young sons, we broke down our campsite and hiked out of the North Cascade Mountains. It was too late to drive back to Mercer Island. The big question was “where to sleep tonight?” As newcomers to the Pacific Northwest, we knew nothing about eastern Washington. We searched for the biggest nearby city on our AAA map.

Alfie the Cat stretched himself out on a banquette where he’d been gazing out the windows in the hallway of our 3rd floor hotel room. A look-alike for our dearly departed tabby cat, Nile, he welcomed our caresses and rolled himself over for belly rubs. We were staying at the Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa in Bath, England, after a week of walking the Cotswold Way.

A large snake slithered across the footpath just inches from our boots on our first day walking the Cotswolds, 800 square miles of charming villages and towns in southwest England. Though totally uninterested in us, the snake added drama to the first hour of a weeklong walk. Our guidebook identified it as a nonaggressive, though venomous, rare British Adder. Whew!

March 21, 2021 - Aish.com

Bubby closed the door to her home on Joste Strasse before rushing to the Hauptbahnhof train station in Berlin, not knowing when she and my mother would return. Their second-floor, comfortably furnished apartment had a fireplace in every room. It was graced with Meissen figurines, crystal wine goblets, an antique brass filigree clock they wound up once a week, a huge silver menorah with two lions, cups for oil on opposite ends, and eight smaller cups on the bottom. They never saw any of these things again.

You’ve seen kids wearing shirts that boast, “My grandma went to Italy and all she bought me was this lousy T-shirt.”  I’m not that grandma.  I want the people I’m abandoning to look forward to my absences, and to welcome me home with open arms. Finding gifts for my family has become part of the adventure - things with a touch of the exotic to help them feel a little closer to what I saw and smelled and did on my travels.  I’ve made plenty of mistakes when searching for the “perfect” gift.  This is the story of how I left home alone, meandered to Tuscany for a travel-writing class, and searched for presents that should make each recipient look forward to my next escape as much as I do.