Category: Literary Travel (Page 3 of 3)

THE BEAT MUSEUM & CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE

July 27, 2018 /

On the Road is one of my most tattered books. It is underlined and dog-eared; it is not in good shape.

I love the freedom and excitement written in this book: the open road, the jazz, the late nights, every day as an adventure. This is a lifestyle I never could have lived (in my more nervous reality), but I have loved living it through Kerouac and the other beat writers I have been fascinated by, especially Neal Cassady who inspired many other works of literature and drove the Merry Pranksters bus.

So while visiting San Francisco, I had to visit the Beat Museum. I actually didn’t know this museum existed until I saw it listed on a Kerouac bookmark I picked up at the American Writers Museum, another great literary stop.

A second legendary attraction in San Francisco that had been calling to me for many years is the City Lights Bookstore, which comes up time and time again in the stories of beat culture and more recently in my Writer’s Almanac emails.

We stayed in the cottages to the right of the lighthouse!

MY STAY AT POINT ARENA LIGHTHOUSE

July 23, 2018 /

How many people can say “I stayed at a lighthouse” ?? Well now I can!!

As the third in a series of posts on my epic family vacation, I want to tell you about an amazing and beautiful place we stayed while traveling California Highway 1: Point Arena Lighthouse in Mendocino County.

I discovered this opportunity – to stay on lighthouse property – when I was looking for a 2nd overnight stop between Ashland, Oregon and San Francisco after experiencing the majestic Redwoods.

THE REDWOODS

July 10, 2018 /

In the second in a series of posts about my epic summer vacation, I want to write about one of the most spectacular things I have seen in my life: The Redwoods.

Previous vacation post: Oregon Shakespeare Festival

But I’m going to steal words from John Steinbeck who makes me feel better for not being able to fully describe or photograph my experience:

“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It’s not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.”

Traveling from Oregon to San Francisco, we stopped in two separate Redwood areas and had two separate experiences – which for the reasons quoted above I can’t successfully tell you about or show you ha!! – so I will give you some details on our itinerary so you can plan to see them for yourself:

The OSF outdoor theatre seats 1,200 people. Photo by Kim Budd and provided by OSF.

MY TRIP TO THE OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

July 6, 2018 /

I recently attended the world-class Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland and thoroughly enjoyed this idyllic town with its Shakespeare-themed attractions. This was the first stop on my epic West Coast vacation.

The Festival is in its 83rd season; each year it presents 3-4 Shakespeare plays and additional adaptions and premieres. Plays run every day during a long season of February through October (except Mondays) in three different theaters. More than 400,000 people attend this event annually.

We decided to see Love Labor’s Lost in the Allen Elizabethan Theatre (an outdoor theatre) and learned that 1) one needs to dress for all types of weather and 2) the show will go on! In our case, it was storming in the hours before and still raining up to the 8pm showtime which made for a dramatic wait (while wondering will the show go on??). You can take wine and beer into your seats and even pre-order your drink for intermission. We also noticed this attracts a very serious audience, and no one moves an inch until intermission. And I was later told the outdoor theatre is the most “relaxed” of the three theaters!! These people are serious about their Shakespeare, and the production here is worthy of this level of respect.

Me with a mojito in Havana, nearly 2 decades ago & the book that recently took me back there.

‘Next Year in Havana’ takes me back to Cuba

May 3, 2018 /

I’ve been to Cuba once, in 2001. It’s not something I talk about a lot (or have ever written about publically) because 1) Americans were not supposed to go there, and 2), it was a lifetime ago in many ways. What has stayed with me all these years is the beauty of the country. In fact, I remember thinking that if the place – Havana is the only place I really saw -was as beautiful as it could be (meaning the buildings were dilapidated etc.) I wouldn’t be able to stand it.

For nearly 17 years I have wanted to return to this beautiful and complicated place, and last week, I did, sort of, thanks to a new book by Chanel Cleeton Next Year in Havana.

“Ninety miles separate Cuba from Key West, the southernmost tip of the United States. Ninety miles that might as well be infinite.”

This book addresses all of Cuba’s complications, including its history and politics using a good story that includes mystery and romance! Moving back and forth between two time periods, (almost present day) and pre-Fidel, the story is told by two narrators:

My visit to the American Writers Museum

August 7, 2017 /

During my recent trip to Chicago, I checked out the new American Writers Museum.

I highly recommend this experience to all fans and beneficiaries of American literature (and if you are reading my blog I’m assuming you are both of these!!). I found it interesting, inspiring, and even emotional.

This museum just opened in May, and I think the word is still getting out about it. I am excited to tell you more!

Category: Literary Travel (Page 3 of 3)

THE BEAT MUSEUM & CITY LIGHTS BOOKSTORE

MY STAY AT POINT ARENA LIGHTHOUSE

THE REDWOODS

MY TRIP TO THE OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

‘Next Year in Havana’ takes me back to Cuba

My visit to the American Writers Museum

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