Americas
Ode to Art: The Modern Wing Chicago Institute of Arts
The Modern Wing of the Chicago Institue of Art opened with great fanfare last May and I wasted no time in getting over to see it. I recently returned for a second look at the massive structure with a 300 million dollar budget. The Modern Wing could be called a temple for the...
North Pond: Hidden Treasure in Chicago
Recently when we spent a weekend in Chicago with some dear friends, we decided to treat them to dinner as a thank you for some wonderful kindnesses of theirs. I thought long and hard about what restaurant to book. These friends own two restaurants and a specialty food market, love food and...
Union Street, San Francisco: Where the Victorian Ladies Gather
Poking along Union Street is one of those activities that many tourists in San Francisco miss. This is a shame. It’s cute. It’s fun. It makes me feel like a local. It is a “real people” kind of place—patronized by the folks who live nearby.
Good Enough to Eat in San Francisco
Last week I had a wonderful opportunity to attend to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco with my friend, Georgia, who owns a specialty Food and Beverage Market in Ada, Michigan. She was there to search out and to buy yummy new items for her store. I went to gawk and to taste and […]
Scenes in San Francisco
While I love the typical scenes in San Francisco–cable cars, dramatic bridges, Alcatraz and Fisherman’s Wharf, I am finding it to be a city of visual treats wherever I look.
Fredericksburg, Texas–surprisingly fun.
Recently I fell in love with a funny old town in the middle of the Hill Country of Texas. It’s where you might stay if you want to visit the wineries, the LBJ Ranch, shop, and enjoy bakeries, breweries and peaches. It was one of the first German settlements in the 1800s and is now […]
Whole Foods, Mecca for Foodies, Austin, Texas
We couldn’t go to Austin without visiting the Mecca for Foodies, Whole Foods. In 2005, the grocery store that changed the way America shops, built a new 80,000 square food flagship emporium on the outskirts of downtown Austin designed to show off everything that Whole Foods stands for....
Keep Austin Weird
My first clue that Austin, Texas was a different kind of place was arriving at the airport and seeing a colorful accumulation of guitars decorating the baggage claim area. Creative and lively, they mixed with a motley assortment of Christmas decor. Seemed to be just “plunked there.”