Tag: travel

by jad

Montréal: Expo Dream

One of the Montreal things that I’d read about obsessively before going was Expo 67, the great World’s Fair that took place here on Canada’s Centennial. It’s a multilayered megaevent that’s still seen as Canada’s cultural “Camelot” or even “last good year,” and there’s a lot to say about it, but during our stay at the In-Terminal Hotel, one thing of that era stood out: I couldn’t help but imagine the excitement that people must have felt as the world and even cosmos seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. You can’t really think of that decade without thinking of … Continue reading “Montréal: Expo Dream” →

by jad

Montréal: Airport Swim

This time last year, I was telling you about our little cocoon of comforts by a lake in Idaho. I hadn’t planned to tell you about this cocoon of comforts on our last night in Montreal exactly one year after I told you about that cabin by that lake, but I’m not surprised by the coincidence. x I told you about that lake of baptisms and the washing away of shame, so it’s only appropriate that, one year later, I’d tell you about a dinky little overchlorinated pool on the eighth floor of an in-terminal hotel where silly people try … Continue reading “Montréal: Airport Swim” →

by jad

Montréal: Postscript

As someone from someplace oft described as “a land of contrasts,” I understand at a visceral level how asinine descriptors like that are; for what is a city but a mixed multitude and condenser of opposites? There are cities where this mixity is thrown in stark relief as harsh lines of stratification, it’s true – San Franscisco comes to mind right now – but we rarely use the language of “contrasts” there; haves and have-nots are not the kind of duotone that capture our imagination. No, lands of contrast excite the eye like a splash of modern art. It’s the … Continue reading “Montréal: Postscript” →

by jad

Montréal: Day 1

I just woke up from what feels like the most necessary Sunday siestas that just happened to happen on a Monday, having never fully lost consciousness during our redeye to #Montreal: I just sort of bounced between silent meditation and mindless scrolling on the airplane Wi-Fi. This gave me a lot of time to reflect on air travel, curled up in the blue glow of the pressurized cabin, but I don’t know if I’m awake enough right now to express it properly. All I know is that I was feeling rusty; our suitcase still had the tag on it from our … Continue reading “Montréal: Day 1” →

by jad

Montréal from Seattle

Christine and I are going to Montréal in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be my first international trip since becoming a U.S. citizen and the first time back on an airplane since getting my green card and landing here. There are a half dozen reasons to be excited about visiting this oddball part of North America, but our primary impetus for wanting to go in the first place was to visit a Mohawk Catholic shrine as part of @christine.bingham.art‘s ongoing book project based on her series of mirror saint paintings. I’ve been reading a lot about the history of … Continue reading “Montréal from Seattle” →

by jad

Sleepless in Beirut

Google had been bugging me about my cloud storage for a while before I finally clicked the link the other day to hopefully free up some space; a couple of scrolls later, I was punched in the gut with attachments in emails I’d long forgotten about, with files and photos I thought I’d lost forever, including these from a project I worked on with a then-anonymous blogger in 2011. You read that right – an anonymous blogger; this was 2011, after all. More on that later. Thank God for metadata because I simply have no recollection of ever using a … Continue reading “Sleepless in Beirut” →

by jad

#Route101: Shelter Cove / Eureka

I’ve already posted about this place, but the journey here and back was so poignant, there’s still more to say. We decided to come here by looking at the coastline on a map and choosing somewhere that could break up the drive down to San Franscisco. Christine thought it sounded like the sort of place pirates would go, and that was good enough for me. Little did we know how right her intuition was. The road was labyrinthine and steep; the rain was unrelenting; we lost our phone signal, and as the other cars thinned out the further we drove … Continue reading “#Route101: Shelter Cove / Eureka” →

by jad

#Route101: Klamath / Coos Bay

This little Paul Bunyan-themed #Route101 attraction is a perfect apéritif to this vast stretch of Redwood Highway wilderness, especially if you’ve never seen or touched a Redwood before, like me. I’m not a fan of heights either, but the skyways were absolutely breathtaking in the best kind of way with just the right amount of “adventuring” for my tastes. I don’t want to come across as California-woo but just being around and breathing in these giants felt soothing to the soul. x  Our New Year’s Eve morning actually started here, and it actually started a little rocky too. We’d pushed ourselves quite … Continue reading “#Route101: Klamath / Coos Bay” →

by jad

#Route101: Florence / Crescent City

The first stop on our #Route101 road trip was supposed to be the famous Sea Lion Caves, but when we arrived, we were told that the tours had been cancelled because of the storm. We were a tiny bit disappointed because the weather seemed fine at that point. But, sure enough, by the time we were done circling the gift shop, it started getting a little uhhh blustery out there. By the by, does anyone know why #FujifilmSusperia400 often has a pronounced green tinge in the shadows? I really like it but I’m curious how and why it happens. Total matrix vibes in these. … Continue reading “#Route101: Florence / Crescent City” →