Tag: travel

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 5

Today I hope to dip into the Carribean for the first time, but here are the last of the captures from the Quepos side of the Pacific. The great thing about this national park is that the forest paths all lead to the beach, so almost everyone on our tour opted to stay there at the end of our walk. We had places to be, so we left with our guide who couldn’t help but point our every mangrove and every fern he saw on our way out. Swipe to see a slo-mo sloth sequence. Pray for my laptop. It’s … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 5” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 4

I’m typing these words under a mosquito net in a cabin by the Caribbean, but we started our day in Cartago, the historical capital. We were there to visit Our Lady of the Angels, also known as La Negrita, the patron saint of Costa Rica, on this day, her feast day, a major national holiday. We knew it was going to be big, but we didn’t realize just how big it would be until we switched on the local news last night and saw a live broadcast of the Basilica’s plaza already full of pilgrims who kept streaming in all … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 4” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 3

I’m posting these pictures from the suburbs of San Jose, but we started this morning walking around with our necks craned trying to spot monkeys, birds, and sloths high up in the coastal jungle canopy. I found the spectacle of it all just as entertaining as the carefully curated experience of manufactured adventure itself. Our guide’s enthusiasm for every species of any kind we encountered — from fluorescent lichen to the national tree of Nicaragua — was infectious. You couldn’t help but get carried away with everyone else. Swipe to the very end to see two very cute subjects of … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 3” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 2

One of the surprisingly (but not too shockingly, for anyone who knows me or my star chart) difficult things for me is to let go of autonomy and self-direction, all the more so halfway across the globe. It’s been years since I had to follow someone else’s schedule and itinerary, so I mentally prepared myself for the self-discipline of letting go, and did everything I could to set myself up for success by asking for what I needed well in advance and packing things that would maximize my comfort. But things happen, as we saw with my Ricoh, so we … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 2” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 1

We have a very long layover in Dallas after a sleepless red eye, so here I posting digi-captures on the airport Wi-Fi while Christine takes a cat nap next to me. Someone on the PA keeps inviting us to a prayer service in the chapel by Gate D40. I saw someone in a Trump-Vance t-shirt. Airport ethnography is fun. I left my higher-res digital camera at home to force myself to take more with film on this trip. But I do enjoy having this Powershot on me; I’m literally posting these shots while sitting across the same window in the … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 1” →

by jad

Carnation, WA

Reading about the history of the “Carnation” brand of evaporated milk lends itself to a tortured metaphor for the Seattle liberal worldview: “contented cows give better milk.” Carnation was apparently originally called “Tolt,” a much less florid and alluring name, which is a pretty common pattern out here: Kent was once “Titusville,” Auburn was once “Slaughter” — and, of course, all of it was once known by very different names and tongues. In fact, “Tolt” was the clunky Anglicization of the Lushootseed word “tultxʷ,” which is what the Snoqualmie people called the river here, and they opposed the first time … Continue reading “Carnation, WA” →

by jad

Remembering Dubai

“No matter how long an expatriate has been in Dubai, even if they are born in Dubai, they are not Dubaian. At some point, they must leave. This process of exclusion leaves these particular expatriates betwixt and between–they are not legally Dubaian and can be deported at any point, nor are they culturally of their countries of passport. For some, this uncertainty is liberating; it certifies them as global citizens. For others, it merely points out the dangerous condition of their liminal state.” (Dubai: Guilded Cage) Going through my old photos in that memory stick I found in Lebanon reminds … Continue reading “Remembering Dubai” →

by jad

R.I.P. Piper

I had a really good day on my last day in Houston. Everything seemed to flow well, like a gentle brook, all the way through to takeoff when the plane synced up with the on-board “house mix” I had playing in my earbuds. Everything felt right, even when plans changed or there were unexpected delays. I felt happy and whole. And that whole time I was feeling that way, our beloved blind cat in Lebanon was rapidly dying from a blood clot, unbeknownst to me. I’m thinking about that disjunction, now that Piper has passed. Was I being prepared for … Continue reading “R.I.P. Piper” →

by jad

Houston: Y’All Come Back Now

There’s a place in the mall where I’m staying (yes, my hotel is in the mall) that’s called the museum of illusions, which sounds a lot like how this part of Houston feels, especially in the early morning fog. I took these after breakfast yesterday. I could have stared at that thing for hours. It’s fascinating how much this part of Houston reminded me of Dubai, even in its muggy evening breeze that indicated to me that there’s a gulf out there somewhere around here. More street scenes from my first Texan morning. The first breakfast wasn’t included in the … Continue reading “Houston: Y’All Come Back Now” →

by jad

Kalama, Mt. St. Helens, PDX

We spent a couple of nights in Kalama, a whistlestop town on I-5 partway between Seattle and Portland. It was “basecamp” for our drive around both sides of Mount St. Helens. Our literal “base camp” was up in the hills above Kalama’s business district, on a homestead farm called Highland & Co Acres. The experience was like stepping into one of those Netflix design shows, spending two nights in a tiny cabin made from shipping containers. We had fresh eggs and wildberry jam for breakfast sourced from the property. A rooster literally crowed us awake in the morning. It was … Continue reading “Kalama, Mt. St. Helens, PDX” →