Tag: travel

by jad

Montréal: Orange Julep

One of the very last and most unexpectedly delightful things we did in Montreal was stopping by the famous “Big Orange” on our way to the airport. The place is apparently a hotspot for retro fans driving classic cars and carrying vintage cameras, but I think I was the only actual hipster there that rainy afternoon, though there was an older gentleman who purchased some merch – I don’t think his suspenders were ironic though. x I didn’t expect the orange julep itself to taste so good either! Apparently, “the fruit juice is deacidified by the mixture of skimmed milk … Continue reading “Montréal: Orange Julep” →

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” →

by jad

#Route101: Reedsport / North Bend / Mapleton

We stopped here on our way to Portland on December 30, purely to take that photo in the last slide, but ended up leaving with some mini cakes and a big ol’ jar of blackberry High Country Honey from Lakeside, OR. It was a little sad to see all these shuttered and vacant stores lining both sides of main street, sandwiched between hokey MAGA wood art and a cute little “bakery & coffee shop” that didn’t sell coffee. It felt like a poetic aperçu of this place. x This was where we spent most of the morning of New Year’s … Continue reading “#Route101: Reedsport / North Bend / Mapleton” →