Travel Archives - Social Correspondence

A Family Vacation

A long-time friend, dating back many decades, once quipped that “family vacation” is an oxymoron. Whether one agrees with this assessment or not, managing hours of travel with young children can be a challenge. A long-planned visit with family in Washington, D.C. had the fortuitous timing to include a road trip to view the total solar eclipse. It was, for me and millions of others, an awe-inspiring event, one that will not happen again in the continental U.S. for another 20 years. Fallingwater, PA This was the right kind of family vacation and road trip, the…

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April 15, 2024

Park Slope, Brooklyn

city living / Grandparenting / Politics / Train travel / Voting

Summertime in New York

It is summertime in New York, and things are coming back to life. Restaurants are open, both indoors and out, subway and street traffic are picking up, and more shops are open. New Yorkers took last Tuesday’s election very seriously. It was a primary election for Mayor and City Council in Brooklyn. Due to ranked choice voting, final outcome of the election may take weeks to be determined. Along the busy corridors of 7th and 8th Avenues in Park Slope, near the YMCA on 15th Street where early voting was taking place, candidates and their…

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June 24, 2021

Grandparenting / News / Pandemic / Travel

Failing the Canine Security Check

Today is my first cross-country trip on an airplane in 16 months, and I did not expect to start out by failing the canine security check. He was a young, handsome, mellow-seeming dog, doing his duty, and I was not the only soon-to-be passenger noting how sweet looking he was. None of us reached out to touch him, knowing that it is strictly verboten to interfere with a working dog, but it was tempting. I am not sure why this particular canine signaled me out. I am very fond of dogs, so certainly it was not…

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June 14, 2021

Colorado Rockies highway. Photo by Lukas Kloeppel, Pexels Photos

Grandparenting / Travel

Summer Road Trips

Many people will be taking vacations that involve road trips this summer, especially now that the kids are out of school. National parks and monuments are among the favored destinations, as are visits to family summer camps, or to relatives and friends in other states. While Americans’ love of the automobile has waned in urban areas, the freedom that comes from driving on the open road remains a delight. Car/SUV travel brings places and people into focus in unexpected ways. The road trips of my childhood, however, were never about sightseeing or taking a leisurely drive.…

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May 2, 2018

Rowers from St. Ives Rowing Club cross under Chapel Bridge

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A Visit to St. Ives

For a brief four days, I have been visiting the lovely village of St. Ives, in Cambridgeshire, UK (not to be confused with that other St. Ives in Cornwall). While the main purpose of the visit is to spend a bit of time with my daughter, I also am very much taken by this picturesque old English town, which originates in the 9th century. St. Ives is located on the Great River Ouse, just thirty minutes away from the university town of Cambridge. Flocks of snowy white swans gather in the water on the quay, near…

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August 14, 2017