Seeking

World Heritage City:  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia has an airy, attractive train station on the banks of the Schukykill (pronounced Skoo-cull) River. Founded in 1682 by William Penn, it is the 5th largest city in the U.S.A. In order to see as much of the city in a few days as possible, I signed up for their bike sharing program, Indego. For $15 a month, you get unlimited use of bikes scattered around the city, for not more than one hour at a time. However, if you return one to a dock, you can immediately check it out again for another…

My nephew Reuben and family now live in Rising Sun, Maryland, about 60 miles north of Baltimore. I journeyed down by train and car a few hours south of New York for my first visit to Delaware and Maryland. It’s just 1 ½ hours by train from NYC Pennsylvania Station to Wilmington, Delaware. The first part of the journey takes you through industrial New Jersey, past oil refineries and manufacturing plants. Rural Maryland near Chesapeake Bay used to be mostly big 300 acre farms. While it has begun to be subdivided, many big farms remain. Just two miles south of…

New York in May, Madison Square Park. Warm afternoons bring out stylish spring clothing. David Farragut oversees some serious discussions and study Martin Puryear sculpture being installed at Madison Square Park. After a rooftop dinner at Science House  in Murray Hill, Manhattan. Chrysler Building in background. Wooden water storage tanks are common in New York. The Chrysler Building, built in 1930. 1,046 feet high, it is currently the sixth highest building in New York. It is considered one of the finest examples of Art Deco design. The Empire State Building, another Art Deco design, built in 1931. The first building…

Mount St. Helens still has lots of snow on May 4th. From the hills above Chelachie Prairie, near Amboy, Washington, my childhood home. Atop Mount St. Helens in 1969, before the cataclysmic eruption that blew the top off. Spirit Lake is in the foreground, Mount Rainier in the distance. Visiting Malinowski Dam some years ago, near Aberdeen, Washington, named after Uncle Joe. A pond on our farm down near Cedar Creek. Wild iris now line the pond. Cedar Creek, which is a salmon spawning ground upstream from the Lewis and Columbia rivers. It runs through our family property. 60 years…

The Portland Hills have stairways cross-connecting some streets, like Berkeley, California and San Francisco. This brick structure houses water valves. Hillside homes perched high above the Willamette River. Steel house supports are common on the steep hillside. A starter castle? Ample rain yields lush hillside trees, shrubs and flowers. Iris A word play on ‘The Portland Zoo’?  Free toilets in the park area near Portland State University. Free public toilets mean cleaner parks, an idea other cities should consider. Tasty Pacific Northwest water from a classic fountain. Kind of says it all, right? A sculpture at Wall of the Heroines…