March 2022
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Homecoming
This wasn’t the way I had hoped to come home. The plan had always been to return to Seattle by way of a few days in New York City. I grew up in New York, and my father and stepmother still live there. I meant to visit them for a few days, show off all […]
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Shipping Out
My visit to Amsterdam began with boats, and appropriately enough, it’s ending with boats. The city of Amsterdam, like its namesake in the New World (called New York since its takeover by the British), developed and thrived chiefly because it’s one of the great natural ports of the world. The Dutch made their fortune and […]
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The Dutch in the Ancient World
Today we took the train to Leiden, to explore the town and visit the Museum of Antiquities.
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Being Eleven Again
I mentioned in my last post that J and I were once eleven together…Today, the two of us went off to the Nemo Science Museum, to be eleven again and play with all the cool exhibits. It was a lot of fun.
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On the Water
Right now, as I write, I am touring Amsterdam on a boat. I am also living, for the week, on a boat. Different boat. Amsterdam is very big on boats. This happens when your entire city is below sea level and therefore most of it’s built on piles just to keep it out of the […]
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Cut and Run
After all the animals I’ve seen in the wild here in Africa, it felt distinctly strange to be going to a zoo… but I wanted to see what a Ugandan zoo was like
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Impenetrable
It sounds so much like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? First there’s a long climb, high into the steep and scary mountains. Then you hack your way with swords into a place called the Impenetrable Forest. And it’s all in order to meet a kind of gentle giants who live nowhere else in the world… […]
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For a Woman
The attempt to find tree-climbing lions yesterday was, alas, a complete bust. First of all, the heavens opened up and it poured. The lions — along with nearly all of the other wildlife, apart from one new species of antelope called a topi and a lone, sodden bull elephant — took shelter from the torrential […]
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Trip Diary: Breaking the First Rule
This post is going to be hard to write. I have to admit it. I broke the first rule, and it bit me, badly. What first rule, you wonder? Well, they do depend on who you ask. My mother’s first rule was always, “Never hit anything that’s harder than you are,” and a good and […]