We went on a short hike today, above Lopez Lake, about 10 miles inland on Highway 227 from Pismo Beach. California is suffering through a drought of historical proportions, and it is particularly noticeable here in San Luis Obispo County, where the hills often remain green right through the summer. (As opposed to Southern California, […]

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Not all of California is overrun, and we drove up the coast today to luxuriate in that part of it. The Central Coast, it is called. And it is spectacular. Rolling hills, green, when a drought is not going on. Home to hundreds of vineyards. About an hour north of Santa Barbara; about three hours […]

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We have conceded on this site that accounts of long, draining travel are nearly always boring. Meaningless to all but those who survived them. And yet, we keep talking about them. Because they are so intense. Like our 31-hour door-to-door trip from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles or, to be exact, to San Clemente, south […]

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* Besides looking at the DOB stats on your driver’s license. You rise shortly after dawn, drag your suitcases (thank God wheels are now attached) down to the docks, take a heaving two-hour ferry ride, followed by a one-hour taxi ride through ugly traffic to the airport, followed by three hours waiting in the lounge, […]

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I seldom have been around people with lots of money. Athletes, I suppose, but I’ve always assumed they will blow it all, and before they were 40; most of their predecessors have. So athletes’ money has never impressed me. I’m talking about an older person with money. Perhaps enough money that they feel no need […]

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I am impressed by people who live in hilly cities. How do they get around? How annoying/challenging is it to be going uphill or downhill at all times? If you drop a ball … it’s going to roll a long way before it comes to a stop, probably in a nearby body of water. Hydra, […]

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The 2002 movie was named My Big Fat Greek Wedding. With apologies to Nia Vardalos and everyone else involved in the hugely successful movie, those of us who came to Hydra this week saw a real Greek wedding, and not the North American celluloid version of same. The couple being married were Greek and American, […]

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We were not at all unhappy to leave behind Athens. A battered taxi down to the ancient port city of Piraeus, through depressing neighborhoods, and there we were, in the town Greek fleets have sailed from for more than 2,500 years. While waiting for the ferry, we withstood the constant attentions of beggars and peddlers […]

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A coincidence: The same week we are talking about San Bernardino, California, we arrived in Athens. Greece, not Georgia. The Parthenon, et cetera. And we did not spend any great time in the cradle of Western civilization, but we were around long enough to be pretty certain we will never return. Not until they fix […]

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I love this story. Belgium wants to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815 — a French defeat which ended Napoleon Bonaparte‘s dream of a Europe dominated by France, and him. The French, 200 years later, are not happy about the looming celebration — as the Belgians found out when […]

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