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Take the Wheel, Kid- A Travel Loving Parent Shares the Rules of the Road
Dear Carlisle, Now that you are 13 and taller than I am, there are a few things I’m compelled to tell you before you someday take off on one of the greatest thrills of your growing freedom– the road trip.
Lost in the Valley-- An Unplugged Travel Challenge Through The Rio Grande Valley
A tech-free road trip feels radical when most of the cartographic knowledge you’ve had for the last eight years has been contained on a 3-by-5-inch phone screen.
A Return to the River
For three days, the blue heron leads us downriver. In the mornings we push off in canoes through the olive green water of the lower Guadalupe, made murkier by Hurricane Harvey’s visit just over a month ago.
Hammin It Up in Flatonia
Texas and Spain have joined forces in an unexpected four-legged way.
Only in El Paso
The Kentucky Club claims to have invented the margarita– one of many contenders for that honor, the veracity of which is not for me to contest.
A Toast to Trost
It’s dusk on South El Paso Street, the buzzing thoroughfare that connects downtown El paso to the Juarez bridge, and a man in a top hat and black coat strides down the sidewalk.
Stitching Through Time
That simple action of sewing two pieces of fabric together, like a ritual, links practitioners over time.
10 Epic Summer Travel Adventures: Get Inspired to Tackle Texas' Many Cool Outdoor Adventures
You don’t have to be a seasoned birder to thrill at the pink swoosh of a roseate spoonbill coming in for a landing near Rockport Beach. No experience is necessary to delight in the silhouette of a magnificent frigatebird flying over Aransas Bay….
Beyond the Border: Diverse Works Converge at the El Paso Museum of Art
While drinking coffee in my room in El Paso’s hip new Hotel El Indigo, I can feel the pull of Mexico. From my window, I witness how the orderly concrete grid of El Paso’s downtown gives way across the border to a warren of pastel, one-story houses framed in mountains still purple from the sunrise. I watch cars scuttle back and forth toward the international bridge, heading for El Norte or south into Juárez. This is la frontera, a metropolis of almost 3 million people on both sides of the Mexico-United States border, and the buzz is infectious.
Pancho Villa's Favorite Street: Shopping on South El Paso Street
Luis immediately spots the finger in the window—gnarled and gray in a hammered bronze box next to shelves crammed with jewelry, its longish fingernail still intact. A typed message in a wood frame next to it explains that this is indeed the forefinger of a “notorious bandit” and “ruthless killer” who was also considered a local hero. That’s a lot of human paradox wrapped up into one little crooked finger in an El Paso pawnshop.
Our Favorite Main Streets, True Texas
When you sit at the bar at The Liberty Bell on the brick-paved Main Street in Nacogdoches, many things could happen. You could strike up a conversation with locals about their homemade apple-pie moonshine or where to find Caddo Indian mounds on the back road to Crockett….
A Key to Understanding: A Visit to the National Museum of the Pacific War Brings History into Focus
But it is in the Victory Room where I understand at a gut level how this museum presents a personal story, too. Because it is in the video of the momentous September 2, 1945, surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri that I get to see my grandfather flying in a tiny black plane over the Bay of Tokyo.
Poet's Paradise: Poetry at Round Top Inspires Springtime Bards
“Clayton, look at this moth” shouts the poet Sharon Olds, calling to me across the green lawn in front of the concert hall at Round Top’s Festival Institute. Despite having just met her, I am not surprised to have one of the world’s most renowned contemporary poets call out to me about a moth on a car.
Magnetic Art: The Meadows Museum Transports Visitors to Spain
Watching as the setting sun cast circles of pink and orange around the Jaume Plensa sculpture outside, I vowed to try to be more like Goya, curious and open to learning more, despite changing circumstances, nostalgia be damned.
Meet Your Makers-- Arts, Crafts, and Icons in the Lone Star State
In his song “Stuff That Works,” Texas troubadour Guy Clark pays homage to “stuff that holds up … stuff that’s real.” His description of a favorite blue shirt worn soft over time is enough to make you wince at the thought of buying a T-shirt made in an overseas factory. Clark’s sweet, simple lyrics honor things with integrity—the stuff that lasts.
Oates Fun House
While there is much to delight you when you first walk into the home of John and Sara Oates– a sweet country breeze, the smell of fresh espresso, a handsome trifecta of glass, concrete and stone walls framing the entryway– the thing that stands out the most is a child’s swing.”
Olive & Well-- South Texas' Edible Oil Boom
“Apparently feral pigs like olives. I am walking through narrow rows of arbequina olives trees on the outskirts of Carrizo Springs with Jim Henry, the man who perhaps knows more about making Texas olive oil than anyone else in the state. It is late fall, pruning time, and piles of discarded leafy branches and unpicked olives are scattered around our boots. ‘See that,’ he says, pointing to some scat near my foot. ‘Pig poop. Those feral hogs love to eat my olives.'”
Hats Off to Ben's-- The Texas Hat Museum in Cotulla
“Every hard-earned crease, curve and water spot embodies a way of life that inevitably will be altered by one of the biggest oil booms in Texas history.”
Horse Sense: Nurturing a Child's Equine Dreams in West Texas
“This is a different way to be together. Out on the trail, we are enjoying a freedom that our city living doesn’t allow, a fresh connection that feels more essential and satisfying. We smell the creosote, we spot a lizard, we urge a horse to stop eating and keep moving. Talking, but not a lot, we enjoy just being together.”
Rambling by the River: San Antonio City Profile
“The Alamo isn’t the only thing in San Antonio worth remembering.”
Our Favorite Italy
“How to pin down the magic of Italy? Is it the heady romance immortalized by Anita Ekberg wading into the Trevi Fountain in “La Dolce Vita?” It is the inimitable delight of its food, so fresh that to not indulge in multiple serving of carbonara and gelato seems criminal?”
South America: Beyond the Backpack
“There is an irrepressible energy in South America drawing all eyes below the equator.”
Interview with John Waters
“In what follows, Waters explains how bad film stills make great art, why contemporary art hates people, and what it’s like to pose as the Provincetown Town Crier.”
"Foreign Affair"
“What does it take, the photo makes you ask, to be that free from self-consciousness, to be so fully unabashed, to let your body and your delight be so exposed just as it is?”
"Class Acts, A Guide to the Top Private Schools in the Capital City"
“Sharpen your No. 2 pencils and get ready to learn—pedagogical diversity is alive and well in our great city.”
"Jesus is Showing Me Amazing Things"
“Snow’s floating coffin may symbolize the universal, but it simultaneously speaks to the very individual and isolating nature of mourning for those left behind. Like a sealed box, mourning is a closed off experience—you can’t fully comprehend any one person’s very particular loss. As Barthes writes, it is its own cruel country from which you may or may not find your way back.”
"The Ultimate Gig"
“It’s a crowded night at The Peacock. I’m burrowed in a corner with friends when a guy in a burgundy lounge jacket and dark sunglasses enters. With tousled hair and a confident swagger, he looks like trouble—the good kind.”
"Free Range Kickin’"
“It takes grit to transform a sun-baked field in Marfa, Texas, into a small village of vintage trailers and yurts. The heat, the dagger-sharp yucca, and the scarcity of hardware stores and skilled trade workers (Marfa has only one plumber and he’s the most popular guy in town) are enough to derail the building dreams of many. Then there is the seductive inertia of Marfa time….”
"Madrid"
“In love with tradition, Madrid is loyal to cocido Madrileno (the city’s famed meat and chickpea stew), suckling pig roasted in slow-burning ovens, jamón serrano and manchego cheese. Sun-filled plazas see locals lingering over long lunches—those famously social events that start with a good rioja and end many hours later with flan and a café con leche…..But change is bubbling up in the Spanish capital faster than a briskly shaken bottle of cava. “
"In the Raw"
“It’s amazing how early morning yoga, not to mention our amusing enema how-to demonstration, can bring people together.”
Yes, the writing was immaculate. I can count on one hand the number of times that happens!
Top 7 Spots for Nature Lovers in British Columbia
At just 45-minutes, the ferry ride across the shimmery blue sound from Vancouver to the Sunshine Coast is minimal, but the transformation it sets off is anything but.
10 Glampgrounds for Families
Choose between a spruced-up vintage trailer, yurt or teepee at this 18-acre bohemian oasis in Marfa, Texas where there is also a campground should anyone choose to pitch a tent the old-fashioned way. It’s all in the details at El Cosmico, from Chemex coffee makers in the trailers to writing desks in your yurt – should someone be inspired to write a desert poem.
Northern Beaches to Visit Instead of the Hamptons
Wellfleet, with endless shores on both the Atlantic and the bayside, a thriving summer culture scene and woodland ponds that would make Thoreau feel at home, is an ideal escape for the barefoot beach lover with a paperback in her pocket.
New Orleans Beyond the Festival
If you are still standing after a full day of shaking your boudin and eating po’boys with fellow festivalgoers, there is the rest of New Orleans for you to dive into.
Austin Beyond the Festival
Here are the latest locales for doing what Austinites hold dear: being outside, catching up with friends at a favorite bar or restaurant, and, of course, eating tacos.
Five Great Ideas for Summer Family Adventure
“I love vacation. I love my family. But I confess, I don’t always love the two combined.”
Cheap Family Weekend Getaways
“Sure, there’s a bit of irony in paying someone else for the experience of performing farm chores, but there is far more fun to be had at a low-cost, family-friendly farm than just milking the cows…”
World's Best Places to Go Skydiving
“Captain Ahab would never have believed one could whale watch from 1,400 feet in the air, but if he’d had the chance, I’m certain he’d have done it.”
Crash Course in Croatian History
“Little is clear-cut about Croatia’s history — uncertain origins and crisscrossing allegiances abound. Even today, many details of Croatia’s emergence as a nation are still shrouded in mystery.”
Croatian Wreck Diving
“War and bad weather throughout the Adriatic have brought many a ship to its watery demise along the Croatian coast. These catastrophes of history are now a diver’s delight.”
Croatia-- Dos and Don'ts
“If you are visualizing many paradisiacal swims in clear blue waters, then the Croatian islands are calling your name.”
"Treasures from Travel Turn into Business Built on Beauty"
“In “The Sheltering Sky,” writer Paul Bowles distinguishes between a tourist and a traveler. Tourists come with preconceived ideas and never come to understand the spirit of a place. Travelers, on the other hand, arrive with fresh eyes; they are open to the unfamiliar and are transformed.”
“Austin on a Budget”
“Live music is so abundant in Austin, you can’t flick a guitar pick without hitting a free show somewhere. “
“Austin History Tours”
“Stand beneath the gold star at the apex of the Capitol’s famed rotunda, look up and spin — it will make you almost as dizzy as Texas politics.”
“Austin Hakomi Practitioner Tames Anxiety Gorilla”
“I compare it to feelings I’ve had when hiking a mountain on a clear blue day with a friend: the togetherness feels just right, and far preferable to doing it alone.”
“City of Austin to Manage Use of Public Parks for Bootcamps”
“Chances are that you, too, have noticed the increase in outdoor fitness classes—their sweaty, well-toned clients bounding up hills or doing burpees in the green spaces of central Austin and beyond. It’s a beautiful thing, all those fit folks out throwing dynaballs at each other and struggling together in the Austin sunshine.”
“Zapping me into the Present Moment”
“But some kind of magic would always happen in the opening warm-ups that washed away the day’s debris and made me feel awake again.”
“FronteraFest Short Fringe, Week Two: A high-speed train of spoken word, crackling improv, and raw poetry”
“Heavyweights from the Austin Poetry Slam scene Christopher Lee and Christopher Michael consumed the stage with a raucous, goose-bump inspiring homage to the power of poetry.”