Exploring the American Landscape
Our journey south from the Columbia River along US 101 took us through miles of rural scenery, filled with dairy farms and small fishing communities. In places where the road runs right along the coast, we could sometimes make out dramatic pillars of rock down topped by hardy evergreens just offshore. Unfortunately, persistent rain and … Read more
This November 7, 1805 journal entry from William Clark perfectly encapsulates his peculiar spelling and punctuation style, along with the very understandable relief of getting to the long-awaited destination: the Pacific Ocean. At the mouth of the Columbia River, just west of the town of Astoria, Oregon, the Lewis & Clark Expedition completed the journey … Read more
A beach is considered a balm for the soul, and we’ve definitely experienced that this week at St. George Island State Park, a park located on the tip of St. George Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico off Apalachicola. As part of Florida’s “Forgotten Coast,” this area is anything but crowded and … Read more
Cape Cod is a thin spit of land extending into the Atlantic off the eastern coast of Massachusetts, surrounded by water. That means plenty of beaches on the Atlantic side of the peninsula, and a week on Cape Cod — especially a family reunion with beach-loving family members — will certainly involve plenty of beach … Read more
Our tradition is to begin each new year before dawn on an east-facing beach, watching the sun rise in the renewal of the year. January 1 is an arbitrary marking of the planet’s journey around the sun, but we like having a compelling reason to visit the beach at least once each year. We begin … Read more