I Love Cows So Much

Pix from U Idaho's dairy farm. Check out the nursing calves.


They were as curious about me as I was about them.

More Moscow

Here are some more pix from my visit to Moscow, Idaho. This is Main Street.


There really isn't much here besides the university, although I've found several good restaurants and there is a book store and a movie theater. It's funny to me that many stores in rural towns sell a variety of products. You can buy clothes in the paint store and toys in the drug store. Yet there are also many empty storefronts on Main Street. Below is the old granery in the center of downtown.

This is the rooming house where I stayed during my visit. The apartment is upstairs.


Friday, April 2nd. Snow. I enjoyed the view out my front window.

Moscow

I'm back on the road again, this time in Moscow, Idaho, where thus far I have eaten an Idaho potato, gotten hailed and snowed and rained on, met some students studying dairy farming, been interviewed on the local radio station, attended class at University of Idaho, shopped at the food co-op and attended opening night of the reading of my new play, Mi Corazon. Everyone here is very friendly, and I like the town's relaxed and hearty atmosphere. Here are a few random pix.


Below is the kitchen of the house that is my home for my visit to Moscow. It's as charming from the outside, as well.


Below is the food co-op, where I shop for groceries. I've also eaten lunch in the co-op restaurant. Grilled tofu and veggie sandwich on Norwegian Farm Loaf Bread. Yummy!

Here

I've been here a while. I'm ready to go.

Reno

Sometimes you go somewhere and you have a lot of fun and you learn a lot but you can't wait to go home.

Ambivalence

For all my bitching about living in the corner of nowhere, some days I like it here. Like today, when instead of sitting at my desk, I spent the better part of the early morning on a long walk up Mt. Soledad, through some ritzy La Jolla neighborhoods with ocean views, back down the other side and home along a well-traveled and reasonably pleasant bike path. The sun was shining, the sky a crisp blue, and the promise of the weekend was everywhere around me. I have no right to complain. No right.

After the Storm

Winter Storm

In an unusual display of versatility for this coastal desert, rain pounded us for the last five days, flooding most of the low-lying areas of the city and churning up the Pacific. Even the most die-hard surfers were nowhere to be seen.

Anza Borrego Desert

Here's where we go when we head east.

(John, Patrick, Alex and Hannah. January 2010)

Looking West on a January Evening

Stuck on the Edge

John suggested that we change the name of this blog since it no longer follows our summer road trip from San Diego to Chicago. But for me, the title represents a perpetual state-of-mind that exists living on the western coast of the United States. As much as I enjoy the natural beauty of the shore and the Pacific, I also feel a bit stuck here. It's so far away from the rest of the country. When I want to travel by car, there is truly nowhere to go but east, which is desert, or north toward Orange County and LA -- another kind of desert. We're only half-hour from the Mexican border, but driving in Baja these days is apparently not very safe, so I won't be doing that alone. I like the freedom of the open road. I want to go more directions.

Feliz Navidad

Playa de Santa Maria, Cabo San Lucas

We headed south for the holidays and are mesmerized by the wide sandy beaches and sparkling turquoise waters on the shore of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Our hotel offers every indulgence possible, but we are living a double-life, masquerading amidst the rich and famous. At this moment, I long for the simplicity we found this summer in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Another Year Nearly Gone

I stopped blogging after our summer trip, but I miss it, so I am starting again. It doesn't matter if no one reads it -- I'm doing it for myself. Because I am still looking east. At Northwestern, where Charlotte is, and Middlebury, where Hannah will be in the fall, and New York and D.C. and Boston, where I lived until I was 25. Some days, I wish I were 25 again, but most days not.

September Morn

It's hard to be back home, but as I continue down life's highway, I have found that adventure doesn't always have to be the discovery around the bend. Yes, I'm sitting in my garage office and the view out the window is the same as it has always been, but my perspective is different. I wear a new hat. I am finding new places inside my self. The journey is not ended -- it just goes at a different speed now.

In a Highway State of Mind

As Far As It Goes

Well, we've reached Evanston/Chicago, as far east as we will be able to make it on this trip. It's been pretty low-key here so far, hanging out with Hannah and Charlotte. After Medill Cherubs Journalism Boot Camp, Hannah mostly sleeps, with occasional breaks to eat and to see her fav bands at Lollapolooza.

Charlotte alternates between being her sweet self and appearing on stage in dowdy outfits for her roles as the Mayor's Wife and Mrs. Merkle in Northwestern's summer production of Bye Bye Birdie. The rest of the Simon clan arrive today for a reunion of sorts in celebration of a purple summer.

Big Reasons to Love Road Trips Through America

Milwaukee Adventures

Time to hit the road again: This time, we decided on Milwaukee -- a good place to check out the beer scene, do laundry and re-acclimate to civilization as we contemplate our final destination. On the way, however, John decided to go off the map. This decision necessitated a consultation with an official from the Wisconsin DOT to steer us in the right direction.

Our first stop in Milwaukee: Lakefront Brewery, which brews in strict accordance to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. Six bucks gets you a 45-minute tour (very interesting), four beers (very tasty), and two souvenir glasses (the kind you drink from, not the kind you need to see with after drinking the four beers).

We love downtown Milwaukee's Historic Third District, where we are staying in the old Gimbel's Department Store, now converted to a Marriott. Today, we got a glimpse of a forthcoming movie being filmed here called No God, No Master and ate lunch at the historic Public Market.


Riverwalk is a great place to get some exercise, catch the Milwaukee nightlife and, of course, drink more beer.

Door County, Wisconsin

We're having a wonderful time here in Door County, the finger of Wisconsin that points northward between Lake Michigan on the east and Green Bay on the west. We're staying in the quaint, Nantucket-style town of Fish Creek in a boutique hotel called The Whistling Swan.


After breakfast on the veranda yesterday, we rented bikes and took a leisurely 10-mile tour of Peninsula State Park. The ride was so leisurely, John had time to sit and read a book (schoolwork, probably!)

The ride took us along the coast of Green Bay and on beautiful wooded trails. As you can see, it was a sunny day, but the air was cool. The highlights of the ride included a stop and tour of Eagle Bluff Lighthouse...

And a nap and a swim at Nicolet Beach. The water was so refreshing in the middle of the day.


Lauren pitched her play, "Heartland," to every Wisconsin theatre she could find, including the American Folklore Theatre in Peninsula State Park.


In the evening, we patronized the Peninsula Players theatre, attending the opening night performance of "Is He Dead?" a gender-bending comedy by Mark Twain. It was very well done by Equity actors from top theatres in the midwest. Plus, the theatre itself is gorgeous, and although you can't see it in this photo, it's right on Green Bay.


Today (Thursday) was rainy, but we made the best of it -- strawberry-rhubarb, cherry-peach and mixed berry pies for lunch at Sweetie Pies down the road!