At my house I keep two large laminated maps on the wall. One is a world map and the other is a United States map. On each, I put star stickers on places I have been. The stars are all blue, though since the star manufacturer changed, they are in two slightly different shades. Don't…
About an hour outside of San Francisco lies the small city of Fairfield, California. Its claim to fame: the Jelly Belly factory. For candy connoisseurs, many of them children, this has long been a popular tourist destination, or a day trip stop for Bay Area families. But is it worth the visit? The view from…
California's Central Valley is nothing like the postcard pictures of the Golden State everyone imagines. There are no surfers, no beautiful people sipping designer coffees or juices. This is farm country, some of the best and most productive in the country, and maybe even the world. It is flat, it is dry, it is dusty…
In fairness, like most large cities, Los Angeles has a lot of cool buildings. However, at the advice of my friend Sandy, we took a tour of the central branch of the Los Angeles Public Library in downtown LA. The building is pretty incredible. Built in 1926, this iconic structure is the largest branch of…
The largest city in Southern Oregon, Medford is best known as a rest stop for weary drivers between California and Portland or Seattle. Located directly on Interstate 5, which runs from Mexico to Canada, it is a convenient place to stop for the night, and indeed, that is what most people think of when thinking…
There is something relaxing for me about being in the mountains. Sitting on the balcony of my room at Callahan's Mountain Lodge, just off Interstate 5 in the Siskiyou Mountains at the base of Mt. Ashland, I stare at the forested peaks around me. These mountains were those I had always driven past, admired through…
It pains me to write these words, but silence is even less an option. I am ashamed to be American. Today I should be writing a piece for Travel Medford about my experience in Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. But here I am, sitting at my desk, and I can't do it. Too much else needs to…
Opening night of Love's Labours Lost is packed. It's a chilly night here at the Allen Elizabethan Theatre - the first of its kind - here in Ashland, Oregon, but I am wearing a thick jacket. Other spectators are wrapped in blankets; the theatre is, after all, outside. A trumpet sounds and a figure appears…
Two plastic chairs hastily set up in a food storage room behind the storefront of a family farm. It doesn't seem like the place where, suddenly, inspiration will strike. And yet, it did. As a traveler, I have learned that these unexpected epiphanies are to be cherished. "Nowadays, people are so focused on the consumer…
We had so much in common. We shared a love of exploring the world, of connecting with people, of tasting great food. We shared a desire to remind everyone that people are just people, no matter where they came from or looked like. And we shared a struggle with mental illness, with the voice in…