There is a nostalgia here. Like other iconic places in my hometown of Los Angeles, the Original Farmers Market has a strong association with my childhood, of being something special to be done with family or friends. I remember visiting every year or two, and being treated to something new: a smell, a taste, a…
In the 1930s, the great age of American railways was coming to an end, as with the end of World War Two, automobile dominance would become ascendant, never to look back. While most major American cities already had their monumental rail stations constructed by this point, a couple stragglers made it in under the wire,…
A couple years back, I wrote a story about William Henry Harrison, the shortest serving president in US history. I visited his mausoleum and a monument to the man outside of Cincinnati, and had a grand time learning and writing about this basically forgotten president outside of trivia contests. (Read the story here.) And then,…
Simon Meiners is a man on a mission. As the Communications and Research Specialist at Louisville’s Frazier Museum, he is tasked with sifting through the history of Kentucky and sharing it with the public. After the first five minutes speaking with him, it is clear that this mission is more than just a profession for…
The chances are that if I offered you a fill in the blank starting with Kentucky ____, the top three in some order would be derby, fried chicken, and bourbon. Well, I’ve never been to the Kentucky Derby (and didn’t visit Churchill Downs while in Louisville) and I’ve had good fried chicken all over the…
Editor’s note: Who doesn’t like a good volcano, right? For visitors to California, Lassen Volcanic National Park is off the beaten path, but just as awesome as any place this side of Yosemite. Like our resident geology buff Morgan, I love this gem of a park and recommend it to everyone I know! For more…
I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. I’ll admit a few things here. Boise, Idaho has never been on my travel radar. I doubt I’d have been able to point to where the city was on a map of Idaho before coming. And prior to this trip to visit friends who…
Grayson isn’t the type of friend I normally make when I travel. For one thing, while I enthusiastically count Grayson among my friends, he doesn’t even know I exist. For another, Grayson looks a bit different than most of my friends. Grayson is a harpy eagle, and he is one of the ambassador birds at…
If you poll Americans who don’t live there about the state of Idaho, chances are the answers will be comically simplistic. “Potatoes, right?” Some who recall their fifth grade educations could tell you that the capital was Boise. But beyond that? I’m guessing you wouldn’t get much. I pride myself in my knowledge of history,…
As the saying goes, “Before God was God and boulders were boulders, Basques were already Basques.” The Basque people, from an area along the border between France and Spain, have been around a long time, with a language that predates basically anything else in Europe. So it is a bit weird to find a large…