www.choosechicago.com Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Sweet home ChicaGay

16th June 202516th June 2025 funtime65

If you want a break, have a Kit Kat the marketeers say so I did just that and came to the Windy City, sweet home ChicaGay.

I’ve taken a Spring Lover too although maybe not tell The Scary One back home.

We’re sat in the Kit Kat Lounge watching Kinley Preston stride the table.

As we tear into buffalo wings, onion rings and curly fries and sipping from a choice of the hundreds of cocktails.

And Miley Cyrus belts out Party in the USA on the big screens.

And we entice our entertainment in to pick us out for a teasing wink.

By flashing our dollars towards her.

But all too quickly they vanish although where scantily-clad Kinley put her George Washingtons only she knows.

Nothing as it seems

That’s magic: Justin at the Magic Lounge

But that’s the beauty of Halsted Street in the iconic Chicago of Andersonville where nothing is ever as it seems.

And so that if you need a laundromat in your travels, say if you’ve been waiting for your lost luggage to arrive from Dublin.

Then don’t be surprised, well actually be, when your host opens the wash to reveal a secret door to the Chicago Magic Lounge.

Joey Cranford’s speakeasy is a living tribute to the days of Victorian vaudeville with posters and ephemera adorning the walls and glass cases.

And he walks us through the history of magic as we sip How Houdini Died rum punches, a knowing nod to Harry’s demise.

Where the magic happens

The lounge is a living, breathing workspace and entertainment hub celebrating Chicago-style Magic.

With two theatres, eats, drinks and a card school.

We’re told Chicago-style Magic grew out of small card acts performed by the owner of a German-American restaurant.

Mine host Joey has given himself a day off today from picking our cards (well, he is the boss).

So Justin Purcell entertains our party with his sleight of hand.

Our hour flies by and alas our spin cycle is done and we are back out on Halsted Street.

Out on Halsted Street

But the gaybourhood fun doesn’t stop there as we are headed for the beating heart of Halsted Street, Sidetrack.

And meet Art, owner and protector of the Andersonville queer community for more than 40 years.

Having turned a small gay bar which he maintained through the worst days of homophobia.

To the international multi-bar buzzing venue it is today.

It is our good fortune that today is Sunday so it’s quieter and there’s no line snaking down Halsted to get in.

So we can enjoy our Frozé and Black Cherry Buzz fruity vodka slushy without having to be cheek by jowl with fellow customers.

Happy to get Sidetracked

Although that is much of the vibe of Sidetrack which we will discover on Tuesday’s Pride evening.

In truth, it hasn’t always been easy to be out on Halsted Street, although contrary to perceptions I am straight.

Which is fine in this inclusive district which straddles the Chicago Cubs’ ballpark, Wrigley Field, the second oldest in the States.

Our guide Victor Salvo walks us through his neighbourhood stopping off at the pillars of gay American and international history,

The legacy of the global community who suffered so the party I have joined for today’s tour can enjoy.

It truly is a Sweet Home ChicaGay. And anyone, straight, queer or somebody who just wants a Spring Liver can enjoy.

And as I’ve been saying all week, I’ve been travelling with Aer Lingus.

For the American Travel Fair, IPW, and staying at the iconic Palmer House Hilton Hotel.

America, Countries

Holidos and Don’t sensors working overtime in the US

15th June 202515th June 2025 funtime65

You can look but don’t touch. This is Holidos and Don’ts sensors working overtime in the US.

Now, despite being a seasoned traveller I am always learning and even the stuff I know I have to remind myself.

Particularly when you arrive in the country jet-lagged and travel-weary at Stupid O’Clock.

And more about my journey to Chicago, which like every trip I do was an odyssey, in due course.

Follow the Dorothy road

Over the Rainbow: Hilton Palmer House Hotel

But back to the iconic Hilton Palmer House Hotel on E Monroe Street in Downtown.

You are reminded of the area’s rich theatre history.

By the framed pictures of the greats who have stayed and played the hotel.

And there are few bigger than Judy Garland, whose Wizard of Oz tour stopped off here.

I doubt mind that Judy, who is waiting for me outside my room had to fuss herself.

With negotiating the snacks and water tray atop the mini-bar.

Look but don’t touch

Look carefully, and again no touching, and you’ll see a small note on said tray.

Saying that it is sensory and if your curiosity, hunger, thirst, or all three get the better of you.

You will be billed.

Magic water in Orlando

Drink up: This one was free with our party

Which many moons ago cost me while staying at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando Universal.

And I had innocently and noisily reached for the Fiji water only to change my mind about drinking it when I saw the price.

The thrills, spills and entertainment of Universal soon took over.

And I put it out of my mind until I was informed on check-out that I had drunk said water virtually and would have to pay.

Fear not, of course, the trick is to ask at the desk for bottled water which the kindly staff will gladly provide.

And so refreshed after a sleep of sorts with my body clock all over the shop.

Chicago-go-go

I’m channeling my inner Judy Garland/Dorothy and exploring Gay Chicago on an LGBTQ+ tour.

Satisfied to have avoided and able to share the first in this Chicago series.

Of Holidos and Don’ts sensors working overtime in the US.

I travelled with Aer Lingus through Edinburgh and Dublin with pre-clearance to attend the American Travel Fair IPW.

America, Countries, Pilgrimage

Sweet Rome Chicago

9th May 20259th May 2025 funtime65

And as £1.4 billion Catholic eyes turn their gaze to the Windy City why all roads have led from sweet Rome Chicago.

Because Cardinal Robert Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as we now know him, hails from what could now be tagged the Holy City too.

That Chicago of all the cities in the world should be chosen to produce the 267th Pontiff is, of course, God’s calling.

But he has long cast his blessings on the great city of the Mid West since its first French Catholic settlement in the 1690s.

And our new Papa has French blood running through him and Italian and Spanish.

The Holy Ground

We recommend the locally-released documentary Holy Ground for those who want to delve deeper into Chicago Catholicism.

And we are grateful too to Chicago Catholic for helping us see the light.

Better still find yourself in Chicago as we will, God willing, next month.

Bless you all: Chicago’s most famous son, Robert Prevost

And will now seek out the Queen of All Saints church in Sauganash.

Where the worshippers have dedicated a stained-glass window to favourite son, Billy Caldwell, the very same Chief Sauganash.

That he has had the thriving southern neighbourhood of Sauganash named for him is testament to his contribution.

Hail to the Chief Sauganash

Two tribes: Billy Caldwell/Chief Sauganash

The son of a Scots-Irishman (all the best people are) and a Mohawk or Shawnee woman Caldwell championed the indigenous tribes.

The Potawatomi people who would populate the Chicago area.

Chicago Catholic marks the year 1833 as pivotal in the church’s story.

When Robert Prevost would have been but a twinkle in his great-grandfather’s eye.

The annus mirabilis 1833 marks the incorporation of Chicago as a town and the creation of its first parish, Old St. Mary’s.

The explosion of Catholic Chicago when because of its positioning in the Mid West it became a transport hub.

And a destination of choice for immigrants from the Old World.

With more parishes built to serve immigrant communities and outlying or daughter parishes.

Sky’s the limit

Chicago has long prided itself as the home of the skyscraper.

And like every other visitor we stand out among the locals for looking up.

But look between the soaring temples to consumerism, hospitality and business.

And you will see another history of Chicago, its ornate steeples.

And perhaps too, St Mary of the Assumption Parish on 137th Street in Riverside in South Chicago.

It may be a shell now of what it was but a stained glass window remains which a young Robert Prevost would have lost himself in.

The boy who would become Pope Leo XIV, the first Pontiff from the USA, now has a rather grander Vatican church from which to worship.

But all roads have led from sweet Rome Chicago

America, Countries, Music

Get Ziggy with it

7th May 20248th May 2024 funtime65

Diana Ross kicked it all off here in LA on Saturday and set off a chain reaction… and we’re not finished yet as we get Ziggy with it.

It makes sense that the City of Angels draws those who are blessed with the voices of angels.

And in Ziggy Marley, our entertainment for our last day at our American Travel Fair, IPW, his dad Bob is here with us in spirit.

Ziggy, you’ll remember from the One Love biopic is the cute kid Bob wrote Three Little Birds for.

Who went on to carve out a Grammy-winning career himself.

And truly we don’t worry about a thing here this week as our LA hosts have taken care of it all.

Wyld about Keanu

Diana, of course, is no warm-up act for anyone but the entertainment which has followed could easily pack an auditorium.

With Keanu Reeves’ band (no, not Wyld Stallyns) but Southern Californian schtick combo Dogstar bringing the house down.

And left the Italian delegation in particular weak-kneed as they shouted out their love for him from the floor.

While the legends that we so loved and lost couldn’t obviously be with us we were treated to the next best thing.

Regards to Broadway

With a Michael Jackson tribute act heading up the MJ musical which he gave us a taster of.

All part of a Broadway Musicals hour.

Where the casts of Chicago, Six, Back to the Future and new sensation Water for Elephants all featured.

Kicks on Route 66

We’ve been treated too to the best hip hop and jazz in Louis York to promote Travel South USA Y’all.

And house and blues to project Chicago for next year’s convention.

There is a synergy to all of this with Route 66 which connects LA to Chicago celebrating its centenary.

This week has as it always is at IPW been about one love… for travel.

And we have of course been getting Ziggy with it.

America, Countries, Europe, UK

John Glenn and other space cadets

20th February 2022 funtime65

Many have said it about me, so on the 60th anniversary of his becoming the first American to orbit Earth here’s to John Glenn and other space cadets.

And a nod, of course, to NASA HQ in Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

And our friends, a visiting spaceman among them, who shared their world with us.

Including witnessing multiple sunsets.

Take me to space: Bandanaman and Spaceman

The bould John, 95 years young, last went into space when he was 77.

Now that space tourism is a thing and is no barrier to age as Captain Kirk, William Shatner, 90, proved let’s look to the stars.

Through the Rainy Days and Songdays songs that have inspired us the Space Race generation.

A Mars a day

Life on Mars, David Bowie: And no, not Bowie’s first space song, nor his last.

Think Space Oddity, The Man Who Fell To Earth and Ashes to Ashes.

But Life On Mars from the album Hunky Dory is certainly his best.

And to bring it back to earth Bowie name checks Ibiza and the Norfolk Broads … both stop-offs for this space cadets.

Rocket science

Making a spectacle of himself: Elton John

Rocket Man, Elton John: Elt was spaced all right when he put the score to his pal Bernie Taupin’s lyrics.

So we can’t place him anywhere though we imagine that the-then coked-up Mr John would have been seeing a lot of The Troubadour in West Hollywood then.

Swing among the stars

Fly Me To The Moon, Frank Sinatra: We don’t know if they’ve got old blue eyes out in space but Frank’s voice is out of this world.

Obvs we want to name check Hoboken, New Jersey and the other cities that he bigs up, New York, Chicago and LA.

But the closest we got was Las Vegas and this inscription to the Rat Pack in Neon City.

All-Hit Radio

Sibling space cadets: Karen and Richard Carpenter

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft, The Carpenters: Now this one is a new one on us but this was actually originally written by the Canadian band Klaatu (no us too but they were named after an ambassador from the extraterrestrial confederation in the film The Day The Earth Stood Still).

But it was in the hands of Richard and Karen Carpenter that the song really took off.

And it naturally has that Californian twang with the unique lead-in of Mike Ledgerwood on All Hit Radio.

This song will be heard once again

De Burgh was here: In the Nativity Scene

A Spaceman Came Travelling, Chris De Burgh: Only Chris De Burgh could come up with anything quite as overblown as a space hook to the Nativity Story.

But the Irishman did after reading Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken, with a sprinkle of WB Yeats and his belief that every 2,000 years something cataclysmic happens.

Never mind that the Nativity Story is only mentioned in two out of the four gospels.

And the Monty Python boys went this way too when they had a spaceship land in Bethlehem in the Holy Land in Life of Brian.

A Galaxy far, far away

Which brings us neatly to Eric Idle’s pithy reflection on the human condition in Galaxy in The Meaning of Life.

So it applies to us all, John Glenn and other space cadets.

America, Countries, Music

RESPECT Aretha and me

6th September 20216th September 2021 funtime65

RESPECT Aretha and me. And to mark the imminent release of the biopic of Aretha Franklin, a walk in her footsteps.

The Queen of Soul was born into music.

The daughter of a Memphis Baptist Minister, he was ‘the man with the million dollar voice’, CL Franklin.

Mum Barbara being a singer and pianist then there was only one thing Aretha was going to do with her life.

Musical legacy

We, of course, associate Aretha most with Detroit, where the Frankins decamped to when she was two, via Buffalo, NY.

The route north was a well-trodden one for a more prosperous life.

Either to the Eastern Seaboard or the Northern Cities of Detroit and Chicago.

All of which created musical magic with Motown and Chicago Blues.

But, of course, that sound was formed in the black churches of the Deep South.

And taking a tangent here to recommend The Black Church: This is our story, this is our song.

Which is on the excellent PBS, the American Public Broadcasting Service.

Winner, winner, US diner

Aretha, of course, was an actress as well as a singer.

And she gave an unforgettable cameo performance in the Blues Brothers.

As she gave a ball-breaking ultimatum to her husband and fellow cafe owner…

Trying to keep him from the clutches of Jake and Elwood getting the band back together… Think.

Aretha, of course, has transcended the cities where she put down her music.

And you’ll find her sung out across the land, across the world.

It’s the instinctive go-to singer in an American diner.

And ny jukebox pick

In my case DC when a regular, down on his luck, gave me his life story.

RESPECT Aretha and me. And Jennifer Hudson who is a stick-on guarantee in the part.

America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Music

30 years of saltwater welling in my eyes

9th August 20219th August 2021 funtime65

We are on UN’s red code to Save the World and 30 years of saltwater welling in my eyes since I first heard Julian Lennon’s song, Rainy Days and Songdays now hails those singers who’ve been addressing the crisis for years.

When will there be?

Harvest for the World (Isley Brothers): Gather every man, gather every woman, Celebrate your life, give thanks for your children, gather everyone, gather altogether, overlookin’ none, hopin’ life gets better for the world.

The sonorous tones of Cincinnati, Ohio’s finest, carry on them a wonderfully stripped-back message we can all take on board.

My own focus on Cincinnati has been honed since sending one of my writers there back in the day.

I’d plan out the travel pieces they came back with early in the week for the weekend publication and was relaxing in the Dylan Hotel, Amsterdam (as you do) having mapped out the early draft.

When said writer texted me in a panic saying I’d misspelt Cincinnati and that this was jeopardising his contacts with them.

Despite it, of course, being an early draft and me being back in the office two days later. Hey ho, between us we gave the Cincinnatians what they wanted a justifiable celebration of their city.

Don’t it always seem to go?

Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell): And the Canadian chanteuse always caught the zeitgeist with her uniquely on-point lyrics.

‘They took all the trees and put ’em in a tree museum and charged the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em’ refers to the Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu.

Encroaching tourism is as big, if not bigger, threat than when Joni and the other hippies were trailing a blaze. Go and see it before they ruin it.

Welling in my eye

Saltwater (Julian Lennon): It’s 30 years since John’s boy released this song, a classic in its own right.

And when I hear about the hole in the sky saltwater wells in my eyes.

And alas it’s getting bigger Julian.

The right Cash

Don’t Go Near The Water (Johnny Cash): The King of Country was a lifelong advocate for ecology and the American landscape.

And you can learn more about his passion for Nature at his museum in Nashville.

Johnny. of course, was a man of the land, Arkansas in his case, and he would turn in his grave…

Bob’s the job

The Sun Is Shining (Bob Marley): Marley, of course, loved the land so much he tried to smoke it all.

But joking aside his Rasta songs were inspired by a union with Nature.

Chicago‘s The Rock and Roll Playhouse knew it and held an Earth Day celebration concert featuring tunes by the great master of reggae two years ago.

To the rescue… here I am.

If only… because 30 years of saltwater welling in my eyes something has to be done.

Africa, America, Countries, Culture, Europe, Oceania, UK

Route 66 in an electric car

17th July 202117th July 2021 funtime65

It’s the world’s favourite road trip… but get your kicks on Route 66 in an electric car.

In the style of this site, of course, I’m working backwards!

At the end of Route 66, Santa Monica Pier, Southern California, on a scorching summer day.

Or a motorbike

Your motorbike, the cooler choice, will have to pull up before the pedestrianised pier, and landmark.

We were first introduced to Route 66 from the classic song where we were encouraged to get our kicks.

As an introduction we are told it’s 2000 miles from Chicago to LA.

Smalltown America

And in time-honoured American songs fashion a list of smalltown US follows and states.

We get Saint Looey, Joplin Missouri, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff Arizona, Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino…

You get the picture.

And yes, I still have to get those stickers for my luggage.

Although I have a clunking keyring to fool people into thinking I‘ve done the hipsters’ highway.

Why am I flagging up Route 66 today? Well, why not?

But it also tops a survey commissioned by Continental Tyres for the new Extreme-E.

The Great Road Trips

Route 66 holds off Pacific Coast Highway and the Great Ocean Road in Australia for the top spot.

While a cursory glance of the top ten also highlights Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way and South Africa’s Garden Way.

Now like all of those with adventure in out blood I have relished getting out on the road though perhaps not the iconic ones.

Snow in Mississippi

And so I drove/was driven through the flatlands of the Blues Trail in Mississippi on my Deep South odyssey.

Where I fell asleep through the repetition and woke up with the fields covered white.

And, no, I wasn’t dreaming. Mississippians call cotton Snow.

Driven around the bend

Or our own circuitous route around Monaghan’s townlands trying to find the Patrick Kavanagh Centre.

And being driven aimlessly around a South African park in the Eastern Cape late at night.

And that’s why the Lord gave zebras white stripes

Continental Tyres runs down the top 10 UK road trips and Scotland takes the plaudits with its North Coast 500.

While it’s good to see the Coastal Circuit in Northern Ireland getting a namecheck too.

The vital spark

Now electric cars are to be commended but I’m not sure how popular they would be with the Route 66 set.

I mean how many charging points would you need over that 2,000 mile expanse.

Never mind keeping up the cool quotient.

But the highway’s going nowhere and you’ll get longer to enjoy it.

So Get your kicks on Route 66 in an electric car.

America, Countries, Culture, Europe, Ireland, UK

It’s a crime… police dramas around the world

7th March 20217th March 2021 funtime65

Excitement is building to fever pitch ahead of the resumption of police drama Line of Duty on March 21 which allows us to explore police dramas around the world.

Hastings’ landscape

Belfast: I can’t find evidence but it must be true that Superintendent Ted Hastings is named after Belfast’s faves Hastings Hotels.

The seahorse on the wall of the Great Central Hotel is your compass wherever you go in the Northern Irish capital.

That is if you can drag yourself out of the Observatory bar atop the hotel where you get the best views.

And where James Nesbitt opens his Bloodlands detective drama.

Adrian Dunbar on the Graham Norton Show watches Vicky McLure at his Line of Duty mural

Hastings, aka Adrian Dunbar in Line of Duty has been immortalised.

As are all they take to their heart and allow to film in their city.

By having their image set as a mural… and be sure to take a black taxi tour around Belfast.

Check in at the Europa Hotel, part of the story, and get ready for a potted history of The Troubles.

Mob rules

Once upon a crime in America: And everywhere there is an American dream there is a big job to realise that dream.

You can see how Las Vegas was built by Bugsy Siege.

And The Mob in Chicago in the Mob Museum and channel your inner Al Capone.

Call him Fonz

Tom Hardy as Capone in the Netflix dramas

Fonz Capone is synonymous of course with Chicago.

Where he was invited from New York by Johnny Torrio, and ended up running the city.

The invitations have piled up over the years for me to visit Chicago but the big job has eluded me thus far.

Last year was to be me marking the centenary of the Volstead Act which beckoned in Prohibition.

And I was all set to join one of the retro tours

My cocktail will be all the sweeter when I do get there…

I’ll just have to watch at the speakeasy doors for the cops.’

Florida where he ditched the Al

We never did find out why Mae Capone insisted to the police watching the house: ‘We don’r call him that [Al] here.’

Here is Palm Beach, near Miami, where the syphilitic Capone spent his last days under house arrest deep in the doo-doo (literally).

You can see it all in graphic detail on Netflix’s Capone, starring Tom Hardy.

Italy, the Old Country

Of course Fonz (or Al) and la famiglia are really all just displaced Sicilians.

Visitors to Sicily will always head for Mt Etna until it gets too hot to handle.

But for those who stay awhile and see Taormina then a Godfather tour is highly recommended.

This one I’ve stumbled across includes a Fiat 500 {Cinquecento)and me and the Cinquecento have history.

When I stalled in the car park in the French Riviera and the good monsieur took over.

I’m not sure whether Capone would be so understanding.

Africa, America, Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK

A year on – Ireland and Scotland and further afield

2nd February 20212nd February 2021 funtime65

That was the year that was – it’s 12 months now since I left my beloved Ireland for my first love Scotland.

I had though little intention of spending all my time in Scotia.

And instead had a long list of destinations to fill out the year.

So to mark the anniversary I’ll share the year that never was.

Off to a flier in Czech Hoptown

In the Strahov Monastery Brewery, Prague, in the Czech Republic

The Chinese lady with the mask on in the airport in Prague Airport seemed a curio at the time, a reminder of the latest virus that only affects Asia.

A few weeks later the fun and intimacy of the Czech Republic were but a warm embrace I clung onto as I entered lockdown in Scotland for the first time.

As I came out of isolation I engaged with my Czech friends again over the new-fangled Zoom app we were all compelled to use and toasted each other in time-honoured fashion Na Zdravie.

I was heartened to see them lay out a table for a feast along the Charles Bridge in the early summer and wished that I was back there again in Prague or in the Czech Republic’s Hoptown, Zatec.

I know this though that the Czechs will get through this because they have the best beer in the world, Pilsener Urquell.

Trump steals my Keys

Suitcase packed, bandana on, I was all set for my fly-drive around the Florida Keys when Donald Trump (remember him) closed the country to visitors while encouraging Americans to gather… at his rallies.

And so Hemingway’s six-toed cats, key line pie, Florida sunsets and easy living will just have to wait.

Of course the beauty of it is that Papa’s pussies won’t have had any idea that anything was even different about the past year.

Exile me in St Helena

And another on the back-burner is Napoleon’s island. No, not his birthplace, Corsica, or the one the British sent him to initially, Elba, but the one where he ended his days, St Helena.

St Helena, 1200 mile west of southwestern Africa is one of the most remote inhabitable islands in the world and is an ecological dream.

All of which makes you think that exile was a pretty good option back in the day. And if I end up needing to self-isolate anywhere then I’ll be back in touch.

Vegas or bust

Now I’ve always felt bad about leaving Cami from Utah at the bar at Harrah’s Las Vegas a few years ago and knowing she goes down there every weekend knew that she’d be there when I revisited in June.

The American Travel Fair was scheduled for Neon City and I was all booked and ready, my chips at the ready to make my million.

But alas I had to leave Cami waiting again and to get my fix of Vegas I had to make do with watching the world’s greatest band The Killers perform from the ceiling of Caesars Palace on YouTube.

The fair, IPW is slated for the Fall, and I’ll be expecting an Access All Areas ticket, Brandon.

And maybe even reprising my Mr Brightside from the Rising Star Karaoke Bar, CityWalk at Universal Orlando a few years ago.

The Norman request

I would have put my Monet on getting to Normandy

for the Monet festival back in late summer.

And even get a painting lesson in his back garden.

But as the UK travel corridor policy became as chaotic as the Spinal Tap boys trying to get to their gigs, again I found myself blocked.

Now what is the French word for cup-de-sac?

Bergamo go, go, go

And just as the year was petering out and I was resigning myself to my best chance of a trip down to North Berwick beach, Mamma Mia but one came off.

And in spectacular style.

The journalist in me had me tracking the evolution of Bergamo through the pandemic, it being the gateway to the virus in Europe.

And just in time I got over to Northern Italy to talk to the Bergamaschi and ask how they had got through it all and their advice on how we should all progress now.

There was specialist Lombardy food and wine, culture, history Donizetti music and art aplenty.

But the most beautiful picture was that of the emboldened Bergamaschi in the backdrop of their historic city, both in Citta Alta and Citta Bassa, the High and the Low City.

Now there are worse places to have spent this last year, with the view of the Firth of Forth from my window, Bass Rock bookending the beach and Edinburgh just along the road.

I’ve chosen to live by the sea all my adult life. It’s a primal thing knowing that exciting lands lie beyond.

I know that we’ll visit them again soon, and hopefully I can fill in the blanks above and add San Francisco, Chicago, New England and a host of other trips I had planned last year, and many to come.

All for your enjoyment.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD