It’s nesting season for the great blue herons at the locks in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, a ritual that is carrying on uninterrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. March is a good time to see the gangly birds prepping for the arrival of their spring hatchlings. The …
Category: Tourism

Why is Elvis Crying?
I walk by this mural near Pioneer Square every day. And I always wonder, why is Elvis crying? 1. Maybe he was bitten by bed bugs at Heartbreak Hotel? 2. Guilt over being the King of cultural appropriation? 3. He just discovered how much Col. …

The kindness of the Kaua’i koi pond gardener
My son befriended the gardener who tends the koi ponds where we stayed near Poipu Beach on Kaua'i during our holiday visit. The gardener lopped off the top of a water jug and made him an aquarium stocked with guppies and aquatic plants.

The Oregon trail where cyclists can meet a dairy farmer, a coyote and a towering old train trestle
The Banks-Vernonia State Trail offers lucky cyclists a glimpse of the past and the future in one corner of Oregon’s old timber country. Oregon’s first rails-to-trails linear state park is on the edge of the Northern Coast Range that tumbles down to the Pacific Ocean. …

Canada’s Reifel Bird Sanctuary is a haven for swans, cranes, owls and the people who love to gaze at them
British Columbia’s George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary is the best place on the West Coast to see some of the world’s most spectacular birds, including trumpeter swans, eagles, owls and sandhill cranes. This pit stop for migratory birds is the perfect reason to linger …