The title could have been: Seattle? The first day of my 5-month trip around the world began with a resounding THUD! I never made it out of Durham, NC because of storms. However, my luggage did. My luggage and I finally met up in Seattle on Tuesday. On Monday my prospects... read more
Oakland, California is a big eye-opener. Whatever Oakland’s reputation has been in the past, I’m a witness to the fact that today it’s the Bay Area’s Brooklyn. It’s prosperous, dynamic, young, up-and-coming. I chose for the title image the iconic Tribune building in downtown. Oakland, CA: Downtown Downtown is a... read more
Old Gold Mountain is the name for San Francisco in Chinese, seen in the title image. As mentioned in the previous post, gold was discovered in California in the 1840s. This is my walking-around-the-city blog. It’s my kind of tourism: wandering around to see what I can see. My street experience... read more
After visiting my sister and brother-in-law in Carmel Valley I spent the weekend in San Francisco. Just for the fun of it. There are many ways to visit a city as complex and rich as San Francisco. In this first post on the city I’ll approach it through a list... read more
It’s not a hardship waking up to sunrise in Carmel Valley, California. The title image is what’s right outside my bedroom window. Just a few days after moving into One City Center I went to visit my sister and brother-in-law who live in Carmel Valley. I’ve written about the area... read more
Now that I’ve moved into my tree house on the 21st floor of One City Center I want to share with you my experience of Durham by night. I now have perspective on the city from a wholly new point of view. Durham By Night: Outside my bedroom window The... read more
If you’re in Central North Carolina, aka the Piedmont, this Thanksgiving you might consider visiting the charming, post-Revolutionary town of Pittsboro. It’s a little less than twenty miles south of Chapel Hill on US 501. I went with friends in October. As I look out the window today on this... read more
Trendy Charlotte, NC. I continue my quest to chronicle mid-sized American cities undergoing a Renaissance or, rather, a full-blown explosion. The title image is of downtown Charlotte, with the pointy-top Duke Energy building in the middle-ground center left and the spiky-top Bank of the America building in the background off-center... read more
This week I got a preview tour of One City Center, 110 Corcoran Street, downtown Durham. Outside there’s more Bull City imagery, with the Durham Bull in front of Bulldega, which you can see on the ground floor corner (still under construction). Four flights up is the wework sign. The... read more
Bull City = Durham, North Carolina. If you’re curious, read how Durham got its nickname. Me, I’m more interested in what’s happening here now. Look at the title image again. I can hardly imagine a more ordinary building. Let’s call it ‘unpreposessing.’ The address is 1107 West Main Street, and it... read more
