We’d been climbing for three days, traversing upward across the stony face of the mountain, when an icy winter storm rolled through Yosemite Valley. Our bivouac for the night was high above on a narrow ledge. Getting there meant hoisting ourselves between bolts and pitons pounded into the granite by earlier climbers more than a decade ago while pushing through a waterfall of melting snow.
By Jian Huang Shopping is as important to the Chinese as baseball is to Americans. Especially during the Chinese New Year season that starts at the end of January, people from all walks of life congregate together at shopping malls for the cultural ritual of getting good bargains. For the affluent and designer-obsessed, a plane…
It’s the first Saturday in October at Bauman’s Harvest Festival in Gervais, Oregon and dozens of children have broken free from their parents and are running for the petting zoo. Petting zoos are probably the most popular attractions at autumn harvest celebrations now occurring across the U.S. and Canada. On the other side of a tent selling hot coffee, apple tarts and pumpkin scones more parents and kids are scrambling up a hay bale pyramid or crowding expectantly around an above ground pool to watch local farmers weigh their pumpkins. In a few moments some of the biggest pumpkins will be sacrificed.
Pilot shortages, rising fuel costs, constantly changing schedules and erratic weather have lessened the enthusiasm for flying. So why not hit the road for a summer vacation using one of these three diverse itineraries.
Want to learn the real history of Hollywood? Then skip the freak show along the Walk of Fame and head north past the Hollywood Sign to the Valley Relics Museum in the San Fernando Valley where neon costumes and cars tell the history of California’s most fascinating industry.
Why visit Santa Catalina Island at the onset of winter when it’s too cold to swim and clouds often blanket the resort town of Avalon? Because in the off season Southern California’s favorite weekend escape offers gourmet restaurants without crowds, colorful bars where it’s actually possible to meet locals and hotels glad to provide deep discounts since only 30% of the town’s 1,051 hotel rooms and vacation rentals are occupied.
By David DeVoss We live in a disconnected age where colors define politics and words like “rural” and “urban” are used to describe who we are. For children of big city parents the estrangement can be particularly acute. Just ask a 10-year old where food comes from. Chances are he’ll look perplexed, then slowly recover…
By: David DeVoss “In the Arctic half-light of the canyon all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and sounds of the Big Blackfoot River, a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise. Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” The moment I read…
by David DeVoss Sinitic cultures are famed for their hard work. From Shanghai to San Francisco, Singapore to Seattle, Chinese work hard so they can take 10 days off for at Chinese New Year. This week Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans are celebrate the Year of the Rat, one of the zodiac symbols that define the…
Revisionist history once was associated with Soviet Russia, where leaders repeatedly erased the names of disfavored revolutionaries like Trotsky and Malenkov from the nation’s collective memory and airbrushed rivals from old photos. Today it is increasingly prevalent in the United States. One organization you might expect to dispense unadulterated history is the National Park Service, but its “interpreters” readily inject p.c. bias. Certainly this is the case at the Manzanar National Historic Site in California’s Eastern Sierra…