Waiting to Get There. Usually on the A/C/E in Chelsea, New York City.

Let's hear it for NYC. David was talking about how excited he was to move to San Diego when he retired (granted from Miami, he's never lived here) and Bruce is all about Spain and Helen and Matt are looking to cruise in the Caribbean for a couple years and rent out their place in Harlem. Sometimes (ok, often) this town is a rough place to be, to work, to just deal with.  And then you have a week like I just had. Maria was in from Stockholm and we took this city by storm.  For example, on Thursday evening, on the way to the train, I took this golden photo and that's kind of when my whole OMG I will never leave this place kicked in full gear: Not even sure what caption to write. This view shows the site of where the WTC used to be if you weren't aware. I mean, literally two hours earlier: Hanging in the park by the river watching the sunset and Leela James and objects are much closer than they appear in the viewfinder, I just feel the need to mention. This is after seeing...

So we're hiking this trail along the Oregon coast. When we set off, I decide my new thing is going to be to document a "Fern Life List" because Helen has a Bird Life List and I'm intrigued by the list but not by the birds. So I begin to take photos of all the ferns I see.  I will do this until I have seen all the ferns in the world!!! Some Ferns Some more ferns which at a certain point I realize are the same kind of ferns. My full attention on ferns lasts until we hit the views of the coast, which are undeniably spectacular! I also realize we are very high up and the trail edges a cliff that is a straight shot into the sea: Approximately right then, some guy hiking the opposite direction with his wife/girlfriend does a weird backward step just as he comes abreast of us and he topples off the side of the precipice. He falls backwards and luckily gets tangled up in a bush and therefore does not immediately plunge to his death. Time halts as we all stand there staring at...

 We stopped on the drive to the Oregon coast to pick up a can of fireworks, because yeah. Ever since Matt originally procured such a can  a couple years ago, we've been all in.  So we got our can of fireworks, but then the problem became where to light it, because the rental agreement of the place we're renting had some pretty strict "please don't blow up the house" clauses and also the dune grass surrounding the place looked pretty flammable and you know, we'd hate to lose our rental deposit. Therefore, someone came up with the pretty great idea to light up the Fireworks Can on the beach. Except: hmmm, this could be a decision-making factor re: our plan to light up a can of fireworks on the beach. On July 3rd at dinner, we asked our waiter if people were lawless enough to set off fireworks on the beach despite the clear signage. He kind of smirked and said oh no, absolutely not. Hindsight revealed the extent of his sarcasm. Spoiler alert. Helen mused about th...