Nevada

Nevada

Las Vegas

2014- I went here in February for a quick escape from winter.  But it was the weekend that I filed to run for US Congress, District #1, MD.  I filed the papers in Annapolis to meet the filing deadline and I thought I would go away for a few days and then come back and start my campaign.  I didn't anticipate that this would make news and reporters would be calling me immediately.  I was surprised and unprepared for the moment.  I wanted to go home right away and get started on this task.

Instead, I wandered the boulevard, went to Hoover Dam and drove around the desert. And then I came home to my campaign.


2015- June- My friend, Charlene, was in her final stage of cancer and had a bucket list of things she wanted to do.  First on the list was to go to Vegas to see the Cirque du Soleil show, "O".  We got the most expensive tickets and we sat on the edge of our seats throughout the entire performance.  We loved it so much that we went to another Cirque show the next night.  In hindsight, I wish we just went to this show again because it was so damn intricate that I could have watched it again.

Incidentally, Charlene came home and never did another thing on her bucket list.  She died in December and her family played the soundtrack to "O" at her wake.

Ohio

OHIO

Ohio State University

Fall, 1992

I only went to Ohio once, in 1992 to go to the PSU v OSU football game.  PSU had just joined the Big 10 conference and this was our first game.  About 8 of us drove up in a van or a truck or something.  It was cold, and snowy and gloomy.  We stopped at the Budweiser Brewery and drank all afternoon.  Then we went to the game the next day.  The visitors, us, had to sit on portable bleachers that had no railings and were so damn slippery.  I remember several near slipping moments.  It was snowing.  It was a wet, big flakes snow that sticks to everything.  I was covered in snow.  I was cranky. We were losing. It was shameful. The OSU fans were cheering and geering, "Welcome to the Big 10." I was freezing and near tears.

It got so cold that I had to leave the game and go to the Women's locker room in the athletic complex and take a hot shower.  I think I had hypothermia.

I was miserable and I don't feel a need to go to Ohio ever again.

Wyoming

Wyoming

2005- March- I went here for spring break.  My father had just died, two weeks prior so I was a bit raw and a bit relieved.  I came mostly to go dog sledding and I spent the day with my musher and ten crazy dogs. We wandered all over the Grand Tetons.  The day was gorgeous and cold and crisp.  My cheeks were chapped but the rest of me was warm as I was bundled with heavy blankets.

We stopped for lunch and my guide just lit a fire and served me hot soup, tea and sandwiches.  We started talking a little bit about politics. He asked me if he was a Democrat or a Republican as he wasn't sure. He told me he just wants to live out in the wilderness with his girlfriend, ride his horse and keep his gun so he can go hunting.  I told him I thought he was more of a libertarian and that confused him and ended the conversation.

A lot of the roads were still closed for the winter.  This concept confused me and I found out the hard way that signs which indicate that a road is closed really does mean that the road is closed.  I wanted to take a loop around Yellowstone and five hours later, when I came to the "road closed" sign, I found out that the road really was closed and I had to drive back five hours to get to my hotel, even though I was probably 20 miles away.  The damn road really was closed.

Delaware

Delaware

Home of Tax Free Shopping

The State That Started A Nation

The Delaware Growler

I visit Delaware a lot for a lot of reasons:

1- It is tax free shopping state.  I buy all of my electronics here.
2- They have a liquor store (Total Wines) that is gigantic and has the best beer prices around.
3- My good friends live there and they invite me to dinner and cook for me so who could pass up that offer.
4- There are great places to go bring here.  my favorite place is Bombay Hook.  I go there every year to watch the immigration of the snow geese.  They travel in flocks of 100,000 and they cover the sky when they are in flight.  it is a magnificat sight to behold.
5-They have some great breweries.  as a matter of fact, i have been to most of their breweries.  of course, my favorite DE brewery is Dogfish Head.
6- I am just beginning to like their beaches.  I like Rehobeth.
7- It's my easiest entrance to Route #95, the road that has taken all up and down the east coast of the USA.
8- It's home to the Delaware Growler, my favorite place to go to fill a growler.  They have 50 beers on tap at all times and they let you taste  everything.
9- I like to go to the Opera House.  It's a great venue with lots of wonderful performers.  I've seen Paual Poundstone, David Sedaris, Rent, Jains Ian, Emmy Lou Harris, Lenora McKennitt and others at this place.  I've never seen a mediocre performance here.
10- I started college at Brandywine Junior College in 1973 in Wilmington so I have a soft spot for this place.

The Stats

The Stats

Beer Stats That IS

I'm a Beer Kook

I keep lots of lists but I think my beer lists are the lists I keep the most.  There are some of the lists I keep:


Breweries to date: 182

Beer Lists:  I was in the several hundreds when I kept a list and that was before we had smart phones and APPS.  I had to stop keeping this list as I was becoming too narcotic.  I used to save beer labels from the bottles and I had to stop that obsession as well.

Brewery Blog: BKBK.blogspot.com

Greatest Beer Accomplishment:  In the early 1980's, I was part of a competition to compiles Around the World in 80 Beers at Zeno's bar in State College, PA.  At the time, this was quite an accomplishment because breweries were not around and people only drank quantity of beer.  Quality was not a concern. And these beers were very expensive.  budget. And I was on a graduate student budget.  So it took me three years to complete this task.  But I did it.

Countries where I have been to breweries: USA, Canada, Wales, German

Countries where I have attempted to visit a brewery and failed miserably: Nepal, Australia

Countries where I couldn't find a beer: Bangladesh

A flight party

Oktoberfest:  2017 in Munich

Beer Year- 2018- I visited 61 different breweries from January 1 to December 31, 2018.

Brewery Day- May, 2017- I visited 5 breweries in one day in Philadelphia.  I think this record will not be surpassed by me ever again.

Top 10 Go To beers:
 
1- Sierra Nevade Pale Ale
2- Sierra Nevade Torpedo
3- Heavy Seas Winter Storm
4- Heavy Seas Loose Cannon
5- Sam Adams Lager
6- Victory Hop Devil
7- Lauginita's IPA
8- Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
9- Stone IPA
10- Gooseneck IPA

Canada's Little Brown Jug 

Biggest flight- DeClaw's Brewery in MD.  I was with my niece and we drank a complete  flight of 18 beers.


Longest single brewery visit- Sam Adams brewery- I spent the entire weekend at that brewery or engaged in Sam Adams Brewery pubs in Boston in 2012.  It was great fun.

States where I visited a craft brewery- AZ, CO, CA, CT, DE, PA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, WY, WA, VT, FL, MN, IO, NM, WI, TN, WV,  KY, MD.  I have a new goal of drink one craft beer in every state.

Most complete state - DE- at the moment, I have been to all of the DE breweries but one (which just opened up in the last few weeks). I will get there next year.

Wales Pipes brewery

Most Breweries in One State- PA- I've been to 32 breweries in this state.  I now have to drive 2 hours from my home to find a new brewery.  Or, more breweries are going to have to open up in the Philadelphia area.

Wales Brewery

Breweries of the Year- I award a brewery as the Brewery of the Year.  I publish this honor on my blog (and nobody really cares but so what).
2016- Left Hand Brewery- CO    
2017- Avery Brewery- CO
2018- Karst Brewery- IO
2019- to be determined

Longwood Gardens- 2019

Longwood Gardens

Longwood, PA

September 2019

I like to go to Longwood Gardens at least one a year.  I always go with my camera and take photos with the intensity of someone who works for National Geographic Magazine.  I take photo after photo.  I never have the expectation that people get out of my way as I shoot.  But people do, even when I have lost sight of my surroundings, and they wait patiently for me as I attempt to capture the perfect shot.

A House By The Sea

A House By The Sea

Cape Breton

Nova Scotia, Canada

October 2019

There are just some fanatasies that I can't shake.  I can easily talk myself in to believing that I would be so happy, so productive, so creative if I had a little house by the sea.  I would be in this remote place and nothing would distract me and I would just write all day.  I would be so prolific, it would be scary.

But as I stared at this house last week and heard it creak as the winds whipped through it, I thanked my lucky stars that I wasn't going to be stuck here for the winter and in a few days, could return to the chaos of my apartment life.

The Neighborhood

The Neighborhood

Jacmel, Haiti

August 2013

This was my view from the roof of my house in Haiti.  I was living in this neighborhood with a family who sold cold beverages to people.  I would sit up on the roof in the evening to cool off from the heat.

March For Your Lives- March 2018

March for Your Lives

March 18, 2018

Washington, DC

The day was heavy, sad, maddening, infuriating but hopeful, inspiring, powerful and peaceful.

Philadelphia- March 2018

Philadelphia

March 2018

I never grow tired of photographing Philadelphia, my home town.  I think I took this shot as I was preparing to board a bus and go to the March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington, DC.  This would have been early in the morning.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Madison

Spring 2018

I took a road trip here in April, thinking the snow would be gone by this time of year.  But I was wrong, wrong, wrong. My agenda for this long weekend was to spend a day in Minnesota and Iowa and two days in Wisconsin.

I flew in to Madison and rented a car and headed up to Minnesota.  I stopped at the Mississippi River for a quick photo and then got back in my car.  The roads were so bad that I had to drive extra slowly so it took me forever to get to my hotel.  And by the time I got there, I was exhausted and didn't have the energy to venture out to the slippery sidewalks of town.

Typically, when I take a road trip, I don't pre-book a hotel.  But I did for this trip.  So my time was solely spent on getting to my hotel destination in horrible winter conditions.

Figi

On The Beach

Fiji

February 2015

This beach was beautiful.  I loved it.  But even all of this beautify wasn't enough to lure my fat ass on to a horse.

Washington

Washington

2004

2007- twice

2017

2018

2004- This was a spring break trip through Seattle and Olympiad National Park.  I stayed in the park for one night and it was beautiful and dark, dark, dark.

2007- June- we had a stop over in Seattle on our way to Alaska.  I was with my sister, her husband and her father-in-law.  We went to Kelly's sister's house for dinner.  They hadn't seen each other in years and when they embraced, they cried and then tried to pretend that they weren't crying.  Our host made a feast for the occasion and we all ate like bigs.  She made a coconut cake that was a foot tall.  And we ate that all up.  And then the next day we went to Alaska.

2007- August- I took a fantastic trip from San Juan Islands to the Great Bear Rain Forest above Vancouver.  San Juan was so beautiful that I could have spent a week just sitting on the docks and chatting people up.

2017-  My nephew and I had a 20 hour layover in Seattle as we were headed to Alaska.  So my niece picked us up at the airport and took us to an underground tour of the city.  When we went to the market for great seafood and coffee and entertainment.  And in the morning, we were off to Alaska.

2018- My niece had a baby so I went for a week to visit with them. OMG, that little boy was beautiful.  I loved him immediately.  Heather and I spent the days watching his every breathe and then in the evenings, when her husband returned, we wrapped the baby upend went off to some local breweries for beers.

Nebraska

Nebraska

2010

I was only here once and only for a day.  I was in Colorado, visiting friends and I heard that the Sandhill Snow Cranes were migrating in Nebraska.  I have been interested in witnessing this migration since I read a book about a young man from England who took a Greyhound Bus across country to follow the migration trail.

So I rented a car and drove six hours north.  My friends discouraged me and claimed that Nebraska was lame and boring.  But these annoying comments did not deter me.  My niece was with me and we headed out for a long day of driving.

When we got to the border, we found a hotel and asked the owner if he knew where we could find the cranes.  He informed us that I was about a week too late and they were at least 100 miles north.

FUCK.. I couldn't go any further north as I had to get back home.  So now, I have unfinished business in Nebraska.

Austria

Austria

January 2008

I only spent the day here.  I was with my nephew and we were visiting Munich for the week.  We took the train here and wandered around the town square.  It was really cold so I put on a wool cap.  

Later in the afternoon, I discovered that I lost one of my diamond earring.  It must have gotten tangled up in my damn cap.  I was really disappointed but tried hard not to let this incident ruin my trip.  I hope some nice young man found the diamond and used to for an engagement ring.