Zawa Mountain, Duhok. August 2018 How Zawa Mountain saved me during the pandemic lockdowns Duhok City sits in a mountain valley in the...

Dim sum, Ion Orchard. December 2018 Cantonese Breakfast "Dim sum", or more correctly "yum cha", is the brunchy collection of small...

Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute. December 2021 American Indian Portraits, George Catlin , National Portrait Gallery. August 2017 A silencing On a summer visit to DC, TFR and I visited the Renwick Gallery to see a recommended exhibit of famous American painter, George Catlin's, works. I rank it among one of the most impactful exhibits I have ever seen in my life. George Catlin was a fellow Pennsylvanian hailing from Wilkes Barre. Given he was born in 1796, I assume

Tomb of Ibn Battuta, Tangier, Morocco. December 2019 One of my heroes [from: Encylopedia Britannica] In Egypt, where he arrived by the...

Union Canal Tunnel, Lebanon. December 2020 [from FB post: December 15,2020] An engineering marvel in its time (1828) it was only used for about 60 years. It helped connect Philadelphia with Harrisburg. It actually goes under the hills that divide the waters that flow to the Delaware River (Tulpehocken Creek) and the Susquehanna (Swatara Creek) In the age of canals during the mid-19th century, the Union Canal connected Reading (and by extension, Philadelphia) to Harrisburg

Tuwaiq Escarpment, Route 80, Riyadh-Taif Road. December 2014 [from FB post: December 19,2014] Also I visited the Tuwaiq Escarpment on...

Kevorkian Center, New York University. September 1988 How I got a job one day in New York City September 1988. In the months previous...

Rooftop Bar, Dilshad Palace Hotel, Duhok. October 2019 Everyone needs to unwind An enterprising young Lebanese Christian, RA, saw the...

Day Cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Freeport, Bahamas. Winter 1990. Cruise to nowhere, literally Thirty years ago, time share companies...

Jackson's Sawmill Bridge (1878), Lancaster County. December 2020 [from FB post: December 15, 2020] The only bridge in Lancaster County...

St Helena, c. 1495, Cima da Conegliano, National Gallery of Art. December 2021 Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. June 2018 ...

Feddan Park, Tetouan, Morocco. December 2019 Fish Tagine, El Reducto Restaurant, Tetouan, Morocco. December 25, 2019 Christmas in the...

Vivo City. December 2011 [from FB posts: December 2011] Something to think about...I was in the UAE for a week. I was told me that...

.. Somewhere between Spain and Morocco, Strait of Gibraltar. December 2019 Passing between worlds without seasickness and a little help...

Fish restaurant, Zawita, Duhok, Iraq. September 2018 Only 20 minutes from Duhok by highway lies Zawita. Similar to Duhok, the original town is just under a cleft in the Zagros mountains that forms a pass for travelers headed onward to Amedi {See: Amedi }. Zawita has a higher elevation than Duhok and is the beginning of the remaining green in those mountains. Today Zawita's main claim to fame is a series of fish restaurants built right into the sides of the mountain wher

Calle Segismundo Moret, Tarifa, Spain. December 2019 Misiana Hotel and Restaurant, Tarifa, Spain. December 2019 The end of Europe The...

Spring flowers, Fort Tryon Park. 1990 Favorite Manhattan places (part 2) I have waxed lyrical about the Winter Garden {see: Winter...

Rock of Gibraltar behind me, Algeciras, Spain. December 2019 The slow train to Green Island The plane landed late enough in Madrid that...

Al Habala, Asir, Saudi Arabia. December 2013 The nanny-state ruins my view [From FB: December 5, 2013] Finally made it out to this huge...

Smithson Crypt, Smithsonian Castle. December 2021 The strange story of James Smithson and the creation of the Smithsonian Institution...