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02

Apr

Absolutely Albuquerque!

by Joyce McGreevy on April 2, 2018

A detail from Maisel’s Indian Trading Post inspires a travel writer in Albuquerque, on one of her best trips to awe-inspiring New Mexico. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Floor detail from Maisel’s Indian Trading Post, in downtown Albuquerque since 1939.
© Joyce McGreevy

An Underrated American Gem
in an Awe-Inspiring Setting

To many who’ve yet to travel here, Albuquerque must be a colorless locale on flat, treeless land. Such is the power of stereotypes about desert cities.

So let’s cut to the OIC Moment: Visiting New Mexico’s largest city is one of the best trips you’ll ever take. Original, affordable, this is a Southwestern urban gem surrounded by awe-inspiring nature.

Route 66 inspires a travel writer in Albuquerque, on one of her best trips to awe-inspiring New Mexico. Image © Joyce McGreevy

Albuquerque is home to the longest urban stretch of Route 66 in the country.
© Joyce McGreevy  Read more...

 

Art of Travel/Discoveries/USA

19

Feb

There’s Something About Santa Fe

by Joyce McGreevy on February 19, 2018

A trompe l'oeil mural at Big Adventure Comics shows why Santa Fe, New Mexico inspires wanderlust. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Santa Fe strips away its own layers to reveal greater surprises. (Big Adventure Comics, Montezuma Ave.)
© Joyce McGreevy

When Wanderlust Leads Southwest

There’s something about New Mexico. Its magnetism can activate wanderlust from thousands of miles away. Like the time a friend and I stood speechless in London’s Tate Modern, gaping at a painting by Georgia O’Keeffe.

“Black Cross with Stars and Blue” is one of O’Keeffe’s earliest depictions of the land that became her obsession.

Feeling Transported

The image transported me to a place where stars are more defined, shadows blacker, and blues more astonishing than anywhere else on earth.  Read more...

 

Art of Travel/Cultural Encounters/USA

18

Sep

Discovering the Art of Sand Sculptures

by Meredith Mullins on September 18, 2017

A lion sand sculpture, part of the great Carmel Sand Castle Contest, discovering the art of sand sculpting. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Winner of the 2017 Great Carmel Sand Castle Contest
© Meredith Mullins

The Great Carmel Sand Castle Contest

What lives and breathes sand and water . . . and brings out the kid in everyone?

What passion requires a unique combination of creativity, patience, delicacy, and grit?

What depends on building with the simplest of elements, but can rise to the pinnacle of artistry?

And what, without lament, is always inevitably destroyed?

Shovels in the sad, the remnants of a sand sculpture at the Great Carmel Sand Castle Contest, discovering the art of sand sculptures. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Grand finale for a sand sculpture: Inevitable destruction
© Meredith Mullins

It is the wonderful world of sand sculptures, or, for us novices, the wonderful world of plastic shovels and buckets and mounds of malleable sand.  Read more...

 

Discoveries/USA

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