Author Archives | Brian
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
500 years ago nobody wanted the stretch of land known today as California. No Europeans, anyway. For hundreds of years the Spanish knew of the area but didn’t care to settle there. It wasn’t until King Carlos III learned that Russian seal hunters were operating on the Pacific Coast that he felt compelled to claim for Spain what it had never previously desired.
London Bridge is . . . in Arizona?
Contrary to the wisdom of school children everywhere, London Bridge didn’t fall down. It was disassembled in 1967, shipped to the U.S. and reassembled in Arizona.
A Trip of Firsts
If you asked us before we set out to predict the most memorable moments of our then-pending trip we’d likely have described the destinations we were particularly excited to visit. Three years later, we’d say the things we’ve done, rather than those we saw, are the ones that made the most lasting impressions.
That’s mostly because some of those things changed us in important ways. It would be clichéd to say that they expanded our horizons, so I won’t. What I will say is that when we pushed against our comfort zone we found that, time and again, it yielded. But it did more than just give way. It grew and created space for other things we had never previously considered. The more we pushed, the more became possible.
A Mall for the Reluctant Shopper
For all our travels there are still places I hesitate to go. Shopping malls, with their dreadful combination of crowds and consumerism, generally top that list. Westfield Horton Plaza in San Diego is an exception.
Covering six and one half blocks and seven stories of the city’s historic Gas Lamp District, Horton is remarkable for its complete lack of in-your face store fronts. We toured a large section of the complex and still can’t tell you what shops are there; our attention instead riveted to the twisting and elaborately colored architecture of the place.
Meet Brian and Shannon
Fulltime wanderers since 2010, Brian & Shannon are traveling the world on a quest to see everything there is to see . . . at least once.
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