Postcards
Postcards · September 30, 2025
I visited Oaks Amusement Park during the off-season, when the rides stood silent and the midway belonged to fallen leaves instead of screaming children. That unexpected quiet revealed one of Portland’s most beloved landmarks—a trolley park that has survived floods, changing tastes, and more than a century of determined local affection.
Postcards · September 28, 2025
Hidden in the woods above Happy Valley is one of Oregon’s oldest pioneer cemeteries—and finding it proved almost as interesting as its history. What began as a simple afternoon errand became a scavenger hunt through forests, gates, and dead ends in search of a tiny family cemetery that most locals never realize exists.
Postcards · September 26, 2025
The Hood River Fruit Loop sounds like a tourist attraction invented by a crack marketing team—and it was. But following its winding roads with friends turned into something much better, with cider flights, goats, lavender, pie, and one wonderfully unproductive fall day in Oregon.
Postcards · September 15, 2025
A return to Portland Japanese Garden becomes an unexpected lesson in how to look more closely. With help from a friend’s son, a volunteer, and a pond full of fish with names, Geoff discovers that bonsai, gardens, stones, and even koi have more stories than you might suspect.
Postcards · August 30, 2025
Rosemary and I visited the Central Park Zoo expecting a few hours of animals and people-watching. Instead, I discovered the zoo’s bizarre origin story, learned something unexpected about animal care, and spent part of the afternoon defending my sandwich from the most determined squirrel in Manhattan.
Postcards · August 29, 2025
Hidden inside a French château-style mansion on Fifth Avenue, the Ukrainian Institute of America combines Gilded Age excess, Ukrainian history, contemporary art, and wartime graphic design. What began as a failed museum visit turned into an exploration of eccentric owners, national identity, and one of New York’s most unusual cultural institutions.
Postcards · August 28, 2025
Alexander Hamilton built the Grange as a country retreat for his family, and then promptly died two years later. Today, the pleasant yellow house reveals a different side of the Founding Father—and the remarkable story of Eliza Hamilton and a home that somehow survived Manhattan itself.
Postcards · August 27, 2025
On a hill above Harlem, the Morris-Jumel Mansion has survived wars, lawsuits, and 260 years of New York history. Built by Loyalists and briefly occupied by George Washington, it ultimately became the stage for the extraordinary life of Eliza Jumel, one of Manhattan’s most fascinating residents.
Postcards · August 26, 2025
While wandering Manhattan’s Lower East Side with a friend, we accidentally stumbled into the Museum at Eldridge Street—an extraordinary 1887 immigrant synagogue hidden inside modern Chinatown. What followed was part architectural revelation, part neighborhood history, and part gloriously awkward conversation about mikvehs, migration, and the many layers underneath New York.
Postcards · August 22, 2025
A visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York turns to be more interesting than expected—part security theater, part mid-century optimism, part global committee meeting, and part symbolic art installation. Beneath the bureaucracy and contradictions, the UN still runs on one stubborn premise—that countries should keep talking.