Thoughts from the Road
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We’ve been getting grow kits from our local mushroom farm HiFi Mycology. We started with pink oysters and just did a second kit with standard oysters.
It’s fun to watch these grow in a box in the kitchen. It’s also a good challenge to figure out how to work a significant amount of mushrooms into almost every meal for a week.
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2 min read
I’m convinced San Antonio is one of the most underrated cities in the United States. It’s chill, bikeable, has interesting public spaces, good art, great food, and fun places to go with kids. The last two years we’ve passed through San Antonio on our way to other places for Spring Break, but this year we decided it was tradition.
The San Antonio Botanical Gardens are really nice and one of our favorite places to visit with the kids, especially in Spring. Ada spent nearly an hour constructing her stick fort. The orchid room is incredible. The architecture of the arboretums is really well done.
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Love the late 80s vibe and weird story line.
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I loved looking paging through this book of watercolor illustrations. It’s a beautiful book! The illustrations were all commissioned by the USDA between 1886 and 1942, before color photography was widespread.
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Here’s a few podcasts I’ve listened to recently and enjoyed.
Song Exploder – Black Pumas
Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians deconstruct their songs and talk about how they were made. I love this one about “Colors”, a song by Austin, Texas based Black Pumas.
How I Built This – Yvon Chouinard
How I Built This has a lot of interesting interviews with business founders. Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia is one I enjoyed because of his different take on business.
https://www.npr.org/2017/07/13/504852483/patagonia-yvon-chouinard
StartUp Podcast – Dov Charney
StartUp Podcast did an entire season following Dov Charney, the founder of American Apparel, as he worked to start is second company Los Angeles Apparel. Interesting character study to say the least.
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/startup/49hrex
Reply All – Long Distance
What if you just stayed on the phone and talked with the phone scammer? This episode goes further than you might expect.
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8 min read
I originally started this blog to share updates while traveling.
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, but the last few years have been more intense and rewarding than any trip I’ve been on. So as the year wraps up it seemed appropriate to send out a dispatch.
2018 was a year of big changes for our family.
The biggest change in our life was this little one. She was born at home May 29th. Her wavy mohawk and sweet demeanor are her two defining features.
Having a second child is totally different than the first. The first time everything was new. With Martine, we didn’t have any stress about finding the right crib or learning how to change diapers. But taking care of an infant and a toddler is exponentially more challenging that just caring for one- especially when the toddler is a wild little one.
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4 min read
I’m on the rooftop of the Seng Hout hotel watching the sunset over Battambang. The Muslim call to prayer is echoing across the river and the ornate roofs of Buddhist temples are glinting in the orange light.
I decided to stay another day here and am glad I did. There’s a restaurant I really like: Jaan Bai, a resturant non-profit with bespoke pottery, delicious food, and a design style that fits right in with the Kinfolk magazines they have stacked in the bookshelf.
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Hotel Room (private bath, fan, cable, wifi, pool): $10.
Breakfast (banana pancakes, mango shake): $4.
Lunch (pork bahn mi sandwich): $3.50.
Cappuccino: $2.
Angkor Beer: $0.75.
Dinner (dragon fruit caipirinha, glazed chicken and greens, coconut ice cream): $11.
Total: $31.25.
Dinner was a splurge. It was amazing.
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This was an overwhelming place to visit.
More than 300 mass graves dot Cambodia where 1.3 million people were killed by shovels, hatchets and machetes by a genocidal regime in the late 1970s.
My Tuk Tuk driver, who is also a friend of my friend’s here, had never been inside Choeung Ek and walked the grounds with me. He didn’t say much, but summed it up as we were leaving, “This place makes me sad.”
It’s hard to believe a country this friendly and full of life had such a dark and terrifying period.
The photos are by my friend Sascha Faun Winter. More photos here.
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Big Sur is one of my favorite places in the world. It has spectacular views overlooking the Pacific Ocean, gnarled windswept Cypress tress clinging to the cliffs, and deep valleys of Redwood forests. I got to backpacking there for a few days earlier this month.
This Point Lobos, a hiking spot right on the coast, where seals were sunning in weirdly emerald bays.
