Where are you traveling to next?

[David Ross Erickson]

[quote=""Ludmilla""]One of these days when I'm back visiting family in the St. Louis area, I want to detour and visit Cahokia. Every time I've been, I haven't had a chance to do this, but it's on the wish list.[/quote]

In the intro to a book I was reading, the author mentions how he continually passed the Cahokia Mounds sign on the freeway without ever stopping. I could only nod in agreement, because I've done that dozens of times myself. When I finally stopped (last summer), I was blown away. Worth the visit, definitely.

[Margaret]

Stephen Harrigan's upcoming Remember Ben Clayton is set partly in San Antonio in the post-WWI period. It's excellent - my favorite historical novel so far this year. (My review's on the author's website.)

Thanks, Ariadne! It sounds good, and I've added it to the Travel-San Antonio page. Harrigan's Gates of the Alamo was also excellent, one of the best novels about the Battle of the Alamo - I grew up in Texas, and there was always a powerful tendency to romanticize that event. So much of what I learned in Texas history class were legends I had to unlearn later.

Wales is definitely on my list. Since I live in Oregon, I ought to make a Pacific Northwest page a priority. That will probably be a regional page rather than a set of city pages - I'll be researching that, but the historical novels I know of that are set in the Pacific Northwest have more to do with the Oregon Trail and settlers in farming areas rather than in cities. H.L. Davis's 1935 novel Honey in the Horn won a Pulitzer Prize, and I need to get around to reading it one of these days. Jonathan Evison's West of Here, a new novel, is set on the Washington Coast in the late 19th century. Jane Kirkpatrick's Christian-themed "Kinship and Courage" series, starting with All Together in One Place (2000) is about women on the Oregon Trail who settle in different areas of California and Oregon. Steven Havill's mystery novel A Race for the Dying (see review) is set in a logging town on the Washington coast in 1891 - while the logging town is fictional, the general portrayal of the time and the area is vividly credible. There are more - most of these are listed in the "Settlers Moving West" section of the "Old West" page.

Next up will be a Travel by Novel: New Orleans page. For that one, I'm going to go beyond the immediate post-WWII era to catch in some contemporary novels that give the flavor of New Orleans in the Civil Rights era, pre-Katrina contemporary, and a couple of Hurricane Katrina novels.

Thanks again, everyone, for all your suggestions!

[MLE (Emily Cotton)]

[quote=""Misfit""]There's another park whose name escapes me at the moment that's an old Fort and has a cool Lewis and Clark exhibit.
[/quote]
That would be Fort Stevens. It has several miles of bike trails (at least it did in 1977) and you can rent bikes.
Also the only place on the US mainland shelled by the Japanese in WWII. IIRC, their sub was lost.

[Misfit]

[quote=""MLE""]That would be Fort Stevens. It has several miles of bike trails (at least it did in 1977) and you can rent bikes.
Also the only place on the US mainland shelled by the Japanese in WWII. IIRC, their sub was lost.[/quote]

That would be it, thank you.

[Ash]

[quote=""MLE""]Ooh, Ash, I envy you! I wish I had the time to do that loop, just for nostalgia's sake. It's been almost thirty years since I fixed and delivered radios, radars, and sonars up and down the Oregon/Washington coast from the Coast Guard shop in Astoria. I've been known to watch 'Kindegarten Cop' and 'Goonies' just to relive the place, my year there was wonderful.
And it's been two decades since we packed the Lost Coast, too. Beautiful trails, pristine beaches--and poison oak.[/quote]

Thanks for the warning about poison oak! BTW we are doing the loop in one day, going mainly for the scenery and probably stopping at Lookout Park. We'll probably also stop off at Cape Foulweather; a former collegue of mine built a house out there when she and her DH retired, and she works at the little gift shop up on top of the cliff. Is a day enough time? We'll be staying in Newport that night.

[Ash]

First tip: Crescent City is lovely. However, the fog horn works very very well and it can be very very foggy at night. Book a room in another town if you prefer sleep

Uh oh. We are booked on the beach. Where would you suggest nearby?

[MLE (Emily Cotton)]

Give yourself lots of time for driving highway 1 along the lost coast. There are so many loops and curves, you rarely get over 35. I hope the roads have improved, but when I was in college (I went to Humboldt State, in Arcata, early seventies) the road would frequently narrow down to one lane because of a washout, and fixing it didn't seem to be a high priority.

[Misfit]

[quote=""Ash""]Uh oh. We are booked on the beach. Where would you suggest nearby?[/quote]

Lol, all I know is years ago I stayed at the Best Western and didn't sleep a wink all night. Never went back

You might call the hotel and ask them how frequent a problem it is, perhaps mine was an isolated incident. Brookings, Oregon just to the north is about a 45 minute drive according to Google maps. I've not stayed in that town so don't have any input.

Cape Foulweather is cool. As is Heceta Head. The Sea Lion Caves. Yachats. Devil's Punchbowl. The Dunes. And do not miss taking the side trip from on the Three Capes Scenic Loop. The gardens from the old timber baron's house are quite something. Here's the link to Oregon State Parks/Oregon coast info.

[Brenna]

Hubby and I are headed to New York City for a long weekend! Any suggestions on places to eat and things to see (yes, I know its NYC-there are tons of things to see)?

[Ash]

Depends on your interests, but a few show stoppers for me were the Metropolitan Museum, Ellis Island, The Cloisters, St Johns, Times Square (go there during the day,then go at night), a show on Broadway, Central Park .....and those are just off the top of my head. If I looked at my notes, I'd come up with lots more.