Saren

My first crawfish, my first trolly ride, first jazz club, and first naked lady were all in N.O. when I was eight. Can picture it all vividly in my mind. Hope everyone there comes back stronger after the tragedy.

I visited Mary Lou in 1998 and we played miniature golf.

I visited Big Matt here when his parents lived here in the 90s. We drove to Nogales and had lunch and that was the first time I’d ever been in a foreign country. It lasted all of an hour and half.

I saw Kendall Gill and Marcus Liberty (of Ill.) play at the U. of M. back in the day.

My family was interned there for 3 years during the war. Important but painful.

Seattle is a good place to spend a long weekend. Great coffee, a very cool karaoke bar in Old Town called Bush Garden where I saw the best version of Knockin’ Boots I’ve ever seen. The ballpark is excellent, except in April when it’s as cold as winter in the shade. Ichiro rocks.

Home of the best bookstore in the world, Powell’s Books.

Home from 1979-1986. A great place to grow up.

I was in Brighton for a wedding and stayed at a nice bed and breakfast overlooking a rather rocky beach and interesting amusement park pier. Pretty chilly for a summer town but the people were friendly and the ceremony was great.

Matsushima bay is in Miyagi-ken and is one of Japan’s three most famous views; along with Hiroshima Bay and Kyoto. It is a large expansive bay with rock islands covered with weathered pines. Along with Hiroshima, it is famous for oysters and produces great quantities of seaweed as well. They have a huge fireworks display in August that draws people from all over the country where they set the works off from boats in the middle of the water.