Category — USA (outside of CA)

{The Creation Museum is in Petersburg, Kentucky. It’s pretty close to the Cincinatti airport, so if you find yourself in Cin City or just have a long layover there, you might want to check it out. And if you’re going ironically, be aware that the vast majority of people go there completely un-ironically.}

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Behold! This fantastically tasty sandwich is from La Bombonera, a funky, cheap-ass deli counter in Old San Juan.

American cheese, ham, crusty bread, all pressed in some 1950s machine. Heaven. I think it was only 2 dollars. Swig some cafe con leche along with it, and you’ve got a breakfast of champions. The place ain’t fancy and the people aren’t that nice, but that’s not what you’re after. There will be other tourists there, but plenty of locals too.

La Bombonera is at 259 Calle San Francisco in Old San Juan and open daily from 7:30 AM – 8 PM.

My friend Eliza gave me these awesome little containers. They are about an inch and a half high and super frickin’ adorable.

Their sole purpose is to allow you to bring a little bit of soy sauce with you wherever you go, just in case. They come with a little tiny eye-dropper so you can fill them up with soy sauce. So far they have never leaked and they always make me smile when I pull them out at lunchtime! Something about those vacant, beady eyes and perky ears- they are really endearing little pals to have around.

Eliza got these for a couple bucks at one of my very favorite stores in the world, Daiso Japan. Daiso is kind of like a super cool Japanese Dollar Store, except most things cost two dollars instead of one. Daiso has a crazy cross-section of stuff, from garden supplies to kids’ toys to dishes to cards (many in hilarious Engrish) to fake flowers to, er, individual soy sauce holders. With ten bucks in hand, you can have a GREAT time in there.

There are 3 stores in the Seattle area and 6 in the Bay Area- here’s a list of all U.S. locations.

I was out in Boston a while ago, and spent a couple hours in Concord, Mass, which is you know, where that whole “shot heard round the world” thing went down. Right in town there’s an old cemetery with some Revolutionary era gravestones. We spotted a couple of odd ones, like this one where they misspelled the guy’s name and had to fix their “typo”:

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Even though caves kind of freak me out, I am itching to go to this crater mineral bath in Utah.

“It is a 55-foot tall, beehive-shaped limestone rock that nature has hollowed out and filled with 90° to 96° water. We have created a tunnel through the rock wall at ground level and built decks and a soaking area for our guests and the public to access the crystal clear mineral water. You can go swimming, scuba diving, snorkeling or enjoy a therapeutic soak. The Homestead Crater is the only warm water scuba diving destination in the continental US and it attracts many diving enthusiasts and those wishing to get certified in a comfortable environment.”

Visit the Homestead Resort site for more info.

Welcome to Stonefridge: a fridgehenge.

That’s it. It’s Stonehenge made of old refrigerators. According to this website (which also has a bunch more pictures) an artist created it outside of Santa Fe, NM, until some art-hating, fridge-loathing jerk COMPLAINED and made them take it down.

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Now I’m no expert on Texas. In fact, as a hippie liberal San Franciscan, it’s usually something I purposely don’t mess with (as advised by many a bumper sticker and t-shirt.) I’d just humbly like to share some of my favorite and most memorable food experiences from Austin.

Austin, Texas is a terrific town to spend a long weekend (or more) visiting. They’ve got so much to offer! Sights, sounds, history, bats, live music, art, you name it. On top of that, they have a wide variety of eateries and drinkeries (is that a word?) that are sure to please every palate. Heck, they’ve even got a wine country (sort of.) Simply put, I had a terrific time eating and drinking my way through Austin and I recommend you get your butt out there sometime.

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I spent a chilly Fall weekend in Chicago with friends and wanted to share some of my favorite photos. I hadn’t been there for almost 20 years so it was a treat to spend a few days there, albeit cold and windy days!

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On a recent trip to Vieques, Puerto Rico, we ate at a fantastic little restaurant called El Quenepo. I loved their grilled caesar salad and thought that while the dish was fresh in my mind, I’d try making a version at home. Grilling the romaine hearts adds a fantastic layer of smoky complexity that compliments the strong flavors of the dressing.

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