Category — Travel

Reading and traveling naturally go hand in hand. Before you depart on a vacation, you read up on the place you will visit—learning the history, determining what sights to see, researching the foods and culture, finding out how best to acclimate to local customs. You will likely also read to kill time while getting to and from your destination, be it by plane, train, bus, or automobile.

You might also be inspired to select a travel destination simply because you have read about it and it grabbed your attention in some way. The opposite is also true—you may very well be inspired by a place you’ve visited and want to read more. It’s always fun to encounter in a book a neighborhood or attraction with which you are familiar.

And even if you don’t have the time, money, or ability to travel to a faraway (or nearby) land, reading about a destination allows you to escape your present location, providing an armchair travel experience that can be almost as satisfying as the real thing.

Nancy Pearl’s latest in the Book Lust series, Book Lust To Go, can satisfy all of these reading/traveling scenarios: you can consult it before leaving to read up on your chosen destination; you can read it en route to pass the time and plot out future reading/traveling experiences; you will undoubtedly be inspired to travel as well as happily reflect on your trip afterward; and you will also find recommendations for those out-of-reach locales.

Certainly Eat, Pray, Love is the most timely and well-known example of a book that glorifies the destinations nearly as often as it devotes pages to the author’s internal reflection and exploration. And like most readers, the descriptions and delights of Italy, Mumbai, and Bali intrigued me. Perhaps a visit is somewhere in my future, but until then, I will relish in what I’ve experienced through the narrative.

Reading The Devil in the White City before visiting Chicago enhanced my understanding of how the city developed and some of the key players in making it the city it is today. Visiting the Chicago History Museum was an even more rounded experience with that extra knowledge. I’ve read countless novels and nonfiction set in New York at various points in history—The History of Love. Motherless Brooklyn. The Tenth Muse. The Best of Everything. My familiarity with the city is enhanced when I read these books and I can mentally reference what I’ve absorbed about the city every time I visit.

I’ve also found escape or insight into a faraway place that I may never see: A favorite novel of mine, The Shadow of the Wind, portrays a mysterious and romanticized postwar Barcelona. The Poisonwood Bible describes a tragic, conflict-filled African village in the 1960s. My Life in France provides a charming memoir that is just as much an ode to Paris. The Crimson Petal and the White offers a glimpse of Victorian London.

Nancy Pearl recommends more than a thousand titles that provide compelling, revealing, invigorating, and sometimes distressing senses of place. She covers the globe with selections for everywhere from Afghanistan to Canada, Corsica to Holland, Hong Kong to Miami, New Guinea to Scotland, and Siberia to Zimbabwe. Book Lust To Go will satiate even the most ravenous traveler (actual or armchair!).

Read a book, book a trip, and expand your world through literature. Where do you want to escape to next?

A friend of mine is visiting Seattle in September and has asked me to guide her in sampling all of the great foods the city has to offer. This is a request I can manage pretty well on my own, but when we decided to do a road trip down to Portland, too, I admitted I wasn’t as well versed in the city’s hot spots as I might like to be. What to do? I could go on an Internet wild goose chase—trying to rustle up the best of the best through various searches—or I could just consult a great resource that is already at my fingertips: Food Lover’s Guide to Portland by Liz Crain.

And consult it I did. In fact, after doing so, the toughest part was trying to narrow down what sounded great to what was reasonable for a short visit! In true Portland DIY style, we will primarily pick and choose ingredients rather than limit ourselves to more formal sit-down meals.

Naturally, we’ll have to hit up the farmers market at Portland State University, which features more than 170 stalls (!) and a huge variety of offerings. We can pick out some fresh fruits and vegetables that might make for a nice picnic.

I’m torn about which bakery to visit and may have to sample the goods from more than one. I think we’ll grab a savory loaf from Pearl Bakery and some sweet breakfast treats from Pix Patisserie. Both earn rave reviews for their quality and specialty items.

We’ll certainly need some cheese to pair with our bread, so a stop at Cheese Bar (formerly Steve’s Cheese) for a staff recommendation will be in order. And then off to Laurelhurst Market Butcher Shop we’ll go for cured meats to top it all. Depending on the time of day, we can either wash the meal down with a coffee from Stumptown or a wine from Boedecker Cellars.

We’ll also have to partake in the booming food cart trend by browsing the pod at Alder Street (near the downtown library). I’m thinking about a garlicky gyro from Aybla Grill, but I could easily be swayed by the other delicious displays . . .

Finally, since I’m a sucker for truffles (and, let’s be honest, any chocolate), I must swing by Moonstruck Chocolate. I dare you to look at Moonstruck’s website and not drool on your keyboard.

Although this list doesn’t even come close to running the gamut of what Portland has to offer, I’m sure both my friend and I will be pleased with what we are able to sample. And anyway, it just means we’ll have to plan future trips to try all of the rest!

Where do you think we should we go next time?

I’ve lived in Seattle for nine years now, and despite my best efforts to thoroughly explore the city and its surrounding areas, when I flip through the latest Best Places Northwest, I’m surprised how many parts of Washington I haven’t even come close to visiting. Downtown Bellingham? Never seen it. Bainbridge Island? Only viewed from a distance. Grand Coulee Dam? Where’s that? And so on. It just shows what a vast, diverse region of compelling attractions the Pacific Northwest is made up of—no matter how hard one tries, it’s tough to see everything.

Before moving to Seattle, I spent about 90 percent of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although I love the Pacific Northwest, I suppose Northern California will always feel like home, since I grew up and went to school there. While there are certainly plenty of things I don’t miss about the area—for example, the morning commute traffic that averages about 85 mph on Highway 280, or the governor far more convincing in his role in the Terminator movies—it’s still a place dear to my heart, and one I don’t get to visit nearly enough.

Everyone loves the Golden Gate Bridge!

I didn’t think there was much left in Northern California that I hadn’t already seen. While reviewing our brand-new sixth edition of Best Places Northern California, I realized just how wrong that assumption had been. This expanded edition features coverage from San Luis Obispo all the way up to the Oregon border. And that’s a lot of territory for any one person to explore, even over several decades.

For example, I thought that by passing through Placerville, I had seen the best of California’s legendary Gold Country. But reading through the book, I realized that a visit to Amador City and its Imperial Hotel Restaurant (page 479) would have been even better. And while I’d spent many a happy weekend hour roaming the downtown and beach areas of Santa Cruz, I’d failed to venture ever slightly southeast to Capitola to view its Mediterranean-style architecture and the lively, 867-foot-long Capitola Pier (page 173).

The author surrounded by two Bay Area pals at the Marin Brewing Company.

I was, however, glad to see that some old favorites that might not be part of the Northern California visitor’s standard itinerary made the book. The Marin Brewing Company in Larkspur is one such place, a site where I spent many hours enjoying great food, beer, and conversation. And the enthralling Redwood Empire along Highway 101 is richly described (starting on page 341). If it’s not the most beautiful area in California for a road trip, it certainly has to be in the top two or three. Anybody visiting Northern California really needs to make time to explore it.

Meeting the real Sasquatch is just one of the attractions of the Redwood Empire.

Best Places Northern California, 6th Edition, reminds me why most people I know from the Northwest love visiting Northern California as well. You can find any kind of experience you’re looking for—as you can in the NW—be it urban exploring; fine dining; amazing sightseeing; hiking, biking, and boating; and much more . . . yet no matter how much time you have to spend in either area, you’re unlikely to ever make it to every destination worth seeing. The new edition of this classic guidebook makes me realize how overdue I am for a vacation to the state—and the next time I’m there, it will help me discover parts I never knew existed.