Cities
Tacoma, WA
Tacoma isn’t just the name of a Japanese pickup truck, it’s a real place – a harbor between the state capital Olympia and the state’s largest city Seattle. The real draw to this city is its museums suck ass the Read more…
Cities
Olympia, WA
The state capital of Washington is a sleepy city called Olympia. It was known as Cheetwood to the indigenous peoples before being renamed by the Europeans. Washington became American territory in 1853 and a wood capitol was built. The current Read more…
Cities
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
Admission to the OMSI in Portland is pretty steep at $13 excluding special exhibitions. The main level has a gift shop, auditorium, and a kid-friendly science hall with interactive exhibits in a former power station. The natural sciences gallery upstairs Read more…
Iconic Places
Oregon Historical Society
The historical society in Portland runs the state’s history museum. Of the three levels, only the top floor is a permanent exhibition on the state’s natural and human history, everything else changes seasonally to keep exhibits fresh. There’s only street Read more…
Cities
Portland, OR
Salem may be Oregon’s state capital but Portland is the city everyone knows. It’s got that fresh forest air mixed in with salty sea winds. Gulls squawk over progressive neighbourhoods with slogans that wouldn’t be out of place in Southern Read more…
Iconic Places
Basque Museum & Cultural Center
The museum in Boise interprets the path and impact Basque people have had in the US, mostly in Mexico and California. The museum building was built in 1912 for Juan Cruz Anduiza for Basque shepherds who spent winter in Boise. Read more…
Experiences
Nearly-real fake salmon
In January 2022, I stood outside Toronto Metropolitan University’s Digital Media Zone building, where the university’s startups are incubated, in the bitter Canadian winter waiting for Chris Bryson, CEO of New School Foods, to let me into his lab. A Read more…
Cities
Boise, ID
Boise wasn’t the first state capital, that honor went to Lewiston in the north with the border of Washington. Back then, Idaho was grouped together in a territory with Wyoming and Montana, but the southern part of the state grew Read more…
Iconic Places
Idaho State Museum
The state museum is aptly located in the state capital of Boise. It’s a natural history museum on the main level of the state’s varied landscape that includes gorgeous gorges, majestic mountains, curvy canyons, and desolate deserts. Travellers driving north Read more…
Iconic Places
Bruneau Dunes
Bruneau is about an hour southeast of Boise and it has two natural sites: sand dunes in the middle of a mountain range and the Bruneau Canyon. Three conditions made the sand dunes possible: sand, wind, and a geographical trap Read more…