IN A COMMENT LEFT BY MIKE (no link provided), re: my recent travels, he wrote:
"...It's clear to me you stuck to the tourist locations and didn't experience much off the beaten track."
my response: In fact, when the wife and I travel, we never "stick to the tourist locations" (unless you count museums as such). That does not mean, as an example, we do not visit the Eiffel Tower when in Paris, it means we spend most of our time in Paris roaming / exploring "off the beaten track". We are most interested in experiencing "local" color and culture. And to be honest, avoiding the tourist crowds. All of which is also why-except for an in-transit overnight-we never stay in hotels.
That written, in today's entry are some-there many more-of the many examples of local color and culture the wife and I experienced on our recent travel. All of them are pictures made well off the beaten track.
Re: Mike's comment also included the rather snarky suggestion that:
"Maybe you should stay home in New York in the future since your comments about California and the West are so negative in tone."
To be perfectly clear, I have no problem with Mike's comment. However, I do find it odd that he left the comment on an entry in which I wrote:
"...after a few days-pleasant days to be sure-of wandering around the place..." and "...enjoying the sights, especially the many museums which have a very SouthWest indigenous-Native American / early Spainish-art bent. Or, in other words, it don't suck by any means."
That written, in a future entry I will address the part about my recent travel entries being "negative in tone". Not to contravene his point, but rather to explain my koyaanisqatsi-like additude toward much of life in these United States.