Blog - Karen A. Chase

Washington Travels

November 1, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

After a lovely Ciao 60 holiday, returning to life here means returning to the past and my writing of historical novels. So in an attempt to reconcile travel with history, I want to chat about Where is George. As in George Washingtons. Plural. The money.

Every now and then a one dollar bill comes into my hands that has been stamped with a mark, and an accompanying website URL. That mark tells me I can track where the dollar bill traveled. All I do is log on to WhereIsGeorge.com, type in the serial number of the bill, and read on about where the bill has been. Users add their location to a list for that particular bill, and the miles add up. Not always do users hop on to the website, so it’s likely a bill could travel in between without it being documented.

Recently, a weathered bill came to me. I was certain it traveled far. I was mistaken. For the images of the bill herein, this is where it went: It had traveled for 220 days. 575 miles. It had 2 entries. Mine here in Richmond, and the bill originated in Island Pond, VT.

So why do I do this? Because I think it’s fun. I’ve only played along two or three times before. The guy who logged in at Island Pond? He has stamped and entered 129,225 bills so far. And I thought I had a history problem…

Have you ever found a $1 bill for WhereIsGeorge.com?

Ciao 60: Fun

October 25, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

From the posts of the last few days, you could say that our trip through Italy was serene and moving. It was. However, as this entry shows, it was also blissfully fun. The photos below feel like a series of out-takes or bloopers from a holiday, but they’re not. This is how Ted and I behave on vacation together. I would be remiss if I did not mention a huge part of the reason why. It’s the same reason we took this Ciao 60 trip in the first place. Ted.

Traveling with Ted is romantic, like driving a convertible top-down through Italian villages. However, the car also has no brakes, is constantly in top gear, and only slows down for photographs, love, food and wine. It’s crazy fun. Silly. Playful. He’s like that at home and not just on vacation. Thank goodness. Ted displays what he often encourages in others: curiosity and openness. It allows him to try new things, constantly learn, and share a laugh with complete strangers (even Italians who don’t speak English). The result? We all want to come along for the ride.

For a man now in his 60s, it’s impossible to guess his age. When most men are becoming grumps (research shows it’s because their testosterone levels are falling) or languishing in retirement, Ted faces each day as if life is merely beginning. That, on holiday or otherwise, is easy to love. We should all be striving saying Ciao 60! the way he does. Laughing. Loving. Joyful.

Fun is in what he sees, does, and encourages. Click to enlarge and scroll through the photos.

Ciao 60: Bellissimo

October 24, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

Italy is stunning. The country has a consciousness that is born out of the culmination of both agony and ecstasy. Conquering Romans and historic lovers. Deep religion and inventive intellectuals. Fresh soil that still houses long-forgotten ruins. Finely detailed art/architecture, and streets that crash haphazardly in mazes. Lush foliage and withering vines. A zest for anything both newly ripened and aged–wine, herbs, cheese, men and women.

What happens when all these things come together, is a cultural tapestry that breathes life, beauty, color and honor into just about everything. The trees and flowers seem bigger and brighter here. The air smells sweeter. There’s a reason actors live here; the light seems to filter through fog as if it were in an epic movie. It made us want to dress, sit and move as if we were.

As we made our way by car and ferry through the Lake District near the Alps, heading west from Lake Como, we entered Switzerland. I love the Swiss too. Such clean people. But as we drive over the border, majesty turned to minimalism, and Italian beauty gives way to functionality. The swiss should drive across that border more often and bring home a little Italy. If they did, here is what they would gather:

Statues that smile with secrets. Trees that hold history. Silent water that washes away all worries. Clouds that reach down to bring you heaven. Café tables perfect for the morning paper. And the most stunning clothes, buildings, men and women on the planet.

The flora, fauna, fashion and beauty of northern Italy. Click to enlarge the photos.

Ciao 60: Feasting

October 23, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

Paris has cafés and bread shops. New York has bagels and pizza. But there’s a reason the world over loves Italian food. Italy has it all. Between the gelato shops, cafés, butchers, fisheries, and pasticcerias (pastry) it’s enough to make you want to move there and fall face first into a pizza pie. Each Italian day also begins with a frothy, perfect cappuccino.

“How,” I asked Ted, “are we going to return to American coffee?”

“We’ll be ruined,” was his only response as he gleefully picked up his cup. I love a man who knows he’s headed for trouble and goes there anyway.

A meal in Italy begins with your eyes. Fresh ingredients hang from the trees–olives, grapes, limes, and lemons. Tomatoes and herbs are nestled in baskets and bins, artfully arranged inside spotless kitchens. Then ingredients are stacked, tucked or puddled into works of art like the fish soups that clunk into the bowl.

Along the Riviera from Cinque Terra to Genoa, the region is known for pesto. Made with tiny leaf basil grown in ancient salty air, it’s a richer flavor than ours. They heap it onto hand-rolled gnocchi that makes you wanna die! North, into the Lake District, I swear the Perch comes right out of Lake Como coated in parmesan and lemon. Wine flows as cheap as water. However, feasting has consequences.

At the airport we weighed our bags and then ourselves. Despite our walking and all those stairs it was… well… Let’s just say it was amoré.

Click to enlarge the photos.

Ciao 60: Views

October 22, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

In a scene from An Affair to Remember, Deborah Kerr jokes to Cary Grant, “If the view is so lovely down there, why did you bring me up here?”

Nowhere is that line more repeatable than in Cinque Terre: A set of five villages in the terraced hillsides of Italy along the Riviera, built in the eleventh century to ward off Turkish invasion. As Ted remarked, “They were built to keep invading tourists out. Yet here we all are.”

No cars are allowed, so you must travel by foot, by boat, or by the train that unpredictably runs between the five villages (it’s on time, there is just no guarantee if it will stop at each town). Regardless of your mode of transport, or your position in the towns, the jaw-dropping views are your reward. Each town contains colorful buildings, sea breezes, cats, and a gabillion stairs. Given all the rich wine, bread and pasta, the calves and butt have the chance to work it off.

It was to these five towns, now a National Park, that we came with our friends to celebrate October 2nd, Ted’s birthday. It was here, along the shores of the Monterosso village, Ted waded out to swim in the Mediterranean for the first time in his life–the Italian reconnecting with the water of his roots. Still warm. Salty. And a sweet way to say Ciao 60.

The first five images below are all taken in one of five towns, Vernazza, from different vantage points. At the base of the tower, inside it, and then walking away from it up and out of town.

Ciao 60: Friends

October 21, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

To kick off the five part series on the Ciao 60 trip to Italy for my dear Ted’s birthday, we must first chat about friends. We actually began our sixteen-day Italian adventure in France, where our friends Andrew (a fellow writer) and Christiane and their children now live. There is no better way to get over jet lag than to cook in their Provence home, play with their children, and take naps in a hammock overlooking rolling farms.

A few years ago, Andrew and Christiane took on the immense task of revamping a 17th century farmhouse, amid their work, raising a family, and Andrew’s writing. The house and farm speak to all of it. Work areas mesh with rows of books that line ancient walls, with beams in mid-repair among rooms containing the sound of children’s laughter. For a gal without kids, and for Ted whose grandchildren live far away, time with children reading books (me) or flinging them around (Ted), makes for an incredibly joyful way to begin a break from work.

To help celebrate our visit, they also threw a dinner party (very Jane Austen of them), and as we set the dining table, the late afternoon sun made everything feel like a Rembrandt painting. The light, I’ve written about this before, is incredibly different in Provence. Brighter. Softer. Sweeter. It turns moments into memories. So does sitting at a friend’s table, surrounded by old and new friends and family… what a lovely way to celebrate life. Happy birthday.

Ciao 60: Wordless in Italy

October 18, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

Ciao! We are back from two-plus weeks traveling through France and Italy for my dear Ted’s very special birthday. (Yes, he is in his 60s. Can you believe it?!)

As I outline this week in my monthly column, Will Travel For Words, we made the best of plans to stay online and in touch, and then “hopped the plane, flew over the big blue ocean and promptly landed in an internet troublesome zone.” For all of you who maybe wondered why there were so few posts, please read my ShelfPleasure post on the details of why I disconnected, and what resulted (beautifully).

For those of who had hoped for a post-a-day, all next week I’ll do just that. Starting Monday October 21st, I’ll showcase five topics (food, fashion, views and more) with photos that were the highlights of Ted’s Ciao 60 birthday trip to Italy.

In the meantime, here are a few images to tide you over…

An elegant covered plaza for dining, shopping and people-watching in Milan.

Postcards — Disconnected means finding an old-fashioned way to stay in touch. Hello postcards.

Sailing — The northern Italian lakes (Lake Maggiore) in the early morning.

Vernazza — Italy is chaos. Beautiful, old-world chaos.

Traveling to Sit Still

September 27, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

When at home, I sit. Sit to write. Sit to read. Sit until my legs go numb. While on holiday, as we are now, I like to move. But since we left Richmond Wednesday, I’ve been sitting. Waiting for planes. In the plane (sleeping was even done while sitting). In a car with friends going for lunch and coming to their place. Then dinner. Then breakfast. True, we took a short walk in between. True, we also sat and had some of the best bread I’ve eaten in two years for lunch, and today the nicest tart with coconut and lavender. (Ted thought it tasted like soap, I thought it tasted like heaven.)

However, one cannot complain about all the sitting required to wander around France. It is a luxury. And for a writer, a necessity. Why? Details. When one rushes through life, the world is a blur. When I sit at home in front of my computer writing, the world is out of focus. So I must stop and gather data for the future.

So today I sat with dear friends sharing stories and wine at one of only four restaurant tables among the little cobblestone streets of Simiane la Rotonde-a charming little village where the cars park above or below the town and you wak in. I sketched. I saw the streets. I saw a man who wandered the town looking for his lost girlfriend, and three minutes later I saw the girlfriend looking for the boyfriend she believed to be lost. I saw friendly people serving lunch amid geraniums waving hello, as an old wooden door up the curving walk tugs at my curiosity.

By sitting, by sketching, I actively slowed down time, and relished in the details that will add to my memory, add to my ability to see. I will save all of it for another story.

Nearing The End

September 20, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

This post is part apology, part celebration. After five years of research, books, libraries and writing, writing, writing, I have at last finished my manuscript about the Declaration of Independence! Five years! In addition to moving, reparing an historic house, running a business and publishing Bonjour 40, I filled in my spare time doing this. I have been weepy all week and thrilled beyond measure. So, yaaaaay!

This post is in part an apology, because in the last month in order to finish the last hundred or so pages, I have ignored many of you. I’ve been delinquent with communication, forgotten to do a few things, and been late to more than one event. For all of you who wondered what happened, I was just spending time 237 years ago, and they didn’t have internet then.

I have been writing the book chronologically, and from page one to the end. So in this last month, these fictitious people have finally been performing my scenes I outlined for them years ago. It’s been joyous. Emotional. Thrilling. As a friend said, “It’s epic. What you’re writing is epic.” I hope so. My characters have at last become who I knew they could be.

Yes, there will be more edits (I’ve already done numerous edits). Yes, there will be plenty of work ahead to find an agent, a publisher, and readers. However, for those who are already asking what’s next… Please just let me swim in THE END until my fingers get all pruny. For just a little while.

Shawnee Words

September 6, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

While researching the Shawnee for my American Revolutionary novel, I came across these words by Chief Tecumseh. Although he figured more prominently in the war of 1812, his words are still a great code to follow:

• So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
• Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.
• Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
• Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
• Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
• Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
• Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
• When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
• If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.
• Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
• When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
• Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.