Stories I Tell Myself
Linda Brody Bakst on Brooklyn, growing up, identity and more
Category: Travel
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I returned to the Flatirons, the unusual mountains at the foothills of the Rockies in Boulder, Colorado. The last time I was there, with my mom and dad, I was 13 years old. I wrote about that visit in this blog post: https://stories-i-tell-myself.com/2017/02/06/another-road-trip-and-another-letter-from-zada/. This time the visit was part of a vacation planned around a…
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I’m on the final leg of a cruise through Norway. We’re heading to Amsterdam as the last stop on this trip abroad. The stops in Norway included Bergen, Alta, Tromsø, and Narvik—starting in the southern part of the country, traveling north of the Arctic Circle, then crossing the North Sea to reach Amsterdam. The trip…
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Note: I wrote a blog post a while ago that asked the question ‘History,’ History In the following post, I take a different perspective. What is history? When you visit a new city or country and take a tour, the guide often tells you about the history of the place. I love that. Perhaps my…
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I could write a book about our trip to Pittsburgh. We were traveling there for a mini medical school reunion. So many thoughts flood my mind: It turned out that our reunion was warm, and we avoided politics, but I did have some interesting discussions with the woman I knew best all those years ago.…
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The Baksts took Portugal. That isn’t entirely accurate. One Johnson, our son-in-law, Ben, and one Bakst-Johnson, our granddaughter, were with us. And, we didn’t take all of Portugal. Though it is small, relative to other countries, we went to only two locations – Cascais, on the coast, and Lisbon. But, we took in a good…
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In an unusual turn of events, Gary and I had a free day in New York City. The weather forecast was perfect – sunshine, no humidity, high temperature in the low 70s. I had an idea for what we should do with this unexpected free time. “Let’s go explore Brighton Beach,” I suggested. Brighton Beach…
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When I was a child, my family didn’t take many vacations. My parents were teachers and money was tight. The travel we did do was associated with my dad’s continuing education. There was one exception. We took a tour of upstate New York. We lived in Brooklyn, so this was an economical, practical choice. As…
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After Mom died at the end of February, I felt like I needed a reset. The last couple of years have been difficult. Though I was not the primary caregiver for either my mother or Aunt Clair, I was very involved in their medical decision-making. I accompanied them to doctors’ appointments. I visited them and…
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We were on our annual pilgrimage to the Mets’ Spring Training in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Gary is a lifelong Met fan and we have been fortunate over the last five years, Covid notwithstanding, to join friends and watch some preseason games while getting a break from the harsh Albany winter. We began our trip…
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Last week was difficult. My mom’s health has continued to deteriorate, and it has presented challenges to get her needs met. Suffice it to say that elder care in this country is imperfect – and that is a generous assessment. We are a family with resources but even with that, it can be hard (perhaps…
