All posts tagged: travel

Körner’s Folly

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When I first started researching Körner’s Folly, a historic home in Kernersville, NC, I assumed that it was haunted. Or at least had a tragic history or an eccentric owner. A 22 room house where no two windows are the same, the ceiling heights have no uniformity, that was continuously renovated until the owner died and then sat abandoned for years deteriorating had to have some kind of macabre history. Alas, the home has no sordid past whatsoever. The trap doors in the floor are not for vanquishing enemies but for cooling the home in the summer months. The home’s varied array of design features and finishings are the result of its owner, Jule Körner, being an interior designer and decorator who used the home to show off his work to clients. The strangest thing about his family is that his children had a pet raccoon named Bob. Despite the lack of ghosts or tragedy, this is still a fascinating place to visit. It’s currently in the middle of of being renovated, so some rooms …

Chasing Foliage at Reed Creek Gold Mine

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I never appreciated the fall foliage I grew up with in Massachusetts until I moved to North Carolina. In New England, brilliant hues of yellow, orange, and red would begin to appear in early September. Here in Charlotte, the leaves mainly turn a burnt orange in mid October. If you go looking for it though, you can still find a burst of color amount the duller hues around the end of November. And what better place to look then the trails around an old gold mine? In addition to foliage, you may spot veins of white quartz that may or may not contain gold, and the oddly placed raccoon skull.

Dolly’s House ( Where Fish and Men Came Upstream to Spawn)

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When I visited Creek Street in Ketchikan, Alaska, its raised boardwalk was lined with small shops and packed with tourists jostling for a glimpse of salmon and sea lions in the creeks below. But in the early 1900s when Dollys House first opened for business, Creek Street was a much different place. When Dolly Author decided to quit waitressing and open a brothel in Ketchikan, Alaska, Creek Street was a red light district, known for men disappearing after visiting with prostitutes that roved the streets at night. She bought a little green house in the red light district with the intention of opening a reputable place where men could enjoy female companionship. Her plan worked. Men were willing to pay much more to visit Dolly safely in her one woman brothel instead of risking getting dosed with bad whiskey, robbed, and flipped into the creek by an ill-intentioned streetwalker. Dolly stayed in business until prostitution was outlawed in the 1950s, turning her last trick in her 60s. Dolly designated her home to be a museum …

Alaska Reading List

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By the time this posts I will be in Alaska, on a cruise ship sailing through the inner passage way. In between watching for wildlife, photographing glaciers, and a railway tour of the Yukon, I plan on taking some time to restart my reading habit. I’ve come up with a cold weather/Alaska themed reading list to start while on this trip. It’s probable long enough to carry me all the way through the fall season, but at least I have plenty of options while I’m traveling. My blog will be on a little break for the next week while I travel, but I will still have a daily quote each morning. Frankenstein 30 Days of Night The Call of the Wild/White Fang Into the Wild The Cloud Atlas Polar Nights Shutter Island Murder on the Orient Express