TRAVEL – HEATHER KING

COAST TO COAST

November 15, 2019November 15, 2019
by Heather King

I always laugh when people say “I hope you enjoyed your retreat!” or “your vacation!”

I do enjoy it, all of it, but my life and my travel are almost militarily disciplined and at all times retain a pilgrimage aspect. I often fast in my way, I always walk miles. This last trip to NYC was no exception.

And it was a beautiful trip.

Why, however, did I make it? Even I don’t fully know.

Maybe my goal was simply to lay eyes on the faces of my friends: Patrick, Tim, Matthew, Anthony. Maybe it was so I could go to Mass and pray at St. Vincent Ferrer, surely one of the loveliest churches in NY, if not all of creation. Maybe it was to pay my biannual visit to the Conservancy Garden in the upper NE corner of Central Park. Maybe it was to walk the streets of Manhattan (and Queens, and Brooklyn), and to leave a little of my body and blood there, and to pray for the people and places among whom I walked.

Maybe I just had to savor a taste of the East Coat autumn.

All of this was made easier by a $213 round trip ticket and the fact that, because I write for Magnificat, I’m allowed to stay at the Dominicans’ Holy Name Building on E. 65th, around the corner from St. Vincent Ferrer, for a generously small stipend (as who but the wealthy could ever afford a Manhattan hotel for a week). Read more “COAST TO COAST” →

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

November 14, 2019
by Heather King

IN THE COURTYARD AND INSIDE THE NOGUCHI MUSEUM

I’ve been in NYC the past week and my time has been rich, fruitful, and jam-packed.

It’s also been a bit overshadowed by the visit I paid to the probate attorney the day before I left, which was also jam-packed but not in a fun way. (Not that NY has exactly been “fun” either–is anything, ever?–but that’s a different discussion).

Like perhaps most of us, “admin” is not my favorite activity. But I’ve been trying hard to remember to be insanely grateful that I have anything, of any kind, TO administer.

To that end, I looked up the etymology and found: “late 14c., aministren, later administren, “to manage as a steward, control or regulate on behalf of others,” from Old French aministrer “help, aid, be of service to” (12c., Modern French administrer).”

Note: on behalf of others. So let me try to administer with patience and love.

Anyway, one of documents the attorney gave me was a sheet with six different situations, each more outlandish, hypothesizing gruesome medical situations, that just COULD come to pass.

Read more “DECISIONS, DECISIONS” →

A FIELD TRIP TO HEARST CASTLE

November 4, 2019
by Heather King

A FIELD TRIP TO HEARST CASTLE

Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins:

Every good Californian knows of Hearst Castle, the ginormous house on an enchanted Central Coast hill built by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.

The estate at its height consisted of 250,000 acres, bought at 70 cents per. The property featured its own airfield, a mile-long pergola planted with fruits, vines, and espaliered trees, and a private zoo that was at the time the largest in the world.

A couple of weeks ago I traveled north, boarded the bus at the Visitor’s Center, and gawked for the 5-mile-long trip up the driveway. I was there for the special Art of San Simeon Tour, which costs a hundred bucks, has an eight-person max, and lasts 2 hours, 15 minutes.

We started at the 104-foot-long Neptune Pool, the third incarnation of this luxe water-frolicking venue (Hearst, who as a child asked his mother to buy him the Louvre, changed his mind often). We learned of the Vermont marble, the Roman Empire-era columns, the statues that are a mixture of the ancient and the modern.

Next stop was the eight-bedroom Spanish-Moorish “Casa del Sol”…

READ THE WHOLE PIECE HERE.

PROJECTS AND PLOWSHARES

October 31, 2019November 4, 2019
by Heather King

I haven’t much checked in as of late. This is in large part because I have many PROJECTS.

One: I am making a will! That’s right: getting “my affairs” in order, a task upon which I’ve been procrastinating for probably five years. So the ball is rolling. That feels good. It’s a lot of work.

Like just imagine someone having to come into your home or apartment once you croak and start having to try to figure things out. How do you get into her laptop? Where’s her checking account? What about cell phone, wifi, electricity, title to car, pandora, Medicare? WHAT DO WE DO WITH ALL HER TCOTCHKES? I mean that’s just one small facet. And I don’t even own a piece of real estate!

Two: I’m updating my website/blog. Oh my God. Don’t get me started. WordPress. Even though I’ve hired someone, this has required hours and untold hours and the thing is not even remotely near to up and running. However, as my friend Geoff said, “We’ll do this in stages.” Geoff is a person of few words, which is perfect for someone like me, who will prattle endlessly and mindlessly on unless checked. Anyway, so there’s that.

CAMBRIA, CA

October 17, 2019November 4, 2019
by Heather King

Hi. I’m in Cambria on the California Central Coast, on terrible circadian rhythm where I get max five or six hours a night of sleep. No matter. Those are the things of this world. Had fugue state pleasant drive up yesterday on about four hours of sleep, wheeled into town, sprang into action, explored both the West and East villages, walked up hill to cemetery, bought a Virgin Mary mirrored vitrine at one of the approximately trillion and a half tcotchke shops, found my way to Airbnb for which I was and am insanely crazily grateful.

Up before dawn this morning to pray—realize I can in fact make the 9 o’clock Mass downtown and still make it to Hearst Castle for art tour by 10:20.

Nothing matters except Christ, the Sacraments, prayer. Without them, I can do nothing. Started to sink again into anger, self-pity, conflict, doubt re my apt. The workmen have now had ladder against my kitchen window, peering in and talking 8 hours a day while they scrape and paint, taking up driveway so forced to park in street. Really you have to laugh. The weeks before that they were against my bedroom window, and for the 8 months before that they were basically outside my living room window. Just for today let’s not worry about it esp as I’m NOT THERE.

TRANSITIONING FROM THE HERMITAGE

September 11, 2019September 17, 2019
by Heather King

I SPENT THE ENTIRE LAST MONTH,
BESIDES EATING, SLEEPING, AND MY DAILY WALK,
IN THIS ROOM

Now that I’ve completed it, here’s what my month-long artist’s residency looked like:

Up at 5:30 for the stupendous sunrise, then prayer, then work, then usually 11:30 Mass, then lunch, then my chore of helping put away the dishes, then more work or a nap or a phone call, then the hour-long walk up the hill, then (often) Evening Prayer, then supper, then dishes, then reading or a movie.

Sometimes, to get really zany, I would leave the walk till AFTER SUPPER!

The sisters at the Monastery of St. Gertrude were wonderful, especially since I was basically a guest in their home, a fact of which I was at all times acutely aware. I did pretty darn well, for me. Did not get crabby, surly, sullen, impatient, sarcastic or snippy, a feat made possible ONLY by the fact that as I said, I spent 95% of the time by myself.

Another crazy stroke of luck: the other artist-in-residence was Dana Stevens of Brooklyn, NY, film critic for SLATE, a wonderful writer, and an all-around stellar human being. Read more “TRANSITIONING FROM THE HERMITAGE” →

THE WILLIAM S. HART RANCH AND MUSEUM

September 8, 2019September 17, 2019
by Heather King

Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins:

William S. “Two-Gun Bill” Hart (1864-1946) was a silent film star. Wildly popular in their time, his movies tended to follow the same arc — he started out bad and ended up good.

Born in upstate New York, Hart began his career as a Shakespearean stage actor. His breakout film, “The Bargain,” opened in 1914, when he was 50 years old. In 1915 and 1916, he was voted the biggest money-making star in the U.S.

He built his retirement home in Newhall, near what is now the confluence of the 5 and the 114 freeways: “La Loma de los Vientos” — “The Hill of the Winds” — he called it. The architect was Arthur R. Kelly, whose other designs included the Wilshire Country Club in Hancock Park and what we now know as the Playboy Mansion. He specialized in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and completed the Newhall project around 1925.

When Hart died, he left all 265 acres to Los Angeles County, with the proviso that the house be converted into a museum, open to the public for free.

READ THE WHOLE PIECE HERE.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

August 6, 2019September 16, 2019
by Heather King

THE CARSON CITY NUGGET CASINO
I THOUGHT OF GOING IN AND ASKING IF I COULD JUST ORDER
A DIET COKE, THEN SIT AND SCOPE THE PLACE OUT,
BUT THE WHOLE GAMBLING SCENE CREEEEEEPS ME OUT.
PLUS IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL OUTSIDE,
THE MOUNTAINS AND SKY!

Per usual, life has been moving at a faster clip than I’m able to keep up with.

I do know this: I’m in Carson City, Nevada. That’s right. Holed up in the Forest Room of the Bliss Bungalow: “a charming inn for the discerning traveler.”

Well, the first part is right.

Carson City, the Historic District anyway, is totally cool–who knew? Bungalows of wood, stone and brick, shade trees, coffee shops, art galleries. (Plus of course the Nugget).

I’m en route to St. Gertrude’s Monastery in Cottonwood, Idaho, where I’m to spend a month as an artist-in-residence. (An, not the: apparently there’s to be another writer or artist, so that will be nice). For reasons I won’t go into except that they have to do with the fact that I decided not to drive 500 or 600 miles a day, which I have done before on other road trips, I thought I would space this one out a bit.

Also, I planned the whole trip basically in the middle of the night on my phone while lying in bed. Which I realize now doesn’t really show a full picture of the whole map thing.

DC

June 22, 2019October 12, 2019
by Heather King

ENID A. HAUPT GARDEN
SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM

I am back from my trip to Washington DC and I am here to report that I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!

I’m going to write a column for Angelus so will not elaborate here. But I can’t resist posting these photos of flowers that, nourished by East Coast humidity, dew, and rain, looked good enough to eat.

VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL

THE JOURNEY BACK HOME

June 18, 2019October 12, 2019
by Heather King

DC METRO

Hey folks, here’s the link to my conversion story on EWTN’s “The Journey Home” with Marcus Grodi. Question: why does Marcus looks giant and why do I look like a midget?

Speaking of journeying home, I’ve been in DC all week and HAVE LOVED IT! I’m staying at the Dominican Priory (not to be confused with the Dominican House of Studies across from the National Shrine) and the priests and brothers have been magnificent. Tons of walking and sightseeing. All is much more beautiful, charming and graceful than I imagined.

Today I’m headed to Dumbarton Oaks and then tomorrow I fly home. My plane doesn’t leave till 3:30 so I’m going to arrive at Dulles early, take advantage of one of the two United Club passes I get each year with my Visa, and relax with food and beverages before boarding and being whisked back to LA at a reasonable hour (instead of having to get up at 4 am and schlep in a twilight state to LAX as happens when you live on the West Coast and fly East).

Thanks to all the well-wishers who watched the show last night and wrote or texted.

EASTERN REDBUD
U.S. BOTANIC GARDEN

Category: TRAVEL

A FIELD TRIP TO HEARST CASTLE