On a recent trip to Carlsbad, California, I planned to take a side trip to Bombay Beach and Salton City, but my son intervened and said, "You have to go to East Jesus and Salvation Mountain," neither of which I knew about, but I'm grateful for the tip. The number of art installations in East Jesus is overwhelming, and the use of recycled and repurposed items in the art is hyper creative. There's so much more than what I have captured, but this is an attempt to give a general idea.

I enjoy art museums, and I like taking photographs in them, particularly when an exhibit is especially interesting. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s exhibit, "Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina," focuses on the work of Black potters in the 19th-century American South and presents ceramic objects from Old Edgefield District, South Carolina, a center of stoneware production in the decades before the Civil War, together with contemporary pieces. It is beautifully curated and gives "historical insight into art and enslavement—and about the joy, struggle, creative ambition, and lived experience of African Americans in the decades before the Civil War."

Oceanside is one of a number of beach communities north of San Diego. Its biggest draw is a magnificent wooden pier, the longest on the western United States coastline at 1,954 feet. It also has wonderful mix of architecture, a gritty main thoroughfare to walk, great restaurants, and an artist community.