In the heart of historic Boston, a hallowed hall has endured since revolutionary days. Faneuil Hall.
But even after paying a visit last summer, I had to look it up to spell it right. What is it about that Frenchified procession of vowels that my brain can’t retain?
The building and name go back to the middle of the 18th century, when Peter Faneuil built it as a marketplace. It was rebuilt after a fire about 20 years later. These days street performers like to work in front of its redbrick walls and tourists browse dozens of shops and restaurants. Samuel Adams, one of many political leaders to speak in the hall over the years, is memorialized with a statue nearby.
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Guide Raymond Chee stands at Upper Antelope Canyon, Ariz., on a cloudy day. Photo taken in 2013.
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Because pandas have unusually inefficient digestive systems, they eat enormous amounts of bamboo, and eliminate enormous amounts, too. Photo shot in 2013.
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Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park. Photo taken in July 2015.
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Faneuil Hall, Boston. Photo shot in July 2015.
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Lake George, N.Y. Photo taken in July 2015.
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Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Photo shot in July 2015.
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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
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Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
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Somewhere over Arizona. Photo shot in July 2015.
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Yellowstone National Park. Photo shot in July 2015.
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Providence, R.I. Photo shot in July 2015.
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Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park.
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Wizard Island, Crater Lake, Oregon. Photo shot in May 2015.
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A lone biker pedals up Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, near Myers Flat.
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Late-afternoon sunbeams on San Francisco Street highlight the texture of downtown Santa Fe’s adobe-style architecture.
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Surfboard House, a B&B in Hanalei, Kauai.
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This is the ceiling of the 16th century Museo Ex Convento and Parroquia Nuestra Senora de la Natividad, Tepoztlan, Mexico.
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You can tell the locals in Monument Valley -- they’re the ones hauling hay and water for their animals.
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This is Mt. Rundle, as seen from Vermilion Lakes, Banff National Park. The photo was shot early on Nov. 18, 2014.
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Low tide, San Felipe, Baja California.
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Flamingo, San Diego Zoo.
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The view from the Encore Hotel, 2008, in Las Vegas.
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Portland’s Ace Hotel, shown here in 2013, opened in 2007.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times) You can always count on travel to teach you something -- but what? Travel is the substitute teacher who didn’t get the lesson plan, the adjunct lecturer who goes off on Pinochet, the grad assistant who trashes your poetry, then hands out cupcakes. If only you’d had a clue what was coming, right?
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I’m building a gallery of guidance from new and old adventures in the West (and the rest of the world). The photos are mine. As for the attempted wit and wisdom, it’s dead serious, except for that which isn’t.
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Twitter: @mrcsreynolds
