“I suppose you’ll be doing an architectural tour?” asked a new acquaintance upon hearing I was headed to Europe. I’d never quite thought of it that way. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, I will.” That question stayed with me in the days that followed and got me wandering if I freakishly require my wife to follow me on some to-do list of visiting important buildings. The more I thought about it, the more certain I became that we do pretty much the same that everybody else does when they tour Europe: we simply check out the cool stuff. Since most of [...]

For spring break the four McKees took a trip in a rented RV tour along the central coast of California. Big Sur, beach time, watching movies at night on the laptop, family fun all round. This trip would also take us by Hearst Castle, the ultra-splendid getaway palace created by William Randolph Hearst on a big hill overlooking the ocean. I’d heard that it was sort of the “last word” on the subject of residential building projects. For years I’ve admired its go-for-it spirit from afar thanks to glossy photos in a big hardbound book titled “Julia Morgan Architect.” Now [...]

My family and I really like dogs, so we went to Alaska at the start of this month for the start of the 1100 mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race.  A few months ago I found out from my aunt and uncle in Anchorage just how easy it was to go from being a spectator (watching the action over the temporary wooden fences that line 4th Avenue in Anchorage) to being a dog handling participant (right in the thick of it helping to move dog teams to the starting line) just by emailing in a volunteer application and then showing up [...]

Last month I wrote a column about time I spent in Rome recently. That column received a lot more response from people than I usually get. I guess writing about one of the most extraordinary places in the world, a place layered with over two thousand years of art and human history, will do that. I really like the place, despite its flaws, but I hope I didn’t sugarcoat it too much in my article. I don’t like it when some place or some thing gets described to me in glowing terms without mention of its warts, creating a sort [...]