my year in cities and towns, 2016

hotel commonwealth guestroom

Here are photos of the places I slept in 2016. I only took airplanes twice for travel last year (once to London and points south and once to San Francisco) so a lot of these places are closer to home. There was also a treehouse. And a very fancy hotel in Boston. And a place with no running water up a mountain near me. And one redeye flight. Lots of multiple visits. Two real vacations. Summer at #dadshouse. Twenty-seven places that were not my place or a family member’s place. You can tell I’ve ramped up traveling when you compare it to last year.

Eleven states. Three UK locations. Stars indicate multiple visits to the exact same place. AirBnB links for your convenience. Past years: 2015, 2014, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 2007, 2006, 2005.

  1. Boston at the Waterfront Westin – right by ALA
  2. Cambridge at Deb’s house* – comes with excellent cats
  3. Washington DC at the Saint Gregory – a porch I wish I used more
  4. Washington DC at Mary Early’s place – small and quiet, escaped right before Snowmageddon
  5. Westport MA* – I think I have slept in four or five beds in this house this year
  6. Washington DC Hilton – excellent hotel, got a terrible cold by having the AC on for a week
  7. Amherst MA – did a panel at my alma mater (Hampshire) and stayed with friends
  8. Stow MA* – Kate’s house, always love staying here
  9. Braintree VT – there was a humming noise at my house so I stayed at a friend’s place for a little bit
  10. Dunbarton NH – Treehouse! Sounded more fun than it was. (AirBnB link)
  11. Albany NY – the start of the “weird AirBnB places” road trip (AirBnB link)
  12. Buffalo NY – where I learned to sleep with an AC unit three feet from my head (AirBnB link)
  13. Huron OH – stayed in two different rooms, great place, noisy train
  14. Gary IN – a great little place right near the beach (AirBnB link)
  15. Chicago IL – Eamon Daly’s Murder Room
  16. Zwingle IA – a town of 91 people (AirBnB link)
  17. Michigan City IN  – a weird motel but I liked it!
  18. Barkeyville PA – sort of a trailer, sort of the best AirBnB we stayed in (AirBnB link)
  19. London UK – more odd AirBnBs, this one had a library thing going on (AirBnB link)
  20. Okehampton UK – fancy but not my kind of fancy (AirBnB link)
  21. Windsor UK – near the airport, strictly decent and small (AirBnB link)
  22. Boston MA – why wasn’t this place better? It looks amazing.
  23. Painted Post NY – looks like not much but was the best!
  24. Burlington VT – staying with friends before a flight
  25. San Francisco CA – weird but my kind of place (AirBnB link)
  26. Berkeley CA – the au pair’s room
  27. Airplane – redeye on the way home
  28. Salisbury NH – my librarian pal’s house where I watched the Cubs win
  29. Cambridge MA – Sheraton Commander is a great hotel

 

my year in cities and towns, 2015

mattress on floor, groton ct

Here are photos of the places I slept in 2015. Another short list. Now that I’ve solidly put my dad’s place on the my “projects and hobbies” todo list, I travel to other non-dad’s-place places less. So even though I didn’t go to too many places in 2015, I was away from home for several months. Which was fine.

Here’s the short list. Twelve places plus an airplane, six different states, one non-US country. Stars indicate multiple visits to the exact same place. Past years: 2014, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 2007, 2006, 2005.

  1. Stow MA* – stayed at Kate’s place quite a few times, very nice guestroom, constantly improving.
  2. Aboard a British Airways flight – we got upgraded to business class, very nice.
  3. London UK – I got the bottom bunk in the tiny bunk bed room and found it quite to my liking.
  4. Westport MA* – stayed in a few different beds in this house (three? five?) and was here most of the summertime
  5. Raleigh NC – visited Steve and Heather and went on an actual vacation
  6. Amherst MA – saw Matthew and Michelle on my way down to Connecticut
  7. Groton CT – decided to stay in an AirBnB instead of a hotel, it was … fun and weird (and htis is me deciding to sleep in a hallway, the place itself is quite nice)
  8. Burlington VT* – saw Dave and Linda when I was in Vermont for VLA and again for ComicCon
  9. Boxboro MA – visited Mom when I was planning to stay in a hotel with Jim and the hotel was full of children. Good decision.
  10. Bangor Maine (2) – gave a talk to a bunch of fun librarians and had SO many pillows. Stayed at a hotel across the street the next time.
  11. Pasadena CA (2) – stayed with a friend and then at a snazzy hotel while I was there for CLA

my year in cities and towns, 2014

Here are photos of the places I slept in 2014. I know I didn’t keep photo-track of the guestrooms I stayed in during 2013, but I didn’t know it had been so long since I’d made a blog post about them. A few years? I’ve been traveling less (and enjoying it more) so a lot of last year was just me going to Westport or my sister’s place. A few notable trips: first visit to London and an epic journey to Mackinac Island.

Here’s the list, it’s short. I decided to stop talking about traveling less and just … travel less. Sixteen places, six different states, two non-US countries. Stars indicate multiple visits to the exact same place. Past years: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 2007, 2006, 2005.

Westport MA* – visting/summering
Sun City West AZ – to see Jim’s folks
Manhattan, NY – library talk
Brooklyn NY – returning from library talk & visiting
Stow MA* – visting
Amherst MA – memorial service
Kewadin MI – Michael’s house
St Ignace MI – en route to talk
Mackinac Island MI – library talk
Montreal QC – heading home from library talk
Duluth MN – library talk
Ashfield MA – library talk
London UK – Wikimania
Brandon VT – wedding
Vicksburg MS – library talk
Sturbridge MA – library talk

my year in cities and towns, 2010

guestrooms2010

Places I stayed in 2010. You’ll notice the list is significantly shorter and almost all of it takes place in one of three states: Vermont, Massachusetts (Westport, Amherst, Belmont, and Boxboro) and Florida. I only left the country once overnight. Nine different states, one province. This is some sort of progress. This coming year my plans are more or less the same. Somewhat less travel, fewer airplane rides, see how that feels.

As before, stars indicate multiple visits to the exact same place. Numbers indicate number of distinct guestrooms at each location. Past years: 2009, 2008 2007, 2006, 2005.

Belmont, MA (2) *
Niceville, FL
Grayton Beach State Park, FL
Westport, MA *
Orange Park, FL
Boxboro, MA *
Austin, TX (2)
Anchorage AK (2)
Corda Bella, AZ
Lake Arrowhead, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Cepachet, NY
Amherst, MA *
Brooklyn, NY
Lantana, FL
Indianapolis, IN
Burlington, VT
Hanover, NH
Regina, SK

my year in cities and towns, 2009

Places I stayed in 2009. I am hopefully not jinxing this by doing it three days early. This year I lived in one place for the entire year. I also had/have an out-of-town boyfriend so a lot of these places are his place. See it evolve! I’m pretty sure this is the zenith of days away, though maybe I always think that…. Thirty-five distinct places. Seventy-four photos. One hundred and sixteen nights, more or less.

As before, stars indicate multiple visits to the exact same place. Numbers indicate number of distinct guestrooms at each location. Past years: 2008 2007, 2006, 2005.

guestrooms 2009

Belmont, MA *
Cambridge, MA
Somerville, MA (2) *
Toronto, ON (2)
Mississauga, ON
Manchester, NH *
San Francisco, CA (2)
Boxboro, MA (2) *
Austin, TX
Westport, MA *
Crystal City, VA
New Haven, CT
Watertown, NY
Amherst, MA *
Long Branch, NJ
Ocean Grove, NJ
Springfield, MA
Athens, GA
Montreal QC (3) *
Kittery, ME *
Gloucester, MA
New Orleans, LA (2)
Lincolnville, ME
Trenton, ME
Lubec, ME
Bar Harbor, ME
Morgan, VT
East Village, NYC *
Fort Lee, NJ
Elko, NV
Des Moines, IA
Burlington, VT
Harrington, QC
Brooklyn, NY
Roslyn, NY

my year in cities and towns, 2008

Places I stayed in 2008. Again, I’m heading in an upward direction. I think this will change this year. However I said that last year. Here’s a picture and a list. Here’s the list for 2007 of places I stayed that were not my house. As before, stars indicate multiple visits to the exact same place. Numbers indicate number of distinct guestrooms at each location. I started adding the photos to the map, but I sort of gave up. Seems a little weird to geolocate my friends’ houses and it’s a LOT of places. Back of the envelope calculations are 106 or so nights away from home, though many of them happened the month or so when I was moving. 2007, 2006, 2005

[all the guestrooms I stayed in, in 2008]

Bethel, VT (early 2008 home)
Randolph, VT (late 2008 home)

Manchester, NH *
Somerville, MA (2) *
San Francisco, CA (2)
Boxboro, MA *
Montreal, QC
Austin, TX
East Lansing, MI
Amherst, MA *
Regina, SK
Latham, NY
Saratoga Springs, NY
Burlington, VT (2)
Lacrosse, WI
Randolph, VT
Westport, MA *
Farmington, CT
Los Angeles, CA
Anaheim, CA (2)
Portland, OR
Washington DC
Ballson, VA
Braintree, VT
Belmont, MA *
Kittery, ME
Hoboken, NJ
East Village, NY
Canton, NY
Sacramento, CA
Marquette, MI (2)
Damariscotta, ME
North Chelmsford, MA
Lawrence, KS
Overland Park, KS
Hayesville, KS
Manitou Springs, CO
Denver, CO
Albany, NY