Friends,

A very happy 4th of July weekend to U.S. readers! And a warm welcome to our newest subscribers — I’m so glad you’re here.

We’ve got two quick points and then a bit of reflection for today’s holiday post.

First: I was in Ephesus two weeks ago — standing in the excavated ruins of a city that in its heyday rivaled Rome as the second largest in the empire. The whole experience was surreal and humbling.

What hit home more than anything else was the emptiness. The dust-to-dust vapor that is human life felt chillingly evident in the layers of rubble and forgotten names.

I’ve struggled to express it or get my arms around it. But if I had to sum it up in a word, it felt — at the risk of sounding dramatic — helpless.

Blaise Pascal puts words to this feeling:

There are a few things that really matter in life — and then there’s everything else. And the “everything else,” no matter how momentarily glorious, eventually turns to buried rubble.

Which brings us to this post’s second point: for me, travel is oddly transcendent.

That’s a bigger topic than I can fully unpack here, but I’ll take a paragraph and try.

Travel pulls me into the present. It sharpens where I am — and where I’m not. It reveals what’s in my heart. I can’t hide from myself as easily when I’m out of the rhythms and comforts of daily life.

And often, stepping away from the everyday helps pull back into focus what really matters — and what doesn’t.

It is a gift to see and process the difference.

Thanks for letting me write about it here.

Also, on a much lighter note — I’m excited to continue sharing hotel and flight reviews after the great response to those recent posts. Thank you for the encouragement.

I’ll be back with more soon.

Fly well.

P.S. I am watching closely and heartbroken by this catastrophic flooding in South-Central Texas. Please join me in praying for those who are still missing — and for the families and first responders in the middle of it all.

Links

Shangri-La Vancouver now set to become a Park Hyatt. I’ve stayed at this hotel before and it is well located in the city.

Pajamas and mattress pads are back in Flagship Business on American’s longest haul routes. Per blogger Gary Leff, same day standby with agent help is also back.

CLEAR nominally raises prices. Again.

Blogger Ben Schlappig reports Virgin Atlantic is materially increasing award ticket fees, which is disappointing.

United flight attendants are really upset with the TA their union negotiated. Having been a member of said union, I am unsurprised.

Weather related ground stops literally shut down Northeast flying earlier this week. That is tough on the heels of ATL’s shut down last weekend (if you are Delta, at least).

Fun write-up on the JSX experience.

Stuff like this, this, this, and this are the worst — and why air travel is so generally disliked.

19-year-old American detained in the Chilean Antarctic for flying his Cessna to Antartica. Or something like that.

Woof.

The Waldorf-Astoria brand is headed to Helsinki: this is sure to be a knock-out property.