Whale watching off the Massachusetts coast is one of those New England experiences that hits all the right notes: peaceful, exciting, and awe-inducing. It’s equal parts boat ride and brush with the wild. The ocean doesn’t disappoint.

I went to The Butterfly Place in Westford on a regular August afternoon and left feeling like I had been selected. Two butterflies landed on me. Unprompted. I am choosing to believe this means something.

Growing up near Brownsville, the Port Isabel Lighthouse was just there. Part of the landscape. Something you passed on the way to South Padre Island without really stopping. It took moving to Boston to make me actually go inside.

I went to the Wichita Mountains expecting great landscapes. I did not expect to almost step on a rattlesnake.

Some places just have you. South Padre Island has had me since I was a kid. I got married there. Returning in June 2024 with a camera felt like coming home all over again.

There is a particular feeling that comes with driving back into a city you used to live in. Not quite nostalgia, not quite homecoming. Something in between that does not have a clean word for it.