North America · Pratyay Dutta
A continent
in one country
California is home base — Riverside, seventy miles from the ocean.
The rest of the country has been filled in, slowly, from there.
Living in California means that the Pacific Coast Highway is a weekend drive, Yosemite is a day trip, and Las Vegas is four hours east. New York is a flight away. The United States, from Riverside, is simultaneously enormous and accessible — a contradiction that turns out to define the country fairly well.
Destinations
Places I have been
California · 70 mi from Riverside
Los Angeles
Pacific sunsets, the Getty, and weekends spent escaping the Inland Empire heat.
California
San Francisco
Seven by seven miles of hills, fog, and the Golden Gate.
California
San Diego
The most perfect weather on Earth, Balboa Park, and Old Town.
California
Santa Barbara
California's Riviera — Spanish tile, the Pacific, and the gateway to wine country.
California · Santa Ynez Valley
Solvang
A Danish village in the California hills — windmills, pastries, and wine.
New York
New York City
The city that never stops — Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, and the relentless energy of Manhattan.
Nevada
Las Vegas
Where excess becomes its own aesthetic — and the desert surrounds everything.
New York
Niagara Falls
The same falls, seen from the American side — a different angle, a different silence.
Joshua Tree · Pinnacles · Yosemite · Red Rock Canyon
National Parks
The land America had the wisdom to protect — four parks and the landscape they contain.