Hey Now, thanks for stopping by the JC blogspot on BootsnAll. Props to Chris, et al for setting it up. Really quick, here's my thinking for what this blogs all about:

I'm a full-time staffer at Lonely Planet Publications in good old Oakland, CA, and a freelance travel writer, photographer & web publisher; I've got a fun little family featuring wife Mai, youngin Sophie and fuzzy cat Chelsea. In other words, a bit more settled down now than in my days of traveling abandon in the go-go 1990s but still very much in the flow of all things travel. 'Cept rather than bail out for fours months backpacking here, a year teaching there, I base myself in San Francisco and dig on the Bay Area & beyond.

With help from my generous vacation allotment from LP (gotta love Aussie bosses), and accompanied by my intrepid little clan (well, not the cat), I still shoot out for 1-2-3 week jaunts, or long weekends round Cali, or random samplings of my adopted city on seven hills, giddily introducing it to Sophie, who's a native San Franciscan, five months strong. I also travel as needed for my freelance jobs, with an August 2004 Business Traveler spread on SF's sixties legacy ('The Beat Goes On') and upcoming pieces on public art in the LA subways and the San Andreas Fault for the San Francisco Bay-Guardian among recent clips.

So what I'd like to do here is talk about my gig at LP, where I'm the US East Commissioning Editor managing titles including New York City, Miami & New Orleans, talk about life w/ the fam in SF, talk about trips I'm taking, for business or for pleasure, network a bit, get to know traveling folks, publishing folks, or just any old chaps n chappettes who like to knock back a coffee or three and get all revved up about travel.

I've also got a travel site I built and wrote everything for; it's in need of a little updating but a bunch of my clips are there: www.cooketravel.com. Check it out, check back sometimes, lemme know what you think, I'd be much obliged.

Lastly, just for fun here's a stream of some places in my mind, on my horizon, or history, or wish list: Paris, Italy, Panama, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Miami, New Orleans, Santa Monica, Austin, Morocco, New Zealand, New York, Bonnaroo. Gotta aim for next year on that last one though.

Allright, cheers y'all. Catch ya later -- JC