Travel letters: A toast to San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore

Thank you, Pico Iyer [“Still Shining,” March 23]. Brilliant article about City Lights Bookstore. I have made many a pilgrimage there since college and made sure my kids visited it too. Isn’t it encouraging that it is still going strong? Happy birthday, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I once saw you speak at the L.A. Times Festival of Books.

Cynthia Fox

Los Angeles

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The story about the City Lights Bookstore was perfectly delightful. What a joy to read a beautifully written piece, impeccably punctuated with nary a misspelled word, and sprinkled with enough multiple syllable words to perk up one’s brain. Thank you.

Joyce Parkhurst

Long Beach

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Although I thoroughly enjoyed the celebration of City Lights, an unrecognized national treasure, I was taken aback by the caption that referred to Vesuvio as “a bar across Jack Kerouac Alley.” Vesuvio is much more; it’s a living monument to the days of Kerouac, Ginsberg and a much younger Ferlinghetti, just as revered as the great bookstore. There is nothing better than to purchase some offbeat volume from City Lights and then enjoy it along with a cocktail at Vesuvio. San Francisco at its best.

Doug List

Glendale

In safe hands?

I disagree that the hotel safe may be safer [“Keeping Possessions Safe at a Hotel,” by Catharine Hamm, March 23]. I know of a couple who, on their honeymoon, put all their jewelry in it. When they checked out and the safe was opened, there was nothing there. Some of those at hotel desks do a lucrative job “finding” lost items. That happened to my father as well when he reported a missing camera. I’ll stick to room safes for my wallet, etc., and leave all my good jewelry safe at home.

Lynn Merles

Costa Mesa

A closer flight

You should have listed the Eagle County Regional Airport near Vail, not Aspen or Denver, as the airport of choice [“Ma Nature Runs a Spa,” by David Kelly, March 23]. It’s minutes, not hours, from Glenwood Springs, Colo.

Lee Juskalian

Cardiff, Calif.