Sochi, Schmochi. We need an Olympics of travel. Here are 30 events to start.

THE REALITY HERE: The State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow is a great museum, but even great ones lend out paintings and sometimes end up with empty wall space. Photo taken 2013.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY: Dozing happens. Union Station Los Angeles, 2013.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: A Guangzhou-Beijing flight, summer of 2013, China.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: This sign turned up in Lower Manhattan in early 2012.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: This man’s expression suggests trouble with No. 2, Moscow 2013.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: On the north shore of big Bear Lake, the Inn at Fawnskin is a log cabin with homespun touches. Photo taken 2012.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: Child meets bird, Chandler, Ariz., 2012.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: This man was checking his mobile phone at the Bolshoy Ice Dome, hockey venue at the Sochi Winter Olympics, in February.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: After the twisting mountain road up from San Bernardino, Rocky’s Roadhouse in Running Springs is a good pit stop. Photo taken 2012.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE. The Stolovaya 57 restaurant, GUM, Moscow, specializes in retro cuisine harking back to the Soviet cafeteria of the ‘50s.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: The two were part of a group camping at El Capitan Canyon, north of Santa Barbara. Photo taken 2012.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: Even a year before the Sochi games, security officials required photographers entering the Laura ski complex to demonstrate that their cameras worked.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: This is a roadside business in Desert Hot Springs, near Palm Springs. Photo shot in 2012.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: This guy is actually a veteran guide, pausing to wait for a mountain-biking client at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, outside Scottsdale, Ariz. Photo taken 2012.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: Sure he’s smiling now, but how many rubles is he expecting? Fortunately, this doorman, at the Metropol Hotel, Moscow, was unfailingly kind and patient during my January 2013 stay.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: The Jane is a hotel in the West Village of Manhattan. The building is more than 100 years old and management has a sense of humor, as evidenced by the date on the calendar.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: Getting underground is only the beginning of a tourist’s adventure in the Moscow subway system. Photo taken 2013.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: Here’s the GPS view of State Route 74, a.k.a. the Pines to Palms Scenic Byway, which connects Idyllwild to Palm Desert. Photo taken 2012.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: This young boarder was covered up on the bus back to town from the slopes of Mammoth Mountain. Photo taken in 2012.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY: The right sandal is part of a sculpture of painter Fitz Hugh Lane in Gloucester, Mass. Photo taken 2012.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: On a mild summer day last year in the Xian airport, China, this domestic flight was delayed about nine hours.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: This woman was looking for a cab in central Moscow during a January 2013 snowstorm.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: New York Water Taxi vessels cruise between the South Street Seaport and Pier 83 at West 42nd Street, Manhattan, passing the State of Liberty on the way.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: EVENT: Men with sandwich boards will invite you to all sorts of places. That doesn’t mean you have to go inside. The scene unfolded in early 2013 on the Arbat pedestrian mall, Moscow.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: A Russian hipster scans the menu at Produkti restaurant, Moscow. Photo taken 2013.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: Alert tourists at the GUM mall, Moscow, encounter this rare option.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: Paddy Coyne’s Irish pub in Bellevue, Wash., has Guinness on draught.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: The boarder was gliding down Mammoth Mountain, near chair 1, with snow falling, in late 2012. I couldn’t quite tell what he was drinking.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

THE REALITY HERE: Rosie the Riveter and a pair of lip-locked soldiers turn up amid more customary Russian images in the gift shop at the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)