Jessica Gigot

Jan 15, 2025 | cascadiadaily.com | Jessica Gigot

As we move through January, I am assembling a stack of books I want to read over the next 12 months. Reading resolutions or challenges are common, but they’re often difficult to complete successfully without some form of inspiration and accountability. In the digital age, we are inundated with information and digital distractions making it hard to focus on — let alone complete — a book from cover to cover.

Nov 23, 2024 | cascadiadaily.com | Jessica Gigot

Black Friday has been a notorious holiday shopping day for decades. As a child of the 1980s, I recall images from the news of parents wrestling over limited edition Cabbage Patch dolls or discount toasters. A friend’s mother would wake at 4:30 a.m. — the morning after dishing up an extensive Thanksgiving spread — to be first in line for Fred Meyer’s well-known Black Friday sock sale. But while Black Friday is synonymous with deals, Small Business Saturday (Nov.

Nov 11, 2024 | cascadiadaily.com | Jessica Gigot

Most tourists frequent the Skagit Valley for selfies with spring tulips and wagon loads of fall gourds. But the barren winter fields are replete with crowd-drawing wildlife — notably, birds. As rain and cold temperatures return to the Pacific Northwest, winter birding provides a fun and engaging excuse to get outside. The season runs from October to April and brings thousands of migratory species, as well as avid birders, to the Skagit Valley.

Oct 26, 2024 | cascadiadaily.com | Jessica Gigot

Midway through Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a powerful community exhibition opened at the Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA) in La Conner.

Oct 21, 2024 | terrain.org | Jessica Gigot

Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey HomeChris La TrayMilkweed Editions | 2024 | 320 pages    Recently, I found myself going down a genealogy wormhole, trying to find out how and why my paternal ancestors arrived in the Midwest in the late 1800s. My father’s parents didn’t divulge many family stories, if there were many to share. Opposed to paying for an actual DNA test, I started scrolling through the numerous free ancestry websites.