Travel

87 posts

QOTD: What Would You Go See If You Had Only One Day in…

Alhambra, Granada, Spain
Alhambra, Granada, Spain

What’s your favourite city (you don’t have to have actually been there)?

Suppose you have a chance to visit it, or re-visit, but just for one day. What would you do?

If it’s London, would you immerse yourself in the British Museum, punctuated by a pub lunch and a pub supper? If it’s Barcelona, would you hunt down everything Gaudi ever built?  If Paris, as much strolling along the Seine as you could fit in?

Granada is home to the Alhambra, an old Moorish palace with famous gardens. I’ve never been. Yet. I’ve been fascinated by it since forever, and have at least 5 books about it. Continue reading →

A Theoretical Tesla Road Trip Timeline

TeslaThis week Tesla is announcing a huge increase in the number of their supercharger stations. These are dedicated charging stations for Tesla owners at key locations along major interstates, like I-5 through the California Central Valley for those driving between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Tesla wants people to lose their range anxiety and be able to take long trips in their electric cars. Oh, and the charge ups are included in the purchase price of the car. Continue reading →

American Households are Increasingly Going Car-free

NBC news reported on a study by CNW Marketing that found that the amount of car-free American households has doubled in the last two decades, meaning that nearly 10% of American households do not have a car.

There are several reasons that the number of car-free households are increasing, from the recession making it difficult for those who wish to own a car to do so, to environmentalism, to technology making shared or public transit more accessible. Increased urbanization (or gentrification) and the revitalization of urban neighborhoods, as well as investment in public transit and cycling infrastructure have made it easier for people to choose to live car-free. Continue reading →

An Epic Journey to the Darien Gap, the End of the Road

IMG_3830The Darien Gap, a roadless swath of jungle, separates Panama from Colombia, North America from South America. Panama does not want the two countries and continents connected because of leftist rebels in Colombia, cocaine trafficking, human smuggling, and foot-and-mouth disease.

This month, I took a 2,500 kilometer bus trip from Guatemala to the Darien Gap. Yaviza, population 6,000, marks the southern terminus of the Pan-American Highway and the beginning of the Gap. No matter where you live in North America– Toronto, DC, Dallas, Atlanta, LA– if you kept driving south, you would end up in Yaviza. Continue reading →

Adventures in Nature: The River

640px-Aberglaslyn_xWHR_MMB_03Summer of 2008: Bellevue, WA

I was home after spending the last nine months traveling around the United States and Canada and working in an office full of my fellow 20-something travelers, booking next year’s adventures. We were a restless bunch. Constantly inventing games and contests to alleviate the boredom of spending eight hours in neighboring cubicles. Continue reading →

Port Chicago Naval Magazine: A Civil Rights Tour

download-1Port Chicago is one of those places that you pass by often on your way to work but never stop to think about. After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost two decades, I decided to visit it for the first time last week. It is the site of a World War II munitions explosion that killed 320 people, mostly black sailors. The aftermath caused America to examine its racism and helped integrate the military.

Continue reading →