Tag Archives: travel

Humuhumunukunukuapua’a. That’s What She Said.

In the spirit of needing more action and adventure in my blog, this week I will relay a recent incident in which I narrowly escaped death and then again defied the same death at the hands of The Queen Mother as a result of participating in the previously stated escape from said death.

So I’m hiking along this trail in the mountains just north of Honolulu…If you have ever been to Honolulu, you know what it’s like to have to get out of Honolulu and its innumerable tourists, oriental cuisine combined with Spam, and Don Ho wannabes.  I often do just that, heading out on the highway and looking for adventure by climbing around the Mauka Trail System and its fascinating array of whimsical ecosystems.  One good hike takes you from the backyards of Japanese immigrants to piney woodlands to rainy jungles to huge bamboo forests that are utterly awesome because they can really creep you out on a windy day with all their clacking and smacking and raucous bamboo clacky-smackiness. Continue reading →

Cracking Yolks About Frying Eggs

Well, we are seven inches from the midday sun here in Minnesota, which basically means that we stop rooting for global warming for a couple of days, hang out in the frozen foods section, and talk to each other about the weather without the awkwardness of feeling like we don’t really have anything meaningful to talk about.

At least it’s not stupid hot like it has been in the Southwest of These United States lately.  They have been under repeated heat warnings such that the deaths of everyone over the age of 90 are blamed on the extreme temperatures.  In fact, it has been so hot in Death Valley National Park that officials there have had to entreat visitors there to please not fry eggs on the roadside pavement.  And while I admittedly have a penchant for making stuff up, this story happens to be true.  I know this because I saw it on the internet. Continue reading →

Lucky 7 Reasons I Hate Las Vegas

Vegas, Baby, Yeah! My kids must live here. All the lights are on. Stolen from wikipedia.com

Vegas, Baby, Yeah! My kids must live here. All the lights are on. Stolen from wikipedia.org

I am going to admit right now that I am not a fan of Vegas:  Susan Vega, Chevy Vega, Vega from Street Fighter, etc.  I suppose the Vega Rocket is pretty cool, but that’s only because it’s a rocket.  Neither do I care for Las Vegas, which is Spanish for “The Vegas.”  My job takes me to Las Vegas fairly regularly and thankfully, it more often than not takes me out again.  Rarely do I look forward to visiting for a number of reasons, and that number is Lucky 7—not to be confused with Lucy 7, the episode where Lucy reads the wrong horoscope for the day and she ruins Ricky’s business deals as a result.  Hilarity ensues. Continue reading →

Sprig Thyme in Pairs (Thank you, Autocorrect)

It’s been a long-standing tradition in our family going back almost two weeks now that the member who happens to be a senior in high-school gets to choose the destination for her final family vacation before she has to face reality.  Being an art spaz and a student of spending as much of her parent’s money as possible, Thing 1 chose spring break in Paris, which we accomplished last week and which I will now attempt to summarize in 800 summative words or less.

Other than single-handedly upholding the local crêpe-stand industry, our time in The City of Lights was spent rushing in and out of the more irritatingly crowded Parisian tourist traps in just five days, including Continue reading →

Seattle: Where Only the Jokes Are Dry

What a gorgeous city! This is the best picture of Seattle that I have ever stolen from Wikipedia.

What a gorgeous city! This is the best picture of Seattle that I have ever stolen from Wikipedia.

Let me just start out by saying that Seattle is my favorite city in North America, and that includes the likes of Hell (Michigan), Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! (Quebec), and My Large Intestine (Texas).  Founded in the 1850s as ‘Duwamp,’ the name was changed in honor of Chief Si’ahl of the spectacularly spelled Dkhw’Duw’Absh tribe because they were pretty sure nobody would ever buy an album of a band from Duwamp.

Seattle initially flourished from the lumber and Chinese race riot industries.  It later became a launching point and market center for the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s and a development center for the Dot Com Gold Rush in the 1990s.  It is located in Washington State on a strip of land sandwiched between Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains, both of which provide a natural barrier from the state’s Republicans. Continue reading →