Category: International

  • Asia-Pacific, Part 7 (South Korea: The DMZ)

    The Korean War never actually ended. Rather, it froze in place at an armistice line on July 27, 1953. So there’s a multi-decade ceasefire, a truce, but no agreed-upon resolution of hostilities. A four kilometre wide Demilitarized Zone acts as a buffer between North and South Korea near the 38th parallel north. It crosses the…

  • Asia-Pacific, Part 6 (South Korea: Seoul)

    I didn’t get much time to wander around Seoul like I did in Tokyo. Every day was a work day and it was a brief stop. So I was confined mostly to what I could see from the windshield as we drove through the city or from the hotel. However, this was my first trip…

  • Asia-Pacific, Part 5 (Japan: Farther Afield)

    Monday arrived and I had to get back to work. A weekend in Tokyo was nice although I had other plans and that involved getting out of the city. After all, the whole premise for this trip was visiting U.S. military facilities USS Blue Ridge The 7th Fleet of the United States Navy keeps its…

  • Asia-Pacific, Part 4 (Japan: Exploring Tokyo)

    Sure, the tourists sites were great, but Twelve Mile Circle readers know I like to follow tangents even when I do that. I’m always on the hunt for the unusual, or at least the unusual to me. I’m sure everything seemed perfectly normal to anyone from Japan. So I made sure I savored all the…

  • Asia-Pacific, Part 3 (Japan: Tokyo Temples and Tourists)

    I arrived in Japan on a Friday evening, having lost an entire day crossing the International Date Line from Honolulu. But it also meant I got a free weekend in Tokyo before resuming work on Monday. It’s easier and cheaper to stay in a hotel all weekend than go half way around the world and…

  • Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 11 (What’s Brewing?)

    Twelve Mile Circle readers don’t really care about my brewery visits. I get it. You won’t offend me if you skip this article or scroll through the pictures without reading anything. I really do this more for myself to create a record of my visits that extend beyond the simplicity of my list or my…

  • Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 3 (Sault Ste. Marie)

    Now safely ensconced in St. Ignace on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, we could venture out on day-trips from our home base. One such journey brought us even farther up the U.P. to Sault Ste. Marie. This was my first visit to the town but not the first time it appeared in Twelve Mile Circle. I devoted…

  • Niagara Weekend, Part 2 (Falls Redux)

    I started Twelve Mile Circle back in 2007. Sometimes I wish I could return to those earliest pages and rewrite them though. They didn’t have nearly the thoughtfulness that I applied to later efforts. Even before that though I posted a number of travel topics including a visit to Niagara Falls in 2003. Eventually I…

  • Marigot on Market Day

    Wednesday Market – Place du Marché; Marigot, Saint-Martin (March 2011) An international border splits the island of St. Martin into French and Dutch halves. Marigot serves at the French capital and the largest French town with about 6,000 residents. It sits on the western side of the island on a picturesque bay, facing towards Anguilla…

  • Grand Case

    Island of Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten (March 2011) We used the town of Grand Case on the French side of the island as our base while exploring St. Martin. We selected Grand Case for reasons that appealed to us. We’re not much into crowds, resorts, casinos or all-night festivities which tended to rule-out the Dutch…