Tag: Lighthouse
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St. Mary’s (and Calvert), Maryland
County counting becomes increasingly difficult as I continue my glacially slow progress. Now it takes more than five hours to reach the closest unvisited county from my home. Fortunately I found a workaround by shifting my focus to overnight county visits. There are plenty of counties nearby where I haven’t spent even a single night.…
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Southern Heat, Part 4 (Bug Loop)
Sure, the southern United States has more than its fair share of pesky bugs that most people actively avoid. Mosquitos, horseflies, and palmetto bugs probably top that list. So it probably sounds strange that we devoted an entire day to insects, particularly to the appreciation of insects. The older kid is pursuing an entomology degree…
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Southern Heat, Part 3 (Apalachicola)
Next we began the actual “road” portion of the road trip as Atlanta receded into the distance behind us. We spaced our drives into four segments of 5-6 hours each to make them manageable. I figured that would cover a decent distance without consuming the entire day. The first leg covered Atlanta to Macon to…
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Asia-Pacific, Part 1 (Oahu: Honolulu Waterfront)
Most of my work trips are pretty mundane. The last three were rather typical — Philadelphia, Tampa and Atlanta — for example. Sometimes I go to more interesting places like my quick jaunt to Germany a few years ago. However, this time I hit the jackpot: Hawaii, Japan, and South Korea over a two week…
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Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 8 (In Town)
I’ll just come out and say it, Mackinac Island is an odd place (map). Lots of people love this scenic spot on Lake Huron for that specific reason, and I admit I enjoyed my brief time there too. But it was disorienting and bewildering to this first time visitor. It felt like a topsy-turvy version…
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Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 7 (St. Ignace)
I realize that I mentioned Mackinaw City as a cheaper alternative to staying on Mackinac Island. However, we didn’t actually stay there. Instead, we crossed over to St. Ignace on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was a quieter town, a little further out of the way, and didn’t experience the same levels of visitor density. Don’t…
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Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 6 (Mackinaw City)
We drew ever closer to our ultimate target. Only a fifteen minute ferry ride separated us from Mackinac Island today, a place we could see quite clearly from the mainland shore. However, we focused on Mackinaw City and its immediate surroundings so the island had to wait. Mackinaw City is nothing like Mackinac Island despite…
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Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 4 (Petoskey)
One day we decided to explore Emmet County, at the northwestern tip of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Prior to that, my only exposure to this place happened along a brief segment of I-75 barely clipping the county line before crossing the Straights of Mackinac. My entire elapsed time in Emmet lasted mere seconds. However I’d completely…
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Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 2 (Counting Fingers)
The purpose of the trip wasn’t county counting, it was visiting our older kid who worked on Mackinac Island for the summer. Even so, I still had a bunch of uncounted counties in that area so I planned to use that convenient occurrence to my advantage. That’s how a day that normally should involve a…
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Thumb Drive, Day 1
My older son had to get back to Michigan State University for the start of the new semester and it was my turn to drive. It takes about nine hours to get there under ordinary circumstances so it involves an overnight stay in East Lansing. Then, I figured, I might as well stay a little…