Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Cities/Towns

  • Ithaca, Part 2 (Waterfalls)

    Some sources claimed the presence of “over 150 waterfalls within 10 miles” of Ithaca, New York.  I guess it depends on how they’re defined.  Even so, waterfalls seemed to pop into view just about anywhere we looked.  As numerous T-shirts and bumper stickers around town reminded us, “Ithaca is Gorges.” We squeezed a lot of…

  • Ithaca, Part 1 (Four Busy Days)

    We can drive from our home outside of Washington, DC to Ithaca, New York surprisingly easily.  All it takes is about six hours in the car over some pretty scenic roads.  I’ve loved New York’s Finger Lake Region for many years, one of the few places I’ve ever returned to for repeated vacations.  We didn’t…

  • Jersey Shore, Part 6 (A Little History)

    It seemed like we spent an inordinate amount of time chasing lighthouses, boardwalks, and breweries although we found other things too.  I’ve always been fascinated by historical sites and I scoured the area for targets.  A lot of notable events happened in the northeastern United States.  The Europeans arrived there early so I suspected the…

  • Jersey Shore, Part 3 (Lighthouses)

    I enjoy visiting lighthouses . They’re also one of those things I like to count and track. Of course I researched the most promising locations long before I ever got to the New Jersey coastline. This shore seemed particularly attractive so I sifted through a bunch of options and planned my strategy. I found several possibilities although I…

  • Jersey Shore, Part 2 (Boardwalks)

    What should people do when they visit the Jersey Shore?  Hit some of the many well-known boardwalks of course.  I doubt any other stretch of Atlantic coastline in the United States has a greater density of boardwalks than New Jersey.  We traveled the length of the state’s waterfront, heading north to south, from Sandy Hook…

  • Cross-Country, Part 8 (Bonus!)

    Finally the end. Or was it? We’d driven most of the way across the United States. Then we spent a full week in Phoenix, Arizona. However, we weren’t completely done. Our rental home agreement ended two days before our return flight so we needed to spend a little time somewhere else. Originally my wife figured we could go down to…

  • Cross-Country, Part 7 (A Week in Phoenix)

    We drove for five long days and finally arrived in Arizona.  However, the adventure did not end there. Phoenix had always been the ultimate goal.  Our decision to go on a road trip sprang from that choice.  My wife and younger son wanted no part of the drive and flew to Phoenix instead.  There they…

  • Cross-Country, Part 6 (The Western Half)

    The first half of the drive seemed almost routine as it ran through terrain familiar to a lifelong resident of the eastern part of the United States. However we still had a couple of days to go and we began moving into unfamiliar territory. Here I captured a wide swath of previously unvisited counties straight through the…

  • Cross-Country, Part 2 (Weatherford Art Thou?)

    A strange alignment revealed itself as I planned my cross-country trip. I used the same basic set of assumptions for each of the four potential routes. First I divided the total driving duration by five to come up with approximately equal days on the road. That would average about seven hours of driving each day…

  • German Jaunt

    I received an offer for an all-expense paid trip to Germany. However it came with a catch, a big one. It wouldn’t be a vacation, I’d be working. Usually my work travel takes me to less memorable places like the five trips to Philadelphia last year so I appreciated the variety. Still, it’s not like…