Category: Latitude
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Borderland, Part 3 (Point Pelee)
Canada’s Point Pelee National Park became one of my priority destinations ages ago. Now, finally, after all these years I could visit it in person. I was not about to miss my opportunity. It’s not difficult to get there, but for me at least it involved the added complication of an international border. Luckily, now…
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Interior Alaska, Part 6 (Dalton Highway)
We made it to Coldfoot by airplane and now we started the long drive back to Fairbanks. It seemed daunting. Most of it would follow the Dalton Highway starting at Mile 175 (route), with the remainder on the Elliott Highway. The James W. Dalton Highway is a rugged working road, built in 1974 specifically to…
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Interior Alaska, Part 5 (Coldfoot)
I’ve always wanted to travel north of the Arctic Circle. I came pretty close to it in Iceland but even there I fell a few degrees short. So this was a major objective of the latest journey. My wife got her half-marathon in Fairbanks, I got my arctic visit, and we both shared our bucket…
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Interior Alaska, Part 2 (Downtown Fairbanks)
We rented an Airbnb house in the historic part of Fairbanks. However historic doesn’t necessarily mean old because Fairbanks only goes back to the beginning of the 20th Century. So a lot of the earlier structures are 1930’s or 1940’s wood-frame homes. A lot look older than their age. The elements are harsh in Interior…
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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…
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Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 5 (Eastern U.P.)
Staying in St. Ignace for a week was a whole lot cheaper than staying on Mackinac Island. It was also a lot easier to use as a base for exploring the eastern end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Once, many years ago, I drove along the southern edge of the U.P. and stayed overnight. Other than…
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Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 1 (Up North)
I had good reason to travel up to Mackinac Island in Michigan, a place sandwiched between its Upper and Lower Peninsulas. My older child worked at an internship there this summer, a requirement for a University degree. You know, the kid who loves zoos, designed a town, and noticed all those modes of transportation? Yes,…
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Great Salt Lake Meridian & Base
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (July 2011) There is so much to see and do at Salt Lake City’s Temple Square and the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the home of the Salt Lake Temple and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It boast inspirational architecture on an epic scale,…
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Midnight Sun
Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska, USA (July 2000) Why would I post this image of a nondescript suburban street lined with generic chain stores that could be anywhere USA? …Because this is Anchorage, Alaska and it’s nearly midnight. I was in Anchorage on business in early July 2000, just a few days after the summer solstice.…
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Ends of Canada
My Ends of the Earth wandering reminded me of an earlier Google Street View quest. A long time ago, way back in 2010, Twelve Mile Circle included an article I called The Shack at the End of the Road. This marked the northernmost extreme of Street View coverage in Canada at that time. I wondered…