Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • Gulf Coast Weekend

    The college tours continued again last weekend although I didn’t go.  My wife and our older son headed towards sites in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The younger guy and I flew down to the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi to visit with family instead. He didn’t get to go on the great road trip over the holidays…

  • 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 7 (Leftovers)

    The Jersey Shore trip came to an end all too soon. I still had a few things to talk about, though. Some topics didn’t fit neatly into the earlier categories so I lumped them all together in this final article. After that, Twelve Mile Circle will hibernate once more until I find something else to…

  • 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 5 (Positive Signs)

    I have a thing for signs and I noticed that the Jersey Shore had plenty of interesting things to tell us.  They displayed a tale of my week-long visit down the coastline in words and pictures.  I didn’t intend to search for signs, nor did I have any particular plan to remember them.  They appeared…

  • Jersey Shore, Part 4 (Brewery Renaissance)

    New Jersey had some peculiarities.  People can’t pump their own gasoline, for instance.  It’s like the 1960’s, with station attendants and the whole deal.  The local roads also had this weird thing where drivers had to exit right to turn left.  I don’t mean like on the Interstate highways with formal ramps and overpasses where…

  • 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…

  • Jersey Shore, Part 1 (Huh?)

    My wife and I took a little road trip over the Spring Break week immediately proceeding Easter.  We sent the kids away to stay with their grandparents.  Unencumbered, we found a rare opportunity to choose pretty much any destination in the world we wanted to explore.  Friends seemed perplexed by our ultimate decision though.  We…

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