I can be bribed to travel for any rhyme or reason especially if you toss in a world’s largest attraction as one of the stops along the way. I found myself meeting St. Louis on a short weekend, beginning with its grand introduction not of the Gateway Arch but rather the World Largest Rocking Chair. Built in 2008, the chair stands over 42 feet tall and 20 feet wide. Just before you reach St. Louis, Missouri, you can stumble upon this rocker in the town of Fanning. I forced a carload full of people to stop here, some willing and others not so willing, just for a moment to appreciate this taste of Continue Reading
The Empire State Building Wishes You Were Here
Creating something out of nothing never ceases to amaze me. It is a romantic notion that based on someone’s idea, this is what should come out of nothing. On top of the world, you get that sense and on top of the world could very well be where I stand on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. I’m not even at this colossal office building’s highest height. I stand at a mere 1,050 feet. The building also boasts a 102nd floor observatory at 1,250 feet. If I could scale the broadcast tower on top like the famous monster, I would be 1,453 feet above New York. With its 103 floors and Continue Reading
Alone in Ireland in Photos
They joked about their ex-wives as I stepped up to the ring. I was about to let two crusty old men dangle me from a 15th century castle, all to kiss a stone whose surface probably belongs in a petri dish rather than a top tourist attraction. As I let the strange man hoist me upside down, I could see the glowing green earth below from an angle unknown to me. I was alone in Ireland, doing things I would have never considered solo activities before, including putting my faith in strangers to bring me back up from my big smooch with the Blarney Stone. It would be an utter shame to miss out on Continue Reading
Catedral de Mallorca Wishes You Were Here
The day was long and my feet throbbed with every step forward. Putting one foot in the front of the other was a struggle on my last day in Mallorca’s capital city of Palma de Mallorca. I saw its major architectural landmark only in passing and under the cover of night. It glowed in a way churches in Europe always seem to at night with an inextricable gleam of magic. Anyone gazing upon them must believe in something. By the daylight, I was less than enthused to enter yet another church in Europe, but this was Palma’s big cheese, the Catedral de Mallorca. Perched in the old town of the city, Continue Reading
Capturing The Color of Travel
Joya of Be A Travel Bee kindly nominated me for Capture The Colour contest put on by Travel Supermarket. It’s a travel photography contest asking bloggers to post five travel photos according to the colors blue, green, yellow, white, and red. Judges will select the best entries to win the grand cash prize and a new iPad. If you want to find out more about the contest or enter yourself, you can read all about the details on the Travel Supermarket Capture the Colour contest page. Here are my travels as seen through shades of blue, green, yellow, white and red. Blue The sweetest town in Mexico Continue Reading
Jefferson, Texas Wishes You Were Here
The air has a quiet only found on Sundays. Shops are closed. Streets are deserted. And in all of the quiet of Jefferson, Texas, there is a whiff of intangible activity. I begin to stroll the small settlement that was once a boomtown when the first steamboat arrived on the Big Cypress Bayou. By 1845, steamboats could reach New Orleans from Jefferson, making the city the port of entry for many into Texas and a thriving cosmopolitan destination. Appropriately, Jefferson is my port of entry for seeing what Texas looked like circa the 19th century. I roam the streets of the “Riverport to the Continue Reading
Berlin Through The Camera’s Cool Eyes
I arrived to Berlin on two hours of sleep in 48 hours, clearly at my best. Perhaps due to my lack of sleep, I saw Berlin in a two-day daze. From appreciating the breeze while biking through Tiergarten to feasting on Vietnamese food as my first meal with Anjelica Huston lookalikes at neighboring tables, I came home and wondered what was real and what was a figment of my jetlagged, zombie-like imagination. Throughout my time in the city, the words “trendy”, “dynamic” and “hip” could be heard through every nonexistent sleep cycle. Berlin did seem too cool for me, the sort of place where you Continue Reading