Get update alerts
Locations
“Pic of the Week”, December 14, 2018: A fine Crab Dinner in Ushuaia
I have to admit that before my trip to Patagonia I didn’t know the waters of the southern Pacific were home to king crab, much like you find off the coast of Alaska. While walking around the streets of Ushuaia, we found a number of restaurants that specialized in the cooking and serving of these large crustaceans. These places seemed busy and very popular with tourists, especially the Japanese groups, so my wife and I decided to splurge and share one of these monsters for our last dinner in southern Argentina.
The beasts are sold by the kilogram (sorry, can’t remember the price, but it wasn’t cheap). The crab is cooked and served to you intact on a large platter, as …
.All Trips / Central USA / Colorado / North America
A Day at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature
My wife and I visited this Science and Nature Museum earlier this year while in the Denver area for our younger son’s wedding. I enjoy visiting science and natural history museums as I always see fascinating things and learn something new at each one, and Denver’s is a great museum! It’s affiliated with the prestigious Smithsonian in Washington DC.
Like all good natural history museums, this one covers a large variety of topics and has lots of displays spanning many subjects, with most focusing on Colorado (though many with a more global perspective). The museum is housed in a boxy 716,000-square-foot (66,519 m2) building and has more than one million items in its collections.
The roots of the museum …
“Pic of the Week”, December 7, 2018: Unbearably Lake Tahoe
An art form I enjoy, which has seen growing popularity these past few decades, is chainsaw carvings. As the name implies, the artist uses chainsaws of different size to work a piece of dried raw wood into the final carved piece. The carvings are often large and heavy. The wood is then generally stained or painted and sealed with varnish or polyurethane to protect the art.
While driving around Lake Tahoe this past summer — a beautiful scenic drive that’s highly recommended — we came across several homes on the California side of the lake that had some fine examples of carved bears. I thought they were quite good and stopped to get some photos. Not sure if all the ones …
.All Trips / Asia / India
Faces of Wagah
The lowering of the flag ceremony at the Wagah Border, which you can read about here, provided an excellent opportunity for people watching. Sitting in the viewing stands for more than an hour gave me lots of time to look around and snap photos of the border guards and civilians in attendance.
Here’s some of what I saw that afternoon:
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance slideshow)
Tagged border crossing, Faces, India, Pakistan, Wagah
.All Trips / Asia / India
A Memorable Trip to the Wagah-Attari Border
The flag lowering ceremony held at the Wagah border is among the more unusual festivities I’ve attended while traveling. This border crossing is not far from the Sikh city of Amritsar which I’d visited for a few days, so I arranged for a car, driver and guide to take me to this event (recommended to me by someone who had lived in the region).
This is a daily ceremony done by the security forces of India (Border Security Force, BSF) and of Pakistan (Pakistan Rangers). It can alternatively be viewed as a symbol of the two countries’ rivalry, or as one of cooperation depending on your philosophy (my perspective was that it was mostly one of rivalry, as the two nations …
Tagged flag, India, Pakistan, Wagah border
“Pic of the Week”, November 30, 2018. The Old Parliament Building, Colombo
A building that’s impossible to miss when you visit the coastal area of downtown Colombo is the nation’s first Parliament building (a.k.a. the “Old Parliament Building”). Facing the Galle Face Green and the sea (and now the ever-growing Marina development complex), the building is situated on reclaimed land just south of the Fort District and World Trade Center towers. Initially the building was home to the Legislative Council of Ceylon and was witness to country’s transition from colonial state to self-rule in 1947.
Completed in 1930, this Neo-Baroque style building was home to the country’s legislature for 53 years. During the country’s prolonged Civil War, Parliament was moved to a a more secure complex in nearby Sri Jayawardenepura in 1983.
The building …
“Pic of the Week”, November 23, 2018: Paradise Valley, Nevada
While on a road-trip last year, I drove through northern Nevada and came across a rather pretty place in the desert. Relatively green and lush, it was known as Paradise Valley. One of about a dozen places by the same name I’ve encountered in my travels and like the rest of them, visually striking. This was a place of horse and cattle ranchers.
Don’t know much about the region but it was worth stopping and enjoying the view.
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance)
.All Trips / Eastern Canada / Food / North America / Nova Scotia
Halifax’s Seaport Farmers’ Market
Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market is the oldest continuously operating farmer’s market in North America, originating a year after Halifax was founded, in 1750. For over 250 years the market has sold meat and produce delivered from Acadian farms in the Annapolis Valley and elsewhere in Nova Scotia.
The Market has operated in several locations across the city since its inception, including within the Keith’s Brewery Building. In 2010 The Market moved into a converted warehouse along the Halifax Seaport and today hosts over 250 vendors!
Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market
We spent more than a day exploring the waterfront area and made several stops at this market. Our visit to Halifax was during the early fall so the produce available reflected the season — apples, peaches, plums …
Tagged farmer's market, food, Halifax, Seaport Farmers' Market
