Brief Notes of San Francisco
ben | 10 December, 2007 18:56
I'm quite amazed at certain things. For example, I recently spent a few days in lovely San Francisco (though lovely is certainly a state of mind - of the three days I was there it rained all day one day, was blazing hot the next, and on the third was foggy and sharply cold). Anyway, I stayed at a cheapish hotel in North Beach called the Saint Paul on the corner of Kearny and Columbus that was comfortable enough, if cramped, and had shared bathroom and shower facilities which were basically two or three single bathroom/showers at the end of the labyrinthine hallways. The bathrooms usually had a slight odor of pot lingering and I caught a glimpse of the room next to mine, which looked like the occupant had moved in for a long, long stay. The Saint Paul was across the street from Cafe Zoetrope, owned by Francis Ford Coppola with writing and production offices in the upstairs floors of the building (and a landmark building in SF).
Cafe Zoetrope
However, all this is beside the point. While doing a bit of tourist walking, I was passed by a group (flock? mob? herd?) of people wearing reflective neon yellow vests - of the type cops wear when directing traffic at night - wearing helmets and riding Segways! I later learned that there is a company that runs Segway tours of San Francisco. It was highly amusing, but I just could not for the life of me see myself strapping on a helmet and reflective vest to putt around one of the coolest cities in the world on a Segway. But maybe that's just me.
Segway tour of San Francisco!
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Pics from the Himalayas
ben | 09 December, 2007 16:13
A good friend of mine has been working and living in a number of places around the world since he graduated from college - Hawaii, Taos, Spain, the Ukraine, Southeast Asia, and a few other places I can't now remember. Currently, he's either in Nepal or India, I believe, and sent out some pictures from a trek he just finished which included a day in which he both climbed and descended 5,000 feet and that reached an elevation of 17,769 feet at the Thorung-la pass. My friend, Taylor, is the guy on the right of the picture below. The other guy is his guide, named Him.
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Road Trip to North Conway, NH
cn | 13 August, 2007 09:47
So North Conway, NH is a pretty hefty drive from where I live in NY state. I'd never been and my dad's family was having a reunion there so I hit the road last Friday and headed out to North Conway.
North Conway, it turns out, is a great location if you're into anything outdoors. We all stayed at a big alpine-style house. It was a bit run down and the beds were hard, but the location was great and there were 12 bedrooms or so.
North Conway is pretty much surrounded by White Mountain National Forest and the Saco River runs through town. As a result of this a town of outfitters, gear rental places, coffee shops, pubs, and numerous other shops that you'd associate with a ski village has developed where in winter there are all types of snow sports and in the summertime there's kayakers, canoers, road bikers, mountain bikers, hikers, drivers, campers, photographers, climbers, rafters, etc., etc., etc...
Oh, and there are outlets. No sales tax in NH and throngs of tourists and travelers seeking the great outdoor experience means only one thing! Brand name outlet stores! Some of the stores I wandered into weren't necessarily ones you'd find in every outlet strip mall. I browsed a Pearl Izumi factory store and a couple mountain gear outlets. Not to mention the ski shops! All that and no Starbucks....hmmm...I guess there MUST have been a Starbucks somewhere, but they keep it off the main area at least...
Of course, the real draw of the area is the wilderness, and it is spectacular. If you don't hike, don't bike, don't ski, and don't like getting out on the river, you must at least go for the drive. Coming from the west, you zigzag through the mountains on state roads and a couple of interstates and the views are spectacular. No matter which direction you approach from, you'll pass through at least a dozen New England villages, seemingly all built around modest, stately churches with tall, white steeples.
North Conway may be pretty far from everywhere but Concord, NH, but it's worth the trip. Unless, that is, you're agoraphobic (fear of open spaces)...but even then the mountains might be enough too keep your fears at bay and if not, North Conway itself will be just built up and bustling enough for comfort.
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Underhill House
ben | 28 June, 2007 21:51
Check out this cool house! The owners built it themselves and have a how-to site that shows you how to do it yourself, complete with pictures, costs, and plans!
Check out the site here.
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The Ultimate Geek Travel Itinerary
ben | 23 June, 2007 12:02
So this has nothing to do with technology or gadgetry, but most definitely qualifies as geek travel. Some people follow Phish around for the summer, I have a friend who spent a couple of months following Widespread Panic. Others go on road trips, and some people will do every marathon, 5k, or triathlon within hundreds of miles of their homes. So why not tour around the country to hit every Star Trek-esque convention in the country?
There's a list of upcoming conventions (not all of them Star Trek specific) at startrek.com. So grab your Klingon phrasebook, pack your bags, and jump in your alternative-fueled shuttle-craft to hist the conferences this summer. Here's a sampling of events:
Columbus Sci-Fi Expo
July 13-15, 2007
Columbus, OHThe Official Star Trek Convention
August 9-12, 2007
Las Vegas, NVTrekTrak
August 31 - September 3, 2007
Atlanta, GA
There are events listed through the year and into 2008!
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Outside Mag - 5 Great Roadtrips
ben | 22 June, 2007 11:53
As you may know, I'm a big proponent of road trips, and this month Outside Online has a good list of 5 great summer road trips - one for each region of the country. From the article:
The only problem is that the online version doesn't have maps of the routes. I haven't seen the paper version, so I'll have to check that out, but nonetheless, the trips look good and the online version lists stuff to do all along the way.At some point after puberty and before mortgage payments, that summer ritual our parents used to make us do became something we couldn't do without. And the rules have changed. Cars are faster, highways are better, and there's cool stuff—really cool stuff that doesn't involve buffets or Dollywood—just about everywhere. Stop sitting on those vacation days and get out there. Our five two-week loops will get you rolling.
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Short List of Fun Travel Blogs/Sites
ben | 21 June, 2007 11:33
BudgetTravelOnline.com has a list of fun travel sites here about food, gear & gadgets, hotels, and maps. Listed sites include:
Slice, sliceny.com; News, reviews, and musings on pizza, including where to find the best pieces of pie in the Big Apple.
TravelGearBlog, travelgearblog.com; Reviews of clothes, equipment, backpacks, gadgets related to hiking, camping, and other travel activities.
Hotel Chatter, hotelchatter.com; Hotel reviews from all over the world.
If you like pizza and live in or visit NYC, check out that first site! It's constantly updated and is a pizza-lover's best resource...
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10 Best Train Trips in the World
ben | 21 May, 2007 17:45
GORP.com has a great article about the 10 top train trips in the world. The list:
- Canadian Rockies, Canada
- Coast Starlight, U.S.
- Sierra Madre Express, Mexico
- Cuzco to Machu Picchu, Peru
- Arctic Circle, Sweden/Norway
- Glacier Express, Switzerland
- Blue Train, South Africa
- Palace on Wheels, India
- Orient Express, Malaysia
- South Pacific, Australia
The only significant train ride I've been on that I can remember is an overnight from Chang Mai, Thailand to Bangkok. We paid for the budget sleeper accommodation, and budget it was! The blaring florescent lights never went off, it was steamy-hot all night, and the berth wasn't made for a towering Westerner like myself (er...a towering 5'8.5", so that it to say, the bed was quite short). But it was a fun experience, all the sweating aside. One nice third-world quirk: at one point in the night I went into the bathroom. There was a stainless steel toilet, no water. I pissed into the toilet and it looked as if the refuse was sloshing around a bit down in the dark hole, but the room itself smelled fine.
In the morning I went to piss again. Through the hole, in the morning light, I could see the base loose stone and ties of the railroad track. It wasn't the refuse I saw sloshing around in the night, it was the stone whizzing by! And all the shit and piss of the passengers simply dropped down onto the track. Kind of like when a cruise ship is in international waters, except way different!
Anyway, I think I'm due for a good trip soon, and #5 above looks quite appealing!
See the article here.
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June 18th-24th - PorcFest 2007!
cn | 19 May, 2007 11:28
The Free State Project's 2007 Porcupine Freedom Festival is coming up this June 18th to 24th in Gilford, New Hampshire at Gunstock Mountain Resort (near Laconia, north of Concord). From their website:
PorcFest is about bringing together people that are, in any shape or form, connected to the Free State Project. Whether you are simply curious, whether you are a friend of the FSP, whether you are a signer of the Statement of Intent, whether you are originally from New Hampshire, or whether you are have already moved, PorcFest is the place to meet, talk, plan, and enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the Live Free or Die state.
Organized activities will include bus tours, hiking, training, speakers, entertainment, bbqs, and more. It looks like a lot of fun and I love their intent and the process they're using to create political change.
See th Festival homepage here.
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Irony of Technology
cn | 15 May, 2007 10:31
I love the Discovery Channel, especially now that I have the pleasure of watching DiscoveryHD - the high-def version of the channel. It has some programs that are simply amazing.
This morning, for instance, I turned on the TV and tuned to the Discovery Channel to find that Sunrise Earth was just starting. In Sunrise Earth they filmed a location with a number of cameras over a span of perhaps 3 hours from the pre-dawn darkness through full sun-up. There is no narration and there are no commercials. All you get are breathtaking shots of the subject for the day and the natural, accompanying sounds. For instance, today's show was titled 'Yellowstone's Geysers' and throughout the hour the scenes shifted from location to location within the park as the sun rose. It can be a breathtaking experience just to watch it on TV!
And therein lies the irony! I love the outdoors, love nature, am awed by its grandeur. Through the marvels of technology I can sit in my climate-controlled living room behind my computer, sipping my microwave-heated tea, and get a pseudo-experience of watching the sunrise in the vastness of the great outdoors. Yet here I am. In my living room. Experiencing what it's like to watch nature on TV. And to me it seems that I'm somehow missing something. Which is a good thing.
On the one hand, watching a show like this inspires me to get up and get going - get out there and experience it for myself...yet on the other hand, it's like a surrogate experience - now that I have a pseudo-experience of nature, why go out when I have so much work I could or should be doing?
Not to mention the fact that the show is on at 10am, so in a reality-twisting way I'm experiencing sunrise at 10am, and I'm nowhere near the arctic circle...
Regardless, check out the show on DiscoveryHD if you have a chance, if only because there aren't any commercials!
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Great Tips for Road-Tripping on the Cheap
cn | 20 April, 2007 16:19
Roadtrip America has a nice, concise article about ways to save bucks when you're on a road trip. The article is geared towards the spring-breakers but the recommendations are applicable to all. The list in short consists of these tips along with a few others:
- Save on food...
- Sleep in the car at truck stops...
- Think about personal connections...
- Drive at a reasonable rate of speed...
- Make sure your car is roadworthy...
- Take advantage of welcome centers...
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Quote of the Day
cn | 20 April, 2007 14:41
To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions.
- Sam Keen
source: http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_travel.html
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Quote of the Day
cn | 19 April, 2007 16:37
This might be my new favorite quote...
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.source: http://www.parrotsmeow.com/IQ/
- Mark Twain
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Blog Follows 29-day 11,626 Mile Road Trip
cn | 19 April, 2007 16:00
Joe's Cross Country Journal is a great travel blog. It follows Joe on his road trip around America (the trip is over and the blog doesn't seem to be updated any more...). There are some great pictures and long accounts of the trip. It's one of the better trip-specific travel blogs I've read and the only unfortunate part is the trip's over....
Check out the site here.
Originally found via roadtripamerica.com.
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World's oldest business - 1,428 years old - closes!
cn | 18 April, 2007 14:18
There's a really interesting article at BusinessWeek.com. Apparently the world's oldest business - a family temple-building company - closed this past year:
The world's oldest continuously operating family business ended its impressive run last year. Japanese temple builder Kongo Gumi, in operation under the founders' descendants since 578, succumbed to excess debt and an unfavorable business climate in 2006.
The article is pretty good and walks through how the company did so well for so long, finishing with a good point:
These lessons are somewhat contradictory and paradoxical, to be sure. But if sustained success came easy, then all family businesses would have a 1,428-year run.
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