Category: Travel

…the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  We had a great time and Lydia and Isaac got to see TONS of neat fish.

Just a few things to comment on:

*  Parking was horrible.  $17 (and that is with the $3 discount!)
*  They use fake coral in their exhibits.  I always thought that real coral was necessary for salt water aquariums to function properly.  I guess not. 
*  They had this quote about rainforest extension. We are now 20 years out…I wonder how true it is?

Holy cow….I can’t believe it has been all summer and I haven’t posted anything.  I’m sorry about that.  I’ll blame it on bad internet and travels.

But, before we fly back to England, I had to get a new bag.  I bought the ebags Motherlode mini 21.  I was looking for a caryon sized bag made of nylon.  I travel a lot for work so I wanted something sturdy.  And roomy.

I think I scored on this bag.  It has a lifetime warranty.  It is built rock solid.  And it is real roomy.  Eventually, I’ll post some shots but I’ve got everything in it that was in my older caryon with room to spare.  The blue that came was more grey-blue than in the image, but everything else was spot on.

My only complaint…..it came with some rods I had to install.  The instructions pointed to a page on the ebags site that doesn’t exist.  So I did a search.  I finally found the right video on installing the ebags tls rods.  The link is here for anyone else that is searching.  Feel free to fast forward to the 4 minute mark…the first part of the video is simply a sales presentation.

[Update 2011-09-21 10:43:22]  I forgot to give credit for the picture.  It is actually a screenshot from the ebags website.  I snagged it and put it on flickr just so I could use it for this post.  Thanks ebags.

[Update 2012-04-24 20:20:11] My bag started to come apart.  it looked like a manufacturing defect.  Read more about how bags dealt with this here.

Having spent quite a bit of time traveling, living outside the US, and working with people from other countries, I found this article looking at America and Americans rather interesting. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the article:

The result of that early exposure to American culture, of course, is simple.

When you come to live in America you are shocked by the familiarity of the unfamiliar.You will know a pretzel from a bagel and a Dodger from a Met.

You know what the uniformed concierges at apartment buildings do, and you know what you must tip them at Christmas.

The answers respectively being not much, and too much.

And there is something beguiling in that easy familiarity, but something misleading about it, too. It tends to blind Europeans, and the British in particular, to any sense of just how foreign a place America can be.

…

This is, after all, a country born out of a tax-revolt during a rebellion against centralising authority, and then expanded by settlers who exchanged the comforts of the Eastern seaboard for the dangers and opportunities of the wild interior.

It is not surprising that a feisty scepticism towards government lingers in the politics here.

The Tea Party movement is successful because it taps into the deep American suspicion that all federal government apart from defence spending, is a kind of bureaucratic boondoggle, dreamed up by larcenous conspiracists in Washington to allow them to line their pockets by picking ours.

Well, It’s true isn’t it?

And our differences extend into this earthly realm too.

To Europeans, for example, a gun is a weapon, pure and simple.

To many, but not all Americans, it is a badge of independence, and self-reliance – the tool of the engaged citizen who does not think that either the criminal, or the forces of the state, should have a monopoly on deadly force.

Show us a gun, and we picture a muscular ne’er-do-well in a balaclava menacing an elderly sub-postmistress.

An American is more likely to visualise a plucky homesteader crouching between an overturned sofa in a burning ranch house, preparing to defend his family to the death.

Well…guns are like eggs, aren’t they? Everyone should own a dozen or three!

An aversion to paying taxes and an addiction to public and private debt do not add up, and American voters may well be left to conclude that they have awarded themselves a lifestyle that they can not really afford.

That is true. But, sending more money to Washington doesn’t help…those stinkin’ larcenists will just spend more!

America has enormous debts but it still spends as much money on defence as all the rest of the world put together.

And if that makes you uncomfortable, it is worth remembering that wherever you are, there is a good chance that if your country is ever invaded, your leader’s first phone call will be to the White House in Washington.

That’s enough said

Americans could make their public spaces a little quieter, for example, if they all took one step closer to the person they are talking to.

This was terribly difficult to get used to when I left the US.

And after three years of eating steaks the size of elephant’s ears off plates bigger than satellite dishes, all of our crockery back in Europe now looks like it was borrowed from a doll’s house. They may take some getting used to.

I had to get used to the reverse leaving the US. It has taken some getting used to. I’ll still patronize restaurants that offer free refills….it just seems cheap to not offer them. How much does it really cost? Not much!

[Update 2016-04-05 07:00:00] Added link to source article:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9294890.stm

Image by Defense Images via flickr 

Ever wonder how they keep airports up and running when it snows?  The BBC has an article and video showing how Heathrow keeps open when it snows.

Image from Michael @ NW Lens via flickr

November 24 is National Opt Out Day.  Why not try it with a kilt:

But come November 24th, here’s an idea you might try to make the day extra-special. It’s a one-word idea: Kilts. Think about it — if you’re a male, and you want to bollix-up the nonsensical airport security-industrial complex, one way to do so would be to wear a kilt. If nothing else, this will cause TSA employees to throw up their hands in disgust. If you want to go the extra extra mile, I suggest commando-style kilt-wearing. While it is probably illegal to fly without pants, I can’t imagine that it’s illegal to fly without underpants. I If you are Scottish, or part Scottish, or know someone who is Scottish, or eat Scottish salmon, or enjoy Scotch, or have a vestigial affection for “Braveheart” despite Mel Gibson, you can plausibly claim some sort of multicultural diversity privilege — the term “True Scotsman” refers to soldiers who honor their tradition and heritage by wearing kilts without drawers underneath.

We the people need to figure out how to reign in our government!

Today we decided to go for a little drive and see something new.  So, we decided to head to the Bluewater Shopping Centre (we’d probably call it a Mall in the US).  This place has to be the biggest mall I’ve ever seen.  We have a few pictures we’ll get posted later.  In the meantime, here are some other pics off flickr of the centre:

Cyndi and I got home a few days ago from our vacation.  On the trip home, we took quite a few pictures.  We’ve uploaded about 1/2 of our overall pictures from the vacation so be sure to check out our photo stream.

Here’s whats below:

The first picture is a war memorial at Sutjeska
The second is an old hotel near the memorial.  It looks like it used to be part of the Sutjeska National Park
The third is a power plant.  It was out in the middle of no where near a huge open pit coal mine
The last is this random Tito memorial we came across.  We aren’t sure if it is in the Republic of Srpska or the Federation part of Bosnia.

Today, we spent the day in and around Mostar.  Here are a few pictures from today.

Yesterday we went to Dubrovnik.  Like always, we’ll upload more pictures when we get back home…in the meantime, here are a few pictures…..

Here are some pictures from today.  As a general overview, we:

visited the cross overlooking the city of Mostar
I walked out the ridge to a bunker where the old bridge in Mostar was destroyed from
Went to Medjugorje