Tag: Zoo
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Graduated
It seemed like just yesterday that Twelve Mile Circle chronicled the kid who designed an imaginary town and counted various forms of transportation. Now my elementary aged student is all grown up, a newly-minted university graduate. Those interceding years passed much more quickly than I could have possibly imagined. Michigan State University is huge (~50,000…
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Southern Heat, Part 2 (Atlanta Revisited)
I ventured into familiar territory as we started the trip, back to the same eastside of Atlanta that I’d explored just four months prior. That wasn’t a coincidence. I enjoyed the area so much that I wanted the whole family to experience it too. So it made perfect sense to fly into Atlanta and use…
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Mackinac’s Orbit, Part 5 (Eastern U.P.)
Staying in St. Ignace for a week was a whole lot cheaper than staying on Mackinac Island. It was also a lot easier to use as a base for exploring the eastern end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Once, many years ago, I drove along the southern edge of the U.P. and stayed overnight. Other than…
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Thumb Drive, Day 1
My older son had to get back to Michigan State University for the start of the new semester and it was my turn to drive. It takes about nine hours to get there under ordinary circumstances so it involves an overnight stay in East Lansing. Then, I figured, I might as well stay a little…
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Ohio River, Part 9 (Evansville Loop)
We continued to follow the basic path of the Ohio River, this time heading west from Louisville. At the far end we hit our most westerly destination, the city of Evansville, Indiana. Once again the day began with intentional destinations in mind. However, as once before, the second half of the journey focused on county…
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Ohio River, Part 4 (Exploring Louisville)
We finally arrived in Louisville after a couple days of driving and wandering. I’ll start by saying that it’s impossible to cover an entire city in a week. So we focused on one tiny corner and barely scratched the surface. I wouldn’t consider this a comprehensive guide, more like a few simple observations and a…
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Belgium (November 2003)
Monde Sauvage, Aywaille Our visit to Belgium this time was quite a bit different than any of our previous trips. We needed to focus on keeping a 2-year-old entertained so our usual options would not work. Our little guy loves animals so visiting Monde Sauvage [roughly translated: “Wild World”] seemed a natural choice (map). His…
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Bermuda Shorts, Part 8 (Museums & More)
With an area as small as Bermuda — just over 20 square miles (53 square kilometres) — one might conclude it wouldn’t need a lot of museums. Well, as it turned out, a lot of history happened there. Plus the tourists needed something to do. Maybe they couldn’t golf or lounge at the beach the…
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Bird House Flight Cage
Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, DC (2007) The Smithsonian’s National Zoo Bird House (map) hosts many avian species, either within the building, the large flight cage or in the attached outdoor exhibits. This is one of the quietest parts of the zoo, a bit off the beaten track, and visitors have to really make a…
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Inner Banks, Day 1
I set my sights on a doughnut hole of unvisited counties in northeastern North Carolina. I’d left them untouched until now. No interstate highways passed through them. The didn’t fall on a direct path coming home from the beach. They simply sat there as empty white space on my County Counting map. Seven of them,…