The last stop on the Asian leg of our Semester at Sea voyage was in Japan. We docked in Kobe, but SVV and I immediately hopped a train from there to Kyoto for the night (about $10 each and a 45-minute ride). News flash: Japan is expensive, y’all. While a few of our ship friends [...]
In 2011…
December 28, 2011 By 68 Comments
2011 was meant to be “the year I stayed home.” After going round the world and back a handful of times in 2009 and 2010, I was ready for a break. And then…things happened—purely awesome, life-altering things—and I found myself visiting 21 states and 13 countries and moving 2,300 miles and then going around the [...]
You Don’t Know Jack
December 26, 2011 By 24 Comments
There are two things for which the area I’m from in Tennessee is universally known: Jack Daniel’s and Bonnaroo. However, just five miles down the road from my actual home is the man more revered in my house than Jack himself: George Dickel. And up until last week, I had never stepped foot on the [...]
Photo Friday: Shanghai, China
December 23, 2011 By 29 Comments
The whole four days we were in Shanghai, a curtain of cold and gloom hung heavy over the city in an ominous sort of manner. But at night, it was a different story. This fog only served to enhance the skyline lit up along the Bund and over the water in Pudong. We snuck up [...]
Photo Friday: Playa Esterillos, Costa Rica
December 16, 2011 By 26 Comments
Jumping ahead in time a bit to the near end of our Semester at Sea voyage, we docked in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica for a very brief 36 hours. SVV and I headed straight for Alma del Pacifico, down along Playa Esterillos near Manuel Antonio National Park for a very quiet night away from the [...]
Photo Friday: Lantau Island, Hong Kong
December 9, 2011 By 27 Comments
While in Hong Kong last month, we went on a Semester at Sea FDP with Professor Jim Huffman and took the hour-long bus ride over to Lantau Island, the biggest of the Islands District isles and home to the Hong Kong International Airport, as well as Disneyland. Our first stop was to the ancient fishing [...]
