Blogs from North America - page 7661

Monday, September 17th through Friday, September 21st, The Birches Resort, Rockwood, Maine. Darrin had a great week at the Birches Resort. Owned by John Willard, a Maine guide, pilot, and member of the Board of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail organization; The Birches dates back to the 1920’s (at which time it was under different ownership), and provides all the ambience one can imagine in the remote Maine Woods. Situated on the shores of Moosehead Lake, The Birches offers a variety of rustic cabins, plus a classic log-sided main lodge with an old stone fireplace, a dining room with views of the lake, and a bar with unique touches like chairs carved from huge tree stumps. Over the course of the week, Darrin explored some of the 11,000 acres that compose The Birches’ property. He rented ... read more

Capitol Reef National Park was the last of the national parks I was able to visit on my mini vaction to Utah. Capitol Reef was a very nice surprise. It has some wonderful red and white rock features. The Chimney is quite a site standing all alone rising from the floor. Also present is a formation named the Castle and a massive white rock the Capitol Reef Park is named for which early discoverers named the Capitol because it reminded them of the Capitol Dome. Also near Capitol Reef is the Grand Staircase National Monument which is a new Monument having just been designated in 1996 amidst some controversy. The area before Capitol Reef and after Grand Staircase is quite impressive as well. A scenic drive takes you to too many geologic features to count or ... read more

Another 7am start for our five hour bus to Oaxaca. I have dreamt of coming here for year!. Oaxaca is famous for cheese, coffee, chocolate and dry roasted grasshoppers called 'Chapulines'. Oaxaca and Chiapas have the largest Indian communities in Mexico. We arrived at 2pm, did a short orientation walk around the city and then I went shopping. I bought some embroidered shirts from the Indian markets. We found a bar that sold 1L cocktails for US$5 so a few of us went there for the evening. I bought some grasshoppers from the markets and we tried them. They tasted like crunchy salt and smelt of dried sardines you'd give your cat. Not pleasant. ... read more

After having so many questions from friends about where Corpus Christi was....and what on earth was there....we decided that we would use our inaugural travelblog to introduce you to our new home! Corpus is a relatively large city located on the Gulf of Mexico. It has a population of around 278,000 accomodated in an urban sprawl which stretches out from the downtown area. The city's two major forms of income and employment are the petrochemical industry and the military. Corpus is also a popular tourist destination for Texans on holiday in search of fishing and watersports due to the pristine beaches located on South Padre Island around an hour south of Corpus. The city is built around a bay but the waterfront areas have not been developed in the way you might imagine and are relatively ... read more

Obfuscator writes: We enjoyed a typical continental breakfast at our motel in Rexburg, before departing for the north. Waffles are good. We had scoped out a couple of potential spots, using the motel's tourism material in the room. One site they mentioned was “The Civil Defense Caves.” The only directions we got from the material was that they were “several miles past the Sand Dunes,” which we had luckily found the day before, and that we should watch for the signs. Another was Cave Falls, in the southwest corner of Yellowstone, a part of the park available only from Idaho. We drove about 15 miles past the Sand Dunes without finding any signs to any caves. At that point we decided that if they were still around, they weren't this far out, and we turned around. ... read more