Blogs from North America - page 9705

Monday was a day for a Gray Line motor coach tour north from New York City along the Hudson River valley. We stopped at West Point to see the United States Military Academy and at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park. A lunch stop was made in Poughkeepsie, NY.... read more

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was a major travel attraction in the mid-1960s. The fair's optimistic theme was "Peace Through Understanding" with a further dedication to Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe." There were many international pavilions to visit, though the majority of exhibitors were US industrial corporations. The industrial exhibits all showed what consumer wonders were just around the corner. Accordingly, Westinghouse sponsored a Time Capsule II in parallel with its Time Capsule from 1939-1940. We took the New York Subway out to the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds in Queens. The subway ride was every bit as exciting as the fair! My mother had been to the previous New York World's Fair in 1940. The symbolic Unisphere, built by US Steel, stood in the same fountain as the prior fair's Trilon ... read more

In 1965, the port of Acapulco was not deep enough to accommodate a ship of Oriana's size (albeit Oriana was smaller than the popular cruise ships of today). Instead, Oriana anchored in Acapulco Bay. Passengers needed to use tenders to reach the dock, as is still the custom at many island ports today. Two long accommodation ladders were rigged at the side of ship to lead down from the Promenade Deck to the waiting tenders. The tenders in use were open cargo lighters. Once on the dock in Acapulco, we teamed up with two young teachers we'd met on board to share a taxi for sightseeing. They were from New Jersey and replied "We teach" when my mother asked them what they did. The taxi driver took us on a sightseeing drive up to an overlook ... read more

Following the spring semester at Dalat it was time to go back to the States for a year furlough. This would be our third time around the world, but by commercial jet (Boeing 707’s or DC-8s) this time. We flew from Bangkok to Beirut, Lebanon, which was before their civil war. The city was similar to any wealthy touristy city along the French Riviera. We took a day trip to Byblos, a Phoenician city founded in 5000 BC, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. We enjoyed touring the archeological sites. From Beirut we flew to Jerusalem, the eastern half of which was part of Jordan at the time. We toured all the holy sites and then crossed through the Mandelbaum Gate, which was the only crossing between Jordan and Israel. The crossing could only ... read more

When the Wien Alaska Airlines Fairchild F-27 touched down at Kotzebue airport, we were officially north of the Arctic Circle. The 1962 Alaska trip included a four day visit to Nome, Kotzebue and Barrow. I must say that I do not recall much about Nome. But Kotzebiue was by far the most interesting stop. Valene had been doing field work for her doctorate in Anthropology among the Inupiaq (Inuit) of Kotzebue. She knew many of the townsfolk personally. The indigenous people of Kotzebue are related to and speak a language similar to that spoken by the Inuit of Canada and Greenland. The houses of Kotzebue were rustic in 1962. Buildings were constructed of timber, plywood sheets, corrugated metal, tar paper and sometimes finished lumber. Whatever material could be sourced. (Construction in Barrow was similar, often employing ... read more