Michigan’s Maritime Tours

by Adrienne Wilson on

Ahh, the Great Lakes!  So much to be said, so much to be explored and found in and
arround Michigan’s waters.  If you are looking to mark your
calendar with a summer escape consider checking out one of the hundred’s of lighthouses, visiting the
maritime museums, taking a shipwreck tour or just diving
the Great Lakes.   

 

The Michigan site for tourism features an
excellent driving adventure,
“Echoes
of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” which has quite an itinerary and uncovers the tales of the
vessel.  The Edmund Fitzgerald is just one of the many carrier ships to travel the
Great Lakes under extremely stormy weather.  But then again, if you plan your travels right, they
can be far from stormy and packed with more than enough beautiful roadside and lakeside scenery for the
asking.

Photo of the Day: (4/23/05)

by Erik Olsen on

Today’s POTD comes from Marton Grey who I actually blogged about a bit earlier today. I was so intrigued with this
site sacredsites.com, that I spent some time noodling around and decided to give it POTD as well.
This photo of Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet is one of
the best. Grey sells these prints, so pick one up as a gift if you got a few bones to spare.

Sacred Sites

by Erik Olsen on

Take a look again at the work of Martin Gray,
the mountain hermit turned photographer.

After ten years in an monastery in India, Gray is now an anthropologist and photographer specializing
in the study of sacred sites and pilgrimage traditions around the world. 

His Web site sacredsites.com has got some of the best photos anywhere of these
places, as well as some decently-written stories from twenty years of visiting and photographing over
1000 sites in eighty countries.

High-Tech Palace

by Erik Olsen on

The palace/hotel itself costs over $3 billion. That’s a hefty price tag. Obviously the result of reckless oil
wealth. Still, you have to admire the
techiness of the builders. Because
buried within it is nearly a thousand miles of blue, red and green fiber-optic and broadcast cable. The
government-owned hotel, which has a separate floor reserved for Gulf Arab royalty, boasts an unbroken bubble of
wireless Internet access on its 250-acre (100-hectare) grounds. The wireless network works everywhere: next to the two
swimming pools, on the private beach, in every bathroom. On the top of a camel. 

Moab’s Nuclear Past

by Erik Olsen on

Ah, the virtues of Moab. They are far too numerous to list here. If I could be
anywhere right now, I honestly think Moab would be in the top ten places I’d choose. I’d probably go tropical before
anything.

Well today there is a quick and dirty Moab
story in the NYT.

The piece is mostly an environmental article, about how Utah used to be this haven for Uranium mining, but ten
following Three mile Island and other non-nuclear proliferation issues, Moab turned its attention towards tourism. And
good for it. Moab is now a mountain bikers Mecca, and one of the greatest places to ride in the world, let alone the
country.

I had no idea about Moab’s nuclear past, so I found the article fascinating, and I think you will too.