Traveling Fool

 I had this trip to Nebraska planned for several months, and I was really looking forward to it after being cooped up all winter. I think cranes first entered my consciousness after I spent a couple hours at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin on a road trip to Cleveland . And then a friend mentioned the Sandhill crane migration that goes through the Platte River region in Nebraska in March/April. It sounded amazing. I just needed to start planning; the weather in this region in March can be horribly unpredictable, would I run into a snowstorm or would it be dry and blue skies? Turns out it was a little of both. Just a few days before I started out, there was a major snowstorm in Nebraska, which made me nervous, but I had great weather.  There are a few different ways to see the cranes and probably the best way is to connect with one of the conservancy groups that does educational work on the cranes and the diverse wildlife on the Platte River. They offer ...

I've been driving home to Cleveland by myself for over 15 years, and with only some slight variations, it's been the same drive I94 to I90/I80. It's fine, it gets me from Minnesota to Ohio and back again, but this spring/summer I really wanted to mix it up and just do some different things. It's a challenge because most of the time, I just want to get home and that's the basically straight line noted above, so going off piste is going to add time, maybe money to the journey. But you only live once, and since I only have to answer to myself, I made a few different journeys. In April I came home via Springfield, Illinois, the one-time home and final resting place of Abraham Lincoln. There are a couple of things to do in Springfield that are Lincoln-related, but I could only muster the energy and patience to stop by the tomb. It is in Oak Ridge Cemetery, which has rolling hills and was beautifully peaceful on the Saturday I visited. The tomb is free to visit, and it...

  On the way to Friday Harbour, sadly, no frequent flyer miles. I will admit that this trip was not planned out as well as it could have been, so I kind of crammed my whale watching tour into a one day frenzy. I could have taken my chances with a tour closer to Seattle, but I wanted to increase my odds, so I booked a tour with San Juan Excursions who also helped me coordinate the flight to Friday Harbour on Kenmore Air . The flight provided an aerial view of Seattle and was really nice, although very loud. Once I landed and checked in for the tour, I had a couple of hours to walk around town, get some breakfast and just relax. from the plane We boarded the boat and the crew talked us through the game plan for the day, explaining some of the expectations and guidelines for watching the whales. The boats have to stay a certain distance from the whales, and if the whales get closer, the engines are cut, there is also a flag that gets put on the boat to let other boats know there are ...

I spent my Sunday in Seattle going to the Chihuly Garden and Glass  and the Space Needle. I booked a joint ticket; it was timed for entrance into the Space Needle, but open-ended for Chihuly. I didn't have any idea what to expect at Chihuly, I thought, meh, glass, okay I'll check it out. Well, shut the front door, I was blown away, jaw-dropping. The colors, the shapes and complexity and variety, it was all just crazy. The hushed silences were not required, but I think everyone was overwhelmed with the scope of what we were seeing. You kind of flow from room to room, taking in the colors, and then you move out of the dark rooms into a greenhouse type of structure and then into gardens.  The Chihuly is very near the Space Needle and a park with treats and vendors, which is a good place to hang out and people watch and wait for your turn to join the queue to go up to the top. There are some reviews that are dismissive of going to the top of the Space Needle, it's cheesy, tack...

 In August I headed to Seattle, originally it was to go to a Seattle Mariners' game, but in the end, the trip was so much more than that. There was something magical about flying over Mt. Rainier, pinkish blue fromt he sunset and sadly, forest fires. I only had four days, and I tried to cram as much in as possible. I used my first day to try and get oriented, learning how to take the bus outside my motel to downtown and to the waterfront. We'll just say it was an experience. I do like that it was pretty easy to get around and there are a lot of options for getting around the Seattle area buses, trams, trains and ferries. It was unseasonably hot, even in the great Northwest; ridiculous heat. I booked a harbor tour, about 2 hours or so getting a view of the Seattle port, skyline, etc. It's not a whale watching tour, although it could happen. I did see two little jellyfish before we even left the dock.   After the tour and a nice lunch, I headed back to the motel for a littl...

  Rogers Centre, Toronto - Photo by Zac B. (our cruise director) Over the years I have visited quite a few baseball stadiums and a couple of years ago I made it a goal to visit them all. I am now three stadiums closer to making that goal. I signed up for a tour with Diamond Baseball Tours and let them do all the planning - if you're a frequent reader, then you know that's not how I usually do things, but it's good to try new things.  We met in Detroit and then headed for Canada and the Toronto Blue Jays. It just so happened that we were there on Canada Day and a jersey giveaway, so to say it was crowded is an understatement. It felt like forever until I got in. I bought a program to keep score and found some lunch. I always want to love ballpark food, I mean if you pay $15 for a chicken sandwich, it should be the best chicken sandwich, right? Meh. Actually, most of the ballpark food was meh. I have to say Rogers Centre was not my favorite stadium, structurally speaking. It...