Random Past Posts
Kiwi Springtime: Queenstown, New Zealand New Zealanders refer to themselves as "Kiwis." And of course most Americans are aware of the brown, furry fruit of the same name. But if you're tracing the original source of the term "kiwi," be aware that the chicken-sized bird came before that egg-sized More...
Tikal, Guatemala: A Glimpse of the Americas in 900 A.D. Some big piles of rocks in a Guatemalan jungle may change your thinking about "American" history. In the year 800 or so, Tikal was a city of nearly 100,000 Mayan people, set in the northeast part of what is now More...
Kings of Bavaria Americans like me probably know Bavaria best as the “B” in BMW. Its biggest single tourist attraction is a legacy from an arguably-crazy nineteenth-century king. The border between Germany and Austria is where the rolling hills and forests of the More...
The Parkers in the Virgin Islands I got to spend ten days or so in the Virgin Islands with my sister's family (Jana and Bill Parker, and their 'kids' Tyler, Caitlin (in pink dress) and Grace. We stayed on St. Thomas and then St. Johnr. More...
Oklahoma’s Swon Brothers in Atlanta I was lucky enough to have planned a trip to Atlanta (not Dallas!) on OU-Texas weekend this year. By coincidence, my friend Greg Cook and the now-famous Swon Brothers were there, too, so I spent Saturday night at Wild Bill's country bar More...