Cleveland in Ohio

4 May 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Cleveland Arcade © Richard A. Weaver/cc-by-sa-4.0

Cleveland Arcade © Richard A. Weaver/cc-by-sa-4.0

Cleveland, officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in Northeast Ohio along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the U.S. maritime border with Canada and lies approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of Pennsylvania.   read more…

Toronto in Ontario

18 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  28 minutes

Toronto skyline from Snake Island © Jchmrt/cc-by-sa-4.0

Toronto skyline from Snake Island © Jchmrt/cc-by-sa-4.0

Toronto is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,765,188 people (as of 2021) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area proper had a 2021 population of 6,712,341. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.   read more…

Mackinac Island in Michigan

11 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  15 minutes

Main Street © n8huckins/cc-by-sa-4.0

Main Street © n8huckins/cc-by-sa-4.0

Mackinac Island is an island and resort area, covering 4.35 square miles (11.3 km²) in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac and “Mitchimakinak” in Ojibwemowin meaning “Big Turtle”. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was long home to an Odawa settlement and previous indigenous cultures before European colonization began in the 17th century. It was a strategic center of the fur trade around the Great Lakes. Based on a former trading post, Fort Mackinac was constructed on the island by the British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the site of two battles during the War of 1812 before the northern border was settled and the US gained this island in its territory. In the late 19th century, Mackinac Island became a popular tourist attraction and summer colony. Many of the structures on the island have undergone extensive historical preservation and restoration. Because of its historic significance, the entire island is listed as a National Historic Landmark. It is well known for numerous cultural events; a wide variety of architectural styles, including the Victorian Grand Hotel; and its ban on almost all motor vehicles, with exceptions only for city emergency vehicles (ambulance, police cars and fire trucks), city service vehicles and snowmobiles in winter. More than 80 percent of the island is preserved as Mackinac Island State Park. In 2022, Travel + Leisure named Mackinac Island the best island in the continental U.S. to visit.   read more…

The USS Niagara

1 July 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  9 minutes

USS Niagara in Quebec City, Canada © Cephas/cc-by-sa-4.0

USS Niagara in Quebec City, Canada © Cephas/cc-by-sa-4.0

USS Niagara, commonly called the US Brig Niagara or the Flagship Niagara, is a wooden-hulled snow-brig that served as the relief flagship for Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. As the ship is certified for sail training by the United States Coast Guard, she is also designated SSV Niagara. Niagara is usually docked behind the Erie Maritime Museum in downtown Erie in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania as an outdoor exhibit for the museum. She also often travels the Great Lakes during the summer, serving as an ambassador of Pennsylvania when not docked. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated the official state ship of Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1988.   read more…

Chicago on Lake Michigan

23 September 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture Reading Time:  7 minutes

Chicago River ferries offer sightseeing tours and water-taxi transportation © flickr.com - John Picken/cc-by-2.0

Chicago River ferries offer sightseeing tours and water-taxi transportation © flickr.com – John Picken/cc-by-2.0

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois, as well as the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994, it is the most populous city in the Midwest. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, and the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States. The metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States.   read more…

The Saint Lawrence River

25 June 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Map of the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River © Kmusser/cc-by-sa-2.5

Map of the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River © Kmusser/cc-by-sa-2.5

The St. Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin. The river traverses the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and forms part of the international boundary between Ontario and New York in the United States.   read more…

The Great Lakes of North America

28 November 2011 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Downtown Chicago from the lakefront © J. Crocker

Downtown Chicago from the lakefront © J. Crocker

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume behind Baikal in Russia. The total surface is 208,610 km2 (80,545 sq mi), and the total volume is 22,560 km3 (5,412 cu mi) The lakes are sometimes referred to as the North Coast or “Third Coast” by some citizens of the United States. The Great Lakes hold 21% of the world’s surface fresh water.   read more…

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