Theme Week San Francisco – Fisherman’s Wharf

8 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area, Sport Reading Time:  7 minutes

Pier 39 from Coit Tower © DimiTalen/cc-by-sa-3.0

Pier 39 from Coit Tower © DimiTalen/cc-by-sa-3.0

Fisherman’s Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. The F Market streetcar runs through the area, the Powell-Hyde cable car lines runs to Aquatic Park, at the edge of Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Powell-Mason cable car line runs a few blocks away. San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf gets its name and neighborhood characteristics from the city’s early days of the mid to later 1800s when Italian immigrant fishermen came to the city by the bay to take advantage of the influx of population due to the gold rush. One, Achille Paladini, found success wholesaling local fish as owner of the Paladini Fish Company, and came to be known as the “Fish King”. Most of the Italian immigrant fishermen settled in the North Beach area close to the wharf and fished for the local delicacies and the now famed Dungeness crab. From then until the present day it remained the home base of San Francisco’s fishing fleet. Despite its redevelopment into a tourist attraction during the 1970s and 1980s, the area is still home to many active fishermen and their fleets.   read more…

Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean

6 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Funafuti © flickr.com - INABA Tomoaki/cc-by-sa-2.0

Funafuti © flickr.com – INABA Tomoaki/cc-by-sa-2.0

Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out from 6° to 10° south. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. Its population of 10,544 makes it the third-least populous sovereign state in the world, with only Vatican City and Nauru having fewer inhabitants. In terms of physical land size, at just 26 square kilometres (10 sq mi) Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City at 0.44 km2 (0.17 sq mi), Monaco at 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi) and Nauru at 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi).   read more…

Gay & Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands

27 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands stamps © John

Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands stamps © John

The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands is a micronation established as a symbolic political protest by a group of gay rights activists based in Australia. Declared in 2004 in response to the Australian government’s refusal to recognise same-sex marriages, it was founded on Australia’s external overseas Territory of the Coral Sea Islands, a group of uninhabited islets east of the Great Barrier Reef. It is an expression of queer nationalism.   read more…

Heron Island in Queensland

17 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Bread fruit © sirrob01/cc-by-sa-3.0

Bread fruit © sirrob01/cc-by-sa-3.0

Heron Island is a coral cay located near the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Great Barrier Reef, 80 km north-east of Gladstone, Queensland and 460 km north-north-west of the state capital Brisbane. The island is situated on the leeward (western) side of Heron Reef, a fringing platform reef of significant biodiversity, supporting around 900 of the 1,500 fish species and 72% of the coral species found on the Great Barrier Reef.   read more…

Theme Week New Zealand – The Marlborough Sounds

12 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

The Marlborough Sounds, visible to the left of the Space Shuttle. Image taken from the International Space Station © NASA

The Marlborough Sounds, visible to the left of the Space Shuttle. Image taken from the International Space Station
© NASA

The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels at the north of the South Island of New Zealand. According to Māori mythology, the sounds are the prows of the sunken waka (canoe) of Aoraki. The Marlborough Sounds are connected to the Cook Strait at the north-east extreme. At this point, the North Island is at its closest to the South Island, and the inter-island road, rail, and passenger ferry service between Picton and Wellington travels through the sounds.   read more…

Vancouver Island in British Columbia

10 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Oak Bay © flickr.com - rpaterso/cc-by-sa-2.0

Oak Bay © flickr.com – rpaterso/cc-by-sa-2.0

Vancouver Island, located in British Columbia, Canada, is the largest Pacific island east of New Zealand. Originally called Quadra and Vancouver Island after Spanish navigator Juan de la Bodega y Quadra and British navy officer George Vancouver, the island was first explored by British and Spanish expeditions in the late 18th century. The former’s name was eventually dropped and it has since been known solely as Vancouver Island. It is one of several North American locations named after this British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794. While the city of Vancouver is located on the North American mainland, Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is located on the island.   read more…

Newport in Oregon

4 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Yaquina Bay Bridge © Visitor7/cc-by-sa-3.0

Yaquina Bay Bridge © Visitor7/cc-by-sa-3.0

Newport is a city in Lincoln County, Oregon. It was incorporated in 1882, though the name dates back to the establishment of a post office in 1868. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 10,000, an increase of nearly 13% over its 2000 population. Newport is the county seat of Lincoln County. It is also the home of the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and Rogue Ales.   read more…

Theme Week Los Angeles – Santa Catalina Island

30 March 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  9 minutes

Catalina Casino and Avalon Bay © flickr.com - Justin Ennis/cc-by-2.0

Catalina Casino and Avalon Bay © flickr.com – Justin Ennis/cc-by-2.0

Santa Catalina Island is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California in the Gulf of Santa Catalina. The island is 22 miles (35 km) long and 8 miles (13 km) across at its greatest width. The island is located about 22 miles (35 km) south-southwest of Los Angeles. The highest point on the island is 2,097 feet (639 m) Mt. Orizaba. Santa Catalina is part of the Channel Islands of California archipelago and lies within Los Angeles County. The total population is at 4,100 people, 90 percent of whom live in the island’s only incorporated city, Avalon (named after Avalon from King Arthur). The second center of population is the unincorporated village of Two Harbors at the island’s isthmus. Development occurs also at the smaller settlements of Rancho Escondido and Middle Ranch. The remaining population is scattered over the island between the two population centers.   read more…

Homer in Alaska

4 March 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

© Derek and Julie Ramsey/cc-by-sa-2.5

© Derek and Julie Ramsey/cc-by-sa-2.5

Homer is a city located in Kenai Peninsula Borough in Alaska. According to the 2010 Census, the population is 5,003. Long known as The “Halibut Fishing Capital of the World.” Homer is also nicknamed “the end of the road,” and more recently, “the cosmic hamlet by the sea.”   read more…

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