January 26, 2019
The earliest written reference to Sri Lanka dates from the Indian epic the Ramayana (c 500 BC) in which Ravana, the island’s demon king, kidnaps the hero Rama’s wife Sita. According to legend, after kidnapping Sita, Ravana hid her in a cave behind these falls south of Ella, in Sri Lanka’s central highlands. The Seetha […]
May 30, 2019
By mid-September, the Japanese were ready to try to break through the US perimeter again. Under the command of Major General Kiyotake Kawaguchi, they drilled a tortuous path through the jungle to hit the Marines from an unexpected direction – the south. Except that it wasn’t entirely unexpected. General Vandegrift had guessed the Japanese intentions […]
May 30, 2019
But the battle for the remote Solomon Islands was not over. And no one would experience this more directly than a young man born to privilege who arrived in Tulagi in April 1943, to take command of a PT patrol boat. His name was John F. Kennedy. This quonset hut on Tulagi was the repair […]
May 30, 2019
From May 30, 2019 During World War II, the US and Japan waged an extended battle for control of the Solomon Islands, including the island of Guadalcanal, in the South Pacific. I visited there over Memorial Day weekend, and have put together my own photos and historical pics to tell that story. The story begins […]
May 28, 2019
From May 28, 2019 This man and his wife on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, purposely set themselves apart to live and demonstrate the traditional life of their ancestors. It is their full-time way of life. I visited them today. All photos and videos are taken with their permission. First I was greeted with the […]
December 20, 2022
Down the Columbia. It’s time now to scoot back up the Columbia River, like the salmon at Bonneville Dam, to rejoin where we left the other, water-bound leg of the Oregon Trail. A view of the Columbia River Gorge from the northern (Washington State) bank. Before the Cascade Locks were constructed around them in 1875, […]
December 20, 2022
Busted Wheels. We’ve rejoined the Trail again, at the town of Pendleton, Oregon. The Working Girls Hotel in Pendleton, Oregon used to be a … well, I guess you can figure that out. I just hope they got new mattresses. The hotel is associated with Pendleton Underground Tours. Apparently there’s a warren of subterranean saloons, […]
December 20, 2022
To the Whitman Mission. Starting with this Indian raid on a wagon train in 1854, west of present-day Boise, the Oregon Trail across Idaho became dangerous without military escort. While most of the settlers were just passing through, the Native tribes resented their depletion of local firewood and game. Horse grazing in a field near […]
December 20, 2022
Along the Snake River. Just north of Pocatello, in Blackfoot, we paid a visit to the Idaho Potato Museum. Not only does it have a restaurant, it was surprisingly fun and interesting. Idaho produces about 1/3 of the potatoes grown in the US, nearly all of them on land artificially irrigated from the Snake River. […]
December 20, 2022
To Fort Hall We’ve rejoined the Oregon Trail heading north from Fort Bridger, in southwestern Wyoming. This is Kemmerer, a Wyoming coal mining town where John Cash Penney (yes, that was he real middle name) established his first store in 1902. Penney got his start in nearby Evanston, Wyoming, working for a pair of partners […]