I had heard about the deal last year but didn’t take advantage of it. This year I jumped on the chance to fly anywhere JetBlue flies for $499 for a month. The pass sold out in two days and I didn’t have much time to plan my trip. JetBlue only flies direct to three locations…
Meet, Plan, Go! is coming up in a few weeks and out host in Chicago, Lisa Lubin, has been doing some press for the event. Although the Chicago event is pretty full make sure you put your name on the waiting list because things may open up as it gets closer to September 14th. You…
Couchsurfing is a great way to meet people and experience other cultures. My first surfing experience, staying with David in Urumqi, was memorable. We’ve stayed in touch, talking via Skype, and he’s visited me in Chicago twice now—even couchsurfing at my apartment earlier this summer. My long list of “posts to write” includes an introduction…
Celebrating American Independence Day on the road is always weird for me. Often times I forget the date while traveling—when you travel by road and buy your tickets as you go the date just isn’t that important. During my last around-the-world trip I was not only away for two 4th of Julys but out on…
Its not summer in Chicago until I attend a Cubs game. Thanks to a horrible record there’s plenty of seats at Wrigley this year and we got $60 bleacher tickets for $10. I managed to avoid a sunburn but was ID’d twice—the woman selling beer didn’t believe I was 21 even though I had a…
Happy New Year! I’ve finally made some headway into getting my site back up and running. The current site design is a placeholder, but at least the content is back up. I was worried about the possibility of corrupt images but after two months of downtime I gave up and uploaded all of my old…
One of Chicago’s largest events every year is the Air & Water Show. I’ve never been and decided this would be the year that I set off to join more than one million other people sitting along the lakefront. Saturday afternoon a friend and I decided to head up to Montrose Beach to watch, probably…
Although I haven’t been taking advantage of most of the free events going on in Chicago this summer I did make it up to the Fiestas Puertoriquenas in Humbolt Park in the end of June. I had no excuse, as it was a 10 minute bike ride from my apartment and a beautiful day. I…
Three months since the last update and I’ve just passed the three year anniversary of flying to Korea to start RTW trip #2. I have no excuse for the lack of updating, really as I’ve been spending my time on my recent move, fixing up my new place, getting caught up in TV shows and…
Sunday was my first South Side St. Patrick’s Day Parade and I took my camera along. You can see a selection of my photos here in the gallery (don’t miss all 3 pages of photos). The Sun Times is reporting attendance at 340,000, a good number of whom were drunk before noon and yelling obscenities…
Happy Casimir Pulaski Day! It has been a long, cold winter in Chicago. This is my first winter living in the city itself and it took me a few months to get used to the cold wind whipping through the streets when I walk to the grocery store. I haven’t done as much of the…
Oh, Chicago. The city is starting to crack down and a few citizens are taking it into their own hands.
I try to keep this blog mainly focused on travel, but many of my readers have asked me for more frequent updates and expressed an interest in my life in Chicago now that I’m not on the road. I have kept one major aspect of my life a secret from you, my TV obsessions. I…
The new year has brought a continuation of 2008’s cold and snow here in Chicago. This is the first winter that I’ve lived in Chicago itself, relying completely on public transportation. The streets and sidewalks in my neighborhood are covered in a foot of snow and I’ve been using my REI membership often, stocking up…
Surprisingly, despite my early support for Obama, volunteer efforts, and tickets, I almost didn’t go to the Obama rally on election night a few weeks ago. A friend was having a party and my love for the CNN’s “magic map” is great enough to make me consider missing out in the biggest Chicago party since,…
Although I volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaign during the primaries I hadn’t done much since he defeated Hillary Clinton, despite receiving at least one email a day asking for donations and three emails a week asking me to volunteer. Finally it came down to the last week before the election and I realized it was…
Happy Halloween! I’ve gotten a few comments recently on my Halloween 2005 which reminded me of the reader requests for costume updates. This year I decided to once again utilize some of my travel souvenirs for my Halloween costume. One of the things that I most enjoy when traveling is observing the local costume, so…
Sunday night I got a little travel fix, or at least an international culture fix. The girlfriend of one of my old high school friends is planning a trip to Southern India and she was interested in ashrams. When she discovered that I spent eight days at Sivinanda Ashram in Nyer Dam on my last…
It’s time to update when strangers are leaving posts asking if you’re still alive. I am still alive but a lot has changed since I got home over a year ago. I was waiting to write a long, insightful post but it never happened. You might laugh when I say that I’m a very private…