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The cities of Buda and Pest became one in 1849 with the construction of the famous Szechenyi Chain Bridge, the first permanent bridge across the Danube River (pictured above). Despite centuries of European conflict dating back to the Middle Ages, multiple occupations by conquering forces, and decades of Communist rule, both sides are full of…

The city of Everett, about 30 miles (48km) north of Seattle, evolved and prospered through transportation. The 1893 arrival of the Great Northern Railway transformed the small lumber town into a major lumber center that supported several large sawmills, including the self-proclaimed largest shingle mill in the world. Access to new timberland and other resources…

The Puget Sound port city of Tacoma was founded in 1872 and experienced what author Rudyard Kipling described as “a boom of the boomiest” when the following year it was selected as the Pacific Northwest terminus of the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railway. After a brief downturn during the Panic of 1893, the city bounced back…

Bainbridge Island, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, has had a robust Japanese community since immigrants first arrived there in the late 1800s. Their world was shattered following the air attack on Pearl Harbor, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order for the nation-wide internment of over 125,000 US residents of Japanese descent,…

Alderbrook Resort on Hood Canal has been a popular Pacific Northwest vacation destination since it first opened in 1913. Back then, no roads reached the resort and guests arrived by canoe. The resort has been through many owners and remodels since opening, and now is easily reachable by road on Washington State Route 106. But…

The annual MARS conference, hosted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is a cross-domain event aimed at sharing ideas across the rapidly growing fields of Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space. Hands-on learning and emerging technology demonstrations form the majority of the invitation-only event, with opportunities for attendees to meet and learn from each other. For…

The historic Point Ruston ferry was built in Maine in 1936, and initially served as the navy ferry Aquidneck YFB-14 between Newport RI and Goat Island. The Pierce County Ferry System purchased the ship from the navy in 1971, and ran it as the M/V Steilacoom on the route between its namesake city and Anderson…

On a rare weekend actually spent at home in Seattle, we managed to watch three live hockey games over four days. Two were Seattle Kraken NHL games, and the third was an infrequent return to Seattle by the Thunderbirds Junior A team for the “Battle of the Sound” against the Portland Winterhaks. We often attended…

Marina del Rey, in Los Angeles County, California, contains the largest artificial pleasure boat harbor in North America. Construction began in the 1950s and today the basin has a capacity for 5,000 vessels, supports five different yacht clubs and is lined with restaurants, shops, condos, and hotels. The first hotel built was the historic Marina…

We traveled a lot this winter, both near and far. The first, and most major, trip was an unforgettable journey over New Year’s to Antarctica, where we flew on a DC-3 to stand at the geographic South Pole at altitude 9,301 ft (2,835m). As part of this adventure, we also made stops in dynamic Doha,…