Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Cancun and the Environment


20 Aug

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Cancun is located in one of the most fascinating parts of the world. As a place with some of the most luxurious hotels in the world, it’s been a popular tourist attraction both within and outside of Mexico. People from all over the world, in fact, are drawn to the magnificent beaches, looking to catch some time in the sun during the day, and take part in some very lively parties at night.

It’s also very close to some of the endlessly interesting sites where the Mayan civilizations of earlier times constructed pyramids and monuments in the center of the old cities. It’s a long bus ride to Palenque from Cancun, but well worth the trip. If the pleasures of the luxury Cancun hotels have offered enough lazy days, a trip into the wilderness might be the perfect way to indulge in some wanderlust.

The ancient civilizations did fold or fade away, but the Maya people are still making the contemporary cities in this part of Mexico. The deep history of culture and tradition are very much alive, continuing in an evolutionary spiral of moments of time. There are also groups participating in some very important activities in keeping the environment protected all along the Maya Route, demonstrating that history is a book that’s always being written in time.

La Lanne and the Santa Monica Pier


27 Feb

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Posted in Culture, History, People, Travel | 2 Comments »

The Santa Monica Pier is definitely one of the places to go when you’re visiting Los Angeles.  It’s a spectacular way to get introduced to the beaches, which are some of the finest, or at least the most filmed beaches, in the world.  The legendary weather in Southern California is really all that it’s cracked up to be, and there are always plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy the sunshine.  Warm days and cool nights is a regular thing here, making it as fantastic a tourist destination as it is a place to live.  Here’s a link for some great hotels, so you can stay in real style and panache, and enjoy all that there is to offer here.  One visit is not nearly enough, but it will certainly bring some calm into everyone’s world.

The Pier has a lot of very distinctive characters, you’ll notice.  Some of L.A.’s more colorful characters can be seen strolling here, as well as the usual assortment of rollerbladers and skaters, joggers, beach bunnies and bodybuilders.  You might recognize the icon of the bodybuilder here and think it’s somehow very familiar.  Jack La Lanne is one of the people responsible for this, and maybe in many ways the one who made the image popular, and even possible.

His story is a rather interesting one.  He was not a good kid when he was growing up, and once even tried to attack his brother with an axe.  He blames his juvenile delinquent behavior on the excessive sugar in his diet, and at a young age, he decided to try to turn his behavior around.  He adopted bodybuilding as a way to build character rather than simply an exercise in physical beauty.  At the time, the medical profession was advising against weightlifting, but he studied up on anatomy and health, looking especially at nutrition and its role in developing muscles.  Even now, the work is way ahead of its time, and the man himself is heading into his late 90s, and still appears to be in excellent health, in body and mind.  This kind of health is a California trademark.

No Buffalo in Buffalo


10 Feb

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That’s right. There are no buffalo in Buffalo New York. There is however many luxurious hotels around Buffalo that accommodate a large and thriving community. Buffalo is the second largest city in the state of New York. It sits along the shores of Lake Erie and is at the start of the Niagara River. It started as a small trading town in 1789 near the Buffalo Creek and really grew up when the Erie Canal was opened up in 1825. It was the eight largest city in the country at one time because of the trade industry using the railroad system. It became big for grain mills and steel making until the 20Th century came along and the good situation in the city went bad when they rerouted the shipping in the Great Lakes. The steel mills and grain mills relocated to other parts of the country.

While you are visiting the area there are a few attractions to see. One can head over to the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park and see the USS Little Rock (CG-4), USS The Sullivans and the USS Croaker. They are some well kept Naval vessels that are open for tours. There are all sorts of Military vehicles, aircrafts and vessels at the park to see and explore. The Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society Building has some great displays of the states and countries past. It is located in the old New York State pavilion that was built in 1901 for the Pan American Exposition which was a world’s Fair. The Edward M Cotter Fire Boat is an amazing sight. It is still in use by the Buffalo Fire Department even though she was built in 1900. She has been rebuilt in 1953, had a few name changes and stands on the name of Edward Cotter who was a firefighter and leader of the Buffalo firefighters that has passed on.

Giant Heads of Presidents in Williamsburg


27 Jan

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What was the oldest and largest colony England had in America?  It was Williamsburg, which was the Virginia’s colonial capital, from 1699 to 1780.  Here is where George Washington met with Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, and the like, creating the basic concepts that would form the United States.  When the American Revolution came (Virginia declared Independence on May 15, 1776), the capital moved to Richmond, which was considered to be a safer place in a better, more central location, and so turned Virginia into a college town, home of the second oldest university in the country, the College of William and Mary (the oldest is Harvard, 1636; William and Mary’s is 1693).  Over the years, there wasn’t a great deal of income for the town and so it wasn’t able to update its infrastructure, allowing old buildings to stand.  Luckily, that means today we have historic buildings that show us exactly what the world looked like during the 17th and 18th Centuries, thus creating the opportunity for Colonial Williamsburg, which all alone is worth a trip to Virginia.

However, what if you’ve made the trip to Virginia, checked into one of the hotels Williamsburg offers its tourists, and you feel like you’ve seen most of it already?  You’ve been to Colonial Williamburg, you’ve taken the ghost tour, you’ve explored Busch Gardens Europe, and seen the local plantation/museums — what else is there to do?  Well, if you’re a fan of presidents, artist David Adickes has prepared a roadside attraction not quite like any other.  Just outside Williamsburg, you’ll find one of a Presidents Park.

The Presidents Park consists of gigantic sculptures of all the heads of 43 U.S. Presidents.  A nearly identical park exists near Deadwood, South Dakota, where he used the same molds.  Adickes is planning to expand even farther, intending to take his next park to Florida.  For now, though, it’s possible to see these giant busts by driving out to 211 Water Country Parkway.  They’re open daily from nine to six (until eight in the summer).  The immense heads have signs posted which will tell you about each president, along with some interesting facts and quotes.  As you enter the park, you’ll find an Oval Office replica.  The last president currently in the park is George W. Bush; while Barack Obama is not there now, perhaps his head will join the others in the near future.

The Aleutian Islands in Alaska


18 Jan

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What part of America was occupied by a foreign country last?  By what country and when?  Give up?  If you answered the British in the War of 1812, you’d be wrong, although it has been a long time.  The answer is that the United States was occupied by Japan during World War II, in June of 1942, on the islands of Attu and Kiska.  Now, you’re next question might well be, what part of the United States contains these islands?  It’s Alaska, and these are part of the Aleutian Islands.

One day I’d like to see the Aleutian Islands, partly because I have a personal connection to the place.  My father was stationed in the islands during World War II, and he was to be a part of the campaign against northern Japan, which was cancelled later.  Some historians call this “The Forgotten War,” otherwise known as the Aleutian Campaign.  Japanese planes attacked Amaknak and Unalaska Islands, bombing them.  Thousand of troops were sent to the Aleutians, my father among them, to defend the U.S., as the Japanese occupied Atu and Kiska.  These islands weren’t reclaimed until the Battle of Attu in 1943; unfortunately, the natives who lived on these islands never did get to go back.

The Aleutian Islands are now a National Historic Area, part of the National Park System.  If you ever do travel to the North, you’ll find places of amazing beauty amid Alaska’s magnificent park sites as well as luxurious hotels.  The park system in Alaska includes such places as Noatak, the Gates of the Arctic, Kobuk Valley, and the Yukon, as well as Denali and Lake Clark, and the Kenai Fjords.  Each of these places, I’m sure, hold their own charms, but for me, I’d like to see the Aleutians, a place where my father described riding in the glass bottom of a bomber plane and meeting, of all people, the movie star Errol Flynn,  perhaps one of the stranger oddities that can happen during a war.

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