Impossible Places

Niihau jumped out at me as I was looking at the map of Hawaii,. It was then that I realized this was the island I had to stay on when I visited.

When I got home from Borders, I headed to the Internet to see what I could find out about this place - none of the travel guides made mention of anything you could do in Niihau. It turns out there's a good reason for that.

It's the Forbidden Isle.

You aren't allowed to stay there unless you're invited by the family that owns the island, or are in the US military. The 300 or so natives are isolated from the outside world (8 years ago there was a 100% unemployment rate among them). There are supervised tours of the beaches. I think I would be okay with that - or at least I would certainly take it if it was all I could get.

I have a backup, though. The Near Islands, the island chain furthest west (so much so it's technically east) in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. More specifically, Attu Island. It's got snow and ocean, aurora borealis in a sky devoid of light pollution. There's even a travel agency specifically providing trips to the island, because of all the crazy rare birds that show up. Perfect.

Their last trip was in 2006.

They're not planning another.

That makes things a little more difficult.

There's always Unalaska Island, in the Fox Islands group of the Aleutians (I love the name Unalaska). That one is easier to get to, by an order of magnitude. Sure, Southwest won't fly to it, but at least the Alaskan Tourism Board representatives know where it is.

The Future Train to the Past

It's been more than two years since I've been back. Wait, scratch that. Two years since I left. I haven't even visited Toronto since I graduated from college.

It isn't that I don't want to go. It's that when I first moved to America, I needed to wait on getting a green card (in order to get back into the States), once I had that, I had to get my passport from Canada (my old one had expired — you guessed it — while I was waiting for my green card). The Passport Office swears they are still processing the application I sent in February. That's okay. I've got the patience.

I wonder, though — will I get back to old stomping grounds to discover most things have changed? I'm not so egotistic to demand that progress wait for my presence to continue, but what can I expect when I return? I don't even want to begin speculating, I'd do the research and no doubt be disappointed about a few things. Already, I've noted that any TTC tokens I may still have are invalid.

Although, hey, I do hope I still have some of those old dime-style tokens somewhere. Far be it from me to conceal my joy over transit ephemera.

Postcards from New Jersey

Being the birthplace of the nation it resides in, Philadelphia gets *nuts* around July 4 (Independence Day in America). Now, I like colonial history as much as the next geek, but there's a point at which it's just not worth it to wrestle with the crowds.

Instead, Big M and I did a little crossing of the Delaware ourselves, and spent a few days in New Jersey. July 4th itself was great, we played some mini-putt and went go-kart racing (by the way, The Funplex has 36 holes of miniature golf, spread across two courses).

As fun as it was, The Funplex was plan B. The original schedule had us watching the Transformers movie, and the Google Maps directions to the cinema were pretty representative of some of the moves that need to be made while driving in Jersey:

[ New Jersey: Under no circumstances turn left ]

Ah, the distinctive "jughandles" of Jersey's highways. I find the u-turn needed near the end of the journey shown here to be particularly priceless.

As a hardly related aside. I love Turtle Pops. Turtle Pops are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters made out of ice cream, with gumball eyes. A few weeks ago, while at a picnic (in Babbage Park, New Jersey -- named after the person you probably think it is), Big M chased down an ice cream van to get me a Turtle Pop.

[ Mmm, cherry. Thanks to Will for the photo! ]

That, my friends, is love.

When Wishing Makes It So

This morning while on the train to NYC (boarding at 5:52 AM, woo), I was thinking. 'If only I could read these Google Reader items while in transit, without an EVDO adapter.'

Well, when I next get online, it turns out... I can! Thanks Google, for releasing Google Gears and Offline. You rock.

Edges of the World

I stand at the edge of the state. At the edge of the continent. My work is done, the conference is over, and here I stand. Shiny shoes, suit jacket, and all.

The wind whips a mist of sand at me, steady and ceaseless. It's a struggle to keep my hat on as I run through sandy dunes, one I fail at a few times. I will be cleaning sand out of my ears and hair for days on end, but keep rushing towards the water. I had to come to the ocean. I always do. It's the insatiable urge to see something so much larger than myself, the ensuing avalanche of thought that leaves me reminded of how incomprehensibly large the universe is.

About two weeks ago, it was the Atlantic shore. Perhaps it's poetic that I stand in front of the Pacific so soon after, but the verse will have to wait. For now, I just look into the horizon that threatens to go forever. I savor the moment where I see my first sand dollar, actual sand dollar on an actual beach. I marvel at the sky that would be hard-pressed to be more perfect.

A plane cuts across it, filled with travellers. I'm reminded that I, myself, will be in the air soon. Heading home to the man (and the cat) that miss me. That I miss, too.

I'll see the oceans again.



Delayed post from April