Two of my children went to college in West Virginia. While driving them to college we would go whizzing by Pittsburgh on Interstate 79 and comment, “We really should visit Pittsburgh. I hear they have done wonderful things.” But, there was never time. On a recent trip to Ohio, John and I made a point to come home via Pittsburgh and were so glad we did.
Recently John and I spent three days in Erie making it a great stop on the way to visit family in Ohio. Here are some of the things we enjoyed.
The War of 1812 was fought on land and sea from Montreal to New Orleans and from the Atlantic Coast to the middle of the continent. Remember the War of 1812 with a visit to some of the significant sites many of which have scheduled events commemorating the War of 1812. That, of course, includes Oswego.
When John and I are traveling we like to experience the local cuisine. We were surprised to find that Spam is a popular food item in Saipan. The residents of Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Island consume the most Span to the rate of 16 cans per person per year. In Hawaii, Spam is so popular it is sometimes referred to as “The Hawaiian Steak.”
According to a recent China Daily article, the population of Shanghai has reached 23 million. It is an amazing city where building is going on everywhere but the touristic areas are easy to get around. We had a two-day ticket for the hop-on, hop-off Big Bus tour. It is the best way to get a feel for the city.
We flew from Xian, China, to Nanjing and checked into the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Hotels in China are quite reasonable. The hotel is a high rise building where the bottom seven floors make up a shopping mall with high end shops like Dior, Rolex and Swarovski.
I was amazed with the number of malls in all the cities we visited featuring exclusively expensive shops where there were many shoppers.
Xian was one of the many places on my “Gotta Visit” list. I visited the Terra Cotta Warrior Expo in Toronto three years ago but even before that I was intrigued by the warriors. This year, we included Xian on the China portion of our trip.
A few years ago, John and I spent a week on Easter Island. It has everything: beautiful scenery, mysterious ruins, a couple of great beaches, friendly people, and a relaxed Polynesian ambiance. The local Polynesian name is Rapa Nui.
Chengdu was not on our list of “Gotta’ Visit Someday” but we saw a full-page advertisement in Air Asia airline encouraging people to visit Chengdu to see the Panda Breeding and Research Center. So we included it on our itinerary.
Today, many elephants work in elephant camps. The tourist dollar keeps the mahouts employed and pays for the elephant’s feeding and care. An adult female elephant weighs 3 to 5 tons, is about 8 feet tall and eats about 500 pounds of food a day.
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