Maui Island, Hawaii

Hawaii is the 50th state of the United States of America and is one of two states which do not have a common boundary with Continental United States of America. The other state is Alaska. However, there is a world of difference between Hawaii and Alaska. Alaska has a long cold winter and a short, cool summer. Hawaii is warm all year round and is ideal for tourism. In fact, people from Continental United States of America plus people from other parts of the world find it a conducive and pleasant place to spen their vacations. Some even retire there.

Hawaii consists of 6 main islands (some says eight) in the Pacific ocean, of which Maui is the second largest. Maui was formed from the eruption of 2 adjacent volcanoes, with an isthmus connecting them. It is popular with people from mainland America. Makena, a small residential area is closely related to Wailea which is just a few miles north of Makena. Often, the two are lumped together. You can get more information about Makena from Information for Makena, Maui, Hawaii. The Makena beach, which some call the Big Beach has been touted as one of the best beachs on Maui Island and is a good place to spend your vacation by the seaside.

Hawaiian Beach Rental is a site that offers convenient choices of vacation rentals, condominiums and hotels which you can book online. Among the choices they offer are Wailea Makena Condos. However, if condominiums are not what you are looking for, they also have Maui Vacation Rentals (at time of publishing, there are 157 of them for you to chose from) and Maui Hotels (270 of them).

And if you are travelling from Continental United States, you can also take advantages of attractive prices on airfare, hotel and rental car from Hawaiian Vacation Packages.

SOHO cast iron historic district NY

If not for someone drawing my attention to The Soho Experience: What Is There to Do?, I would never have know about the existence of the SOHO cast iron historic district in New York.

Cast iron? A district full of factories producing cast iron products or workshops turning out cast iron sculptures? No, neither. It is a roughly rectangular district in New York comprising 26 blocks and about 500 buildings bounded by West Houston on the north, Crosby Street on the east, Canal Street on the south and West Broadway on the west. The name SoHo is an abbreviation of South of Houston.

Location map of SOHO

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The reason why it is called the Cast Iron District many buildings incorporated cast iron architectural elements into its buildings. Here is a photo from Wikipedia:

Source: Wikipedia: SoHo Cast Iron Historic District

Here is a photo of the cast iron roving bridge at Rotton Park Junction (fabricated by Thomas Asbury & Co, Smethwick):

Photo of cast iron roving bridge courtesy of Ted and Jen

And a photo of a cast iron stairs in SOHO

Photo of cast iron stairs courtesy of Julia Manzerova

Here are more photos from Flickr using the Creative Commons copyright license:

Photo of "The Queen of Greene Street" courtesy of Michael

Photo of E.V. Haughwout Building courtesy of Michael

Photo of SOHO cast iron buildings courtesy of John Weiss

Alaska Denali National Park

Alaska is the northernmost and largest (by area) state of the United States of America. It is separated from mainland US by Canada. It is also the least densely populated state of the United States of America with half of its 700,000 residents concentrated within the Anchorage metropolitan area, Alaska largest city. Because of its isolation and harsh weather, Alaska is about the most pristine state of USA. If you want to experience nature at its best, visit Alaska.

Photo of Denali courtesy of Nic McPhee

The highest point of Alaska and of Northern America is Mount McKinley, better known as just Denali which means "the great one" in the Athabaskan language. Denali (Mount McKinley) is located within the famous six million acres Denali Park. The nature you can enjoy in the Denali National Park includes deciduous tiaga (cold conifer forests) at the lower elevations, tundra at the middle elevations, and glaciers and snow at the higher elevations. Activities you can enjoy includes wildlife viewing, backpacking and mountain climbing. During winter, you can go dog-sledding, skiing and in certain designated area, snowmobiling.

If you intend to travel Alaskayou may be interested to know that Alaska Travel (Alaska Denali Tours), says that they have their own lodges and tour buses plus have operates their own motorcoach between Alsaka's largest city Anchorage and Denali National Park.

USA and New Zealand

The distance from the United States of America to New Zealand is only about 7,000 miles or 12,000 kilometers. The flight time from the west coast of the United States of America is about 12 hours. One New Zealand Dollar (NZD) is at the current rate of exchange is only USD 0.63 and if we use the BigMac Index to compare prices of things in New Zealand and USA, the price of Big Mac in US is USD$3.57 while a Big Mac in New Zealand is only USD$3.09.

New Zealand is an insular country isolated from the rest of the world for centuries by wide and deep oceans and so have developed many amazing and unique culture and living things found nowhere in the world. Among them are moa, kiwi, tuatara and giant snails, earthworms and weta. The kauri tree, the largest tree in the world by volume, is endemic to New Zealand and found nowhere else in the world.




American should try to make a trip to visit New Zealand at least once in a lifetime to observed these amazing and unique flora and fauna in New Zealand. If you fly there, your likely landing place will probably be Auckland or Christchurch. With the horrid economies we have now, for accommodation, it is probably better to stay in cheap hotels in Auckland or cheap Christchurch hotels.

Camping in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. Pennsylvania has 2 monikers - Keystone State and Quaker State. It is called Keystone state because of its central location among the original Thirteen Colonies forming the United States. The moniker Quaker State is in recognition of Quaker William Penn's First Frame of Government constitution for Pennsylvania that guaranteed liberty of conscience.

Gettysburg is a borough (a borough is a form of a local government, a subdivision of a county) in the county seat of Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States with a population of 7,490 as per the 2000 census. Its main attraction is its proximity to the famous Gettysburg Battlefield fought in 1863. If you are a history buff, Gettysburg is an ideal place to visit.

A great way to enjoy Pennsylvania is is to go pa rv camping, especially Gettysburg camping. If you have a recreational vehicle, then go rv camping gettysburg.

North Carolina RV parks

Location map of North Carolina courtesy of Wikipedia

North Carolina is a state located on the east coast of United States along the Atlantic Ocean seashore with most of the state falling in the humid subtropical zone. This state is the sixth most visited state of United States with nice amusement parks, golf courses, wineries, beautiful beaches. Popular too are meetings and conventions as well as sports venues.

A good way enjoy North Carolina is tour with recreational vehicle and camp at one of the numerous NC rv parks and enjoy nature as only North Carolina can offer. Even if you don't have a recreational vehicle you can still stay at a rv park NC as there are nice cabins which are ideal for family to stay in.

RV park North Carolina may, by its name, be meant for recreational vehicles, but including staying in cabins, one may bring tents and camp there.

Last minute traveling

It is said that doing thing at the last minute is human nature, especially if it involves something unpleasant. . Take filing income tax return for example. Tell me how many people enjoy filling in the annual income tax return form. Those filing their income tax return forms earlier are a rare minority. Pay a visit to the Inland Revenue Department on the last day for submitting the income tax return form and you will be greeted by a huge crowd all scrambling to submit their income tax return form in time to avoid getting fined for being late.

Traveling is another matter. One may travel for business or leisure. Most people plan their travels well in advanced of the day of departure. There are some who do not like to plan but may travel on impulse at the last minute. Businessmen may be suddenly faced with some critical situations which necessitate travel at the last minute. Traveling at the last minute can be really stressful.

However we are lucky that there are websites which can assist with booking last minute flights and last minute accommodation.

Now if you ask me which airline is the best in the world, I will tell you that it is the Singapore Airlines. Perhaps I am a bit biased as the CEO of Singapore Airlines was DR. CK Cheong (Dr. Cheong Choong Kong, now retired) was my Statistics lecturer. Dr. CK Cheong led Singapore Airlines (SIA) to become one of the best in the world. No, I don't think I am biased. SIA have received many international awards.