Author ArchivesEverywhere Once |

Two Views in the North Cascades

by Brian on March 14, 2014 in United States, Washington

The promise of seeing Diablo Lake’s turquoise-colored waters was enough to lure us from Seattle into Washington State’s North Cascades National Park. The intense hue comes from minerals and rock ground down by the surrounding glaciers and carried into the lake. To have a look at Diablo Lake (actually a reservoir), we drove along Highway 20, pulled into a parking lot, and walked a few hundred feet to a viewing point. Instant gratification.

Not all vistas were as easily seen as Diablo Lake. When our Jeep could take us no further, we set out on foot along the Cascade Pass Trail. For nearly four miles we navigated forested switchbacks, rocky slopes, wildflower-laden meadows, and patches of summer snow, steadily trekking upward into alpine country until we finally reached our destination: Cascade Pass and its view of peaks and glaciers.

St. Thomas Church New York City

by Brian on March 12, 2014 in New York, Travel, United States

Google Maps: The Best Travel App Gets Even Better

by Brian on March 10, 2014 in How To, Travel, Travel Apps

After about a year of targeted deployment, Google began rolling out the latest update of its maps program to everyone last month. If you haven’t seen the newer, sleeker version yet, you soon will.

We’re always apprehensive when companies tinker with programs as awesome and essential as Google Maps. It’s safe to say that this is the program we rely on most when traveling, which is to say this is the program we rely on most – period!

We use it for everything. Need to find a grocery store? Use Google Maps’ “search nearby” feature. Need help getting somewhere? Use Google Maps’ directions. Want to plan a day’s itinerary in an orderly way? Create a personalized Google Map to see which things on your to-do list should be grouped together.

While bugs and problems can always plague these kinds of things, we’ve been playing around with the new Google Maps and are pretty impressed with the updates.

Chinatown Murals, Vancouver, B.C.

by Brian on March 5, 2014 in Canada, Travel, Vancouver

Fireplaces of the Phillips

by Brian on March 3, 2014 in United States, Washington DC

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It wasn’t until our third visit to Washington, D.C., that we made it to the Phillips Collection, a gem largely overshadowed by the city’s larger Smithsonian museums. This time, though, “America’s first modern art museum” was a mere five-minute walk from our Dupont Circle apartment, making it an easy place to spend an afternoon.

Seeing the collection reminded me that modern art doesn’t always mean contemporary. The term modern actually covers a period extending over one hundred years and is broad enough to include such giants as van Gogh and Monet.