I have seen the World Pyrotechnic Championships in Toronto. (Yes, there is such a thing and it’s held in a different city every year.) Seeing fireworks over an alpine lake surrounded on all sides by soaring mountain peaks easily rivals that.
Bucket List / Nature / Off-the-beaten-path / USA
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published July 3, 2018 · Last modified July 2, 2018
On my way across the country, I rode 3,100 miles and passed through 14 states and four time zones. Ever since I saw photos of it in a magazine back in the 1980s, I have been dying to visit Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Before white settlement, the Lakota...
I’ll admit, I’m one of those super annoying people who leaps out of bed with the first rays of the sun, singing like a lark. Even worse, I do it all without the benefit of caffeine. Every once in a while I’ll, have some coffee but when I do I...
Looking at other people’s old chewing gum not your thing? I don’t blame you. However morbidly fascinating it might be, there’s something more than a little gross about it. Luckily, there’s far more to Seattle. Unlike many large American cities that sit on bays, lakes, or other enclosed bodies of...
Art / Off-the-beaten-path / USA
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published May 10, 2018 · Last modified May 7, 2018
Who started this insane tradition? In the alleyway that serves as the back entrance to Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market, is the equally famous “gum wall”. Actually several walls along about 50′ of the alley
Finally back in the US after nearly six months, I flew into Seattle recently. Of course, what tourist visit to Seattle would be complete without stopping by to check out
Visiting a vineyard and doing a wine tasting in Bordeaux, France is one of those things that I imagine is on most people’s bucket lists. Fair warning: don’t go on a Sunday!
The farm I’ve been babysitting for the past month has a very small man-made pond in back. The pond is roughly the size and shape of a swimming pool yet is home to an incredible number of frogs. They sing pretty much 24 hours a day. Frogs in France sound...
by Jeffrey Kontur · Published May 2, 2018 · Last modified April 26, 2018
For some reason, the town of Châtellerault, France seems to have a magnetic pull. My first visit to there was under somewhat trying circumstances. I had just done my best to completely destroy a rental car.
