Category: Nature

Fanning Island Kiribati

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 30, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit Fanning Island – part of the Republic of Kiribati. I’ve never been south of the Equator, but on this visit to the island it’s as close as I got to it – just below 3.9° north latitude. That’s about 250 miles north of the Equator.

I visited during the first week of March of 2006 as part of a 10-day NCL cruise with my family out of Hawaii – about 900 miles due north of Fanning Island. (Back then NCL had to sail to Kiribati and back in order to legally operate a Hawaiian Islands cruise under the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.)

It’s the only time in my life that I crossed-over the International Date Line. The local time on Fanning Island is exactly 24 hours ahead (GMT + 14) of Honolulu (GMT – 10). Although the International Date Line straddles the 180TH meridian – it extends way to the east near the Equator so that all of Kiribati’s scattered islands are within a few hours of each other. Fanning Island is thus on the most advanced time zone on Earth, so it celebrates each new day first.

Kiribati has about 120,000 residents, and that includes about 2,500 scattered among 8 small villages on Fanning Island’s 13 square miles. The island is actually an atoll – a narrow strip of land that completely or partially encircles a lagoon.

I did not take pictures of anything before about 11 years ago. Luckily my brother had a camera at the time, and he documented our vacation back then via hundreds of photos – including our day across the line on Fanning Island:

YES – That’s me in that final photo from 15½ years ago. #DearYoungerMe

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. (Proverbs 3:23-26 NLT)

Tags Cruise, Fanning Island, Hawaii, Kiribati, Travel

Blogging Driving Food Nature Photography Scripture Shopping Travel

Wichita Falls Texas

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 23, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we return to one of my favorite cities in the great state of Texas – Wichita Falls. It’s one of my favorite cities for one main reason – I have 5 family members (and their pets) who live there. I visit them every year.

And if you haven’t already guessed by now – I was there last weekend ! #Vacation

I was there from last Thursday morning through Monday morning (96 hours). I spent quality time with family and pets, and we celebrated my Aunt’s & Uncle’s 65TH anniversary together with a quiet spaghetti dinner at home. (Normally we go out to eat dinner at a nice restaurant (usually a steakhouse) to honor the occasion, but this year we decided to go “low-key”.)

As I wrote about last #TravelThursday we embarked on our traditional Saturday road-trip of a few hours away from the metro area. We went eastward this time along U.S. 82. We stopped for Lunch along the way at Tres Niños – a Mexican restaurant in Nocona. It was pretty good. I enjoyed my plate of a sour cream chicken enchilada, a beef enchilada with chili, a guacamole tostada, rice, and beans. Eating Mexican food has become a tradition within the tradition. I didn’t know that we were going to eat Mexican food on our road-trip, but I had a pretty good idea of it. Once something works – we just keep doing it, and the tradition continues to grow.

Nocona is about 52 miles east of where we started on the south-side of the Wichita Falls area. (We previously visited Nocona on our 2015 road-trip.) From there we proceeded another 22½ miles southeastward to downtown Muenster Texas (our final destination for this road-trip). Muenster is a very German-Catholic town of a little over 1,600 residents. More than 90% of its residents are of German descent. It was founded by settlers 132 years ago. It’s named after Münster Germany. They host German festivals year-round, and tourists come to visit to enjoy the eating and drinking fun. Much of the architecture of Muenster looks very German:

That’s actually a Glockenspiel. Read more about it.

On the return trip back from Muenster we drove the backroads through “Wine Country” where multiple vineyards dot the picturesque hilly landscape. We also drove through the Henrietta area, and we visited a couple of large gift shops / “tourist traps” adjacent to gas stations along the highway. (This has also become a tradition of our road-trips.)

It was a fun 4-day visit to the #Texoma region along the Red River. The sights and sounds on the road were fun as usual. The food was abundant every day. But most importantly I got closer to my family there. Above all – family always comes first.

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

Tags German, Glockenspiel, Henrietta, Muenster, Nocona, Texas, Travel, Wichita Falls

Blogging Driving Nature Photography Scripture Travel

Wichita Falls Texas

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 16, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit one of my favorite cities in the great state of Texas – Wichita Falls. It’s one of my favorite cities for one main reason – I have 5 family members (and their pets) who live there. I visit them every year.

The 72-square-mile city of Wichita Falls includes just over 100,000 residents with little to no growth since 1960. The 3-county metro area of Wichita, Archer, and Clay Counties includes just over 150,000 residents. One of the weird aspects of this metro area is that they have nice modern wide highways and expressways with very little traffic on them. I think most of their expressways were built throughout the 1960s, and they were built to handle substantial growth. That growth never occurred, as they have the same number of residents today as they did in 1960. Their “rush hour” is fairly non-existent; although, some of the locals may contend that statement. I actually enjoy driving through the Wichita Falls metro area. It’s mostly peaceful on all days at all times.

I’ve driven there a few times – in my own car from South Florida – and also in a rental car from the #DFW airport about 2½ hours away. I’ve visited Wichita Falls every year since 2013. My Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins have showed me a lot of the city and the local area. As is tradition with each visit we all go on a road-trip of a few hours away from the metro area. We’ve gone southward, eastward, and northward, but not yet westward. They used to tell me where we were going on our road-trips, but now they intentionally keep it a secret from me so that I don’t do extensive research on the destination(s) and know more about it than them.

I’ve accumulated over 450 photos of my visits since 2013. I’ll share a few photos of my 2021 visit – next #TravelThursday.

Tags Texas, Travel, Wichita Falls

Blogging Driving Music Nature Photography Scripture Travel

Edinburgh Scotland

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date September 9, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit Edinburgh Scotland – a place that I’ve actually visited a couple of times back in the mid-1980s while I was living in England. My family visited me from stateside, and we went on a week-long coach tour out of London that circled much of the United Kingdom – England, Scotland, and Wales. I forget which direction it went (clockwise or counter-clockwise). My Dad took all of the pictures of the experience, and those pictures are (hopefully) located in an album or shoebox somewhere in North Texas today. Eventually they may be uncovered, and me and my brother will have fun reminiscing on that trip again – from back when we were 20 and 12 respectively.

I also visited Edinburgh with friends on a road-trip. We took some great road-trips back then !

Edinburgh Scotland stands-out for me as the northern-most point I’ve ever set foot on in my life. It straddles the 56TH parallel north. For 2 years (1985-1987) I lived just below the 52ND parallel north in Gloucestershire England. Other than those 2 years I’ve never ventured too far above the 43RD parallel (Milwaukee, Niagara Falls, and Syracuse – all future ideas for #TravelThursday).

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, but it’s not the largest city of Scotland. (That’s Glasgow.) Both cities include over a half-million residents. They are the two population centers of the “Central Belt” of Scotland near both coasts – about 45 miles away from each other along the M8.

Scotland’s population is near 5.5 million, and more than half of the residents live in Glasgow, Edinburgh, or near or in-between the two cities.

On a future trip back to the United Kingdom – it won’t be complete without a visit to both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

One of the greatest music acts to come out of Edinburgh Scotland are none other than The Bay City Rollers. They were one of the hottest teeny-bopper acts of the 1970s – not just in Scotland and the United Kingdom, but all around the world. Here in the U.S. they scored with 8 hits at Top 40 radio – including their biggest of them all – “Saturday Night” – the first # 1 smash of 1976. It remains in heavy rotation on my iPod Shuffles. It’s one of my favorite songs of all-time !