Destination: United States
Hawaii Superferry Suspends All Service
by Jim Benning | 08.30.07 | 12:20 PM ET
The top of its Web site still proclaims, “We’re Ready to Go! All Aboard! It’s Time to Set Sail.” But Hawaii Superferry, the first-of-its-kind ferry service between three Hawaiian islands, isn’t setting sail today. After protesters blocked the ferry from entering a harbor on Kauai Monday and a state court temporarily barred the ferry from operating in Maui, the ferry has ceased all service, at least for the moment.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzIn Washington D.C. and Paris, Seduced by a Night View
by Julia Ross | 08.29.07 | 3:57 PM ET
Two recent stories on Paris and Washington D.C. after dark are a good reminder that taking in cityscapes by night can yield an entirely different travel experience than tromping around at mid-day. A Washington Post article and slide show on the patchwork system used to illuminate the monuments lining the National Mall nicely conveys the city’s nocturnal alter-ego, while a New York Times piece on ascending the Eiffel Tower at night actually made me want to brave the interminable line to try it.
Macau vs. Las Vegas: The Battle to be the ‘Capital of Excess’
by Michael Yessis | 08.29.07 | 11:36 AM ET
The gargantuan Venetian Macao Resort (pictured) opened yesterday with celebrations and excessive media coverage about the excesses of the new venture. It’s the largest casino in the world and it cost $2.4 billion to build. It’s the second-largest building in the world, after the Boeing manufacturing plant in Washington, according to the AP. If the Venetian Macao succeeds, Reuters reports, the annual gambling income of Macau—or Macao, if you’re so inclined—will rise to approximately $13.7 billion by 2010. That’s a staggering figure for a place that, as we posted earlier this year, surpassed Las Vegas in annual gambling revenue in 2006, $6.95 billion to $6.5 billion.
Hawaii Superferry Hits Troubled Legal Waters
by Jim Benning | 08.28.07 | 12:48 PM ET
We noted that surfers protesting the new Hawaii Superferry blocked the giant catamaran from entering Kauai’s harbor for more than an hour Sunday. That was just the beginning of the ferry’s troubles. On Monday, according to Honolulu Advertiser, more than 50 surfers, swimmers and kayakers forced the ferry to turn back from Kauai’s Nawiliwili Harbor without docking. What’s more, a judge blocked the Superferry from using Maui’s Kahului Harbor, prompting the company to suspend trips to and from Maui.
Environmentalists Protest Launch of Hawaii Superferry
by Jim Benning | 08.27.07 | 4:54 PM ET
Island-hopping Hawaii visitors now have a new way to get from Oahu to Maui or Kauai besides flying: the Hawaii Superferry Alakai, a giant catamaran that can haul 866 people and 282 cars. But not everyone is overjoyed with the new travel option. Hundreds protested the launch of the Superferry yesterday, including surfers who paddled out into the water, blocking the ferry from entering Lihue harbor in Kauai for more than an hour.
Thomas Swick’s Seven Wonders of South Florida
by Jim Benning | 08.27.07 | 1:50 PM ET
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently named its readers’ picks for the seven wonders of the region. They included, predictably, the Florida Everglades, Walt Disney World and the Florida Keys. On Sunday, travel editor Thomas Swick named seven other wonders, and his was just the kind of quirky list we like.
‘Into the Wild’: Has the Truth About Christopher McCandless Been Lost?
by Michael Yessis | 08.27.07 | 12:57 PM ET
As the hype for Sean Penn’s movie adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” grows, and Outside revisits one of its most famous stories, Men’s Journal has weighed in with a less-reverent take on the life of Christopher McCandless. Matthew Power asks: “Was his death a Shakespearean tragedy or a pitch-black comedy of errors? What impact has the tale and its renown had on our perception of Alaska? And perhaps most tantalizingly: Did Krakauer, and now Penn, get key parts of the story wrong?”
Big Mac Turns 40, Gets Own Museum in Pennsylvania
by Michael Yessis | 08.23.07 | 2:44 PM ET
The burger that’s so influential the Economist magazine named an index after it is four decades old this year, and the centerpiece of the celebration is the just-opened McDonald’s Big Mac Museum Restaurant in North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. It’s the museum featuring the 14 feet by 12 feet statue of a Big Mac, naturally. America’s most famous contribution to world cuisine—or, to some, an imperial symbol of the country’s gluttony—was created in a Uniontown, Pennsylvania McDonald’s in 1967 by Jim Delligatti.
Need a Passport? Try Calling Your Congressional Representative.
by Michael Yessis | 08.23.07 | 11:23 AM ET
Slate’s Bruce Reed, who has been chronicling the “Kafka-esque frustration of the passport experience,” reports that one of his readers was told by a passport agent to call her senator to solve her problem getting a passport. “There’s nothing wrong with members of Congress responding to requests to cut through red tape,” Reed writes. “But something is rotten in Washington when the federal agency responsible for the red tape is the one asking.” I’ll go further. Something is rotten when you have to resort to calling your government representative to complete a simple bureaucratic task. The Durango Herald also reports passport seekers getting action by calling their representatives.
TSA Deploys ‘Behavior Detection Officers’ at U.S. Airports
by Michael Yessis | 08.21.07 | 11:16 AM ET
It’s an Orwellian name for a rather Orwellian program. According to a story by Kaitlin Dirrig of McClatchy Newspapers, Transportation Security Administrator Kip Hawley revealed last month that Behavior Detection Officers are currently working in airports around the country. They’re “watching body language and facial cues of passengers for signs of bad intentions,” Dirrig writes. “The watcher could be the attendant who hands you the tray for your laptop or the one standing behind the ticket-checker. Or the one next to the curbside baggage attendant.” A TSA spokesperson added that 500 officers will be working in airports nationwide by the end of this year.
The Unexpected Pleasure of an International Terminal
by Jim Benning | 08.20.07 | 3:30 PM ET
After a fun and invigorating four days at the Book Passage Travel Writers conference in Corte Madera, California—the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to a travel writers’ Woodstock, complete with karaoke—I headed to San Francisco International Airport yesterday for my first flight on the new Virgin America airlines. I’d been looking forward to the flight and the highly touted entertainment system, which on the gleaming white seatbacks looks like a giant iPod. The flight and entertainment were great. I’d happily fly Virgin America again. But the highlight wasn’t the plane.
New York’s JFK vs. Frankfurt Airport
by Jim Benning | 08.17.07 | 8:29 AM ET
Thomas Swick recently flew home from Europe, passing through Frankfurt airport and New York City’s John F. Kennedy International. According to Swick, they couldn’t have been more different. In Frankfurt’s airport, he encountered an inviting rustic tavern, walked among large windows looking out onto sun-lit planes and watched an international crowd of travelers passing Hermes, Boss and Swarovski and chatting in the Goethe Bar, near a statue of the writer. And it was only 7 a.m. “I had never seen such a wide-awake airport at such an early hour,” he writes. “It felt as if the world had left home.” And what of JFK, where Swick landed nine hours later?
Take a Vacation. It’s Presidential.
by Ben Keene | 08.16.07 | 10:19 AM ET
Love him or hate him, our commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, can teach Americans at least one lesson: how to vacation. With only a few weeks of summer remaining, President Bush, like many other world leaders, is trading the stress of executive office for some rest and relaxation. And he’s leaving the majority of U.S. citizens in his Texas dust. Actually, if a survey conducted by a global human resources firm is accurate, even the average Finn, Israeli or Lithuanian would have a hard time keeping up with his seven-year vacation-time total. Because whatever President Bush may lack in creativity—he’s taken 65 trips to Crawford, Texas since entering office—he more than makes up for in number. According to the Houston Chronicle, G.W.B. is well on his way to claiming the White House record for time off, rapidly closing in on the 436 days Reagan racked up during two terms.
‘European-Style’ Topless Swimming Pools in Las Vegas
by Jim Benning | 08.16.07 | 7:07 AM ET
Last week, we noted a guide to the top family friendly pools in Las Vegas. This week in the San Francisco Chronicle, World Hum contributor Matt Villano offers a guide to a very different Las Vegas pool experience: the topless pool. A few high-end Las Vegas resorts are now offering such pool areas—often set back behind foliage—for what can be a pretty hefty charge. “Dubbed ‘adult bathing,’ this phenomenon is an attempt to bring ‘European-style’ topless tanning to age-appropriate Vegas pools,” Villano writes. “Properties such as Caesars Palace, the Mirage and Mandalay Bay each have opened venues in the past 18 months; admission ranges from free to $30 for women and as much as $50 for guys, depending on the day.”
Tiki Revelers to Celebrate ‘Tiki Oasis 7’ in San Diego
by Jim Benning | 08.16.07 | 6:53 AM ET
My interview with “Tiki Road Trip” author James Teitelbaum only deepened my appreciation for all things tiki. So if I wasn’t going to the Book Passage Travel Writers Conference this weekend, I would undoubtedly be sipping mai tais at Tiki Oasis 7 and Hawaii-A-Go-Go, a tiki gathering taking place Thursday through Sunday in San Diego. Tiki aficionados from around the country are expected. Exotica and surf bands will play, including King Kukulele. Vendors will sell tiki idols. Festival-goers will relax at the Crowne Plaza Hotel’s tiki lagoon and pool in Mission Valley. And a party will be held at Bali Hai, a terrific old tiki bar and restaurant on Shelter Island offering views of San Diego Bay, and potent drinks—the mai tai I had there recently is something of a blur.
Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with James Teitelbaum: Escape to the Isle of Tiki
* Four Tiki Books: James Teitelbaum’s Picks
Photo by jurvetson via Flickr, (Creative Commons).