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I attended a live broadcast of NPR’s Talk of the Nation at the National Geographic Headquarters here in D.C. The topic was the Gulf oil spill and the health of the world’s oceans, and was a beautiful pairing of two of my favorite media outlets (and local neighbors). @nealconan is a fantastic host – intelligent,…

Cornhole at The Bullpen before the Nats vs. the Marlins

Sunset at Haystock Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon

Willamette Hydroelectric Power Station, taken from a jet boat on the Willamette River in Portland

I just moved in to a new place in D.C. and have a view of a building with a tall, peaked roof that has the letter “t” at the top! I feel so welcome in this neighborhood!

Grotto Pizza

Many thanks to @fadodc for the free bar tab and @dcunited for Jabulani ball and tickets to the Sounders game on July 15th. Lots of good pictures of us at the viewing party are online here.

Life is REALLY GOOD: Just won DC United tickets and a Jabulani ball.

Life is good: Just won a $100 bar tab for correctly guessing result of last game

Already at the pub for the USMNT game

fillup: Seriously. BEST PRESIDENT EVER. 2010fifaworldcup: asie: apsies: I die. I tell you, I DIE. (via Carlos’ FB page) (via kbye)

Although this was a week ago in Edinburgh, it totally reflects the excitement I felt watching the USMNT victory over Algeria today. Anybody who says Soccer is boring needs to watch a replay of that game, and I defy them to tell me that Footie isn’t the most emotional, unfair, rewarding, heartbreaking, passionate, exciting game…

We found a pub in Inverness that had American flags all over it. The people there loved the Yanks or, more precisely, hated the English. All was good until I (jokingly) told a Scot that Americans could outdrink the Scottish. I then ran away.

On the ferry from Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis to Ullapool on the Scottish mainland. We knew they would be showing the USMNT vs. Slovenia game so we suited up and got to watch the whole game. Surprisingly, we didn’t really get much attention from people on the ship – except when screaming our…

A fire fueled by wood and peat (and whiskey…) at Gallan Head – the furthest NW point in the UK – in Aird Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland

On the ferry from the Isle of Sky to the Isle of Lewis

On the way up Buachaille Etive Mòr near Glencoe, Scotland

Me and the lads all kitted out and our way to the pub in Edinburgh, Scotland for the USMNT vs. England

My debut at Nationals Stadium. Oh, and that guy Strasburg also Side note: Imagine all the pipes it takes to keep all these people comfortable; I hope they have a good plumber.

Finally able to go on a golf trip to Myrtle Beach

True fans

And off to South Africa they go. Come on lads!

USMNT vs. Turkey – Altidore scores!

DC United vs. AC Milan – I’m glad Ronaldinho got cut from Brazil

Museum Friday – Faccia Luna (Today’s exhibit: pizza & Stone IPA)

Museum Friday – The Lyceum: Alexandria’s History Museum

Back in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Life is good.

My Derby chit

Museum Friday: The National Archives

After a surprisingly pleasant fourteen hour bus ride from Savannah, I arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, realized I really needed a hair cut, and went to a barber shop near our hotel. The barbers (and staff, and customers) there were were very New Yorky-Italian and apparently cut the hair of some of the actors from…

This shows everything that makes Savannah what it is: Great pubs & shops; Next to a big, old, beautiful house; On a square strewn with trees; That are dripping with Spanish Moss; And infested with tourists

Swamp Fox IPA from Moon River Brewing Company in Savannah, Georgia. Two things to note: (1) The ashtray (unused) behind my beer – you can still smoke inside in Georgia; (2) The plastic cups next to the taps – you can carry open containers outside in Georgia, so all bars have to-go cups (another reason…

I decided to dust off the backpacker persona to make my way to Florida to attend my cousin Jay’s wedding in Ft. Lauderdale, which meant going by Greyhound. I knew that the Greyhound station locations wouldn’t be the most convenient, and the one in Asheville didn’t disappoint, as it was away from downtown, up a…

I came down to Brevard, North Carolina – home of the white squirrels – with Hans and Chris to visit Chris’s wonderful Mom, Joyce, and we did some great hiking in Pisgah National Forest. Here’s a picture of me on John Rock giving it my standard thumbs-up rating.

Back playing softball with the boys after a ten year break – they bring a bag of wine with them now

Museum Friday Part II – Caps Game

Museum Friday – Gordon Biersch

Museum Friday – American Art Museum

Cherry Blossom Festival!

No Museum Friday this week, it’s March Madness, so I substituted with Zoo Wednesday. About 1,000 kids also did.

I ran in my first race in a long, long time, and my first since moving back East. I did okay in the race, but totally aced the post-race festivities. Here’s Greame and I in our race outfits, as shown on the On Tap Magazine website. Update: Action photo showing how floppy the socks got…

It’s museum Friday – The National Museum of American History

Just took a pretty good tour of NPR HQ here in D.C. They really are a non-profit: No store to buy stuff

With my flatmate Greame, enjoying the sun today at Raven Rocks on the Appalachian Trail

Inaugural “Museum Friday” destination: National Museum of the American Indian

The new Nike USMNT kits are beautiful. Hopefully they’ll be undefeated after today’s battle against the evil Dutchies

ztaylor: rickwebb: The evidence behind health supplements. I’ve been needing something like this my whole life. (via futurewell) Source: thefuturewell.com

Found the perfect street to establish eyeintim.com, inc. headquarters

I was just out for a run and it started to snow. I love the East Coast.

ztaylor: (via dataviz)

24" and counting

Hiking in the snow along the Potomac – love it

Our last overnight hike was in the mountains around Mt. Somers and Woolshed Creek Canyon. We hiked to a hut, which you can see way in the distance in the middle of this picture, but the setting was so nice that I wanted to sleep outside, so I just pitched my tent right next to…

I’m convinced that I’m incapable of looking remotely cool in any picture of me in a mountaineering environment. I think this picture is a fine example of this, especially considering I took off my dorky headband and shades to try and improve my look. Nonetheless, it does capture a great scene on a great day.…

After hiking up to and camping in the woods at the edge of the bushline (the green area in the picture above) the night before, we then hiked up to some 1,900 meter, snow-spotted peaks in the Ohau Range. It’s tough to capture on camera the amazing blue of the lake water in this region,…

Next up was some penguin sighting at Cannibal Bay in the Catlins. The penguin we were after was the rare Yellow-eyed version. From atop a cliff overlooking the bay, we were able to see them emerge from the Southern Ocean, one-by-one, about ten minutes apart, and then awkwardly walk across the beach and into the…

The best parts of the overland trip were the days we would hike for a bunch of hours, camp overnight and then hike back the next day to where we started. Our first such trek was in Fiordland National Park. Our destination was Green Lake and we stayed here, in Green Lake Hut. The picture…

My final weeks in NZ were spent on an small-group overland hiking & camping trip around the southern part of the South Island. Our first morning was spent kayaking in Milford Sound, which had just received a fresh dusting of snow the evening before. Fun fact: See that ship in the distance? It’s a big…

You’d think that since New Zealanders are called Kiwis, and that it’s the national bird, the Kiwi bird would be easy to see in the wild. Nope – they’re nocturnal, skittish and live in the bush. Even on Stewart Island, where they are somewhat plentiful, and even sometimes come out in the daylight, this is…

Whilst in Zambia in 2001, I bungy jumped 111 meters (364 feet) from a bridge over Victoria Falls. That seemed high then, but I remember the bungy operators being a little bummed because a bungy site had just opened up outside of Queenstown, New Zealand that was higher – 134 meters (439 feet). Thus, since…

It’s impossible to say which place I visited in NZ was the prettiest, but it’s pretty hard to not vote for Queenstown. Add in all the amazing things you can do there and you really do come up with the perfect vacation destination.

My time in Australia was done, so it was back to New Zealand and the city of Dunedin on the South Island. Here’s a picture of beautiful Taiaroa Head, home of the Royal Albatross Colony. Oh, there’s also a rabbit carcass hanging on the fence. However, don’t fret: The rabbit is an introduced species in…

One of the coolest things in Australia are the pools/lagoons they build right next to the ocean. Sydney’s are the most amazing, with many of them built right in to the rocky coast and filled with the ocean water via pumps and waves crashing over the sides. Here’s the Bondi Icebergs Winter Swimming Club at Bondi…

Even kangaroos get hot in the Outback. We saw this one as we were driving by in the truck on the Oodnadatta Track, and he just sat there in the shade of a railroad overpass, staring at us, motionless. I think this might be my favorite photo from Australia.

And here’s the campsite at William Creek. That’s where I slept, in a “swag”, which is just a sleeping bag rolled up in a waterproof, canvas, zippered sack. You put it down anywhere you want and it’s what I slept in for most of the seven nights of the trek. My rule was that I…

One of my favorite things about the Outback trek was stopping at roadhouses in the middle of nowhere. A good example is William Creek on the Oodnadatta Track in South Australia. It has a population of two, and the only thing there is a bar with some rooms and a campsite. We stayed there for…

Not everything in Coober Pedy was ugly. Whilst there, we stopped in at a kangaroo sanctuary, where they raise orphaned kangaroos. Most of the kangaroos are there because their mom was killed by a car and someone saved the joey by removing it from the mom’s pouch and then brought it in to the sanctuary.…

Coober Pedy, a town in the Northern part of South Australia is easily one of the ugliest and strangest places I have ever been in my life – and I loved it. It’s the main source of Opals for the world and thus a mining town. However, it’s also in the desert and painfully hot,…

I was going to move on from Uluru with my next picture post, but then found this one, which was one of the last ones I took as I walked away from the sunrise corral. I love the clouds in it, as they give you a sense of how big the rock is. I just…

Seeing Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) in person was such a spiritual experience; I’ve never felt so in touch with the Earth’s energ… BLAH BLAH BLAH…it’s a big, red rock in the middle of nowhere, and you have about 5,000 other tourists always at your side when viewing it. That said, seeing it at person was great,…

I took an eight day overland trip through the Outback from from Alice Springs to Adelaide, and our first stop was King’s Canyon, where this picture was taken. It’s another in my series entitled “Not that exciting unless you were there”, but let me try and convince you otherwise: 1. This is a full-on tree…

Whilst in Queensland, I noticed that all my pictures were of beautiful water and lush greenery. I thus decided it was time for a change and jumped on a plane to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, and the red, hot center of Australia. I assure you, my pictures will definitely be looking much different…

A Frazier Island Dingo While on Frazier Island, the largest sand island in the world, I was walking up a path from Lake McKenzie, an stunning and improbable fresh water lake at the top of the Island. As I was walking on the path, a dog walked past me on the path and I thought…

Ocean view in Town of 1770 Okay, so this isn’t the most exciting, or beautiful, photo, but ‘Town of 1770’ is a cool name for a town, isn’t it? It’s got the furthest-North surf break on the East Coast and, as a bonus, you could actually go swiming in the water from the beach without fear…

Stinger Suit Power Rangers on Whitehaven Beach The thing to do in Arlie Beach is book a 3-day, 2-night trip on a sailboat and then cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. I booked on a boat called The Broomstick, along with 19 other backpackers, 1 Captain and 2 Crew. Days are spent sailing, snorkeling, sunning, beaching…

Lorikeet feeding on Magnetic Island The hostel I stayed at on Magnetic Island, just off the coast from Townsville in Queensland, was wonderful and doubled as an animal reserve. Every day at 5pm, they would lug out a big bucket of Lorikeet feed and place it on the ground. 100s of wild Lorikeets would then…

Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas Port Douglas was recently voted the best vacation destination by Aussies, as it has a beautful beach and marina, and is close to both the Great Barrier Reef and the tropical rainforest in Cape Tribulation. It was nice enough, but a little touristy and a tad too “posh” for…

Customs House in Brisbane Cities are never a highlight whilst backpacking – they’re too big, touristy and expensive – but I actually really liked Brisbane. It’s has a great river flowing all through it with lots of cool bridges throughout. In addition, it’s the start of the tropical part of Queensland, so you see lots…

The Iconic Sydney View Hey, Tim, give me a thumbs up if: You got the chills the first time you saw the bridge and opera house, from the plane You got the chills again the first time you saw them from the ground You look like some sort of old, tired, haggard, military-dandy mashup The…

Kebab sculpture in Christchurch My favorite, cheap food over here has been the chicken kebabs (aka doner kebabs and gyros), and I happened to be eating one in Christchurch when I noticed this sculpture right near the main square. Similar, eh?

Kaikoura. NE coast of South Island. No further description needed…

A good hike deserves a good drink, right? Once off the Abel Tasman trail, and after a glorious hot shower, it was time for some adult beverages back in Nelson. We got together a great international group for a great photo in a bar called Shooters – from left to right: Yvonne (German), Elaine (German), Marte (Geman),…

The smile says it all, really Rounding in the corner in Shag Harbour with ten friends swimming and jumping along with me

Kayaking with the Seals in Abel Tasman National Park Close to Nelson is Abel Tasman National Park, where I went on a three day kayaking/camping/tramping (what they call hiking here) trip. On the second day of kayaking we paddled into a place called Shag Harbour (the Shag is a type of bird) that is only…

The Geographical Center of New Zealand Nelson, in the northwest of the South Island, claims to be the location of the geographical center of New Zealand. The exact spot is on a nice path on a hill overlooking the city, and is marked with this elaborate sculpture and a plaque. I think they would have charged…

View from the Wellington (North Island) to Picton (South Island) Ferry Wellington is the last stop on the North Island, so it was time to head over to the South Island, and the best way to do this is a 3+ hour ferry ride. This picture really doesn’t do justice to how absolutely stunningly beautiful…