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Category Archives: Travel
Anna Maria Island – Sarasota wiki vacation part 1
This is part one of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme. This one is about Anna Maria Island, also known as the Anna Maria Key, where we explored Coquina Beach, Cortez Beach, and marveled at cast-net fishing at beautiful sunset.
Sarasota, Florida 2017 – an iPhone Wiki Vacation
Here is the latest installment of my series of Wiki Vacation posts, from a short stay in Sarasota, Florida. The timing could not have been better – daytime temperature was around 85˚F. Not too hot – a quick application of sunscreen was good enough for walking on the beach all day long. And not chilly – Gulf water was warm enough for swimming.
The range of day trips covered Siesta Key, Lido Key, Longboat Key, Ana Maria Island, and Sarasota City itself. Activities included paddleboarding by the beach, tunneling through red mangrove trees on kayaks, looking at manatees at the aquarium, and marveling at the world’s largest miniature circus at the Ringling museum. It’s amazing that we managed to visit 7 beaches in just a few days: Coquina Beach, Cortez Beach, Lido Beach, Siesta Beach, Crescent Beach and Turtle Beach. In addition, we also packed fine dinning into this busy schedule. For lazy people who woke up every morning to look at a tourist map gotten at the airport before figuring out where to go, this trip was a resounding success. Continue reading
Posted in Being a Wikipedian, Photography, Travel
Tagged 1:16 scale model circus, Airplane ad banner, Ana Maria, Aquarium, Beach, Cà d'Zan, Cast Net, Cast Net Fishing, Coquina Beach, cormarant, Cortez Beach, Crescent Beach, Dolphin, egret, Florida, jet ski, Kayaking, Kodak Moment, Lido Beach, Lido Key, lifeguard station, Lobster roll, Longboat Key, Manetee, miniature circus, osprey, paddleboarding, Panorama, photos, Red Mangrove, Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Sarasota Bay, Sarasota Keys, seagulls, Siesta Beach, Siesta Key, snorkeling, Steamed Oyster, stone crab, Sunset, The Howard Bros. Circus, Travel pictures, Turtle Beach, White Sand Beach, Wiki Vacation, World's Largest Miniature Circus
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Jenn’s Wedding: Saint Thomas 2009
This is an offshoot of a series of Wiki Vacation posts from my tour of the US Virgin Islands in 2009. The series covers Saint Thomas, Trunk Bay and Caneel Bay. This article documents the main reason we were there in the first place – to be at Jenn and Chris’ wedding. Continue reading
Posted in Photography, Travel
Tagged Destination Wedding, Saint Thomas, St. Thomas, Wedding
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Wiki Vacation 2009: Saint Thomas
This article is part of my Wiki Vacation series of posts from my tour of the US Virgin Islands in 2009. The first leg of the trip was to Saint Thomas, where we joined a destination wedding. A short detour to Trunk Bay was documented here. And the second leg of the trip to Caneel Bay can be found on its on article. Continue reading
Posted in Being a Wikipedian, Photography, Travel
Tagged animated shark, Beach, Cruz Bay, Green iguana, Magens Bay, Marriott, Pacquereau Bay, Saint Thomas, St. Thomas, Travel pictures, Wiki Vacation
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Wiki Vacation 2009: Trunk Bay
This is a mini-post, a part of the Wiki Vacation series of posts from my tour of the US Virgin Islands in 2009. The trip to Trunk Bay was our first visit to Saint John, and was limited to half a day, where we went with family and friends. Our second trip to Saint John followed a few day after, where we went alone, documented on the post on Caneel Bay. Continue reading
Wiki Vacation 2009: Caneel Bay
I dug up more Wiki Vacation pictures from my 2009 to Caneel Bay, following the first in the series from the trip back to Taiwan. Caneel Bay is a resort on the northwest side of St. John, one of the US Virgin Islands, with seven private, picturesque beaches. Continue reading
Posted in Being a Wikipedian, Photography, Travel
Tagged Kodak Moment, snorkeling, Sunset, Travel pictures, Wiki Vacation
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My Favorite Wiki Vacation Pictures: Taiwan 2009
I’ve been uploading vacation pictures to WikiMedia since 2015. I call some of my vacations Wiki Vacations, because I go to places with an explicit intent of taking pictures, processing them afterwards, and then uploading them to WikiMedia, for use on Wikipedia articles. I don’t actually know how other Wikipedians refer to this mode of vacation. But I do know the official definition of WikiBreak, nicknamed Wikivacation, means almost the opposite.
Regardless of the terminology, I do find the experience rewarding. As reported earlier in Some of my Most Popular Pictures, time spent getting good, useful pictures for Wikipedia is more than made up by seeing some of these pictures widely distributed online, with or without credits. Here I posted a few of my favorite Wiki Vacation pictures. Not all of them are well appreciated though. But it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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Posted in Being a Wikipedian, Photography, Travel
Tagged Travel pictures, Wiki Vacation
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Hot Air Balloons in Search of a Landing Site
Flipping through pictures on my iPhone, I found a few interesting ones taken in August 2015. They were from an unexpected encounter with hot air balloons while I was visiting Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It turned out that they were from a balloon ride tour agency with a misleadingly official name, The United States Hot Air Balloon Team. Nonetheless, I found the ground crew to be professional, and the pilot to be knowledgeable and helpful. I uploaded some of these pictures to Wikimedia, as I often do with useful pictures taken in my free time. Continue reading
Posted in Photography, RC Planes, Travel
Tagged Bird-in-Hand, Hot Air Ballooon, Kodak Moment, Landing, Pennsylvania, Travel pictures
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Winter Ice Skating at Mohonk Mountain House
The Mohonk rink is comparable in size to the Winter Village rink at Bryant Park in NYC. This rink does expand greatly the variety of possible winter activities, at the mountain resort where TVs are conspicuously absent in guest rooms. A single rink alone provides three different types of activities. There is the traditional “I just want to skate” type of activity. More inspired folks try the role of chariot horses. But in this case they are more like mules than horses, and push chariots from behind. Less mobile folks may play chariot drivers, except they have little control over their destiny, and must rely on verbal signals which mules may or may not honor.
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Posted in Ice Skating, Travel
Tagged chariot race, Ice Skating, ice skating rink, mohonk, mohonk mountain house, Travel pictures, winter
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