Category: Travel
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Interactive Displays at Disney World
As I noted in my notes from UbiComp 2009, I missed a few sessions during the last day of the conference so I could explore more of Disney World, taking advantage of my free birthday pass to look for examples of how interactive displays were used to enhance guest experiences at Epcot Center. It felt…
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Digital Cities 6
I finally got a chance to attend a workshop in the Digital Cities series last week at the 4th International Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T 2009) at Penn State University. Digital Cities 6, organized by Marcus Foth, Laura Forlano and Hiromitsu Hattori, focused on the theme of "Concepts, Methods and Systems of Urban Informatics".…
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A short tour of small colleges in the Pacific Northwest
My wife, 17-year-old daughter and I toured four colleges in Oregon during her mid-winter break: Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, Linfield College and Willamette University. I wanted to record a few impressions of the different places while the experience is relatively fresh, and decided to post them here, in case they are of use…
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Hanging Loose in Maui: a Whale of a Family Vacation
We spent a relaxing mid-winter break in Hawaii last week, staying at the Polo Beach Club in (or near) Wailea on Maui, the same spot where Amy and I honeymooned nearly 20 years ago. This stay was a little different than the last time – I don't want to say the honeymoon is over, but…
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Seeing What I Want To See: Whale Watching … and WMD
Near the start our recent family vacation along the Oregon coast, we walked up Cannon Beach into the downtown area. During our northerlywalk, we passed several groups of people on the beach who appeared to be deeply engrossed in something to the southwest. I have trained myself, over the years, to ignore spectacles, as to…
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Coasting in Oregon: Notes from a Family Vacation along the Oregon Coast
We spent the first week in August traveling down the Oregon coast, covering 1300 miles in 8 days, stopping in Cannon Beach, Florence and Gold Beach then dipping down into Crescent City, California, before heading inland to Crater Lake, with a stopover in Eugene on the way back home to Woodinville, Washington. The scenery in…
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Notes from Florida: Reviews of Tampa Area Attractions, Detractions and Distractions
We went to Florida for a family vacation last week, visiting my mom and stepfather in Clearwater, and engaging in [more common] tourist and consumerist activities. Although I didn’t take a vacation from email during the trip, I did take a full vacation from blogging (and I still feel backlogged in both dimensions … not…
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Great Customer Care from United Airlines and Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Yesterday morning, I was dismayed to hear the voicemail of the United Airlines‘ automated flight change notification service telling me my flight to San Francisco was cancelled. The message said I’d been rerouted, and would not arrive until much later in the day. I called United Reservations, but the human operator I finally got through…