PeriBlog IV: Port McNeill, BC, Canada — July brings a close to our dalliance with the southern end of Vancouver Island. That means it is time to migrate north, like an optimistic Canada Goose. …

Looking forward to a break in Padova — After a warm night in Piazzola, we were ready to continue on to Padova and a well-deserved rest stop. Our landlady, Emmanuela, had very little English, and was quite happy that I could communicate, at least a little, in Italian. She explained that it was hard to learn another language…

PeriBlog III: Exploring Canada’s Nootka Sound with John Jewitt — Canada’s Vancouver Island is famous for its staggering amount of empty wilderness. Most of the Pacific-facing coast cannot be reached by bus, train, or automobile. Want to explore these remote shores? Float plane and boat are your only options, unless you fancy bushwhacking through 100 km or more of rugged…

PeriBlog II: Port Renfrew, British Columbia, Canada, July 5, 2022 — If you want to get away from it all, Port Renfrew, British Columbia, Canada, is a viable destination. Located on the southwestern edge of the island, it is one of the few places where one can actually access the island’s West Coast by automobile. Thirty-three miles, as the Bald Eagle…

Why did Canada set off the world’s largest non-nuclear explosion? — Five….Four….Three. April 5, 1958. Deep in an underwater tunnel, hidden in a shaft laboriously cut through nearly a half mile of rock, a massive charge of Nitramex 2H waited for the electrical charge that would set it off. Canadian scientists, engineers, and hard rock miners had pooled their talent to…

PeriBlog I: Sooke, British Columbia, Canada. — Here There Be Bears This blog post comes to you from near Sooke, British Columbia. Occupying a small, one bedroom house on the north side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we have been watching ships, wind-surfers, and an astonishing variety of wildlife from our large wall of windows…

The Peripatetic Historian visits the Crusader’s Palace of the Grand Master in Rhodes, Greece — Church bells explode this morning in a clattering call to worship. They sound from every side, but where are the churches? The only church I have located so far during my stay on the fortress island of Rhodes, Greece, is the Church of the Annunciation, out at the harbor mouth. …

Upstairs Bar and Grill, Netarts, OR — Netarts. Draw a line west from Tillamook, Oregon, and you will run into Netarts, one of the undiscovered gems on the Oregon Coast. Placed at the northern end of Netarts bay — considered the cleanest estuary in the United States — the tiny town never appears in top ten destination…

The Peripatetic Historian is enthralled by Canadian waters. — Since quitting my job as a college professor and becoming a peripatetic historian, I have been spending my days on the southern edge of Canada’s Vancouver Island. Here, on lonely stone beaches where waves — that began their journey in Japan — strike the shore, I’ve been provided with ample…