Downside for me is that, from where I live, Spokane is roughly equidistant with, and harder to get to than, Hiroshima. (Minimum of three flights, over 20 hours door-to-door, for a not terribly exciting city[*].)
[*] Hiroshima is famous for one reason, a reason its older inhabitants would probably rather it wasn't famous for. Spokane doesn't even have that excuse for visiting.
]]>(The walk back down to sea level from there is rather fine, but nearly killed us. 535 vertical metres takes quite a while.)
]]>A must-see in Hiroshima is the Atom Bomb memorial marker locating the hypocenter, the point directly under the explosion of Little Boy. You can't miss it, it's not far from the Peace Park in a sidestreet right next to a parking garage, only 200 yen for 30 minutes.
If you're in the Hiroshima area you should visit Kure just down the coast and go see the 1:10th scale model of the battleship Yamato in the Yamato museum next to the railway station. You can buy model kits of the Enola Gay there too.
]]>Spokane looks kinda interesting (it was my second choice, never exercised), but does seem to be a can't get there quickly from anywhere special. The trick is probably to fly to Seattle and stop over, with a separate return flight (saving 300 bucks) from Seattle to Spokane. Or, in the spirit of adventure, take the Empire Builder express from Chicago, travelling for days across the prairie and the majestic mountains etc etc, arriving at midnight. We'll see.
San Antonio was much as I remembered from LoneStar2. Hot on the outside and bloody cold on the inside. This time I knew to bring a sweater.
]]>I may never have mentioned this before, but I lived near Spokane for several years, in the equally boring city of Yakima. There will be one really nice convention going on. Other than that? There's no reason to go to Spokane. To illustrate, the two cities are 202 miles (325km) apart - but Yakima and Spokane are considered 'close.' This should illustrate how much empty nothingness is in the neighborhood.
]]>Other than that, omigod. Hahahaha. Two in the bush, indeed.
]]>Well done though Charlie! I was greatly amused
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