Selfie in front of Warren Buffett’s house in Omaha, Nebraska in September 2017.
As detailed in this post, in 2016 I continued to place a high value on international travel but added a new focus on seeing more of my own country, the United States – with the ultimate goal of visiting, and karaokeing in, all 50 of its states. Henceforth, I shall refer to that 50-state karaoke project as my American Karaoke Tour – the domestic counterpart to my World Karaoke Tour.
In 2017, I took a great leap forward towards completing my American Karaoke Tour. As the world rang in 2017, the tally of U.S. states on that tour stood at 28. Before the year was out, that number would climb all the way to 42. Plus I made some return singing appearances in a couple of additional states in which I’d sung in the past; and I explored a Canadian city that was new to me, thereby experiencing (and karaokeing in) a new Canadian province!
I realize that this blog post is exceedingly long, even though my recaps of particular destinations are quite condensed. Don’t feel overwhelmed; if you’re reluctant to slog through the whole thing, no one could blame you. 🙂 Just scroll down and read about the locations that most grab your fancy. Nor do I expect that you would have the time to view anywhere near all 19 of the karaoke videos that are embedded herein, even if you wanted to; but I do hope you’ll play at least a small sampling of them, to get a feel for what my North American singing experiences were like as I crisscrossed the continent in 2017. If you want suggestions, I can tell you that my own favourite videos in this blog post are of my performances of “Walking in Memphis” (which I sang in Vancouver, British Columbia); “Rock Lobster” (which I sang in Portland, Maine); “Wonderwall” (which I sang in Salt Lake City, Utah); and “Blister in the Sun” (which is the second video that you’ll find in the section on Des Moines, Iowa).
1. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (February 2017)
During the long President’s Day weekend that my home country observes in mid-February, I made my first visit to the Canadian province of British Columbia – and specifically, to the city of Vancouver. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with Vancouver, as so many travellers from all over the world have.
The Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver is a rickety span that hangs 230 feet above the water below. Residents and tourists alike visit the park where it’s located, just for the opportunity to traverse it.
Vancouver is an intriguing amalgamation that combines a colourful history, quirky local institutions, and profuse outdoor recreational opportunities. In that latter quality, it resembles the nearby U.S metropolises of Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon – both of which are also situated in the region commonly dubbed the Pacific Northwest. (An additional commonality of Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland is that they’re prone to being periodically shaken by powerful earthquakes, due to their presence in the Cascadia Subduction Zone; but if you were to avoid all seismically hazardous locales, you’d be left with a lot fewer cool places to travel to. 🙂 ) Also similar to Seattle and Portland, Vancouver receives abundant rainfall during certain parts of the year. For example, don’t go to Vancouver in the month of February, as I did; that’s one of its soggiest months, and Vancouver got soaked throughout the long weekend of my jaunt there. Continue reading
H-Bomb's Worldwide Karaoke 