Far and Away

In a blog post yesterday, brother Dave wrote about our upcoming trip to Maine, and his brief research into whether this would be the northernmost point he had been to. It turns out it will not be for him, but having already looked into this myself (map geek that I am), it got me to thinking about the rest of my "furthests." So without further ado...

Within the United States:

• North - Watford City ND in 2011 when we left the Theodore Roosevelt National Park north unit and drove into town for supplies. 47.8025N. Getting further north in the US would only be possible very very close to the Canadian border out west or in the vicinity of Seattle. Or Alaska of course.
• South - Miami FL for a few different sales meetings over the years. 25.7877N. The Florida Keys would be about the only more southerly option. Leaving the continental US, Maui Hawaii is further south at 20.8000N, which was our honeymoon in 1990.
• West - In the continental US, this would be San Francisco, at 122.4167W, when Amp and I went to SF and Napa on vacation in the early 1990's. Maui at 156.3333W is obviously further west. There is very little continental US west of San Fran; just some strips along the coast in northern California, Oregon and Washington. Some Hawaiian islands are further west than Maui.
• East - As of right now, Hyannis MA on Cape Cod would be my furthest east point, but circumstances willing I will top that next week when we land in Maine. Woo Hoo!

Worldwide:

• North - Berlin, Germany (then West Berlin) at 52.5167N in the summer of 1985 as part of a 4-week Eurrail pass trip with a couple of friends. There are many cities in Europe that I have been to that are further north than Watford City, ND (including London, Brussels and Amsterdam).
• East - Athens, Greece at 23.7167E. This was in the summer of 1986, following my sophomore year in college, when I spent much of the summer working on an archaeological survey based in Heraklion (Archaia Nemea) in the Peloponnese. Athens is 5,027 miles east of home.
• South and West - I have been to the Philippines to visit Amp's family in Manila twice in my life. Once when Julia was 3 months old in 1998 and once when she was 3 years old in 2001. On the earlier trip, we took a day trip by boat to see the historic island of Corregidor, guarding the western entrance to Manila Bay. This was an incredibly cool experience (and should be a future "memory lane" post). This island is my furthest west at 120.5731E and furthest south at 14.3856N. Corregidor is 8,554 miles west of home (and an eternity by plane via the west coast and Japan, especially with a baby that can cry the length of the Pacific...).

This probably isn't of interest to anybody but me and perhaps Dave, but what the heck...