Two summers ago my son was wild about cicadas. They were everywhere, and each time he found one of their shells he put it in an empty bottle. His exuberance was the type only four-year-olds can generate

There's a museum in New Orleans with his name on it. Not literally, the museum is called Audubon Insectarium, but it's the kind he would LOVE. This museum is the first new tourist attraction to open since Katrina changed the landscape of much of the city and is part of Audubon Nature Institute. I found out about it through this article in the Columbus Dispatch.

The landscape inside the Audubon Insectarium is bugs, bugs and more bugs--35,000 live ones and 15,000 mounted ones--or thereabouts. As people go from exhibit to exhibit, they learn about bugs from prehistoric times through today.

Built in the historic U.S. Custom House, the museum offers entertainment and creativity in how it displays its subject matter. For example, you can get an idea of what a bug's world looks like through reconstructed tunnels that puts you in the bug's perspective. Outside the bathrooms, you can see dung beetles roll waste into balls. In case you're wondering-it's not the waste from the bathroom. There's also a chance to test your mettle against a cricket's power. Can you pedal as fast as a cricket can hop?

Another exhibit is devoted to showing what insects people eat around the world and how they are cooked. That sounds like an exhibit Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods would swoon over. If you want to try an insect yourself, you can try some edible bug snacks. I've had chocolate covered grasshoppers before. The closest thing I can think of is Nestle Crunch bars.

Also, there is a section about pest control management and a live butterfly exhibit among other offerings.

Lest you think getting rid of all insects but the pretty kind, one of the main points the museum makes is that if it weren't for bugs, nothing else would live. Remember the lyrics to the song, "There was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly?" It's kind of like that.

There's Breakfast with the Bugs on July 12. Notice it's with the bugs, not eating bugs.

Your house is definitely not the coolest on the block unless its made out of jumbo jet pieces. Francie Rehwald, daughter to a family owning multiple Mercedes Benz dealerships across California, just started construction on her new house made completely out of fragments of a scrapped Boeing 747. For forty thousand dollars, Rehwald purchased the pieces from an airplane junk yard in the Mojave Desert and after waiting over a year to get 17 permits pushed through the bureaucracy, finally just started taking delivery of wing segments.

The house and various surrounding structures will be built out of every single piece of the aircraft. In addition to the main 4000 foot square homestead, pieces like the nosecone will be used for a meditation pagoda while the tail will be used as a viewing platform for the surrounding area.

Rehwald, who says "I love to recycle, I love green houses and contemporary architecture, and I especially love nature and the natural environment," apparently believes that this structure will be a sustainable, green alternative to conventional construction.

What's interesting to me is that Rehwald still considers herself a staunch environmentalist in spite of the ruckus and cost involved. Sure, she's recycling old materials to use for her home, but do the economic and environmental impact of moving the parts up to LA justify it? A helicopter costing $10,000/hour was required to move large sections of the wing, while several sections of the expressway had to be closed to move other parts up the coast. Would is just be better two melt down the aluminum and recycle it? It seems kind of selfish to me.

Heading south, I passed the town of Orikum and the road soon climbed steeply into the Llogara Pass, one of those places that makes you feel very small and alone.

The road clung to a mountainside so steep that when I craned my neck up I couldn't see it top out. On my left there was a verdant valley far below and another huge wall of gray rock. The valley seemed to pinch farther up ahead, for the views were long enough that I could mark the road's progress as it snaked in and out of sharp bends.

Then, rounding one, I confronted the most dramatic and lovely stretch of road I'd seen on the Adriatic/Ionian coast: In the windshield, a ridge line the color of ash loomed over the road and it descended in a tumbling pitch perhaps 2,000 feet into iris blue water. The narrow road worked its way down the green hillside not in gentle curves but in hairpin switchbacks, like an extended mark of Zoro.

Far below, the town of Dhermi perched in resistance, some how, to the Llogara Pass' plunge to the sea.

A few days later, taking a road out of the southern city of Saranda that soon turned into one of the best in Albania -- despite having been marked in yellow on my map, signifying a track slightly better than cracked concrete -- I was again to pull neck muscles trying to take in the immensity of a light-speckled valley that stretched almost to the hill town of Gjirokaster.

In one frame, a single house sat sentry over groves and green terraces, with the patchwork valley floor running away from it in the distance.

These were scenes that revealed how much Albania, despite all its problems, had that was worth protecting.

Gas prices aren't the only expense of a vacation that pinch the finances. Admission fees can be a real downer. If one is traveling with young children, huge, expensive museums can be overwhelming.

These are two reasons why the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. sounds appealing to me.

At $5 for adults, and $2.50 for children, the admission is not even close to the $18.75 amount for adults to the Newport Aquarium in Newport, Kentucky. The Newport Aquarium, the last one I visited, is quite impressive, but sometimes I'd rather opt for a simpler venue for less money.

Last year, when we went to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, much of our time was spent finding a bathroom and each other. Due to time constraints, we hurried through sections where I wanted to linger. When mixing children with large museums, it's often necessary to leave out entire exhibits in order to not have a kid meltdown halfway through.

With a smaller museum, like the National Aquarium that claims you can see the whole thing in 45 minutes, you don't have to pick and chose among options. At the end of an hour you can end up at the gift shop satisfied and have time and energy left to take in something else close by. I'd head to the outdoor sculpture garden at the National Gallery of Art for starters.

Along with the aquarium's renovations that include new signage, carpeting and exhibits is a new theme--"America's Aquatic Treasures." Look for alligators, eels, sea horses, a baby loggerhead turtle and more. [see Washington Post article]

If you can make here on August 9, it's Shark Day. There are several activities geared towards kids and talks adults would enjoy.

Todos Santos, once Baja's sugarcane capital, is a small town located about an hour outside of Cabo San Lucas. Known for its laid back vibe, great surfing and large artisan community, this small pueblo has managed to retain some authenticity in spite of the huge growth of tourism here in the last 15 years.

We chose to settle here for a few months so we could complete a work project before continuing on our drive. When we were looking for a place to stay we knew that a city like Cabo San Lucas was not for us, but realized the benefits of being close to a bigger city. With Todos Santos located only an hour away from Cabo, it was pretty much the perfect fit. So far it has been great; it's easy to work here and, for a relatively small town, there is quite a bit to do. Those who prefer activity packed vacations will probably prefer to only spend a day or two here. But for the more laid back traveler who prefers to mosey through their holiday time Todos Santos offers a great mix of activities and allows for ample down time.

Here is what you can do in Todos Santos:

Yesterday was National Trails Day. Sorry not to give the heads up sooner, but I found this out while I was hiking on a trail and without WiFi access. If you can swing a hike today on a national trail, I'd take one. If not today, than soon.

Make a plan for next weekend if you must. It doesn't have to be major hike, but give yourself enough time for your arms and legs to move in a rhythm with each other where you have time to find your stride. If there are trees around, a bit of nature, wildflowers, a bubbling brook--great.

On such a hike, keep an eye out for things you don't normally notice. A spider web that's stretched between two twigs, a large leaf clump high over head that marks a squirrel's home, a bird's nest, a butterfly that's dipping down for a drink in a stream, the way water shimmers in the sun when it's illuminated on a rock face. These are some of the reasons for taking a hike in Ohio where this picture was taken.

In New Mexico, it's the smell of juniper berries and pinion trees and the steady progress as you make your way up the Sandia Mountains or the Jemez--or any other steep mountains in the state. There are switchback after switchback. Notice how the earth turns brilliant orange or deep red depending on the time of day and the angle of the sun.

He may be a well-known actor, but according to Brad Pitt, his real passion is architecture. The Hollywood star is taking his passion to Dubai where he will be designing a five star resort, complete with hotel rooms and a leisure complex which will host flashy events and awards ceremonies. According to the property company, the complex will be "socially conscious" and a world leader in environmental sustainability.

Pitt says he has a strong belief in "environmentally friendly architecture," but that gives rise to the following question: how environmentally friendly can a 800 room luxury resort really be? I mean, aren't the oil tycoons, Hollywood stars and big time businessman who will be the hotel's main clientele already putting a significant cost on the environment with their private jets and numerous automobiles?

Are these the strangest hotels on the planet?

Here's another version of canopy tours, much different than the ones in Hocking Hills, Ohio and near Kuala Lumpur. At the Ysterhout Gorge in Magaliesberg, South Africa, trees are sparse, but the gorge is mighty. This is a well-done edited version that shows each step of the experience. The scenery is gorgeous. The family in this video consists of a young girl as well. You really know how much you trust a tour guide when you send your child flying along a cable, feet dangling high above the rocky ground. There's a point where my heart would jump. Part with fright, part with their excitment--and I'm the one who once took my 3 month-old on long boat rides in Thailand, passing him above the water while he was strapped in a car seat carrier. Here is a resource to find canopy tours in South Africa, plus a Gadling post from former blogger Erik Olsen that presents options in other places.

People give me tips on where to travel whenever they have been some where they think I would like. A friend of mine jumped out of her chair in the middle of a sentence, remembering a place she went this past weekend. She fetched a certificate from the Hocking Hills Canopy Tours, saying, "This was great."

From the description of the tour, and from what my friend said, it proves that outdoor adventure and thrill can be found in Ohio, a state where a lot of it is flat as a pancake. The scenery of Hocking Hills thrills me from the ground. It's perfect for hiking, biking, and roaming around in glorious woods. Being hooked onto a zip line for a tour that soars through trees at treetop level sounds awesome. This is the stuff of the Amazing Race. There are skybridges, rock cliffs and rappelling. There is a two for one deal. My friend said I should take my daughter. I think I might.

There is another canopy tour I have been on that's a far cry from Ohio. At the Forest Research Institute in Malaysia in Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve not far from Kuala Lumpur, you don't travel through the trees on a zip line, but by hiking on a series of suspension bridges set high in the leaves and branches. There are many trails to explore with your feet firmly on the ground as well. I went here with a friend of mine. How much I perspired has been erased from my memory--kind of. What I do remember is the lushness and beauty.

There's the Enchanted Tiki Room version of the bird world found in the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. This is a place where mechanical birds talk and sing. Then there is Disney World's real bird world. These are not the birds put here on purpose as part of an exhibit, but birds that just show up. These birds don't talk, at least not in human speak, but they do sing.

When I was at Disney World winter before last, I wasn't paying attention to the real bird kingdom while I was hoofing it between attractions in the Magic Kingdom. According to this article in the Dallas Morning News, the lakes in Disney World's parks attract migrating birds. They stop here for a rest during their journey between South and Central America and points north. Some birds like Florida so much, they use Disney World's parks as nesting grounds. As the article points out, 45 square miles of Disney World are protected for wildlife.

The best place to bird-watch is at Seven Seas Lagoon, Bay Lake and on the Maharajah Jungle Trek in the Animal Kingdom. It's not uncommon to see exotic birds hanging out with the other wild life. The photo by Conspiracy of Happiness is of a pair of white ibis at Bay Lake.

Here are some other birds to look for: Sarus cranes, mallard ducks, egrets, and herons. When you're packing for your Disneyland experience, tuck in a bird guide and binoculars. While you're waiting in line, birdwatching might be something to do. It's also free. For the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room song, click here, although something funky is going on at the end of it.