If you have at least a week of free time, head over to google earth, an interactive satellite imaging tour of wherever you wanna go: Cairo, Paris, Seychelles?  Just download, pick a place, & keep zooming until you're at street or building level.  It's insane.  RJ's Dad sent us the link last week & we've been addicted ever since.  Maybe we can consider the loss of time ok since it's more or less a free vacation?  FYI, the 3-d buildings & Nat. Geo. buttons prove to be pretty interesting as well.

I checked out the Galapagos Islands, covered in a beautiful haze of volcanic structures, lava fields, & green water.  Then, I went to Dubai & found they have a bit of construction going on...  along the shoreline were weird (HUGE!!!) organic structures.  I did a little research & found out Dubai is in the process of constructing 3 man made islands in the shape of palm fronds & a large cluster of islands in the shape of the world?!  This is the craziest thing I've ever seen & it can't be safe, right?  Trump already has a tower started or finished on one of the islands.  I also read that Dubai is currently using something like 1/3 or 1/2 of the worlds supply of tower cranes.  Even the downtown has sooo much construction going on.  As of Feb., 2009, they'll also house the worlds tallest building, Burj Dubai (2.650 ft).  Interesting.