By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2011 Professor of mass communications emeritus@ Minnesota State University Moorhead The 75-acre Illahee State Park, a waterfront recreational area that offers camping, hiking and boating to the public, is located in the unincorporated hamlet of Illahee, just north of East Bremerton, on Port Orchard Bay area of the Puget Sound. The […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2011 Professor of mass communications emeritus@ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ On Saturday (12 Aug. 1989), the day after our tiring tour of Seattle, we were back on the road exploring the backwoods of southwest Washington State along what I designated as the “Willapa Loop”ƒ”š‚”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚a route exceeding 250 miles, not counting the […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2011 Professor of mass communications emeritus@ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ On Friday (11 Aug. 1989), my mother and my elder sister “Rani”ƒ”š‚ joined us”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚Carmel, Junius, Yoke-Sim and me”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚to explore Seattle (pop. 630,320), the most populous city in the Pacific Northwest, 128 miles north of Longview. Because “Rani”ƒ”š‚ expressed a wish to […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2011 Professor of mass communications emeritus@ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ In spite of continual rain, on Tuesday (1 Aug. 1989) afternoon, my family”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚wife Yoke-Sim, son Junius and daughter Carmel”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚and I went on a 134-mile roundtrip tour from Longview to explore the attractions in Portland (pop. 582,130), the administrative seat of Multnomah […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2011 Professor of mass communications emeritus@ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ On the first Saturday (22 July 1989) after our arrival in Longview, Junius, 9, and I went to the adjoining city of Kelso, where I purchased a Timberline-4 tent for $151 (including sales tax) at the Outdoors Store (110 S. Pacific […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚© 2011 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ It took us three days in summer 1989 to drive the 1,630-mile distance from Moorhead/Fargo in the Midwest to Longview/Kelso in the Pacific Northwest. I have already mentioned the first leg of this journey (in Travels”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚45). The second leg of […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚© 2011 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead I am a shameless volcano buff. That’s why I spent an entire day in the Volcano National Park on the Big Island late January 1984 despite the fury that Pele, the goddess of fire, unleashed on meƒ”š‚  (see Travels-41b). I […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne The Minnesota Buddhist Vihara in Minneapolis will hold a memorial service on New Year’s Day (Saturday, 1 Jan. 2011) to celebrate the contributions of the late Venerable Mapalagama Wipulasara Maha Thera to both the Buddhist community and to Sri Lanka. Venerable Witiyala Seewalie, abbot and president of the Minnesota Buddhist Vihara, […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚© 2011 Professor of mass communications emeritus @ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ Day 8 (Thursday, 18 Aug. 1988) We left the Pigeon River Provincial Park Thursday (18 Aug. 1988) morning, crossed over to U.S, territory, and entered Grand Portage (pop. 557). The Grand Portage State Park did not exist then. Opened […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚© 2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus @ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ I did not err when I said (in the last installment) that we visited the eastern shore of Lake of the Woods Provincial Park in 1988. But the offshore area in the vicinity of Morson that we had the […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚© 2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus @ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ WHEREAS the main access to most national parks is by automobile or by foot, the primary access to the 218,054-acre Voyageurs National Park is via water.ƒ”š‚  Because Voyageurs NP lies to the west of the famous Boundary Waters Canoe […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratneƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus @ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ On Tuesday (9 July 1996), we left the four presidents in Mount Rushmore meet and greet their thousands of other fans who kept on flocking, while we continued our adventures in the Black Hills (PahƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚¡ SƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚¡pa in Lakota) National Forest. We […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratneƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus @Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ When we left West Yellowstone, Montana, Sunday (7 Dec. 1996), our intention was to explore the southeastern section of Yellowstone from Moran (pop. 414) to Cody (pop. 8,835). In the morning, we drove 127 miles south from West Yellowstone (pop. 1,177) to […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚© 2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus@ Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ Red Lodge, Montana, is the starting point of the Beartooth Highway, which the late CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt calledƒ”š‚  “the most beautiful drive in America.”ƒ”š‚ The highway straddles the Montana-Wyoming border as it wiggles its way to the northeast entrance […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚© 2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead On the night (Tuesday, 27 July 2010) before my wife and I left England back to Minnesota, a bright idea sparked in the mind of my “Pommy”ƒ”š‚ brother-in-law, a long-time resident of Shepherds Bush. In postprandial conviviality, he offered to […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratneƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ My fascination with volcanoes did not end with my near encounter with Pele, the goddess of fire, at the entrance to her abode in the awesome fire pit called Halemaumau Crater.ƒ”š‚  She accelerated the velocity of the downpour that soaked me when […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratneƒ”š‚©2010Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚  ƒ”š‚  Exit Fullerton My mother and I left California on the last Friday of January 1984. It was the last day of my Fullerton Year. ƒ”š‚  I handed all my grade sheets to Admissions and Records at Fullerton College and said goodbye […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ “Yankee”ƒ”š‚ Jim Bowers, my longtime pal, traveled approximately 14,000 km from Minneapolis; and “Pommy”ƒ”š‚ Nayana Axon, my youngest sister, traveled almost 16,500 km from London to attend my lecture on “A Buddhist View of Journalism: Emphasis on Mutual Causality”ƒ”š‚ Tuesday (7 […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ [Background: Yoke-Sim and I arrived in Brisbane (via Sydney) on a Wednesday (1 March 2006). My two younger sisters”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚”Aussie”ƒ”š‚ Kanthi Wijesoma, the younger; and “Pommy”ƒ”š‚ Nayana Axon, the youngest”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚were at the Brisbane Airport to welcome us. They took us to St. Lucia […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ Three “ƒ”¹…”Crocodile’ Dundees from Rockhampton, Qld., the home of the Gunaratnes for 10 years from 1976, landed in Fargo-Moorhead Thursday, 6 May 2004. They had hobnobbed with us during the days when we were trying to mould ourselves into fair dinkum […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ Just before I started writing this installment (on 27 Sept. 2010) about the Bowerses’ foray into Sri Lanka a decade ago, I had a long telephone conversation with them to make sure that their memories agreed with those of mine. They […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ When the Yankee Doodles”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚the Bowerses”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚joined us”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚the Gunaratnes”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚on a tour of Sri Lanka in July 2000, they did not come riding on ponies or wearing feathered caps. Rather, they wanted to go riding on elephants, the tamed behemoths they had seen in […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ I arrived in Malaysia on a Sunday (15 June 1997) for a two-month stint as an external examiner in communications at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi, about 25 km south of Kuala Lumpur. A week later, my family”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚Carmel, […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ A six-hour drive east from Moorhead, Minn., covering a distance of about 322 miles along U.S. 10 and U.S. 2, will take one to Bayfield, Wis. (pop. 611), the gateway to Madeline Island and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (AINL) “ƒ¢¢”š¬‚a […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ If I were Charles Dickens, I would have written a novel on James K. Bowers, my long-time pal who has used Lake Minnetonka as his habitat for four decades. He lived the life of a sybarite in his younger days, and […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 Professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead ƒ”š‚ After my temporary re-location in Minnesota in November 1985, I visited Jim Bowers at his Spring Park Bay homeƒ”š‚  (2905 Casco Point Road) in the Wayzata area on a wintry Saturday (21 Dec.) at 3.30 p.m., and decided to spend my […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010ƒ”š‚ ƒ”š‚  professor of mass communications emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead. Minnesota (pop. 5.23 million) is known as the “Land of 10,00 Lakes.”ƒ”š‚ Therefore, it is no wonder that Minnesotans like water sports such as boating, canoeing, fishing and water skiing. Weekend trips to family cabins on Minnesota’s numerous lakes are a […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne ƒ”š‚©2010 ƒ”š‚ Shooting the breeze during a leisurely boat ride on the upper Mississippi, more than 40 years after we left graduate school on the Minneapolis campus of University of Minnesota, turned out to be an exhilarating experience for three of us old buddies”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚Jim Bowers, Kurt Kent and me”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚mid-August 2010. Minnesota Buddies […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratneƒ”š‚©2010 ƒ”š‚ (PART 2: Braga and Bom Jesus) On arrival back at the Braga Railway Station Sunday (18 July) evening, Yoke-Sim and I bluffed our way by foot to Theatro Circo on Avenida da Liberdade, the venue of the official opening ceremony of the IAMCR conference. Because we did not have a detailed […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratneƒ”š‚©2010 Luis Miguel Goncalves Pereira, a graduate student from the Communication and Society Research Center (CSRC), Universidade do Minho, was at the Francisco de SƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚¡ Carneiro Airport in Pedras Rubras to greet us”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚Yoke-Sim and me”ƒ¢¢”š¬‚when we landed in Portugal on Saturday (17 July 2010) to attend the annual conference of the International […]