… and you know what happens… I tend to look out the window and gaze at the land and sea passing by below. I often end up wondering–What IS that thing I see below me?

This week I present a few mysteries–things I’ve seen, things I’ve heard about that are visible from the air, things I’ve wondered about as I travel. Can you help me figure out what’s going on with each of these?

1. The Farallon Islands lie just west of San Francisco. They’re a few miles out from shore. Can I see them from San Francisco? (When would be the best time of year to look? And where should I stand?)

The Farallons up close. Can you see them from the mainland?

2. I’ve heard stories about a series of large, strange arrows that are on the ground. Apparently, they’re made of concrete, or cement, or stone. In fact, I’ve seen one (and had no idea what I was looking at) while flying in the southwest of the US. Do these things really exist? Can you find a picture of one? Who would make these things, and why? What’s the story here?


3. Speaking of islands, while I was in Hawai’i a few weeks ago, I also heard about a Hawaiian canoe that is traveling around the world to demonstrate Hawaiian traditions of canoe building and navigation. What’s the name of this canoe, and where is it now? (And is true that they don’t have any GPS onboard?)


4. The Caribbean seems to be full of islands that are just slightly off the map. While flying there a few years ago, I remember seeing an island just east of Jamaica and west of Haiti. From the air, it looked like a perfect pirate hangout place–remote and mysterious. What is the name of this island? It also looked like a great place to put a lighthouse–is there one there? Where is it on the island?

These are fun Challenges that will doubtlessly lead you onto doing a bit more research on travel-related topics. Have fun with these, and let us know what you find (and HOW you found the answers).

I’m about to head off for a couple weeks of travel myself. As you might guess, some of what I find will probably end up here in a future SearchResearch Challenge or two.

I’ll be back here on October 3rd with a few answers and a pile of new Challenges. See you next month!

Search on!