Belgium 2015

I took a trip to Belgium with Yeongmi last September.  The primary purpose was to present a paper at the Dynare Conference, but we spent a fair amount of time sightseeing before and after the conference.  The bottom line is the waffles are to die for, the chocolate is superb, but I can't comment on the quality of the beer.  Oh and the best part is they never ask "Do you want fries with that?", the assumption being that of course you do and they're automatically included!

Old Guild Halls on the Main Square in Brussels

Joseph Lejuene at the John Cockerill Statue in Seraing, Belgium

I was in Brussels Belgium for a conference last week and found myself with a Friday free, so Yeongmi and I took a trip to Liege, Belgium in the heart of Wallonia.  Before the trip my mother emailed me this photo of an ancestor of mine, Joseph Lejuene, who was from Liege.

After a long Google search I found the following entry at Wikipedia on John Cockerill, an industrialist who was responsible for building one of the first ironworks and a mechanical engineering companies in Seraing, Wallonia on the Meuse River, a few miles upstream from the city of Liege.

The statue in the photograph is a memorial to him and is located in front of the city hall in the town of Seraing.  Cockerill's grave is just in front of the statue.  The statue faces north toward the river, and on the northwest side of the pedestal is an iron statue of an ironworker that Joseph Lejuene posed for in the late 1880's.

Photo from the same spot taken on Oct. 2, 2015

Kyoto 2015

My first weekend in Korea, July 3 - 5, I took Alan to Kyoto, Japan.  This is one of my favorite places on the earth and Alan had never been to Japan before.  So I cashed in some Korean Air frequent flyer miles and off we went.  We visited a whole slew of UNESCO world heritage sites in our three days there.  I walked until I thought I would drop dead, rested, and then walked more.  We had a great time!

Fushimi Inari

Taiwan 2015

I was back in Taiwan this June for another conference, this time the Computational Economics and Finance Meetings.  And my youngest son, Alan, came with me.  We were there for week from the 19th of June through the 26th, when we flew to Korea.  The weather was hot and muggy.  It rained frequently and I had difficulty walking long distances.  The conference ran from the 20th through the 22nd, and I did get some free time to go out then, but frankly we were both uncomfortable enough that we went out very little.  When the conference was over, however, we went on a two-day tour to Sun Moon Lake in the mountains of central Taiwan and that was lots of fun.

Wenwu Temple at Sun Moon Lake

Switzerland 2015

Yeongmi and I travelled to Switzerland this past May and June.  We spent several days in Zurich for a conference at the University of Zurich UZH there.  Then we spent two nights in Lauterbrunnen in Bernese Alps.  We spent a night in Zermat in the shadow of the Matterhorn, and then stopped in Montrose on the shores of Lake Geneva before flying home.

The Matterhorn from Gornergrat

Both of us loved Switzerland.  The people are friendly, the scenery is amazing, the transport system is fast and efficient, and the food was great.

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon is a national monument run by the U.S. Park Service.  It is located in central Idaho.  The visitor's center is near Arco, Idaho.

Looking East from Inferno Cone

Hell's Half Acre

Hells Half Acre is a lava field in southeast Idaho near the town of Blackfoot.  Interstate 15 passes through the southeast corner of the field for a few miles and there is a rest stop about a mile from the southern entrance.

Photos of the Gateway Arch

Cahokia Mounds

I visited Cahokia Mounds today.  It is a very interesting site, and has a great museum or, as they call it, interpretive center.  Cahokia was the historically largest urban center in North America north of Mexico until the mid 1700's when Philadelphia surpassed it.  At its height more than 20,000 people lived in the six square miles centered around the complex of mounds there.

View of Downtown St. Louis from the top of Monks Mound

The largest structure there is Monks Mound, which rises more that 100 feet above the surrounding countryside and was ultimately a multi-level terraced temple complex.  Again, the largest one north of Mexico.

iPhone Photos between Salt Lake City and St. Louis.

I flew from Salt Lake to St. Louis today and it was great weather for taking photos out the window!  Check it out!  Taken with my iPhone 6; in airplane mode, of course.

Wasatch Front from the North

New York 2015

At the end of June I took a trip with Yeongmi and Joan to New York City for the Eastern Economics Association Meetings.  The meetings went well.  I gave a paper and one of my students from BYU presented another. Both on economic inequality, BTW.

But here is the travel report!

Taiwan 2014, Part 3

On June 25th through the 27th, we left Taipei and headed down the east coast of the island to Taroko Gorge.  This was a spectacular trip with some very stunning scenery.

Taiwan 2014, Part 2

The remainder of the report on Taiwan.  For the first half, see this post.

Friday - Sunday, June 20 - 22

 June 20th - 22nd was the Asia Meetings of the Econometric Society.  Since we were staying at an apartment in Ximending and the conference was at Academia Sincia, this involved a ride on the subway and then a cab ride to campus.  The conference was very good and I enjoyed the sessions.  I presented my paper on the last day, of course.

While I was busy advancing the frontiers of knowledge, Yeongmi and Joan were busy seeing the sights.

December in India, Part 8

After our whirlwind tour of Jaipur, we headed back to Delhi to the airport for our trip home.  We got to see some different country than the trip down to Agra.  There were more hills and it was noticeably drier.  We saw a lot of camels for the first little while coming out of Jaipur.  We also stopped and watched troop of monkeys being fed.  The traffic was heavier than the day before with all the long-distance lorries on the road coming up to Delhi.  The road to Agra was a toll expressway with no freight traffic and the road from Agra to Jaipur was not nearly as busy.  We stopped several times at intersections where the traffic backed up.  And once or twice we got delayed by construction on overpasses.  It was a long trip, but still interesting.  We stopped at great roadside restaurant and had chicken pakora and meat samosas.  The latter were very good and I wish I had tasted them earlier in the trip.

December in India, Part 7

We spent Christmas Day in Jaipur touring some very beautiful and interesting sites.  We visited Hawa Mahal, Amber Fort and Jal Mahal in the morning.  In the early afternoon we went to Jantar Mantar and the Jaipur City Palace in middle of the city.  Then we drove for several hours back to Delhi where we caught our flight home to the U.S.

Leaving the Hotel

December in India, Part 6

We left Agra on the morning of December 24th and spent most of the day driving to Jaipur.  The road was very foggy in the morning and we ended up stopped for about 45 minutes in a traffic jam.  As they day went on the fog burned off and we entered drier country.

On the Road from Agra

December in India, Part 5

At the Taj Mahal in Agra

On Monday morning, December 23rd, we checked out of our hotel in Karol Bagh early in the morning and began our three day "golden triangle" tour to Agra and Jaipur.  We had a car and driver for the next three days and stayed at a couple of nice hotels.

Taiwan 2014, Part 1

Temple at Chiufen

I presented a paper a the Asian Meetings of the Econometric Society in Taiwan this June.  I was able to bring both my wife, and my youngest daughter along for the trip.


We arrived in Taipei on the evening of June 18th.  We had rented an apartment via Airbnb in downtown Taipei in the Ximending district and enjoyed staying there.  The conference ran June 20 through 22.  Yeongmi and Joan took afternoon tours on the 20th and 21st via a local tour agency.  I went with them on the 19th to the northeast coast and the village of Chiufen.  We spent the 24th through the 26th in Taroko Gorge.  We flew to Korea on the 28th.

December in India, Part 4

Shopping in Karol Bagh on December 22nd.

December 21 - Southern New Delhi

On Saturday the 21st, we hired a car for the day and visited several sites in the southern park of Delhi.

December in India, Part 3

December 19 - Conference and Injury

On Thursday morning we hired a car and drove from our hotel down to south Delhi to the campus of the Indian Statistical Institute for the conference I was attending.  This was the 9th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development, sponsored by the Indian Statistical Institute
Planning and Policy Research Unit.

Campus of the Indian Statistical Institute in New Delhi