After a long road trip around Iraq, I find myself back in Baghdad. It's our last night together as a group. For our final dinner we decide to eat a famous Baghdadi recipe at a famous landmark –mazgouf fish at Abu Nuwas Park.

Abu Nuwas park runs for one-and-a-half miles along the east bank of the Tigris in central Baghdad. It's named after an early medieval poet who was half Arab and half Persian, and wrote poems in both languages. His poetry celebrated wine and sex and made fun of the Arab nostalgia for Bedouin life. This ensured trouble during his lifetime and fame after his death.

In keeping with the Abu Nuwas' liberal tradition, the park that bears his name is a neutral ground for the city's warring factions. Everyone comes here to relax, not fight. Of course there's still the usual cordon of armed guards. Trust is in short supply in this country.

Once inside, though, it doesn't feel like Baghdad at all. Families have picnics on blankets spread under trees. Kids do cartwheels on the grass. The Tigris glitters with reflected streetlights. A fountain at the edge of the riverbank shoots up water as colored lamps make the jets pulse red and purple. Music mixes with the calls of vendors selling nuts, candy, and Spongebob Squarepants balloons.

We've come to dine at one of the city's most popular restaurants, Mazgouf, named after a large fish found in the Tigris that's considered a delicacy. The fish is cut in half down its length and stuck on spike next to an open wood fire to slowly cook. When it's done, it's pulled off the spike and put on a plate. The scales and eyes on the outside are still preserved, making a sort of bowl from which to scoop out the goopy and incredibly rich insides. The restaurant at Abu Nuwas Park is said to be one of the best.

We find the restaurant and sit outside. As usual, the people at the next table come over and welcome us to Iraq. Mazgouf is made to order so there's a long wait before we get our meal. Once it comes, everyone digs in with relish. I'm no expert on mazgouf but it's the second-best meal I've had this entire trip. It's so rich and heavy I can only finish half of it, although I'd love to eat the whole thing. The mood at the table is celebratory. We've made it through Iraq unscathed. Everyone is thinking of home but disappointed to be leaving.

While everyone else is leaving tomorrow morning and the guards will go off to other duties, my flight isn't until the following morning, which means I get a whole day to myself in Baghdad. This worries me only slightly. My time in Iraq has taught me that the country is far safer than most people believe, and my hotel is in a good neighborhood. Besides, staying in the hotel all day simply isn't an option. I just hope I don't have any trouble when I go out alone.

After dinner we stroll around the park. The mood is relaxed and festive. So is the dress code. A woman walks by in a skirt and I almost keel over. It's the first bare female leg I've seen in more than two weeks. Young couples who may very well be unmarried walk hand in hand, whispering to each other. I've stepped into another world. It's even more relaxed than Kurdistan. Flashing lights and squeals of laughter draw me down a path and to another gate.

Gallery: Baghdad Amusement Park

Three years ago I was in Telluride, Colorado attending Mountainfilm festival. I was particularly blown away by a series of huge photographs that depicted life in Afghanistan. I remember being particularly moved by one of a beggar woman in a burqa, sitting in the middle of a dusty street with a boy sitting in her lap. I had read, and even written about the Streets of Afghanistan photo exhibit, in the days leading up to the festival, but seeing it was completely different. That was the same day I went to listen to Shannon Galpin give a presentation on both the photo exhibit and her nonprofit, Mountain2Mountain.

Galpin and I had corresponded back and forth via email, but this was the first time that I had met her in person.

I sat almost shell-shocked as she told the story of her rape at the age of 19, and then the subsequent rape of her sister several years later and the impetus for deciding that she would not be a victim. Then came the birth of her daughter, a moment where Galpin realized that all women and girls around the world deserve the same rights that, being born in the United States, her own daughter would have. She launched Mountain2Mountain in late 2006 with that exact idea in mind, paving a way for women's rights in Afghanistan.

I live in a very left-leaning community just outside of Chicago, a city that would sooner elect a Martian than a Republican to office. But even though I'm accustomed to mingling with people who listen to NPR's "Car Talk" in order to feel like honorary members of the proletariat and cast stink eyes at people who fail to bring their own bags to Whole Foods, traveling to California, the state that invented cool, still presents a kind of culture shock.

We went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, traveling in a carpool lane for much of the way, and noticed that all the best parking spots were reserved for hybrid cars. On our Africa tram ride at the park, our driver gave us a lecture on how to drive (slow down, come to complete stops, use proper tire pressure) in order to help us be more green. Afterwards, we repaired to a nearby mall to get my sons, ages 3 and 5, slices of pizza and noticed a Caucasian family all eating with chopsticks in the food court.

I approached the mother and told her I was impressed that her children, who ranged in age from 4 to 15, were using their sticks so deftly.

One of the National Park Service's more popular programs over the past few years has been the introduction of fee-free days. Each year, the NPS designates a number of dates on which there is absolutely no charge for entry into the more than 2000 national parks, forests and wildlife refuges around the country. Naturally, those days are especially popular with travelers, who often plan their visits to coincide with the free entries.

Recently, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar officially announced the dates of the fee-free days for 2013, giving us all the opportunity to start making our plans early. Here is a complete list of those days for next year:

• January 21 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• April 22-26 - National Park Week
• June 8 - Great Outdoors Day
• August 25 - National Park Service Birthday
• September 28 - National Public Lands Day
• October 13 - National Wildlife Refuge Day
• November 9-11 - Veterans Day Weekend

If you're anything like me you're probably already thinking about your travel plans for 2013. Knowing which days the parks will be completely free can be important to planning your strategy, as it is always great to take advantage of the lack of an entry fee to your favorite park. On the other hand, crowds tend to be quite large on those days, so some travelers will probably want to avoid visiting on those dates. Either way, the Park Service's announcement comes at an opportune time and gives plenty of notice for those looking to take advantage of the first fee-free day in January.


[Photo Credit: Kraig Becker]

The jet age made a huge impact on our planet, making much of it accessible in a single day's worth of travel. Compared to other modes of transportation, air travel powered by jet engines took more people to more places, faster and less expensive than ever. Now, a UK company has new technology that could provide the propulsion needed to put a plane in orbit and open a new era in travel.

Reaction Engines Ltd (REL) is a company in the United Kingdom formed to develop the technology needed to make an engine that can operate at up to five times the speed of sound or fly directly into Earth orbit.

"We have made the biggest breakthrough in propulsion technology since the jet engine," said REL chief executive Tim Hayter in a CNN report.

Developing ultra-lightweight heat exchangers, capable of putting a plane into a high altitude cruise, REL promises flight to anywhere on the planet in no more than four hours.

Capella is fast moving towards its projected January opening, and one of the best updates we've seen this week is the model showroom interior. Here, you'll see the original guestroom renderings.

[See more Birth of a Hotel posts here.]

Antarctica is our planet's southernmost continent and home to the South Pole, permanent manned research stations, penguins and an occasional adventure cruise ship expedition. This time of year, a lot of attention traditionally goes to Earth's North Pole, home of Santa and the gang. But NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory recently passed over Antarctica's tallest peak, Mount Vinson, as we see in this photo.

On October 22, 2012, during a flight over the continent to measure changes in the massive ice sheet and sea ice, NASA captured this image as part of its ongoing program.

Families out for an evening stroll, friends sipping coffee at sidewalk cafes, tourists seeing the sights without a police escort – am I still in Iraq?

Sort of.

I'm in Kurdistan, an autonomous region made up of Iraq's three northernmost provinces. The Kurds kicked out Saddam in 1991 after suffering years of bloody persecution, and they've pretty much been doing their own thing ever since. I never saw an Iraqi flag flying in the Kurdish region, only the Kurdish "regional" flag that everyone seems to look to as their national flag. The region even has its own national anthem. The Kurdish government also acts independently at times, such as making oil deals with foreign companies even though they're supposed to be approved by Baghdad.

Erbil, the region's capital, is a boomtown. New buildings are going up everywhere and the shops are full of expensive products and people who can afford to buy them. Auto dealerships, electronics stores, and swank restaurants are everywhere. There's a relaxed, optimistic mood in the air.

The Kurds have reason to be optimistic. A distinct people with their own culture and language, their population stretches across several international boundaries. Kurds are found in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. Being a minority with a strong sense of independence has meant they've faced persecution in all of these countries. Now they have their own region and they're doing well for themselves. Kurdistan has the lowest rate of poverty in Iraq thanks to a booming oil and gas industry.

There's even a tourism industry. This is the one part of Iraq where you can travel individually, and an increasing number of curious Westerners are doing just that. Kurdistan's mixture of ancient sites, functioning cities and rugged mountains has a lot to offer.

Gallery: Kurdistan