Could It Have Kilda to Pick a Place Even Further Away?

Imagine my disappointment when I realized that the North Pole would not be the furthest place on earth to send my wife. I don't know exactly where the voyage would take her, should she win the essay contest for which I'm asking you to vote, because there's no precise lump of land on which someone erected a giant peppermint stick.

So, using an online tool for plotting the distance between two points on a Google map, I ran a straight line from our town to the top of the map, and it generated a distance of just under 3,000 miles.

Three thousand miles. That's like flying to San Diego and then driving to San Francisco. In other words, it's not very far. Not very far at all, especially for a husband who's looking forward to having his wife far, far away for a couple of weeks.

Three thousand miles wouldn't even get her to Europe.

Hell, during her actual trip to Europe, Jenn was in Amsterdam (for only the museums, I've been assured), which is more than 3,500 miles away. But the North Pole has a lot fewer, uh, museums than Amsterdam, so I guess knowing she's in a remote part of the world is more important than how many miles she logs in order to get there.

I did find what seems to be a more remote place, a place where I'd like Jenn to visit sometime, that's also just 3,000 miles away: St. Kilda.

You've never heard of St. Kilda? Did you fail Obscure Geography 101? Behold:



It's the circled "A" on the map, just a bit northwest of England. Can't see it? Let me help:



I'll zoom in on the part with the thick black border.



Hmmm. Maybe we'll focus more on the blob of land.



Ah. Much better. To put it in perspective, this is the same size area in New York City, to the same scale:



Obviously, we're talking about a very remote piece of property. According to our friends at Wikipedia, "St Kilda (Scottish Gaelic: Hiort) is an isolated archipelago 64 kilometres (40 mi) west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom."

Sounds fun, right? Jenn would be on Hirta, where she could chill out with the sheep and look for Viking burial grounds while I run out and buy a PS3 with the money we were saving for the family vacation. I'd bet the cellphone reception is better at the North Pole.

Of course, if the Scottish weather isn't agreeable for her, I'd suggest she try the other St. Kilda that exists in the world: the suburb just south of Melbourne in southern Australia, a mere 10,410 miles away.

If this convinces you that you should send my wife to the North Pole, please click this text which is in fact a link that will take you to her essay so you can vote for her so she'll have a chance to go to the North Pole. Thank you.