Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for March, 2009
Pet Travel Succumbs to Economy
By Linda Tancs
Once peanuts, blankets and pillows were eyed for surcharges then you knew it wouldn’t be long until pets saw a fare hike. And so it goes, with the least expensive ticket averaging $100 each way on low-cost carriers Spirit and JetBlue. Rates on Delta and American have gone to the dogs as well. Will Fido have to sit out Disney World this year? Or more to the point–will you? Maybe so, unless you can find a better kennel rate.
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Kid Travel Made Easy
By Linda Tancs
It isn’t easy traveling with young kids, as anyone witnessing or engaging in the juggling act of strollers, carriers and car seats can attest. Checking all that paraphernalia at the gate is no fun, either. And watching it clunk down some dirty baggage carousel is even worse. So what’s a parent to do? Try Gate Check, a bright red drawstring travel bag for children’s gear. If only luggage packing could be this easy.
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Sleepy B.C. Village Energized with Tourism
By Linda Tancs
If you can’t immediately place Esowista Peninsula, you are forgiven. But give it a short while longer and everyone is likely to be talking about the quiet, little fishing village at its tip along the west coast of Vancouver Island in Canada. Named in 1792 after Vicente Tofino de San Miguel, Rear Admiral of the Spanish Naval Academy, Tofino is roughly 5 hours from Victoria, British Columbia and offers a variety of wildlife, hot springs and cultural tours. Largely dependent on tourism and aquaculture, you can count on year-round saltwater fishing opportunities, with world-class salmon fishing and flyfishing in Clayoquot Sound. Environmental preservation runs strong here. Just ask the locals to point out Eik Cedar Tree, the mascot of Tofino, an 800-year-old Western Red Cedar saved from the brink of condemnation thanks to the activism of its citizens. That may seem like nothing compared with the Hanging Garden Cedar, a living tree with a trunk circumference of 20 meters and estimated to be over 2,000 years old! A tree is our best antique, as the saying goes.
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South Pole Research Station Open
By Linda Tancs
Germany’s latest engineering triumph stands on a 200-meter thick ice shelf in the South Pole. Named Neumayer-Station III after geophysicist Georg von Neumayer, the sixteen-legged research station bests the competition by sporting rooms with a view. There’s not much to see, however, but an endless horizon of snow and the occasional penguin. Let’s hope the yearlong climate data collection it offers is worth every bit of its 40 million euro price tag.
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Getting Away From it All
By Linda Tancs
Off the florida keys
There’s a place called Kokomo
That’s where you wanna go to get away from it all
That’s what The Beach Boys sang. Never thought much about it–until today. So where, or what, is Kokomo? Apparently it’s a beach bar at Florida’s Holiday Isle Beach Resort & Marina in Islamorada, translated to mean “purple isle.” Apart from enjoying the original frozen rumrunner cocktail, what else is there to do in this neck of the Keys? Answer: sport fishing. According to the local chamber of commerce, Islamorada is known as the sport fishing capital of the world, hosting the largest fishing fleet per square mile. You can also kayak, dive, snorkel, parasail or feed a giant silver tarpon. For more of a “taste” of the four islands comprising this area, drop by the Island Fest on 4 and 5 April at Founder’s Park. So get there fast, and then take it slow.
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Are You a Wanderer?
By Linda Tancs
“Why do people so love to wander?” mused American impressionist artist Mary Cassatt. Why, indeed! U.S. government statistics show that in 2005 approximately 28,787,000 U.S. residents visited overseas destinations. Similarly, overseas visitors to the U.S. that year totalled nearly 22 million. That translates into lots of tour directors leading tours. Do you want to be one of them? ITMI in California has been training tour leaders for 30 years. Maybe it’s time to broaden your horizons. In the immortal words of Robert Louis Stevenson, “The great affair is to move.”
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The Other San Francisco
By Linda Tancs
If you left your heart in San Francisco, could there be any doubt which one? Maybe so, before Mexico’s San Francisco changed its name to San Pancho (as the locals would have you believe). Whatever you choose to call it, this little village along the Mexican Riviera about a half hour north of Puerto Vallarta delivers big. Ready to surf? You’ll find the best breaks around. You can also snatch up your dinner in the deep sea after a few hours of panga fishing. Afterwards lay on the beach and watch the celestial jitterbug. Your pueblo awaits.
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Eight Hours Rule
By Linda Tancs
The overnight winter storm along the northeastern U.S. has resulted in a day’s rest for labor along the seaboard and beyond. So, too, down under (minus the snow) where today marks Labor Day in Western Australia. Marking the eight-hour working day resulting from a decades-long struggle toward equitable working hours and conditions, this public holiday is celebrated in other territories on the second Monday in March, the first Monday in October and the first Monday in May.
Answer to the trivia question of 26 February: Johann Maria Farina gegenüber dem Jülichs-Platz GmbH seit 1709.
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Travelrific® Travel Journal 