Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for June, 2009
Bear Valley Beckons
By Linda Tancs
About an hour north of San Francisco, California, the rugged coast comprising Point Reyes National Seashore awaits your visit. Boasting 150 miles of trails, four backcountry campgrounds, several historical structures, three visitor centers, and beaches galore, you better have a game plan to tackle this national treasure. At Bear Valley Visitor Center, you can ponder the ecological and historical exhibits along with a seismograph, weather station, and auditorium for enjoying educational programs. Whatever you do, don’t miss Kule Loklo (Bear Valley), a replica of a Coast Miwok Indian village representing the earliest inhabitants of this area. If time permits, look for the herd of nearly 400 elk at the north end of the park on Tomales Point within the Tule Elk Reserve or watch for birds or whales at the Lighthouse. It seems almost trite to call 70,000 acres of dunes, sandy and rocky beaches, coastal grasslands, Douglas fir and Bishop Pine forests, wetlands, chaparral, and wilderness lakes a national park. But as British author Landt Dennis observed, a park symbolizes man’s humanity to man. And that, after all, seems pretty grand.
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A Seafaring Staycation
By Linda Tancs
A staycation is generally defined as a holiday enjoying one’s home environs. Well, why not enjoy someone else’s home environs instead–like a lighthouse keeper’s house? The United States Lighthouse Society keeps a list of lighthouses where you can keep the home lens burning. You might have to fix a window or paint a door as the price of admission in some cases, but you can’t beat the view. Ships ahoy, mate!
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Interlaken Goes a Little Bit Country
By Linda Tancs
They’ll be breaking out the boots and Stetsons this weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland for the 16th annual International Trucker and Country Festival at the former military airfield. With lots of sunshine and weather in the high 20s (Celsius) forecast, expect stellar attendance and lots of campers. Join country music fans, truckers, and bikers the world over for an exhibition of gleaming trucks and bikes, country dancing and plenty of food and drink. Are you a little bit country? As Charley Pride once said, there’s room in country music for everybody.
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Worthy Boss
By Linda Tancs
In case you haven’t heard, Bruce Springsteen (aka The Boss) is headlining the U.K.’s Glastonbury festival on 27 June. Taking place now through the 28th, the event at Worthy Farm in the Vale of Avalon is the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. As you might imagine, tickets are sold out, but don’t fret. Venture outside London’s Hyde Park on 28 June and you’ll get an earful of The Boss at the Hard Rock Calling summer music extravaganza. There are lots of other acts in the lineup as well but not many tickets. Better act fast!
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The Wedding Pageant
By Linda Tancs
European royalty have been uniting (in a familial sense) since the earliest of times. But it isn’t all that common for a medieval union to continue to be celebrated–unless, of course, you’re in Landshut, Germany. Every four years the historical association presents the Landshut Hochzeit 1475 (Landshut Wedding), a 5000-strong procession in period attire celebrating the union of the daughter of a Polish king and the son of a very rich duke, one of the grandest events of its time in 1475. The town, over 800 years old, is known as much for its classic Bavarian hospitality as for its famous nuptials. The event runs from 27 June to 19 July. The bridal procession makes its way through town on 28 June, 5 July, 12 July and 19 July.
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Earth Music
By Linda Tancs
From 22 to 25 June at Tromøy, the largest island in southern Norway, the organizers of Hove hope their alternative music fest will elevate your eco-mind as well as your rhythm. In fact, the only metal you’ll find at this shindig is in the music. The two-year-old carbon-neutral event rounds out the task with organic food. So pitch a tent at the campgrounds and be at one with the elements.
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U.S. Fishing Tournaments
By Linda Tancs
Sport fishing is a popular activity. Tournaments abound throughout the U.S. for this competitive pastime. Learn more about these nationwide events for grown-up peeps and pee wees alike at Travelrific® Radio.
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Health Alert for Brazil Travelers
By Linda Tancs
Travelers to South America are well aware of the dangers posed by dengue fever, which is currently on the rise in Rio and Bahia. Carried by mosquitoes, symptoms of dengue fever usually begin 7 to 10 days after being bitten and include flu-like symptoms such as high fever, aches and pains and a headache. Covering up and using repellent is paramount as there is no vaccination. Apparently, yellow fever is also on the rise these days, meriting front-page placement on the New York Consulate’s website, urging visitors to obtain a vaccination at least ten days prior to entering the country. Of course, these concerns are in addition to confirmed cases of swine flu, now declared a pandemic by WHO.
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Wildlife in Suburbia
By Linda Tancs
If you thought the South American monk parakeet was content to keep company in the canopy of a tropical rainforest, then there’s a lot you don’t know about this little squawker. Sightings of the colorful birds, also known as Quaker parrots, have been reported from Miami, Florida to Brooklyn, New York. In fact, a cluster of them have taken up status as permanent resident aliens in the bedroom community of Edgewater, New Jersey. They brave the northeastern winter by building colossal nests with power lines as furnace heaters. Obviously, this poses a problem. Perhaps they should just dance instead to raise body temperature. Recent studies indicate that species such as this really know how to shake their tail feather. Ray Charles would be proud.
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Refuge in the Valley
By Linda Tancs
Tucked away just outside Darby, Montana lies the peaceful seclusion of Alpine Meadows Ranch in the Bitterroot Valley. Designed by the world renowned U.S. architect Frank Lloyd Wright, this 200+ acre estate offers rustic respite from city life–or suburbia, for that matter–with stunning vistas of both the Sapphire and Bitterroot mountain ranges. The prospect of communing with wildlife (viewed with safety from The Cider House) is guaranteed, considering that the property borders the largest wilderness area in the country, Selway Wilderness Area. Is there a best time of year to visit? Probably not; it is, after all, known as the Banana Belt due to the mildness of the weather year round. The Wright-designed House sleeps up to six, or cozy up in the Cabin for two. Wright’s concept of design was “of the land, not on the land.” See for yourself whether you’d agree. As another famous naturalist said, “Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.”
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Travelrific® Travel Journal 