Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for August, 2010
400 Years of Culture in Santa Fe
By Linda Tancs
New Mexico’s capital city of Santa Fe is celebrating its 400th anniversary all year long. So what’s in it for you? Plenty. Be inspired by the landscape often depicted by American painter Georgia O’Keeffe, whose works are exhibited in the city’s Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Nicknamed “The City Different,” Santa Fe is the product of centuries of co-existence among Native Americans, Spanish, Mexican, European and African Americans. For instance, Canyon Road was a route by which Native Americans brought their goods to trade with the Spanish settlers in the Plaza de Santa Fe, where the Spanish began to build their adobe homes in the 1750s. A fine example of adobe is the Palace of the Governors, which served as Spain’s seat of government for the entire Southwest region. In this city also stands North America’s oldest church, San Miguel Chapel, whose adobe walls were constructed around 1610. Another curiosity is the Loretto Chapel, drawing visitors the world over for its remarkable spiral staircase to the choir loft built without any visible means of support with nails or beams, considered a miracle by the convent’s Sisters of Loretto. Other attractions include world-renowned art galleries, marketplaces, and performance venues, accessible on foot or by city bus.
Share this:
Down to Earth in Willamette Valley
By Linda Tancs
Thirty-five miles southwest of Portland, Oregon is the Willamette Valley’s Yamhill-Carlton District AVA (American Viticultural Area), an area rife with dark, plummy, black-fruited Pinot Noirs framed by minerality reminiscent of pipe tobacco, espresso, clove and dark chocolate owing to the marine sedimentary soils of the region. In other words, earthy–or down to earth–a moniker characterizing the inhabitants of the valley as much as the wines themselves. The AVA is bringing the valley to Portland today for a wine tasting at the Gerding Theater, Portland Armory, from 5 to 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance or $35 at the door. Why wait in line? Buy your tickets now.
Share this:
Air Show Turns 21
By Linda Tancs
The number 21 often signals a coming of age. No wonder, then, the folks at South Lake Tahoe California’s Lake Tahoe Airport are throwing a big bash at this year’s air show on 28 August. Among the many events planned are guest appearances by aerobatic performers Bill Cornick and Jon Melby and the gravity defying antics of Spencer Suderman in his famous Pitts. Gives new meaning to the phrase, birds of a feather fly together.
Share this:
Nevada State Fair Opens Today
By Linda Tancs
The Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center hosts the Nevada State Fair today through 29 August. Admission is free on opening night; the grand procession begins at 7 p.m. As is the case with any state fair, the event will highlight the usual livestock shows, auctions, agricultural events, and exhibits, as well as carnival rides and live entertainment. However, in this and future years Nevada’s long and storied Wild West history will be featured during the annual attraction. That means you can expect to experience a mining camp, a frontier town, a Native American village, stage coach rides, and a host of other features defining the State’s history. That’s a lot to see in one day, so why not buy a 3-day passport and save $45!
Share this:
Feeling Blue Around the World
By Linda Tancs
Feeling blue? In some parts of the world, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That is to say, if you live in a blue zone–areas of the world where the population regularly lives to the ripe old age of 100 or more. Places like Loma Linda, California, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, Sardinia, Italy and Okinawa, Japan. Don’t pack your bags just yet, though. Just being there won’t increase your chances for longevity. You gotta walk the walk, as they say. That means lots of whole grains, veggies, beans and fruits. Maybe Mama was right after all.
Share this:
Flying 101
By Linda Tancs
Can you identify the location of a jump seat on aircraft? Did you know that the “black box” is actually orange? These and other curiosities of air travel are demystified courtesy of Kulula Airlines’s Flying 101 aircraft. Talk about truth in labeling! The South African carrier is also celebrating its ninth birthday. If you register for their eBucks program, you might even get to fly for free. That’s right–free. eBucks are earned for doing everyday things like shopping and paying bills with eBucks partners. Earn enough eBucks and redeem them for a flight–or pay part of the balance with a credit card. Ten eBucks equals one Rand. That sounds grand.
Share this:
Cruise Safety Measure Signed Into Law
By Linda Tancs
Thanks to a new U.S. law recently given effect, cruise travel will get even safer for its vast constituency. The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act imposes new requirements regarding onboard video surveillance, medical personnel qualifications, railing heights and peepholes in cabin doors. In particular, the law requires 42-inch railings (already a staple on many lines) and mandates that medical personnel meet American College of Emergency Physicians guidelines. Peepholes are required on cabin doors for passengers and crew as well as key and lock systems to further bolster security. In addition to the safety measures, the act demands that carriers provide more transparency in the reporting of cruise ship crime by maintaining crime logs, a move no doubt welcomed by the International Cruise Victims Association.
Share this:
Dublin Gets Nod for Literature
By Linda Tancs
A city like Dublin is defined by its literary giants–writers like James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William Butler Yeats and Oscar Wilde. No doubt that’s why UNESCO has seen fit to award the city with the designation City of Literature. One of only four cities in the world so designated, the move might increase tourism to an island hard hit by the worldwide economic meltdown. What better way to celebrate the city’s new moniker than by taking a walking tour of literary Dublin, beginning at the Writer’s Museum at Parnell Square and ending at Trinity College where many of the legends were educated. Just two hours of your time to experience a timeless treasure.
Share this:
A Tour for the Millenium
By Linda Tancs
Imagine what a best-selling series of novels set in a popular European city can do for tourism. In Stockholm, they’ve seized the day with the Millenium tour, an offering by the Stockholm City Museum celebrating the late novelist Stieg Larsson’s three Millennium blockbuster bestsellers about journalist Mikael Blomkvist and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. Now through September, the museum is offering a summertime tour around the central island of Södermalm, where the novels’ main characters lived and worked. Starting at Bellmansgatan (nearest Metro: Slussen or Mariatorget), the two-hour tour includes the apartment buildings of the lead characters as well as a view here or there of other views like Stockholm City Hall. Do take some time to tour the museum as well, the city’s cultural history authority housed in a 17th century palace.
Share this:
Celebrating the Gold Rush in Canada
By Linda Tancs
On the third Monday of August Canada’s Yukon Territory celebrates the advent of the Klondike Gold Rush spurred on by the discovery of gold in Bonanza Creek in 1896. That means today is a public holiday in the territory, and you should plan on traveling early to avoid traffic to and from the various locales offering events to celebrate the day. The usual roundup includes Watson Lake (known as the “gateway to Yukon recreation”), the Yukon capital of Whitehorse and, of course, Dawson City, the heart of the Klondike gold rush. In fact, the celebration began at Dawson City on 12 August, and there’s plenty to see here, like Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Casino, the Klondike Institute of Arts and Culture and the spectacular wilderness of Tombstone Territorial Park, protecting over 2,000 square kilometres in the south Ogilvie Mountains off the Dempster Highway. Did you know that gold is 19 times heavier than water? You can pan for your own on Bonanza Road at Claim #6, where it all began.
Travelrific® Travel Journal 