Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!On the Case in London
By Linda Tancs
It’s elementary, you see. Combine a whodunit atmosphere with the swanky feel of a trendy watering hole and you get a bar/restaurant posing as a detective agency in London’s Earls Court. Located on Earls Court Road, Evans & Peel Detective Agency has that speakeasy flair, encouraging you to “make an appointment” with Detective Peel. Upon your visit, you’ll be discreetly guided beyond a bookshelf to a cavernous tavern where innocent-enough concoctions like Auntie May’s Marmalade Bronx will be tugging at your bootlegging soul. Better hurry; the appointment book is filling up.
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Tacos in Arizona
By Linda Tancs
Two dollar tacos, anyone? That’s not the only draw at the Arizona Taco Festival in Scottsdale, Arizona this weekend. Located at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Saturday and Sunday, you will see 30 plus teams duke it out in categories like chicken, beef, pork and seafood tacos along with sidecarts including salsa and guacamole for a prize purse of $10,000 overall. You can expect the usual events to return, such as lucha libre wrestling, the famed tequila expo, live surf music and cooking demonstrations, along with events for the kids to round out a family fun day.
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Tick Tock in Wycombe
By Linda Tancs
Church Loft is the oldest building in the high street of West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, reputedly the sunniest county in England. Dating from the 15th century, the timber-framed building sports a turret clock of its own renown. Over 300 years old, the side-by-side birdcage mechanism resides inside the building’s tower; the clock faces and dial drum were placed to overhang the street during the reign of Queen Victoria. For over 300 years the clock was wound daily until the recent installation of two electric motors above the birdcage rendered the task unnecessary. You can view the clock movements by appointment only.
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Celebrate At a Refuge Near You
By Linda Tancs
It’s National Wildlife Refuge Week, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service wants you to celebrate at a refuge near you. You’ll find an open house this week at the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on the Big Island in Hawaii. Take a guided bird hike or a tour of the greenhouse where native plants are being propagated. Among the lower 48, why not join the staff at New Jersey’s Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge for a sunset nature walk to view the migrating ducks. As the poet William Wordsworth so aptly put it, “Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.”
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Liquid History
By Linda Tancs
At the Lanesborough, a five-star luxury hotel in London’s Knightsbridge district overlooking Hyde Park Corner, a little libation awaits in the Library Bar. Well, maybe not so little. The Dom Pérignon Vintage 2003 (a trifling £240 per bottle) is served with a complimentary 10g blinis canapés of Baerii caviar from Aquitaine, France. Maybe you’d like their signature Bloody Mary instead. In any event, you’ll want to sink into one of those deep leather wing chairs and take in the Regency era ambience of this room, bedecked with leather bound books, vintage cognacs (their “liquid history”), display cabinets and subdued lighting to complement a roaring fireplace. Withdraw in style.
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Aw Shucks
By Linda Tancs
Do you know how to shuck an oyster? The folks in Wellfleet, Massachusetts would be happy to show you during the annual OysterFest. Contestants in the shuck-off competition can open 24 oysters in a matter of minutes, but aesthetics count, too. May the best presenter win.
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Apple Scrapple in Delaware
By Linda Tancs
If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s this: Bridgeville, Delaware’s Apple Scrapple Festival always takes place during the second weekend in October. Of course, apples are ripe and ready for harvesting and storage in October. But you can’t miss the smell of scrapple being processed in the summer months in this western Sussex County town. Come celebrate their export at the festival this weekend. The fun begins at 4:00 p.m. on Friday with the carnival, food court and street dance. Enjoy Saturday’s full day of events, including the Little Miss Apple Scrapple pageant, the skillet toss and scrapple chunkin’, and the scrapple slingin’. So who’ll be this year’s King of Sling?
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Thoroughly Bred in England
By Linda Tancs
The October Yearling Sale takes place today through 12 October at Tattersalls, the oldest bloodstock auctioneer in the world and the largest in Europe. Offering the best thoroughbreds to be found anywhere, the Newmarket firm’s annual Yearling Sale is Europe’s premier yearling sale, producing four Derby winners in the past decade alone. Only 60 miles from London, Newmarket (England’s home of racing) is just a short rail or bus ride away. Enter the Tattersalls premises via The Avenue.
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Iceploration in Florida
By Linda Tancs
For those adults who want the kids in their lives to put down their electronic gadgets long enough to see what else the world has to offer: Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida offers you Iceploration. Featuring a journey to the four corners of the globe, the show brings to life the African Serengeti, Great Barrier Reef, the Arctic and the Amazon rainforest in a production including skaters, puppets and animal acts. This is one 30-minute show that just might seize their attention.
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The Royal Coconut Coast
By Linda Tancs
In Kapa’a, Hawaii, they’re eager to celebrate the coconut. This typical island delicacy was cultivated in plantations along Kuhio Highway from Wailua to Kapa’a, giving this coastal region the designation Royal Coconut Coast. So what better place to hold an annual Coconut Festival than at Kapa’a Beach Park (next to the library). Taking place on 6 and 7 October, the event will feature entertainment on a main stage and children’s stage, cooking demonstrations by Kauai’s best chefs, the largest gathering of Kauai artisans, coconut games, pie eating contests, and a coconut cook-off contest. They’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts just waiting for you.
Travelrific® Travel Journal 