Month: April 2007

Categories
Philosophy

Five Reasons Why I Travel

Two street signs/icons intersect in Montgomery, Alabama (Scarborough photo)

I’ve been tagged by Jas at Through the Lenses to follow up her post on the topic of “Five Reasons Why I Travel.” 

“Tagging” other writers with a topic is a fun bloggy game, sort of like a chain letter but not nearly as annoying.  By the way, if you want good info on Thailand, check out Jas and her site.

Here goes:

1)  I like to scare myself.   Travel to new places is scary at some level, because you’re out of your element and out of your comfort zone.  I like to be brave, and one way to be brave is to train yourself to face the things you fear.  You can train yourself by going ahead and doing the things you’re afraid of, like getting out of your comfort zone.  I’ve been in so many strange places and felt weird so many times that now, I feel pretty comfortable just about anywhere. 

2)  I’m bored easily.  I want to know what’s over the next hill.  I want to see what’s new.  Don’t show me the money; show me something I haven’t seen already.

3)  I’m a know-it-all.  Since I want to know everything, I’m constantly reading, researching and learning.  The best way to learn about something is to surround yourself with it, so I travel to immerse myself in the knowledge of other cultures and people.  I sometimes say, “I don’t know much about XYZ topic, so I don’t have an opinion about it.”  Since I’m very opinionated, I can’t stand not knowing enough about something so that I can form an opinion. 🙂

4)  I’m a history buff.  I’ll read good history books all day, but I’d rather stand in the midst of a place where history happened, so I can really soak it in.  Do you know why it was specifically the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church that was so involved in civil rights in Alabama?  I can tell you. I’ve been to Montgomery, Alabama and stood in front of that church, and I saw that it is just a stone’s throw from the steps of the Alabama State Capitol, where Governor George Wallace shouted, “Segregation forever!”  Location, location — and the church’s dynamic young pastor, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.  I would not have such a visceral understanding if I had not personally traveled to that spot.

5)  I’m a culture vulture.  My house is stuffed with music, books, doo-dads and even food from my travels.  Why did I lug home a bamboo tingklik musical instrument from Bali?  Excellent question.  All I can tell you is that I smile when I tap it with its little mallet, and hear a sound that takes me back to my short visit to that magical island.  

Travel just makes me happy.  How about you?

Technorati tags: travel, family travel

Categories
Blog

I’m in New Zealand — sort of

Blogger at work (courtesy saar at Flickr's Creative Commons)

Through the wonders of the blogosphere, I’m featured in a post this week by New Zealand blogger Liz Lewis.

It’s part of her series of email interviews with various travel writers worldwide, and I’m honored to be included in such esteemed company (and to be featured on a Kiwi blog!) 

I’m not sure how many pearls of wisdom that I bestowed in her interview with me, but feel free to pay a visit and leave a comment. 

Liz launched herself into the blogosphere with the gutsy My Year of Getting Published, an account of her efforts to get started as a real-live freelance writer and blogger.  

How’d she do it?  Hard work, careful building of a portfolio of published clips, properly targeted queries and playing to her strengths, including her expertise on New Zealand travel.  (She’s also a nurse, and landed a paid blogging gig discussing Alzheimer’s disease.)

I learned about her “publish thyself” project through Deb Ng, who scopes out writing jobs most weekdays at Freelance Writing Jobs, and gives good blogger tips at About.com’s About Weblogs.  Thanks for the intro, Deb.

Liz and I keep “running into each other” in the comments section of various travel blogs, especially the Perrin Post — I don’t know how you can manage to wave to another person in print, but somehow we do!

The blogosphere is like this very cool social gathering where you circulate and run into the neatest people….OK, so you do have the obnoxious drunks at the party sometimes; the ones whose writing makes you feel as though someone just grabbed your butt and needs a good smack upside the head.  

Overall, however, I love that I’m featured on a New Zealand blog, that the post includes a link to a Houston tech blogger who’s helped me a lot, he sees the link and sends me an email to say thanks, plus tells me that he put up a blurb about it on Twitter, which I learned about at SXSWi, which I wrote about for a wonderful blogger in Chicago, who I’m going to actually see in person next month, along with having dinner with another travel writer that I met online, where I also ran into Liz Lewis.

Technorati tags:  travel, family travel, blogging, travel writing, New Zealand

Categories
Middle East

Visiting Israel

Floating in the Dead Sea (courtesy Jez S at Flickr CC)I was reading a post on World Hum (a very eclectic and fun travel Web site) that made me think about travel to Israel and whether or not it is too dangerous, which is always a topic of travel discussion.

My own trip to Israel as a single person was very brief; a Navy ship port visit to the city of Haifa, and a guided tour to some of the country’s highlights. I will confess that the entire time on the tour van was a bit nerve-wracking, as we were all US Navy Sailors and made a rather high-visibility and easy terrorist target.

Fortunately, as a woman I was not so obviously a military person (I can avoid the whole short-hair thing, and I don’t wear blinding white athletic shoes like the average American.) I decided that I had a very generous life insurance policy, so if it was my time to croak, my family would hopefully have one heck of a party after my demise.

We didn’t spend much time in Haifa, and the tour included highlights of Bethlehem, amazing sights of Jerusalem like the Wailing Wall and Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, the sobering Jewish stronghold of Masada, nightlife in Tel Aviv and a swim in the Dead Sea.

Here’s the deal, gals — DO NOT go swimming in the Dead Sea right after you shave your legs. The water has a super-high salt and mineral content (that’s what makes it so buoyant) and sticking freshly-shaved legs into it is like liquid styptic pencil. It’s like having your legs cauterized all at once. Ow.

Masada, Israel (courtesy laurgeo at Flickr CC)

If you’re considering a family trip to Israel (and here’s one family who made the trek) you will need to weigh the obvious dangers with the educational and spiritual benefit. Ironically, it’s very similar to my thoughts on travel with kids to Iran.

Keep abreast of the current situation, evaluate the dangers as unemotionally as possible, and make your best decision. As we so appallingly saw at Virginia Tech, there’s no hiding from nut-cases, so live your best and bravest life.

Next year, in Jerusalem….

Update 23 April 2007: Thanks to the very active and interesting Haveil Havalim blog carnival for featuring this post, and to Soccer Dad David Gerstman (the carnival host) for also recommending a book on family travel to Israel.

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, Israel, Middle East

Categories
Blog

It’s Monday and I’m Living Large

It’s a mellow Monday, since I’m kinda pooped after a long weekend covering NASCAR events up in Fort Worth at the Texas Motor Speedway for Motorsport.com and Fast Machines. I feel like kicking back and thinking Big Picture.

That brings me to Phil Gerbyshak, who writes at Make it Great! and is also attending SOBCon 07 in Chicago, one of two blogging conferences that I plan to attend in the next few months (after all the fun I had a SXSWi.) He’s challenging readers to think about their big goals in life and post about them.

I know I sort of thought about this a few months back, and it isn’t New Years Resolution time, but I get so focused on my writing and blogging work that I slip up on the basics — keeping myself in good health, enjoying my family and not being a drone. It’s a blessing to have work that you like so much, it doesn’t feel like work, but it’s become all-consuming.

Here’s what I’d like to do to Live Larger:

1. Move into my house. We shifted from Florida to Texas last summer and got our household goods in September. I still have boxes to unpack and can’t stand that. I don’t mind having a lot of stuff (good thing, since I do!) but I want to use and enjoy all of it and not have it sitting in a box. I know other people say they’re in the same boat, but it’s not good enough for me. I can’t think when I’m surrounded by chaos and can’t find stuff.

2. Take better care of myself and family. I used to work out, I used to conform to Navy active duty weight standards. Umm….not much any more.

Just FYI, to get the highest possible Navy physical readiness test score for my age group for women (45-49) you need to do 88 sit-ups in 2 minutes, 40 pushups, run a mile and a half in 10:58 or swim 500 yards in 8:15. Certainly not easy but not impossible. Max weight for my height? 160 pounds, which is actually pretty generous. I’m not grossly above that now, but for optimum health I need to be way below it (in my best shape I was about 135 lbs.)

Look, I’m not psycho about personal appearance, but the average American is overweight and many are obese and it’s not because we all have some exotic hormone problem. We can yak all day about why, but gargantuan portion sizes, eating crap and not exercising are the reasons. I feel so much better when I’m in shape, and that includes mentally. It needs to become a priority. Like, yesterday.

3. Not be a nagging harpy. I expect a lot of myself, so I expect a lot of my family. My kids get tired of Miss Bossy and I can’t say that I blame them. There’s nothing wrong with high standards, and I firmly believe that “to those whom much is given, much is expected,” but I should focus on the positive a lot more than I do. No, I still think that leaves room for item 2 above.

4. Get back to following my budget. Like a lot of folks, until a few years ago I just spent, paid bills and didn’t pay any mind to my cash flow, or set any financial goals. The arrival of kids and a hard look at my bottom line changed that. I still have cleanup to do, and need to get back to following my financial plan, otherwise known as a budget, and growing my net worth.

5. Quit navel-gazing and just do it. You know what’s depressing? I found my 1986 New Year’s resolutions awhile back, and I could Xerox them and call them my 2007 resolutions. That’s pathetic!

Look, the full-time freelance writing and blogging are going really well, I’m in good health and have a great family. I have no excuse not to be “living my best life,” as Oprah would say. Thanks for the nudge, Phil.

Technorati tags: travel, family travel, blogging, BHAG, Living Large, goals, goal setting

Categories
Blog

Blogapalooza: blogging conferences in May and July 2007

There are two terrific conferences for bloggers in the upcoming months, and I just want to take a moment to tell you about them in case you’d like to attend.  Both are in Chicago (I’m flying to one and driving to the other, and I’m in Texas; call me a glutton for travel punishment.)

First, SOBCon 07, for SOBs — no, no, silly, that’s “Successful and Outstanding Bloggers!”  Readers who know how much I like Liz Strauss and her Successful Blog have heard about SOBs before, and now a bunch of us are getting together May 11-12 at the Chicago O’Hare Sofiel, to take our blogging to the next level.  In the words of Liz Strauss: 

“Conversation Means YOU Talk Too.

A conversation involves more than one person talking. A conversation means you get to talk, too. The best ideas come when we mash up the knowledge and approaches from different fields and when we look at ideas from all points of view.

Imagine SOBCon — a room filled with web publishers, many you have met on your blog or blogs like this one.

See the SOBCon presenters. They’re leading conversations.

Can you see it? It’s an audience of people engaged in swapping strategies, offering top-notch thinking from which you get to choose . . . Here’s just a few of the folks who will be adding value.

  • Brad, Sheila, and Marcus, who know how words make connections with readers
  • Lisa, who brings the soul of an actress and the mind of a teacher
  • Jesse, who can see how a gamer might get over a wall
  • Tony, who can diagnose a problem inside a plan
  • Dr. Wolcott, who is at the top in the field of business innovation
  • Ashley, who brings a painter’s vision and delicate hand
  • Sandra, who knows tools and techniques of visual thinking
  • Joe, who brings those grounding questions and computer expertise
  • Jeff, who understands good to great and will get there
  • Tammy, who knows the people in every part of our job and the dynamics of conversation
  • Steve, who is the extreme leadership that lifts us to try
  • Dawud, who brings those goals he wrote that prove we express ourselves in our business
  • Vernun, who knows how to celebrate others as part of our dream
  • Muhammed, who can’t help but provide energy and new ideas
  • Robert, who will be there with a practical eye toward what is real
  • Franke and Timothy, who know the “group think” of the situation
  • Easton, who knows how to organize and monetize without killing the grace of an idea
  • Ann and Kent, who are leaders that know presentation is as important as content
  • Troy, who thinks big and challenges everyone to take permission to do so

And add to that list people from every walk of business life — corporate innovators, public relations communicators, and the hippest new media contributors — no kidding really. I’ve seen who’s coming and they’re all on it.”

BlogHer '07 I'm GoingThe second event is BlogHer 07, July 27-29 at the Chicago Navy Pier conference area.  Yes, guys, men are most welcome at this conference for bloggers!

Conference organizers are still pulling together all of the threads, panels and speakers, but given the previous info from BlogHer 06 in San Jose, I think they will put on a wonderful program, with something for every level of blogger and every interest.

As you know from my South by Southwest Interactive guest posts on Successful Blog, I think that it’s very important for writers and bloggers (often a solitary bunch) to get together at conferences like these.  Not only do you learn an incredible amount about the craft of blogging and the topics that we talk about, you also get to meet and exchange ideas with people just like you, who write and read on the Web.

Hope to see you there!

Technorati tags:  travel, family travel, Chicago, blogging, BlogHer, SOBCon 07

Categories
Blog Philosophy

Come visit us at the Perceptive Travel Blog

                                   Perceptive Travel Blog header

It has been a busy spring for me, with tons of writing and blogging….really, who can complain about doing “tons” of what they love? 

In addition to the launch of my Kid Trippin’ blog on the new Disney Family.com Web site, plus working up an article for the new online magazine Automotive Traveler, I’d like to formally announce my participation in the launch of another travel blog that is an offshoot of the online magazine Perceptive Travel.

The Perceptive Travel Blog is the brainchild of travel writer and editor Tim Leffel, author of the books “Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune: The Contrarian Traveler” and “The World’s Cheapest Destinations,” plus his Cheapest Destinations blog and the Practical Travel Gear blog.  

Tim started Perceptive Travel magazine to give unique, unusual and cultural travel articles a place to be happy and thrive, and he wants the Perceptive Travel Blog to have the same point of view.  In addition to my own contributions, there are two other bloggers, Antonia Malchik in New York and Steve Davey in London.  

We’re all having a great time with travel topics that perhaps don’t fit easily elsewhere (or we’re too impatient to wait to see them in print media.)  Come pay us a visit!

Technorati tags:  travel, family travel, blogging

Categories
Asia Blog

Learning Cantonese

Hong Kong street (courtesy filmmaker in Japan on Flickr CC)

I’ve said before that Hong Kong is my favorite city in the world and you should take the kids there for a visit if at all possible. 

This morning, I realized that I’d put a shortcut on my computer desktop to a site called “Learning Cantonese,” but I couldn’t remember what it was so I clicked on it. 

Well.  Glad I saved this.

Author Daisann McLane writes this fabulous blog about living in Hong Kong and the trials, tribulations and bliss therein (including the fact that actually trying to learn Cantonese has sometimes reduced her to tears of frustration.) 

I would love to meet this fellow writer some day, since she also writes a National Geographic Traveler magazine column that I like called “Real Traveler,” plus articles about Caribbean music and books about cheap hotels.

Isn’t it fun to start your morning with a great discovery?

Update today:  I should have also added a link to the BootsnAll Hong Kong [Travel] Logue, a “one-stop travel guide to Hong Kong.”

                                              Hong Kong's Star Ferry coming into Kowloon terminal (courtesy courriel_vert at Flickr CC)

Technorati tags:  travel, Hong Kong, Daisann McLane, China

Categories
USA

Update on New Orleans

Goofy teenage fun in a New Orleans voodoo shop (Scarborough photo)I’ve written about my own family’s quick stop in New Orleans last summer; since I lived in the New Orleans suburb of Harvey, Louisiana for awhile, I feel a bond with the city and I try to keep up with travel news about the area.

Helen Anders is a staff writer for my local paper, the Austin American-Statesman, and she just wrote “Crescent rising,” an article about her own trip to the city, to see how it’s doing post-Katrina and talk to the residents.

She also blogs on Anders Meanders about a variety of travel topics, including a recent post encouraging tourists to visit Louisiana.

There has been so much focus on the destruction from the storm that many do not realize that large sections of the state are untouched and struggling from the huge drop in tourist traffic.

If you have older kids, consider a trip this year to the world-famous New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival April 27-29 and May 4-6 2007.

There is an insanely wide variety of musical artists on tap — something for absolutely everyone in your family. If you decide to go, hurry up and book your hotel room as soon as possible.

Other fun festivals include the Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge May 4-6 2007, the awesome Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette April 25-29 2007 or even the Natchitoches Christmas Festival later this year.

Where y’at?

Update 4 April 2007: For the art enthusiasts, the San Antonio Express-News has an interesting article about how France is lending a cultural hand to New Orleans through a special art exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art, featuring over 80 different paintings from across France that “emphasize the role of women in relationship to others in society.” Artists include Degas and Picasso.

Technorati Tags: travel, family travel, New Orleans, Louisiana

Categories
Tips

Travel speedlinking and blogtipping

Think Spring! Citrus stand near Homosassa Springs, Florida (Scarborough photo)

We’re going to get two of those birds with one browser, folks. 

I’ve had some good links lying around waiting for a post, and it’s the first of the month so I need to tip a few blogs so you’ll know about them.

Speedlinking first:

**  If you’re planning a trip to New York City and wish you and the kids had more excitement in your lives, check out the Trapeze School of New York for some high-flying fun (as long as you and heights are OK with each other.) 

The only drawback is that you can’t get started until the beginning of May 2007, and classes sell out quickly.  Thanks to the Fodor’s Travel Wire 5 Great Urban Adventures for this tip.

**  Thinking about a spring vacation while it’s still….uh, spring?  Hurry up and look at Smarter Travel‘s top five off-peak destinations, including Seattle, Germany and Costa Rica.

**  The Washington Post Travel section has an incredibly comprehensive list of travel-related Web sites from A to Z, just in case your stack of Favorites/bookmarks isn’t high enough.

**  Does your family like cycling vacations?  There’s a new bicycle route that traces the Underground Railroad used by escaping slaves.  The bike route starts in Mobile, Alabama and ends in Owen Sound, Ontario; you can do the whole thing all at once or just chunks of it.

**  For those considering a family cruise, don’t miss Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s Wendy Perrin and her recent cruise-related blurbs on her great blog Perrin Post.  The New York Times also has ideas for taking the whole clan on a cruise (free registration may be required.)

**  Trying to get around the Midwest on a shoestring?  Take a look at the new Chicago-based Megabus service; it is expanding starting April 2nd to Pittsburgh; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky. 

**  Travelers to New England can have fun in that dynamo city of Providence, Rhode Island or check out those maple syrup makers.

Time for blogtipping, which I haven’t gotten around to since my first go-round with it in January 2007.  

The “rules” say that I should give 3 compliments and one tip to each of three blogs featured, but the way things are going today I’ll never get this done unless I just write a quick comment for each (I’m covering the Spring Nationals drag races in Houston for both Fast Machines and an upcoming feature story on Texas drag racing for Texas Highways magazine.)

1)  BlogHer Travel, by Pam Mandel.  There’s always something interesting here, so you should go check it out.  Pam has a fine turn of phrase and finds great links.  After that, take a look at the entire BlogHer community (no, it’s not just for women.)  

2)  Inkthinker, by Kristen King.  If you’re interested in the craft of writing, or thinking about freelance writing or blogging yourself, go to this blog.  Kristen is a pro, plus she’s welcoming and a lot of fun.

3)  Gadling.  This “traveler’s Weblog” is frequently updated and full of neat things that make me say, “Gee, I didn’t know that.”  Surf over and take a look.

I need to get back to my drag racing story, but tomorrow I’ll talk about a brand-new blog where I’m one of a team of authors writing about all sorts of travel topics.

Technorati Tags:  travel, family travel