Month: February 2009

Categories
Tips USA

Dueling tourism taglines for North Carolina and Ohio

Here they are, and coincidentally both were on Chevy cars parked right next to each other in Dayton, Ohio.

You know I had to drop everything and take travel geek photos.

The plates feature taglines for two different states in two different regions of the US that both use an aviation angle to tout some “historic cred,” and perhaps encourage tourism along with state pride.

North Carolina, of course, is the home of Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks, where the Wright Brothers conducted their famous experiments in flight around the wide-open, unpopulated sand dunes (at least, they were unpopulated way back in 1903.)

Today it’s still a nice place to visit, if a bit touristy. Plenty of lighthouses to see, although there are so many shipwrecks offshore that it’s called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

Sainted Husband and I liked the area so much, we got married there a few years back, in the tiny town of Duck at the Sanderling Inn.

Ohio, on the other hand, was actually the home of the Wright Brothers and their famous bicycle shop in Dayton.

You can visit the Dayton Aviation Heritage site, but ironically the original Wright shop was transported to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan by automotive titan Henry Ford, in an effort to preserve important historic locations.

My esteemed contacts at the Dayton Daily News tell me that the National Museum of the Air Force, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, does an excellent job of telling the aviation story in that part of Ohio.

Pick your state plate – you’ll get a fun flying story either way!

Categories
Tips USA

Back to the basics: hone your primitive skills at a Knap-in

Looking for a unique way to teach your kids about the past? Enjoy taking the family to living history museums?

Keep an eye out on your travels for events called “Knap-ins” or “primitive arts festivals,” where your kids can revel in their inner Sacajawea or Daniel Boone.

Similar to reenactments or battlefield encampments, a Knap-in brings together many enthusiasts who enjoy re-creating the daily lives, dress and meals of people who lived long ago (the term Knap-in is derived from the ancient practice of knapping flint into tools.)

Other primitive skills include hand-beading of cloth and skins, tracking animals, herbal medicine, knot-tying, making fires with friction tools and creating basic musical instruments. There are usually vendors and artists at a Knap-in selling such items, either already made or sometimes in kits to take home.

Children can learn a lot in one day about basic skills and tools that kept our ancestors alive.

We attended a Knap-in at beautiful Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park in north central Florida; look for such events January-April in many warm weather/Deep South US states, to avoid searing heat and bugs.

The big winner for my son was a chance to work with a costumed reenactor to learn how to throw an ancient spearing weapon, the atlatl (there’s even a World Atlatl Association for mega-enthusiasts.)

I found a few calendars for scheduled Knap-in events, and also take a look at your regional or state tourism events Website as well for possible announcements.

***  Directory of Primitive Living Skills Gatherings and Knap-ins of North America
***  Eskimo.com Upcoming Knap-ins
***  Missouri Trading Company Calendar of Events

Categories
Blog Site reviews Tips

Quick insights on travel with kids in the Caribbean

While my household and I wrestle with The Virus That Will Not Die, I’m longingly reading pal Wendy Perrin’s recent dispatches from the Caribbean, where she’s currently traveling with her family.

Wendy is the Consumer Travel News Editor at Condé Nast Traveler and the magazine’s resident Web 2.0/social media expert thanks to her excellent Perrin Post blog and active adoption of Twitter.

She’s on business travel in the Caribbean for the June issue of the magazine, but as a typically multi-tasking parent, she has her family along to try to get some quality time with them in between calls to travel writer duties.

Just like Benji Lanyado at the UK’s Guardian used Twitter to help with a Paris trip, and the lively folks over at National Geographic Traveler‘s Intelligent Travel Blog like to talk Twitter, Wendy gave a shout-out to her Twitter stream for family-friendly ideas during stops in Anguilla, St. Barts and St. Martin/Sint Maarten.

She was rewarded with winners like a stop at The Butterfly Farm in St. Martin.

She’s been blogging and tweeting her Caribbean experiences, and she pulls no punches (even about one barfy kid on the ferry from St. Martin, bless his heart) plus I can really relate to those annoying technical glitches that interfere with blogging when you travel.

As I snivel and blow my nose here in Texas, I am somewhat comforted that I am neither a barfy kid nor his semi-harassed Mom on a Caribbean ferry.

I know that’s cruel, Wendy, but thank you anyway for the vicarious Caribbean visit!

Need even more island inspiration? The Traveling Mamas blogged about family spring break in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos.

Categories
Blog

Happy Birthday, Dear Blog!

Birthday 1934 (courtesy Foxtongue at Flickr CC)Today is the 3rd anniversary of the Family Travel blog here on the BootsnAll Travel Network (true story – I first heard about BootsnAll at the stupendously great annual Texas Book Festival in Austin.)

The first post on February 10, 2006 said hello to everyone, the second was some random screed about traveler’s checks, but hey, I started a blog and wrote something, then kept at it, and boy am I grateful.

3 years is something of a lifetime in Internet terms, but I am proud of every gray hair I’ve earned, both on my head and on my blog.

I cannot tell you how often I’ve thought to myself, “Wow, if I wasn’t a blogger, I wouldn’t have a clue about what’s going on right now in journalism/travel/business/communications.”

I wouldn’t have a social media consulting and training business, either.

Props (as always) to the old friend who said to me back in late 2005, “If you’re gonna be a writer, you’ve gotta have a blog:” the Interactive Journalism Editor at the Houston Chronicle, Dwight Silverman. When I started this journey, the only blog I read was his TechBlog, and I usually couldn’t make heads or tails out of half of what he wrote.

Here’s the secret, though….I knew that whatever gobbledygook he was saying about the Web and social media and technology was important, and I’d better figure it out. So I did.

And along the way, what a priceless community of travelers and readers have joined me. Thank you as well to my husband and two kids, who still roll their eyes when they hear me say, “Oh! That’s a blog post!”

Blessings to all of you, and thanks for your support of Family Travel.