Month: July 2010

Categories
Blog Texas USA

Psyched to visit Lubbock, Texas. Really.

Eclipse Windmill and horsedrawn water tank at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock TX (courtesy West Texan on Flickr CC)Way back in 2006, I wrote a post on this blog entitled “Why the bleep would I want to go there?”

In it, I wrote about taking the kids to visit places that seem crummy, but really aren’t, and how you can’t have an opinion about seemingly crummy places unless you’ve been there yourself.

I wrote….

“Let’s take Lubbock, Texas, for example.

The city that Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings got the heck out of. Sights include, hmmm, the National Ranching Heritage Center (exhibits of spurs and bits!) and ummm, the American Wind Power Center (windmills!)

“Lubbock or Leave It,” sing the Dixie Chicks.

The legendary folk/country Texas vocal group the Flatlanders (Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore) didn’t name their group “Guys from a Nifty Place,” they named it “Flatlanders.” ‘Nuff said.

OK, so why am I whipping up on poor Lubbock? Because I just don’t think you can designate a place Yuckyville until you have physically been there to investigate.

Ergo, I need to travel to Lubbock before I can pop off about it.”

What was amazing about that post was that people showed up to leave comments on it about how much they liked Lubbock, including someone from the Buddy Holly Museum. I was touched and even more intrigued after that.

Well, I’m pumped to announce that my chance to investigate has finally arrived – I’ll be speaking with my Tourism Currents business partner Becky McCray in Lubbock, Texas on August 12 at the annual conference for TACVB (Texas Association of Convention and Visitor’s Bureaus.)

Our topic is blogger fam (familiarization) tours and press trips with today’s wired writers and content creators.

Before and after we speak, though, I get to explore Lubbock and its environs, plus check out what’s between Lubbock and the Austin area when I drive there (like a museum about women pilots during World War II who flew from Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.)

Yes, I’m psyched to finally see Lubbock. Really.

Categories
Europe

Don’t miss the Carpet of Flowers in Brussels

Carpet of Flowers at the Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium (courtesy Yabby at Flickr CC)It only happens every other August.

It’s happening in August 2010.

It fills the center of the magnificent Grand Place with the most gorgeous, colorful carpet of painstakingly arranged real flowers.

You can read more about it on the Brussels flower carpet website.

There are fun things for kids to do in Brussels….plus everyone gets to eat lots of frites, mussels, chocolate and naturally there is great Belgian beer for the adults.

You should go!

Categories
Blog

Stats Woman: posts and info you love on Family Travel

Hugs and friends are good things (courtesy Clare and James on Flickr CC)Most bloggers like to keep up with their blog’s statistics and analytics, to see how we’re doing over time with our readers.

I’m no exception, and I thought you might be interested in some of the data from the last six months about popular items on this blog.

The source of my data is Google Analytics, the free and incredibly comprehensive analytics package from Google.

Sorry, don’t think I can share specific readership numbers, but let’s say that it’s more than just my Mom but less than a million.

Your Favorite Posts

*** Military family travel to Hawaii: 11 affordable places to stay

I’m former Navy myself and used to live in the islands, so this was a logical post for me to write. It also made sense to highlight lodging on islands other than Oahu, not only for visitors but for the military families in living in Hawaii as kama’aina (locals.)

*** Where I’d take my kids: best US family beach vacations

This was a search engine no-brainer. People plan to take their kids to the beach all the time, and they’re searching for that info year-round. The fun thing about this post for me was that I was able to highlight many of my own family’s favorites in one post, while still providing popular content that readers and search engines would like. Since I often write about rather obscure things, it’s fun to “go mainstream” and be successful in the search engine battle for those keywords, but not feel that I was just cranking out crap for Google bots.

*** When your kids encounter a squat toilet

Awesome. I hope this one hangs on in the upper tier forever. I wrote it because we had to deal with this topic when we lived in Japan and traveled in Asia, and you should write what you know. Again, if I’m wrestling with a kid looking at that toilet and yelling “What do I do?” then I know other parents are, too.

*** My top tips for travel with kids to Tokyo, Japan

This was what I used to call a “lazy” post because it’s simply a roundup of info that I’d previously published on this blog, the Perceptive Travel Blog and some other publications. I used to think that every post had to be a sparkling example of Pulitzer Prize-winning originality, or I was a blogging failure. I got over it and figured out that the occasional roundup of related content was helpful, not lazy.

*** Finding the best iPhone and iPad apps for kids

I don’t own either device (my smartphone is an Android) but I could see amongst my parenting peers how popular iPhones and iPads were becoming for keeping kids reasonably entertained on the road. My friend Christine Lu uses her iPhone kid’s games with her son all the time.  This post basically points you to another friend’s resource blog on the topic, but that’s what blogging is all about for me – sharing great info.

***  Kids in Tokyo: escape to Yokohama

I am so glad that people still like this one; it’s one of my very early posts. While in Tokyo, I found myself going down to Yokohama a lot because the waterfront was so spacious and nicely laid out.  Having a local show me the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum in town was a major bonus.

Where You Come From

About half the traffic is from search engines: sure, Google is the top one, but I do get significant traffic from images/photos (which is why I use the ALT tag religiously) plus Yahoo and Bing.

StumbleUpon likes it here, too.

Most visitors are from the US, but we do have readers in the UK, Canada, Australia, India, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. As a three-time expat myself, I do try to keep my international audience in mind.

Words You Use to Find Us

People type in words like “family travel,” of course, but we’re also found by people looking for info on whether TripIt is safe, cool travel souvenir ideas and stuff for kids to do in Michigan.

What is fun for me is that a lot of the posts I wrote because I was looking for certain information are favorites because apparently you were looking for the same info.

That makes me very happy. Thanks for reading.

Categories
Blog Product Reviews Texas Tips USA

Gowalla and Foursquare lead traveler to House of Pies

Slice of Bayou Goo pie from Houston's House of Pies (photo by Sheila Scarborough)In my tourism training hat, people often ask me about the utility of location-based services like Gowalla and Foursquare.

Here’s an example of why they’re so handy….

I was speaking in Houston at the TFEA (Texas Festivals and Events Association) annual conference, and I needed a quick meal near the hotel.  It was a rather ritzy area – at one point I tweeted, “I’m looking for a Taco Bell in a Smith and Wollensky part of town” – but I did find a sandwich joint where I could run in and out and get something to go.

While parked, I checked in on both Gowalla and Foursquare, because I’m experimenting with them for my tourism-related clients. Both services use the GPS function on my T-Mobile Android smartphone to figure out where I am, and then show me nearby places that are listed in their database.

Both kept showing a nearby House of Pies.

Who wouldn’t want pie after a long drive and before a big speaking gig the next day?  Who has kids and spouses who like pie?

I rest my case.

Without the digital insights from Gowalla and Foursquare (and Yelp if I had launched that app, which also has a location-based function and checkins) I would not have noticed the neon-lit House of Pies building diagonally across the parking lot from me on Westheimer, a major Houston thoroughfare. There’s also a House of Pies on Houston’s Kirby Drive and they’re on Twitter as @HouseofPies1967.

One slice of their house specialty later, I was a fan of their Bayou Goo pie (a “pecan crust with a layer of sweet cream cheese, then a layer of vanilla custard swirled with chocolate chunks and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings”) and even more of a fan of location-based services that bring me the information I need, when I need it, where I am located.

It’s hard to beat that convenience at 9 pm in an unfamiliar city, I’ll tell you!

Take a close look at privacy and notification settings before you use these; the default setting tends to be a public broadcasting of your location via Twitter, Facebook, etc. and you need to think through those implications. You can choose not to inform anyone when you check in, of course; Foursquare calls it “off the grid.”

If you have a smartphone, consider getting one of these free travel apps – I’m partial to Gowalla because it has a scavenger hunt aspect that kids will like, and lots of cool Trips for travel ideas. For more insights, here’s Gary Arndt’s post Gowalla vs Foursquare as tools for travel.

These services can really help with the “what’s around here?” question as you travel.

(This post was included in the 21 July edition of Wanderfood Wednesday. Check it out for other foodie posts!)

Categories
New York City USA

New York shopping at Forever 21

Forever 21 display in Union Square store New York CityIf you’ve never hit a Forever 21 clothing store, take your teen or tween and be prepared to pick from a huge, trendy and fun selection that is well-priced. There are men’s sections in the larger stores, but it is mostly a girl’s and women’s emporium.

I ended up in one in Manhattan (the Union Square store) when I realized that I wouldn’t have time to get back to my hotel and change clothes before a TBEX (travel blogger’s conference) party. I’d heard that Forever 21 was inexpensive, but I had zero confidence that they would carry anything that would interest a 49-year-old woman who usually prefers tailored, structured clothing.

Wow, I could hardly get myself out of there.

I ended up with some jewelry and two fun tops – I tossed on the white pearl-decorated one, along with some long necklaces, and was instantly party-ready.  The chance to shop and be girly (not a luxury that I allow myself much these days) was a heck of a lot more therapeutic than I’d expected, too.

The store inventory size is often overwhelming (as are the crowds and the very busy staff) and no one is claiming high quality levels for these clothes, but for me, a $15-20 cute top when I desperately needed one made it well worth picking through the racks.

After returning from New York, I gave my teen daughter a purple sparkly Forever 21 lariat necklace as a gift, and she said, “Oh, yes, they have one of those stores down at Austin’s The Domain shopping center. They have good stuff.”

Uh, oh, right in my backyard. This may create wallet problems.  🙂