Month: October 2010

Categories
USA

Quick shot: Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam on our morning trip during BlogWorld (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

The historic Hoover Dam on the Nevada/Arizona border really is massive and well worth the side trip from Las Vegas, where I was speaking at the BlogWorld and New Media Expo Tourism track.

For heaven’s sake, though, go fairly early in the morning or the crowds and heat will simply do you in, and the kids as well.

None of the indoor exhibits or tours are free, but there is plenty to look at if you stroll around and across the bridge itself.

I shot some video and will edit and put that up as well, but thought I’d show you this quick photo from my phone.

Categories
Tips

What do I always pack on a trip?

Gobelins Art Belgian tapestry bags (photo by Sheila Scarborough)When it’s time to get it all into a carryon suitcase, I travel light….but when it’s time for a road trip in our minivan, I pack everything but snowshoes.

What goes with me every time?  I just wrote a guest post about that on Practical Travel Gear.

Here’s the first item:

1.  Tapestry bags for jewelry

I picked up two Gobelins Art tapestry bags in Belgium because, hey, that plus lace and chocolate is what you buy in Belgium!

One is small and zippered and takes a few necklaces, pins and spare watches (a Timex and Swatch that look fancier than they are) and the other is actually a snap-closure coin purse that I use for earrings.

It keeps those small, frisky gold studs from wandering off and having parties with the missing socks from my dryer.

Want to know more?

Click here for the rest of the 5 Things I Always Pack.

Categories
Blog Florida USA

Gulf coast beaches are NOT all oil slicks

If you’re planning a family trip to the Gulf coast beaches, don’t assume that they are all an oily mess from the BP oil spill.  Here are 6 reasons to visit the Gulf Coast now, in case you were wondering, and the Traveling Mamas have a post on October Gulf Coast travel deals and free concerts.

Tourism and visitor numbers are way down all along the coast, often for no reason other than people are assuming that the beaches are full of tar balls and such.

I’m not discounting the tremendous damage that some areas have experienced, but many places are suffering from a lack of visitors because people aren’t calling ahead or checking online.

For an overall view of coast conditions, go to the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) oil/tar tracking map.  It….

“….tracks the history of closures, advisories, and notices by county for beaches that have been affected by the oil spill. The tar ball icon indicates counties with any historical or current beach actions related to the oil spill. The sand pail icon marks counties that have not had official closures, advisories, or notices due to the oil spill.”

For Florida, go to the Florida Live site set up by Visit Florida and including beach webcams and local CVB (Convention and Visitor’s Bureau) tweets.

For anywhere, make some calls ahead to the local hotels and even restaurants.  They’d love to give you their perspective.

Categories
Uncategorized

Things to do, places to go

When I originally set up a weekly editorial calendar for this blog (hey, it’s a journey, not a perfectly-executed plan) I planned to look into the future on Thursdays and tell the readers about fun family-friendly events coming up in the next few weeks, around the world.

That idea’s been a total failure; I can’t seem to find time to scan calendars to pick out good events for kids. An alternative idea popped into my head recently.

I get a lot of emails from travel-related public relations folks telling me about their latest and greatest promotion or event.  Many of them, quite frankly, are not properly targeted and are obviously just scattershot announcements….the old PR “spray and pray” method of sending out mass info and hoping it sticks, only now it goes out mostly via email because that is so easy to do and its free. Never mind that improperly done, it clogs my IN box with garbage and is massively annoying.

Anyway, I’m a nice gal and want to support the travel industry in tough economic times, so here’s my plan – on Thursdays, when I have time, I’ll put up a post with short excerpts from relevant PR pitches.  The deal is, it has to be something that I think my readers will like, and I’m not copying/pasting a whole press release. Readers should know that this is PR info and not independently vetted.

Here goes:

  • (Monterey, CA) Jaw-dropping Aquarium exhibits, an organic Earthbound Farm adventure and a thrilling IMAX movie experience are all part of the family and budget friendly “Fish, Farm and Flix” package at Monterey’s Victorian Inn. Available through November 2008, the two night package starts at $379, not including taxes, a savings of up to $60 if package items were purchased separately. For reservations, please call 800-232-4141 or visit www.victorianinn.com.
  • (New England, USA) Says Mandy Grenier of Francestown, New Hampshire, “I am a mother of a two-year-old, so we are always on the go. I was always searching for a site that had area attractions for toddlers in New England and never found one with reviews on what to expect once we got there. Planning ahead; that’s the name of the game when you have a toddler! Anyway, I decided to start my own blog, One Mom’s Review.”
  • (Contest) Lands’ End would like to make planning family holiday get-togethers a whole lot easier this year by giving your readers a chance to win a great family get together for 7 nights for up to 12 people at The Resort at Paws Up in Montana! The contest kicked off September 30 and Lands’ End will accept entries at www.landsend.com/greatgettogether through noon October 30, 2008.  Prizes include a get together for 7 nights for up to 12 people at The Resort at Paws Up in Montana,  Cashmere Great Get Together package with Lands’ End’s high-quality cashmere sweaters and scarves for the family, and Fleece Great Get Together package with cozy fleece jackets and accessories for the family. Just have your readers fill out the online entry form and submit an up-to-300-word essay and photo.
  • (Philadelphia, PA) Two items:
    • Headed to the White House, a first-of-its-kind exhibition running through December 14, 2008, allows visitors to travel on the campaign trail, vote for their favorite candidate and take the Presidential Oath of Office through multimedia, interactive and theatrical displays. www.constitutioncenter.org
    • October 18 (next Saturday) is the opening of the children’s Please Touch Museum in a dramatic new home in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. The challenge for exhibition designers was to create a contemporary [hands-on] children’s museum in a building that embodies the spirit of the Victorian age. The museum space is divided into six learning-through-play environments. There is a Please Touch Museum hotel package available on gophila.com, also see www.pleasetouchmuseum.org
  • (Product) Linda of Family Travel Gear says, “I have images of my little one climbing out of her airplane seat during the flight, and causing such havoc that we all end up on the news. She is not a sitter, she is a runner. So I discovered the CARES Child aviation restraint system which is the first and only harness type Aviation Child Safety Device to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an alternative to a car seat (which I do not want to bring along so that I can have two hands free for adventures.) CARES is an elegantly designed belt-and-buckle device that works in conjunction with the regular airplane seat belt and provides young travelers the same level of safety as a car seat.”
  • (Mystic, CT) Everyone knows about the marine animals at Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration, but did you know you can now explore and touch sea creatures from millions of years ago? They are waiting to be uncovered by pint-size paleontologists in the new interactive exhibit Dig It! Prehistoric Creatures of the Sea, opening on Friday, October 10. This first-of-its-kind, hands-on exhibit provides a unique workshop experience where kids can dig for hundreds of authentic sea fossils. The fossils range in age from 500 to 600 million years old and come from Brazil, China, Europe, Madagascar, Morocco and the United States. Every three months, the types of fossils to be discovered change, so kids can find new specimens with each visit. The exhibit is open during the Aquarium’s normal hours of operation and will remain at the Aquarium through January 2010. Admission into the exhibit is $4.99 per child and includes one fossil that the child can keep. For each additional specimen to be brought home, the cost is $2.99.