On the road again … on the road again . . . – Zion National Park, Utah, United States
Jump to the full entry & travel map Zion National Park, Utah, United States Well folks today we took the ranger-guided tour of the park – snagged the last 4 seats on the bus come to that. You wouldn’t believe what we had to go through to get here though, a mile and a half tunnel wich was pretty cool, and all these twisting, winding roads just to get through the park
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On the road again … on the road again . . . – Zion National Park, Utah, United States
Jump to the full entry & travel map Hanoi, Ha Nội, Vietnam Day 1: Arrival Hanoi On arrival you are picked up by tour guide and transfer to hotel. If time permits, we embark on a cyclo for a short excursion through the bustling old quater streets named after the specific goods once offered for sale at these places.
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Hanoi Halong stop over – Hanoi, Ha Nội, Vietnam
Jump to the full entry & travel map Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States Long day of driving but worth it to have extra time in Santa Fe- what a place. Very unique, love the adobe architecture- different than anything we’re used to seeing. Soft, rounded edges, clean lines. Very clean city. We got here in little over 13 hours today as we left Little Rock by 5am and drove through Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle and arrived in Santa Fe a day early and got same hotel room for extra night. The van’s front windshield making weird high pitched squealing sound- think it has something to do w/ the right door or windshield letting air in when driving at faster speeds. May swap car out in Albequerque- we’ll see. We drove through Oklahoma City and saw the water park we went to at AAU nationals and the hotel we stayed at, Denny’s we frequented, etc. It was a very hot day today and got up as high as 103 somewhere in TX or NM. An early highlight of the trip was the stop at the Big Texan in Amarillo. We go there early in the afternoon so decided just to stop through and keep moving on to try to make it to Santa Fe. We found the Big Texan online- the home of the Free 72 oz steak and had been watcing the live web cam past few days at home in Gboro as they have a stage for anyone trying the challenge- eat a Monster 72 oz steak, potato, salad, roll and shrimp cocktail under an hour and get it free. They have a timer there too. Pretty funny and the place is a big tourist trap/stop off of I-40. But we stopped and it was hilarious as we had just been watching couple days ago and now we were here. We went in, got on the webcam and called Mom as she took pic of us on the computer. It was hilarious and Pops got a big kick out of it. We took pics inside and out and moved on– very funny stop and we enjoyed it. We gained another hour crossing into New Mexico. Saw route 66 on the side of I-40 throughout Texas, some of OK past OK city and now NM. We decided not to swap out cars and chance the annoying sound coming back and headed straight to Santa Fe. Glad we did cause what a cool place. We checked in to the Santa Fe Motel and Inn- outside rooms but decorated w/ southwestern decor- clean and great for us and of course free breakfast. We got settled and walked up to the Plaza for dinner. We had read about the Shed in couple books so tried it but there was a 45 minute wait so we walked all around the plaza– very cool place. Dinner was great- got a couple beers and I had some enchilada dish with “Christmas” style chile sauce- red and green. We got chips, salsa, guac and Pops had chicken quesedilla. Good spot. We were beat after- walked back throuh Plaza and home and in bed by 9:15. Pops says first time he’s gotten 8 hours sleep and long, long time. His peach fuzz beard starting to come in and he’s threatening to shave his neck to clean it up but trying hard not to allow it..
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Detour- Drove all the way to Santa Fe from ARK – Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Jump to the full entry & travel map Tupiza, Bolivia Getting out of Salta was quite straight forward. The best bus we could get was a Semi-cama and, because it took 7 hours to reach the border town, La Quiaca, we took the midnight bus, we would have the full day to get where we needed to go, Tupiza, still have time to take a look around and try to book a tour of southwest Bolivia. We did just that but the sequence of events was more of an uphill struggle than we had imagined… The bus to La Quiaca arrived an hour early causing some commotion on the bus among tourists as to whether we were actually at the final destination or whether we did indeed have another hour before arriving.
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Thr route into Bolivia…… – Tupiza, Bolivia
Jump to the full entry & travel map Franz Josef, South Island, New Zealand What a day! I trekked a mofo glacier by the same name as the wee town that im staying in, Franz Josef. It was obviously an organized trek as im no expert. It was truly magnificent! This is a first for me…being on any sort of glacier and it blew me away. Im gonna hopefully let the pictures do most of the talking. The glacier is situated in a valley stuck between two mountains, it’s aboot 1km wide. It was aboot an hour hike to get to the bottom of the glacier then another hour of steep incline on rock, gravel (which was hiding the glacier) before we really got to the good stuff, the pure white ice of the glacier, (sometimes blue when the sun shone on it) and was able to see the pure size and magnitude of it. We had 6 hrs on the actual glacier, hiking, trekking, slipping through crevasses, up, down around the ice. The guide who has been doing it for 3 years says there are still parts she hadn’t ventured to so it truly is always different…good to keep it fresh. I just loved walking in my crampons (ice picky things that go on shoes) along the ice, squeezing through holes, wee caves, crevasses and just taking in the pure beauty of it all. And it only lightly rained for like an hour which is unheard of. It always rains here. The sun was shining bright most of the day, so we were very fortuante.
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Glacier Trekking! – Franz Josef, South Island, New Zealand
Jump to the full entry & travel map Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands We spent today in Amsterdam. This morning we toured a farm outside the city and were shown how they make their cheese and also how to make clogs. After lunch we took a boat ride on the canals to see some of the sites of Amsterdam. Our next stop was the Costner Diamond Comany. We didn’t need a whole lot of shopping time there!! However, we did get to see a diamond with the ultimate clarity (the color is called “river. It had a $100,000 price tag on it. It was cut with their new patented diamon cut, called the Royal 201. It was interesting that the 2nd language on the signs was Arabic–they are probably the only ones who can afford anything in this shop! Our final destination was the Anne Frank house/museum. That was a sobering note to our day. We don’t know how fortunate we are to have freedom. Oh, and did I mention we walked to these different destinations? A total of about three miles–we are getting pretty good a “hoofing” it at a pretty fast clip. One interesting note about Amsterdam–there are 10 million bicycles registered and they have right away. Be sure to ask your student about some of our experiences with bicycles. As of right now we should be back in Kanas around 5:00. See you then! (I will start the calling tree when we are ready to leave Atlanta. Je Mata, Linda
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A Day in Amsterdam – Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Filed under: Style in the News San Francisco folks scored big time with this summer’s comprehensive Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004 exhibit up now through November 29 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . After being discovered by Harper’s Bazaar ‘s famed art director Alexy Brodovitch in the Forties, Avedon went on to change fashion imagery and portraiture forever
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Richard Avedon Exhibit Comes to SFMOMA – Portraits by a Legend
Filed under: Style in the News Forever 21, now for your face and your home! Photo: Brian Kersey, Getty Images The fast-fashion retailer has had its share of legal trouble with designers such as Diane Von Furstenberg , Gwen Stefani and most recently, Trovata , accusing the store of copying their designs. But that won’t stop Forever 21 from trying to dominate the world of inexpensive and trendy products.
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Forever 21 Launching Beauty and Home
Jump to the full entry & travel map Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand I know it’s been a while, but I can’t NOT say anything about Thailand. It just wouldn’t feel right!!! I found a really accurate description of what we experienced on Patong beach (where we stayed for 5 days) from Canada’s National Newspaper, Globe Travel (thanks, paul’s mom!). “Thai boxers in silk shorts glide past on a flatbed truck as loudspeakers play the theme from Rocky
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Thailand – Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand
Jump to the full entry & travel map Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom Not a bad night’s sleep and we managed to get the boys to eat something before they charged out into the back garden to terrorise the poor dog. I let them go for a little while, but when I looked out and saw Reilly about to fall into the pond, I thought I’d better go out and keep an eye on them! And the poor dog was out there too! But I needn’t have worried about the dog, she was wagging her tail and having a great time with the two boys and her very squeaky toys.
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Stirling to Edinburgh – Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pisa, Tuscany, Italy Since Pisa is only an hour away from Florence, I thought what the heck. So I made my way by train early this moring and had a problem. I bought my ticket the day prior so I could schedule my day around it. It was bought from the ticket machine because it’s faster than talking to someone face to face. This was only my second time doing this. I pressed the 9:30 am button but my ticket that came out didn’t have a time on it so I though it was just an open ticket as long as you use it that day. So I snoozed my way in the morning but made it on the train to Pisa an hour late. I was on the train when the train ticket guy came around and I gave him my ticket. He said that he could “fine me” because I didn’t “validate” my ticket. WTF….supposedly my 5€($7.5) ticket needed to be validated by whoever for whatever reason. Because it was not a reserved seat it needed to be. Well, if the machine that spit my ticket would of told me, then I would have done so. But of course it didn’t. He either felt lazy or sorry for me and didn’t fine me. I then made it to Pisa and found a map to the Leaning Tower. I made my 15 minute walk to the tower and was kind of like “whatever.” The tower is only like 150 ft tall which really isn’t very tall. I walked up to it and could see some other buildings around it that resembled churches and museums. I went to the ticket office and discovered that they only sell tickets for guided tours every half-hour. And the next tour was 3.5 hours away. It would be cool, but I thought there is no way I’m going to wait that long just to climb it and snap some pictures. That and it was $22 just to go to the tower. So I left for the train station after my obligatory pictures of me pushing the tower. Pisa looked like a nice town for a short 3-day stop but it is time to move on to Venice.
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Leaning Tower of Pisa – Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
Jump to the full entry & travel map Antofagasta, Chile I do not like Antofagasta. I will say it´s much like Algeciras, Spain, another city that will never make it to my top 10, top 50, or even top 100 fave destinations list. It´s a larger port city that is a coming hub for transportation from San Pedro and north down to the rest of Chile. I thought I´d stay a night and maybe find that it´s a decent little place. Maybe it´s not so bad, but the hostal was. I walked into Residencial El Cobre, a hostal in the center recommended by my Bradt guide. At first you could tell that it was dark and somewhat run down, but not that you haven´t seen run down places in South America (or even the US) before. They tried to make the room somewhat perky with light purple walls. (Why do hostels always use the brightest paint colors in the oddest combinations?) The bed was not inviting, but then I always have my sleeping bag. I thought, this place is definitely interesting but I can do it. Then I saw the bathrooms. The toilets hardly flushed, one still holding onto evidence of that fact, toilet paper was nonexistent, as was adequate lighting. I wouldn´t have stepped into the shower there with boots on. I´ve peed in some pretty desperate locations, most recently the desert in Perú, but nothing could have made me even pee in those bathrooms. I grabbed my purse and walked out onto the street. I just started walking, holding back tears, trying to think of what to do. I ate a salad at McDonalds, my standby travel frustration “happy place” but they did not come through for me. I had a $4 salad that was as good at McD´s US salads, which FYI is not good. I went to the tourist office and was talking to the woman there about how to get to La Portada, the only right I really wanted to see there. She asked me if I was travelling alone and I had to look away so I wouldn´t start crying to her. Well, getting to La Portada wasn´t worth the trouble of taking the bus and walking 3km, so I settled for walking around town. The street there isn´t so bad. There are lots of families and a really nice plaza. There are also more strip clubs here than in any other place I´ve seen on this trip. And they don´t bother to euphemize the names like they do with “gentlemen´s clubs” in the states. In Chile they just say “Beer and women” or “girls” next to the name on the sign. This is, after all, a port town as well as a hub for working the mines so these places probably do good business. Speaking of the mine workers, they seemed to comprise most of the guests in the hostal. Three of them were staying in the room next to me. The bathrooms sealed the deal and this just confirmed it: Residencial El Cobre is not Katie´s idea of a cozy hostal. I think I´ll opt for sleeping on the bus on the 12 hr overnight ride to La Serena. Bradt guide, you hadn´t let me down yet but now I don´t know if I can trust you. It´s funny the relationship you have with you guidebook when travelling.
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getting the heck outta Dodge – Antofagasta, Chile
Jump to the full entry & travel map Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy Hello Everyone! Today was my first day exploring Italy:) We were given a tour around Montepulciano and got familiarized with the place where we will be taking classes for the next few weeks. The apartment where my three roomates and I are staying is literally about five steps down the street from La Trattoria, the restuarant where they give us dinner each night. It has been raining off and on since we got here but it has kept the air nice and cool and we could see a giant rainbow from the apartment last night. Right now I’m eating some kind of yummy garlic pasta in one of the few cafes in Monte that has wireless. When our school building opens back up on Monday I’ll be able to upload more pictures but my connection isn’t strong enough for that in the cafe. I hope you are all doing well…pictures coming soon!:) MC
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Arrived in Italy! – Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy
Jump to the full entry & travel map Florence, Tuscany, Italy I arrived in Florence yesterday evening and at first I didn’t know if the stop on the train was correct. When I think Florence Italy, I think that it’s a decent size city. All I could see was a smallish town from my train window. It was the right station, so I was there. Being that I didn’t reserve a bed prior to my arrival, I had to play the walking game. It involves walking around with your heavy backpack and trying to find a cheap place. The second I walked off the train, all I heard was English. I must of walked for almost an hour and I probably heard non-English only a hand full of times. Which is kind of good but not really. I didn’t come all the way to Florence Italy to hear English. I came for Italian. For me, hearing a crap load of English kind of takes the fun out of traveling. I know it is a blessing when I’m in a hotel or restaurant and I have no idea what the person is saying to me, but it takes the exoticness out of the whole experience of traveling. I tried a hostal and they were all booked up. So I went nest door and found a cheap hotel room all to myself which is just what I needed after Rome. I proceeded to walk around a bit and found a bite to eat. Then I did some walking around and came upon some pretty cool churches. I hung around them for a bit and then went to grab a beer. I ended up meeting some Brazilian people and hanging with them for most of the night. Out of about 12 people, only 4 could moderately speak English past the “Hello”, “My name is” stage. So it made for an interesting night. Especially when you talk about how the US soccer team almost beat Brazil a few weeks ago. The next day I woke up kind of late and starting to walk the streets in search of expensive tourist sites. I went back to the huge church that I had seen the previous night and walked inside. It was cool to see but since I have probably seen the best of the best in churches, it was small peanuts to me. They did have a tower that you can climb for a small nominal fee($12). Since I like a challenge and love to catch the bird’s eye view of the city, I made the climb. The climb was the usual, small spiraling stairs too small for anyone over 250 lb and part of it was traffic for up and down. The view was awesome though! Afterward I followed the path recommended by the tourist info guy and I made my way to the museum de something. It was small but had a few pieces that were neat to see. Then I made my way south and got lost for about 3 hours because I didn’t want to pay the museum fees. The night was topped off by a so-so dinner of penne pasta with tomato sauce and then some beef stuff with zucchini. Florence-Not really what I expected, again I thought it was a decent size city. Other than the churches, I don’t remember many buildings over 5 stories tall and the tourist sites seem to pale in comparision to Rome. Note to self: Don’t see Rome first when traveling Italy.
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Laid Back Florence – Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Filed under: Accessories , Contests & Giveaways Triple threat necklace. Photo courtesy of Target Get ready to win a necklace from the hottest new Target collaboration — Hollywood Intuition! You know all those pictures you see of celebs like Rachel Bilson, Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston shopping in Los Angeles? Well, a majority of the time they’re at the Intuition boutique — it’s the hot spot for trendsetters and, not so coincidentally, the paparazzi
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Win a Celeb-Worthy Hollywood Intuition Triple Chain Necklace
Filed under: Style in the News , Vintage and Retro Emma Watson chose vintage Ossie Clark for a recent film premiere. Photo: Tim Whitby, Getty Images. Emma Watson just made red carpet magic in a vintage Ossie Clark gown at the London premiere of “Harry Potter,” and it’s a good thing — looks like, going forward, vintage will be the only option for wearing the brand.
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Ossie Clark Closing Its Doors
Twitter Contest Giveaway: Pacific Outdoor Vancouver Messenger Bag As part of the Matador Twitter contest , we will be spotlighting cool gear we’ll be giving away to lucky readers As part of the Matador Twitter contest , we will be spotlighting cool gear we’ll be giving away to lucky readers. The material for this classic bag is a mix of polyurethane, nylon, and polyester, resulting in a waterproof material perfect for protecting your gear in any weather.
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Twitter Contest Giveaway: Pacific Outdoor Vancouver Messenger Bag
Bruce James Talbert Gothic Hall 1868 Bruce James Talbert was considered by many of his contemporaries to be the leading designer and decorator of interiors of his period. His career spanned the 1860s right up to his death in 1881. Talbert was a broad designer and included furniture, textiles, metalwork, wallpaper, carpets and tapestry as well as planned interiors within his design career.
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Bruce James Talbert and the Constant Interior
Filed under: Style in the News Carla Bruni wears the same Chanel dress twice! In March, at the Hadassah fundraiser with Slomo Mo-Yosef (left); and with husband/President Sarkozy on Bastille Day (right). Photos: AFP/Getty Images Carla Bruni spent her younger years as a fashion plate and has been wowing official crowds with her great sense of style ever since becoming French First Lady. But perhaps even supermodels can use a style pointer now and then! The First Lady of France is taking a play straight out of Michelle Obama’s stylebook by recycling her looks.
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Carla Bruni Takes a Cue From Michelle Obama – Wears Same Dress Twice
Jump to the full entry & travel map Cobham, England, United Kingdom Our plan was to leave the house all loaded up with dogs and baggage at 0700. Amazingly we made it and after checking and re-checking that we had everything we posted the house keys back through the letter box and departed on time,. However 10 minutes into our epic journey we realised that we had left the dog passports behind and had to return home
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Honey, I’ve left the kids! – Cobham, England, United Kingdom