Little Black Guidebook

Hawaiian Quilt at Bishop Museum – Honolulu, Hawaii

I’m off for a weekend Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love and home of my Grandparents. The 23 hrs of flying that it will take me to get there is the result of Alaska Airlines route map and partner airlines selections, but should be a great opportunity for me to finish my book.

No, I’m not a budding author. You can tell travel is more of a passion that writing by how often I update this blog. Instead of leaving our photos from Europe languishing inside the computer or buying a digital picture frame that I’ll never use I’m using iPhoto to make a photo book. I know its more stuff in the house, but it is really our only souvenir of the entire trip, and that’s not that bad. Plus when people ask to see photos of our trip we can take down a nice hardcover book for them to leaf through instead of whipping out a computer screen.

Our last couch surfer “Long Way Dany” is a long-time traveler with quite the journey to talk about. He is also a great videographer. I really liked his latest, made a few days after leaving us.

NoWhere from Daniele Ciccone on Vimeo.

Being American means we get off for far fewer holidays than our European friends. This makes it even more special when the whole country slows down, takes a few days off and comes together over BBQ and family traditions.

Of course here in Alaska we can’t really do fireworks in 24-hrs of daylight, but we find our own ways of celebrating. This year we went and played 18 holes of frisbee golf, caught a summer movie and had little BBQ. Due to the rain that seems to only fall on my days off our BBQ consisted of the two of us making a little picnic in the living room, but it was special to spend time together none-the-less.

For now its back to work and planning future adventures.

If you ever come to Fairbanks, Alaska for the summer solstice you’ll realize how much we love the sun when we can get it. Come back for Winter Solstice and we celebrate that too, just bundled up with lots of comfort food.

Dress up with 4,000 of us and run a 10k at the Midnight Sun Run.

Go to a baseball game at midnight.

Attend the Midnight Sun Solstice Festival for some live music and street food.

Whatever you get up to there will be light guaranteed as its 24 hrs around here now baby.

This year the U.S. National Parks are offering free entrance days. Take advantage and plan a weekend adventure.

The first ones were held over National Park Week in April, and this weekend — June 5 and 6 — it continues.

For a list of the 100+ parks that are participating, check out this alphabetized list (by state).

Future Free Entrance Days this year are:

• August 14 – 15
• September 25 (Public Lands Day)
• November 11 (Veterans Day)

Of course “free” does come at a price, just like free day at the MOMA in New York there’ll be hordes of visitors. Well, maybe not in Alaska, but elsewhere. Have fun!

View From the Top of the Rockefeller Center Looking South, NYC, originally uploaded by WanderingtheWorld (www.LostManProject.com).

1 day, 2 nights in New York City with lodging already fixed near Grand Central Station. Any suggestions?

via: John in LA

Oahu, a tropical wonder of beach and sand, mountains and jungles, but it can also be the land of uber-big tacky hotels and tons of tourists.

Hubby will be there for four days of Army training with just a few hours here and there to do more than stare out the window at the rainforest.  Given more time, I’d go with him and do things again like sea kayak or scuba dive. Oahu is everything you’d want a tropical paradise to be, with enough to see and do here to keep you busy for a lifetime (duh people live here for just that reason), but between cosmopolitan Honolulu anad the mountain ranges of Ko’olau there is still an incredible diversity of things to do, even with just a short amount of time.

Here is the little list that I made for him to take with (after jealously whining about the injustice of being left behind).

Stroll through the Botanical Gardens

The 1st time we went to oahu we went to the Foster Botanical Garden, but it was fall time. Now it is Spring and Hawaii’s amazing collection of sweet-smelling flowers and treeswill be in full bloom. Its right downtown and only takes an hour or two to go through.

Bishop Museum

This museum took me all day and for most people it will take at least half a day, especially if you have kids, but you can time it to go just in time for one of their one hour topic specific tours and be in and out in just over an hour. Even if you do not have kids, this is a must-see on your vacation. Originally founded by Princess Bernice Pauahi, it contains a great collection of Hawaiian and Pacific artifacts and a huge science adventure center where they actually make lava as one of the displays.

Nu-uanu Pali Lookout

Honolulu traffic is hell, it once took me 2 hrs to go 3 miles. So why not go a little out of the way on your commute (yes rental car is pretty unavoidable for business trips as the bus system is so slow). Take about a half hour drive from Waikiki to the Nu`uanu Pali Lookout which has a great view of the windward side of Oahu and Kaneohe Bay.

Hawaii’s Royal Palace

Take a unique tour of the only royal palace in the United States. Built in 1882 for King Kalakaua, Iolani Palace takes only about an hour to see and is just a short walk from the State Capitol in downtown Honolulu. http://www.iolanipalace.org/

Pearl Harbor
He went to Pearl Harbor on a family vacation with his parents once, but with military I.D. its super easy to see the U.S.S. Missouri simply by driving yourself and not waiting for the shuttle bus. Both the beginning and end of World War II are memorialized forever at Pearl Harbor today in the form of the U.S.S. Arizona and the U.S.S Missouri. To save time you can drive to the Missouri yourself with military I.D. and see the U.S.S. Bowfin real quick. Tickets to the Arizona are timed so if you only have an hour or so to stop by you’ll have to get there early or skip it.

Historic Mission Houses
The Mission Houses were the original headquarters of the Sandwich Islands Mission, a group of New England Christian missionaries who arrived in Hawaii in 1820. It takes less than two hours to quickly peruse all three buildings. http://www.missionhouses.org/

Hike Diamond Head
Located on the southeast coast of Oahu, not far from Waikiki, Diamond Head is one of the world’s best-known volcanic craters. The view from the 760-ft. summit is well worth the climb. The steep trail to the top is mostly paved and includes two sets of stairs. One is 99 steps, the other 76 steps. They lead to a 225-foot tunnel (bring a flashlight) and end with a spectacular view of the island’s west side. This is also an excellent spot for whale watching during the winter months. While the park service suggests you allow 1.5-to-2 hours for a leisurely hike; the hike itself, round trip, takes less than 30 minutes for an in-shape Army guy.

My desire to wander is unsupressable. I am dealing with it in two ways. First is the big Moving Overseas exercise. 2nd, I’m planning my next trip. So pause all the home improvement posts for a sec and let’s talk logistics.

New Jersey and New York public transit. All I have to say is, “Thank goodness Google has a public transit route planner!” I have the perfect storm of obligations occurring next month all in one-week that will have me flying into Newark, going to Philadelphia, West Point New York, New Brunswick New Jersey, and New York City. The turn around times just don’t make renting a car feasible. Its too expensive to rent, park, navigate and the trains just seem way more convenient. But it does take pre-planning of routes, trains, back up plans, coordination and flexibility. A car just goes with you when and where you want it to.

Tale of two methods of travel.

Take the first leg of my trip for example, Newark Airport to Langhorne, PA to visit my Grandparents.

• My parents: land +1 hr to collect bags and get to rental counter, +1 hour to pick up car and arrange family and bags in car, +1 hr stop for dinner once safely outside of airport pricing zone, +2 hours to drive to Grandparents if all goes well. This works for them, there are 4 of them to worry about now that 3 of us are grown and its more cost effective and less stressful for them.  (arrival time at Grandparents 11pm)
• Me and hubby: land carrying our bags, +1 hr to get to train station in time for 6:40pm train after grabbing a quick bite to eat when we land at the airport or eating prepacked snacks; arrive train station where Grandparents are waiting to pick up 7:57pm; arrive Grandparents house 20 minutes later) (arrival time 8:20pm, cost $14.75 each train ticket)

Next up I have to figure out trains from PA to Grand Central Station, NY then on to Garrison, NY to meet the ferry to West Point. Then ferry back from West Point, train to New Brunswick, then train back to New York and once more back to Newark for the flight home. Hopefully it will all work out smoothly, and thankfully if the plan doesn’t work and I have to adjust things as we go along, we don’t have pre-purchased Italian train-tickets and no Italian language skills.

Even with English not being a barrier, do you know how hard it is to figure out public transportation in American cities sometimes? There are exceptions like DC’s metro, but even then have you tried using Metro buses? Its like a secret club, once you figure it out, you’re in and party to some good, cheap transportation, but its not really accessible to tourists or travelers without a lot of effort on their part. Of course, I’ll admit, by the time I figured out metro buses, I was glad those obnoxiously loud Hard Rock Cafe clad tourists weren’t crowding my metro bus like they were my Foggy-Bottom metro stop during certain hours. I just wanted to sit in peace with my headphones wearing my business suit (but no flip-flops or sneakers so I wasn’t a completely assimilated to DC commuter).

Wow, now that digression came out of nowhere. Here’s hoping for the best.

You would think that Alaskans would care about the Winter Olympics given that we have ample weather for practicing these sports. In fact, most of us couldn’t care less. I am easily addicted to the Olympics though. I love the personal stories and pomp and circumstance. I spent the Beijing Olympics huddled near my TV for two precious weeks of summer watching people go back and forth in a pool. Man what a waste. I missed out on actually doing something for two weeks because I was watching the Olympics. This year, no more!

I have been invited twice to curling watch parties where die-hard fans huddled around a screen with a Canadian cable channel playing as you apparently  can’t trust American networks to provide equal coverage to non-US (and probably better) teams. I didn’t go, as strangely tempting as it was.

Instead what have we Alaskans been doing over the last two weeks?

Carving Ice in the World Ice Art Championships, or in my case, going to look at the finished results.

With our long winters we have to keep busy indoors to so we have an active arts community. Last weekend we had a world famous cellist Zuill Bailey in town for one of our Symphony productions. This weekend we’re off to see The Tempest at the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre. I myself am back in piano lessons and loving the use of my right-brain again.

Alaska isn’t exactly on the triathlon or Iron Man circuits so instead we’ve invented our own alternatives. Arctic Man and Iron Dog respectively. Iron Dog is the world’s longest snow machine race and Arctic Man is one of the World’s Toughest Downhill Ski races, and an exciting snowmobile race, all in one. The skier begins at a summit elevation of 5,800 feet and drops 1,700 feet in less than two mile to the bottom of a narrow canyon where he meets up with his snowmobiling partner to finish the race. Attending the starts and finishes of both races is a communal craziness. (13,000 fellow adrenaline junkies make Summit Lake the 3rd largest city in Alaska for a weekend every year.)

If you think that is crazy and wonder whether the winter has frozen our brains, there are even crazier Alaskans who participate in the traditional “Chatanika Days Outhouse Race”. Each March five-person teams race a one-mile course, with four pushing and one riding in the specially built “racing outhouses”.

For those who prefer more sane or scenic pursuits there are also the traditional winter sports: snow shoeing, skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, going to the hot springs and Aurora watching.

So what could you be doing this winter weekend instead of vegging out to the Olympic commentary?