The Perpetual Tourist

The winter can be kind of a drag for someone who likes the outdoors but doesn’t have the coordination for skiing (yes, I am talking about myself). Finding activities out of the house can be a challenge, but if you’re up for a real adventure, maybe it’s time to take up caving.

There’s a whole world beneath our feet, and few people ever see it for themselves. That’s one of the main draws for many spelunkers, to see things that have never been seen by others before. Caves can be really beautiful (and quite muddy), and a caving trip is a great group activity (but never something you should do on your own).

Cave safety is very important, because you’re not likely to have cell phone reception inside the cave and if you get injured, it’s not easy to get out quickly. You should always go spelunking with someone trained in cave safety. If caving becomes a regular hobby, you should probably take a cave rescue course. Hopefully you’ll never need the training, but of course it’s better to be safe than sorry, as they say.

If you’re a caving novice and you don’t know anyone with experience, look up a caving club, known as a grotto, here. Caving clubs will have information about where to find caves in your area, and they may provide the gear you’ll need for your first trip. Many caves are on private property or are closed at certain times of the year, so you want to be sure you have permission to go into a cave before you head out on a trip.

The temperature inside a cave is pretty steady year round, so as long as the cave is open, you can go exploring any time of year. If you like the idea of exploring the underground world, but you’re worried your claustrophobia might be too strong to overcome, check out commercial caves like Luray Caverns in Virginia or Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. These are just a few of the popular caves in the US that are open to the public for tours, and you won’t have to get muddy or crawl on your belly to see the spectacular limestone formations.

February is winding to a close, so that means Spring Break is right around the corner. College students all over the US and Canada are getting ready to take off for a wild week without classes, homework, or supervision. So where is everyone going this year?

The most popular Spring Break trip is to go to the beach and spend a whole week wearing only swimwear and drinking only booze. It’s called Spring Break because it falls in the middle of the spring semester for most schools — not because Mother Nature is done with winter yet — so if you’re going to spend all week in a bikini, you don’t really have the same beach selection you have for your summer vacations.

According to MTV, the network that turned Spring Break into a worldwide celebration of debauchery, the best destinations are south of the border, in Mexico. If you want to stay in the US, the Spring Break hot spots are Panama City Beach, FL and South Padre Island, TX. Of course, if you’re not interested in getting yourself on a Girls Gone Wild video, these are exactly the places you’ll want to avoid for the first few weeks in March.

Here’s a quick summary of where to find all the crazy college kids over Spring Break:

Cancun, Mexico: As if Spring Break isn’t wild enough anywhere, the heavy partiers go to Cancun, known as Mexico’s Sin City, for their week off. It’s a beautiful spot for sure, but if you want to remember your Spring Break, maybe you want to start somewhere less notorious.

Panama City Beach, Florida: For revelers without passports, Panama City Beach is the most popular Spring Break destination in the US. Over half a million students flock to Florida’s Emerald Coast to party with the MTV crew each March. Panama City Beach is the place to go for concerts, clubs, and perhaps a cameo on TRL.

Nassau, Bahamas Party Cruise: According to the veterans of this cruise, it’s a more laid back Spring Break experience than some of the other popular destinations. It can be a relaxing getaway from the grind of your classes, and you can still take part in some partying — but you’re less likely to wake up next to a stranger than your friends who went to Cancun.

For more Spring Break destination information, visit StudentCity.com. You’ll find lots of featured destinations, most of which are described as “the place to go for PARTIES!” If that doesn’t sound like your scene, you probably want to avoid the beaches for the next month or so, and save your sunbathing for the summer, when the coast is more family-friendly.

If huge, wild parties are your thing and you can’t wait to strip down and drink up over your break, just remember to be responsible. The more you drink, the more likely there will be embarrassing photos of you all over the internet before you even get home. But for some folks, that’s just part of the fun.

Have a good break, and don’t forget your sunscreen…

I am not a flower person. I’m not a girly girl and I have bad allergies, so I generally keep my distance from anything that blooms. But there is one event that is so spectacular that I will brave a runny nose to see up close. The Philadelphia Flower Show is just a few weeks away, and I intend to be there.

The week-long expo is held from March 2-March 9 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philly. My mother dragged me there against my will a few years ago, but as soon as we were there, I didn’t want to leave (despite the sneezing). The exhibits are not just collections of bouquets from local florists — they are larger than life works of art put together with the most beautiful flowers you’ve ever seen. There were colors I didn’t even know existed — not just in flowers but in the whole visible spectrum.

A black tie gala kicks off the festivities on March 1, featuring entertainment by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra Allstars Quartet. The theme of the show this year is New Orleans itself, and the title will be “Jazz It Up.”

The displays are put together by professional landscapers, horticulturists, florists, clubs, and hobbyists. You can read about this year’s entries here. In addition to the displays, you can enjoy live jazz performances throughout the week and attend gardening lectures. It’s a fantastic excursion for any garden enthusiasts, and the displays and entertainment are enough to captivate even cold-hearted flower haters like myself. It’s also a great place to go for wedding inspiration if you’re planning to tie the knot sometime soon.

If you’ve got tots in tow, you can take a breather in the Family Lounge, where the kids can play and get the ants out of their pants, or just sit down and rest for a while before going back to the big event.

Tickets are available in advance for $22 for adults and $13 for children age 2-16.

My parents both retired when I was in high school, and ever since they dropped their 70+ hour work weeks for lives of leisure, they’ve been busier than ever. Lots of retired folks will agree that life tends to get even more hectic when you don’t have to go to the office each day. After all, you’ve spent the last few decades putting your own priorities on the back burner, and with retirement, it’s time to catch up on all you’ve brushed aside.

I couldn’t be more proud of how my mom and dad have spent their time in retirement. They are an inspiration for making a difference, and for this post. They’ve traded in their suits and briefcases for denim and toolboxes, and are out in the community almost every day doing volunteer work. My dad has thrown himself into Habitat For Humanity, and I could argue that working with this charity has done as much good for him as he has done for others with his hours of building homes for the less fortunate.

In addition to volunteering a few days a week in the local community, working with Habitat gives you lots of travel opportunities. When Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast in 2005, my dad took off on a bus to Mississippi with tents and tools, and worked side by side with the residents who were trying to clean up and rebuild. Since then, he’s traveled several times to Mississippi and Louisiana, as the rebuilding process continues.

It’s not the type of vacation you take to see the world and relax, but you will get a different kind of enjoyment from helping others and seeing first hand how your own efforts are making a difference. It is a chance to bond with your fellow volunteers and feel good about yourself in ways that tanning on the beach will never accomplish — and hey, you’ll be outdoors a lot; you’ll probably still come home with a tan.

Volunteering trips are also great ways to travel when you don’t have friends or family who can travel with you, since you’ll be with a group of people who share your charitable interests.

If you are a student looking for things to do over Spring Break, ask around your school about volunteering trips, often called Alternative Spring Break. My college always offered Habitat for Humanity spring break trips to Florida to rebuild in hurricane-damaged areas there. You don’t have to put up much (if any) money of your own, and you get to spend a week with your peers — and it’s not all hard work. It’s more work than most of your friends will be doing on their precious week off, but at the end of the day, you’re still in a new place with a group of your peers, which is the essential formula for a good time, right?

If you’re a regular Habitat volunteer like my dad, you’ll get to see a lot of the country. Sometimes you’ll be in Nowheretown, USA, but when you’re with a good group of people doing the type of work you enjoy, the location doesn’t matter. And it’s a funny thing — hurricanes tend to strike worst in sunny, warm, coastal areas. Your charity tour of the country is bound to include some great vacation spots, which you can enjoy in the times when you’re not busy building houses.

February doesn’t say spring to a lot of people, unless maybe you live in the parts of the world that are nice and warm in winter (and then unbearably toasty the other nine months of the year). But even if it’s forty below outside your home, you can start thinking spring if you’re a baseball fan.

Major League Baseball’s Spring Training officially opened for pitchers and catchers yesterday, and it won’t be long now before the preseason competition begins. If the cold weather outside is giving you cabin fever, now is a great time to plan a getaway to warmer climes to enjoy our nation’s pastime.

Preseason competition is held in Florida for teams on the east and in Arizona for teams in the west, so if you live in the states, you won’t have to travel more than halfway across the continent to catch some baseball this “spring.” Games begin in under two weeks, and it’s a great opportunity to catch some of your favorite players in a more laid back and less crowded atmosphere than the regular season. Tickets start at only $5 — much cheaper than most vacation activities you’ll find.

This is the perfect kind of trip for a long weekend away from work or a road trip with your buddies. Hotels aren’t expensive this time of year, so with a group of people pitching in, you could easily have a great trip for as little as $100. Take in a few games, get some rays, maybe hit the beach or play a round of golf, and come home rejuvenated. With great locations and inexpensive tickets, Spring Training is the perfect way to forget about winter, if only for a few days.

Lastly, I would be a terrible fan if I didn’t throw this in — Go Diamondbacks!

There is so much to see and do in New York City that you cannot possibly do it all in one trip. In fact, most of the people who spend their whole lives in the city don’t ever do it all. That’s what makes this place such a great destination for first time visitors and those who’ve been there many times before. It’s also one place you can take a family or group of people with widely varied interests where no one will get bored.

Since you can’t do everything, you should make a list of a few things you’d like to try on your first visit to the Big Apple. For lots of folks, seeing a Broadway show will be high on that list. Broadway plays are unlike any show you’ve probably ever seen. They are big-budget, spectacular productions, usually with lots of music and choreography. Most Broadway shows are quite well-known, and you can probably make a list of at least 5 that you’d like to see without even looking up what’s showing. They’re all good, or they wouldn’t make it on Broadway. It’s hard to go wrong.

But for a more New York experience, I like Off Broadway or Off Off Broadway shows. I feel like the audiences at Broadway shows are almost 100% tourists, while these smaller productions have more of the true local flavor of Manhattan. In fact, my favorite show experience ever was an Off Broadway production called De La Guarda. This is not a play in the traditional sense — there aren’t even seats in the theater — I would describe it as a performance art experience. Before the show begins, the audience walks into a large dark room. There are no windows and no stage, and no one knows what to expect — so I won’t give it away. The performance takes place all around you, and the audience is very much involved in the show, but not at all in the traditional cheesy audience participation sense. It’s never the same show twice, and the only thing more I’ll say about it is that you won’t want to be wearing a skirt.

As far as the Broadway shows are concerned, I’ve seen a wide range of these, from the classics like Phantom of the Opera and Cats to Rent and The Rocky Horror Show, and I’m dying to see Avenue Q the next time I visit. I tend to prefer the quirkier shows, so my favorite of these has been Rocky Horror. With an all-star cast including Joan Jett and Dick Cavett, and more of the fun kind of audience participation, it was a wild and unforgettable night. Sadly, this show ended its run a few years ago, but Rocky Horror wasn’t the only show with great celebrity cast members.

If you liked the movie version of Rent, you’ll recognize many of those cast members on stage, but you’ll have to act quickly — this show ends its Broadway run in June 2008. Lots of popular screen actors make their way to the Broadway stage, and you’re sure to find some of your favorites in these constantly rotating casts, like Molly Ringwald, the 80’s teen sensation who has seen a career revival on the stage.

You can purchase tickets in advance for the show of your choice online or by telephone with the production’s box office, but if you’re flexible, I recommend the TKTS booths in Manhattan at Times Square and South Street Seaport. These booths sell day-of tickets (or day-before tickets for matinees at the South Street Seaport location) at deep discounts. There’s no availability guarantee, so you’ll have to have a plan B lined up in case the show you want is sold out, but with everything showing on any given day, you’ll surely find something good. Don’t be scared off by the long lines you’ll find at these booths. They move quickly, and there are usually street performers providing entertainment as you wait in line.

Seeing a Broadway show is a theater experience like no other, and definitely something you should try to do next time you’re in Manhattan. All of the shows I’ve seen have been spectacular, but there are far many more that I haven’t seen, so of course I can’t say which is the best. If you have a favorite show, comment and let us know about it.

Forgive me if this post isn’t full of the usual travel ideas and photos, but after a recent experience, it would be wrong not to use this platform to tell my story. 

The airline industry has been on shaky ground for the past several years, and Delta Airlines has had its share of financial woes.  I can’t speak for the company’s entire infrastructure, but my experience with the gate agents, the baggage sorters, and the flight attendants tells me that this is a company I want to support.

On Sunday afternoon, my fiance McKenzie and I were on our way back home to Virginia after spending the last six weeks on the road.  Our first flight was from Bermuda to Boston, with less than a one hour layover to run across Logan International Airport for our plane home.  When we landed in Boston, we turned on our cell phones to check all the messages from the week we’d been out of the country, and McKenzie had one of those calls you never want to get.  His beloved grandmother had passed away that morning, and his family wanted to know how soon we could make it back to Oregon.

We hurried to the gate for our scheduled flight, and as that plane was boarding, we explained our situation to the gate agents and asked if there was any way we could possibly change our tickets on this extremely short notice.  Christina W. and the team of agents at gate A10 that day worked furiously to help us out.  At times there were up to four people on the phones at the same time on our behalf — making sure our tickets could be changed, working with customer service agents to be sure we received credit for the value of our original tickets and keeping the price of the switch down, contacting the baggage sorters to pull our luggage to a new plane, and holding the Oregon-bound plane at the gate so we could make it back across the airport before it was in the air.  These guys were heroic in their efforts for us, and when we got to our next plane, a flight attendant was waiting for us with bottles of water, boxes of tissues, and a compassionate smile.

We flew first to Salt Lake City, where we had yet another very short layover before boarding our final plane to Oregon.  So far in the extended travel day, everything had gone as smoothly as possible, thanks to the helpful and efficient gate agents back at Logan, but we figured that with our last minute change in itinerary and the two very short layovers, it would be a miracle if our luggage made it to Portland with us — but there they were at baggage claim.  All four of our 50-pound bags sealed the deal for us:  we love Delta. 

It’s not just the people — the planes are nice, too.  The seats were clean and comfortable, and the in-flight entertainment choices were surprisingly varied and good.  On the five-hour trip from Boston to Salt Lake City, I caught up on my trash TV with some E! countdown shows, then brushed up on the candidates in time for Super Tuesday by watching reruns of the latest Democratic debates on CNN, and finished off the flight with highlights from some football game on ESPN.

Aside from the unfortunate circumstances, it was a highly positive travel experience for the two of us, and we remain grateful to the Delta employees who worked so hard to get us to where we needed to be in this difficult time.