Introducing Vicki Baublitz and her 10-year-old son, Ben. They are traveling in Europe for 10 weeks.
I’m excited to have Vicki share her adventures and travel experiences with you!
I’m certain we will all learn from it.
“Bucket list” — a list of the things we want to do before we kick the bucket.
I never made one, but one day I got to thinking about the things — outside of the scope of family, formal education, and career — that I’ve already done in my life.
So I started my already-in-the-bucket-list, and frankly, I was amazed at it.
Some of these may have been on my bucket list had I ever made one. Others were simply interesting opportunities that have presented themselves during the adventures of my life so far, mostly during my various travels.
What would you do if you had unlimited time, money and resources?
What have you already done?
I bet you’ve done something that’s on someone else’s bucket list!
One day Simon Rodia, a single Italian immigrant living south of downtown LA started using discarded pieces of steel, wire mesh, mortar, glass, and tiles and by hand, without any power tools, created a set of structures that confounded his neighbors. They called him crazy and taunted him as he labored for years on his project. Today, these major feats, the “Watts Towers” as they are commonly known, are the National Historic Landmark Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park and are being considered for UNESCO status.
You can see them from the streets around – for free. I happily paid the museum admission in order to support them and the great cultural events that take place in Sabato “Simon” Rodia’s former home.
Have a look. Do they stir your imagination as they do me?
If you ever get out to Joshua Tree National Park in California, you might want to stop at a unique little old western village called Pioneertown and a walk down its small Mane Street. (Yes, Mane Street, not Main Street.) There’s no admission fee. Just come, park your car for free, and walk around.
If you are thinking “Pioneertown is a strange name for people to have named their town” when they settled out in this open desert area, you’d be correct. You see, it wasn’t pioneers who came and developed this town.
And then there is Pappy & Harriet’s, a family restaurant famous for its concerts. Originally it was just a facade — the “cantina” set of the town that was used in many a western film you’ve likely seen.
If you’d like to stay the night either after a day in Joshua Tree National Park or after a meal or concert, you might check out the Pioneertown Motel which also dates back to the founding of this unique town.
You might also want to mail a letter home while you’re there.
Water equals wellness when you wander.
You may cringe at the word “hydrated” because it’s so overused in recent years, but water isn’t just important; it’s critical to us.
Here’s what water does for us, why we need it— and need it even more while we’re traveling.
While we’re on the road, busy with experiencing new and different foods, we also want to stay healthy. We may not eat well every day. We may become too tired. We many try too many sweets… But it appears that bananas can help us compensate for that kind of lifestyle, helping to keep us healthy.
You may not be able to purchase bananas everywhere you travel, but they are available almost everywhere — and in many places, they aren’t expensive.
Bananas are an easy travel food as well as being good for most people’s health, so I have some info about bananas for you, as well as a Bright Side video to share with you.
Is it worth the space and weight to pack an umbrella for your travels? There were too many times having to carry my backpack was already bringing me to tears, so I resisted. But an umbrella can be so much nicer than a rain poncho at times, so I’d buy one, then discard it and buy another later.
This changed when I discovered the Fjord Folding Trekking Umbrella by Innate. It’s the thinnest in diameter and lightest umbrella I have found. Yet, it’s durable.
Now that I’ve put this Innate umbrella to the test, I can tell you about it and recommend it.
I know… the title of this post is rather odd. You know how to shower. What could you possibly have to do differently to shower while you are traveling — unless you’re camping out and your shower is a jug of water hanging in a tree?
The answer is nothing — unless you want to be sure you won’t get caught with a head full of shampoo or a body full of soap.
Picture this. You’ve been on the plane, bus, or train for hours. Or you’ve been walking for hours. Or you’ve been at the black-sand beach or out gazing at pyramids in the hot air. You get back to your hotel, hostel, guest house, CouchSurfing.com host, or the home of your far-removed long-lost relative.
You turn on the hot water….
I have loved the RhinoShield (Evolutive Labs) CrashGuard™ “Bumper” protecting my iPhone. Light and minimal while doing a great job of keeping my iPhone from breaking — and keeping in my hand where it belonged when in use.
I didn’t have to worry about my phone sliding out of my pocket or handbag because the CrashGuard™ bumper keeps it from sliding. At the same time, it wasn’t thick and sticky, not difficult for me to pull the phone out or a pocket or my Lewis N.Clark Waterseals water-resistant pouch when I needed it. This and a plastic (not glass) over the screen was a perfect combination for my phone’s protection while traveling.
I’m excited to have my new RhinoShield case coming! It’s called the Mod and it’s a next-generation bumper but with an optional backside too.
There’s an interesting travel consequence you might not think of. It hits you when you return home from your first travels.
When we think of traveling, we think of the culture shock we feel as we experience new cultures. However, as a traveler, you come to expect the differences. In fact, you may welcome them and seek them out. But we don’t expect to feel a culture shock when we return to our home country, town, city, or even neighborhood. We expect to feel something… perhaps many things, but I’m not sure we expect to feel… well, read on.
Here’s what reminded me to finally write about this issue.
Recently a woman in an online women’s travel group posted a query stating that having returned to the United States after traveling for 9 months she has felt nauseous, headachy and exhausted. It’s been over a week but she still feels like she is jet-lagged and stuck with a cold, perhaps in an uphill battle getting re-acclimated to her home country.
I was walking alone on the wide sidewalk of a major street when a man came up behind me to my left. He swiped his hand on my back by my left shoulder and showed me that there was some kind of white cream on his hand. Shaving cream, I think.
