Hiya folks! No new travel news. Just another state-themed survey/article I wanted to share that shows the "mood" of every state. I took the quiz and it said I belong in Florida (of all places! ha!). Find out where you should be by clicking the article below:
America’s Mood Map: An Interactive Guide to the United States of Attitude
In other news, Nevada is officially on the schedule for 2014 and Georgia and North Carolina are strong candidates for travel. Of course I'll have to add more to reach my 50 state goal on time...but know that I AM working on it!
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
What is the Most Screwed Up Thing About Your State?
One of these days I'm going to learn to not make "final" plans until I know they are officially final.
Remember how I said that I was done traveling for the rest of the year? Well, turns out, unless my co-workers TOTALLY flake on me, in about two weeks I'll be doing another excursion within Pennsylvania!
Otherwise, I've already set up my schedule to be available to see Georgia and Nevada before Memorial Day. I've never been to Nevada, but I actually used to LIVE in Georgia, so that will be a bit more difficult to work out.
In the meantime, I found this article about weird factoids about the states. For example, did you know that Ohio is the nerdiest state? That Florida has the highest rate of identity theft? Or that Alaska, the state I just left, has the highest suicide rate in the country? Pretty strange indeed but I thought this was at least a little entertaining and state themed, so I wanted to share.
Enjoy, and talk with you in a few weeks!
What is the Most Screwed Up Thing About Your State?
Remember how I said that I was done traveling for the rest of the year? Well, turns out, unless my co-workers TOTALLY flake on me, in about two weeks I'll be doing another excursion within Pennsylvania!
Otherwise, I've already set up my schedule to be available to see Georgia and Nevada before Memorial Day. I've never been to Nevada, but I actually used to LIVE in Georgia, so that will be a bit more difficult to work out.
In the meantime, I found this article about weird factoids about the states. For example, did you know that Ohio is the nerdiest state? That Florida has the highest rate of identity theft? Or that Alaska, the state I just left, has the highest suicide rate in the country? Pretty strange indeed but I thought this was at least a little entertaining and state themed, so I wanted to share.
Enjoy, and talk with you in a few weeks!
What is the Most Screwed Up Thing About Your State?
Friday, October 11, 2013
10 Cures for the Chronic Overpacker
When I started this blog, I said that I would be open to doing this exploration with whatever friends and family wanted to tag along. I've had people tag along with me through Maryland, Florida, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. I've had people claim excursions with me for whenever I get to Hawaii, Nevada, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia (right?!), Texas, and Colorado. Most recently, my godmother was my travel buddy for Washington and Alaska. Since we live in two different states (Pennsylvania and Georgia), we met up at the airport in Seattle.
I hadn't seen my godmother in a few years, and after my initial joy at being reunited with her, I was totally shocked and surprised to see her lugging this humongous, over-sized, HEAVY suitcase.
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| Seriously, this might as well have been her |
What on earth could be in there? On the blog, I previously discussed ways to make packing a suitcase more efficient, and many of those tips I learned directly from her. I stood there next to my carry-on suitcase and tried hard not to laugh at her as she asked me where the rest of my luggage was. We were only going away for a week- how many clothes did she NEED? I just didn't get it. I brought three pairs of pants, shirts and sweaters, a few pairs of shoes, plenty of underwear and socks, and a dress for when I needed to be fancy- and still had room for souvenirs at the end of the trip!
Yes, I'd love to be all fancy on trips and have a super fly new outfit for every day of my vacations (I guess), but more than that I dislike having to lug my suitcase around. And being responsible for a big, clumsy block of baggage is not my idea of fun.
So, to help you, my loving readers, avoid the same fate of bringing way too much crap with you on a trip, I wanted to share an article with you from the Huffington Post.
To me, the suggestions seem pretty common sense. But apparently this information must be shared. Enjoy!
Monday, October 7, 2013
My First Fjord
Fjord. Such a funny word to say! But what a beautiful sight to see!
The entire first day of my Carnival cruise to Alaska was spent slowly sailing up this majestic water canyon that is the Tracy Arm Fjord. A woman was announcing over the sound system when whales or other interesting wildlife would come past and say hello to our ship passing by. (It wasn't very helpful. For some reason the whales didn't realize it takes a few seconds to whip out a phone or camera to snap a pic or video to show all of our friends and blog readers that "Look, I saw a humpback whale!!" and would dip back into the water very quickly).
This was my first look at Alaska as well. It was relatively warm (mid 60s on August 28, 2013 when we were there) considering I was expecting it to be frigid and snowy the entire time. I mean, isn't that what those of us in the continental 48 are told to expect from Alaska?
Let me be the first to tell you that was hardly the case. The only time the air was really biting was when the wind blew, but with a corduroy jacket I was fine.The water was just as turquoise and sparkling (though not see-through) as any Caribbean waters I've seen- and I've been to seven of the islands down there. The trees on the cliffs were a rich but earthy green. Speaking of the cliffs, they were very steep and only at the very tops were covered in snow. We saw chunks of blue-looking glacier ice float past us (hopefully not breaking off due to global warming!) and occasionally saw eagles or goats living their lives oblivious to the 2000+ people gawking at them from a big white ship.
We ended at Dawe's Glacier at the end of the Fjord. You could pay ($400-500) for excursions to take a smaller boat up to the glacier and see the wildlife up close and personal. I didn't have $500 to spare so I watched from the main ship with the majority of the other passengers and shot a pretty nifty two minute video that I uploaded to YouTube. I few couples my god mother and I befriended did take the excursion and they showed us pictures of seals chilling on rocks and glacier chunks. Pretty neat.
Nothing left now but to leave you with the pictures I was able to snap while in the Fjord and other waters of Alaska as well as my YouTube vid I mentioned earlier.
As always thank you for joining me on my journey across America.
The entire first day of my Carnival cruise to Alaska was spent slowly sailing up this majestic water canyon that is the Tracy Arm Fjord. A woman was announcing over the sound system when whales or other interesting wildlife would come past and say hello to our ship passing by. (It wasn't very helpful. For some reason the whales didn't realize it takes a few seconds to whip out a phone or camera to snap a pic or video to show all of our friends and blog readers that "Look, I saw a humpback whale!!" and would dip back into the water very quickly).
This was my first look at Alaska as well. It was relatively warm (mid 60s on August 28, 2013 when we were there) considering I was expecting it to be frigid and snowy the entire time. I mean, isn't that what those of us in the continental 48 are told to expect from Alaska?
Let me be the first to tell you that was hardly the case. The only time the air was really biting was when the wind blew, but with a corduroy jacket I was fine.The water was just as turquoise and sparkling (though not see-through) as any Caribbean waters I've seen- and I've been to seven of the islands down there. The trees on the cliffs were a rich but earthy green. Speaking of the cliffs, they were very steep and only at the very tops were covered in snow. We saw chunks of blue-looking glacier ice float past us (hopefully not breaking off due to global warming!) and occasionally saw eagles or goats living their lives oblivious to the 2000+ people gawking at them from a big white ship.
We ended at Dawe's Glacier at the end of the Fjord. You could pay ($400-500) for excursions to take a smaller boat up to the glacier and see the wildlife up close and personal. I didn't have $500 to spare so I watched from the main ship with the majority of the other passengers and shot a pretty nifty two minute video that I uploaded to YouTube. I few couples my god mother and I befriended did take the excursion and they showed us pictures of seals chilling on rocks and glacier chunks. Pretty neat.
Nothing left now but to leave you with the pictures I was able to snap while in the Fjord and other waters of Alaska as well as my YouTube vid I mentioned earlier.
As always thank you for joining me on my journey across America.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Finishing Up Alaska
SKAGWAY, ALASKA
This is where we spent the most time of all the ports during the cruise. I already told you about my time at the Red Onion Saloon there, but I visited a lot of smaller museums and sites as well.
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| Display showing a gold rusher moving his supplies |
*Please note, the day I typed this up (October 3, 2013) the US Government was shut down, so the website may not open. Hopefully this will be just a temporary thing!
This National Park is actually a collection of buildings, trails, and historic sites between Washington and Alaska that preserves the story of the gold rush of the late 1890s.
Taken straight from Wikipedia:
The Skagway unit protects much of downtown Skagway including 15 restored historic buildings. The visitor center in Skagway is located in the historic White Pass and Yukon Route railroad depot building at 2nd and Broadway.
From the visitor center, visitors to the park can experience the history of Skagway and the gold rush by participating in ranger led walking tours or by watching the park movie.
The park also preserves portions of the White Pass Trail and the Chilkoot Trail, which leaves from the historic townsite of Dyea, Alaska and runs to Bennett Lake, from which prospectors could raft to Dawson City, Yukon.
The historic townsite of Dyea is also part of the historical park. The trail center in Skagway is operated by both the National Park Service and Parks Canada and has information regarding current traveling conditions along the Chilkoot Trail. A permit is required to hike the 33-mile historic trail.
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| How the gold would have been stored at the local bank/post office- I lost my notes so I'm going off of memory. |
I entered several of these buildings in Skagway, including the main Visitor Center where I watched a 20 or so minute video documentary about the gold rush and how it affected everyone- the rushers, their families, the Native Americans that were already there, and those who struck it rich (or became bankrupt). Not a very impressive gift store, but the information was helpful. Certainly I was NOT going to go hiking, but for my more adventurous readers, I've been told it is a trail that hikers love because of its difficulty.
In one of the buildings I started chatting with one of the Park Rangers about my old job (at the Smithsonian) and why I was so into museums, and he excitedly went and grabbed an "office person" for me to talk to. Mr. Karl Gurcke is a historian for the KGRNHP, and we chatted for about 15 minutes about not only the history of the city and how it has managed to stay a float a century after the gold rush ended, but how everyday people live their lives currently. We exchanged business cards, though shamefully, I have not yet emailed him to thank him for speaking with me- but I DID mail one of my postcards!
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| Mask on display in the museum portion of the shop |
Not a whole lot to say about this place, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I learned a lot of Alaskan history within two and a half small rooms- a lot of it information I didn't get anywhere else. There were displays about Native myths, and details about how they carved and weaved many of their cultural items (most of which you can purchase in the much-larger store portion of the building). One neat thing was a talking mannequin that was supposed to be Captain James Waddell. He told the story of how the final shots of the Civil War were actually fired in what we now know as Alaska. THAT is an interesting fact I didn't know about and even though he looked a little worn and dumpy, I was impressed they even had that level of display to begin with.
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| Captain James Waddell- he may look bummy but he talks and moves at the touch of a button! |
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| There were also lots of baskets made out of whale baleen This claims to be the largest. |
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| City of Skagway Museum |
I happened upon this museum by chance. Off the main hubs of the city (which is saying a lot since Skagway is about the size of a neighborhood in larger American cities), I thought this museum was a church at first. It was certainly the newest looking building I saw the entire time I was there. I paid two bucks to enter, and walked around the tiny exhibits that essentially told the story of the citizens of Skagway. Everyone from police and firemen, teachers, business men (and women!), and all social statuses were represented through their personal artifacts and belongings. There was more information about the now defunct fraternal society called the Arctic Brotherhood (whose lodge is still standing and is an information center for the city). I enjoyed that there was a lot of information about how women were able to make their own way in a town that was so overrun with men- not all the successful women in Skagway had to work at a Saloon, and I was glad to see more information about the entrepreneurs of the time. My favorite non-artifact portion of the museum? The SUPER clean bathrooms. That's always a big plus for me, and the entire place was spotless and sanitary looking!
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| Table from the old Arctic Brotherhood lodge |
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| Dress from one of the women entrepreneurs- Whose name I can't remember because I can't find my notes :( |
Here are some more pics of what I saw in Skagway
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| The old Arctic Brotherhood lodge- the most photographed building in Alaska Apparently architecture students really dig this place |
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| A looksie at my combat boots. More importantly, all the sidewalks in Skagway were wooden, something I found interesting |
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| Recreation of a Saloon in one of the Klondike Park's buildings |
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| Actual miner's tools excavated near Skagway and Dyea |
Well, I think I have one or two more entries before I am (officially) finished with Alaska and Washington. I'm on a travel hiatus for the rest of the year, but have strong plans to visit Nevada, Louisiana, and Georgia all before Memorial Day next year! In the meantime, you can check out all of my Facebook photos (and hit that "Like" button while you're at it!) from the rest of Alaska and all of the other states I've covered thus far.
Thank you so much for joining me on my adventure!
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