Travel

Google A-Z

February 22, 2012

I should not have wasted my time with this, but so be it… I started putting every letter into Google Instant Search and here’s what I got. I’m curious if you get the same (I’m thinking you might not, because for ‘l’, I got “Long Island Railroad”, but that was the only one that really seemed location-based).

Let me know if you find anything surprising about the results.

If you really want to play a fun game, try to guess in the comments before you look.

Here, I’ll put a picture in the middle and at the end so you don’t accidentally see the answers when you scroll.

Say hello to my little friend.

@roniweiss Thank you for bundling me up! It's awfully hard when one's hands are cemented in their pockets.

@RoamingGnome

Travelocity Gnome

Quebec, Quebec

Who is ‘Bonhomme’?

February 4, 2012

Only in a frightening, subzero climate could the natives revere a snowman. While I’ve had a good time in Quebec thus far, there is a grim spectre that looms over this town. Even worse, he will be ever-present on my press pass tomorrow during the Winter Carnival.

Banner

He is known only as “good man” (the literal translation of ‘bonhomme‘). It comes from bonhomme de neige (which means ‘snowman’), but this frightening monstrosity conjures up images of Venkman and Egon fighting a similar-looking fellow with a sailor hat.

I know not what I shall do if I run across him in the flesh tomorrow, but I feel that the Quebec Tourism office should have provided us proton packs or garlic or whatever can chase off a Frankenstein’s monster of slushy ice. If that hasn’t make you quake in your boots, perhaps a wink from the snow-man himself will.

4 Reasons To Go To The LA Times Travel Show

January 28, 2012

I’m in LA for a little bit. Heading to Quebec on Feb. 2nd, so watch out for that…

In the meantime, the LA Times Travel Show is this weekend at the LA Convention Center.

Here are a few reasons you should go:

1) I’ll be there.

2) There’s a cars.com booth where you get free 10-minute massages.

3) People I know (who I would like to call friends, but I dunno if they’d agree), such as Johnny Jet and Leon Logothetis will be speaking.

4) All of the other sorts of reasons one would go to something like this: ziplining, seeing the host of Man v. Food and information on lots of travel destinations, not to mention swag swag swag! (If you’re lucky, you can win an OC lunch box from the Newport Beach booth! Check out mine!)

FYI: You can use the ‘LATPR’ coupon code to get the price down to $8 if you buy online.

Newport Storm (Coastal Extreme Brewing Co.)

January 26, 2012

I’ve never been into the alcohol. As you can see in many videos of mine (take “Roni takes a shot“, for one), it just isn’t my thing. But I’ve always been interested in how alcoholic drinks are made, both on the backend and mixology fronts. And strangely enough, while I’ve always thought that even the smell of beer was repugnant, I actually am curious to try Newport Storm’s blueberry beer again. Crisp and light. Nothing like the piss smell that I normally associate with beer.

Going to Newport Storm allowed me to see some of the process behind making rum. After tasting each of the different steps along the way (and trying some of the beers), I went back to see the aging rum barrels. I gleefully exclaimed that I felt like I was on a pirate ship.

The whole experience was exactly what I pictured. A knowledgeable, friendly tour guide (in the form of Lindsay), tasting of different products and a thorough explanation of how it all went down.

You can see a video of my experience below.

Some things I learned:

The rum comes out of the still at 180 proof (90% alcohol).
It’s proofed to 108, added to oak barrels and aged 2 years. The flavor and color come the from barrel, which are used bourbon barrels.
The oaky smoke of the rum comes from the barrel, which is charred on the interior. Vanilla is a natural chemical in oak wood, which can be tasted in the rum.
After 2 years, it’s taken out of the barrel, filtered and labelled from the individual barrel number. Each rum is only from one barrel.

Providence, RI

January 25, 2012

“What cheer?”

- Motto of Providence, RI

At some point in my Rhode Island trip planning, it became possible that I’d visit Providence. I was somewhat upset that it took as long as it did for me to realize/remember that Providence is home to Brown and RISD. Was Brown to check off another Ivy League visit? Was RISD to appease Sharon Burian, who makes my headers and avatars? Nothing of the sort. I’m a huge fan of The OC and I wanted to see where Summer Roberts and Seth Cohen were to attend college. But Providence is much more than a city referenced in a long-cancelled show. It’s a strange sort of place that mixes a small town feel, a West Coast wannabe vibe and an up-and-coming city bravado.

John McCauley of Deer Tick

I was there during the 375th birthday of the Rhode Island capital. At the celebration at PPAC (pronounced ‘PEE-pack’, standing for Providence Performing Arts Center), the crowd celebrated through performance displays (apropos), including a set by Deer Tick (a band I’d that never heard of, but the crowd clearly had).

On the walk up to College Hill, I noticed that there was an Occupy Providence movement in the local park. I asked them what the biggest difference between them and Occupy Wall Street was. “We weren’t shut down and our police are nicer.”

Brown University

The Museum of Art at RISD is a must-see. If I were to pick one museum for someone to go to as a CliffsNotes experience, this would be it. The variety of eras and styles is curated so well. Not only are the pieces of interest, but the way they are housed is comparable to how I’ve seen them in much larger museums, just in a scaled-down sort of way.

RISD Museum of Art

I also had a chance to stop and eat at a hard-to-pin-down restaurant. I’m not even entirely sure what its name was. The Fez? The Red Fez? Either way, they’re on Peck St. Here’s their Yelp page. I’m not the only one singing their praises. A varied menu with spins on traditional items. Chicken wings and mac & cheese sound humdrum? Not how you get them there. And how many restaurants serve the aforementioned items as well as banh mi sandwiches? Providence in all of its quirkiness.

More pictures of my Providence trip available in my Providence Flickr set.

Tomorrow: My visit the the Newport Storm Brewery.

Newport Mansions

January 19, 2012

The Breakers

We live in a very different world than that of the Vanderbilts. The Gilded Age was a time in the U.S. before income taxes. Say what you want about the under-taxing of the Romneys of the world, but there was no income tax whatsoever for the turn-of-the-20th century Astors. The Newport Mansions are a time capsule from this era.

When I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, I had two visceral reactions: the first was pity, thinking the city deserved better than its inhabitants. My second reaction was loathing, realizing that it was the excesses of empire that had caused the problems that Russia still deals with today.

In Newport, though, I didn’t have the same reaction that I did to The Hermitage. These were families who worked hard and didn’t have a government that reined them in. They used their power and wealth not only to create massive, museum-like estates, such as The Elms, Marble House and The Breakers (the three mansions that were open during the time of year that I visited), but also to enact some social change. Alva Vanderbilt-Belmont used Marble House as a staging ground for the suffragette movement that eventually brought women the vote.

Marble House

If you go to Newport in low season and only have the three above-mentioned mansions open, I would recommend visiting them in the order listed, as it will go from impressive to most impressive.

The Elms was a property of the Berwinds, who made their money through PA coal. The latter two are Vanderbilt properties, with The Breakers being the grandest of the three ‘cottages’ that I visited. When you visit, don’t be shocked if you find them ostentatious. After all, they are mansions. Such displays of wealth are not for everyone, but if you keep it in context and appreciate the properties and artwork for what they are, you should be able to be as impressed as I was.

Newport, RI Trip

January 18, 2012

My room - Hotel Viking - Newport, RI

A few weeks back, I discovered that I was eligible for a Klout Perk for three free, midweek days with a Chevy Sonic.

Knowing my time limitations, I wanted to go on a road trip to somewhere within the 3-4 hour driving range. My father suggested Newport, Rhode Island. Asking around, no one had less than glowing things to say about it. That, along with the quick, helpful assistance from Newport Tourism made that my destination.

While there, I discovered that Providence was celebrating its 375th birthday, which inhibited my already limited time even further. I’d love to get back to Newport sometime, as I don’t feel like I even scratched the surface.

Here’s what I got to do:

Spend time at Hotel Viking, eating at the restaurant, swimming in the 1920′s pool and getting a hot stone massage. I love this hotel. The people were incredibly good to me, from every level of management to staff. Just a well-run establishment. You can see my review of the hotel over on Jetsetter Lifestyle.
Tour of Newport Storm Brewery (Coastal Extreme Brewing Co.), wherein I exclaimed “I feel like I’m on a pirate ship!”, when I saw the barrels of rum. Here’s the post. Here’s just the video.
Visit the Newport Mansions. This time of year, there are only three open: The Elms, Marble House and The Breakers. I visited all three (in that order, which is also the order I’d recommend). Here’s the post on that.
The International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. A good museum, esp. for the tennis-inclined, that I didn’t have enough time to really do much in because I had to run off to Providence.

We’ll call this an overview post. I’ll go into more detail on the brewery and the mansions in upcoming posts.

While Klout Perks don’t require you to say anything about what you get, I do feel like I should do a quick review of the Sonic:

1) While it’s clearly a compact car, I never felt squished in it. Or even cramped. Or anything that would suggest that the car was too small for me.

2) I very much enjoyed having Sirius XM radio in the car.

3) The car seemed like it needed to put more effort in once it was passing about 60 MPH.

4) Gas mileage was around 27 MPG, according to the display (which I thought was pretty cool to have).

Sidenote: It’s pretty cool driving a car with a Manufacturer plate.

Why would you pick on #TTOT?

December 25, 2011

The same could said for the – sorry, controversial comment here – bizarre and often tedious Twitter chats such as #TNI and #TTOT. Certainly they are perhaps interesting initiatives for the community, but do they truly serve anything else other than allowing bloggers to show off their knowledge?

- Travel bloggers – time to stop navel gazing and get on with the job. Please by Kevin May – tnooz.com

The travel blogger world is just as annoying and cliquey as any other group of people. Everyone has different opinions which put them in varied camps that then come to verbal blows via the internet or behind one another’s back at places like TBEX or a run-of-the-mill tweetup. I’m sure you can identify with this form of human interaction, no matter what you do.

Kevin May’s aforementioned article is mostly about how travel bloggers who write about themselves cheapen the whole sector and make it harder for the monied travel industry to be willing to team up with them. The post starts off with some self-aggrandizing droning on about the music industry in the UK in the 1990′s as some sort of a backdrop for travel blogging now. After the belly button picture, he starts somewhat getting to his points.

You Don’t Really Want To Travel

December 5, 2011

I’m going to take a break from my Meet the Breeds posts (1, 2, 3) to address something that was a major issue back in my non-stop traveling days.

(Yes, they’re done. I’ve been in NYC for a few months now. I’m establishing a company. Travel will always be part of my life, but as my 20′s wind up and my 30′s begin, my travels will be much more focused.)

Here’s a statement I’ve heard over and over:

I’m soooo jealous of how much you get to travel. I wish I got to do that.

No, you don’t. If you did, you would.

Life is about priorities. And for whatever reason, you’ve chosen other priorities. I do not begrudge you for that. Not in the slightest. Especially if your priorities have involved children that you’ve brought into the world.

Here’s why you don’t want to travel like I did:

You like home.

I’ve had my own lease on an apartment once in my life. In North Hollywood, CA, way back when, I had a month-to-month lease for two months. Other than that, I’ve lived at my parents’ places, other family’s places (such as my relatives in Long Island, where I’m currently staying the weekend), along with living in dorms, bunks, sublets, CouchSurfing, hotels, hostels and other forms of transitory housing. I’ve never had the Back to the Future poster adorning my place that I dream of. Wall postings have consisted of either what others have put up in their abodes or me sticky-tacking AAA maps.

There are many sacrifices I’ve made to travel as much as I have. If you want me to detail them, I will, but the long and short is that it becomes increasingly difficult to make and maintain strong relationships when you’re not locationally close to the same people.

You aren’t willing to settle for anything less than the best.

There’s nothing wrong with luxury travel, but if you’re more 99% than 1%, chances are you can’t do it all the time, or at least not for very long stretches of time. I am blessed with the ability to not spend much money. Strike that. I’m cursed with the inability to spend money. Not staying at hotels, not eating at restaurants and not buying souvenirs was natural to me. Other people enjoy nice thread-count sheets, indulging in fine meals and bringing something back home to give to those they love. None of those were necessary to me. That, along with increasing amounts of CouchSurfing and hitchhiking allowed my travels to cost less than a life back home would’ve. How many people can say that their ‘vacation’ is cheaper than their “regular life”?

Part of this also goes back to the ‘home’ idea. People like using their towels and sleeping in their bed. Anything different makes them uncomfortable. This isn’t good or bad, but it certainly can inhibit enjoying traveling.

You refuse to do research or change your view on ‘travel’.

In our last topic of #TTOT, we covered how to keep travel in your life if you aren’t always on the road. The consistent conclusion was that travel is a state of mind. If you feel like you want to travel, but can’t, you’re just wrong. Change your perception of travel. Maybe you really can’t leave the country. I won’t say that you can run off backpacking without knowing your situation, but I can guarantee that there are museums or day trips where you live that would be of interest. Travel is a mindset. If you want to travel, you’ll do it, even within existing limitations.

Moral of the story:

If you really don’t want to travel, you have reasons. If they’re about fear rather than contentment, perhaps you need to conquer them someday. But if you do want to travel, stop making excuses; start finding solutions.

Life’s easy: make goals, then figure out how to work within your life’s limitations to get as close to those aims as possible.

Now get to it.

Tomorrow, the last of my Meet the Breeds posts.

My Upcoming Week

November 17, 2011

Busy me, doing busy things. Here’s what’s up.

Tonight

Going to help cover a fundraising event at The Players’ Club for Essakane Film.

My first though re: “The Players’ Club” was “upscale strip club”. Second was gambling. But it’s actually ‘players’ in the “all the world’s a stage” sense. Fascinating place, actually. It was founded in 1888 by Edwin Booth (yes, the brother of the other Booth), Mark Twain, General Sherman and others. The history of the place combined with the event itself should prove to be interesting.

Tomorrow

“Minions of Gozer” is a Rocky Horror-style live Ghostbusters thing at IFC Center. I ran across them at NY Comic Con. Apparently, they’re the only people in the country who are authorized to do this. I expect an excited crowd for the midnight show on Friday.

This weekend

Meet the Breeds is the event that brings a smile to my face the quickest. It’s dogs and cats and I get to play with them. Expect pix and vids galore.

Mon-Wed

Klout has once again found fit to bestow upon me something. This time, I have 3 days with a Chevy Sonic. I looked at a map, tried to figure out where to go, wasn’t sure, asked my dad. He recommended Newport, Rhode Island (and many others have agreed). I’ve never been to RI, so I might hit up some other places therein as well, but the Newport tourism people have been really cool and on top of it, so they might arrange enough to keep me in their tow.

Thanksgiving

I’ve got nothing. Going to look into volunteering at a shelter or some such.

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