Starling Travel

Jared, our friend, is only four years old, but he has been diligently practicing his writing. He sent us this postcard last month and we were delighted!

Here’s the front:

Here’s the back:

The postcard reads:

Timpanogos Cave National Monument Utah: A column guards the entrance to a lighted alove against the greenish flowstone and drapery-covered wall of the Big Room in Middle Cave. Photographer – William Hendricks

They write:

Dear Laura and Mike,

I opened the door to the cave.

Love, Jared

Please send me a postcard from your travels or your hometown. If you do and it’s interesting, I will publish your postcard on Starling Travel.

Send your postcards to:

Starling Travel
Attention: Laura Moncur
P.O. Box 522032
Salt Lake City, Utah 84152

It’s like sending a postcard to the whole world when you go on vacation. It’s like bragging about your hometown to the everyone on the planet.

Teendrama took an interesting fieldtrip to see the Lego Skyscraper:

• teendrama.com – fieldtrip to the lego skyscraper

There are many pictures on their site showing all the detail.

You can also see lots of different Lego Skyscrapers on Flickr:

• Flicker Search: Lego Skyscraper

You can see it here:

Storefront for Art and Architecture (thru Nov 24) 97 Kenmare Street, Lafayette, NYC Tuesday – Saturday 11:00AM – 6:00PM Closed Sunday and Monday.

Photowalking is getting a group of photographers together and walking around areas of town taking pictures. You don’t need a fancy camera or attitude. It’s open to anyone who wants to wander town and snap photos. It started in Silicon Valley, but Salt Lake City has an active photowalking group. They post their photos to the Flickr pool here:

• Flickr: Photowalking Salt Lake City: See photos of Salt Lake City, Utah

I’ve found a ton of other photography pools for cities and countries. Here are a few:

• Flickr: The SF Bay Area Shooters (sfbas) Pool: See photos of the San Francisco Bay Area in California

• Flickr: The Photowalk.at – Photowalking in Austria Pool: See photos of Austria

• Flickr: Grand Rapids, Michigan: See photos of Grand Rapids, Michigan

• Flickr: Duluth Flickr Photowalk: See photos of Duluth, Minnesota

• Flickr: Photowalk Cleveland: See photos of Cleveland, Ohio

If you would like to see if there is a photowalking group in your town, search Flickr here:

• Flickr: Search for a photowalk group

If you can’t find one for your town, it’s easy enough to create your own and start inviting people. Make sure you post the event on Upcoming.org.

Via: Photowalking SLC v2 | Thom Allen Weblog

Here is the swag from the Sheraton National in Arlington, Virginia:

You can see all the hotel swag from the Arlington, Virginia Sheraton National (and plenty of others):

• Flickr: The Hotel SWAG Pool

If you have any photos of hotel swag that you would like to share, join the Flickr Pool and upload them. We’d love to see what you have.

They’re my running shoes. I wear them when I fly because there are times when I have to run to catch a plane connection. I once saw a girl trying to catch a plane wearing flip flops. I passed her up wearing my running shoes despite the fact that I was lugging my huge laptop and outweighed her by twenty pounds. I don’t know if she caught her flight, but I KNOW I caught mine. I’ve worn running shoes on the airplane ever since.

Only problem is, my running shoes set off a security flag and I had to go through the additional swipe and swab because of them:

This little Nike+ gadget has been a godsend to my running because it can track how far I’ve run. It’s better than any other exercise gadget I’ve ever owned, but it set off airport security.

Ironically, the same gadget in my purse was completely ignored, but when it was in my shoes, I had to go through the additional security screen. Since both my shoes and my purse are x-rayed, I thought it wouldn’t be an issue. Since the sensor in my shoe says Nike+ right on it, I didn’t think there would be a problem, but I spent an extra five minutes getting wanded and watching my shoes get swabbed in isolation while my husband wondered where I went.

If you wear Nike+ shoes, make sure you take your sensor out of your shoe and put it in your carry-on luggage when you go through security. Don’t forget to turn it off so that it doesn’t send the wireless signal when you move your feet. It is required by federal law.

To turn off your sensor, remove it from your shoe and with a pen, hold down the button for three seconds. To turn it back on, just press the button once very quickly.

The Nike+ is an awesome tool for measuring how far you’ve run, but it can set off airport security, so make sure you take the proper precautions when the TSA x-rays your shoes.

Real Live Preacher gives you a glimpse of his whirlwind tour of Chicago:

• Real Live Preacher – I Love Chicago

He visited the Art Institute of Chicago and saw this exhibit. I love what he had to say:

I know this probably means I’m not very sophisticated, but I’m always a little amused by some of the modern art. This piece had no title that I could see. I might suggest “Red Board Leaning Against The Wall.” Or maybe someone was installing doors and left one out by mistake.

So much of art seems like pretension to me. This red board is a perfect example. Is it art? Is it abandoned building material? We don’t know.

It reminds me of this video:

“Waiting for the Stranger to Sit” makes me skeptical of art, but I LOVE art museums nonetheless.

Looks like you had fun, RLP! I am wishing I could visit Chicago right now!

Wil Wheaton visited Disneyland recently and posted his photos on Flickr. You can see them all here:

• WilWheaton’s Disneyland slideshow on Flickr

He included the obligatory photo of himself in front of the Haunted Mansion. At this time of the year, it is all decked out in Nightmare Before Christmas goodness.

I have never gone to Disneyland in October, so I’ve never seen the Halloween decorations on the Haunted Mansion. I’m really wanting to jump in the car and take a road trip right now for a quick jaunt to CA. Stop me, okay?

I watch JetSet every week mostly just to see Zadi. She’s energetic and I love to see what she comes up with for me. Imagine my surprise when she does a big segment on travel on the cheap. Enjoy the dancing Darth Vader, but stay for the tips on travel.

They highlighted these sites:

• megabus.com – low cost, daily, express bus service in the US: Sure, they can get you low fares, but only from 21 cities. Unless you live in a MAJOR metropolitan area, you won’t find it very useful.

• CouchSurfing: I’ve talked about this site before here: Starling Travel » CouchSurfing: Travel On The CHEAP

• TripUp – Travel Planning and Travel Reviews: You supposedly can look at other people’s vacations in the area, but after a little looking, I found lots of trips logged, but no information other than a map and the dates they went. I didn’t find anything here worth signing up for.

Thanks, Zadi for showing us what’s new in travel on the cheap! Keep up the good work!

When it comes to hotels, Mike and I put a premium on Internet access over everything else. It appears that we’re not alone:

• On Hotels – Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen

Ms. Jen is surprised at how the mid-range hotels charge 10 bucks a day for wifi when they should use it as an amenity to draw us in instead.

Until the mid-range hotels see the wisdom in complimentary wifi in the rooms to accent the FluffyWhiteBed™, Best Western and Microtel have my business for their combination of good value, clean rooms, and their free wifi.

For me, I’ve paid the $10 a day for wifi only to find out that their system is clunky and slow. I don’t care if it’s wifi or wired Internet access as long as it’s fast. Ms. Jen is right. The Best Westerns and the Travelodges tend to service me better in this respect than the “higher” scale hotels like Marriott.

Time to wake up and smell the complimentary coffee, hotel owners. Internet access is more important than the complimentary breakfast and fancy furniture combined.

I usually watch David Howell’s videos for the meditative rest that they can provide. This video however, is the opposite: exciting and the film work will almost make you dizzy. He gives you a tour of the Minnesota State Fair in under four minutes:

Minnesota State Fair 2007 – Midway

Fair season is over here in Utah, so I have to wait until next year to pet the bunnies and goats. Deep fried Twinkies are good enough for only once a year without remorse, however.