Today I spent the afternoon checking out the Travel Expo in Rosemont. It was my first time going to this annual event so I didn't know what to expect. I love finding out new travel info and hearing about other people's travel adventures. This expo had a little of the best of both worlds. The 2 lectures that I saw today were by Rick Steves and by Patricia Schultz. I also wanted to see Pauline Frommer but her lecture was scheduled on Saturday. Rick Steves gave a very insightful presentation complete with beautiful photos from all over Europe. By the time his presentation was over, I was itching to go back to Europe. He touched on almost all the areas of Europe, including Turkey. Turkey has been a country that I've always kept in the back of my mind of a destination I would love to explore and learn more about.
After Rick Steves was Patricia Schultz, author of "1000 Places to See Before You Die". She also had some wonderful photos and advice for travelers looking to go just about any where in the world. I think the two lectures that I sat in on made the expo the most worth-while. There were a bunch of booths set up where I did collect some info for future trips. Many of these booths were passing out great Visitors Guides and other useful brochures. For me, the only drawback was that I kept getting asked to fill out raffle drawings. One raffle even wanted us to give our signature which would "o.k." the company to call us for marketing purposes. Even after I have signed up on the "Do Not Call List", I still get telemarketer calls so I opted to not fill out any raffle drawings today.
There were plenty of activities for children including an area that SeaWorld occupied with 2 live penguins. They were in a little display case where the glass went up to their shoulders. Their little heads would look over the glass and their little beady eyes would look around. I have such a heart for animals and couldn't get enough of them.
Overall I think the expo was worth the buy 1 ticket get 1 free Groupon that I purchased online. The booths are good if people are looking for more info for a specific trip or trip idea. I enjoyed the lectures, especially Rick Steves who has been to so many places that I would love to go.
People always say that planning the trip is half the fun. I can somewhat agree with that however for me, the planning part gives me that excited, anxious feeling that I have something to look forward to, something that I can experience and remember forever.
Seize The Day and Travel!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
Travel and Adventure Expo in Chicago (Rosemont)
For Chicagoans and Chicago visitors alike, there is a Travel and Adventure Expo going on in Rosemont this weekend (January 26-27). It is at the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center and includes travel seminars, culinary demonstrations, and lots of info about travel. A couple other enjoyable highlights include learning to scuba dive in an indoor pool, getting a photo taken with a sled dog, and riding a segway.
Tickets are $9 a person but Groupon did have a deal for buy one get one free tickets (my friend told me about that one, thank you!)
Click here to see the website and find out more info.
If you aren't in the Chicago area this weekend, try to catch a Travel Expo in California in February or in Washington D.C. in March.
Have fun and get inspired to travel!
Tickets are $9 a person but Groupon did have a deal for buy one get one free tickets (my friend told me about that one, thank you!)
Click here to see the website and find out more info.
If you aren't in the Chicago area this weekend, try to catch a Travel Expo in California in February or in Washington D.C. in March.
Have fun and get inspired to travel!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Preparing for Gotham
Back in December I spent a week in the city that never sleeps, also known as NYC. I can see why this city never sleeps....there's just too much darn noise. There's noise, activity, and adventure and I made sure to plan well before the trip to take in as much as I could. I have decided to split up my NYC trip into multiple blog posts so that I can put more focus on different aspects and highlights of the trip.
I would like to start my trip review by mentioning a little about what I did to plan for NYC. For those travelers interested in museums, I would highly recommend "googling" or doing an internet search of free days and free hours for NYC museums. There are a few museums that are always free or are free with suggested donations. However for the museums that are charging quite a bit to get in, free days are definitely worth while in this expensive city. Sometimes travelers only have a couple hours to spend in a museum and balk at an $18 entrance fee. Visiting during free hours definitely gives the pocketbook a rest.
During previous visits, we visited a couple of the "biggie" museums: the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This trip I found that the J.P. Morgan Library Museum had free hours on Fridays nights and the Frick Collection had free hours on Sundays. I had also wanted to go to the Rubin Museum of Art, which has free hours on Friday nights as well, but decided to save that for a future visit.
Since we were staying in NYC for a week, I decided to group activities and sights into the different areas of NYC and try to do a different area on each day. I didn't want to have every single minute of our trip planned so I left plenty of free time too. We had a few schedule changes and didn't get to see every thing we had planned on seeing but overall we had quite a wonderful and entertaining trip. To help cut other costs, I would recommend using a few Groupons or Living Social Deals. I bought 3 deals in advance of our trip and we were pleased with all 3 deals. (All 3 deals were for food and beverages.) I did not want to buy too many deals and then have to spend time running around the city making sure to use them all.
Since we went in December, holiday decorations were everywhere and made the city extra enjoyable. Beware, it's hard to tell from the photos but Rockefeller Plaza was packed with people vying for the perfect Christmas tree photo.
In my next posts, I want to share our NYC adventures and we'll see if I was able to take a bite out of the Big Apple or if I was the one that was chewed up and spit out.
I would like to start my trip review by mentioning a little about what I did to plan for NYC. For those travelers interested in museums, I would highly recommend "googling" or doing an internet search of free days and free hours for NYC museums. There are a few museums that are always free or are free with suggested donations. However for the museums that are charging quite a bit to get in, free days are definitely worth while in this expensive city. Sometimes travelers only have a couple hours to spend in a museum and balk at an $18 entrance fee. Visiting during free hours definitely gives the pocketbook a rest.
During previous visits, we visited a couple of the "biggie" museums: the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This trip I found that the J.P. Morgan Library Museum had free hours on Fridays nights and the Frick Collection had free hours on Sundays. I had also wanted to go to the Rubin Museum of Art, which has free hours on Friday nights as well, but decided to save that for a future visit.
Since we were staying in NYC for a week, I decided to group activities and sights into the different areas of NYC and try to do a different area on each day. I didn't want to have every single minute of our trip planned so I left plenty of free time too. We had a few schedule changes and didn't get to see every thing we had planned on seeing but overall we had quite a wonderful and entertaining trip. To help cut other costs, I would recommend using a few Groupons or Living Social Deals. I bought 3 deals in advance of our trip and we were pleased with all 3 deals. (All 3 deals were for food and beverages.) I did not want to buy too many deals and then have to spend time running around the city making sure to use them all.
Since we went in December, holiday decorations were everywhere and made the city extra enjoyable. Beware, it's hard to tell from the photos but Rockefeller Plaza was packed with people vying for the perfect Christmas tree photo.
In my next posts, I want to share our NYC adventures and we'll see if I was able to take a bite out of the Big Apple or if I was the one that was chewed up and spit out.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Venice Beach - March 2012 - Who am I Watching?
I've been meaning to post this video for a while. Back in March 2012, during our trip to L.A., we took a stroll down Venice Beach. We saw the usual....forlorn looking potheads, "entertainers" jumping on broken glass for money, and beach "bums" chasing birds with palm tree branches. Then we came across a young group of musicians that looked like they were filming a music video. I got some of their practice shots on my own video. Now I'm on a quest to find out who they are. Can anyone help me? Gracias!
Monday, December 31, 2012
What are you doing for New Years Eve?
I apologize for being MIA for the past month. December ended up being very busy for me. I visited my sisters in NYC and then they came home for Christmas to visit. I was able to get in some nice family time and now it looks like the year has already come to an end.
I had originally thought that I would be in NYC for New Years but we ended up visiting a couple weeks ago. Really any time of year is nice to visit NYC....well, except for during Hurricane Sandy when my sisters had no electricity for 5 days and there was a fire in their apartment building. I will have plenty of future posts about my NYC trip but right now I wanted to focus a little on New Years.
Reflecting back on traveling in 2012, I am grateful that I was able to take some very nice trips. We kicked off the beginning of 2012 with Ecuador. We left January 1, 2012 and arrived in Panama City for a 1 night layover. We flew on to Guayaquil and the Galapagos Islands. I saw Lonesome George before he died in June 2012. In March 2012, I visited a good friend in Los Angeles. It was still a little too cold for beaches but we had fun at an Anaheim Ducks game, hanging out in Hollywood and people watching in Venice Beach. We did an Oktoberfest weekend in Iowa in September and then ended the year in NYC.
2012 had its fair share of negative events like Hurricane Sandy devastating the East Coast and the loss of lives in the Sandy Hook and Aurora theater shootings. We also had many positive and fun events like the explosion of Gangnum style and Kate Middleton's pregnancy.
Wherever you are....Times Square, Chicago, California, or anywhere outside of the United States...I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Please enjoy my Times Square photo taken a few weeks ago. I can only imagine how crazy and crowded it will be tonight. Let the new year be a time of new travels, new adventures, and spending time with both new and old friends.
I had originally thought that I would be in NYC for New Years but we ended up visiting a couple weeks ago. Really any time of year is nice to visit NYC....well, except for during Hurricane Sandy when my sisters had no electricity for 5 days and there was a fire in their apartment building. I will have plenty of future posts about my NYC trip but right now I wanted to focus a little on New Years.
Reflecting back on traveling in 2012, I am grateful that I was able to take some very nice trips. We kicked off the beginning of 2012 with Ecuador. We left January 1, 2012 and arrived in Panama City for a 1 night layover. We flew on to Guayaquil and the Galapagos Islands. I saw Lonesome George before he died in June 2012. In March 2012, I visited a good friend in Los Angeles. It was still a little too cold for beaches but we had fun at an Anaheim Ducks game, hanging out in Hollywood and people watching in Venice Beach. We did an Oktoberfest weekend in Iowa in September and then ended the year in NYC.
2012 had its fair share of negative events like Hurricane Sandy devastating the East Coast and the loss of lives in the Sandy Hook and Aurora theater shootings. We also had many positive and fun events like the explosion of Gangnum style and Kate Middleton's pregnancy.
Wherever you are....Times Square, Chicago, California, or anywhere outside of the United States...I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Please enjoy my Times Square photo taken a few weeks ago. I can only imagine how crazy and crowded it will be tonight. Let the new year be a time of new travels, new adventures, and spending time with both new and old friends.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
The Galapagos Tortoise
Recently I was at Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, IL. The last time I had visited Brookfield Zoo was this past spring and I remembered that the zoo had taken in some young Galapagos tortoises. At the time, I was very excited to see the little guys because we had just gotten back from our Galapagos trip in mid-January. During our visit a few days ago, the Galapagos tortoises were in the second animal house that we visited. They had grown some in the last 6 months and were very active. They were definitely more active then the other types of tortoises that were in displays nearby. Here are a few photos I snapped of the Galapagos tortoises from Brookfield Zoo.
Here are a few of my favorite young tortoise shots from our January trip to the Galapagos.
A couple giant tortoise facts:
1. There were 11 types of giant Galapagos tortoises but with the death of Lonesome George, there are now 10.
2. They are the world's largest tortoises.
3. They have common ancestors from the mainland South America and are believed to have traveled to the Galapagos by water.
Here are a few of my favorite young tortoise shots from our January trip to the Galapagos.
A couple giant tortoise facts:
1. There were 11 types of giant Galapagos tortoises but with the death of Lonesome George, there are now 10.
2. They are the world's largest tortoises.
3. They have common ancestors from the mainland South America and are believed to have traveled to the Galapagos by water.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Where In The World? - November 19, 2012
Besides my "Did You Know?" posts, I've also decided to do a new type of post called "Where In The World?". I like to be tricky so look closely at the photos that I have chosen for these types of posts.
Here is my first Where In The World? photo:
Initially, one might think that I am in some part of Asia. However those smarties out there would notice that there are a few signs in English including a sign in the lower left corner that reads "Manhattan Bridge".
I am in Chinatown in Manhattan.
Here is my first Where In The World? photo:
Initially, one might think that I am in some part of Asia. However those smarties out there would notice that there are a few signs in English including a sign in the lower left corner that reads "Manhattan Bridge".
I am in Chinatown in Manhattan.
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