Kick of the Week: Travel-themed costumes

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Nick

Park Ranger Larry – October 2009

When figuring out a Halloween costume, finding inspiration from your travels can help. Upon returning from our Great Western road trip in 2009, the first to include National Parks and Monuments, we decided we should be park rangers for Halloween. We purchased hats from a pop-up costume shop, clothes from Goodwill, crafted our own badges and patches, and transformed ourselves into park rangers Larry and Kobie. We met the real Larry and Kobie while visiting Jewel Cave National Monument near Custer, South Dakota. With over 160 miles of mapped and surveyed passages, it is the second longest cave in the world after Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We highly recommend taking the historic lantern tour – led by Larry on our visit – where visitors get to tour the cave as was done in the 1930’s (gas lanterns included!). Over the years, some of our other costumes have included the Travelocity gnome and the Amazing Race. This year we went the explorer route…check back on Halloween to see who we were.

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Google Begins Mapping Inside Grand Canyon

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Neil

Google Begins Mapping Trails in The Grand Canyon

Check out the above link from the Examiner. Google is continuing in its apparent attempt to map and photograph the entire planet. Not only do we have street view, now we have trail view. I’m not sure how I feel about this. I guess it’s fun, but I feel like you should have to hike it yourself to have the privilege of viewing the interior of the canyon. Not that a computer screen will ever do it justice anyway …

6 miles and 3,000 feet down from the rim. The unexpected views are half the fun if you ask me.

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Road Trip Tip: Maintaining Sanity by Limiting Hours

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Neil

Our two day trek from Denver to Chicago was much more enjoyable than one fifteen hour day. L to R: Our reflection on a tanker truck crossing Nebraska, Bob Kerrey pedestrian bridge between Omaha and Council Bluffs, Wind turbines along I-80 in western Iowa.

A lot of people have an aversion to road trips because they don’t like riding in a car for hours on end. On any long route, there is inevitably a day or two of long hauls between destinations. We’ve found that if we limit the time spent driving in a day, it makes the experience much more tolerable. About eight hours is the sweet spot for us. We both grew up in families that took long road trips in the days before in-car DVD players (travel bingo anyone?) so neither of us has a problem with long drives. Your results and patience may vary. We may have been known to break into song around hour seven, but that’s a rare case.
It’s no fun rushing out of a hotel, sitting in a car for 14 hours and then eating some fast food and going to bed. By limiting our drive times to 8 hours it creates a nice day schedule of a leisurely breakfast, drive four-hours, stop for lunch, drive four more hours and then arrive at a stopping point in time for a little sightseeing, a nice dinner and a couple drinks before resting for the next day. We also generally trade driving duties every 2-3 hours.
For example, on our 2009 Western Loop, we took two days to get back to Chicago from Denver, stopping overnight at the halfway point of Omaha, Nebraska. We were able to use the hotel pool, check out the riverfront and Heartland of America Park, followed by a great meal at Twisted Fork and drinks in the Old Market neighborhood. We were glad we stopped and explored a bit of a new city and by the time we got back to the hotel we’d forgotten we’d spent eight hours in the car that day. The next morning we were refreshed for the final eight hour roll home. Last year, Memphis also worked well as an approximate halfway point on the way to and from New Orleans. Why drive yourself crazy going all-out in one 15 hour day, when you can make a much more pleasant two-day jaunt?

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Kick of the Week: Richardson Corn Maze

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Nick

Richardson Corn Maze, Spring Grove, IL – October 2012

If your idea of a perfect fall day includes s’mores, apple cider, and pig races, then head over to Richardson’s Adventure Farm, home of the world’s largest corn maze! Our friend Hillary rented a fire pit (you bring the food and beer, they build the fire and continuously replenish with wood) and invited us to come up for the afternoon. In addition to getting lost in the maze – this year with a Girl Scout theme to celebrate their 100 years – the highlight of the afternoon may have been the pig races. There is just something funny about seeing animals, clearly not designed to run, race for a donut.

Katy Perry Porker leading Kevin Bacon Later by a snout!

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Kick of the Week: Chicago Botanic Garden

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Nick

Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL – November 2011

Located in the northern suburbs of Chicago, the Chicago Botanic Garden is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. With over 2.5 million plants and flowers in 26 gardens, it’s a wonderful place to go for an afternoon stroll at any time of the year.
Tip: Although admission is free to the Garden, they do charge $20 to park your car. If you don’t mind a brief walk (less than a mile), park your car for free at the Braeside Metra station and walk down Lake Cook Road to the Garden entrance.

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Get Your Autumn On, Chicago

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Neil

(L) Interior of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Emil Bach house from last year’s Open House event. (R) Nick peruses the pie selection at the 2011 Bucktown Apple Pie Contest.

Just thought I’d share a couple local Chicago happenings for the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, the Chicago Architecture Foundation is holding its annual Open House Chicago event. Get behind-the-scenes access to over 150 buildings that you don’t normally get to experience. More than 150 places are opening their doors for free and with no reservations (watch out for long lines at popular locations). Most are open from 9-5, but hours vary at some locations. Check out the Open House Chicago website for details.

Sunday is also the 8th annual Bucktown Apple Pie Contest. Come to the Holstein Park fieldhouse from 2-5pm to sample pies from 168 local bakers. A few dollars can get you a slice of pie, a beverage and some high-quality people watching. Show up early if you want the best selection, as the pies usually sell out quickly. Hopefully the sun will shine so the outdoor music, beverages and pony rides will be more enjoyable. Yes, there are really pony rides.  It’s like a little slice of Americana lands in the middle of Chicago for three hours.

As a nice bonus, it’s also going to be a near-peak weekend for fall colors according to the Weather Channel. Grab a pumpkin beer or coffee and enjoy it!

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Kick of the Week: Regusci Winery (Napa Valley, California)

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Nick

Regusci Winery, Napa, CA – July 2011

On our Pacific Northwest trip in 2011, we drove through Napa Valley on our way to Lassen Volcanic National Park, and thought it would be a crime not to stop by a winery. We chose Regusci Winery for its location on the less-crowded Silverado trail, its history (originally established in 1878 as the Grigbsy-Occidental Winery), and of course for its house corgi Trixie (our travel mates Emily and Jake are corgi-owners themselves). In addition to tasting some great wine, we highly enjoyed our personal tour of the cellars and winery (nothing like wine poured straight out of the barrel!), and stayed afterwards for a picnic with sandwiches from the Soda Canyon Store just down the highway.

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It’s happening: Seattle to Chicago 2013

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Neil

The tentative route from Seattle to Chicago.

We’ve officially taken the first steps toward a major summer 2013 road trip. Yes, Seattle to Chicago is in the works. In the past week, we reserved our lodging at Glacier, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, the most in-demand we’ll visit. At all three we were able to get accommodations inside the park boundaries, a definite plus. We wanted to book those as far in advance as possible, because options tend to fill up fast in busy parks. When reserving, always remember to check the hotel/lodge cancellation policy to make sure any payments are refundable in the event plans fall through. Most we’ve found are free up to a few days in advance. It’s better to book a room early and have to cancel at no charge than to wait until later and have to spend more, or not find anywhere to sleep.

Looking into North Cascades and Teddy Roosevelt National Park lodging is one of the next steps. A casual search at Roosevelt reveals no lodge inside the park, but some hotel options in nearby Medora, ND and a “might be cool/might be scary” guest ranch just outside the park. We’ll look into it. Other than that, once we get a one-way flight to Seattle and a reasonable car rental, it’ll be a go. Stay tuned for more updates during the planning process.

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Kick of the Week: Hoover Dam

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Neil

We stopped by the Hoover Dam on our way to Las Vegas, NV during our Desert Southwest road trip. Although we didn’t have time for a tour, it was well worth a stop simply to appreciate the sheer magnitude of the dam.

A few fun facts about the Hoover Dam:

  • Hoover Dam is 726ft (221m) high, 45ft (14m) thick at the top and 660ft (201m) at the bottom, and is larger than the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
  • Hoover Dam is filled with 3.25 million tons of concrete, enough to pave a strip 16ft (5m) wide and 8in (20cm) thick from San Francisco to New York City.
  • If the heat produced by the curing concrete could have been concentrated in a baking oven, it could have baked 500,000 loaves of bread per day for three years.
  • From April 1931 to March 1936, 21,000 men labored on the project, removing 5.5 million tons of dirt and rock from the construction site. The lowest wage for a Hoover Dam worker was 50 cents an hour; the highest was $1.25.
  • For six years after the construction of the dam – while Lake Mead filled – virtually no water reached the mouth of the Colorado river.
  • Two winged figures, 30ft (9m) tall and made of bronze, stand on the Nevada side of the dam. They rest on a black marble star chart that represents the stars’ positions on the day the dam was dedicated, September 30, 1935.
  • Boulder City, formerly the town where dam workers were housed, still does not allow gambling within town limits, a regulation imposed in the 1930s. It is one of only two town in Nevada to prohibit gambling (Panaca is the other).
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National Parks Are Free This Saturday

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Neil

This Saturday, September 29, National Park Service sites are offering free admission in honor of National Public Lands Day. The yearly event was started in 1994 by government agencies and volunteers to help protect and restore all types of public lands across the country. Now it is a tradition that draws upwards of 170,000 people to more than 2,100 sites to do work like trail building & maintenance, tree planting and general tidying up. The NPLD website has a search page where you can find out about volunteer opportunities in your area.

Other free days at National Parks include Martin Luther King weekend, Veterans Day weekend, and the annual National Parks Week (April) and Get Outdoors Day (June). Mark those on your calendar and enjoy some free fresh air!

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