Blog Travel

Imagine Southern California in the early 1900s.  It wasn’t as easy to travel as it is today, but the love of travel was strong.  People wanted to explore and get away, and they were willing to do some pretty crazy things to do so.  Crazy like crossing the ever-shifting sands of the Southern California desert on a road made entirely of wooden planks.  The even crazier thing?  There’s still a little piece of that Plank Road, built 100 years ago, available for travelers of today to visit. I first learned about the Plank Road at the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park.  It was just a little display in the corner of the museum that I almost missed.  I watched the documentary and read the plaques and I was immediately obsessed. The idea of a Plank Road started with a rivalry between two cities, San Diego and Los Angeles.  San Diego had lost its bid to be the location of a terminus for the Transcontinental Railroad, so the next plan was to bea...

Welcome to Sweden's ICEHOTEL. Almost everybody has heard of the famous ICEHOTEL.  For many, a night in Sweden’s ICEHOTEL is a once in a lifetime experience — though there are a few who don’t understand the appeal of sleeping on a bed of ice in below freezing temperatures.  However, if you’ve never stayed in an ice hotel, you might not know very much about the realities of sleeping in a hotel entirely made of ice. How the ICEHOTEL Began The ICEHOTEL celebrated its 25th anniversary during the 2014/15 season. The ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, a town within the Kiruna Municipality of Sweden, is the world’s original ice hotel and celebrated its 25th anniversary this past season.  Kiruna is a relatively new town, founded in 1900 to support its iron mine.  During our tour of the ICEHOTEL, we were told the story of the French artist Jannot Derid who wanted to create a reason for people to come visit this freezing destination.  He traveled to cold places around the world for ...

The cherry blossoms are in peak bloom in Washington, D.C., and seeing the photos of the delicate white and pink blossoms decorating the rim of the Tidal Basin brings me back to when we visited this beautiful city a few years back.  One of our favorite things we did while in Washington, D.C. was visiting the memorials in the National Mall, and it was made even more special by the added beauty of the blooming cherry trees.    In 1912, Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gifted 3,000 Yoshino cherry trees to Washington, D.C.  On March 27, 1912, the first two trees were planted on the bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park by First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chindda, the wife of the Japanese ambassador.  The cherry trees are a symbol of the friendship between the United States and Japan and annually this friendship is celebrated with the National Cherry Blossom Festival . Washington, D.C.’s cherry blossoms can be almost as elusive as the Northern Lights....

Stockholm may be the capital city of Sweden, but Gothenburg is Sweden’s food capital and was actually voted as such in 2012.  Gothenburg, Göteborg in Swedish, recently added to its culinary accolades by gaining two more Michelin stars.  Gothenburg already boasted four Michelin-starred restaurants: Bhoga, Restaurang 28+, Sjömagasinet, and Thörnströms Kök. On February 26, 2015, Michelin announced its 2015 stars for Scandinavia and added two more Michelin starred restaurants to Gothenburg’s list: SK Mat & Människor and KOKA.   Six Michelin stars is quite an accomplishment for a city with a population around 500,000, but it isn’t a complete surprise because of the great food the region offers.  As Gothenburg is a coastal town in West Sweden, high-quality fish and shellfish are plentiful.  The area also provides mushrooms, berries, dairy products, and other local and organic ingredients that are showcased in Gothenburg’s restaurants. Related:  48 Hour...