CultureJunkie

Back from Boulder

Well, we're back from Boulder, and had a fantastic trip! I can see why people love it there so much - we had perfect, 85-degree, sunny weather every day, and cool 65ish (great for sleeping) nights.

Some of the highlights:

• Shopping & dining on Pearl Street, where TJ got pulled into a street performance (see the video series on Flickr):

• Stopping for elk and buffalo jerky on our way up to the mountains (yum!):

• Spending 5 days at a gigantic cabin in beautiful Estes Park, gateway to the Rocky Mountains.

• Doing all sorts of outdoor activities like hiking, climbing (yes, me), and zip-lining (no, not me)

• Seeing all sorts of wildlife, like badgers, marmots and elk (oh my!) and hearing the crazy coyote calls at night

• Attending my first Rodeo - complete with Wranglers, Coors, Dodge pickups, and these showgirls:

• Not to mention this bucking bronco:

• Returning to Boulder for breakfast at Chautauqua - a park & recreation area originally created in 1898 to bring culture to rural areas - and photos of the Flatirons

  

• A visit to the Dushanbe Tea House, a gift to Boulder from its sister city of Dushanbe, the captial of Tajikistan. The house was hand crafted and built by over 40 artisans in Tajikistan and then taken apart and shipped to Boulder where it now stands. My pictures don't do it justice, but it's really quite beautiful, with hand carved and painted ceiling, walls, columns, and ceramic panels representative of the Persian Empire.

...and much more!

Here's the full photo set:

Spreading Ashes

"We didn't bury my brother - we cremated him."

That's the chilling, opening line of a great book I read last weekend, Spreading Ashes.

Authored by my former Bowdoin classmate, Shaun Cooney, it tells the story of a 32-year-old-man who reluctantly backpacks across Europe to fulfill his older brother's dying wish. And, as he spreads his sibling's ashes along the way, he learns it is never too late to participate in life.

The story is so captivating and beautifully written, I could barely put it down. I did, in fact, finish it in a weekend. Despite opening with a death - which typically represents an ending -  it is the beginning of a journey that every armchair traveler can enjoy, with vivid descriptions of the people and places throughout France, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland and England. If you've ever traveled through Europe, it will bring back warm memories; if you haven't, you'll want to pack a bag tomorrow.

Beyond the travel experiences, you share the angst, worries, joys, and dreams of this man mourning his brother's absence...all conveyed in the most lyrical prose, like "the wind urged the the leaves to gossip" and "the racing cinema of a train window."

He describes the hustle & bustle of Florence this way: "It was the noise: the offensive whine of the streets that hit us like a blast of heat from an open oven. People chattered and yelled, horns wailed and yapped, trucks grunted and choked, and scooters buzzed and buzzed obnoxiously like runaway chainsaws."

And the cycles of the sun as a metaphor for life: "I contemplated the arc of the sun - a day. A lifetime. Awakening with the scarlet cheeks of a newborn, lightening to the rose-pink complexion of youth, paling beneath the heft of adulthood, chafing to redness along the descent to old age and death."

It's a heartwarming story, beautifully told. If nothing else, it'll leave you with a sense of wanderlust, a desire to experience "the most munificent and open-minded people on earth ... fellow travelers and compatriots abroad."

TripAdvisor (and FlipKey!) on Chronicle

We were excited to see a segment on TripAdvisor in Tuesday night's episode of our local news program, Chronicle.

In it (starting at minute 3:53 in the clip), Founder & CEO Steve Kaufer explains how the user reviews supplied by everyday travelers have made TripAdvisor a premier online destination for people planning trips, and gives a peek inside the TripAdvisor offices.

But the best part was when host Mary Richardson (at minute 6:37) gave a nod to TripAdvisor's newest feature: the ability to rent individual homes...thanks to its partnership with FlipKey, vacation home rentals with real reviews.

Great press for two great companies. If you want the backstory on FlipKey, read my earlier posts about their launch and their one year anniversary. 

And then go book a vacation rental!

Puerto Rico

Ahhh...we are back from our sunny vacation in Puerto Rico.

Had a wonderful time, and I highly recommend it for your next vacation - just a 4 hour flight from Boston!

We stayed at Da House, a funky hotel/art gallery/night club in Old San Juan, and then at El Conquistador, a gigantic resort on the eastern coast in Fajardo. Both were great.

Relive the excitement here:

FlipKey One Year Anniversary

Last week, I joined my friends at FlipKey to celebrate the one year anniversary of their vacation rental service. A large group of employees, business partners, family members, and friends gathered at the FlipKey headquarters in downtown Boston to celebrate their many accomplishments.

In just 12 months, FlipKey.com has developed the world’s largest collection of verified vacation rental guest reviews, including:

• Over 78K properties in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, Europe and Mexico
• Over 60K guest reviews - the largest number in the industry
• Over 100K visitors/month
• Named Top Vacation Rental Website by Travel + Leisure
• Became the exclusive vacation rental source on TripAdvisor.com, providing access to verified vacation rentals to TripAdvisor Media Group’s 24MM monthly visitors

Congratulations! That's quite an accomplishment.

While the economic forecast continues to be gloomy, more second home owners than ever before are renting their properties to vacation goers, and more families unwilling to give up their hard-earned vacation time are seeking out vacation rentals as a more cost effective way to get away. 

To read the FlipKey highlights from the last year, check out my delicious bookmarks; for more info on the adorable logo cookies we got for the party (pictured above), visit AlisSweetTreats.com (thanks, Andrea - they were a hit!).

Trip to Vermont

This post is a couple of weeks late, but I visited Sugarbush, Vermont, for the first time last month, and oh my - it is gorgeous!

Here are some of the highlights; if you're planning a trip up there anytime soon, be sure to check these out:

The lodge at the base of the mountain is beautiful - that silver grain silo was converted into rooms:

It has an outdoor, heated swimming pool that was very active despite the single-digit weather (primarily children...Sugarbush is a much more family-oriented spot vs., say, Killington).

The little town of Warren, VT is quaint, but blink on your drive through and you might miss it. The centerpiece is The Warren Store, a charming spot right in the center of town, full of local delicacies, housewares, clothing, and novelties.  We enjoyed breakfast at their deli/bakery, and took home a jar of the Thursday Cottage handmade rum butter.

A short drive north brings you to Waitsfield, VT, my favorite part of the trip. Much larger than Warren (but still a very small, quaint, New England town), Waitsfield is full of art galleries, craft shops, and gourmet food stores.

The Sweet Pea Natural Food Store in the Village Square Shopping Center is the best! We cooked in a couple of nights and the produce and prepared foods from this place are fantastic. We took home an extra bottle of the Vermont Wholesome all natural maple chipotle dressing - highly recommended.

At the Artisan Gallery I picked up some Vermont Goat's Milk Soap from Elmore Mountain Farm; it smells divine (in Bergamot Rosewood and Spearmint Bergamot) and creates a rich lather. I'm tempted to try some of the other products on their site as well.

I also picked up the namesake cookbook of The Inn at the Round Barn, a 19th century farmhouse and a attached horse barn that were converted to an inn which now boasts its own catering service. And a really cool photograph called "Downhill" by photographer Jon Olsen. He uses a pigment ink printing system on 100% cotton rag watercolor paper coated to receive pigment inks...so while it's a photograph, it actually looks like a watercolor. It's really quite striking.

Last, but not least, is The Store. This place is awesome: chock full of gourmet food items, dishes, housewares, antiques, and quilts, all displayed in displayed in a restored 1834 Methodist Meeting House. There is even a cooking school in the back, where you can take classes or schedule private events: 

 

All in all, a really fun weekend. View the full slide set here (sorry, forgot the "real" camera so we're stuck with Blackberry shots):

TripAdvisor Causes

I've blogged before about TripAdvisor's savvy promotions group; well - they're at it again. I received the below email recently, sent by my friend Shibani:

 

I of course clicked through to vote, and landed here:

 

Here's the scoop: TA wants to leverage its millions of site visitors to do some good in the world. It has identified the above 5 causes, and has asked the TA community to vote on the most worthy cause, which will then receive a $1 million gift (and I believe I read somewhere that the other 4 will still get a smaller gift, even if they don't win the vote). It's a really nice philanthropic campaign that brings to life TA's mission: leave more than your footprints behind when you travel – by making a difference in your community and the places you visit.

So head on over to TripAdvisor Causes and cast your vote - and do it quickly! Polls close on Sunday, November 9th. As an added bonus, you'll gain access to their 2008 Travelers Choice guide, which profiles the world's best hotels, based on TripAdvisor's user reviews.

TripAdvisor's Traveling Movie Tour

TripAdvisor is running a fantastic campaign right now, and this week, Bostonians can experience it first hand.

An outdoor film festival called the TripAdvisor Traveling Movie Tour,  the campaign is comprised of a free outdoor film festival in five U.S. cities:  New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston.

For two nights only, locals can head down to the Boston Common (enter at NW Corner, near Beacon and Charles St) and view a free movie at sundown.

Tonight's feature is the classic Roman Holiday; on Thursday they'll show Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

If you do go down, be sure to bring any gently-used luggage you may have for a donation to Suitcases for Kids. Swing buy the TripAdvisor tent and you can also enter for a chance to win your own Roman holiday!

In an effort to engage media buyers as well as travelers, TripAdvisor sent out gift bags with movie candy like Twizzlers and Sno-Caps, plus access to a movie quiz for a chance to win prizes. I love this campaign - it's fun and engaging, and totally on brand.

Beam Camp Wedding

We're back from Emily and Corey's wedding at Beam Camp on Parker Mountain in Strafford, NH.

Photos:

Africa

How fantastic are these photos from Maria's recent trip to Africa?