Destination: Florida
More Postcard Stories from Geist Magazine
by Eva Holland | 06.29.09 | 9:20 AM ET
Once again, Geist has announced the winners of the annual Literal Literary Postcard Contest—in which writers submit very short stories inspired by vintage postcards. First prize went to Mark Paterson’s Spring Training, a compact piece about a boy not traveling to Florida for pre-season baseball every year.
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by Tom Swick | 05.28.09 | 11:30 AM ET
Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
Goodbye to my Mickey Mouse, Wayne Allwine
by Jenna Schnuer | 05.22.09 | 11:31 AM ET
For so many, the first true travel excitement comes compliments of Mickey Mouse and co.
A few years ago, I talked to my nieces on the phone just before their first trip to Disney World. The little one, just shy of four, didn’t usually have much patience for phone conversations. That day, she just kept talking and talking, offering excited (and rather detailed) explanations of all the things she wanted to see. Both girls were delighted when I told them about my own visits to Disney World as a kid. We all got kind of giddy thinking that, just maybe, there was some slight chance they would end up riding in the same It’s a Small World boat I sat in 30+ years ago.
For the Love of Minor League Baseball
by Jenna Schnuer | 05.18.09 | 3:15 PM ET
The Albuquerque Isotopes. The Clearwater Threshers. The Dayton Dragons.
Ah, minor league baseball. The team names alone are joy. The experience? That much better. While I’ve always found it a bit ho-hum to attend a major league game for a team that wasn’t my hometown favorite, minor league games feel more neutral.
They’re about hanging out eating stuff you shouldn’t eat on a (hopefully) beautiful spring or summer night and (hopefully) getting to see a little magic when some not-so-known player smacks one out or looks like he has the potential to pitch a perfect game. They’re about relaxing. And just kind of being in a place with, mostly, the people who live there.
Minor league games feel out of time. They feel hopeful.
My Worst Hotel Rooms
by Alexander Basek | 05.11.09 | 10:59 AM ET
Lists are in the air lately, so I decided to get in on the action. Herewith, my four worst hotel rooms, lifetime. I won’t name names, because I’m a gentleman. And also, because the parties in question might hunt me down and throw tiny bottles of shampoo at me.
Singapore: I was at the edge of Singapore’s Chinatown, which, as it turns out, is also the edge of Singapore’s red light district. Not that I caught on—I thought all the scantily-clad women peering out from cracked front doors were zealous about saving the environment and keeping that AC indoors. My hotel room here was easily the darkest I’ve ever stayed in: a deep red and purple color scheme lit by one dirty window overlooking an airshaft. The only outlet was in the middle of the wall above the bed.
Eight Great Stories of Beaches, Islands, Travel and the Tropics
by World Hum | 04.30.09 | 10:31 AM ET
To mark our eighth anniversary, we've collected eight favorite stories from our archives that celebrate and explore travel at land's end
Eight Great Travel Stories About Food
by World Hum | 04.28.09 | 4:06 PM ET
iStockphoto To mark World Hum's eighth anniversary, we've collected eight favorite stories from our archives that explore the sweet spot where taste meets travel
A Solar-Powered City to Debut in Florida
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.10.09 | 12:22 PM ET
Photo by albertheaps via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Hey, if the United Arab Emirates can build a giant eco-city in the desert, then sunny Florida should do just fine with a solar-powered town near Fort Myers, in the southwestern portion of the state.
Reuters reports that the developers of the planned $2 billion Babcock Ranch—an environmentally friendly city of 19,500 houses and some six million square feet of space including retail and offices—say it will run on what they bill as the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant.
Let’s just hope the Sunshine State’s sun city isn’t underwater by the end of the century.
Travel Writing: Not Exactly a Racket
by Tom Swick | 04.03.09 | 4:36 PM ET
REUTERS/Carlos Barria Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
A Day at Cruise World
by Tom Swick | 03.24.09 | 9:55 AM ET
Photo by Tom Swick Contemplating and celebrating the world of travel
From ‘CSI’ to ‘Castle’: Traveling the World, One Crime Show at a Time
by Eva Holland | 03.11.09 | 3:46 PM ET
We’ve written before about crime novels being a prime source for vivid place-based writing. But how about traveling vicariously through the now-ubiquitous crime show? I’d argue that television travel can be just as effective and enjoyable.
Of course, a forty-four minute episode doesn’t allow for the same richness and depth of detail as you’d find in a book, but you can pack a lot of local color—both sights and sounds—into even the briefest street scene. Think of the all-powerful CSI franchise: from the juicy opening shots of the Las Vegas strip or the Manhattan skyline—sorry Miami, I just can’t handle Horatio—to the plot lines often derived from existing local traditions, quirks or trends (think the original CSI’s frequent tributes to Vegas’ wild mob-ruled past), each of the shows is deeply rooted in its host city. And while the main story lines are certainly glitzed up and sensationalized (not to mention acted out by improbably attractive law enforcement officers), you can still pick up a lot of legit local detail from them: I first heard of narcocorridos in a CSI episode about the Mexican community in Las Vegas, and saw handball played for the first time in an episode of CSI: NY—now, walking around Queens during my stay here, I see the game being played daily.
Morning Links: Best Job in the World Finalists, ‘Narco-Tours’ and More
by Michael Yessis | 03.04.09 | 8:18 AM ET
- The 50-person short list for Tourism Queensland’s “best job in the world” includes a man who staged a musical on an Ontario street and Geek Brief’s Cali Lewis.
- The Tsunami Museum commemorating the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami is open in Indonesia.
- China plans to open its earthquake ruins to tourists.
- Interesting essay by Alexei Tsvetkov on leaving Prague: “In the end some people here will probably miss me, but not many, not too much, and not for long.” (via The Rumpus)
- Ryan Adams: Travel writer? BlackBook has his take on Hollywood. Here are his musical takes on New York and Jacksonville.
- “Narco-tours” are on the rise in Mexico.
- Independent Traveler lists 10 reasons you should travel now.
- Esquire lists the 59 best breakfast places in America.
- Are you an, uh, anal traveler? (via BootsnAll Today)
- How great is this: John Wray will be giving a reading from his new book Lowboy while traveling on a Brooklyn-bound L train next week. Details in this video.
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What Not to do When Late for a Flight
by Rob Verger | 03.02.09 | 3:27 PM ET
The best thing not to do, when it’s clear you’ve missed your flight, is to pretend to be an air marshal.
Global Warming Tourism: The Rising Sea Level Slideshow!
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.27.09 | 3:37 PM ET
Florida’s Key West as well as the Maldives, Tuvalu and the islands of Pate and Ndau in the Lamu Archipelago off the Northern coast of Kenya are among eight places that rising sea levels due to climate change will soon make uninhabitable, according to a provocative slideshow at Treehugger.
I hope this doesn’t start a trend in “climate-change cruises.”
Tweet Revenge: The Tale of Gary Vaynerchuk and the Mondrian
by Alexander Basek | 02.27.09 | 12:26 PM ET
Is there no quadrant of the web untouched by internet impresario Gary Vaynerchuk? In a video posted to his site on Wednesday, Vaynerchuk (host of Wine Library TV and a new media keynote guru, for those of you who haven’t heard of him) told a cautionary tale about the Mondrian in South Beach. In short: Gary Vee went to the hotel’s bar expecting to party—because the Mondrian has a party rep—and the house turned on the lights around 1:30 a.m., booting Gary (and friends) upstairs to their rooms. Normally, the tale would end there, but Gary’s pal tweeted the event, and someone immediately responded that they were not going to stay at the Mondrian after hearing the tale of woe. The power of Web 2.0! Right?