Birthday Vacations: Let Your Horoscope Guide You

by Jamie Rhein on

My husband used to take his birthday off from work to head to Laguna Pueblo’s Feast Day when he lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Last year, a friend of mine went to Las Vegas with a group of women friends to celebrate hers.

Today’s my birthday and I’m taking my son to school for his first day of kindergarten, meeting a friend at Borders for coffee, (and yes, I’ll browse the travel books and magazine sections), write some Gadling posts, and after picking my son up from kindergarten will get head to my daughter’s soccer game. They are playing out of town in Groveport, Ohio so perhaps there will be a neat eatery worth a stop. Since this is certainly not a birthday itinerary with a WOW!!! factor, kind of sweet for sure, but not WOW, I searched for travel I might do today if I had another life —not that I want another life, I’m just saying.

I found this article which presents a darned clever idea. When looking to plan a birthday trip, let your zodiac sign be your guide.

Actually, the idea is to plan a romantic getaway for your love or like interest based on his or her horoscope. That’s nice and all, but why not plan for your own? The zodiac signs are listed along with a brief description of personality traits and a suggested trip for each.

Here are the highlights from Susan Breslow Sardone’s article. Whether you go along with horoscope stuff or not, I think these are fun reads. If you go to each link, you’ll find more links to specific suggestions. And, yes, I know these are not in order of when they show up during the year.

  1. Aries: a volunteer vacation. The world’s the limit.
  2. Aquarius: Las Vegas
  3. Cancer: Cooperstown or Disney World
  4. Capricorn: A luxury hotel
  5. Gemini: A great city
  6. Leo: London, England
  7. Libra: A romantic hotel
  8. Pices: Hawaii
  9. Sagittarius: An adventure vacation
  10. Taurus: A cruise
  11. Scorpio: The Caribbean
  12. Virgo: (and that would be me) An award-winning resort. Hmmm. I think I’d rather take the London trip, but I could look for the resort while I’m there.

Plan for Labor Day: Things to Do

by Jamie Rhein on

“Are you going anywhere for Labor Day?” our friends asked us last night as we sat in our living room after an evening at the movies seeing The Bourne Ultimatum. They were heading out on an extended family camping trip.

“Nope, we’ve been gone so much we thought we’d stay here,” we said. This summer we’ve been from the East Coast (Massachusetts, New York, Washington, D.C.) to the West Coast (Washington State and on over to Montana) to the Midwest (Owensboro, Kentucky) and to Cleveland two times, that Labor Day weekend needs to be spent catching up on the things we haven’t taken care around the house that we promised to do before the end of summer. I call this “shoveling out.”

But, since Labor Day does offer that present of a Monday off, here are some suggestions of Labor Day jaunts and possibilities that I came across. Beaches, parks, museums, restaurants etc. are on the lists.

  • For romantic getaway suggestions check out “Top 10 Things to Do Before Labor Day.”
  • For where to go for Labor Day on a budget, here’s “Top 6 Places to Spend Labor Day on the East Coast on a Budget.”
  • If you live near Seattle, here’s a huge list of things to do in an article from The Seattle Times.
  • And here’s Labor Day Weekend 2007 on About: Travel with Kids. This is a terrific roundup of things to do across the United States. There are links upon links upon links.

Doesn’t summer end though on September 21? Maybe we can slip in at least a day trip for Labor Day. There’s that rodeo going on at Smoke Rise Ranch in Hocking Hills, Ohio. (The photo is of the Working Man sculpture outside the Seattle Art Museum. The fence is gone now since the construction is completed.)

Shufflin’ Along Your Own Path

by Brett Atkinson on

OK, so I may be a guidebook writer, but I’m actually a big fan of random travel. It’s good to get lost every now and then. When I do it’s nice to have a totally random selection of music as a soundtrack. Here’s the first five songs that came up when I pressed “Shuffle Songs” on my iPod.

How does your random selection compare?

  1. “There There My Dear” by Dexys Midnight Runners
  2. “International Jet Set” by The Specials
  3. “Heart Shaped Bruise” by Elvis Costello
  4. “On and On and On” by Wilco
  5. “Panic” by The Smiths

Thanks to davegolden on Flickr for the pic of the mighty Mr Costello

Gay.com’s Travel Gaydar: Top 10 Destinations

by Iva Skoch on

Apparently, San Francisco, Key West and New Orleans’ glory has long passed. Now, if you are a) gay and b) hip, you head over to Buenos Aires to party.

“Fed up with following the well-trod lavender road to the end of that boring old rainbow?” Gay.com asks. Here is a list of Top 10 destinations:

  1. Buenos Aires, Argentina
  2. Melbourne, Australia
  3. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA
  4. Hong Kong, China
  5. Cape Town, South Africa
  6. New York, NY, USA
  7. Berlin, Germany
  8. San Diego, CA, USA
  9. Philadelphia, PA, USA
  10. Toronto, Canada

And a few extra on their “gaydar”: Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lisbon.

If travel is anything like real estate, I say follow the gays!

Old Sturbridge Village Takes You Back In Time

by Jamie Rhein on

One of my most patriotic 4th of Julys was spent at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachussets two years ago. Old Sturbridge Village is a living history museum that is an entire rural New England town set in the time period 1790 to 1840. Even though the buildings look original, several are reconstructions, but honestly, you won’t be able to tell the difference. All are situated just as they might have looked way back when. My favorites are the buildings where crafts people make their wares like candles and tin lanterns. There is also a working farm that follows the seasons. The whole place has the aura of a time warp since the people who work there are in period costumes and talk to visitors as if they are living way back when. Here’s the on-line tour that highlights the buildings and their purpose.

On the 4th of July, in addition to walking around the town to take in the various homes, business establishments, and the school house, you can gather at the village commons to hear the Declaration of Independence being read by a person dressed like a government official. My experience with the Declaration of Independence before this was reading it in some social studies textbook with a quiz attached. This way was much better. The reading was only part of the day’s activities. There was baseball game, crafts, a fife and drum band that marched around the commons and a hot air balloon.