Five ways to rock Idaho for the holiday season

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho may not be the first destination that comes to mind for holiday travel. I mean … who jumps to Idaho?! Well, this is a problem that needs to be remedied. If you’re looking to take off for a few days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, there’s a lot happening in Coeur d’Alene.

1. Holiday Light Show: More than 1.5 million lights are hung along the Coeur d’Alene waterfront every winter, creating the largest on-the-water holiday light show in the United States. The festivities kick off the day after Thanksgiving with a parade through downtown with more than 5,000 candles. One button is clicked at the end, bringing the waterfront to life with white lights, a 30-foot wreath and a fireworks display. This event runs through the end of the holiday season.

2. Fantasy Cruise to the North Pole: Cross the water by boat to visit the workshop run by the esteemed Santa and Mrs. Claus. On display, you’ll find a 161-foot Christmas tree with north of 30,000 sparkling LED and colored lights. The lights themselves take on the shapes of nearly 150 characters, from fire-breathing dragons to dancing elves to giant snowflakes. You can take advantage of this from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day. Set sail at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.

3. Migrating Bald Eagles: Watch the bald eagles stop in Coeur d’Alene every winter to dine on Chinook salmon near Wolf Lodge Bay. From Thanksgiving until the end of the year, you can see up to 100 eagles hanging out on the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

4. Shop for the Holidays: Stop by Sherman Avenue, where you can find plenty of unique shops and art galleries. Add a local flavor to the gifts you give this year — a great alternative to the big box stores (and their online equivalents).

5. Parks of All Types: At Silver Mountain, a half hour from Coeur d’Alene, you can do some skiing or tubing — or throw on a swimsuit to splash around at an indoor water park, despite the freezing temperatures outside.

[Photo by Jami Dwyer via Flickr]

GPS Footwear: Program your shoes and start walking?

by Jamie Rhein on

Perhaps one of the worst travel experiences is being lost and on foot in a city without a decent map or a sense of direction. This is particularly horrendous when one has walked and walked and walked only to discover the same buildings and streets that one saw hours ago. A shoe GPS system might be the answer to such foot torture and travel woes.

This shoe + GPS is an idea that has a design already. If these shoes are ever made, Footwear with GPS will be shoes equipped with a GPS unit and transponder.

After reading the description and looking at the diagram of this shoe at Funny Patents and Inventions, I’m not exactly sure how this system works, but it does seem that even if you don’t know where you’re going, this shoe could be helpful for determining where you are.

I wonder how the system fares in rain? Could you get shocked if you happen to slog through a puddle? Also, I wonder if you could have a bit of fun with someone and program one shoe to point a person in one direction and the other to point the opposite way?

This Footwear with GPS system idea reminds me of the saying, “Wherever you go, there you are.” Perhaps that could be a slogan for an ad campaign.

Gadlinks for Monday 11.2.09

by Brenda Yun on

It’s GPS day here are Gadling, so I think it’s only appropriate to offer up some GPS-themed travel reads for you today. Enjoy!

‘Til tomorrow, have a great evening!

More Gadlinks HERE.

First map to name America goes on display at Library of Congress

by Sean McLachlan on

Visitors to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., have a rare opportunity to see the first map that used the name “America” for the New World.

The Library has the only surviving copy of the famous Waldseemüller map, created in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller, a German cartographer living in France. The map was a major departure from earlier maps in that it relied less on the received wisdom of Classical geographers like Ptolemy and more on reports by the many explorers of the time.

Waldseemüller studied reports by Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci and decided Columbus was wrong in thinking he had reached India. Waldseemüller favored Vespucci’s theory that the lands they were exploring on the other side of the Atlantic were actually part of a previously unknown continent. Waldseemüller rewarded Vespucci by naming the continent after him. America is the feminized Latin form of Vespucci’s first name. All other continents had Latin feminine names, so it fit.

The map is not only correct about the New World, but also portrays other parts of the globe far more accurately than other maps of the time. It’s a fine work of art too, with detailed depictions of terrain and portraits of Ptolemy and Vespucci.The map is on display as part of the exhibition “Exploring the Early Americas.”


%Gallery-13474%