danapop

The Seattle Public Library

I’ve always loved to travel; maybe it’s the Sagittarius in me. But, lately I’ve come to the realization that we travel a lot. And I’m not exaggerating when I say a lot. Last year, on average, our travel worked out to be almost one trip a month-and almost all of it was to visits to family and friends. Most likely this has to do with the fact that my husband and I both come from large families (four kids in each of our families, plus nieces and nephews all around) and have close friends in our hometowns we still regularly keep in touch with. So between weddings, graduations, baby showers, birthdays, family vacations, and holidays, being out of town often is a bit of an understatement for us.

Charleston, South Carolina

This year though, I’m trying to find a balance with the travel. Because in 2009-despite a recession and job loss-here’s where we went last year (in no particular order):

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Cincinnati, Ohio

Santa Cruz, California

Birmingham, Alabama

New Orleans, Louisiana

Seattle, Washington

Vancouver, BC

Siesta Key, Florida

Charleston, South Carolina

Destin, Florida

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Another check-in with Eric & Beth, our friends from the blog El Mundo.  This postcard proves to be an adventurous one … Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Another stop on their trip around the world.

Since in today’s tech age the physical postcard has now been altered to text messaging, here’s the abbreviated (somewhat) summary with photos…

ngoại động từ (English translation from Vietnamese-enjoy!).

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The Rock Boat-Photo Courtesy of Sixthman

Work life for me has always been a delicate balance of finding something I’m passionate about and how that fits into my life in the bigger sense. Now that my husband and I are both in the market for full-time work (click here to hear all about the highs and lows of job loss), it sometimes makes you look at what you’ve done in the past career-wise to see if you’d in fact, like to revisit it.

Thankfully, I’ve enjoyed most of the jobs I’ve had throughout my career (give or take … bosses, now that’s another story, ahem, I digress). Before I became a full-time freelance writer, I was a publicist-a senior publicist to be exact–at a top entertainment boutique firm in Atlanta. Most of my clients were in the food realm, but I did assist on other accounts, and one of them, was by far the most fun … Sixthman.

This niche travel company has booked some of the best known musicians in the world on its music cruises, which essentially put musicians and their fans on the same boat at sea. On any given ship you get to see impromptu performances, as well as your favorite singer hanging out on the Lido Deck. Sixthman charter boats have booked everyone from The Barenaked Ladies to Josh Rouse to Lynyrd Skynyrd … a ship full of fans signing “Sweet Home Alabama” in unison is something, let me tell you. Oh–and even this guy, whose time on a Sixthman ship created quite the Internet buzz with this photo.

I recently got a chance to chat with Sixthman founder Andy Levine who, by the way, seems to have mastered the balance of one’s passion, one’s work, and one’s life.
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Eric and I figured this would be a good place to write you because this city is way more than people realize and it's been one of our favorite stops.

As promised, a check in with Eric & Beth, our friends from the blog El Mundo.  The first postcard proves to be a good one … Dubai, a great stop on their trip around the world.

Since in today’s tech age the physical postcard has now been altered to text messaging, here’s the abbreviated summary with photos…

فِعْل : يستمتع بـ . يَنْعَم بـ
(English translasion from Arabic–enjoy!)

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Our friends Eric and Beth are traveling the world. They are currently on the road (and airplane, and boat) for the next half year (give or take). So, they’ll be popping in from time to time with trip updates and postcards of their journey. Of course I had loads of questions for them regarding a trip such as this, which made the interview quite fun.

Here’s my Q&A session with Beth just before she joined Eric on their trip. Friday, I’ll check back in with them in Dubai.  Also, be sure to follow all their travels and updates on their fantastic blog, El Mundo.

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The simple story behind Santa Cruz (situated on the Monterey Bay) is this–in the 1960s the counterculture boom made things in San Fran a bit too crowded, so the intellectual crowd headed South, to Santa Cruz. So, the answer is yes, Dionne Warwick, they do know the way to San Jose (that’s the nearest major city in proximity to SC), a.k.a. Silicon Valley.

My twin sister’s favorite book is John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. It’s pretty fitting because she’s a journey seeker, and the whole book is an account of Steinbeck’s road trip with his standard poodle named Charley. So when she moved to Santa Cruz, California from Baltimore, Maryland this summer, she actually did what so many of us (me, me, me) dream about doing–taking weeks to travel to her new home. She visited friends and family along the way stopping and enjoying the drive as much as the destination. Even camped solo (so brave) in some of the most inspiring places in North America. One early morning before dawn in the Badlands, she woke up to a bison stampede … beats an alarm clock any day.

Now that she is settled in SC, my older sister and I met up with my twin for a bit of a girly get-away. We’ve all been busy this year. My older sister has a big-wig job, a husband who travels for his job, and two kiddos under the age of four. My twin just uprooted her life (new job, said new town, and end of an 8-year relationship), and me–I’ve been a bit buried in both work and worry lately, so it was due time to whip out the mascara and skinny jeans. But, really, more like cut-offs and tank tops, as that’s more the way they roll…

The point in my story about my twin’s travels to get to Santa Cruz is that  that’s pretty much what we did there. We stopped and took a moment to digest it all. We visited with friends and family, saw some of the prettiest places in Nor Cal, and just slowed down. If you ever need a little (or a lot of) space to clear your head–Santa Cruz squarely fits the bill. Here’s a bit about our trip, and my favorite spots along the way. This week, the pop on Eddie Vedder’s muse–Santa Cruz.

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I first visited Charleston as a freshman in college, to visit my first love, my then boyfriend who attended The Citadel, or as it’s formally called–The Military College of South Carolina. And while he’s an amazing person whom I’d predict now is a doting father and husband (if I had to guess … but I honestly have no idea where or how he currently is) the best thing out of that relationship was my introduction Charleston. Well, that and my first taste of Russian teacakes during the holiday season (courtesy of his mother). I was charmed by both, even then.

Charleston has it all including history–(um, hola Civil and Revolutionary Wars) and because of it, there’s a strong “across the pond” vibe going on–great boutiques, award-winning chefs taking local and Southern cuisine to a whole new level, and an integral, yet gorgeous harbor currently the nation’s fourth busiest container port. Celebrities love it too– Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe chose Charleston as their wedding location (hmm maybe not such a good example). My friend, travel and food writer extraordinaire Hope, says (I’m paraphrasing) that it’s the snootier version of New Orleans, and I think that’s a fair observation.

But, even so, I’ve always been more than a bit smitten with the city, much like that first boyfriend you always seem to go back to (no matter how immature and ridiculous things get). Though a side note, on this last visit, I noticed even Charleston cannot escape the housing market–there were loads of for-sale signs. One of the reasons I like Charleston so much is because of all of its old buildings (especially when compared to where I live in Atlanta), so, I was sad to see a lot of tearing down of old properties and building new this time around, which is never a good thing. But, this isn’t a piece on the economy or property development, it’s an article on traveling to one of the best little big cities in the South–the pop on Charleston.
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I’ve heard other writers complain when people openly admit to reading their book in a day or two, because it certainly didn’t take the author one day to write it. But, I read Lucy Knisley’s travel journal/comic/coming-of-age story in about that long. And I don’t think that’s an insult.

I found her book to be such a refreshing way to tell a particular chapter of life – that period in your early twenties, where you’re about to be on your own and excited about the possibility, but scared shitless and insecure all at the same time. In the end, Lucy’s story wraps around you all sweet and comforting, much like the milk in Paris.

I’m so thrilled with this week’s travel piece, a Q&A with Lucy Knisley, the coolest chick with a pen, and the author and illustrator of French Milk.

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Dublin is one of my favorite cities. And just because it’s fun to live vicariously through others, this week’s travel piece is a postcard of sorts. My dear friend is celebrating a birthday, so as an early gift, she and her husband enjoyed the sights and sounds of Dublin, Ireland.

Oh, and did I mention they attended one of the three U2 shows in Croke Park Stadium? A fantastic birthday present, indeed.

Since in today’s tech age the physical postcard has now been altered to text messaging, here’s the abbreviated summary with photos…

Bain sult as! (English translation from Gaelic-enjoy!)

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Blue Mountain Beach

Okay. I admit it, I was wrong. Dead wrong. The beaches of South Walton, Florida (SoWal) are gorgeous and shouldn’t be described as anything but. Here’s the but–those beaches are sometimes called the Redneck Riviera, and that description alone was enough to deter me from ever making the jaunt, despite the mere 5.5 hour drive from Atlanta. As a girl who spent her formative years in landlocked Kansas, the fact that I can leave my home in the morning and be sitting on a beach by afternoon is reason enough to go, but I couldn’t get past that nickname.

Santa Rosa Beach

Twenty-six miles of beach situated on the panhandle of Florida from Panama City west to Fort Walton, are considered the Beaches of South Walton. And for the record, I was wrong to think the famed Redneck Riviera was anything except picturesque with emerald green waters mimicking those in the Caribbean and sand as fine as sugar.  Since we were there for a wedding, I didn’t get to do quite as thorough of a job as usual scouting out places to eat and things to do in a locale, so this is an abbreviated take on good places to hit while you’re there. Because, I hope it now goes without saying that SoWal is a star.

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Carnival cruise ship docked just off of Grand Cayman Island.

I’ve been on a cruise ship once, for five days for my job and I didn’t love it. Actually I didn’t even really like it. I love the open water – sailing, boating – but my cruise experience felt like I was trapped in some garish movie theater lobby with the same awful lighting found in most casinos and patterned carpets that only Pucci could find calming. The ports we stopped at weren’t much better, littered as they were with Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, Señor Frogs, McDonald’s, and Hooters restaurants, no thanks.

Often, I stayed onboard working (in my former life as a publicist), but when I wasn’t on the job, I was observing and intrigued. Noticing the life of the Carnival employee and wondering if this was the way out they’d dreamed of.

It’s no secret that the treatment of entry-level cruise ship employees from developing countries are over-worked and underpaid. The slang term in the industry is sweatships. In my research for this piece, I read numerous articles citing that the average cruise ship employee logs 72 hours in just one week – with just one day scheduled off (which usually doesn’t happen). What I saw while afloat reminded me of the film footage of factory workers from the 1920s – below decks hundreds of workers – mostly from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America – live in cramped dormitory-style rooms.
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In less than eight months, the world will know what I know – Vancouver is simply, spectacular. After visiting, I’m not all that surprised that it won the bid to host the 2010 winter Olympics. But, I am however, happy that I discovered it before the rest of the world is introduced, courtesy of NBC.

There’s a lot to adore about VC, BC. First off, it’s clean. Like tap water pouring straight in the glass clean and recycling bins sitting next to almost every trash can in the city clean. And just overall clean living – people running, hiking, kayaking, biking all around town, a nice welcome change from the hours of television and video gaming Americans rationalize as hobbies.

Second, you couldn’t meet nicer folks (bar the staff at Honey, more later). Vancouver’s hospitality held it’s own next to my personal barometer – the hospitality I experienced in Ireland – a country long known for its friendly faces and stories easily and readily shared over pints.

This week’s travel, the pop on Vancouver, British Columbia – my, how I love you! And my, how I could move to you!
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The one-day wander. That quick stopover, scheduled or unscheduled, en route to another destination – a small, often highly rewarding detour from the longer journey ahead. This week’s wander is through the Northwest’s nicknamed Emerald City.

I recently found myself headed to Vancouver by way of Seattle with less than 24 hours to spend in the emo-capitol of the world. My thoughts on Seattle prior to arriving were this – Kurt Cobain, Bill Gates, Starbucks, and the famed space needle. Not stereotypical at all.

Everything about Seattle, I found, is intelligently done (including the aforementioned musician, computer genius, coffee corporation, and that futuristic structure punctuating the sky). From architecture to food, Seattleites sure seem to be doing their part to make the world a bit better. So, it comes as no huge surprise that data matches the observation with The United States Census Bureau noting that Seattle (in 2008) was the most educated city in the U.S.

This week’s travel, the one-day pop on Seattle with my favorite smarty-pants traveling partners in crime – my twin sister, her boyfriend, and my husband.
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Ernest Hemmingway – peripatetic traveler and a man who had a brilliant way with words once said – “Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.”

I just love that line. And like Hemmingway, I do believe who you choose to spend a journey with is just as critical to your travel experience as where you go.

But no matter if it’s with someone you love or even just sorta like, right now I think that people are afraid to travel – not enough in the budget, Swine Flu, pirate attacks – it can be anxiety producing and it has left many perfectly content to let Dhani Jones tackle the globe or Bridget Marquardt saunter around the best beaches.

Life is too short to spend it at a desk dreaming of trips you want to take when the timing fits in a little better with life. I have never regretted taking trips; saving for them, knowing it’s a memorable investment. And with the summer travel season quickly approaching, I can’t help you pick your partner in travel crime, but I can give you some creative ideas for choosing a destination worth emerging from your cubicle for.

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We here at dp hq take our journalism and reporting duties quite seriously. Because of this, I have reporters dispatched in various bureaus throughout the world. Ahem… truth be told, my best friend is in Lecce, Italy, at The Awaiting Table Cookery School, so this week’s travel posting contains snippets of what she’s soaking in.

And in today’s tech age the physical postcard has now been altered to text messaging, here’s the abbreviated text with photos…

Gustate! (English translation – everyone, enjoy!)
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