Travel Tips & Adventures

Every girl likes her pearls – or other beads. It turns out that men, too, throughout time have valued beads. Beads are the featured and the only items on display in the unique Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona.

What are beads? Anything that has a hole in it that can be strung. That means that our ancestors of 13,000 years ago who took a reindeer tooth and strung it on a leather strand had an early bead.

Iridescent decoration made from beetle wings

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If you’re looking for a challenging hiking experience that promises – and delivers on – scenery, a visit to Chiricahua National Monument is in order.

Entering Chiricahua after driving through miles of open and desolate desert (about an hour south of Willcox, Arizona), you arrive at the visitors center. After all of that driving, you begin to wonder why you made the drive…and then you get into the park a bit and it’s like you’re in another world! (more…)

When you travel to the National Parks in the Southwest and start with Zion, as we did, you find yourself overwhelmed and feeling very small.  The cliffs tower over you and you can get lost on the trails.  

Part of the “Grand Circle” of National Parks, we really enjoyed the diversity of the trails.  One moment, walking along a nice level path, you might see a deer grazing not too far away.  

Red cliffs of Zion National Park

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Landscape Arch

From Moab, Utah, it is a fairly easy drive to the Park’s visitor center. Allow a very full morning or afternoon or even a day to visit the evocatively named formations. See “Courthouse Towers,” “ Parade of Elephants,” “Three Gossips” and the famous “Landscape Arch.” Landscape Arch looks likes it will fall down any time now, but it might take thousands of years. As recently as 1991, a large segment fell from Landscape Arch and the section left looks very close to fragmenting entirely.

Parade of Elephants

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Canyonlands, located in Utah and one of the US National Parks, cannot be judged by a photograph or other image. You really must be there to feel how open, deep and vast the earth stretches out in front of you. It seems to dwarf the Grand Canyon in immensity!

 
Standing on a ledge several years ago, wind blowing and rain threatening, I felt very small and insignificant looking out at the giant canyons, eroded by time and the Colorado and Green Rivers.

Canyonlands - nature at its most amazing

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While growing up, I had my share of deli food. I love it!  Once in a while, I need my fix of the savory, scrumptious tastes, usually served in copious quantities.

I’m a good cook, but I really love to try the deli food of other great cooks. Plus, some deli food takes a really long time to make well.

I’ve eaten at Carnegie Deli in New York City. I’ve eaten deli food in many cities. Some is better than others: some is so-so; some is incredible; some is so bad you don’t want to take the leftovers home.

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We were invited by the Decker sisters to visit their alpaca ranch, Tranquil Spirits. A cria, a baby alpaca, had recently been born and they were expecting more. Lady Godiva, or “Lady G,” as the Decker sisters called their first cria, was born early, weighing only 13 pounds, 1 ounce. For a human, that would be extraordinary, but Lady G was in jeopardy since she was only about half of a normal birth weight.

Lady G

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By Guest Author Joan Koczor

As you pull into Austin, MN, you begin to see billboards along the highway advertising the Spam Museum. The billboards say things like “The SPAM® Museum– Even we don’t really understand,” and “The SPAM® Museum– Yes, we do answer the ingredients question.

SPAM® Museum's retro 40s and 50s look

 This sense of humor carries over into the actual museum, the shrine to the canned meat that is produced and packaged right there in Austin, Minnesota, otherwise known as Spam Town, USA.

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Since Williams was hosting the Disney Christmas Carol train recently, I had the pleasure of seeing this quirky and historic northern Arizona town.

 
Billed as the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon,” Williams is about 55 miles from the major attraction. They are small, but their marketing is powerful. (more…)

Christmas has come early this year. Until early November, The Walt Disney Company, partnered with Amtrak, has mounted a family-friendly exhibit on a train decked out as “The Christmas Carol.”

Christmas Carol train

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