Mystic Lake in the Beartooth Range, Montana.
(thanks Mono Andes)
Recommended Highlights in the region: Glacier National Park - Montana • Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming • Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming • Harriman State Park - Idaho • Big Sky Ski Resort - Meadow village, Montana • Big Mountain Ski Resort - Whitefish, Montana
What is wrong with us sometimes? Maybe you should ask Leigh Robbins, she's a certified biggot, racist, xenophobe and an ass. Robbins was on a plane that was getting ready to leave San Diego for Chicago when she heard several men on the plane speaking in Arabic (we suppose it was with the help of 24 that she was able to discern what language they were speaking). After she observed one of the Iraqi passengers using the bathroom, she said that he came out and "looked so mean" that she felt compelled to gather up her two little racists-in-training and get off the plane quick. While the American Airlines crew complied with her request it forced them to miss the 11:30pm curfew for take-offs and the flight was delayed until the following morning. It turns out the Iraqis on board are hired by a contractor working for the U.S. Military, they are American citizens who fled Saddam's regime in 1991. Robbins defended her blatant racism and ignorance saying "If people want to put me down, that's their right." We think she should be banned from ever flying again.
(thanks San Diego Metro News)
Those wacky guys over at Forbes have just released their list of the best cities for single folk. The criteria for decoding how single-friendly a city is was determined by a ranking of culture, nightlife, job growth, cost of living, number of single people, and how easy it is to get some via online dating services. So if you're traveling in the near future and want to make sure you run into your fair share of eligible single people here are the top 10 cities where you should put in some face time-
We don't get how Philly could be better for singles than Miami or Vegas nor does it make sense that Portland (#29) ranks lower than Memphis (#23), unless there's just a lot more people trolling Craigslist in Tennessee.
Here are the cities that ranked #1 in each of the different categories-
Continue reading "Top 10 Cities For One Night Stands (and Singles)" »
If you've been driving around aimlessly this Labor Day weekend looking for something to do, you might want to go and check out a car museum. MSNBC covers 10 of the best car museums in the country from coast to coast. Odds are this one might break the family up as most likely there's someone in everyone's car who won't be happy about this little excursion but for those who dig on motors and automobiles here's a quick rundown on the places they recommend-
Honk. Honk.
The Aspen Hollow Truck Trail in Lewis County, New York.
(thanks again Lida Rose)
related travel guide: Fall Foliage in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, New York
Related posts: Amazing UFO Clouds • Crossing Over the Great Divide • Over The River: Christo and Jeanne-Claude in Colorado • Oregonalicious • 18th Annual National Geographic Photo Contest Winners • Perfect Panoramas • Tens in Vermont
Related travel guides: Fall Foliage in Woodstock, Cooperstown, Catskills and Hudson Valley • Most Scenic Drives around New York and the Hudson Valley
Recommended Highlights in the region: Hunter Mountain Ski Resort - New York • Windham Mountain Ski Resort - New York • Belleayre Mountain Ski Area - Highmount, New York
Paper tickets will soon be a thing of the past. So get ready to tell your grandkids about when you use to have to provide a paper voucher in order to get on a plane. In less than a year the entire airline industry will be going high-tech and get rid of paper tickets all together. E-tickets will save airlines an astounding $9 per ticket (which we doubt they'll pass on to you) and better yet, it'll save 50,000 defenseless trees from losing their lives just so you can travel. Can you feel your carbon footprint getting smaller?
(thanks travelindustrywire)
A ridiculous sunset from Pipe Lake in the Willima O. Douglas Wilderness Area on the eastern side of Mt. Ranier National Park.
(thanks zo-l.t.)
Those smart guys over at NASA figured out there's going to be a lunar eclipse today. On Tuesday there will be a full moon that will pass through the Earth's shadow. According to the space guys, "During a total lunar eclipse, the Moon's disk can take on a dramatically colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and (rarely) very dark gray." So make sure to crawl out of bed early if you're on vacation and find a nice spot to watch the moon get weird.
Sandhill Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.
(thanks again Fort Photo)
Here's another top 10 list we missed while we were away on vacation. TripAdvisor asked their 15 billion users for their favorite amusement park outside the confines of Orlando and they came up with the following list-
It seems to us that Tampa is basically Orlando so it's kind of cheating that Busch Gardens made the cut. Also, where the hell is Disneyland?
(thanks thrillnetwork)
Continue reading "Top 10 Amusement Parks (Outside of Orlando)" »
Fresh from The Consumerist is another story of aviation travel woe. A passenger wrote into say that on a recent flight that went through Sacramento, the TSA dutifully confiscated a Hunts Pudding Snack but became so fixated on its sugary goodness that they neglected to notice the 4" Swiss Army knife that was also in the bag, here's the scoop-
I was passing through Sacto airport security checkpoint. I sent my carry-on backpack through the Xray machine. The operator found something, and raised her hand for assistance. Another TSA person came over and pulled my bag out of the machine and commenced with a hand search. Inside he found a package of unopened Hunts Pudding Snacks in my lunch. He confiscated the pudding "it's a liquid" and sent me on my way. Absurd, but forgettable. However later in the day I had a layover, and was going through my backpack looking for a pen and came across my Swiss Army Knife with a 4" locking blade. I had been camping and had inadvertently left it in my backpack. I was stunned that the moron TSA agent had confiscated my pudding, but missed my knife. I am left wondering if the X-ray person ordered the hand search because she saw my knife on the xray, but the hand searcher got thrown off his game by the delicious, and apparently dangerous pudding. If so the lack of communication between the Xrayer and hand searcher indicates a serious weak spot in their protocol. After I discovered the knife, I took a cell phone shot of it in the airport bathroom, and a shot of it as I was LEAVING the secure "sterile" area of the airport.
According to Hotwire, the place to be this Labor Day weekend will be Chi-town. This is the second year in a row that the Windy City has been the country's favorite place to vacation before wrapping up the summer. Here's the full list of the top 10 with last year's ranking in parenthesis:
It sure is nice to see that New Orleans is making a comeback.
After a healthy few weeks on vacation we're back in action and one of the first things we noticed was that Google has upgraded their street views with four new cities - San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston and Orlando. Click on one of the cameras to explore any of the cities currently available.
Related posts: Walk Down the Street with Google Maps Street View • Google Maps - Now With Traffic • MapQuest Does Gas • fastfoodmaps.com • Park in Peace Christmas Google Map Mashup • Stalking the News in NYC • Peculiar Maps for Your Perusal • Momo Paints the Width of NYC
Related travel guides: Tourist Attractions Map of Los Angeles and Southern CA coast • Tourist Attractions Map of San Francisco Bay Area, California • Tourist Attractions Map of Las Vegas, Nevada • Ski and Tourist Attractions Map of Vail, Aspen, Telluride, Steamboat Springs and the Colorado Rockies • Tourist Attractions Map of Manhattan and New York City • Tourist Attractions Map of Maui, Hawaii
Recommended Highlights: Mall of America - Bloomington, Minnesota • Fashion Island Mall - Newport Beach, California • Brea Mall - California • Glendale Galleria Mall - California
While we were doing research on our next startup venture - a website that lets you rate review sites - we came across this nifty little number where you can get ratings on different airports around the world. We guess this is useful if you want to know what to expect, but we suspect you're going to fly into JFK as opposed to LaGuardia if the tickets are $100 cheaper, regardless of the rating. The site, with a super-snazzy name, will also clue you in to what the WiFi situation is like, as well as what to expect in the lounges and whether you're likely to find somewhere to plug in your laptop.
There's nothing more beautiful in this wonderful country of ours than the National Parks. Unfortunately, everyone and their brother is visiting them during the summer months. Fodor's has produced some tips to help you avoid the throngs of tourists at 4 of the nation's busiest parks-
Grand Canyon National Park - Take U.S. 89 to U.S. 64 to the South Rim from Flagstaff and stay off AZ 64 and U.S. 180. Also, come very early or very late to avoid the lines. If you've got time to spare head to the North Rim where only about 10% of the summer visitors end up. Don't be afraid to use the free shuttles, they can save you a lot of time.
Yellowstone National Park - Don't bother if you don't get here before 9 in the morning. Head to places like Fairy Falls, Point Sublime, Yellowstone Lake, and Lone Star Geyser during the heart of the day when the park is full of tourists.
Yosemite National Park - Get up before the crack of dawn in order to beat the crowds into the park and make your way to Yosemite Falls for a spectacular sunrise. This park is usually packed in summer but head toward Hetch Hetchy Valley for some relative peace and beautiful scenery.
Zion National Park - Avoid the south entrance all together and take Utah 9 to the east entrance instead. This park also features a shuttle service to keep more cars off the roads. To really avoid the tourists come in the winter time, because between April and October there are an average of 400,000 visitors a month in the park.
Continue reading "Commune With Nature and Not the Tourists" »
If you live around San Francisco and you're lucky enough to have a Mac you should definitely think about downloading this nifty little widget. The BART Widget is a trip planning tool for those taking public transportation around the Bay Area. It'll let you know how long it is until your next train, and because it's self-contained it doesn't require a WiFi connection in order to work. Pretty cool.
Related posts: Calculating Cab Fare • 5 Podcast Tours for The City by the Bay • Biking Like a Dork in San Francisco
Related travel guides: Getting around San Francisco • Shopping in San Francisco Bay Area, Carmel, Napa Valley, Central California • Romantic Vacation Getaways in San Francisco and the Bay Area • Fun Things to Do in San Francisco, California
Recommended Highlights in the region: Westfield Valley Fair Mall - Santa Clara, California • Stoneridge Mall - Pleasanton, California • Stanford Shopping Center Mall - Palo Alto, California
August 4th will be a good day for smokers and moms. The TSA, in it's infinite wisdom, seems to have realized that banning lighters and breast milk might not be worth the trouble. According to USAToday, the TSA confiscated an incredible 11,616,000 lighters last year. Taxpayers spent $4 million to get rid of all those lighters and smokers spent over $10 million to replace them (it's a good time to be in the lighter business). Officials from the TSA also decided the overwhelming medical benefits of breast milk finally outweigh the potential threat of someone smuggling explosives onto a plane through their mammories (it still must be declared when going through safety checkpoints).
Contact us
![[mb] Flourescent Tunnel 6 by Merrick Brown at flickr.jpg](https://tripcart.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/09/03/mb_flourescent_tunnel_6_by_merrick_.jpg "[mb] Flourescent Tunnel 6 by Merrick Brown at flickr.jpg")
