Travel

[World Traveler]

Okay, since QVC has not set up a separate Travel category after multiple requests, nor explained how they decide to do so in order for us to comply with the criteria, let's do it like many others are doing for their area of passion….have a monthly chat.

A travel thread doesn't mean you went around the world or even half way around! It just means places you have been to that you would like to talk about. When I choose a place to go to, it is almost always because someone told me about their experiences, and that enticed me to go.

It can be another country, a favorite park, seaside resort, etc. Doesn't matter, as long as you had to pick up and go, and you would like to tell others about it.

I saw in today's Parade Magazine in our Sunday newspaper an article about the All-American Adventure. They outlined six drives thru national parks I had never been to: San Juan Skyway in Colorado; Blue Ridge Parkway thru North Carolina and Virginia; Natchez Trace Parkway thru Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee; North Cascades Highway thru Washington; and Parks Highway thru Alaska (which I didn't know was the first national scenic highway!).

Have any of you been to one/some of those?

In another thread called “Travel - Shoutout to @NAES,”  @NAES1 is telling about her current experiences while traveling thru China. Very interesting! I have enjoyed her adventures and look forward to hearing more.

@Juniebugz @AuberriJean @itsmagic  @newziesuzie @dooBdoo  @GingerPeach  @Pearlee, and @adoreqvc also enjoy traveling. I hope they choose to share about their trips too. Or maybe it is places to avoid, and why.

I personally would be interested in knowing what is your favorite place to go and why it is your favorite. Mine is Rwanda to track gorillas. These gentle giants are fascinating to watch (you can only spend one hour with them), but it is well worth the hours of hiking up the mountains to get to them. I spent a lot of time going up and down the bleachers at the local high school in order to get my legs into shape for that trip.

So, please feel free to share your travel dreams. Hopefully, we can stay on topic and keep it a pleasant, positive experience for people to stop by here.

I left the following quotes in another thread and would like to repeat them here. Enjoy!

• The world is a book and people who do not travel it, read only a page. St. Augustine 

• My favorite thing is to go where I have never been. Diane Arbus

And since my favorite continent is Africa, these two are my favorites:

• Once you have visited Africa, you never leave it, and Africa never leaves you. Its dust, mostly red, sometimes white, often black, settles in the heart and remains forever. Don Steffn 

• It is said that God does not subtract from one's allotted time, those days spent on safari. Unknown

Happy travels! 

[Pearlee]

@z-del Traveler  Thank you for the shout-out, but I actually don't enjoy travelling.  I never fly and am quite a homebody.  But I'll be interested in reading the responses of others.  Good idea for a thread! 

[World Traveler]

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@Pearlee wrote:

@z-del Traveler  Thank you for the shout-out, but I actually don't enjoy travelling.  I never fly and am quite a homebody.  But I'll be interested in reading the responses of others.  Good idea for a thread! 

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@Pearlee Oh, so sorry. My bad.  I thought I saw that somewhere. Hope I wasn't wrong about the others too. ha!

[itsmagic]

Hi @World Traveler.  I love to travel and I also enjoy traveling vicariously through others (reading their travel experiences). Your trip to Rwanda tracking gorillas sounds very adventurous!  

The farthest I've ever traveled was Japan and that was many years ago. I spent a lot of time in the Kyoto area and the many temples in that area were fascinating. I even learned to enjoy seaweed wrapped around sticky rice!

I never thought I would like to cruise but one year we decided to try one around the islands of Hawaii. We had never been to Hawaii and it ended up being the perfect way to get an overview of the islands. We visited four islands, cruised at night and docked at An island during the day (some we stayed at a couple days).  I really enjoyed getting up early and watching the tugboat pull us into the harbor.  And cruising by the Napali coast with all of its waterfalls was so beautiful!

Looking forward to reading all the travel posts!

[World Traveler]

@itsmagic Oh, I envy you! Japan is a place I would love to visit. Due to work, the best time for me to travel is either at Christmas or during the summer.

I understand that a great time to go to Japan is in the spring to see the cherry blossoms; is that correct?

Seaweed wrapped around sticky rice? Hmmm....don't know about that. How is that cooked? I'm imaging that the rice is boiled, maybe fried, and then maybe rolled up into a golf-sized ball....then you take the seaweed and wrap it around the ball? Or it is cooked with the seaweed around it. Maybe fried and crunchy. That sounds interesting.

I've been to Hawaii but not the way you did it. I think cruising is nice because you only have to unpack your clothes once! ha! I like the idea of that.

My sister and I took my father on an Alaskan cruise. He was in a wheelchair at the time, but it worked out well because of not having to change from one hotel to another. His room had a balcony, so he really enjoyed it. 

So, did you eat, eat, eat on the cruise? I can usually gain a few pounds on a cruise because the food is "free," and of course, since it is included in the price of the cruise, you feel like you would be wasting money if you don't eat every chance you get! 

[itsmagic]

@z-del Traveler@I went to Japan during the summer and I remember it was very hot so I missed seeing cherry blossoms. I think the sticky rice was maybe steamed in water and it is probably a variety of rice that isn't usually bought in the grocery store here.  We were given a square piece of dried seaweed and using a chopstick (which I wasn't very good at)'dipped it into soy sauce to soften it, lay it on the sticky rice and using the chopstick pick it up with some rice and eat it. Easier said than done!

Yes - on the cruise I thought of the ship as my floating motel room - never having to pack or unpack.  We actually did not eat that much on the cruise.  We ate breakfast and then left the ship for the day. When we returned we had dinner and then because of the time change we were ready for bed super early.  Unfortunately though we woke very early (like 3 am!).  Never got used to the time change. 

We would like to take an Alaskan cruise too and also the cruise that goes from either Boston or New York and up to Canada. 

Did you eat anything unusual in Rwanda?

[World Traveler]

@itsmagic Know what you mean about the chop sticks. I have never been able to master them. And I'm usually too hungry to have any patience in trying for very long.

I don't recall eating anything unusual in Rwanda. I was invited to the home of the guide, and his wife made what she would normally make for her family. As I recall, it was a lot of vegetables, like potatoes, that she grew behind their hut. The meat was of a wild boar.

There is a place in Nairobi, Kenya, called the Carnivore. Google it. I'm not much of a meat eater any more, but if you would like something different, it has all kinds of meat. There was crocodile, giraffe, ostrich, etc. They have a big pit in the middle of the room with lots of skewers of meat being cooked over an open fire.

Maybe six or seven men will bring these huge skewers of different meat to your table from which to choose, and they carve it right onto your plate. Quite an experience to go see, even if you don't want to eat there. I don't recall what all I tried, but they had around ten different sauces you could use with the meats.

Your idea of cruising up to Canada sounds great. I was thinking that sometime I would like to cruise the whole length of the Mississippi in one of the large paddle boats. It would be nice to stop off at different places along the way. I think one of the companies is called the American Queen. You can make stops at St. Louis, Memphis, Baton Rouge, St. Paul......ending up down in New Orleans. Think that is something I will do when going overseas gets to be too hard for me.

[dooBdoo]

@World Traveler

         Thanks for the notification and for starting this thread!   Although I've traveled to Europe a few times, most of my travels have been here in the beautiful USA.   I'm in the midst of moving right now, but I look forward to reading the posts here.  

(eta:  I've noticed when we try to use the "@" notification for your name, it keeps defaulting to @z-del -- you might want to contact the Q Team to fix that.   I have a feeling you're missing a lot of notifications.)

[World Traveler]

@dooBdoo Thanks for alerting me. I'll check it out.

When you get a chance after your move, let us hear about your travels in the United States.

I'm trying to take the advice of a travel writer I met in China who, when asked how to determine where to go, suggested I do the hardest trips first, while I was still physically able to. You know, the trips that require a lot of hours in the plane, places where you have to squat over holes in the ground to go to the bathroom (which require good strength in the legs!), etc.

I'm sure people would like to hear about some great places here at home, so I look forward to hearing from you when you get settled. 

[itsmagic]

@World Traveler

Your post made me laugh about squatting over holes!  

Some friends of ours said the same thing about taking the hardest trips first while still able to physically do it.  And you can get all the shots that are required for those faraway places and then travel while they are still good.