Archive for 2011

December30

Here’s a Question for You: Week 51

By: JoAnna

One of the things I most enjoy about trav­el­ing is talk­ing about it. In this new weekly series, I’d like to pose some of the ques­tions I’ve dis­cussed with friends, fam­ily and fel­low trav­el­ers over the years. I invite you to pull up your back­pack, grab a hand­ful of the local snack food and chime in with your com­ments and thoughts. Feel free to respond to oth­ers, but remem­ber to play nice!

Here’s a Question for You:

Where do you want to travel to in 2012?

A couple months ago I spent a day at the Visit Europe Media Exchange, a conference for travel writers that is akin to speed dating. While there I solidified my desire to explore more of Europe, and I’ve found a particular fondness for some countries I’d like to visit for the first time and a couple I’d like to revisit. At the top of my list are Iceland and Ireland, and plans are solidly underway to get to Iceland in 2012. I would also like to visit Estonia, Holland, Finland and Poland for the first time and revisit Norway, which I hit on a whirlwind Scandinavian tour in 2002. I’m not sure if I’ll get to them on, but I hope that 2012 will be the year of Europe for me.

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December27

Culture, History and Traditions at the Chickasaw Cultural Center | Oklahoma

By: JoAnna

Culture, History and Traditions at the Chickasaw Cultural Center | OklahomaDespite the number of people who have tried to explain the concept of Native American nations to me, I’m consistently confused. How are these nations different than what’s going on in the states in which they’re located? Why do we use American money in them? Who oversees judicial matters, and what happens if something happens in a sovereign nation between two non-Native Americans?

As convoluted as the whole concept still seems to me, I’ve finally come to one important conclusion: The most important thing to realize is that the Native American nations in the United States are really, at their most basic level, communities of people with a shared culture and history.

When we drove over the border into the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, there was nothing different about the appearance of the landscape. People wore the same clothing inside the nation as they did in Oklahoma City. There was nothing remarkable about our entrance into the Chickasaw Nation, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything remarkable to find there.

I quickly learned that the Chickasaw people are progressive, adept at adopting those things going on outside the official borders while still holding on to those ideas, concepts and traditions that set them apart from others. The Chickasaw Cultural Center, located about an hour from Oklahoma City by car, is a state-of-the-art, multi-building facility with several purposes, most notably to capture the essence of the Chickasaw culture, preserve and protect the Chicksaw history through extensive research and archives, and share Chickasaw culture with those like myself who are unfamiliar with it.

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December26

Best of Kaleidoscopic Wandering 2011

By: JoAnna

Best of Kaleidoscopic Wandering 2011With 2012 knocking on my back door, I figured it would be appropriate to take a journey through the last 365 days of Kaleidoscopic Wandering. This travel blog has been going strong for two-and-a-half years now with a variety of narratives, advice, interviews and insights into tripping around the globe.

This year I started my travels with a trip to Baja California, Mexico, where I went whale watching in Magdalena Bay. Shortly thereafter, I met my dad in Costa Rica for a trip packed with hiking excursions. In March, I visited the Cook Islands for the first time. Though I don’t care for the word “paradise,” if I had to pinpoint it on a map, it might be located here.

Early in the summer, I took a trip to Vancouver, Canada, for a conference, then made it home just in time to hop into the car with my husband for an epic 35-day road trip that took us through 19 states and two Canadian provinces. Highlights of our trip included visiting the Distillery District in Toronto, wine tasting near Niagara Falls, catching a Washington Nationals baseball game and watching fireworks in Washington D.C. on the 4th of July.

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Posted in: Contemplation, Inspiration, Travel Writing11 comments

December23

Here’s a Question for You: Week 50

By: JoAnna

One of the things I most enjoy about trav­el­ing is talk­ing about it. In this new weekly series, I’d like to pose some of the ques­tions I’ve dis­cussed with friends, fam­ily and fel­low trav­el­ers over the years. I invite you to pull up your back­pack, grab a hand­ful of the local snack food and chime in with your com­ments and thoughts. Feel free to respond to oth­ers, but remem­ber to play nice!

Here’s a Question for You:

What is your best travel tip?

There are thousands of places to go, hundreds of ways to travel and countless companions you can take with you. What to pack, how to plan and where to spend valuable vacation time are all personal choices, yet others have undoubtedly asked for your opinions when it comes to travel. Of all the nuggets of wisdom you may be able to offer, what do you think is the most valuable?

Mine is this: Just go. If you have even an inkling of interest when it comes to traveling, just do it. There is no right or wrong way to travel, and you don’t have to listen to people who say otherwise. Listen to your heart, think about your interests and then book your trip. If not now, then when?

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December21

Reading: Educating Alice | Alice Steinbach

By: JoAnna

Reading: Educating Alice | Alice SteinbachOne of the things that many people can’t seem to get past when they travel is feeling like an outsider. They may eat in the same restaurants and walk the same streets as the people who live in a particular place, but they still find it hard to differentiate one destination from another because the traveler experience is all they really have.

This is not the case with Alice Steinbach, author of Educating Alice, who employs a completely different travel technique. This book follows Alice’s adventures as she travels from country to country immersing herself in an educational or cultural experience that goes far beyond the random show or museum tour. She takes an intense cooking class at The Ritz in Paris, separates from her tour group and settles in at a local club in Cuba, follows in the footsteps of Jane Austen in England and takes dancing lessons in Japan.

I most enjoyed following her adventures in Scotland — where she stays on a sheep farm and lends a hand at herding with border collies — and Provence — where she embarks on an extensive study of the area’s artfully designed gardens. Each chapter follows one of her educational encounters, which often last several weeks in order to get the most out of the experience and the destination.

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December19

I Love Las Vegas: Ethel M Chocolates Winter Wonderland 2011

By: JoAnna

One of our holiday traditions in Las Vegas is to make a trip down to the Ethel M Chocolates factory in nearby Henderson to wander through the brilliantly lit cactus garden. I think that every year the display gets better, with tens of thousands of bulbs twinkling in the cool Southwest desert air. This year
visitors are getting 3D glasses, which turn the lights into stars.

I decided to document our visit this year using the Hipstamatic iPhone app. I didn’t give it much thought. Instead, I’d shake my camera to change the settings and then shoot whatever caught my eye. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the night.

I Love Las Vegas: Ethel M Chocolates Winter Wonderland 2011

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