Category Archives: Trip Reports

a black and white text

Conde Nast Traveler: Top 10 Zoos in the United States

Posted on by . 15 Replies

Do you and your family enjoy visiting zoos when you travel? If so, how many of the top ten zoos in the U.S. have you been to? A few friends sent me the same article, so I’m sharing it with you! Conde Nast Traveler recently ranked the top 10 zoos in the U.S. The San Diego Zoo came out on top, which is probably why my friends wanted me to see the rankings. I wasn’t surprised to see the Bronx Zoo in the top five, but to be honest, I had no idea some of these other cities had zoos. Who knew Anchorage has a zoo? I had a great time in Anchorage and am sorry I missed visiting their zoo.

Here is the rest of the top 10 zoos from the article. What do you think of Conde Nast’s rankings. How many of the zoos have you been to, and are there others you’d add to the list?

  1. San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California
  2. Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis, Indiana
  3. Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle, Washington
  4. St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis, Missouri
  5. Bronx Zoo, New York, New York
  6. Living Desert Zoo, Palm Desert, California
  7. Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Columbus, Ohio
  8. Alaska Zoo, Anchorage, Alaska
  9. Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, Omaha, Nebraska
  10. Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield, Illinois
a close-up of a grey fabric

Has the Dalai Lama Stayed at your Home Hotel? He Stayed at Mine!

Posted on by . 3 Replies

Have you ever wondered which hotels famous people, dignitaries, or important international figures choose to stay in? I don’t usually ponder these questions, but recently, I had an experience that DID get me wondering. I hope you’ll enjoy this story about His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, staying at MY home hotel.

I’ve seen the Dalai Lama in person twice. Once was 20 years ago when he gave a talk in NYC. Then I saw him again 6 years ago when he gave a talk at the University of Hawaii. Earlier this year, the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) reached out to the Dalai Lama and asked if he’d give the commencement speech at graduation, and much to everyone’s surprise and delight, he accepted this invitation. So in mid-June, the Dalai Lama was in San Diego.

a man with his hands together in front of him

Image source: http://commencement.ucsd.edu/

Continue reading →

a hammock on a beach

How to Avoid Common Mistakes when Booking Airline Tickets

Posted on by . 2 Replies

Recently, my aunt sent me an article she saw online about mistakes people make when booking flights. The article was geared towards people who use cash for flights, though it did mention award tickets as well. Even though I prefer and mostly use miles and points for flights, I took a look at the article to see what it had to offer. And I also was curious to see if any valuable advice in that article was already offered here at TWG! It was, but they also left out one important piece of advice, geared to us miles/points folks.

The article talked about using the ITA Matrix Tool, which is a search engine tool for checking ticket prices. Grant did an extensive write-up and it’s a great tool to familiarize yourself with, whether or not you pay cash or use miles/points for tickets. The article warned people to always search multiple area airports when booking a ticket to see if fares change. That’s good to remember, whether using miles/points or paying cash. After all, New York has six airports! Positioning for a flight when you do use out of area airports is a topic I’ve talked about too.

The article encourages people to be flexible when booking both award and paid tickets. It says to use the calendar search function on the different airline websites and to try and catch some spontaneous travel deals as well. The last mistake the article talks about is making silly errors. We’ve all heard about people who mistakenly booked a flight to Portland, Maine, (PWM), when they meant to book a flight to Portland, Oregon, (PDX). Another mistake that’s easy to make is to not pay attention when a flight departs. We want to see 1pm when we make the flight choice, but it actually says 1am :(

Continue reading →

a black and orange road with white lines

AutoSlash Newsletter: Is your Rental Car Company Spying on You?

Posted on by . Leave a reply

I don’t know about you, but I would say on a scale of one to ten, I’m probably a ten when it comes to protecting my privacy. I like to know who is gathering information about me, what information they are gathering, and how they are using it. Even if you’re not very high on the privacy scale, this article by AutoSlash (Is Your Rental Car Spying on You? The Story of Connected Rental Cars) is a great read. I like many of the articles that appear on the AutoSlash newsletters because the AutoSlash team is insiders while not actually being a rental car company themselves. I think they do an excellent job of educating consumers, like you and me, on a wide variety of topics related to renting cars.

a blue car with orange wheels

Continue reading →

a heart made of coffee beans

Shelli’s World Coffee Tour – Coffee Houses in Boston, Massachusetts

Posted on by . 7 Replies

I guess it’s time for a true confession. I’m a coffee snob. And when I travel, I have a passion for supporting local roasters and coffee houses. Let’s just say I’ve BEAN Around the World and I’m feeling like now is the time to start sharing the love… and caffeine, one city at a time. Recently, I had a fantastic week in Beantown, aka Boston. And while I didn’t eat a single baked bean, I did drink plenty of coffee, so I’ve got lots to share with you. Let’s open the TWG cafe society doors and talk coffee, Boston and Cambridge style.

You’ll notice I wrote Boston AND Cambridge, and that’s the first distinction to make. There are two sides to the Charles River and definitely two sides to the coffee scene as well. No worries, though. I covered both sides and have recommendations for you, no matter where you go.

When I travel, I only review and like to support coffee houses that roast their own beans or use locally roasted beans. Unfortunately, many of the coffee houses in Boston use beans from national roasters like Counter Culture, Intelligentsia, and Stumptown. That’s unfortunate because I don’t care for these three roasters, and there are plenty of good local roasters to use. So do make sure to ask at coffee houses whose beans they use. In part 1, I started with the Cambridge side of the river. Now let’s head to the Boston side of the Charles River and drink some coffee!

There are two main players in the Boston coffee scene. Gracenote Coffee Roasters is one of them. Besides having their own shop, other coffee houses use their beans. I’ll get to that in a minute. I spent a long time at Gracenote talking with Aprille, one of the owners. She’s a fun, energetic, woman who is super passionate about coffee, and she was a delight to spend time with.

a bag with a label on it

Tote bag at Gracenote Coffee Roasters

Continue reading →