By now you’re probably getting tired of seeing these winter-esque pictures of the desert Southwest (believe me, I am too).
Just when we think it’s over another snowstorm pops up and we get dumped on again. Last night Mother nature served us up a full foot.
Being the hardy Minnesotan that I am, I refused to be homebound again today so I ventured out for a walk. According to my trusty Apple Watch walking in the melting 10-12 inches of snow is a pretty decent cardio workout. A thirty minute walk gave me all of the exercise I needed for the day.
I don’t want to jinx us but this really does appear to be the last of the snow. I do know that next year I'll be bringing snow boots just incase this is some kind of trend.
I've watched hundreds of hours of YouTube videos on travel these past few years I thought I'd pass along some of what I've learned to my readers. We have a full itinerary this year, with a new destination every few months. As we're trekking the globe I'll be sharing some travel tips in my blogs from time to time. As we go, please let me know if you have any questions about our destinations or anything specific to travel in general. I'll try my best to answer your questions.
Here are a few tips to kick things off:
Use disposable shower caps as shoe covers for shoes you’ll be packing in your suitcase. This will keep your luggage a bit cleaner.
When traveling we use our phones' navigation almost exclusively. Google or Apple Maps have never let us down, even in the maze of narrow and twisted roads in old European cities. The trouble is these nav apps will drain your phone's battery in just a few hours. What happens when you're out exploring a foreign city on foot and your phone dies? One thing I never travel without is a power bank to charge my electronics.
Power banks are relatively inexpensive and can be a life-saver. This one from RavPower was around $40 five years ago and it can still power my iPhone about four times before it needs to be plugged in. The only downside is they can be HEAVY so they add some weight to your day pack but the extra ounces are well worth it. I wouldn't travel overseas without one.
I've found, even on shorter trips, that planning out each hour of each day can make it feel more like a military drill than a relaxing vacation. I try to be very flexible and only plan one or two main things per day and allow spontaneity to fill in the gaps in between. Most often it's the spontaneous things that happen throughout the day, usually suggested by locals, are the most fun and memorable moments of the trip.
Don’t use currency exchanges, they are a scam and charge exorbitant fees. Most shops and restaurants in most locations will accept credit cards and when the card is swiped the conversion from your home currency to the local currency (i.e. USD to Euro) will happen automatically. Check with your credit card before traveling to make sure you're aware of their fee structure.
A pro tip is to travel with a credit card that earns you extra cash or bonuses for what you spend. This way you're actually making money from your vacation. Since we always fly Delta I use the American Express Delta Skymiles card.
In the rare instances you need physical cash, use your debit card at a local ATMs. Check with your bank or credit union before you travel to make sure they don't charge a foreign transaction fee, most won't. This way you'll just have to pay the ATM fee, which is a few dollars compared to the much higher fee you'd be charged at a currency exchange.
All for now. Trust your instincts, invest in you, live boldly, and take chances.
~Eric Vance Walton~
(Gif sourced from Giphy.com. Photos are original.)
Poetry should move us, it should change us, it should glitch our brains, shift our moods to another frequency. Poetry should evoke feelings of melancholy, whimsy, it should remind us what it feels like to be in love, or cause us to think about something in a completely different way. I view poetry, and all art really, as a temporary and fragile bridge between our world and a more pure and refined one. This is a world we could bring into creation if enough of us believed in it. This book is ephemera, destined to end up forgotten, lingering on some dusty shelf or tucked away in a dark attic. Yet the words, they will live on in memory. I hope these words become a part of you, bubble up into your memory when you least expect them to and make you feel a little more alive.
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