Okay, so I am not convinced my flights will go well at thanksgiving because, well, it’s thanksgiving. I have tried to reduce possible snafus by flying direct (a rare treat from Des Moines although it does require a 6 am flight to Newark on thanksgiving day for close to $500′ insane I know) and avoiding the wed and sun surrounding thanksgiving. Still I am holding onto some good tips from the November Conde Nast traveler on dealing with winter flight issues :
– best time to fly on …Presidents’ Day weekend, which is also valentines day. Book in early december.
– other cheap tome to fly to warm weather places? Dec 3 to 16 (you are close dad!) and mid jan.
– try alternate airports. Tampa or Fort Lauderdale rather than Miami or Orlando
– nope problems in the bud. Fly early am (I knew that one) and avoid landing between 7 and 10 in say, ohare(we learned that the hard way on our way home from Boston last month when we almost got stuck overnight in Chicago,.
– if you have to do a connecting flight (yes, alas. We do) stay away from ohare (knew that too but hard to avoid). Opt instead for Dallas or Houston (really?)
– if you can’t get a seat when you book your tix online, call the airline to get from a phone agent. Apparently it IS true that you are more likely to get bumped if you show up,at the gate without a seat.
– checking in early also decreases your chance of getting bumped.
– if bad weather on the horizon, find out if your flt is cancelled by checking airline website or twitter feed for updates. Soone r u know the better chances of getting rebooked. (I learned that last fall en route to New Orleans from Kansas City)
– Have a plan b. I was just telling this to my daughter. Know what flights are leaving after your scheduled connecting flight, in case you miss it. Although you may not find a seat. Before your flight check FlightStats.com, open “:delays” and then “global trends” which will show which airports and airlines are having the most cancelations and delays and which aren’t. Ask to be rerouted to a city that isn’t having problems. You can also sign up for A flight status alert with FlightStats.com
– cancelled flight? Fly thru Vegas if if not necessarily on your way…it has lots of flights and cheap hotels (I am flying southwest thru Vegas to LA next month!) so for example on stead of waiting for a Boston Seatte
flight, try thru Vegas. (I am flying next month to Seattle to midway to Des Moines…was acttually shorter flight time then thru Vegas.)
– know whet alternative flight you want when you can to rebook (been there, done that) use FlightStats.com again. Sign up for an account, click on flights, then flight availability, then advanced search, so you can specify airlines and city and seats.
– if airline phone is jammed, call the overseas reservation desk. Really???
You can get the phone number on your airlines web site and use Skype to call free. Wow (although I have had trouble finding airline numbers on the website)
Tips for if my flight gets screwed up at thanksgiving…FlightStats.com!
Filed under airfare, airline fees, Chicago
Touring the world without leaving Iowa! Visit Rome, Madrid, Jamaica (Iowa) and more
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 Location of Madrid, Iowa |
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Coordinates:  41°52′32″N 93°49′12″W |
Kyle Munson has a very entertaining story in today’s DM Register about two Iowans who decided to tour the world without leaving Iowa by visiting all – or most – of the towns in the state named after famous foreign cities Around the world in Iowa?.
We’re talking about towns and cities in Iowa named Madrid, Rome, Paris, Manilla, Turin, Melbourne, Persia, Denmark, Hamburg, Macedonia, Wales, Luxemburg, and Sidney (not Sydney but close enough).[No word on whether they made it to Brooklyn or Nevada, Iowa…maybe that’s another trip – Iowa cities sharing the same name as more-famous U.S. cities.] The two Iowans who visited some 22 cities in four days decided to have even more fun by jumping out of their car to take a photo beside the town side, each place they visited – and wearing appropriate clothing (ex: Rasta duds and a joint – fake we’re told – for Jamaica; dyed dish towels to use as a shroud for Turin). They also tried created a passport of sorts, which they tried to get it stamped in each city – which was a problem since several places were so small they no longer had a post office. And they created little stickers with the name of each place they visited – akin to those old school travel stickers from times past – to slap onto their old school suitcase.
And as any Iowan – native or in my case veteran transplant – knows, the pronunciation of the Iowa version of these places can vary. Madrid is MAD-rid not Muh-Drid. (And Nevada, Iowa, is pronounced here as Ne-VA-duh not Ne-vah-duh.) I’ve gotten so used to this that when I encounter the original or more famous Madrid or Nevada, I have to stop myself from using the Iowa pronunciation. (When I went to the real Peru last year, I was tempted a time or two to use the pronunciation used by the city of Peru, Illinois, i.e. Pee-Ru.)
Kyle also included some fun information about the unlikely way some of these towns got their copycat names – and mentioned a book on the topic I’ll need to track down. Here’s a snippet below:
- Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid), settled by Swedes, happened to be named after the Spanish city as an intended insult to one of the town’s founders.
- Jamaica allegedly was named when the mayor of what then was known as Van Ness was blindfolded and randomly placed his finger on a world map.
- Manilla in Crawford County was decided in a tug of war that might have resulted in a dot on the map called Paupville.
- (Check out “A Dictionary of Iowa Place-Names” by Tom Savage of Muscatine for a full A-to-Z rundown of such name-origin oddities.)
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Luxemburg, Iowa City 
Location of Luxemburg, Iowa
Coordinates: 42°36′17″N 91°4′36″WCoordinates: 42°36′17″N 91°4′36″WCountry 
United StatesState 
IowaCounty Dubuque
Filed under Iowa
There is a detour to get around the closed section of the Neal Smith trail in DSM
We weren’t exactly sure where the closed section of the Neal Smith Trail was, so when we arrived on the trail yesterday – a gorgeous fall day for a bike ride – at the Sycamore Access Trailhead just north of Interstate 80 on NW66th in Johnston and found a big barrier and closed for construction sign, we were bummed. But a man with a strong German accent peddled up and told us how to get around the closed segment, giving us classic Iowa instructions: continue east to the Casey’s (a gas station), turn right, ride for awhile til you get to a short bridge over the Interstate, then take the first right, go past two white farmhouses and you’ll see a black pickup parked next to the trail entrance.
Sure nuf’!
We peddled east on NW 66th, turned right on what my map suggests is NW26th, through a strange no man’s flatland of fields and sandpits and the occasional old house, across a short bridge with battered pavement over I-80 and took the first right at the old white farmhouse (on a street that is NOT on my map) and voila – the trail. OPEN!
Funny that we got this information from a visitor to Des Moines. He spent his first 30 years in Munich but now lives in Wisconsin and was rendezvousing in Des Moines for a bike trip with his brother, who lives in Omaha – and also has an equally strong German accident….He peddled up soon after we started talking. Good to see out-of-staters enjoying Iowa’s trails – they had rode the day before on the High Trestle Trail, the one with the stupendous bridge.)
Just fyi: This from the DNR: A portion of the Neal Smith Biking and Hiking Trail will be closed for repair beginning Aug. 21. The trail will be closed from the Sycamore access to Morningstar Drive in Polk County, a distance of about three miles. Trail repair is expected to be completed in late October, depending on weather conditions.
Filed under bike trails, biking, Des Moines
Adventures with American Airlines
So we are flying home from Boston on Monday night, perfect weather (when there was supposed to be a storm) and we are feeling cautiously optimistic that we will get to Des Moines. At O’Hare we have to get from the end of terminal H to the end of terminal G to catch our next flight. a long haul debut we have time…about 40 minutes. after a few minutes, the monitor that just seconds ago showed our flight leaving on time at 9:40 pm now suddenly says it’s leaving at 11:40 pm, because our plane is due for an inspection. (at 9:30 pm??) This is not a good sign.
After waiting awhile, we are suddenly told our flight will leave at 10:30 from gate 7 so we leave gate 21 and head to 7, uprooting other passengers who are now told to move elsewhere. Before we can get comfy, we are next told to move back to Gate 20. Just before we board, the poor people en route to Madison who were reassigned to our original gate 21 (and presumably our original plane) are told their flight is now leaving at 6:30 am. Really? At least our ferry ride from Provincetown was a little calmer!
Filed under airfare, Uncategorized
Bye to Cape Cod
Our last day on Cape Cod was unambiguously gorgeous weather wise and no sudden downpours while we were riding our bikes through the dunes on the bike trails. It felt suddenly like fall, with crisp air, sharp sunlight, yellow and red leaves. Lovely. We ate again at the Lobster Pot, this time on the top floor with a spectacular view of the harbor, the curving stretch of tan sandy beach,and brilliant blue water with boats bobbing in the waves. Couldn’t resist the fried clams, again, at the Pot, but also tried fish and chips (we have eaten a lot of cod this trip. When in Rome) and the clam chowder. the fast ferry back to Boston was much easier on the stomach and head, with a lot less chop, thank god. From the World Trade Center we resisted the temptation to take a water taxi to Logan($10 per person) and took the silver line, which is an above ground bus to Logan. We figured out the transit system too late. We thought we bought a charliecard but instead bought a charlieticket and paid 50 cents more ride. Better explanation needed for tourists! Having recently used public transportation in Chicago, London, Berlin, Krakow, Prague and Washington DC I can speak with some authority on this. Anyway, great trip.
Filed under Boston, Massachusetts, Uncategorized
Provincetown lovely on a quiet October Monday
I hear this can be a wild and crazy and gay party town but not on a Monday night in early October. It’s still gay, of course. but quiet, almost peaceful, and I love it here. We are staying at a pretty old guesthouse, the Fairbanks Inn, a sea captains house from 1776 with pretty old furnishings, wide wood planked creaky floors, old fireplaces in rooms, pretty floral,wallpaper. We rented excellent bikes at Provincetown Bikes and set off on a sunny but increasingly overcast day on the terrific Eight mile bike trail through the dunes by Herring Cove and Race Point beach, past tidal marshes with wheat colored grasses blowing in wind and strands of pine and beech trees. A really lovely trail. IpUmfortunately about midday through it started to drizel and then it poured. We cowered under a tree but it didn’t give us much shelter and we got completed soaked. Then just as suddenly the sky turned blue and clear so we walked on lovely quintessential cape cod racepoint beach to dry off a bit.
Lunch was a shared lobster roll and fried clams, both excellent, at the Lobster Pot, an institution here, with good reason, with an excellent Harbor view. We had cold Portuguese french toast at the portugeuse bakery, oddly the only thing I remember about my last visit here 30 some years ago and a lovely dinner tonight at the classy but warm Red Inn (clams, cod, lobster-shrimp-crab cakes, a surprisingly light delicious cheese cake.The center of town is pretty tricky tacky but we liked the east and west ends of commercial street, which are more residential.
Our fast ferry was very bumpy, as we flew over massive waves but we made it. We went on bay state cruises which left not from long wharf, as we thought, but the pier behind the World Trade Center in, yesterday again, the seaport area.
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Filed under Boston, Massachusetts, Uncategorized
Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Seaport in Boston
I was somewhat relieved to find out that the seaport area where we have spent much of this trip in Boston did not look familiar NOT because of my rusty memory of living here 30 years ago but because it didn’t exist…at least in its current highly developed form. It’s a nice addition to a city that already has a lot to offer. We went to a wedding at Sam’s at Louis and then then next day to brunch at Miel in the Intercontinental hotel (excellent smoked salmon, cream cheese and bagel) and the new Institute of contemporary art (where we saw an interesting show of the work of Amy Stillman, whom i had not heard of but liked) all in the seaport area. it was easy to get back to Back Bay taking the Silver Line, a strange bus that goes underground in a tunnel more suited to a subway train, to the red line.
Earlier on Saturday, we walked from our friends fantastic apartment on Beacon Street through Back Bay and over to equally lovely Beacon Hill where we had coffee and pastry at outdoor tables at Cafe Vanille, on Charles Street and later lunch of thin crust pizza at Fig, the Todd English restaurant. Also managed to remember Louisburg Square, one of the loveliest old squares in the city with streets with large round cobblestones, paving blocks and red brick sidewalks. (See photo) Reminds me of London. We had a good Persian meal at Lala Rokh in Beacon Hill to celebrate a friends birthday.
Our first day in Boston, we took the subway blue then green) to Copley square and then went in reverse to north station where we got the commuter train to our relatives house in Swampscott.
Filed under Boston, Massachusetts, Uncategorized
Provincetown ferry options!
See photos-
Bay State Cruise Company
I’m on my way to Boston and – with hope – Provincetown this weekend so glad to see that the two Boston-Providence ferry services still appear to be running in early October. Not sure if I really need to book ahead – especially since we’re traveling somewhat off-season (to P-town on a Sunday in October.). Our best bet appears to be the Bay State Cruise Company because it has more ferries traveling at more times. (Departing Boston through Oct. 14 at 8:30 a.m., 1 p.m. (yes please!), and 5:30 p.m. and departing Provincetown at 10:30, 3 p.m. (yes please!) and 7:30 p.m.
At this time of the year through Oct. 14, the other service, Boston Harbor Cruises offers a ferry leaving Boston at 9 a.m. and a ferry leaving P-Town at 4 p.m.
Filed under Boston, Massachusetts
Looking for cool quirky places to stay? Check here:design tripper blog!
Was intrigued to read in the NYTimes Sunday about a travel blogger/writer Meghan McEwen, whose blog Design Tripper Check it out here not only focuses on places to stay around the world that are design-oriented places – in the sense that they are “quirky” and have a feel or authenticity that reflects their surroundings/neighborhood (think Longman & Eagle in Chicago or Porches in the Berkshires; ) — but has dared to open up one such place in her hometown (which is also near my hometown)…Detroit. on-the-lookout-for-quirky-places-to-stay Her inn is a small place called Honor and Folly in the Corktown neighborhood near the old Briggs (Tiger) stadium and the crumbling hulk of Detroit’s once grand train station, above the BBQ restaurant , Slows, which we tried to eat at a few years ago when I was visiting but it was too packed on a Sunday night (this is a good thing but still…) to get a table without a long wait. I’d love to stay at the inn but it’s booked over Thanksgiving when we need a place to stay. It’s also a bit pricey for us – as these quirky places can be – one room is $165 a night but two rooms is a very reasonable $215. I’ve found a hotel with less character but a more affordable price ($95) near my childhood stomping ground of Huntington Woods/Royal Oak.
McEwen has a great eye and tastes very similar to mine. Her website doesn’t include places in some of my usual haunts – such as Iowa – or recent places I’ve visited including Peru, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Breaux Bridge Louisiana where I managed to find some great places that are perhaps design-tripper worthy! Another website with a similar bent is http://www.welcomebeyond.com
Filed under LODGING
TakeBetsywithyou 