Happy Home

Warning: Religious topic. Move on to the jokes if you’re not in the mood.

I picked up my grandson from school the other day. He was dressed sharply and every strand of his hair was in its proper place. He carried a small pouch just big enough to carry his notebook, pen and cell phone. He was very proud of himself because he was among the select few who had gone on a field trip for Leadership training. What a surprise.

I stared with admiration as we walked towards the car. The potentials of this little guy was already observed at such an early stage of his life. And, when I thought about it, he has always been a responsible kid. He is often the first one to wake up a half hour ahead of everyone in the morning and he is the alarm clock of his family. He’s the little policeman who makes sure everyone follows the rules. He isn’t the tallest but when he plays basketball, he charges fearlessly into the painted area and is sometimes the highest pointer even when he plays with the older kids.

He isn’t the egghead. His older brother is. His brother doesn’t spend as much time studying because he easily picks up mathematical and scientific concepts. He’s the one who plays chess, basketball and has an analytical mind. He admits that he has no interest in being the leader … why burden yourself with responsibility when you can just enjoy the moment, right? He’s carefree but smart.

Driving them home from school, I observed their interaction from my rear view mirror and they were laughing at some video on their phone. They genuinely enjoy each other’s company. They swim and Taekwondo together. I can imagine the two of them protecting their month old baby sister as she grows up.

Their sister smiles and laughs in her sleep. She’s a happy peaceful baby. Mom and Dad have stable jobs and love and support each other. Family pictures and the boys’ crafts adorn their walls. They go to church unless they have a basketball tournament. Their faith is strong. By the grace of God, they have a loving healthy home.

It’s these little things that make me look up to God and wonder why I deserve being part of this beautiful family. In these troubled times, God is protecting their little bubble. Their home is not unique. I’m sure many of you can relate. How long will this last? Will their bubble burst when my boys turn into teenagers? Yikes!

The Book of Joshua
At the end of the book of Joshua (against all odds) General Joshua had conquered many of their enemies. He is now old and he knows the adventure is just about to begin for the next generation. Surrounded by the whole tribe of Israel, he gives a final speech with a warning not to return to their old ways but to serve the Lord God.

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:14-15

Dear Lord, please continue to protect our family … continue to protect ALL our families. I know we are already blessed beyond what we deserve but I know you don’t mind us asking for more. I’d like to ask for more wisdom to discern what is right in your eyes, hope when trials pull us down, and increase our faith day by day. There are evil men with evil agendas out there, please protect our nation. Help us through the storm. Help us be a blessing to the world. For we ask this all in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.

TGIF people!

Raoul

Willy Wonka: “But Charlie, don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted.”

Charlie: “What happened?”

Willy Wonka: “He lived happily ever after.”

— From the last scene of the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Thanks to Brian K of CA

Parting Shots

Thanks to Art of Sierra Madre, CA

Thanks to Fred of Long Beach, CA

Thanks to Garie of Paranaque, Philippines

I found these:

My good friend (and jokester) Terry and I came up with this.

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So it seemed only natural that I head to the world’s oldest distillery for a tasting. Mount Gay, founded in 1703. I’ve recently come from the Scottish Highlands where I sampled some of their famous scotch whiskys. Now being anything but a whisky connoisseur, I couldn’t tell any difference among the several “drams.” After multiple tries, I slinked out of the distillery. But I like rum. I drink rum. I know rum?

The distillery tour started with a welcome rum punch. Doesn’t count for anything in my book. We had to go through a two-hour introduction to the whole history of rum and the very intricate process of making it to finally earn the right to actually taste some.

Some of it, thanks to our energetic guide, Romal — the sound of whose very name reflects his occupation — was actually interesting. From its first inception, recipes were never written down, put passed from blender to apprentice. Each blender takes what exists and builds upon it so that the results are more than just another version of the same rum — but also a whole new experience. Most of the information is proprietary to Mount Gay and, as we were told, the process emphasizes quality over quantity, meaning nothing is rushed. Their motto: It’s ready when it’s ready! I figured somewhere there’s a little old grandmother in charge.

But finally, we got to the tasting. Romal instructed us how to hold the glass, to twist it to reveal “legs,” to smell it. One rum, ages 3 to 7 years, was “robust and bold.” The second, older, was “more complex with a more definitive ‘mouth feel.'” That was the tasting. Not much to go on. At least my quasi-sophisticated familiarity with rum (after all, I had been in Barbados for almost two weeks) told me the second rum was smoother than the first. Did I taste the hints of salted caramel, cinnamon and fruitcake? Not a chance! More slinking…

However, after even a moderate imbibing of the smooth golden liquid, sustenance is required. And in keeping with Barbadian tradition, a food tour exploring typical Bajan specialties is called for. First stop was — well not food. Before, and during, our ingesting of island edibles (in this day and age, is it necessary to emphasize that, in this context, that refers to actual food?), 400 years of Bridgetown history must also be digested. The conquest by the British, the thriving slave trade along the Careenage, the UNESCO World Heritage site House of Parliament, the oldest Synagogue in the Americas and, of course, Roebeck Street where Mr. Rumball first transformed the world’s devotion to rum. But let’s get to the important stuff: Black Cake.

Paulette, our guide, led us on an enthusiastic journey, warning us that upon completion, they may have to roll us back to the bus. With an emphasis on spices, seasonings and sugar, we stopped first at “Crumbz,” because, according to Paulette, after eating Bajan food, that’s all that’s left. After a minced beef roll, coconut bread and the Caribbean’s famous rum Christmas specialty, Black Cake, about which a NY Times bestselling book has recently been written. I could have gone home sufficiently satiated.

Next onto a “hole in the wall” restaurant, the kind locals frequent, for chicken, macaroni pie, and casava. It was a full meal masquerading as a mid-day snack. Observed Paulette: “We need to have such a heavy diet to weather all the rum that’s drunk.”

At the thought of fish cakes yet to come, my stomach started to rebel. Until I tasted them. Okay, so apparently, I wasn’t done.

At the food market (go figure!), we sampled locally grown fruits and juices before moving on to another mini-meal of fish, peas and rice and more root vegetables. As delicious as everything was, I wasn’t disappointed to hear that we only had one stop left. For the first time since I had arrived in Barbados, I wasn’t thinking about where I wanted to go for dinner!

But tourists cannot live by food and drink alone. A little island culture is also required, offered by many tours. But do not even think about taking THIS tour after eating and drinking. That would be the Island Safari tour, part sightseeing, part adrenaline rush. As we got into the open-air van, our driver/guide Wayne casually mentioned we should be prepared for a bumpy ride, mud and water. Truer words were never spoken.

Yes, lots of history, horticulture (the only thing Wayne loves more than mud are trees), culture, tradition, legends punctuated by panoramic views of the island. Then he casually mentioned that we might go off-road a bit.

A mile of hair-raising, terrifying, mud-driven insanity just for the sake of adventure. Then on to more sight-seeing. But by the time my various organs returned to their normal locations in my body, we were off again. Wayne delighted in leaving the rough, pot-holed, winding supposedly paved roads to take rough, pot-holed winding muddy dirt paths that cut through sugar cane fields. His usual patter rescinded as did any attempt of mine to take notes. Hard to do when you’re holding on for dear life. Incredibly harrowing — but oh so much fun. Not for the faint of heart or body, however.

My favorite stop among many was an array of colorful carved animals sculpted into a mountainside along the road. A life-size giraffe, elephant, baboon, rhino, hippo, zebra — certainly legitimized the safari part of the tour name.

There are signs everywhere admonishing you not to sit or park under coconut trees. Now that’s something you pay attention to. But if you still crave the milky white liquid, there are numerous roadside stands — often tended to by men with machetes — offering juice without any threat to bodily injury (despite the machetes….).

Did I mention Wayne’s jovial discourse? A sample of Wayne humor: Royal Palm trees which reach higher in the sky than their less mighty cousins but lack their coconut bounty are a symbol of wealth. “Just like a politician,” remarked Wayne, “they stand high above you and do nothing.” Bada boom.

So much to see and do, and with a 2-1 ratio of Barbadan dollar to that of the U.S. — and very reasonable prices throughout the island — you can actually afford to do almost all. And yes, there are also beaches — lots of beautiful sand beaches. If you’re into that sort of thing….

For more information, visit mountgayrum.com, islandsafari.bb and lickrishfoodtours.com.

The post Barbados: For Starters it’s the Rum Capital of the Caribbean… appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The winter months are the perfect time to heat up your home with freshly baked goods. Baketivity is a super fun baking kit option that comes with an adorable chefs hat and child size apron. This. as well as easy to use recipe instructions, pre-measured ingredients and a delicious product. We baked one of the cupcakes kits, not only was it a joy to create, but the final product was a delight too. Baketivity offers single kit purchases as well as subscription purchases.

Little GF Chefs

Baking is a wonderful family activity and Little GF Chefs creates gluten free, allergy friendly baking kits for children, that can be delivered monthly or you can order a one time kit. While they have a big variety of options, we made the Under the Sea Cookie Kit which was such fun and actually looked like the above photo. What many parents will also appreciate is that the coloring for the cookies is all natural made from plants. Also the kit provides step by step instruction to create works of art.

The Under the Sea Cookie Kit makes 18 cookies and includes the cookie mix, icing, plant based food coloring, easy to use recipe instructions and tools to make your masterpieces.

Best part for parents of kids with allergies. “The recipe, mixes, and decorating supplies that come in your kit are all gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, tree nut free, egg free, soy free, sesame free, fish free, shellfish free and artificial dye free.”

Go Go Bird

What a delightful, hilarious fun outdoor toy that will keep you laughing and running. Ours actually flew up and got stuck in a tree the first day using it- luckily a city of Scottsdale park worker was kind enough to help us get him down! It can fly up to 200 feet. So best to keep your birdie away from trees.

This thrilling, flying, and lightweight bird is the perfect blend of a real outdoor activity and today’s trending drone toys. Check it out here. The easy-to-use remote control allows you to fly your bird up, down, around and through targets like hula hoops and more!

Octobo

Got your preschooler at home for the holiday break or home all year. It’s helpful if they know their letters when they attend kindergarten. It is a fun and creative way for them to learn. The Octobo is an award-winning, educational sensory plush robot that enables development in an interactive environment. Through guided storybooks, interactive tokens, and educational apps, your child will learn ABC’s, how to spell over 80 words and rhyme. Be sure to check out the different packages as they offer a variety of choices.

Clixo

A sensory creative toy that broadens the imagination and allows ideas to flow. Clixo is a fabulous toy that allows both kids and adults to create anything their imagination will allow, by clicking the magnetic pieces together. It is a lightweight toy that is easy to carry and relaxing while stimulating. It’s a perfect gift for all ages.

ABC Mouse

Not only are Hexbug Nanotopia hilarious and fun, but the whole family can enjoy the process of putting the playground together. It is a sensory toy for kids powered by vibration technology and has over 130 pieces. With tons of snap-together track pieces and obstacles, this is a vibrant playset to let your nano® loose in. Batteries are included so you can start the fun right away.

Please join my mailing list for the latest relaxation techniques, natural products, greatest toys and activities fo adults and kids and more. Would be great to hear from you so please connect with me!

www.masadasiegel.com * www.masadasiegelauthor.com

The post Fabulous Family Fun Activities appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after an ill-fated attempt to shut down a white supremacist rally in Idaho.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

MORE Dog Quotations

EU Extends Ban on American Travelers — Again — With US COVID-19 Cases Far Outpacing European Countries

Curtis Tate, Deirdre Shesgreen
USA TODAY

For the second time this month, the European Union extended its travel ban on Americans on August 6 as COVID-19 infections continued to rise across the United States.

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Best Road Trips in the U.S.A.

Courtesy Elissa Leibowitz Poma

The United States has a grand variety of road trip-suitable routes, from straight shots across deserts to stomach-churning switchbacks through the mountains. Whatever type of adventure you seek, however much time you have, and whatever you want to see, there’s a road out there for everyone.

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Travel Guys Take on Kirkland, WA

Ian Holm — RIP

Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert CBE (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020), known as Ian Holm, was an English actor. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear. He has played more than 100 roles in films and on television. My favorite film performance is his first leading role (I believe at 44) in Atom Egoyan’s masterpiece, “The Sweet Hereafter.”

‘I’ve always been a minimalist. It was Bogart who once said, “If you think the right thoughts, the camera will pick it up.” The most important thing in the face is the eyes, and if you can make the eyes talk, you’re halfway there.’ – Ian Holm

Jazz Singer/Pianist Carol Welsman Discusses Her New Album, “Dance With Me,” with Jim Gordon.

“Our City Tonight” arrived in LA to chat with 6-time Juno Award Nominee, Carol Welsman. The gifted jazz singer/pianist talks about her new album, “Dance With Me”, which marks her foray into Latin Jazz.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Berlin Tegel Airport to Remain Open Into November

By Kurt Stolz

The ongoing saga of Berlin’s new and old airports continues: Berlin Tegel Airport will remain open, at least for the time being.

In late May, city officials announced that Tegel – the city’s main international airport whose history goes back to the 1948 Berlin Airlift – would close temporarily on June 15, 2020.

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American Airlines Unveils Major Upgrade to App with ‘Chat With Us’ Feature

American Airlines announced the release of version 2020.07 of its smartphone app, adding several new features including a new “Chat with Us” feature connects users with a virtual assistant and, if necessary, a customer service representative via chat.

The airline began to use a new format for numbering versions of the app earlier this year. The new format begins with the four-digit year followed by a period separator, which is then followed by the two-digit number of the version.

The Chat with Us system places the user in a chat session with a virtual assistant. The bot will transfer the user to a customer service representative based on the nature of the chat.

Earlier this year, American upgraded the app with a new “Waitlist” feature that combines upgrade and standby lists for a particular flight.

Waitlist will display traveler status by cabin. Once an upgrade request clears, the app will display the individual traveler’s name and new seat number on the list.

American’s app is available on both Apple iOS and Android platforms.

What Country Taught Me About Race

By Jessica Nabongo — Afar

I’m often asked what I consider the safest countries for black people or the most welcoming for black travelers. But I can’t answer those questions. I’ve been traveling internationally since I was four years old. For my Ugandan immigrant parents, vacationing was important — a way to learn more about the world through experience — and they made it part of our lives every year. Whether domestic or international, we went somewhere every summer: Canada, Minnesota, Jamaica, Disney World, the Bahamas. By the time I graduated from high school, I had been to seven U.N. member countries, and in 2008, I moved to Japan to teach English. From there, I continued living abroad, and continued traveling. And in February 2017, with 60 countries under my belt, I started a two-and-a-half-year journey to visit every country in the world

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Homeless in Border Town Getting By, Livin’

By Donovan Quintero, Navajo Times

She didn’t hesitate to give what she could give. Shylah Pettigrew knows all too well what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty. Her years of living on the streets, as well as the teachings of her mother, taught her to be compassionate, she said. “You can’t pass somebody by without offering,” she said. The Lupton, Arizona, native saw her cousin and several other people sitting outside where she was attending a birthday party. The people, whom the city of Gallup categorizes as transients, or homeless, sat on the concrete bench enjoying the warm Saturday afternoon sunlight in downtown Gallup.

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How A Recent Trip To Montgomery Made Me Rethink The Deep South

Courtesy Essence

“History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.”

I spotted the reflection-inducing words by the late Maya Angelou just moments before entering the lobby of Montgomery’s Springhill Suites Hotel. They adorned a nondescript wall at the corner of Coosa and Bibb, which was steps outside of my temporary retreat. Now I’ve always been more Manhattan than Montgomery, slightly more Malcolm than Martin, with more northeastern edge than southern charm. But there I was, just days before the Christmas holiday, excited, and yet nervous, to be in what I considered the epicenter of Black history.

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7 Best & 5 Worst Frozen Foods

Courtesy Cheyenne Lentz, Insider

Frozen food can be great to stock up on because it can be stored for quite some time without going bad.

Since not everything maintains its quality when frozen, Insider spoke to chefs to help figure out which items are worth grabbing and which you should leave on the shelves.

Here are some of the best and worst foods to buy frozen (according to chefs)

10 Cheap Foods That Last a Long Time

These foods with long shelf lives can improve your diet while saving you money

Courtesy Erin Huffstetler

If you’re filling your pantry, especially if you are on a tight budget, focus on cheap and nutritious foods that have a long shelf life, like rice, apples and peanut butter. You’ll spend less at checkout, and you’ll waste considerably less food at the end of the week. All price estimates mentioned were good as of March 2020.

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Free Video Tours of Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Across America

The 20th-century architect defined a uniquely American style that used nature-inspired motifs and horizontal lines

Architecture fans can tune in to the #WrightVirtualVisits hashtag to watch experts lead short video tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous and lesser-known buildings every Thursday afternoon.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation teamed up to launch the initiative, dubbed Wright Virtual Visits, at the beginning of April.

Read Susan Breslow’s article on Taliesin West

Master English Pronunciation at Home

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

How to Join a Zoom Class

The Zoom platform is easy and convenient. Missing your favorite teacher or class? This will allow you to still take that class with that teacher at their regular time slots in the safe environment of your own home.

You will sign into the class you want to take through our website and receive the Zoom link that will give you access to the class live. The classes will be in their original format and will have time at the end for you to chat with your teacher! They will be streamed from the teacher’s home as well as from the studio. You can continue to use your class packages and will still be able to purchase through your account at The Yogi Tree by logging on to our website.

For more info check out this 1-minute Zoom tutorial

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Walt Whitman — 1819-1892

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot,
Down from the shower’d halo,
Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me…

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Send Deb your favorite travel poems

What the Airplane Cabin of the Future Might Look Like

Courtesy Amy Woodyatt, CNN

Air travel is still far from pre-pandemic levels, but it began bouncing back in May. Still, travelers are rightly nervous about climbing aboard a packed plane, but thankfully, designers are already thinking ahead at what the cabins of the future might look like.

In a newly released concept, UK-based design studio PriestmanGoode has developed a post-pandemic cabin to focus on hygiene and personal space and keep passengers safe and relaxed.

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U.S. Adventure Traveler Sentiment — June-July 2020 Report

In June-July 2020, the ATTA surveyed U.S. customers of ATTA adventure tour operator members to understand their sentiment on a host of topics and gauge their travel and spending preferences in the next 12 months.

493 U.S. adventure travelers from 42 states shared thoughts on the following.

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9 Countries Welcoming Remote Workers

People around the world are dreaming about escaping their tiny urban apartments or suburban homes, and countries are making it a reality. Some destinations, like Barbados and Bermuda, have recently launched remote visa programs for incoming visitors, while other countries, like Portugal and Germany, have had similar arrangements in place for years.

Here are 9 countries with programs designed to welcome remote workers:

MORE

Loyal Good Boi Waits At Wuhan Hospital For Three Months, Unaware That His Owner Died Of COVID-19

Remember the classic tale of Hachiko, a loyal Japanese Akita dog who waited patiently at a train station for his owner to return home from work for nine years, not knowing that his owner died at the office?

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Decade-Long Search for Rocky Mountains Treasure Yields Trove Worth $2 Million

By Alex Fox; smithsonianmag.com

Nine clues embedded in a 24-line poem led to art dealer Forrest Fenn’s hidden chest of gold, gems and rare artifacts

“The treasure has been found,” declares a sparse blog post dated to June 6. The words signal the end of a ten-year search for a chest of gold, jewels and rare artifacts hidden in the Rocky Mountains by art dealer Forrest Fenn, reports Danielle Prokop for the Santa Fe New Mexican.

As many as 350,000 people unsuccessfully sought the treasure, which is worth an estimated $2 million. Five died while searching with only a poem said to contain nine clues to guide them.

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Jamaica Is Now Open – Here’s What You Need to Know

Travel Pulse

Jamaica is reopening its borders to international visitors for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, June 15. Like many places that have recently welcomed back tourists, the Caribbean country will require all arriving visitors to undergo a temperature check and follow local safety protocols, which include face-coverings and social distancing. Travelers will also need to complete a travel authorization application so that officials can conduct a COVID-19 health risk assessment prior to arrival.

Revealed: The World’s Best Passports

Passports were ranked on visa-free travel, international taxation laws, global perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom.

Americans may be surprised to learn that they don’t own the best passport in the world.

According to research conducted by world-leading offshore consulting firm Nomad Capitalist, Swedish, Luxembourgish and Irish passports are the best ones to own.

Nomad Capitalist has ranked the best passports in the world by scoring 199 different passports in five categories. Each passport was scored on visa-free travel, international taxation laws, global perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom.

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Recipes With Only 3 Ingredients

Courtesy Christine Clark

Cooking at home is usually healthier and more affordable than going out, but with more and more restaurants temporarily closing due to the pandemic, quick and easy recipes have become essential. If you’re busy with work, family, or lockdown life in general, it can be hard to find the time and energy to fuss with complicated recipes. If hunting down a long list of ingredients makes you want to quit before you’ve started, take heart. We’ve rounded up our favorite 3-ingredient recipes — 25 of them, ranging from breakfast to dessert. As long as you have kitchen staples like salt, pepper, and olive oil, these tasty recipes will be a breeze.

Here’s 25 Recipes with just 3 Ingredients

What the Mississippi Delta Teaches Me About Home — And Hope

Courtesy National Geographic

Finding struggle and resilience on a road trip through the birthplace of the blues. I’ve thought a lot about home during the quarantine. The place and the idea. The way it calls to us, and the way the pulse of daily life can sometimes drown it out. My home is near the courthouse square in Oxford, Mississippi, a vibrant modern college community. That’s where we wake up and make scrambled eggs for our toddler. But I’m from a nearby place called Clarksdale, birthplace of the Delta blues, the town that gave the world the likes of Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, and Nate Dogg—a place where on a clear night I can hear plantation blues, the protest soul of Stax Records, and the heavy sound of G-Funk LA all mix in the open air.

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The 5 Best National Park Live Webcams

Missing the great outdoors? While planning our next national park vacation than we are being outside, we’re making the most of quarantine with these live webcams of national parks.

VIEW WEBCAMS

Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism initiative

The Environment Is Healing Right Now. Can We Sustain That as Travel Ramps Up?

One silver lining has emerged from the Coronavirus pandemic: the environment is healing. When travel gradually picks back up, what will that mean for the environment—and how can we sustain those benefits?

MORE

17 Easy International Recipes That Bring Travel Home

From comforting Vietnamese pho to spicy-sweet Dutch cookies, these simple recipes recapture the spirit of travel.

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Digging Into the Past to Find Optimism for the Future

By Cat Kutz

Dr. Nick Pyenson is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. His expeditions have taken him to every continent studying the evolution and ecology of marine mammals. Along with his collaborators, he has named over a dozen new fossil species, discovered the richest fossil whale graveyard on the planet, and described an entirely new sensory organ in living whales. Ahead of the Earth Optimism Digital Summit, during which Pyenson will hold a Deep Dive on science diplomacy, Earth Optimism communications lead Cat Kutz asks him how he finds optimism while digging into the Earth’s past.

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Ten Trends That Will Shape Science in the 2020s

Medicine gets trippy, solar takes over, and humanity — finally, maybe — goes back to the moon

Courtesy  Katherine J. Wu , Rachael Lallensack

When the 2010s began, private spaceflight had barely gotten off the ground, Google was rolling out early personalized search results and CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology was still in its infancy. By decade’s end, artificial intelligence had trounced people at a bevy of board games, SpaceX had become a household name and genetically modified human embryos became a controversial reality.

Clearly, a lot can happen in a decade — but innovation has to start somewhere. Based on what’s breaking through now, here are some trends that have the potential to shape the 2020s.

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English Pronunciation Isn’t Easy But This Quick Primer Can Help You Get it Right

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Readers’ Ideas for Finding Community and Cheer at Home

Courtesy The New York Times

As much of the world adjusts to a new normal of restricted living, our readers share tips for finding everyday joys.

Many of us are now entering the second, third or fourth week of restrictions on our movements, and it is becoming ever clearer that overcoming this crisis will be a marathon, not a sprint. As we all collectively adjust to our unique situations, we asked New York Times readers to share their ideas for pursuing the traveler’s spirit of discovery, curiosity and delight within their new limitations at home. Following are their responses, which have been edited for clarity and length.

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Predicting the Future of Travel in 2040

Allianz Partners’ Futurology Report Predicts Airline Passenger Numbers will Double, ‘Faces’ via Facial Pattern Recognition Systems Will Replace Passports and Boarding Passes

Courtesy Allianz Global Assistance

By the year 2040, international travel will be a faster, easier and more ecologically sustainable activity than ever before, according to a report commissioned by Allianz Partners to help prepare for the travel-related needs of their customers in the future. Allianz Partners is a world leader in B2B2C assistance and insurance solutions, delivering global protection and care, and offers dedicated travel insurance services through the Allianz Travel brand.

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The post Adventure Travel; Airplane Cabins; EU No-Go for USA appeared first on Traveling Archive.

9 Countries Welcoming Remote Workers

People around the world are dreaming about escaping their tiny urban apartments or suburban homes, and countries are making it a reality. Some destinations, like Barbados and Bermuda, have recently launched remote visa programs for incoming visitors, while other countries, like Portugal and Germany, have had similar arrangements in place for years.

Here are 9 countries with programs designed to welcome remote workers:

MORE

Travel Guys Take on Kirkland, WA

Ian Holm — RIP

Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert CBE (12 September 1931 – 19 June 2020), known as Ian Holm, was an English actor. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear. He has played more than 100 roles in films and on television. My favorite film performance is his first leading role (I believe at 44) in Atom Egoyan’s masterpiece, “The Sweet Hereafter.”

‘I’ve always been a minimalist. It was Bogart who once said, “If you think the right thoughts, the camera will pick it up.” The most important thing in the face is the eyes, and if you can make the eyes talk, you’re halfway there.’ – Ian Holm

Jazz Singer/Pianist Carol Welsman Discusses Her New Album, “Dance With Me,” with Jim Gordon.

“Our City Tonight” arrived in LA to chat with 6-time Juno Award Nominee, Carol Welsman. The gifted jazz singer/pianist talks about her new album, “Dance With Me”, which marks her foray into Latin Jazz.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Jamaica Is Now Open – Here’s What You Need to Know

Travel Pulse

Jamaica is reopening its borders to international visitors for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, June 15. Like many places that have recently welcomed back tourists, the Caribbean country will require all arriving visitors to undergo a temperature check and follow local safety protocols, which include face-coverings and social distancing. Travelers will also need to complete a travel authorization application so that officials can conduct a COVID-19 health risk assessment prior to arrival.

American Airlines Unveils Major Upgrade to App with ‘Chat With Us’ Feature

American Airlines announced the release of version 2020.07 of its smartphone app, adding several new features including a new “Chat with Us” feature connects users with a virtual assistant and, if necessary, a customer service representative via chat.

The airline began to use a new format for numbering versions of the app earlier this year. The new format begins with the four-digit year followed by a period separator, which is then followed by the two-digit number of the version.

The Chat with Us system places the user in a chat session with a virtual assistant. The bot will transfer the user to a customer service representative based on the nature of the chat.

Earlier this year, American upgraded the app with a new “Waitlist” feature that combines upgrade and standby lists for a particular flight.

Waitlist will display traveler status by cabin. Once an upgrade request clears, the app will display the individual traveler’s name and new seat number on the list.

American’s app is available on both Apple iOS and Android platforms.

What Country Taught Me About Race

By Jessica Nabongo — Afar

I’m often asked what I consider the safest countries for black people or the most welcoming for black travelers. But I can’t answer those questions. I’ve been traveling internationally since I was four years old. For my Ugandan immigrant parents, vacationing was important — a way to learn more about the world through experience — and they made it part of our lives every year. Whether domestic or international, we went somewhere every summer: Canada, Minnesota, Jamaica, Disney World, the Bahamas. By the time I graduated from high school, I had been to seven U.N. member countries, and in 2008, I moved to Japan to teach English. From there, I continued living abroad, and continued traveling. And in February 2017, with 60 countries under my belt, I started a two-and-a-half-year journey to visit every country in the world

MORE

What the Mississippi Delta Teaches Me About Home — And Hope

Courtesy National Geographic

Finding struggle and resilience on a road trip through the birthplace of the blues. I’ve thought a lot about home during the quarantine. The place and the idea. The way it calls to us, and the way the pulse of daily life can sometimes drown it out. My home is near the courthouse square in Oxford, Mississippi, a vibrant modern college community. That’s where we wake up and make scrambled eggs for our toddler. But I’m from a nearby place called Clarksdale, birthplace of the Delta blues, the town that gave the world the likes of Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, and Nate Dogg—a place where on a clear night I can hear plantation blues, the protest soul of Stax Records, and the heavy sound of G-Funk LA all mix in the open air.

MORE

How A Recent Trip To Montgomery Made Me Rethink The Deep South

Courtesy Essence

“History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.”

I spotted the reflection-inducing words by the late Maya Angelou just moments before entering the lobby of Montgomery’s Springhill Suites Hotel. They adorned a nondescript wall at the corner of Coosa and Bibb, which was steps outside of my temporary retreat. Now I’ve always been more Manhattan than Montgomery, slightly more Malcolm than Martin, with more northeastern edge than southern charm. But there I was, just days before the Christmas holiday, excited, and yet nervous, to be in what I considered the epicenter of Black history.

MORE

Irish Send Money to Navajo Nation Hit By COVID-19, Returning Historic Favor

Courtesy Mélissa Godin

A Native American community severely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak has received an outpour of donations from Irish people, who are returning a historic favor from 173 years ago.

In 1847, the Native American Choctaw nation sent $170 ($5,000 today) of relief aid to the Irish people impacted by the great potato famine. Now, the Irish are reciprocating the act of goodwill by donating funds to the Navajo nation, which has been severely impacted by COVID-19, with at least 2,373 cases and 73 deaths as of May 3.

MORE

7 Best & 5 Worst Frozen Foods

Courtesy Cheyenne Lentz, Insider

Frozen food can be great to stock up on because it can be stored for quite some time without going bad.

Since not everything maintains its quality when frozen, Insider spoke to chefs to help figure out which items are worth grabbing and which you should leave on the shelves.

Here are some of the best and worst foods to buy frozen (according to chefs)

10 Cheap Foods That Last a Long Time

These foods with long shelf lives can improve your diet while saving you money

Courtesy Erin Huffstetler

If you’re filling your pantry, especially if you are on a tight budget, focus on cheap and nutritious foods that have a long shelf life, like rice, apples and peanut butter. You’ll spend less at checkout, and you’ll waste considerably less food at the end of the week. All price estimates mentioned were good as of March 2020.

MORE

Unwind With These Free, Museum-Led Meditation and Mindfulness Sessions

After weeks — or months — of sheltering in place, many stuck inside are feeling decidedly devoid of inner peace. Luckily, thanks to an array of online offerings announced by shuttered cultural institutions, options for unwinding abound. Among the most relaxing experiences available: meditation and mindfulness sessions led by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C.

MORE

Take the Time to Read Profiles in Courage

Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy

Profiles in Courage is a 1956 volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators under enormous pressure from their parties and their constituents. Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the work. The staff at Traveling Boy suggests that Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney might fit the bill as a Profile in Courage due to his recent vote to convict fellow Republican Donald Trump in the Senate Impeachment trial. He was unable to stand in line with other Republic Senators as a result of his deeply-felt oath of office, the US Constitution and personal relationship with God.

The subjects of Profiles in Courage are John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund G. Ross, Lucius Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. Taft.

Each chapter from the book is summarized here

Ten Trends That Will Shape Science in the 2020s

Medicine gets trippy, solar takes over, and humanity — finally, maybe — goes back to the moon

Courtesy  Katherine J. Wu , Rachael Lallensack

When the 2010s began, private spaceflight had barely gotten off the ground, Google was rolling out early personalized search results and CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology was still in its infancy. By decade’s end, artificial intelligence had trounced people at a bevy of board games, SpaceX had become a household name and genetically modified human embryos became a controversial reality.

Clearly, a lot can happen in a decade — but innovation has to start somewhere. Based on what’s breaking through now, here are some trends that have the potential to shape the 2020s.

MORE

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Walt Whitman — 1819-1892

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot,
Down from the shower’d halo,
Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,
From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,
From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease…

MORE

Send Deb your favorite travel poems

Best Road Trips in the U.S.A.

Courtesy Elissa Leibowitz Poma

The United States has a grand variety of road trip-suitable routes, from straight shots across deserts to stomach-churning switchbacks through the mountains. Whatever type of adventure you seek, however much time you have, and whatever you want to see, there’s a road out there for everyone.

MORE

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after an ill fated attempt to shut down a white supremacist rally in Alabama.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

MORE Dog Quotations

Loyal Good Boi Waits At Wuhan Hospital For Three Months, Unaware That His Owner Died Of COVID-19

Remember the classic tale of Hachiko, a loyal Japanese Akita dog who waited patiently at a train station for his owner to return home from work for nine years, not knowing that his owner died at the office?

MORE

Decade-Long Search for Rocky Mountains Treasure Yields Trove Worth $2 Million

By Alex Fox; smithsonianmag.com

Nine clues embedded in a 24-line poem led to art dealer Forrest Fenn’s hidden chest of gold, gems and rare artifacts

“The treasure has been found,” declares a sparse blog post dated to June 6. The words signal the end of a ten-year search for a chest of gold, jewels and rare artifacts hidden in the Rocky Mountains by art dealer Forrest Fenn, reports Danielle Prokop for the Santa Fe New Mexican.

As many as 350,000 people unsuccessfully sought the treasure, which is worth an estimated $2 million. Five died while searching with only a poem said to contain nine clues to guide them.

MORE

United to Resume Flights to Over 150 Destinations in July

By Kurt Stolz

United Airlines announced it will increase the number of flights it operates and destinations served next month, compared to the current month, as flyers begin to slowly return to the friendly skies as the coronavirus pandemic somewhat wanes.

Come July, the airline’s international capacity will be 25% of what it was in the same period last year.  It will increase the number of flights to Europe from its hubs in San Francisco and Washington D.C., restart service to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Seoul, and expand service to Latin America and the Caribbean.

MORE

Berlin Tegel Airport to Remain Open Into November

By Kurt Stolz

The ongoing saga of Berlin’s new and old airports continues: Berlin Tegel Airport will remain open, at least for the time being.

In late May, city officials announced that Tegel – the city’s main international airport whose history goes back to the 1948 Berlin Airlift – would close temporarily on June 15, 2020.

MORE

Revealed: The World’s Best Passports

Passports were ranked on visa-free travel, international taxation laws, global perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom.

Americans may be surprised to learn that they don’t own the best passport in the world.

According to research conducted by world-leading offshore consulting firm Nomad Capitalist, Swedish, Luxembourgish and Irish passports are the best ones to own.

Nomad Capitalist has ranked the best passports in the world by scoring 199 different passports in five categories. Each passport was scored on visa-free travel, international taxation laws, global perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom.

MORE

Recipes With Only 3 Ingredients

Courtesy Christine Clark

Cooking at home is usually healthier and more affordable than going out, but with more and more restaurants temporarily closing due to the pandemic, quick and easy recipes have become essential. If you’re busy with work, family, or lockdown life in general, it can be hard to find the time and energy to fuss with complicated recipes. If hunting down a long list of ingredients makes you want to quit before you’ve started, take heart. We’ve rounded up our favorite 3-ingredient recipes — 25 of them, ranging from breakfast to dessert. As long as you have kitchen staples like salt, pepper, and olive oil, these tasty recipes will be a breeze.

Here’s 25 Recipes with just 3 Ingredients

Homeless in Border Town Getting By, Livin’

By Donovan Quintero, Navajo Times

She didn’t hesitate to give what she could give. Shylah Pettigrew knows all too well what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty. Her years of living on the streets, as well as the teachings of her mother, taught her to be compassionate, she said. “You can’t pass somebody by without offering,” she said. The Lupton, Arizona, native saw her cousin and several other people sitting outside where she was attending a birthday party. The people, whom the city of Gallup categorizes as transients, or homeless, sat on the concrete bench enjoying the warm Saturday afternoon sunlight in downtown Gallup.

MORE

The 5 Best National Park Live Webcams

Missing the great outdoors? While planning our next national park vacation than we are being outside, we’re making the most of quarantine with these live webcams of national parks.

VIEW WEBCAMS

Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism initiative

The Environment Is Healing Right Now. Can We Sustain That as Travel Ramps Up?

One silver lining has emerged from the Coronavirus pandemic: the environment is healing. When travel gradually picks back up, what will that mean for the environment—and how can we sustain those benefits?

MORE

17 Easy International Recipes That Bring Travel Home

From comforting Vietnamese pho to spicy-sweet Dutch cookies, these simple recipes recapture the spirit of travel.

MORE

Master English Pronunciation at Home

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Digging Into the Past to Find Optimism for the Future

By Cat Kutz

Dr. Nick Pyenson is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. His expeditions have taken him to every continent studying the evolution and ecology of marine mammals. Along with his collaborators, he has named over a dozen new fossil species, discovered the richest fossil whale graveyard on the planet, and described an entirely new sensory organ in living whales. Ahead of the Earth Optimism Digital Summit, during which Pyenson will hold a Deep Dive on science diplomacy, Earth Optimism communications lead Cat Kutz asks him how he finds optimism while digging into the Earth’s past.

MORE

Free Video Tours of Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Across America

The 20th-century architect defined a uniquely American style that used nature-inspired motifs and horizontal lines

Architecture fans can tune in to the #WrightVirtualVisits hashtag to watch experts lead short video tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous and lesser-known buildings every Thursday afternoon.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation teamed up to launch the initiative, dubbed Wright Virtual Visits, at the beginning of April.

Read Susan Breslow’s article on Taliesin West

How to Join a Zoom Class

The Zoom platform is easy and convenient. Missing your favorite teacher or class? This will allow you to still take that class with that teacher at their regular time slots in the safe environment of your own home.

You will sign into the class you want to take through our website and receive the Zoom link that will give you access to the class live. The classes will be in their original format and will have time at the end for you to chat with your teacher! They will be streamed from the teacher’s home as well as from the studio. You can continue to use your class packages and will still be able to purchase through your account at The Yogi Tree by logging on to our website.

For more info check out this 1-minute Zoom tutorial

English Pronunciation Isn’t Easy But This Quick Primer Can Help You Get it Right

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Readers’ Ideas for Finding Community and Cheer at Home

Courtesy The New York Times

As much of the world adjusts to a new normal of restricted living, our readers share tips for finding everyday joys.

Many of us are now entering the second, third or fourth week of restrictions on our movements, and it is becoming ever clearer that overcoming this crisis will be a marathon, not a sprint. As we all collectively adjust to our unique situations, we asked New York Times readers to share their ideas for pursuing the traveler’s spirit of discovery, curiosity and delight within their new limitations at home. Following are their responses, which have been edited for clarity and length.

MORE

Predicting the Future of Travel in 2040

Allianz Partners’ Futurology Report Predicts Airline Passenger Numbers will Double, ‘Faces’ via Facial Pattern Recognition Systems Will Replace Passports and Boarding Passes

Courtesy Allianz Global Assistance

By the year 2040, international travel will be a faster, easier and more ecologically sustainable activity than ever before, according to a report commissioned by Allianz Partners to help prepare for the travel-related needs of their customers in the future. Allianz Partners is a world leader in B2B2C assistance and insurance solutions, delivering global protection and care, and offers dedicated travel insurance services through the Allianz Travel brand.

MORE

The post Best Road Trips; Working Remotely in Foreign Lands appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Jazz Singer/Pianist Carol Welsman Discusses Her New Album, “Dance With Me,” with Jim Gordon.

“Our City Tonight” arrived in LA to chat with 6-time Juno Award Nominee, Carol Welsman. The gifted jazz singer/pianist talks about her new album, “Dance With Me”, which marks her foray into Latin Jazz.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Jamaica Is Now Open – Here’s What You Need to Know

Travel Pulse

Jamaica is reopening its borders to international visitors for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, June 15. Like many places that have recently welcomed back tourists, the Caribbean country will require all arriving visitors to undergo a temperature check and follow local safety protocols, which include face-coverings and social distancing. Travelers will also need to complete a travel authorization application so that officials can conduct a COVID-19 health risk assessment prior to arrival.

American Airlines Unveils Major Upgrade to App with ‘Chat With Us’ Feature

American Airlines announced the release of version 2020.07 of its smartphone app, adding several new features including a new “Chat with Us” feature connects users with a virtual assistant and, if necessary, a customer service representative via chat.

The airline began to use a new format for numbering versions of the app earlier this year. The new format begins with the four-digit year followed by a period separator, which is then followed by the two-digit number of the version.

The Chat with Us system places the user in a chat session with a virtual assistant. The bot will transfer the user to a customer service representative based on the nature of the chat.

Earlier this year, American upgraded the app with a new “Waitlist” feature that combines upgrade and standby lists for a particular flight.

Waitlist will display traveler status by cabin. Once an upgrade request clears, the app will display the individual traveler’s name and new seat number on the list.

American’s app is available on both Apple iOS and Android platforms.

What Country Taught Me About Race

By Jessica Nabongo — Afar

I’m often asked what I consider the safest countries for black people or the most welcoming for black travelers. But I can’t answer those questions. I’ve been traveling internationally since I was four years old. For my Ugandan immigrant parents, vacationing was important — a way to learn more about the world through experience — and they made it part of our lives every year. Whether domestic or international, we went somewhere every summer: Canada, Minnesota, Jamaica, Disney World, the Bahamas. By the time I graduated from high school, I had been to seven U.N. member countries, and in 2008, I moved to Japan to teach English. From there, I continued living abroad, and continued traveling. And in February 2017, with 60 countries under my belt, I started a two-and-a-half-year journey to visit every country in the world

MORE

What the Mississippi Delta Teaches Me About Home — And Hope

Courtesy National Geographic

Finding struggle and resilience on a road trip through the birthplace of the blues. I’ve thought a lot about home during the quarantine. The place and the idea. The way it calls to us, and the way the pulse of daily life can sometimes drown it out. My home is near the courthouse square in Oxford, Mississippi, a vibrant modern college community. That’s where we wake up and make scrambled eggs for our toddler. But I’m from a nearby place called Clarksdale, birthplace of the Delta blues, the town that gave the world the likes of Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, and Nate Dogg—a place where on a clear night I can hear plantation blues, the protest soul of Stax Records, and the heavy sound of G-Funk LA all mix in the open air.

MORE

How A Recent Trip To Montgomery Made Me Rethink The Deep South

Courtesy Essence

“History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.”

I spotted the reflection-inducing words by the late Maya Angelou just moments before entering the lobby of Montgomery’s Springhill Suites Hotel. They adorned a nondescript wall at the corner of Coosa and Bibb, which was steps outside of my temporary retreat. Now I’ve always been more Manhattan than Montgomery, slightly more Malcolm than Martin, with more northeastern edge than southern charm. But there I was, just days before the Christmas holiday, excited, and yet nervous, to be in what I considered the epicenter of Black history.

MORE

Irish Send Money to Navajo Nation Hit By COVID-19, Returning Historic Favor

Courtesy Mélissa Godin

A Native American community severely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak has received an outpour of donations from Irish people, who are returning a historic favor from 173 years ago.

In 1847, the Native American Choctaw nation sent $170 ($5,000 today) of relief aid to the Irish people impacted by the great potato famine. Now, the Irish are reciprocating the act of goodwill by donating funds to the Navajo nation, which has been severely impacted by COVID-19, with at least 2,373 cases and 73 deaths as of May 3.

MORE

7 Best & 5 Worst Frozen Foods

Courtesy Cheyenne Lentz, Insider

Frozen food can be great to stock up on because it can be stored for quite some time without going bad.

Since not everything maintains its quality when frozen, Insider spoke to chefs to help figure out which items are worth grabbing and which you should leave on the shelves.

Here are some of the best and worst foods to buy frozen (according to chefs)

10 Cheap Foods That Last a Long Time

These foods with long shelf lives can improve your diet while saving you money

Courtesy Erin Huffstetler

If you’re filling your pantry, especially if you are on a tight budget, focus on cheap and nutritious foods that have a long shelf life, like rice, apples and peanut butter. You’ll spend less at checkout, and you’ll waste considerably less food at the end of the week. All price estimates mentioned were good as of March 2020.

MORE

Unwind With These Free, Museum-Led Meditation and Mindfulness Sessions

After weeks — or months — of sheltering in place, many stuck inside are feeling decidedly devoid of inner peace. Luckily, thanks to an array of online offerings announced by shuttered cultural institutions, options for unwinding abound. Among the most relaxing experiences available: meditation and mindfulness sessions led by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C.

MORE

English Pronunciation Isn’t Easy But This Quick Primer Can Help You Get it Right

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Take the Time to Read Profiles in Courage

Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy

Profiles in Courage is a 1956 volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators under enormous pressure from their parties and their constituents. Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the work. The staff at Traveling Boy suggests that Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney might fit the bill as a Profile in Courage due to his recent vote to convict fellow Republican Donald Trump in the Senate Impeachment trial. He was unable to stand in line with other Republic Senators as a result of his deeply-felt oath of office, the US Constitution and personal relationship with God.

The subjects of Profiles in Courage are John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund G. Ross, Lucius Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. Taft.

Each chapter from the book is summarized here

Ten Trends That Will Shape Science in the 2020s

Medicine gets trippy, solar takes over, and humanity — finally, maybe — goes back to the moon

Courtesy  Katherine J. Wu , Rachael Lallensack

When the 2010s began, private spaceflight had barely gotten off the ground, Google was rolling out early personalized search results and CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology was still in its infancy. By decade’s end, artificial intelligence had trounced people at a bevy of board games, SpaceX had become a household name and genetically modified human embryos became a controversial reality.

Clearly, a lot can happen in a decade — but innovation has to start somewhere. Based on what’s breaking through now, here are some trends that have the potential to shape the 2020s.

MORE

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Walt Whitman — 1819-1892

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot,
Down from the shower’d halo,
Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,
From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,
From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease…

MORE

Send Deb your favorite travel poems

Loyal Good Boi Waits At Wuhan Hospital For Three Months, Unaware That His Owner Died Of COVID-19

Remember the classic tale of Hachiko, a loyal Japanese Akita dog who waited patiently at a train station for his owner to return home from work for nine years, not knowing that his owner died at the office?

MORE

Decade-Long Search for Rocky Mountains Treasure Yields Trove Worth $2 Million

By Alex Fox; smithsonianmag.com

Nine clues embedded in a 24-line poem led to art dealer Forrest Fenn’s hidden chest of gold, gems and rare artifacts

“The treasure has been found,” declares a sparse blog post dated to June 6. The words signal the end of a ten-year search for a chest of gold, jewels and rare artifacts hidden in the Rocky Mountains by art dealer Forrest Fenn, reports Danielle Prokop for the Santa Fe New Mexican.

As many as 350,000 people unsuccessfully sought the treasure, which is worth an estimated $2 million. Five died while searching with only a poem said to contain nine clues to guide them.

MORE

United to Resume Flights to Over 150 Destinations in July

By Kurt Stolz

United Airlines announced it will increase the number of flights it operates and destinations served next month, compared to the current month, as flyers begin to slowly return to the friendly skies as the coronavirus pandemic somewhat wanes.

Come July, the airline’s international capacity will be 25% of what it was in the same period last year.  It will increase the number of flights to Europe from its hubs in San Francisco and Washington D.C., restart service to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Seoul, and expand service to Latin America and the Caribbean.

MORE

Berlin Tegel Airport to Remain Open Into November

By Kurt Stolz

The ongoing saga of Berlin’s new and old airports continues: Berlin Tegel Airport will remain open, at least for the time being.

In late May, city officials announced that Tegel – the city’s main international airport whose history goes back to the 1948 Berlin Airlift – would close temporarily on June 15, 2020.

MORE

Revealed: The World’s Best Passports

Passports were ranked on visa-free travel, international taxation laws, global perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom.

Americans may be surprised to learn that they don’t own the best passport in the world.

According to research conducted by world-leading offshore consulting firm Nomad Capitalist, Swedish, Luxembourgish and Irish passports are the best ones to own.

Nomad Capitalist has ranked the best passports in the world by scoring 199 different passports in five categories. Each passport was scored on visa-free travel, international taxation laws, global perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom.

MORE

Recipes With Only 3 Ingredients

Courtesy Christine Clark

Cooking at home is usually healthier and more affordable than going out, but with more and more restaurants temporarily closing due to the pandemic, quick and easy recipes have become essential. If you’re busy with work, family, or lockdown life in general, it can be hard to find the time and energy to fuss with complicated recipes. If hunting down a long list of ingredients makes you want to quit before you’ve started, take heart. We’ve rounded up our favorite 3-ingredient recipes — 25 of them, ranging from breakfast to dessert. As long as you have kitchen staples like salt, pepper, and olive oil, these tasty recipes will be a breeze.

Here’s 25 Recipes with just 3 Ingredients

Homeless in Border Town Getting By, Livin’

By Donovan Quintero, Navajo Times

She didn’t hesitate to give what she could give. Shylah Pettigrew knows all too well what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty. Her years of living on the streets, as well as the teachings of her mother, taught her to be compassionate, she said. “You can’t pass somebody by without offering,” she said. The Lupton, Arizona, native saw her cousin and several other people sitting outside where she was attending a birthday party. The people, whom the city of Gallup categorizes as transients, or homeless, sat on the concrete bench enjoying the warm Saturday afternoon sunlight in downtown Gallup.

MORE

The 5 Best National Park Live Webcams

Missing the great outdoors? While planning our next national park vacation than we are being outside, we’re making the most of quarantine with these live webcams of national parks.

VIEW WEBCAMS

Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism initiative

The Environment Is Healing Right Now. Can We Sustain That as Travel Ramps Up?

One silver lining has emerged from the Coronavirus pandemic: the environment is healing. When travel gradually picks back up, what will that mean for the environment—and how can we sustain those benefits?

MORE

17 Easy International Recipes That Bring Travel Home

From comforting Vietnamese pho to spicy-sweet Dutch cookies, these simple recipes recapture the spirit of travel.

MORE

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after an ill fated attempt to shut down a white supremacist rally in Alabama.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

MORE Dog Quotations

Master English Pronunciation at Home

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Digging Into the Past to Find Optimism for the Future

By Cat Kutz

Dr. Nick Pyenson is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. His expeditions have taken him to every continent studying the evolution and ecology of marine mammals. Along with his collaborators, he has named over a dozen new fossil species, discovered the richest fossil whale graveyard on the planet, and described an entirely new sensory organ in living whales. Ahead of the Earth Optimism Digital Summit, during which Pyenson will hold a Deep Dive on science diplomacy, Earth Optimism communications lead Cat Kutz asks him how he finds optimism while digging into the Earth’s past.

MORE

Free Video Tours of Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Across America

The 20th-century architect defined a uniquely American style that used nature-inspired motifs and horizontal lines

Architecture fans can tune in to the #WrightVirtualVisits hashtag to watch experts lead short video tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous and lesser-known buildings every Thursday afternoon.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation teamed up to launch the initiative, dubbed Wright Virtual Visits, at the beginning of April.

Read Susan Breslow’s article on Taliesin West

How to Join a Zoom Class

The Zoom platform is easy and convenient. Missing your favorite teacher or class? This will allow you to still take that class with that teacher at their regular time slots in the safe environment of your own home.

You will sign into the class you want to take through our website and receive the Zoom link that will give you access to the class live. The classes will be in their original format and will have time at the end for you to chat with your teacher! They will be streamed from the teacher’s home as well as from the studio. You can continue to use your class packages and will still be able to purchase through your account at The Yogi Tree by logging on to our website.

For more info check out this 1-minute Zoom tutorial

Readers’ Ideas for Finding Community and Cheer at Home

Courtesy The New York Times

As much of the world adjusts to a new normal of restricted living, our readers share tips for finding everyday joys.

Many of us are now entering the second, third or fourth week of restrictions on our movements, and it is becoming ever clearer that overcoming this crisis will be a marathon, not a sprint. As we all collectively adjust to our unique situations, we asked New York Times readers to share their ideas for pursuing the traveler’s spirit of discovery, curiosity and delight within their new limitations at home. Following are their responses, which have been edited for clarity and length.

MORE

Predicting the Future of Travel in 2040

Allianz Partners’ Futurology Report Predicts Airline Passenger Numbers will Double, ‘Faces’ via Facial Pattern Recognition Systems Will Replace Passports and Boarding Passes

Courtesy Allianz Global Assistance

By the year 2040, international travel will be a faster, easier and more ecologically sustainable activity than ever before, according to a report commissioned by Allianz Partners to help prepare for the travel-related needs of their customers in the future. Allianz Partners is a world leader in B2B2C assistance and insurance solutions, delivering global protection and care, and offers dedicated travel insurance services through the Allianz Travel brand.

MORE

The post Carol Welsman Soars on Our City Tonight appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi which lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called “The Most Southern Place on Earth” because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history.

What Country Taught Me About Race

By Jessica Nabongo — Afar

I’m often asked what I consider the safest countries for black people or the most welcoming for black travelers. But I can’t answer those questions. I’ve been traveling internationally since I was four years old. For my Ugandan immigrant parents, vacationing was important — a way to learn more about the world through experience — and they made it part of our lives every year. Whether domestic or international, we went somewhere every summer: Canada, Minnesota, Jamaica, Disney World, the Bahamas. By the time I graduated from high school, I had been to seven U.N. member countries, and in 2008, I moved to Japan to teach English. From there, I continued living abroad, and continued traveling. And in February 2017, with 60 countries under my belt, I started a two-and-a-half-year journey to visit every country in the world

MORE

What the Mississippi Delta Teaches Me About Home — And Hope

Courtesy National Geographic

Finding struggle and resilience on a road trip through the birthplace of the blues. I’ve thought a lot about home during the quarantine. The place and the idea. The way it calls to us, and the way the pulse of daily life can sometimes drown it out. My home is near the courthouse square in Oxford, Mississippi, a vibrant modern college community. That’s where we wake up and make scrambled eggs for our toddler. But I’m from a nearby place called Clarksdale, birthplace of the Delta blues, the town that gave the world the likes of Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, and Nate Dogg—a place where on a clear night I can hear plantation blues, the protest soul of Stax Records, and the heavy sound of G-Funk LA all mix in the open air.

MORE

How A Recent Trip To Montgomery Made Me Rethink The Deep South

Courtesy Essence

“History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.”

I spotted the reflection-inducing words by the late Maya Angelou just moments before entering the lobby of Montgomery’s Springhill Suites Hotel. They adorned a nondescript wall at the corner of Coosa and Bibb, which was steps outside of my temporary retreat. Now I’ve always been more Manhattan than Montgomery, slightly more Malcolm than Martin, with more northeastern edge than southern charm. But there I was, just days before the Christmas holiday, excited, and yet nervous, to be in what I considered the epicenter of Black history.

MORE

Irish Send Money to Navajo Nation Hit By COVID-19, Returning Historic Favor

Courtesy Mélissa Godin

A Native American community severely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak has received an outpour of donations from Irish people, who are returning a historic favor from 173 years ago.

In 1847, the Native American Choctaw nation sent $170 ($5,000 today) of relief aid to the Irish people impacted by the great potato famine. Now, the Irish are reciprocating the act of goodwill by donating funds to the Navajo nation, which has been severely impacted by COVID-19, with at least 2,373 cases and 73 deaths as of May 3.

MORE

7 Best & 5 Worst Frozen Foods

Courtesy Cheyenne Lentz, Insider

Frozen food can be great to stock up on because it can be stored for quite some time without going bad.

Since not everything maintains its quality when frozen, Insider spoke to chefs to help figure out which items are worth grabbing and which you should leave on the shelves.

Here are some of the best and worst foods to buy frozen (according to chefs)

10 Cheap Foods That Last a Long Time

These foods with long shelf lives can improve your diet while saving you money

Courtesy Erin Huffstetler

If you’re filling your pantry, especially if you are on a tight budget, focus on cheap and nutritious foods that have a long shelf life, like rice, apples and peanut butter. You’ll spend less at checkout, and you’ll waste considerably less food at the end of the week. All price estimates mentioned were good as of March 2020.

MORE

Unwind With These Free, Museum-Led Meditation and Mindfulness Sessions

After weeks — or months — of sheltering in place, many stuck inside are feeling decidedly devoid of inner peace. Luckily, thanks to an array of online offerings announced by shuttered cultural institutions, options for unwinding abound. Among the most relaxing experiences available: meditation and mindfulness sessions led by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C.

MORE

English Pronunciation Isn’t Easy But This Quick Primer Can Help You Get it Right

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Take the Time to Read Profiles in Courage

Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy

Profiles in Courage is a 1956 volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators under enormous pressure from their parties and their constituents. Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the work. The staff at Traveling Boy suggests that Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney might fit the bill as a Profile in Courage due to his recent vote to convict fellow Republican Donald Trump in the Senate Impeachment trial. He was unable to stand in line with other Republic Senators as a result of his deeply-felt oath of office, the US Constitution and personal relationship with God.

The subjects of Profiles in Courage are John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund G. Ross, Lucius Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. Taft.

Each chapter from the book is summarized here

How to Join a Zoom Class

The Zoom platform is easy and convenient. Missing your favorite teacher or class? This will allow you to still take that class with that teacher at their regular time slots in the safe environment of your own home.

You will sign into the class you want to take through our website and receive the Zoom link that will give you access to the class live. The classes will be in their original format and will have time at the end for you to chat with your teacher! They will be streamed from the teacher’s home as well as from the studio. You can continue to use your class packages and will still be able to purchase through your account at The Yogi Tree by logging on to our website.

For more info check out this 1-minute Zoom tutorial

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Walt Whitman — 1819-1892

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot,
Down from the shower’d halo,
Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,
From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,
From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease…

MORE

Send Deb your favorite travel poems

Revealed: The World’s Best Passports

Passports were ranked on visa-free travel, international taxation laws, global perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom.

Americans may be surprised to learn that they don’t own the best passport in the world.

According to research conducted by world-leading offshore consulting firm Nomad Capitalist, Swedish, Luxembourgish and Irish passports are the best ones to own.

Nomad Capitalist has ranked the best passports in the world by scoring 199 different passports in five categories. Each passport was scored on visa-free travel, international taxation laws, global perception, dual citizenship and personal freedom.

This year, three countries came out on top with Sweden, Luxembourg and Ireland all scoring 114 points.

MORE

Recipes With Only 3 Ingredients

Courtesy Christine Clark

Cooking at home is usually healthier and more affordable than going out, but with more and more restaurants temporarily closing due to the pandemic, quick and easy recipes have become essential. If you’re busy with work, family, or lockdown life in general, it can be hard to find the time and energy to fuss with complicated recipes. If hunting down a long list of ingredients makes you want to quit before you’ve started, take heart. We’ve rounded up our favorite 3-ingredient recipes — 25 of them, ranging from breakfast to dessert. As long as you have kitchen staples like salt, pepper, and olive oil, these tasty recipes will be a breeze.

Here’s 25 Recipes with just 3 Ingredients

Homeless in Border Town Getting By, Livin’

By Donovan Quintero, Navajo Times

She didn’t hesitate to give what she could give. Shylah Pettigrew knows all too well what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty. Her years of living on the streets, as well as the teachings of her mother, taught her to be compassionate, she said. “You can’t pass somebody by without offering,” she said. The Lupton, Arizona, native saw her cousin and several other people sitting outside where she was attending a birthday party. The people, whom the city of Gallup categorizes as transients, or homeless, sat on the concrete bench enjoying the warm Saturday afternoon sunlight in downtown Gallup.

MORE

The 5 Best National Park Live Webcams

Missing the great outdoors? While planning our next national park vacation than we are being outside, we’re making the most of quarantine with these live webcams of national parks.

VIEW WEBCAMS

Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism initiative

The Environment Is Healing Right Now. Can We Sustain That as Travel Ramps Up?

One silver lining has emerged from the Coronavirus pandemic: the environment is healing. When travel gradually picks back up, what will that mean for the environment—and how can we sustain those benefits?

MORE

17 Easy International Recipes That Bring Travel Home

From comforting Vietnamese pho to spicy-sweet Dutch cookies, these simple recipes recapture the spirit of travel.

MORE

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after an ill fated attempt to shut down a white supremacist rally in Alabama.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

MORE Dog Quotations

Master English Pronunciation at Home

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Digging Into the Past to Find Optimism for the Future

By Cat Kutz

Dr. Nick Pyenson is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. His expeditions have taken him to every continent studying the evolution and ecology of marine mammals. Along with his collaborators, he has named over a dozen new fossil species, discovered the richest fossil whale graveyard on the planet, and described an entirely new sensory organ in living whales. Ahead of the Earth Optimism Digital Summit, during which Pyenson will hold a Deep Dive on science diplomacy, Earth Optimism communications lead Cat Kutz asks him how he finds optimism while digging into the Earth’s past.

MORE

Free Video Tours of Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Across America

The 20th-century architect defined a uniquely American style that used nature-inspired motifs and horizontal lines

Architecture fans can tune in to the #WrightVirtualVisits hashtag to watch experts lead short video tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous and lesser-known buildings every Thursday afternoon.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation teamed up to launch the initiative, dubbed Wright Virtual Visits, at the beginning of April.

Read Susan Breslow’s article on Taliesin West

Ten Trends That Will Shape Science in the 2020s

Medicine gets trippy, solar takes over, and humanity — finally, maybe — goes back to the moon

Courtesy  Katherine J. Wu , Rachael Lallensack

When the 2010s began, private spaceflight had barely gotten off the ground, Google was rolling out early personalized search results and CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology was still in its infancy. By decade’s end, artificial intelligence had trounced people at a bevy of board games, SpaceX had become a household name and genetically modified human embryos became a controversial reality.

Clearly, a lot can happen in a decade — but innovation has to start somewhere. Based on what’s breaking through now, here are some trends that have the potential to shape the 2020s.

MORE

Readers’ Ideas for Finding Community and Cheer at Home

Courtesy The New York Times

As much of the world adjusts to a new normal of restricted living, our readers share tips for finding everyday joys.

Many of us are now entering the second, third or fourth week of restrictions on our movements, and it is becoming ever clearer that overcoming this crisis will be a marathon, not a sprint. As we all collectively adjust to our unique situations, we asked New York Times readers to share their ideas for pursuing the traveler’s spirit of discovery, curiosity and delight within their new limitations at home. Following are their responses, which have been edited for clarity and length.

MORE

Predicting the Future of Travel in 2040

Allianz Partners’ Futurology Report Predicts Airline Passenger Numbers will Double, ‘Faces’ via Facial Pattern Recognition Systems Will Replace Passports and Boarding Passes

Courtesy Allianz Global Assistance

By the year 2040, international travel will be a faster, easier and more ecologically sustainable activity than ever before, according to a report commissioned by Allianz Partners to help prepare for the travel-related needs of their customers in the future. Allianz Partners is a world leader in B2B2C assistance and insurance solutions, delivering global protection and care, and offers dedicated travel insurance services through the Allianz Travel brand.

MORE

The post Mississippi Delta, Travel Taught Me About Race appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Irish Send Money to Navajo Nation Hit By COVID-19, Returning Historic Favor

Courtesy Mélissa Godin

A Native American community severely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak has received an outpour of donations from Irish people, who are returning a historic favor from 173 years ago.

In 1847, the Native American Choctaw nation sent $170 ($5,000 today) of relief aid to the Irish people impacted by the great potato famine. Now, the Irish are reciprocating the act of goodwill by donating funds to the Navajo nation, which has been severely impacted by COVID-19, with at least 2,373 cases and 73 deaths as of May 3.

MORE

7 Best & 5 Worst Frozen Foods

Courtesy Cheyenne Lentz, Insider

Frozen food can be great to stock up on because it can be stored for quite some time without going bad.

Since not everything maintains its quality when frozen, Insider spoke to chefs to help figure out which items are worth grabbing and which you should leave on the shelves.

Here are some of the best and worst foods to buy frozen (according to chefs)

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after an ill fated attempt to shut down a white supremacist rally in Alabama.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

MORE Dog Quotations

Unwind With These Free, Museum-Led Meditation and Mindfulness Sessions

After weeks — or months — of sheltering in place, many stuck inside are feeling decidedly devoid of inner peace. Luckily, thanks to an array of online offerings announced by shuttered cultural institutions, options for unwinding abound. Among the most relaxing experiences available: meditation and mindfulness sessions led by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C.

MORE

Free Video Tours of Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Across America

The 20th-century architect defined a uniquely American style that used nature-inspired motifs and horizontal lines

Architecture fans can tune in to the #WrightVirtualVisits hashtag to watch experts lead short video tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous and lesser-known buildings every Thursday afternoon.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation teamed up to launch the initiative, dubbed Wright Virtual Visits, at the beginning of April.

Read Susan Breslow’s article on Taliesin West

Take the Time to Read Profiles in Courage

Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy

Profiles in Courage is a 1956 volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators under enormous pressure from their parties and their constituents. Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the work. The staff at Traveling Boy suggests that Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney might fit the bill as a Profile in Courage due to his recent vote to convict fellow Republican Donald Trump in the Senate Impeachment trial. He was unable to stand in line with other Republic Senators as a result of his deeply-felt oath of office, the US Constitution and personal relationship with God.

The subjects of Profiles in Courage are John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund G. Ross, Lucius Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. Taft.

Each chapter from the book is summarized here

How to Join a Zoom Class

The Zoom platform is easy and convenient. Missing your favorite teacher or class? This will allow you to still take that class with that teacher at their regular time slots in the safe environment of your own home.

You will sign into the class you want to take through our website and receive the Zoom link that will give you access to the class live. The classes will be in their original format and will have time at the end for you to chat with your teacher! They will be streamed from the teacher’s home as well as from the studio. You can continue to use your class packages and will still be able to purchase through your account at The Yogi Tree by logging on to our website.

For more info check out this 1-minute Zoom tutorial

Predicting the Future of Travel in 2040

Allianz Partners’ Futurology Report Predicts Airline Passenger Numbers will Double, ‘Faces’ via Facial Pattern Recognition Systems Will Replace Passports and Boarding Passes

Courtesy Allianz Global Assistance

By the year 2040, international travel will be a faster, easier and more ecologically sustainable activity than ever before, according to a report commissioned by Allianz Partners to help prepare for the travel-related needs of their customers in the future. Allianz Partners is a world leader in B2B2C assistance and insurance solutions, delivering global protection and care, and offers dedicated travel insurance services through the Allianz Travel brand.

MORE

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Walt Whitman — 1819-1892

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot,
Down from the shower’d halo,
Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,
From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,
From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,
From the myriad thence-arous’d words,
From the word stronger and more delicious than any,
From such as now they start the scene revisiting,
As a flock, twittering, rising, or overhead passing,
Borne hither, ere all eludes me, hurriedly,
A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,
I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter,
Taking all hints to use them, but swiftly leaping beyond them,
A reminiscence sing.

MORE

Send Deb your favorite travel poems

Recipes With Only 3 Ingredients

Courtesy Christine Clark

Cooking at home is usually healthier and more affordable than going out, but with more and more restaurants temporarily closing due to the pandemic, quick and easy recipes have become essential. If you’re busy with work, family, or lockdown life in general, it can be hard to find the time and energy to fuss with complicated recipes. If hunting down a long list of ingredients makes you want to quit before you’ve started, take heart. We’ve rounded up our favorite 3-ingredient recipes — 25 of them, ranging from breakfast to dessert. As long as you have kitchen staples like salt, pepper, and olive oil, these tasty recipes will be a breeze.

Here’s 25 Recipes with just 3 Ingredients

Homeless in Border Town Getting By, Livin’

By Donovan Quintero, Navajo Times

She didn’t hesitate to give what she could give. Shylah Pettigrew knows all too well what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty. Her years of living on the streets, as well as the teachings of her mother, taught her to be compassionate, she said. “You can’t pass somebody by without offering,” she said. The Lupton, Arizona, native saw her cousin and several other people sitting outside where she was attending a birthday party. The people, whom the city of Gallup categorizes as transients, or homeless, sat on the concrete bench enjoying the warm Saturday afternoon sunlight in downtown Gallup.

MORE

The 5 Best National Park Live Webcams

Missing the great outdoors? While planning our next national park vacation than we are being outside, we’re making the most of quarantine with these live webcams of national parks.

VIEW WEBCAMS

Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism initiative

The Environment Is Healing Right Now. Can We Sustain That as Travel Ramps Up?

One silver lining has emerged from the Coronavirus pandemic: the environment is healing. When travel gradually picks back up, what will that mean for the environment—and how can we sustain those benefits?

MORE

17 Easy International Recipes That Bring Travel Home

From comforting Vietnamese pho to spicy-sweet Dutch cookies, these simple recipes recapture the spirit of travel.

MORE

10 Cheap Foods That Last a Long Time

These foods with long shelf lives can improve your diet while saving you money

Courtesy Erin Huffstetler

If you’re filling your pantry, especially if you are on a tight budget, focus on cheap and nutritious foods that have a long shelf life, like rice, apples and peanut butter. You’ll spend less at checkout, and you’ll waste considerably less food at the end of the week. All price estimates mentioned were good as of March 2020.

MORE

Master English Pronunciation at Home

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Digging Into the Past to Find Optimism for the Future

By Cat Kutz

Dr. Nick Pyenson is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. His expeditions have taken him to every continent studying the evolution and ecology of marine mammals. Along with his collaborators, he has named over a dozen new fossil species, discovered the richest fossil whale graveyard on the planet, and described an entirely new sensory organ in living whales. Ahead of the Earth Optimism Digital Summit, during which Pyenson will hold a Deep Dive on science diplomacy, Earth Optimism communications lead Cat Kutz asks him how he finds optimism while digging into the Earth’s past.

MORE

English Pronunciation Isn’t Easy But This Quick Primer Can Help You Get it Right

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

MORE

Ten Trends That Will Shape Science in the 2020s

Medicine gets trippy, solar takes over, and humanity — finally, maybe — goes back to the moon

Courtesy  Katherine J. Wu , Rachael Lallensack

When the 2010s began, private spaceflight had barely gotten off the ground, Google was rolling out early personalized search results and CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology was still in its infancy. By decade’s end, artificial intelligence had trounced people at a bevy of board games, SpaceX had become a household name and genetically modified human embryos became a controversial reality.

Clearly, a lot can happen in a decade — but innovation has to start somewhere. Based on what’s breaking through now, here are some trends that have the potential to shape the 2020s.

MORE

Readers’ Ideas for Finding Community and Cheer at Home

Courtesy The New York Times

As much of the world adjusts to a new normal of restricted living, our readers share tips for finding everyday joys.

Many of us are now entering the second, third or fourth week of restrictions on our movements, and it is becoming ever clearer that overcoming this crisis will be a marathon, not a sprint. As we all collectively adjust to our unique situations, we asked New York Times readers to share their ideas for pursuing the traveler’s spirit of discovery, curiosity and delight within their new limitations at home. Following are their responses, which have been edited for clarity and length.

MORE

The post Returning Historic Favor, 3 Ingredient Recipes appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after an ill fated attempt to shut down a white supremacist rally in Alabama.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

MORE Dog Quotations

Unwind With These Free, Museum-Led Meditation and Mindfulness Sessions

After weeks — or months — of sheltering in place, many stuck inside are feeling decidedly devoid of inner peace. Luckily, thanks to an array of online offerings announced by shuttered cultural institutions, options for unwinding abound. Among the most relaxing experiences available: meditation and mindfulness sessions led by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C.

MORE

Free Video Tours of Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Across America

The 20th-century architect defined a uniquely American style that used nature-inspired motifs and horizontal lines

Architecture fans can tune in to the #WrightVirtualVisits hashtag to watch experts lead short video tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous and lesser-known buildings every Thursday afternoon.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation teamed up to launch the initiative, dubbed Wright Virtual Visits, at the beginning of April

Read Susan Breslow’s A Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West

Take the Time to Read Profiles in Courage

Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy

Profiles in Courage is a 1956 volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators under enormous pressure from their parties and their constituents. Written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the work. The staff at Traveling Boy suggests that Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney might fit the bill as a Profile in Courage due to his recent vote to convict fellow Republican Donald Trump in the Senate Impeachment trial. He was unable to stand in line with other Republic Senators as a result of his deeply-felt oath of office, the US Constitution and personal relationship with God.

The subjects of Profiles in Courage are John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund G. Ross, Lucius Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. Taft.

Each chapter from the book is summarized here

How to Join a Zoom Class

The Zoom platform is easy and convenient. Missing your favorite teacher or class? This will allow you to still take that class with that teacher at their regular time slots in the safe environment of your own home.

You will sign into the class you want to take through our website and receive the Zoom link that will give you access to the class live. The classes will be in their original format and will have time at the end for you to chat with your teacher! They will be streamed from the teacher’s home as well as from the studio. You can continue to use your class packages and will still be able to purchase through your account at The Yogi Tree by logging on to our website.

For more info check out this 1-minute Zoom tutorial

Ten Trends That Will Shape Science in the 2020s

Medicine gets trippy, solar takes over, and humanity — finally, maybe — goes back to the moon

Courtesy  Katherine J. Wu , Rachael Lallensack

When the 2010s began, private spaceflight had barely gotten off the ground, Google was rolling out early personalized search results and CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology was still in its infancy. By decade’s end, artificial intelligence had trounced people at a bevy of board games, SpaceX had become a household name and genetically modified human embryos became a controversial reality.

Clearly, a lot can happen in a decade — but innovation has to start somewhere. Based on what’s breaking through now, here are some trends that have the potential to shape the 2020s.

MORE

Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

Walt Whitman — 1819-1892

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking-bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
Out of the Ninth-month midnight,
Over the sterile sands and the fields beyond, where the child leaving his bed wander’d alone, bareheaded, barefoot,
Down from the shower’d halo,
Up from the mystic play of shadows twining and twisting as if they were alive,
Out from the patches of briers and blackberries,
From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and fallings I heard,
From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,
From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,
From the thousand responses of my heart never to cease,
From the myriad thence-arous’d words,
From the word stronger and more delicious than any,
From such as now they start the scene revisiting,
As a flock, twittering, rising, or overhead passing,
Borne hither, ere all eludes me, hurriedly,
A man, yet by these tears a little boy again,
Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves,
I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter…

MORE

Send Deb your favorite travel poems

The 5 Best National Park Live Webcams

Missing the great outdoors? While planning our next national park vacation than we are being outside, we’re making the most of quarantine with these live webcams of national parks.

VIEW WEBCAMS

Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism initiative

The Environment Is Healing Right Now. Can We Sustain That as Travel Ramps Up?

One silver lining has emerged from the Coronavirus pandemic: the environment is healing. When travel gradually picks back up, what will that mean for the environment—and how can we sustain those benefits?

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17 Easy International Recipes That Bring Travel Home

From comforting Vietnamese pho to spicy-sweet Dutch cookies, these simple recipes recapture the spirit of travel.

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10 Cheap Foods That Last a Long Time

These foods with long shelf lives can improve your diet while saving you money

Courtesy Erin Huffstetler

If you’re filling your pantry, especially if you are on a tight budget, focus on cheap and nutritious foods that have a long shelf life, like rice, apples and peanut butter. You’ll spend less at checkout, and you’ll waste considerably less food at the end of the week. All price estimates mentioned were good as of March 2020.

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Master English Pronunciation at Home

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

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Digging Into the Past to Find Optimism for the Future

By Cat Kutz

Dr. Nick Pyenson is the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. His expeditions have taken him to every continent studying the evolution and ecology of marine mammals. Along with his collaborators, he has named over a dozen new fossil species, discovered the richest fossil whale graveyard on the planet, and described an entirely new sensory organ in living whales. Ahead of the Earth Optimism Digital Summit, during which Pyenson will hold a Deep Dive on science diplomacy, Earth Optimism communications lead Cat Kutz asks him how he finds optimism while digging into the Earth’s past.

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English Pronunciation Isn’t Easy But This Quick Primer Can Help You Get it Right

Courtesy Olivia Valdes, ThoughtCo

We all know the embarrassing feeling of discovering we’ve been mispronouncing a word for years. On the other hand, some words are so commonly mispronounced that the “correct” pronunciation sounds downright strange. Don’t feel bad if you’ve been mispronouncing some of these tricky words. A living language like English evolves and thrives precisely because it’s spoken every day.

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Predicting the Future of Travel in 2040

Allianz Partners’ Futurology Report Predicts Airline Passenger Numbers will Double, ‘Faces’ via Facial Pattern Recognition Systems Will Replace Passports and Boarding Passes

Courtesy Allianz Global Assistance

By the year 2040, international travel will be a faster, easier and more ecologically sustainable activity than ever before, according to a report commissioned by Allianz Partners to help prepare for the travel-related needs of their customers in the future. Allianz Partners is a world leader in B2B2C assistance and insurance solutions, delivering global protection and care, and offers dedicated travel insurance services through the Allianz Travel brand.

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Readers’ Ideas for Finding Community and Cheer at Home

Courtesy The New York Times

As much of the world adjusts to a new normal of restricted living, our readers share tips for finding everyday joys.

Many of us are now entering the second, third or fourth week of restrictions on our movements, and it is becoming ever clearer that overcoming this crisis will be a marathon, not a sprint. As we all collectively adjust to our unique situations, we asked New York Times readers to share their ideas for pursuing the traveler’s spirit of discovery, curiosity and delight within their new limitations at home. Following are their responses, which have been edited for clarity and length.

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The post Fun Things to Do at Home, Environmental Healing appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Bamboo Sheets

Get good sleep – yes, it is hard, especially if you are stressed out and have a whirling mind. One way to help yourself is with super soft sheets. Try Ettitude, a sustainable sleep brand which offers luxury quality, modern bedding, sleepwear, and bath essentials, made from the world’s first CleanBamboo™ fabric.

I highly recommend their luscious sheets to sleep in, they might revolutionize your sleep as the fabric is feathery soft, thermo-regulating, extremely breathable, antimicrobial, and water-saving, thus resulting in bed sheets that are better for you and the environment.

Costa Farms Plants

The way I see it – the more nature you have surrounding you right now the better. If you live in an apartment plants are the ultimate energy booster as they provide oxygen and brighten your home. I adore the exotic ones from Costa Farms. The Crotons – (see photo) are very relaxing to have around you. They are grown in a greenhouse, expertly packed and delivered right to your door. They are stunning, and right away lifted my mood.

While they are sold in many stores around the country, these days the best way to get them is to order online from Lowes, Home Depot and more, and have these pick-me-ups delivered right to your door. Check out www.costafarms.com to learn about plants and your options.

Set the Scent: Humidifier and Diffuser all wrapped up into one

The GuruNanda White Tower XL Diffuser is a way to turn your bedroom into a place of serenity as it is both a humidifier and aromatherapy diffuser in one, and it combines the best of both worlds. Unlike other aromatherapy diffusers, it has a large 2 liter capacity, meaning it can produce mist for up to 12 hours without the constant need to refill.

Regular humidifiers are not made to be used with essential oils. This I know as I have experimented and tried with not great results. But the White Tower diffuser is designed specifically to do both beautifully.

Users get the bonus of better air quality especially during the cold dry winter months along with a pleasant aromatic environment and a variety of wellness benefits, depending on which essential oil or oil blend they choose to use. To relax – yes we all need to try a lavender oil and to lift up your spirits peppermint or orange is a great fit. The GuruNanda White Tower XL diffuser is exclusively available at www.gurunanda.com

Finding Home Farm Candles

If you can’t get out into nature now – bring it home to you with these aromatic scented soy candles that are made from USA-grown soy. I especially like the Cedar Lakes Estate Collection with scents like Lake and Cabin. If you can’t go outside – bring the scents of nature inside to your home. The fragrance oils are phthalate-free, paraben-free and made from a combination of essential oils and cosmetic grade fragrance.

Comfy

Times like these, when you want to be comfortable, take your blanket with you to the couch and simply wear it. The Comfy made famous on the Shark Tank is truly a pleasure to lounge in, and fun for the whole family. It’s cozy, relaxing and will keep you warm. It is an oversized hoodie made from an ultra-soft microfiber exterior, and a luxurious sherpa lined interior. The Comfy comes in both adults and kids sizes. and will simply put a smile on your face while keeping you snug and warm.

– Masada Siegel – Award-winning journalist & photographer

The post 5 Ways to Relax While You Stay Home appeared first on Traveling Archive.