Valentine’s Day

Raoul

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Peter Paul of S. Pasadena, CA  for sharing this joke.

Rodney’s Puns

Sent by Rodney of Manitoba, B.C.

Funny Video: Sad Valentines

Thanks to Maling of Caloocan City, Philippines for sharing this video

Wow! Video: 30,000 Car Donation

Thanks to Don of Kelowna, B.C. for sharing this video

Thought-Provoking Video: How to Keep Your Brain Healthy

Thanks to Choy of Quezon City, Philippines for sharing this video. Watch only if you have time. It’s 30 minutes long.

Parting Shot

Thanks to Naomi who sent this joke.

The post Overcoming the Fear of Flying appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Seven Sweet Vancouver Valentine’s Day Ideas 2019

Love is in the air! In need of a few ideas for Valentine’s Day this year? Don’t stress, we’ve got you covered. Here is a list of seven Vancouver Valentine’s Day date night ideas for you and your special someone.

Meet the Woman Who Helped Book Hotel Rooms for 80 Homeless People in Freezing Chicago

11 Etiquette Rules You Probably Didn’t Realize You Should Follow When Flying

Courtesy Carina Wolff

When it comes to traveling, most of us spend our time trying to figure out what to pack and what our itinerary looks like. With all that hustle and bustle, we can sometimes get so caught up in ourselves that we forget some etiquette rules to follow when flying. Spending long hours in a cramped space can cause some sticky situations, but if you’re doing your best to be courteous and polite, you’ll help yourself and everyone have around you have a more enjoyable journey. Plus, you would want everyone else to act the same, right?

LA Road Trippin’ – A Musical Map of Los Angeles

Courtesy Air New Zealand

When you think of Los Angeles, it’s easy to imagine sun-drenched streets, impossibly-beautiful people – and, of course, great music. This is a guide to the top musical hotspots in LA which continue to inspire today’s musicians, from areas which launched rap superstars to the cities which have inspired thousands of great songs.

If you’re flying to LA, take some time out to explore its musical history and get closer to the places which inspired the music you love.

Paul McCartney’s Lost ‘Bruce McMouse Show’ Film Heading to Theaters

By Jon Blistein/RollingStone

The Bruce McMouse Show opens with Wings performing “Big Barn Bed,” after which the camera travels through the stage into an animated world where the McMouse family lives. While Bruce McMouse shares stories from his past with his family, his son runs in and informs him that Wings are currently playing right above them. Bruce decides that the band needs his help as a producer, and as the concert continues, a host of animated mice flock to the stadium to enjoy the show.

The Coolest New Things Coming to America This Year

Courtesy Thrillist Travel

As a species, we are forever enamored of new things. As we look ahead to what 2019 will bring, we at Thrillist get particularly hyped about what new attractions we can expect.

How to Meditate

Courtesy David Gelles

Meditation is a simple practice available to all, which can reduce stress, increase calmness and clarity and promote happiness. Learning how to meditate is straightforward, and the benefits can come quickly. Here, we offer basic tips to get you started on a path toward greater equanimity, acceptance and joy.

A Taste of Iceland

Courtesy Tony Tedeschi, Never Stop Traveling

Burping Is Good Manners & 25 Other Global Etiquette Surprises

Courtesy The Daily Meal Staff

In Italy, Never Order A Cappuccino After A Meal

When you’re dining the Italian way, be sure to order an espresso or a coffee after a meal. Do not order a cappuccino, as Italians believe milk beverages slow down digestion.

8 Popular Destinations Where Air Pollution Could Ruin Your Trip

Air pollution does a lot more than cause canceled or postponed vacations — it kills millions of people worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization. Some of the worst places for air pollution are also home to bucket-list-worthy sights. But missing them might be the least of your problems if smog ramps up during your visit: Symptoms of air pollution sickness include nausea, coughing, headache, itchy eyes — and air pollution can cause long-term breathing problems.

Here are some of the worst destinations for smog, especially if you already suffer from asthma or other respiratory problems.

India

The Taj Mahal attracts thousands of travelers every day, but the city it’s in is one of the worst in the world for air pollution.

Beatle Beat Trivia Answers

Question: Paul McCartney is gifted with a remarkably high tenor vocal range. Which performance features Paul’s highest modal (non falsetto) vocal note in a Beatles recording?

Answer: In the last line of “Oh! Darling” Paul hits an astonishing High D above High C.

Live the Dream on a Romantic Adventure in Africa with African Travel, Inc.

There’s nothing more magnificent than celebrating a special romantic occasion in Africa. Whether you’re planning a honeymoon, wedding or anniversary, you’ll experience the romantic trip of your dreams with African Travel, Inc. by touching an ancient culture, discovering the magic of the wild and relaxing in spectacular luxury.

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Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-earned break after distributing organic dog biscuits to a series of illegal puppy mills in Wyoming.

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

MORE Dog Quotations

Lovebirds Fly to NYC and Los Angeles for Valentine’s Day
Americans Traveling Internationally Choose Mexico and Canada for Romantic Getaways

New York City and Cancun reign supreme as the most popular domestic and international romantic destinations for Valentine’s Day travel in 2019, with NYC claiming the top spot for the third year running and Cancun for the fifth year in a row.

MORE

Question: Paul McCartney is gifted with a remarkably high tenor vocal range. Which performance features Paul’s highest modal (non falsetto) vocal note in a Beatles recording?

Scroll down for the answer

Martin Scorsese’s Film on Bob Dylan’s ‘Rolling Thunder Revue’ To Be Released

By Chris Willman, courtesy Variety

Netflix describes Scorsese’s look at Dylan and famous friends in ’75 as part documentary, part concert movie and part “fever dream.”

For years, rumors have circulated among Bob Dylan fans that a documentary about his legendary, star-studded “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour of 1975-76 was in the works, and occasional whispers had a name attached: Martin Scorsese. Now, the cat can come officially out of the bag. Variety has exclusively learned that Netflix plans to release the movie in 2019, with the director’s name actually in the title: “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.”

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Revolutionize Your Healthy Travel Game

Courtesy Well and Away

Traditional guidebooks are handy for learning about museums and city landmarks. But would you ever reach for one to explore a new city like a local?

We had this challenge, and for years traveled with bookmarked pdfs and digital lists from friends, but the research that went into curating the perfect itinerary that balanced cool hidden gems with healthy destinations. So together with a small team of travelers, designers and wellness junkies, I’ve created Well + Away to offer the guidebook of the future: one that will show you a new city from the point of view of a hip-healthy local.

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Typical French Restaurant Vocabulary: How to Order in Paris

Words and Phrases You’ll Need to Eat Out

Courtesy Courtney Traub

Are you a bit nervous about eating out in Paris or elsewhere in France, worried you may not be able to get by without fluent French? Use this guide to learn basic expressions and understand most signs and menu headings at restaurants in Paris.

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15 Surprising Things TSA Allows Past Airport Checkpoints

By Benet Wilson

Some items — like guns (real or replica), large scissors and flammable liquids — are never allowed. But the agency continues to make changes when it comes to what can get past the checkpoint.

Below are 15 surprise items you can actually take past the checkpoint. But in case you still have questions, you can take a photo of the item and send it to either AskTSA on Facebook Messenger or via Twitter. Staff are online with answers from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET during the week and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends and holidays

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A Supermarket in California

By Allen Ginsberg

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.

         In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
         What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

         I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
         I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
         I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you, and followed in my imagination by the store detective.
         We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.

         Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?
         (I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)
         Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we’ll both be lonely.
         Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
         Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?

Berkeley, 1955

Allen Ginsberg, “A Supermarket in California” from Collected Poems 1947-1980. Copyright © 1984 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Send Deb your favorite travel poems

The post Vancouver Valentines, Flight Etiquette, Romantic Africa appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Last Wednesday was Valentine’s Day. Miraculously, I was able to pull it off again. My wife felt special and said she really enjoys Valentine’s Day because every year I manage to “hit it out of the ballpark.” She said that she can’t wait for next year’s surprise.

I don’t know if I should be glad or worried. You see, every year I try to come up with something unusual. Last year, I organized the men in our “Couples Group” to sing “Unforgettable” and read our Love Cards. The wives loved it and the men scored high that day. I don’t remember what I did the year prior to that but I do remember some of the others:

• One year I arranged for a traveling choir of women to sing her Love Songs at her place of work where she was the envy of her office mates
• Another year, when the kids were little, I woke her up in the middle of a chilly night, arranged for a babysitter and we had a warm breakfast of baked potato at a new all-night Wendy’s Hamburger chain
• Many years in a row before Pandora and Spotify, I would prepare audio CDs of her favorite music
• One of our very first Valentine’s evenings, we watched a movie dressed in the same shocking red and white collared T-shirts. Everyone was staring so we were so self conscious we ran to the parking lot to escape their chuckles.

Valentine’s Day Painting

Last Wednesday I posted a painting I had done that hangs in our bedroom. The painting was no surprise to her but it was a surprise for everyone else. She got so many likes and teasing from her Facebook (about 100) friends that she came home in very high spirits.

So here I am, post Valentine’s Day, and already fearing the next year. I should be so lucky, huh? I know she will appreciate whatever I give her … at least that’s what she says … but you know women — what they say and what they really mean can be entirely different. It’s “Clint Eastwood (aka Dirty Harry) time”— “Go ahead … make my day!” We all know she really wants me to do something even more special. That bar keeps getting more and more unreachable.

I’m a dead man walking.

So, how was your Valentine’s Day? Did YOU (men) “make her day?” Did YOUR MAN (women) make YOUR day?”

“The one thing we can never get enough of is LOVE. And the one thing we can never give enough of is LOVE.”
—  Henry Miller (Thanks to Nancy of Pasadena who sent this quote)

TGIF people!

February 16, 2018

Two Times

Contributed by Charlie of New Jersey

TGIF Videos

Illegal Immigrant Proposal in Subway
Sent by Charrie of Virginia

Someone tell me this guy’s just kidding. You single women out there, he’s a good catch! A proper slave!

WATCH VIDEO

Police Scared of Mouse
Sent by Art of Sierra Madre, CA

Here’s a quick video. Just gives you that confidence in our government issued protectors, doesn’t it?

WATCH VIDEO

Parting Shot

Thanks to Don of Kelowna, B.C. who shared this photo

Parting Shot 2

Thanks to Scott of Deerfield, New Hampshire who shared this photo

The footsteps that a child follows are usually the ones the parent thought they covered up.
— Anonymous

The post There Are Two Times Men Do Not Understand Women appeared first on Traveling Archive.

All the hopes and feelings you have felt all of your life in regards to love will never stop unless you put on YOUR BRAKES! Your hopes, dreams, thoughts and feelings that you have for your soul mate will continue your entire life. And, if you’re lucky your appreciation and the intimacy you share will not subside, but it will only deepen if you don’t turn off your mojo machine!

It takes energy to stay connected and it is most certainly a choice all of us can make. However, if you carry grudges and are angry (just for anger’s sake) you can sabotage your relationship BIG TIME. All of us have garbage and knowing that carrying it on your back will keep you from connecting with your mate and almost anyone you can name. If you’re IN IT for the long haul because you finally realize that dragging all those DEAD BODIES AROUND just doesn’t work, you’re on the right track!

It’s important to be PRESENT when you come home from work. Turning off the distractions that can interfere with the little time we actually get to spend together is critical. Wearing blinders that keep you focused at home has a huge payoff. Knowing that your mate is actively listening to you is a gift! People want to be heard and understood, but if you’re on the phone, watching or playing something, you aren’t engaged at all… you’re unavailable.

Pretending that its 1945 all over again works wonders. (T.V. wasn’t in all homes yet!!) That means, no T.V. or games, and turning off your phone is wise. Never miss an opportunity to engage with your mate because one of you will die before the other and it’s no fun losing your mate. There will be silence when you try this and that’s okay. But practicing this even one night a week will change your life in ways that you can’t even imagine.

Also, remembering that the first four minutes you spend with ANYONE will dictate the quality of the time you spend together. Making eye contact and smiling with business associates is a good start away from home. Holding your mate in your arms for 30 seconds produces endorphins in your brain and it’s a feeling like no other and you don’t need alcohol or drugs for that.

I am a curious person and I enjoy asking friends and family questions about growing up because that part of our lives is always there for us to tap into. Everyone has a story to tell and all of them are worth talking about and one leads to another. Doing this will tap into your inner child, and your child always wants to come out and play. Remember how it felt when you knocked on the door of a friend’s house and asked, “Can Jane or Jack come out to play?”

It is important to make yourself happy because that’s actually your job, not someone else’s. Waiting for your mate to come home and make you happy is a trap and if it feels like a trap, it is a trap. Everyone needs some time to come in for a landing after working all day particularly if they have a long drive home. That’s why a hug when your partner walks through the door is so important.

“Coming down” from work takes time, and men and women do that differently. A women will begin thinking about what she has to do around the house on her way home and men think about how they’re going to relax. Helping each other make dinner can be a fun thing and that leaves more time for both of you to relax later on.

Finding someone who is your friend first and not becoming intimate too quickly, makes for a stronger relationship in the end. After all, you get out of a thing what you put into it. Couples have to keep falling in love all over again and again. One of the best ways I know how to do that is to sit across the table from your mate and remember what attracted you to one another in the first place! I think it’s worth the time and energy to change up things a little because it may get your mojo working again. Try it, you might like it!

The post Here Comes Valentine’s Day appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The tradition of proffering offerings of love on Valentine’s Day goes all the way back to the early 1400s. During the Victorian era, chocolate became the confection of choice for a Valentine’s Day offering with many believing it contained aphrodisiac properties. Others thought that the Valentine chocolate phenomenon was just a clever scheme developed by confectioners to promote products in the seasonal lull between Christmas and Easter.

The story of chocolate begins thousands of years B.C. in the regions we now know as Southern Mexico and Central America. The ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations discovered and cultivated a tree bearing unusual fruit with vibrant colors that produced seeds so valuable that it was considered to be a gift from the gods.

It was the cacao tree. Their passion for the cacao seed/bean was unprecedented. The value of the cacao bean as a commodity reached new heights under the Aztec Empire, particularly with the ruling class. Consumed in a cold, bitter liquid form, the Aztec emperor, Montezuma, was known to drink up a 100 cups per day.

When Christopher Columbus and Spanish explorers returned from their first exploration to the “New World” they introduced the Spanish royalty to this unique bean. The Spanish added sugar, making the beverage more palatable. The cacao bean soon spread across Europe. Now referred to as chocolate or cocoa, it remained an aristocratic nectar until Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten in 1828 invented the cocoa press, which revolutionized chocolate-making.

In 1847, British chocolate company J.S. Fry & Sons created the first solid edible chocolate (or “eating chocolate”) from cocoa butter, cocoa powder and sugar. At that time, it was very expensive and out of the reach of most people. The Industrial Revolution enabled the chocolate industry to grow and flourish, making it affordable to the general populace.

The tradition of giving chocolates on Valentine’s Day can be traced to Richard Cadbury, of the English chocolate-making family, who “invented” the first Valentine’s Day candy box during the Victorian era. The Victorians, who fancied decorating cards with plump cupids shooting arrows of love, later transferred the image to the lids of heart-shaped boxes filled with dreamy combinations of silken chocolates.

Today, it is estimated that more than 58 million pounds of chocolate candy will be sold in the U.S during Valentine’s week, valued at $448 million.

The post Chocolates for Valentine’s Day appeared first on Traveling Archive.