Starling Travel

Whenever I write an entry about an obscure place in Salt Lake City, I get email from people who are homesick for Utah. I can understand how they feel. Sometimes it feels like even the sunshine here is different than the places I’ve visited.

Whether you’re homesick for Utah or curious about what makes it so interesting, this new walking video is for you. You will enjoy a relaxing walk through the Sugarhouse shopping district, in Salt Lake City.

I created this video for Starling Fitness so you could watch it while walking on a treadmill or riding an exercise bike, but it is also a relaxing vacation in a DVD that you can pop into your player whenever you’re feeling trapped at home.

This video is a little less than three minutes, but it gives you an idea of what you will see.

You can see the route I walked here:

Total Mileage: 2.18 miles
Average Speed: 2.8 mph
Time: 47:00 Minutes

The DVD is shipped via U.S. mail.

To buy the Sugarhouse Walk video for $5.00 (including shipping and handling) click here:

Order Starling Fitness Walking Videos Here

Molly, from molly.com, travels to Oahu, Hawaii regularly, but this trip was a little different:

• molly.com » Aloha, Hawaii

An environmental disaster and a navigation mix-up took her to a side of Hawaii that she had never seen before.

“As beautiful as Hawaii is, as often as I will come here again to enjoy the beauty and hospitality of the islands and the many warm people who live here, I will never, ever forget the experiences I had this time around. They opened my eyes to many things, things I probably would rather have never experienced or seen, but that I’m grateful for nonetheless.”

Next time you plan a trip, make sure you allow time to get lost or learn more about the intimate details of the area. You might just have a vacation that you’ll never forget.

Via: Meriblog: Meri Williams’ Weblog » links for 2006-07-22

Meri Williams comments on how much she loves Amsterdam:

• Meriblog: Meri Williams’ Weblog » I Love Amsterdam

This trip, she was only able to stop off at Schiphol Airport, but even a simple layover at the airport was enjoyable. Enjoy her photos here: Meri Williams’ Bucharest Trip.

Amsterdam was one of those cities that was only mentioned in passing when people talked about legalizing marijuana. Every since the city sponsered Bloggers in Amsterdam, it seems that it has much more to offer than hash without prison.

This video is almost 25 minutes long. It is a Disney film made about Disneyland and shows Walt Disney’s ideas for his new amusement park, The Epcot Center. It shows Disneyland as it was in the early sixties. If you went to Disneyland as a child and are shocked to see how different it is today, this video is great for reminiscing.

I spent all of last week reminiscing about Lagoon, a Utah amusement park. The old photographs reminded me of how excited I was to go to Lagoon as a child. You can see the series here:

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 1 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 2 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 3 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 4 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 5 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 6 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 7 of 7)

It’s strange for me to go to Lagoon as an adult and not see the Lagoon of my past. In most respects, the park is far better than it was when I was a child, but my eyes still see the ghosts of the past. I think to myself, “The slides used to be here. The fun house used to be there.” I can’t walk along the pathways without remembering the Lagoon of my youth.

Today is Utah’s Pioneer Day. It’s also called Days of ’47. Really, us locals just call it July 24th. For me, it’s just an excuse to fly a Utah flag and set off some fireworks. Here are some resources if you would like to know more:

• About.com – Utah’s Pioneer Day

• Days of 47 Rodeo

• Events – 2006 — Days of 47

I spent so many summers in Billings, Montana instead of Salt Lake that Pioneer Day feels like a gratuitious holiday. I remember working at K-Mart and listening to the other checkers complaining that they had to work on July 24th. It seemed perfectly logical to me because K-Mart isn’t a Utah-based company. The idea that we would get paid for a local holiday never even crossed my 16-year old mind, yet all those checkers were eager to complain at the injustice.

Next time you’re planning a trip in July, you might want to consider bringing your family to Salt Lake City, Utah for July 24th. There are parades, fireworks, and women dressed up like Laura Ingalls. Afterward, you can take the kids to Lagoon, which is almost as good as Busch Gardens. Okay, the more I talk about this idea the worse it sounds to me. Let’s try again…

If you like setting things on fire, you should move to Salt Lake City, because we allow fireworks TWICE during the month of July. Of course, there’s always Wyoming…

Mike Moon went to the Canadian Aviation Expo the last week in June. This video is a perfect representation of an airshow.

Watch your newspapers and keep your eyes open. An airshow probably comes to your town every year. For just the price of admission, you can have a vacation in your own backyard.

Friday Five is a group of journal prompts that you can use every week to write about things in your life. Back on June 9th, they asked about vacations.

• thefridayfive: Friday Five for 06.09.06

I love some of the answers people gave:

“I want to visit Thailand and just be free to explore the country on my own. It’s a little bit cliche but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

“I want to do this huge road trip. Every state in the US (excluding Hawaii & Alaska).”

“My dream vacation: to work my way from New York to San Francisco, taking 6 months to do it and stopping off in loads of different places.”

I tend to go to the same places over and over without thinking about other places to go. I go to Billings, Montana to visit my grandpa. I go to San Diego and San Francisco to visit my friends and I go to Vegas for a quick getaway.

These questions from Friday Five have really gotten me thinking about different things.

• What is (or would be) your dream vacation?
• What’s one thing no vacation can do without?
• What has been the best trip of your life so far?
• Who was with you on that trip and what is the role of that person in your life?
• What’s the worst thing that can happen during a vacation?

How would you answer these questions?

Jonny Goldstein is from New York, but he traveled to Brunswick, Ohio and got his first taste of The Midwest Jello Pretzel Salad. He shared his experience with us.

Bonnie Nelson was nice enough to explain the details to him:

“It’s just your basic midwest doncha know yeah sure cookin’.”

“What makes this thing a hit is the salty with the sweet thing goin’ on.”

Jello is a popular dish here in Utah, but I have never seen this pretzel salad. I guess it hasn’t gotten over to the Mormons yet. It sure looks delicious, though.

Wil Wheaton played in the World Series of Poker and documented his trip to Vegas from Los Angeles.

• WWdN: In Exile: like a skillet full of oil spits rattling on the burner.

I love what he says about a drive to Las Vegas:

“As my friend Ryan observed last week, the drive from Los Angeles to Vegas is ‘the perfect length for a mini-roadtrip, long enough to feel you’re actually getting somewhere, short enough that nobody gets restless in the car.'”

A drive to Vegas from SLC is the same. It’s the perfect roadtrip distance.

If you have a craving for a roadtrip, read this story from Wil Wheaton. You’ll almost feel like you took the trip yourself.