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May

Travel Adventures in the Friendly(?) Skies

by Meredith Mullins on May 15, 2017

Plane flying through clouds, offering travel adventures and air travel stories of the memorable kind. (Image © Artem Tryhub/iStock.)

Travel adventures of the aerial kind
© Artem Tryhub/iStock

Air Travel Stories to Remember

Air travel customer disasters have peppered the news lately.

A passenger was dragged off an overbooked United flight, a fist fight erupted between two Southwest Airlines passengers, a woman was hit with her baby’s stroller as an American Airlines flight attendant tried to wrestle it away from her. The flight attendant later said “Bring it on” to a passenger who tried to intervene on the woman’s behalf.

We tend to remember the horror stories—the headline makers as well as the travel adventures we have suffered through personally. Read more...

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Adventure Travel/Africa/Nepal/Rides (Land, Sea, Air)/USA

May

All Aboard for Aha Moments!

by Joyce McGreevy on May 9, 2017

The Amtrak Station in Salinas, California leads to aha moments, thanks to Trails & Rails, a partnership with the National Park Service. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Catch a train in Salinas, a town made famous by John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden.
© Joyce McGreevy

Time-Traveling on Trails & Rails

Unsteadily hiking the path, I meet a National Park Service guide. She tells me that “Spanish explorers traveled this historic California trail, named for Juan Bautista De Anza.” This was the land of the Chumash, Pima, and Quechan peoples. Wait—I’m in a moving train. But as I’ll discover, I’m “right on track” for aha moments.

“Believe it or not, you’re in a national park right now,” says guide Kathy Chalfant, as the Coast Starlight rolls southward. We’re following California’s coast and time-traveling to the 1700s. Oh, I see: Sometimes a train commute becomes a journey into history. Read more...

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Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Rides (Land, Sea, Air)/USA

Mar

Different Cultures Share a Supermarket Dream

by Meredith Mullins on March 6, 2017

Man with shopping cart at La Louve, the new Paris food co-op that unites different cultures. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

La Louve: A Paris Food Co-op Innovation

You wouldn’t expect a supermarket to grab newspaper headlines. But La Louve, a new food co-op in Paris, has been doing just that.

What makes it newsworthy? It’s the first cooperative supermarket in Paris—a social experiment where members are responsible for the direction and daily functioning of the enterprise.

It has the added unique quality of being modeled after an American food co-op and creatively sculpted to work in France. An intriguing blend of different cultures. Read more...