THE LIFESTYLE PAGE

Some changes coming here at the Thumbnail Traveler. Good ones, I hope.

I want to begin building a bit more of the Lifestyle and Travel Destination elements of the site, tying in a number of things including the Chasing Martinis page's content and other aspects of travel above and beyond photographs and vignettes. Things to do and detailed travel reports about adventures to be had.

In that regard you'll start seeing more Lifestyle elements coming to the page. How to live a Traveler's lifestyle even when you're at home. In other words, how to do things that make you feel like life itself is the adventure, and not just leaving that to the two or three weeks a year you can go somewhere.

And so, you'll see some new and at-times surprising content. Martini recipes will start appearing on the Chasing Martinis site. I might include some really cool food recipes here based on a traveler's cuisine. Nothing makes you feel like you're living the lifestyle than preparing and eating exotic cuisine. I'll be adding weekender material, ideas for how you can make short journeys without a lot of expense. Getting out, getting to see the places we live, as a tourist or traveler might see them.

(We've discussed the difference between a tourist and traveler, and it's nicely defined on the picture below. But, as ace travel-maven Rick Steves notes: "Embrace the tourist stuff" when you're in a touristy locale. It's good advice. This particularly applies to your own, local, touristy stuff.)

So stay tuned, it's going to be a series of fine-tunings, not a wholesale change. But stick around, we've got some cool stuff coming up.

COUNTENANCE

Perhaps it's a reflection of the times, but I cannot help but be struck with the scurry of tourists as they shoot their selfies at the foot of one of America's greatest leaders, ignoring the countenance in his face and grandeur of his pose. 

Have they paused, in reverence for the import of his existence and guidance?

Have they read the words above his head? Have they understood the man, and the lessons he still teaches us 150 years after his passing?

At least they got the selfie, which is pretty much their point of view. 

They were here.

Pic of the Day: Sometimes Ya Gotta Be a Tourist

I often comment on going outside the tourist areas to really experience the ambiance of a place, to get your teeth into the true spirit and character of where you are.

But there are times you just have to let go and be a "tourist", in the worst possible sense of the word.

Pic of the Day: The Ugly "Tourists"

I have often remarked upon the difference between a traveler and a tourist. Writer G.K. Chesterton puts it quite succinctly, in fact: "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourists sees what he has come to see."

I have found that it is that kind of "touristy" myopia which leads to some of the unfortunate behavior by some people while they are "on vacation". Some of us are good travelers, while others are ugly tourists.

In the below shot -- taken on Kapalua Beach on the northwest shore of Maui -- is of a bunch of tourists harassing a sea turtle which has wandered up to the shore.

Despite clear signs to stay at least 20 feet from the animals, the man in the baseball cap stood no more than a meter away, constantly shoving a GoPro in the poor creature's face. A crowd of similarly oblivious people gathered to watch.

All of them were repeatedly warned to stay back by a number of other people on the beach, but for at least five minutes this poor turtle was prevented from gaining shore. It was not until someone told them the authorities had been summoned that the majority moved on.

Except for the man with the GoPro and his wife. He stayed right where he was, defiantly arrogant towards anyone who called him off. (I think his character was shown clearly as his wife, the woman in the blue t-shirt, was knocked down repeatedly by the surf and he paid no attention, remaining focussed on bedeviling the turtle.)

I am certain he has shown the video repeatedly to friends, completely unaware of just how brutally offensive his actions were.

Perhaps Chesterton ought to be edited just a bit: "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist pays no attention to anything but himself."

More than the Sum of One

“I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.” 
                                      ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Looking for Adventure

A few days ago one of the many travel-related groups on Facebook asked the question "What was the ONE trip that changed your life?", and it started me to thinking. 

Is a single trip, a single voyage, something you can look at as a complete work of art, or do you view it as simply as another page in a lifelong coloring book of adventures?

While I can readily see many situations in which ONE trip could, indeed, completely change your life -- winning a massive jackpot in Las Vegas; being told by your spouse that they want a divorce in Central Park; being proposed to while boating at the base of Niagara Falls, etc. -- my personal thoughts and approach to travel are much more aligned with the idea that each trip changes you in its own ways, some small, some large. Some in bits and pieces, others in major ways. But looking back at my 2/3 complete life (I hope) and designating any one voyage as the ONE which made a difference? Not so much. If it's an event that would change your life regardless of locale, then it's not the trip that changes you, it's the event. Each expedition is a page of my life, colored in by the textures of the places I've been and experiences I've had

Tourists see, Travelers watch

And that's the key, I think. Differentiating between things in your life which are a direct result of traveling or the destination, versus things which are simply impactful no matter where you happen to be. 

For a trip to change my life it has to be something about the trip itself that is the significant change, otherwise it's merely happenstance that I'm not home at the time it occurs. If my spouse asks for a divorce, does it really matter whether it's in Central Park or the kitchen table? No. 

Winning the lottery at home has just as much impact to my life as winning a massive jackpot in Vegas, though perhaps some of the romanticism is missing. But the long-term effect on your life is essentially the same. 

If, God forbid, you are hit by a car, the result is no less severe in Rome than it is crossing the street down by the neighborhood 7-Eleven or vice-versa. (Okay, insurance-wise it might, but that's an entirely different topic.) But you're still injured and in pain, and still facing a recovery period. WHERE is occurred is less important that the FACT it occurred.

It's a matter of small changes, not big ones

Fundamentally, the way a trip impacts your life -- the way it changes you -- is through the experience and understanding which you've accumulated before coming home. If a single ship voyage convinces you that cruising is the ultimate rewarding experience and you live for the cruise, then, yes, it changed your life. 

If a cup of coffee in a square in Mexico City convinces you to dedicate yourself to finding that next great cup of coffee, then, yes. 

If you've lived in the cute little Route 66 town of Shamrock, Texas your entire life and a drive over Amarillo gives you the blinding realization that you love to explore new places….yep, you're there. The ONE trip that changed your life.

But judging on the whole, looking back perhaps with a different perspective than I would have voiced two decades ago, my life is a tapestry, not a photograph. Photographs freeze a moment in time, while a tapestry tells a story.

My friend James living it up

I've expounded many times on the difference between being a tourist versus being a traveler. Indeed, MANY people have expounded upon this, not the least of whom is travel-maven Rick Steve's. We, and many people, share the philosophy that merely touring something is a passive approach. To really get the flavor of a place you have to dig in, metaphorically as well as literally. Though my wife and I have certainly participated in "tour groups" -- mainly defined as large busses of people arriving at a pre-set display of local furniture making skills or some sort of historic display or district -- we make the best of it and usually wander off on our won. Don't get me wrong: there are times when such trips are worth more than the price of admission, and that's when you know you've got a particularly good tour operator at the helm. (Two immediate examples come to mind: a large bus tour group to the Mayan ruins at Tulum in which we genuinely learned a bit about the culture and were able to see something which we could not, otherwise, have journeyed to in time to return to the ship; and a separate trip in the Sierra Madre to the town of Capala -- also a voyage we could not have done on our own.)

Stop, look, see

(This also pointedly excludes smaller travel groups. We've had several extremely useful small-group tours with between five and ten participants. This is a small enough group for individualized questions and attentions. Plus some flexibility on timing and interests. In one instance we were given a private tour of Vancouver at the end of the tourist season -- after a last-minute cancellation, we were the only people on the tour. The driver essentially looked over his shoulder, shrugged and asked what we wanted to do.)

One of our favorite tours, however, are the hop-on hop-off busses that now line the streets of nearly every large city. They are often the very best way to gather a reasonably quick overview, clicking off those destinations along the way you'd like to get back to and explore in more detail. Then, returning to do exactly that is what constitutes -- in my mind -- the difference between a tourist (who will get off the tour, look around, then take another guided trip) from a traveler (who will take a cab back to that neat little street corner she saw during the tour and stop in a local pub for a pint).

Indulge in the local cuisine

Moving back to the main topic (as my longer-term readers know, I tend to wander from topics, but will eventually get back to them given enough time), it's those quiet moments in the pub or the coffee house or the shop or the vegetable stand or wherever that can really make the most profound impact on the traveler. Those times we interact with the locals, when we make it clear we're here to learn something about them and their way of life, that are the most rewarding. I certainly don't mean from a condescending standpoint. Heaven forbid, that's exactly the OPPOSITE of what I'm saying. I really, honestly mean asking questions -- learning  something about how a dish is prepared; why a thing is done the way it's done; the thoughts that go into a particular work of art; of the attention given the design in a particular fabric and does it have a significance? These are things you learn from. And by sitting and watching the things around you. A cup of coffee or tea, or a glass of wine, while sitting at a little table on the sidewalk can feed you volumes of information as you saturate yourself with the local vibe. 

Burying your head in a laptop or iPad robs you of that input, reduces your visit to a "stop".  Kick back and watch the world go by and you learn a bit about how that world works.

And that's why I have trouble with the concept that a single trip can be the ONE that changes your life. If we view each time out as a source of a new adventure, the addition of a new set of experiences, then there are only rare occasions when a single, solitary trip can be the ONE which changes your life.

But for me, each time I head out the door is an opportunity to explore, to learn, to experience. Even if I'm heading to a familiar destination, I ask myself what I can do to enjoy it and get something out of it that I might not have gotten before. 

Explore

(Last time I went to Phoenix for business the two other guys I was with agreed we would look up "interesting" places to eat rather than the standard business-traveler default of hotel restaurant or the nearby Black Angus. After a little exploration over two nights we ended up at Chino Bandido and Haus Murphy's, two genre-bending eateries that in no way you would find on the regular beaten path. It was our way of making sure the trip was not a generic recreation of something readily available in our home cities.) (Though I was startled to discover that both had been visited by Guy Fieri, the Food Network host. Those kind of odds are, well, odd.)

So, really, when you get down to it no ONE trip has been the one that glaringly changed my life. It has been changed by a mosaic of different experiences over a lifetime of travel. Each one has fueled a thirst for more. I've been atop mountains, under the sea, in the midst of large cities and alone in the desert. I've slept in trailers on the Tundra, and luxury hotels in Las Vegas. Ridden high speed rail in France, and plodded along on a tour bus an Sinaloa, Mexico. Each time I've learned a bit and, as a result, grown as a person (I HOPE!). Each time it has filled in a section of a page of my life's coloring book.

And that's the adventure, at least as far as *I* can tell!

Yes, there are exceptions of a single trip changing the lives for many people, and you might be thinking of one this very instant -- and if so, good for you! How did the trip change you and why? I'd love to know. 

Part of the adventure, not the entirety

Look, Don't Touch!

One of the great pleasures of visiting some destinations is the ability to, in a way, touch history. Whether that touch is physical, metaphorical or imaginary us really an effect of the destination.

For example, it's possible to touch history, stylized and reasonably rose-colored, at places such as Disneyland. Step into the park and be immediately immersed in late nineteenth and early twentieth century imagination. It's a game of let's pretend, but a good one and fun to do. Inauthentic, perhaps, but did the country ever really exist in that spirited Eden from movies like THE MUSIC MAN? Was Paris truly like VICTOR/VICTORIA? No, but that doesn't mean we cant indulge in a bit of nostalgic legerdemain to make world just a bit more fun.

The D'Orsay

For the physical touch, there are such attractions as Williamsburg in Virginia, the California Missions along the West Coast, or a walk through the Vieux Carre in New Orleans. The buildings are genuine, and the historic atmosphere palpable. In Europe the opportunities are even more profound with such places as Notre Dame in Paris or, ancient of ancients, the Colosseum and Forum in Rome. Standing in what was once the audience's viewing stands, your hands resting upon a section of rock which may have once echoed the cheers of some long-forgotten battle is an astounding experience if you take the moment and pause to listen.

But it is the  metaphorical touch that is, at times, the most impactful to an open mind.

Look, don't touch

What do I mean by the phrase "metaphorical touch"? I mean that feeling you get while gazing at an item of antiquity. The Declaration of Independence, visible only through a climate controlled window, for one example. A Faberge Egg in a glass display case for another. Chances are you're not going to be able to rest your mitts directly on either one of those two priceless items, but in your mind you have a specific representation of them both. You know what they represent, and therefore the tactile element isn't necessary to your appreciation of them.

A sight to behold

Many museums, for good reason, maintain policies regarding our interaction with the more fragile items from our collective past. It was our good fortune, recently, to visit two of the best collections of Impressionist art anywhere in the world: The Musees d'Orsay and l'Orangerie in Paris.

Despite the tight relationship between the two venues, I was struck, and a little disappointed, by the policy differences between the two when it came to photographing the exhibition -- or even the museum itself when it came to the d'Orsay.

Certainly the protection of the works must take priority. At no point would it be acceptable -- particularly in this technological world of ours, in which we know precisely what destroys pigment or the physical groundings of a piece -- to allow a practice which is known to damage the art. The majority of museums in the world understand the desire for the viewer to take home a bit of the experience of seeing such great works. In most cases, this means a photograph of the work, taken by cellphone or camera, which can go into a family scrapbook or be shown to friends who would, themselves, salivate at the chance to stand before a van Gogh, or Renoir, or Degas.

Communing with Architecture

Living History (The Vatican)

Unfortunately, as is often the case, the actions of the few dullards among us causes the need for stricter regulations. In this case,the complete prohibition against photography in the d'Orsay. The actions of a handful of patrons -- those who, at some point of their viewing of these great works, decided that the regulation against flash photography did not apply personally but only to others -- have now ruined it for the rest of us. As a photographer...and perhaps even moreso as a fan of great art...I find myself deeply angry with this. My memory of the visit is all I have (unless, of course, I purchase the forty dollar keepsake volume in the museum's store), and those pictures are essentially lost to me for lack of a visual representation.

(I do not, in any way, begrudge the D'Orsay -- or any other museum -- their dime for the book. Art books are excellent investments.)

(As a reasonably honorable photographer, I know I can be relied upon to photograph the works in a non-damaging way. Sadly, based upon experience, I'm in complete agreement that we cannot be trusted as a crowd.)

Art Appreciation Day

But it's our unique ability as a species to want to see these things, to experience them and, yes, to bring a bit of them home with us. To our knowledge, no other animal keeps mementos to help them rediscover, recall something they've experienced. To see a picture, to touch an object, to recall a scent. Things that mean something and somehow comfort us  by reminding us where we've been and where we might want to go next.

This will lead us full circle, the appreciation of history and historic events can be a lot of fun, and it's a way to reconnect with ourselves or our roots or even just our interests. It's that time taken to stop and appreciate that which has gone by that gives us an important perspective. That's the sort of thing that can tell us where we've been...

…and maybe an indication if just how much further we can go.

An actor goes about her character's chores in Colonial Williamsburg