Posts Tagged With: vagabondblogging.com

Rumor Has It?!

Posted on May 4, 2012 by The Vagabonds

Since starting the plans in motion in January, people have been offering all sorts of suggestions of which cities to visit, what sights to see and which restaurants to eat at. A couple weeks ago, a friend from work had taken her students to the school auditorium to listen to an author speak. In a daze between listening to the author of pre-teen books and planning her next lesson, she thought she overheard the author mention an underground city in Seattle. She was quick to pick up her phone and send me a text knowing that Seattle is a stop on our 30 day tour. Just as fast as she sent the text message, she realized, “Whoops, maybe this guy was talking about an underground city that he made up for his books”. So on our way home, she and I looked up Seattle and this rumored underground metropolis. And what do you know… this obscure place does exist!

So a little history of Seattle – apparently, Seattle suffered from a fire, appropriately named The Great Seattle Fire of 1889. This disaster demolished 25 square blocks of the city comprised of mostly wooden buildings.  During reconstruction, they decided to build on top of the devastated land and create the Seattle we know today. That of course is the short version of Seattle’s history, but if you want to know more by all means… It is quite an interesting story. Anyway, a guy named Bill Speidel decided to rediscover what was beneath Seattle’s streets and create tours of the forsaken city, BF (Before Fire). Apparently, Mr. Speidel offers a comedic glimpse into Seattle as it was known prior to 1889 and what the grounds had become AF (After Fire) – illegal gambling, flophouses for the homeless and speakeasies! Thus, he has made his tour a must see as we make our way through this summer!

’til next time… The Vagabonds

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Adventure In A Box

Posted on May 3, 2012 by The Vagabonds

This blog was created from a simple dream and involved traveling cross country by train.  Every single person that we have told about our plans has been intrigued and in some cases even jealous.  The problem is this type of trip can be a bit expensive and requires a lot of time.  Well, have no fear.  We have a way you can get the cross country by train experience for just over $30 and a just under an hour of your time!  How is this possible you ask?  The solution is a great game called Ticket to Ride (PS: This is where we got the name for one of our other posts) where players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn.  Additional points come to those who can fulfill their Destination Tickets by connecting two distant cities, and to the player who builds the longest continuous railway.  A friend of ours is a board game buff (if your reading this you’re well aware of who you are!)and ordered it online.  We played it at his house and it is a very competitive, but fun game that allows you to sabotage your friends progress and then rub their noses in it, which is always a bonus. Now I realize that this might not be what you are looking for in a travel blog and it definitely won’t cure your need for adventure.  With that said, it will provide you with an hour of fun with friends on your weekly game night and sometimes a break in the monotony from your busy work week.  This can be just what you need to get you through the doldrums until you can get a weeks vacation or save up enough coin for your big trip!

’til next time…The Vagabonds

You can purchase “Ticket to Ride” here

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Do You Have a “Pinterest” in Travel?

Posted on May 2, 2012 by The Vagabonds

If you are like me – ultra organized, have lists for everything, and a need to have everything in it’s place – than Pinterest.com is for you! It’s taking me some time to get use to it, but Pinterest is a great way to organize all of your online findings. I’ve been using this virtual pin board as a means to collect all of the restaurants, tourist attractions and important resources I may need as we plan our thirty day adventure. Just the other day, a friend mentioned to me that Seattle has an underground city, offering tours of the metropolis destroyed by a fire. I decided to look it up and immediately pinned the website to my “USA by Train” board. Doing so enabled me to remember a possible site to experience on our venture across the United States. Pinterest has kept all of my travel resources in a central location so that as I am planning and even when we are on our trip, I can simply access my online bulletin board for fabulous restaurants and must see attractions! It is truly amazing where our world is technologically and to even imagine how we survived before such advances!

We’d love to hear your suggestions so feel free to share your thoughts on where to eat and what to do in the cities we are visiting. There is so much to do and see and guidance from those who’ve experienced it all first hand is welcomed! I’ll be sure to pin your suggestions to my virtual bulletin board.

USA by Train – Pinterest

’til next time… The Vagabonds

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Running with the bulls “Rectum”…damn near killed him!

Posted on April 29, 2012 by The Vagabonds

Oddly enough the older I get the more things I want to do and many of them are just plain stupid!  I have never wanted to jump out of an airplane.  My father has always said “the only thing that falls from the sky are bird shit and idiots, and I’m not either!” He also used to say “Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?”  Both, very valid points. But despite his logic and my fear, I would imagine that to say you did it once and lived to tell the tale has to make you a more complete person, right? I always think to the future, when I have grandkids.  I want them to hear my tales of adventure and think “my grandfather really lived life!”  That brings me to the main point of this post. I want to run with the Bulls in the worst of ways! Now before I go on, I know it can be extremely dangerous and fool hardy, not to mention cruel to the bull, but lets put all that aside for a minute.  I mean we are talking about adventure here! I mean, it was one of Hemmingway’s many exploits and he was a world renowned adventurer.  I realize I may be romanticizing this a bit, but I can’t help it. In all reality, when I think about doing it I feel I don’t have the stones, but nonetheless the mere idea haunts me and I want to get up the courage so bad.  Maybe I could run for a few hundred feet and then jump back into the crowd safe and sound? Regardless of whether or not I ever do it, the idea of adventure is coursing through my veins (Notice I said “my”, not “ours”.  That’s because Crystle clearly has more sense then I do and will cheer, but definitely not run.) If you have ever, want to, or plan to run in Pamplona, let me know.  I need someone to discuss this crazy obsession with.  I need somebody to tell me  I’m not crazy or alone.  Thanks

til’next time…The Vagabonds

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“Travel Like A Human”

Posted on April 29, 2012 by The Vagabonds

You may be wondering how do the Vagabonds plan on traveling for thirty days and afford to stay in beautiful accommodations in the heart of America’s most beautiful (and expensive) cities? The answer is AirBnB.com. What is it you ask? AirBnb lets people rent out extra rooms, apartments, houses or space – anywhere in the world! Sound strange to you? Sure, I can see that but let’s crunch the numbers.

I found the average cost of a hotel room in each of the cities we are visiting. To do this, I found the cost of a room at a Marriott and a Travel Lodge hotel (figured I’d go with a pricerhotel and a budget hotel) and calculated the average cost. The total for us to stay in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angels & San Antonio would be $2,296! I know you are thinking that sounds like a lot of money but that’s where AirBnB comes in.

To stay in the same cities for the same amount of time, AirBnB.com will be providing us with top notch accommodations of our choosing, in the heart of those cities at a fraction of the cost. Total cost using AirBnB.com, $1,201! That’s a savings of over a thousand dollars!

Now some of you might say, “I don’t want to stay in a room in someone’s house” or “I’m ok going the cheap route and staying at the Travel Lodge”. Our response, the places, including the rooms in someone’s house, are nicer than most hotels, including the Marriott. Part of our adventure is to meet new people, to talk to people who live in these wonderful cities, and have incredible stories to share with you!

Stay tuned throughout the summer for updates and pictures of all the places we’ll be laying our heads to rest.

’til next time… The Vagabonds

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