- Life & Leisure > *Life & Leisure F1 > TCD Traveler: Fall deals and steals
- October 17th, 2010
- |
- By Robert Bundy
- (0)Comments
- |
- Archives and RSS feed for Robert Bundy
TCD Traveler: Fall deals and steals
|
Timber Ridge Lodge Lobby, courtesy of Robert Bundy
Timber Ridge Lodge & Waterpark Announces Fall Specials
Timber Ridge Lodge & Waterpark just announced a bushel of new fall family activities. Park your car in the lot and leave it, as there is a ton of fun things to do all within walking distance of the lodge itself, including haunted hayrides through Sleepy Hollow, a petting zoo, horseback trail rides, boat cruises, fun dining options, activity rooms, a full arcade, and of course, a terrific indoor water park.
My wife and I visited Timber Ridge recently with our two-year-old son and had an unqualified blast. Many water parks don’t bother wasting their real estate on catering to the tiny tots, but Timber Ridge set aside a very nice area for very small children with four different slides, falls, fountains and more. There were also genuinely terrifying slides for big kids (and adults with Peter Pan complexes who shall remain nameless).
And if you exhaust the multitude of fun options at Timber Ridge Lodge, a nifty trolley/shuttle stands ready to whisk you up the hill to the nearby Grand Geneva, which has its own distinct pleasures. This weekend the fall colors in Lake Geneva will likely be at their very height. For more information visit Timber Ridge online.
Zen Class Nirvana Organizer via Zen Class Travel
GearWatch: Zen Class Nirvana Organizer – $39.99
I don’t know about you, but I take a lot of odds and ends with me on long flights, including magazines, laptop, smartphone, iPod, lucky rabbit’s foot, etc. And if I’m traveling with my family, the list doubles to also include my wife’s stuff, and any number of toddler-friendly diversions for our son, including toys and books and bottles and snacks and… you get the idea.
So the Zen Class Nirvana Organizer has made my in-flight life a good deal easier. It folds into a tiny tote, but opens up to display everything I need on the flight, all in a compact package bristling with pockets and sleeves for easy storage. Even better, it’s designed to hang onto the back of a tray table, seat back or attach to the arms of a baby stroller, so everything falls neatly to hand. And when you go to disembark, you just slip it off, fold it in half, and sling it over your shoulder.
Thankfully, I will never again have to dig deep into the sticky, crumb-encrusted recesses of an airline seatback pocket in search of a missing pacifier.
Juniperfest on Washington Island
Say, do you like to drink? Do you take pleasure in the fiery majesty of fall? Ever felt oddly compelled to skip through a farm field picking Juniper berries with a group of strangers, but have always been too shy to express your interest for fear of ridicule? Then this is the outing for you. On Sunday, November 7, Death’s Door Spirits is once again having their annual Juniperfest on beautiful Washington Island, and you can join the happy, collegial gathering of handsome outdoorsy types for a fun weekend of helping bring in the juniper berry harvest that helps create the tasty Death’s Door Gin.
Afterward, celebrate with a fabulous feast at the historic Washington Inn. If only all agritourism was this much fun. For more information, check out the Death’s Door website or RSVP here
Madison: On The Town iPhone App
New iPhone App: Madison on the Town
For years, visitors to Madison roamed the streets looking for food in vain. Unable to find a knowledgeable guide to the area’s restaurants, many were immobilized by indecision, and perished from starvation. Selfless humanitarian, Madison native and TCD Traveler contributor Kevin Revolinski has just released a brand-spanking new iPhone app that tells you everything you need to know about dining out in the State Capitol.
Now you can know where all the best happy hours are, find the hip coffeehouse with free Wi-Fi, and locate the to-die-for gourmet meals, all for a mere $1.99. To learn more about this goodie-packed piece of software and virtually follow Kevin to the literal ends of the Earth, visit his website at http://www.themadtraveleronline.com.
Trouble Bruin
After last week’s inaugural travel feature on the Grand Tetons, one reader wrote in with a key question about dealing with local wildlife.
Q: You mentioned encounters with bears in your feature story Fire and Renewal in The Grand Tetons . I’d love to visit there, but the thought of bears makes me nervous. Are there any precautions I can take for safety?
–Can’t Bear It
A : It is strongly recommended that you carry a bottle of bear spray if you go strolling through the park one day. You might be taken by surprise– or more accurately you might accidentally startle a bear and prompt a defensive attack. The rangers call that a “Kodiak moment.” (No, they don’t.) But the repellent is very effective. It’s not cheap—thirty bucks a canister– but worth every penny. I don’t recommend this, but many visitors sensibly buy them during their stay, and then can’t take them home on the airplanes when they leave, so hotels tend to have a nice supply of recently abandoned canisters of spray, each one typically tested only once so they know how to fire it properly.
Be warned, however, that these sprays do eventually expire and lose their effectiveness, and you really shouldn’t use anything other than a brand new bottle of bear spray. The best bear avoidance strategy, however, is to simply be the average American tourist: make a lot of noise as you go, talk in a loud booming voice, clap your hands once in awhile, or sing (bears loathe show tunes). The bears will know you’re coming, roll their eyes, and clear out before you are even aware of them.
–Robert Bundy, Travel Editor
