travel planning

penny on June 21, 2012

Summer boldly announced its arrival here in the North East this week. While I have little desire to leave the naturally cool sanctuary that is my basement office/studio, my wanderlust is quite strong and thankfully isn’t fulfilled by distance traveled, but by new experiences.

Sometimes it’s simple enough to mix things up and break the routine to make it feel like an adventure. How? We try to find an alternate route to the grocery store or I’ll run one of my routes in the opposite direction from my general habit. The new perspective is refreshing.

At other times more needs to be done and we try for a Sunday adventure. There are tons of websites offering advice on road trips long and short– the internet has completely changed what is an off-beat attraction and how to get there. I love the integration of information and maps even if I do miss the hours spent sitting on the floor (or the bed) surrounded by messy piles of research materials and notes.

I don’t have a specific destination or trip in mind, but I’m having fun exploring and imagining the possibility of the new site Road Tripper. I wish I had thought to plan ahead and check a recent short excursion on the Weather Channel’s Trip Planner, bringing a sweater would have been nice. I still virtually turn to The New York Times Travel section and refer to various general travel books. For local events and things to do, I find that I’m turning often to the local Patch.

What resources and websites do you turn to for help planning your next adventure?

it’s in the air

penny on November 27, 2007

Well, the desire to go travel that’s true, but I either seem to manage first impressions really well, or Foo them up incredibly and burn that bridge miles before I’ve even gotten to it. It seems that the majority of my mess ups are for those scenarios that are in a mixed casual/business setting and with women old enough to be my sister (meaning between my age and 20 years beyond that). I also need to think before I jump in and email (or talk), I tend to let words out first and my brain catches up on the implications a few hours later. Bleah. It just added to my Monday.

Anyway, travel is definitely in the air, so I thought I’d link to a few maps that have caught my eye recently (though not all relate to travel). I warned you earlier that posting will be light these next few weeks. Sorry!

From Gothamist the subway, reduced. I find this very beautiful, a bit frightening if I think too hard of the inner details, but simple and pleasant to look at.

From information aesthetics, Paula Scher artistic maps. I am worried my brain my plotz if I try to quatify the amount of information bombarded at me each day.

From Strange Maps historical Courses of the Mississippi.

From information aesthetics an epidemiological disease visualization. Because I haven’t slept much recently, I might as well keep you up too. ;)

From Strange Maps a simplified map of London. Wonder what NYC looks like given Manhattanites are the highest paid. (we live in Brooklyn)