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Category: travel

April 28, 2019

Offbeat Photo Moments from our London Vacation

If you’re expecting iconic London photography, there’s nothing more to see here. If you’re hoping for something a little different, well then… I might have something for you. Unique or throwaway? You decide!

My family and I have recently returned from a week’s vacation in London, and yes, I snapped more than a few pictures along the way. As part of my little photographic exercise, I also attempted something a little different…

In addition to finding iconic shots as well as any number of family selfies, I tried to also observe our London experience using a different eye. So, I took a few photos that represented the story of our trip from an alternate perspective… imagery that you might easily miss (as well as a few that were entirely impossible to ignore).

These offbeat moments were right in front of us. I just had to open my eyes a bit wider or turn my head in a different direction to spot them…

Sunrise at Heathrow Airport
When you’re walking off the jetway at 6am after your seven-hour flight, you’re probably not taking the time look out the window towards the airport. Well, you should… a sunrise is beautiful just about anywhere!

Kensington Gardens
As I experienced a little jet lag on our first morning, I stumbled through Kensington Gardens on a cloudy day. Then, suddenly this moment presented itself. My vacation had officially begun!

The Elphin Oak
I found this delightful sculpture filled with fairies, elves and animals at the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Playground.

British MuseumDon’t forget to look up! This skylight ceiling bathed visitors with blue-cast sunlight seemingly from an alternate reality.

The London EyeWhile everyone else was looking up and over London, this reverse view down was really cool.

Cutty Sark
For me, viewing the hull of this restored 19th century clipper ship from this angle was the true highlight.

Tower of London
Sure, everyone races to see the Crown Jewels. But the Tower of London tour also houses many other treasures, including the opportunity for my third grader to get close to chainmail armor.

Hungry Raven
My son spotted this peculiar moment as this hungry Tower of London guardian tried to figure out how to get inside an already-open Pringles can.

Tower Bridge
I got the complete view by looking up to look down.

Lock Hatters
My father visited this iconic hat store on St. James’s Street 60 years ago and recommended I stop by and ask if they remembered him. While I stopped short of asking the very proper salesman to check their records, I did FaceTime my dad while we were walking through Lock Hatters and facilitated a reunion of sorts.

The View on St. James’s Street
This view had a timeless feel. So I quickly pulled out my iPhone XS Max to capture the image.

Ceiling at King’s Cross Station
The grafting of this ceiling extension using such a modern design onto this old structure is both radical and brilliant.

Chilly Night by the Thames
A hot chocolate street vendor provided some additional heat to help this pop-up café also serve as a warming station.

Silent Disobedience
This doesn’t appear to be much of an accident…

The Tube
Riding the Underground was our total transportation solution. It felt more cushy than NYC’s subway cars, but the space was also a bit tighter and rounder. Mind your head!

Red Telephone Box
A phonebooth? Still? How quaint.

Sunset over London
Both a sunrise and a sunset during a London trip?! That’s definitely worth calling out. And a nice way to end our little photographic journey across the pond!

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April 21, 2019

5 Packing Tips for Your Tech When Traveling Overseas

When you’re packing your carry-on bag, here are a few tips to help you focus on the tech you really need to bring along. (Or you can ask your cat.)

My family and I just got back from a fun holiday in London. In preparing for our trip overseas, I asked myself two questions to help decide what technology to pack.

  • How much tech do I really have to bring along?
  • How am I going to protect it?

Of course, you really don’t want to pack anything more than you need. That said, if you want to play with some of your gear while on vacation…well, isn’t that what vacations are for?!

So, it’s a balancing act of sorts.

If you find yourself confronting similar questions, here’s one traveler’s tech packing list to consider…

1.
Portable Power Strip and Surge Protector
It’s likely you won’t have access to as many power outlets in your room as you’d like. Bringing along a portable power strip will certainly help you get all of your tech powered and charged up overnight. And electrical surge protection is a really good idea when you’re staying in a strange place. Finally, make sure the unit can handle different voltage standards.

2.
Compact Portable Charger to Throw into Your Day Pack for On-the-Go Power Back Up
You certainly don’t want your smartphone to choke when you’re traveling through a long day in an unfamiliar land!

3.
New SDXC Memory Card for Your Camera
Yes, standalone compact cameras can still get certain shots that a smartphone will have trouble with… especially in low light.

  • SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-1 Card, 64GB
    $20.49 on Amazon Prime
    (Sure, you can manually delete videos and photos from your existing SD card to free up space for your trip. But for only twenty bucks, you can start with a fresh card that’s instantly ready to store as many media files as you can possibly create on your trip!)

4.
Portable, Battery-Operated Carbon Monoxide Detector
You never know, right? If you’re not sure if your room has one of these, it makes sense to pack this.

5.
RFID-Blocking Passport Wallet to Prevent Data Skimming
There’s some controversy as to whether you really need this level of protection, but I say better safe than sorry.

Additional Packing Prep to Consider…

Do You Need a Voltage Converter?
Of course, you’ll need to bring adapters to fit electrical outlets when you’re traveling overseas. England uses Type G electrical plugs, and the voltage in the sockets is 230v.

Since the voltage in U.S. power outlets is 120v, consider the need to take a voltage converter in addition to your plug adapters.

The battery chargers for all of the mobile tech I pack happen to all work in dual voltage modes… 100 – 240 volts.
(Listed on the battery charger in really small print.)

So, I didn’t need to bring a voltage converter to England.
(But the power strip I brought still required plug adapters.)

Add International Service to Your Wireless Plan
My iPhone has AT&T Wireless service. The easiest way to adjust my AT&T plan while overseas is to go with the $10/day “International Day Pass.”

For the ten bucks, you’re essentially mimicking the same plan as you use when you’re home in the United States. You don’t have to worry about data limits or the threat of any additional usage costs. It may not be the cheapest way to use your phone internationally, but I still think it’s a great deal to give your smartphone full functionality.

Bring All of Your Gear Home
It may be an obvious point, but don’t leave any of your expensive tech behind! Stay organized and keep track of all of the little support pieces like battery chargers and cables.

And when you get home, make sure you quickly get to work organizing and sharing the photos and videos you shot on your trip. Family and friends want to see them!

Happy travels!

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October 14, 2018

NYC Tourism Tips from a Native New Yorker

If you want to pretend that you are a tourist visiting New York City for the very first time, where would you take your family? Well, you can’t go wrong starting with Lady Liberty. Here are my ‘Do’ and ‘Don’t’ notes from my recent weekend as a tourist in NYC.

Who am I? Well, I consider myself a native New Yorker, because I grew up as a kid in New York City in the ‘60’s and 70’s. That said, I’ve actually lived out of town for the bulk of my life… after college in the greater Boston area and for the past fourteen years in Connecticut.

Still, I’ve worked in Manhattan for most of the past decade, (though I’m currently in Stamford, CT) and I regularly have dinner with my father at the ‘3 Star’ diner across the street from the apartment building on the Upper East Side where I grew up.

So, I guess I’m always a New Yorker… just hanging out in the ‘burbs.

Be a Tourist in Your Own Town
Not to over-stereotype, but I think that one trend New Yorkers tend to follow is they don’t visit many of the famous landmarks that tourists frequent. As a kid, I didn’t go to a lot of the obvious NYC destinations.
(I think this phenomenon is probably true of other locals in their own cities.)

All this said… I’d like to remind all of you not to forget what makes your city special.
Be a tourist in your own town!
(A public service message brought to you by the Barrett Tourism Board)

Two Days in New York City
Having kids certainly helps you to focus on area landmarks you might have ignored over the past few decades.

Recently, my wife and I planned to host a NYC weekend for a Boston family we’re friends with.
(They also have a boy in third grade.)

We settled on visiting these iconic landmarks:

  • The Statue of Liberty
    (I vaguely remember visiting Lady Liberty as a kid.)
  • Ellis Island
    (As crazy as it sounds, I’ve never been to the place where over 12 million immigrants entered our country.)
  • The Brooklyn Bridge ‘walk’
    (I never knew this was an activity, but my wife used to do this for fun years ago when she lived in Brooklyn.)

Take a Tour to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Visiting these two landmarks takes some planning, especially if you want to get inside and up into the copper statue. Tickets to Lady Liberty’s crown sell out months in advance! We also discovered that regular tickets to the pedestal section weren’t available to book even a few days out.
(It probably didn’t help that we were scheduling this over a holiday weekend.)

 

 

 

 

 

Sure, you can take a ferry over to Liberty Island, but you can’t just walk into the monument.
Unless…
You pay a little more and book a guided tour.

We went with TripAdvisor’s 4.5- hour guided tour,
which was run by NewYorkTour1.

The online booking process was a snap… and we nabbed our tickets, which included pedestal access almost at the last minute.
(A big shout out goes to my wife, who put it all together.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The extra cost was so worth it…

  • Our tour guide, Steven helped our tour group to move quickly through the crazy-long lines at the Battery Park Ferry and on Liberty Island.
  • We didn’t have to aimlessly wander about, because Steven knew where to go and all of the shortcuts to take.
  • His commentary on all of the history was top notch.
  • Though our tour time on Ellis Island at the Immigration Museum was relatively brief, (only about an hour) we were free to stay and spend as much time as we wanted on our own after the tour disbanded.
  • I think we effectively covered the equivalent of two ‘independent’ visits during our half-day tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a full and very efficient experience… plus the third graders loved it.

And for the record, there were about 25 people on the tour, and we were the only ‘New Yorkers.’
(Proud to represent my city)

Think Twice About Walking Across the Brooklyn Bridge
We all joined another visiting Boston family the next day, and our expanded team set off to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge as our ‘fun’ Sunday activity.

I think all of the kids enjoyed the experience, or the idea of the experience. They certainly appreciated the views.

But I’ve got to say…
As much as our Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island trip was so transformative, our expectations for our Bridge walk weren’t met.

Why?

It was just too crowded.
The whole walk felt like we were waiting online to get into a sold-out rock concert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were all jammed into a narrow path, and if we strayed slightly we risked being hit by the occasional cyclist who insisted on traveling through as fast as possible.

Sure, there are a few sections of the walkway around the two iconic stone towers where there’s more area to simply hang out, but everyone around you is taking pictures or selfies. So, there’s never an opportunity to really feel the amazing open space and the massive bridge around you.

Again, the problem was compounded by the timing of attempting this on a nice weekend day over a holiday weekend. A cold winter’s day would likely offer a more solitary and fluid experience.

So, if you’re thinking of spending time at the Brooklyn Bridge as a fun and relaxing weekend activity, consider yourself warned…

Time to Plan Your Next Trip!
Still, I now enjoy the fact that I can now say I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, though it wasn’t on my bucket list.

I may not have liked the experience so much, but I’m happy I did it… once.

As for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island… home run!
(Thank you, Trip Advisor.)

We’ll be back… the crown awaits…

It’s so much fun being a tourist in your own town.
I say go plan your next local adventure right now!

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