White Christmas at White Pocket

White Pocket....

A wild wilderness to explore by the Vermillion Cliffs of northern Arizona.

Not limited by permits (like its nearby cousin, The Wave) yet totally uncrowded.

Only a few hours from both Vegas and Grand Canyon. 

...was our trek of choice this holiday season.   Here's more about our adventurous day in AZ's White Pocket outback.



We started our White Pocket adventure off early from the coolest lodge in Kanab, the vintage Quail Park Lodge.  Our guide 4-wheeled us out of town and towards the AZ border, onto dirt tracks past Wire Pass Trailhead, and deep into land that felt more prairie than mountain.

Enroute to White Pocket, we passed fairy chimneys reminiscent of Turkey's Cappadocia but they were plops of pure red rock instead. The entire country, as a matter of fact, was deep clay red.


So nothing (except the name of our destination, "White Pocket") prepared me for the site which we approached a couple 4-wheel-hours later - a fortress of cream-colored rock thrusting out of the grassland which loomed larger as we drove closer, and closer.

White Pocket is an entire basin of Navajo Sandstone that's really a mix of cream, mocha, and paprika-colored rock.  Large swirls entranced me (and my camera lens), as the high precipices of White Pocket's bookend peaks summoned the egos of my 20-year-old sons.

The White Pocket moonscape also had blocks of hard gray stone plopped down like flat tiles.   We felt like prehistoric hunters, scaling the massive scales up the back of a dinosaur!

There was even a cave structure with petroglyphs dating back more than 800 years.
                               
It's true - we had originally aimed to trek not White Pocket,  but The Wave, featured in AFAR magazine's November article!  But despite Dreamland Tour's efforts at the weekly lottery, and the intimidating snowy weather which we hoped would deter many hikers,  permits were not available.   In the end, it was a lucky break for us!

Within White Pocket, there are sections which resemble the famous Wave:

And the White Pocket terrain offered hours of hiking and exploration, topped off with a garden-fresh picnic, served to us atop a butte with views overlooking White Pocket and the surrounding AZ prairies - all carefully orchestrated by our expert guide, Don, at Dreamland Tours.                   

And if you wonder how they got their name at Dreamland,  my son's trance (below) tells the story:

For more info on White Pocket or other guided adventures in northern AZ 

(yes, you want a guide!  don't be one of those stranded tourists in rental cars in THIS outback!), 

sleeping on the rim of the Grand Canyon, 

or road trips from Las Vegas,  

contact me at Tough Love Travel:

melanie@toughlovetravel.com

(609) 923-0304

Unique holiday gift: Overnight at a lighthouse

Want to solve your shopping problem, quick and easy, with a gift that's special, unique, and comes gift-wrapped and ready to present? 

Give an experience:  an Lighthouse Overnight!

Order instructions at the bottom of this post. 

So, what would a Lighthouse Overnight be like?

#1:  The lighthouse is built as a 2-3 story colonial home, not a tower, so the 2 bedrooms are on the 2nd floor.  There are no tall staircases to climb, unless you want to go up to the widow's walk at the top to examine the light.

 #2:   The lighthouse is out on a point.  So, it requires a 1/2 mile walk from your car, through the tidal woods,  to the front door.  You'll have to carry in everything you want for the night which - don't worry --is not much (sleeping clothes and toiletries, change of clothes for next day, and dinner - read below). 

The trail is actually a highlight of the trip.  It runs right along the river bank and you often see deer or herons.   

#3:   In the warm months, you can arrive at the lighthouse by either foot or kayak.   In the winter, though, kayaking would not be safe, so plan to arrive on foot.

#4:  Because the lighthouse is in a tidal area, the path to the lighthouse floods during high tide.  This feels very romantic once you are out at the lighthouse (surrounded 360* by water!), but it means that check in/out is at very specific times, scheduled around high tide.   Be prepared to get check-in times like "1-3pm and 7-8pm".

#5:  At the lighthouse, you'll be joined by one other pair of guests and a lighthouse keeper.  He'll give you an orientation, share the history, and help with any questions you have (like how to use the antique stove).   He makes a delicious - if not gourmet -  breakfast the next morning.

However, you'll be responsible for your own dinner.    It's nice to coze into the lighthouse once you arrive.  You can warm some cider or open a bottle of wine and enjoy the fireplace. Then, for dinner, I recommend bringing a pre-made lasagna or casserole that's easy to warm.  If you want to cook something more elaborate, though, there's a full kitchen at your disposal and even a modern gas grill outside (if you don't think it's too cold).  Or keep things super easy and enjoy a late lunch/dinner in town before you check in.  I would just discourage going out to a late dinner -  it's hard to do the hike in and out, after dark, in the winter.    

#6:   Although you're right on the water (with the river literally right outside your bedroom window), the lighthouse is cozy, heated by 2 gorgeous woodstoves.  

Wintertime at the lighthouse is a perfect time to read books, play games, peruse the guest book/comments, and enjoy the historical collection and restoration video in the 2nd floor museum. 

#7:  Just so you know... 

No pets.  No smoking.  No hairdryers.

RATE FOR PACKAGE

The rate for this Lighthouse Overnight is $399 for 2 people. 

Includes: 

*fully planned overnight with confirmed reservations including breakfast

*driving directions from home of recipient

*local dining and tourist info to enjoy enroute (like the famous Pedestrian Cross-Hudson bridge downriver or NY's wine country)

*a souvenir coffee mug from the lighthouse 

Your LIghthouse Overnight gift arrives complete, in decorative packaging, ready to present!

Payment by personal check or any major credit card.

HOW TO ORDER

Call (609) 923-0304 or email Tough Love Travel here! 

Order by December 15th for Christmas delivery.

ON THE WEST COAST?

If you'd like to give a Lighthouse Overnight to someone on the West coast, I can do that!  I have 2 options near you, too!   Just call or email for info.

The gift of a Lighthouse Experience is special, unique.  With all the quirkiness of sleeping in a remote lighthouse, your Holiday 2013 experience with leave you with some great stories, and maybe even some bragging rights!   

Dream trips: Cultural Adventure in Alaska

Esther's dream:   

I'm terrified of bears and small planes, and my stomach is terrified of boats LOL   

But I love people!  Can you plan me a cultural trip to Alaska 
to meet Native Alaskans, Russians, and Homesteaders? 

Yes, Esther, I can!

 

ALASKAN ADVENTURE THROUGH THE GOLDRUSHERS
You can to to Dawson City, up in the Yukon, to experience the life of the Goldrushers.  Though not the Native Alaskans, the goldrush history is integral to the territory. Stay in an inn dating back to 1898 whose floors are slanted today because the building was originally constructed on permafrost.
You can even have a cocktail at the bar downstairs called the Sour Toe with -- YES! -- a real human toe in the drink. Just watch this:


ALASKAN ADVENTURE WITH NATIVE ALASKANS
To meet the real Native Alaskans, you can fly up to Barrow on the Arctic Ocean.   This Native Alaskan community's ATM machine has language options like Hboob, and the local Native Alaskans still dry fish on racks above their homes.


You can travel down the Inside Passage to the port town of Ketchikan where some 19th-century Native Alaskan relics are curated:   totem poles of the Tlingits.








ALASKAN ADVENTURE WITH THE RUSSIANS
And don't miss the Russians in the waterfront village of Sitka!  Not exactly Native Alaskans but still a vibrant part of regional history, their churches and dance festivals will be educational as well as touching.

And if you are really fascinated by their culture, you can do a Russian Homestay for an overnight on the Kenai!

Em and Dave at Russian Homestay

Yes, Esther, we can introduce you to the REAL Native Alaskan locals!

If you're looking for a unique trip like this,  I am the travel designer for you! 

Reach me here:

(609) 9230304

melanie@toughlovetravel.com

Dream Trip: Harry Potter-possessed in the UK

Dad's dream:  

My 2 sons are BIG Harry Potter fans.   What can we set up for them when our family travels to Great Britain? 

Dad, what about this....

HARRY POTTER IN EDINBURGH
There's a town guide in Edinburgh who, when he's not escorting you to his favorite Potter spots, is the captain of the local Muggle Quiddich Team.

Sit with him in the Elephant House cafe and hear stories of JK Rowling creation of her first Harry book.  Peer into Greyfriar's Bobby Cemetery where the tombstones' names came to life as beloved Potter characters.


HARRY POTTER IN LONDON
In London, there's a Harry Potter Film Locations walk organized by London Walks that incorporates Diagon Alley, some favorite Leaky Cauldron spots and - yes! -- Platform 9 3/4.

Harry Potter: "Can we find all this in London?"

Hagrid: "If yeh know where to go."

HARRY POTTER AT OXFORD
Then ride up to Oxford for more scenes you'll find plucked right out of your favorite Harry Potter films.  
Did you know?  You can actually sleep in a dorm room at Oxford!

There are great views overlooking the Quad, and the highlight is sure to be breakfast the next morning in the historic Grand Dining Hall of Keble College.

Would you love to hire me, to custom-design a trip for you and your family? 

Grab a free 20-minute call now, 

to explore the possibilities!

Dream Trip: honeymoon horseback through Ruins at sunset

Joe's dream trip:  I'd love to take my new bride on a horseback ride through the Mayan ruins at sunset!

Joe, let's surprise her in Belize!




Honeymoons can be luxurious or playful, 3* or 5*, but they really should be personal!

So, knowing that his new bride Susie was an avid equestrian, Joe thought a horseback ride would delight her.
We surprised her with a dream trip:
horses for the bride and groom, accompanied by private guide to explore a deserted riverside Mayan ruin in the dusky sunset hours of a June evening in Belize.


For these newlyweds' dream trip, I had also planned fun activities:

*a cave adventure, swimming with a guide, deep into a mountain, to view the Mayan's storied Crystal Maiden.

*a daytrip over the border into Guatemala to the famous ruin, Tikal.

*an overnight in a rustic treehouse in the jungle (followed by a cushy waterfront casita on Ambergris).




Before their honeymoon was done, Susie had caught her first fish,  eaten BBQ lobster sitting in the sand before a coconut-husk fire on the beach, savored new tropical fruits, and tubed down the Mopan river.

But I imagine that sunset horseback ride along the river remains a highlight of her cherished dream trip memories.

Do YOU have someone to surprise with a special experience, planned just for them?

If you can dream it, Melanie (at Tough Love Travel) can plan it!

Let's talk about your dream trip at a complimentary appointment: click here!

Dream Trip: send me on a wild island adventure for my 30th!... DOMINICA!

Julia's dream: 

I want to rappel waterfalls,  and swim in fresh springs. 

I want to hike across islands, and stay in a treehouse! 

Sleep in a hammock bed?.... nooow, we're talkin'! 

Julia, let me design your birthday trip to Dominica! 

Where is Dominica?
Dominica is one of the Lesser Antilles islands in the Caribbean, about halfway between the french islands of Guadaloupe (to the north) and  Martinique (to the south).

How do you get to Dominica?
It's not so easy to get to Dominica, but that's part of its charm (and the reason it is so uncrowded!)
Most people fly into St Maarten where they connect to BVI Airways for a quick hop over to Dominica.  
So what's so difficult?
The BVI flight only takes off a couple days each week.

How's Dominica different? 
Dominica's got the only cross-island hiking trail in the entire Caribbean:  the Waitukubuli. Dominica's hiking can be  guided and safe and comfortable, yet fresh and untrampled. 









Dominica has a famous snorkeling spot called Champagne Springs, where a still-active volcano continues to release gas bubbles into the sea... and Champagne Springs is an easy excursion, right off shore.

Dominica's got one of only 2 boiling lakes on the entire globe.  (Know where the other one is?   Email here if you give up...)

Dominica offers a wild natural landscape.  Just look at it:

What're the 3 coolest things to do on Dominica? 
#1:   Go canyoneering down a waterfall!












#2:  Sleep in the Cocoa Cottage treehouse!











#3:  Find the Emerald Pool!  Dominica is sprinkled with waterfalls and hidden pools, some easy to access and others nestled deeply in the jungle.   How would you feel if your guide burst out of the jungle trail to a clearing, to see this:

Do you have a milestone birthday coming up?   

I can plan an unforgettable trip to mark your big day. 

IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, I CAN PLAN IT! 

Here's a complimentary get-started 20-minute appointment.   

See you on the call!

Sleepin' with the Spooks at the Lizzie Borden House

Sleeping in treehouses and lighthouses?   Tough Love Travel can also send you to haunted houses?

Call Melanie for more info:  (609) 923-0304

I have ALWAYS been excited to go on a roadtrip.    But not last month...
I was heading up 95N to Fall River MA to the Lizzie Borden House where I had a reservation in the Andrew Jennings room.  The fact that this 3rd floor bedroom was deemed "low activity" did not make me feel any better.

WHAT'S IMPORTANT ABOUT LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE?
Lizzie Borden was an American woman who was tried and suspiciously acquitted of the ax murders of her father and step mother in the Lizzie Borden House in New England port town of Fall River in 1892.
Today guests who sleep at the Lizzie Borden B&B as well docents who work in the house regularly experience ghost activity.    I wanted to see for myself.

STORY OF LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE
Lizzie Borden and her sister Emma lived with their parents in the Borden family home for more than 30 years. Mr. Borden had been a successful mill owner, casket maker, and even bank president, but regardless of his wealth, he remained famously frugal.   Rumor says that, years after the pleasures of indoor plumbing came to town, the Lizzie Borden house kept their privy in the unheated basement.

Like all families, the Borden family had strife.  Stepmothers,  inheritances, loyalties, and ultimately frugality created tension, and motive, for the murder which occurred on August 4.

DEBATE OVER THE LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE MURDERS
The mysterious food poisoning that had struck the LizzieBorden House in days before the murder... was it attempted murder, or just spoiled beef and milk served to the family under Mr Borden's frugal rules?
Was the supposed stifling August heat to blame?
Why did Lizzie try to buy acid only days before the murder?

Was Lizzie's dress-burning the day after the murder a destruction of murder evidence or an innocent household task?

Why did the prosecutors take the sculls of the Borden parents - complete with ax holes -  into the courtroom?   And could they do that today?

TOUR OF LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE
The docent started in the parlor, telling us the 19th century background of the town and the family.  She walked us through the dining room which displayed not only replicas of the murder sculls and shards of household pottery, but also a coroner's  backboard and antique photos.   As we walked up the curved staircase of the Lizze Borden house, she talked us through the events of the morning of the murders, and we saw -- just like the maid had back in August 1892 - how the body of Mrs Borden, lying in a sea of blood by her bed, would have become visible from the staircase.
Tacky as it seems, some of us - me included! - posed as the dead Mrs Borden.  I still thought this whole experience was a joke.... but I was soon to think differently!

SEANCE AT LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE
Just our luck that, on the night of our visit to the Lizzie Borden House, a seance with a local medium was scheduled.   A self-proclaimed skeptic, I joined more to take notes than to relate to spirits.  But as we sat in the same lantern-lit parlor where Mr Borden had been murdered 120 years before, the table tilted 45*!    Some of us saw shadows of footsteps underneath the closed door  in an otherwise locked-down house! One man had a white orb photographed behind him!

And then the medium announced, "Wait!   Someone new has entered the room!  Does anyone know a Margaret?.... a Marjory?" 

Marjory was my Mom.  She died last January.    With only 6 guests in the room and an unlikely name like Marjory, could this be a coincidence?

I went to bed, less a skeptic.

LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE ON TV....
The Lizzie Borden House has been highlighted on:
Ghost Adventures, 2011,  The Travel Channel,  TAPS (local plumbers with paranormal senses), Ghosthunters, and Dead Files.

MORE ABOUT LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE
Read more about the Lizzie Borden House by clicking here!

If you're an adventurous traveler, and want a unique custom-planned trip, I can help you! 

www.ToughLoveTravel.com

Dream trip:Rome's Gladiator school

If you can dream it, I can plan it! 

Email Melanie @ Tough Love Travel to get started! 

2 brothers-age 5 and 7-in Rome for Spring Break.  What's THEIR dream trip?  

Gladiator School, of course! 

They slipped into a tunic, swore the oath, and selected their weapon to become a gladiator for the glory of the Empire!

Dream trip for a family
For this family, the day was a fun mix of play acting and experiential Roman history.    They ventured out of City Center, down to the Appian Way, to explore the catacombs before going to gladiator school.
At gladiator school, they faced off with bags (sort of like a modern day boxer) and they drilled on jumps and jousting.

Dream trip for YOU! 

Gladiator school is not just for kids.  In fact, real history buffs get a priceless experience at the Gruppo Storico Romano!


The docents (aka coaches) at gladiator school will outfit you with tridents, armor, and authentic wooden swords from their collection so you can “step into character” and live like it’s the year 100 AD.   Gladiator school will teach you to master the basics of hand-to-hand combat, describe the classes of society from gladiator times,  and reveal the secrets of Imperial Rome’s gladiatorial games.

During your two-hour lesson at gladiator school, you can also tour the Historical Museum Didactic and rub “galerai” with members of the Historic Group of Rome who specialize in the re-enactment of Roman life.

If you want a dream trip to (and bragging rights from) your trip to Rome, 

gladiator school should do the trick.

Want a custom trip to Italy, doing things that no one else is doing (like Gladiator School?) 

Schedule a free getting-started appointment with Melanie now:   

www.MeetingWithMelanie.com

Thanks to Catherine for sharing her beautiful family photos with me!