travel

Exercise on Vacation

Maggie hiking Mt Kilimanjaro

A few people have asked me what I do for exercise on vacation. The answer: it depends.

Sometimes I don’t. And that’s okay for anyone. It is necessary to allow your body a break from its typical routine for a week or two. In fact, it’s probably good. My regular routine has a lot of physical activity in it. And breaks are vital. As someone who LOVES to be in motion, I probably don’t take breaks as often as I should.

Also, sometimes our personal trips are so physically active whatever we are doing is my exercise. When we hiked Kilimanjaro or the Inca Trail, I wasn’t adding exercise. When I did the El Camino with my mom, I didn’t add more exercise to the 15 miles we were walking each day. However, if we had access to a pool, I tried to swim for 30 minutes. But moving in a pool is a wonderful addition to any workout routine, especially if your body is sore.

Maggie finishing the El Camino with her Mom

Exercise on VacationMaggie Downie2024-09-19T16:44:12-04:00

Why Did the Eclipse Make Me Cry?

The 2017 Kentucky eclipse made me want to see another. When I heard it was coming across northern New England, it seemed so easy to access. I gathered some friends.

When you enter totality, you feel it, not just in your body but in your being. The temperature drops and your skin reacts. In Kentucky, the birds and animals went silent and the bugs buzz rose up in a sudden orchestra creating a spectacle for the ears. It was notable. The world went black. I remember awe. Then it was over, and I wasn’t ready for it to end.

This time, in reference to being able to see it up north, most comments in my social media feed were negative. “Who would come up north to see it,” they opined. “You’ll just see clouds,” they harped.

Why was everyone being so negative, I wondered. A quick search online revealed that historically on April 8^th there is an 80% chance of cloud cover in that area of New Hampshire.

Luckily, the ten-day predicted sunny skies for Monday. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Had the 10-day predicted rain, I would have said there was […]

Why Did the Eclipse Make Me Cry?Maggie Downie2024-04-17T14:25:10-04:00

Trip to Disney Star Wars

I don’t like Star Wars (un-American, I know). But I love someone who loves Star Wars. So I found myself on the Disney Star Wars Galactic Space Cruiser. My presumption was that we’d have an interesting, albeit cheesy experience.

Having taken this ride with Disney, I can say they did something impressive, and I also understand why it’s failing.

From the moment we boarded the “shuttle” to our space cruise, it was fully immersive. The set was all consuming and the entire crew played along. Audience member costuming was mixed, but most came in costume and many had elaborate backstories they had prepared—some even with props.

I didn’t fully know what I was getting into until I was there. It’s a new style of tourism, and Disney’s advertising didn’t make it seem appealing. But, what they designed is a ton of fun and clearly took a lot of work. In addition to games and puzzles on your phone and throughout the elaborate, large spaceship, there is a cast that basically puts on an 8-hour play each day. They move the story along. They have lines they need to get through, but when they aren’t […]

Trip to Disney Star WarsMaggie Downie2023-08-22T11:32:03-04:00

Most Beautiful Place on Earth

“Namibia,” the flight attendant said when I asked her where the most beautiful place she’d ever been was. It took us years to get there after her suggestion, but we finally made it last month. There is a lot of pressure on a country when someone tells you it’s the most beautiful place they’ve ever been. I kept trying to remind myself to curb my expectations. How else would Namibia have a fighting chance?

Matt and I spent hours of our trip (there were many lengthy car rides) discussing what makes a place beautiful and how we rank or rate beauty. Architecture can be beautiful. A landscape can be stunning. A sunrise or rainbow with no specific place can catch your eye. Does a beach or a mountain provide more beauty? I love the mountains. Others prefer the beach. How does your mood in any given moment impact how you perceive a place? Can a spectacular place override any mood?

Namibia is striking. I found myself gobsmacked more than once and audibly and unintentionally would utter, “wow” in the awe of the landscape before me. One sunset we rode ATVs across the desert […]

Most Beautiful Place on EarthMaggie Downie2023-07-18T17:20:44-04:00

Crazy Frozen Hair

I saw an image of frozen hair styled like a Dr. Seuss character. After following a trail of links I discovered the Crazy Frozen Hair Contest in Whitehorse, Canada.

Obviously, I wanted to participate. Who wouldn’t? But Whitehorse is fairly far from Connecticut so for seven years I convinced myself not to go because with layovers it was about 15 hours of travel and in the dead of winter snow was likely to get in the way.

Then this year, I said, “no excuses.” We made plans and booked a trip to Whitehorse breaking up the travel with three days in Vancouver on the way out.

Crazy Frozen Hair

For hair to freeze you need -20C or lower (that’s -5F). At Takhini Hot Springs where this event is held annually you dunk your head in the hot spring and then leave your head above water while trying to freeze your hair without getting frostbite on your ears.

According to staff at Takhini at -20 it should take 45-minutes, at -40 (where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet on the scale) 20-minutes. From Vancouver I watched the forecast. While we were in Vancouver it was -35 or colder in Whitehorse […]

Crazy Frozen HairMaggie Downie2020-02-24T16:44:09-05:00