Category: Travel

Dave Koz Jazz Cruise

Cruise Jam Session — To spend time with people who share a passion is a wonderful experience. Spending a week at sea with dozens of musicians, 1,800 jazz enthusiasts and my best friend was great!

No elaborate story here, just a series of ingredients which when mixed together produced the best child-free vacation we’ve had since Courtney and Kelsey were born.

Here are the ingredients:

– Eight days on Holland America’s cruise ship Westerdam.
– Four ports-of-call: St. Barth’s, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay, and Samana.
– Dozens of renown contemporary jazz artists sequestered on the ship.
– Multiple concerts, a myriad of activities, and wonderful food every day.
– 1,800 jazz fans with whom to share the entire experience.

Best of all? This trip was shared with my best friend of 25 years … Beth.

Cave Travel

Down Into Luray Caverns

Before visiting Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico I could not have cared less about touring a cave. “For heaven’s sake why visit a cave!?” That all changed when I was blown away at the National Park.

Camp Hike Travel

Camping in the Shenandoah

Post author By TravisGood
Post date October 15, 2008
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Shenandoah Camping — Camping is simple, fun and cheap so when weather permits, I like to work it in to my travel plans. One night in the Shenandoah worked out just great!

Courtney needed a ride back to UVA so I was volunteered. Actually, when I learned that I was drafted I was happy since I’d get to spend some time with her. Little did I know that I’d have so much fun!

Not only did I take Courtney but I took her friend Peter as well. We had lots to talk about: Apple announcements, Facebook, digital photography, the iPhone and its poor substitute,the LG Instinct, the SlingMedia box, Netflix, Roku, yadda yadda. Before we knew it we had arrived. Easy drive. Pleasant.

My next stop was Big Meadows Camp Site along Skyline Drive. My goal was to make camp before sun down. I failed but that’s fine since I’m now an old hand at setting up my site with only the aid of a flashlight. Too often I’ve camped in the winter when evening comes early and long before I’m ready to stop driving. Yes, practice in this case makes perfect.

The night was beautiful with cool crisp air and a full moon. After an OK night’s sleep (who really sleeps “well” on the dirt ground?) I packed and continued driving down Skyline Drive. My goals were to find food, get a little time on the Internet, and arrive at Luray by late morning to see the caves. This too went well and by 10:00 I was buying my entrance ticket.

Bike Bridge Travel

Beautiful Beach Bike Ride

Post author By TravisGood
Post date October 9, 2008
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Travis On The Boardwalk — Perfect weather and a 23 mile bike path along the Los Angeles coast line ... perfect. This is a world class outing but let’s keep it a secret. Who needs the extra bike traffic?

On my way home from Catalina Island, I stopped for a day in Santa Monica with one goal in mind: to bicycle up and down the beaches of Los Angeles.

For years I’ve known of the paved bicycle path along the coast of Los Angeles. When we lived in LA, I remember seeing it when we visited various coastal communities. I didn’t know much about the path but, seeing it typically on a weekend, I certainly didn’t like how crowded it was.

Little did I know how light the traffic would be along the path on a Monday! I started out at the Santa Monica Pier because I was staying two blocks away and because I knew I could rent a bike there. For only $15 I was provided a tall, well-fitting bicycle for the day and I started by heading south.

Travel

JazzTrax: Smooth Jazz in Paradise

Post author By TravisGood
Post date October 6, 2008
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The Casino is JazzTrax’s main stage but opening night is a special event held at Rancho Escondido. Here, Mindi Abair played as the sun set and till the stars came out. Wonderful!

It’s so cool that my uncle is a concert promoter with his own syndicated smooth jazz program because I’m a fan of the genre and he gets me access.

This year for the second time I attended the JazzTrax Festival on Catalina Island off the coast of California. Starting Thursday at a remote ranch was an evening concert. This was followed by three days of concerts in Avalon’s Casino Ballroom. The agenda is packed with ten concerts with dozens of famous jazz musicians: Acoustic Alchemy, Mindi Abair, Warren Hill, Rick Braun, Richard Elliott and many more. Music I love performed by top talent. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Check out the JazzTrax web site for Art’s most recent radio show.

After the break are pictures from my time at the concerts.

Travel

Avalon by Day and Night

Avalon Casino — This exotic fixture on the peninsula of the Avalon harbor is the world famous Casino. Its ballroom is the primary venue for all the JazzTrax concerts and from its terrace you can see forever!

On Catalina Island there’s only one town of consequence: Avalon. Though only 22 miles from Long Beach and one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas, this town of 3,300 is quaint, peaceful and amazingly beautiful. It’s harbor is a picturesque crescent filled with sailboats bobbing in beautiful blue waters. The town is totally walkable. Everything is of manageable scale and you feel relaxed while you’re there, especially if you’re there for a jazz festival!

Hike Travel

Circuit Hike on Catalina Island

Post author By TravisGood
Post date October 4, 2008
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Catalina Arial View — The island is large but manageable with lots to see and great places to hike. Circuit hikes are my favorite as there’s little back tracking. My path was round the southeast of Catalina Island.

Here is a detailed map of my 12 mile hike: Avalon Back Country.

Curious to see more of what I saw?

Hike Mountain Travel

The Glorious Old Rag Scramble, Again

Post author By TravisGood
Post date September 23, 2008
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Bolders on top of Old Rag — Two peaks between which lie a wonderful series of rock scrambles. The fun doesn’t get old no matter how often I climb Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park.

There are other places to hike but I keep being drawn back to Old Rag. If I leave at 7:30 AM then I can be back by 3:00 PM after having climbed a mountain, scrambled over rocky terrain, and taken-in stunning views. Total distance is 7.5 miles. Total elevation is 3,200 feet.

Climbing the front is a vigorous effort but your reward is the first peak where a rocky plateau greets you. The views are spectacular and it’s a good place to catch your breath. Soon again you lose your breath as you climb to the second peak across, between and under lots of rock. The descent is 4.5 miles of the total hike and three of those miles are a long fire road, uninteresting but for the three rivers you cross. At that point in the hike though, boring is good.

This hike is recommended, recommended, recommended.

River Swim Travel

Foiled by a Hurricane

Brooklyn Bridge Swim Path — The course is to swim 1,000 meters from shore to shore across the East River of Manhattan under one of the world’s greatest structures, the marvelous Brooklyn Bridge.

This year it was going to happen. I was going to swim the East River. Everything was looking good. So far, Lady Luck was working with me. Hurricane Hanna wasn’t due to arrive in NYC till this evening. We’d be done with the race and long gone before then. I was excited.

For the race, all systems were go. I left D.C. on Friday with fair weather and arrived a few hours later in NYC. Everything was going fine. To familiarize myself with the race I walked around the South Street Seaport area, checked out the course, and mapped my path from hotel to where the race was to begin. As you can see in the picture above, it was a beautiful afternoon. Saturday I would swim under the Brooklyn Bridge!

Once satisfied that I knew the lay of the land I headed to my hotel. As I stood at Reception checking-in I received a prerecorded announcement on my cell phone. “The race has been canceled.” The cancelation wasn’t due to anticipated bad weather during the event but instead due new safety precautions taken in the wake of Katrina. The police simply wanted to err on the side of caution.

This morning I still went. There on the pier were gathered a few dozen swimmers picking up t-shirts and chatting over coffee and donuts. It was a beautiful morning for a swim. The air was calm and warm; waves would not have been an issue. As a group we weren’t happy with the way things had played out but we understood. It just wasn’t to be this year … maybe next?

Watch this spot for a Brooklyn Bridge Swim entry in 12 months!

Hike River Travel

Great Falls National Park

Post author By TravisGood
Post date September 1, 2008
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Great Falls Looking Down — Boating, climbing, hiking, running, repelling, fishing, and the list goes on. People were out to enjoy the lovely morning of the last long weekend of summer.

National Parks are national treasures to be visited and enjoyed at every opportunity. Why is it then that I don’t get excited about our local parks? Simple, we learn to take nearby sites for granted. Thankfully though on this glorious Labor Day I broke through and got out.

Great Falls is an unnavigable stretch of the Potomac River which flows between Maryland and Virginia, past Washington D.C. and in to the Chesapeake Bay. The rocks and falls are treacherous but George Washington believed that boat traffic was critical along the Potomac to connect the Ohio Valley with the East. He felt the bonds of trade would strengthen the fractured colonies and help the union succeed. Consequently he initiated what later became a series of lochs for boats to move goods from Cincinnati to Washington D.C. to countries in Europe.

Very little exists of the original lochs and the town of Matildaville but there’s much to see and do! The entire area has been set aside as a National Park.