AP - The Miami River isn’t the prettiest body of water in the city. It’s not the clearest or the cleanest, and it’s certainly not made for swimming. But along its banks are remnants of Miami as it once was.
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AP - There’s nothing like having someone live with you for a year to forge a lifelong friendship. But you can’t just drop by for coffee when that person lives across the Atlantic Ocean.
AP - No doubt about it, the Napa Valley can be expensive. Hundred- dollar bottle of wine? They’ve got it. Thousand-a-night hotel suite? Right this way. But there are vine values to be found if you know where to look.
AP - Driving up to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, the view seems almost silly: Across from shallow creeks at the base of the 14,000-foot Sangre de Cristo Mountains sit the largest sand piles in North America, kept in place by wind and water.
Last week, I visited British Columbia”s Cathedral Provincial Park for hiking, photography, and botanizing. Though I”ve yet to identify anything rare in what I photographed, it was a pleasure to visit the area for both the scenery and the sheer diversity of flora and fauna. I”m estimating, but I”d guess at least a hundred different plant species were in bloom, including mass displays of Lupinus, Valeriana & Arnica in the subalpine and, only hinted at in the bottom of this photograph, the yellow-flowering Dasiphora fruticosa (nee Potentilla fruticosa) at or above ………
It takes more than a vacation to make people happy. Indeed, vacationers tend to be happier than non-vacationers in the lead up to their break, but once they are back, there is very little difference between the two groups’ levels of happiness. These findings¹ by Jeroen Nawijn from Erasmus University in Rotterdam and NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences and his team are published online in Springer’s journal Applied Research in Quality of Life.Research to date suggests that vacations are linked to many positive feelings. Jeroen Nawijn’s study sets out to answer four questions. Firstly, are vacationers happier than non-vacationers? Secondly, does a trip boost happiness? Thirdly, if a trip does boost happiness, how long does this effect last? And lastly, what are the roles of length of time away and vacation stress?The author assessed how vacations impact happiness among 1,530 Dutch adults, 974 of whom took a vacation during the study period. In particular, Nawijn looked at differences in happiness levels between vacationers and those not going on vacation, as well as whether a trip away boosts post-trip happiness. Jeroen Nawijn observed that those planning a vacation were happier than those not going away, and suggests that this appears to be due to their anticipation of the break. Following a trip, there was no difference between vacationers’ and non-vacationers’ happiness, unless the time off was very relaxing, in which case the slightly increased happiness was especially noticeable in the first two weeks back. The effect wore off completely after eight weeks. The author explains that it is not surprising that trips do not have a prolonged effect on happiness, since most vacationers return to work or other daily tasks and therefore fall straight back into their normal routine fairly quickly.Jeroen Nawijn concludes by looking at possible implications from three points of view. From an individual point of view, he suggests that people are likely to derive more happiness from two or more short breaks spread throughout the year, rather than having just a single longer vacation once a year. From a policy perspective, in order for families to be able to stagger their trips throughout the year, the school system would need to become more flexible. And lastly, from a managerial point of view, the author would advise tourism managers to provide vacation products which are as stress-free as possible.Reference1. Nawijn J, Marchand MA, Veenhoven R, Vingerhoets AJ (2010). Vacationers happier, but most not happier after a holiday. Applied Research in Quality of Life. DOI 10.1007/s11482-009-9091-9……..
AP - Think of it as a workout where frequent wine-sipping breaks are a must.
AP - The centuries-old monasteries and country estates on Moscow’s outskirts may speak to Russia’s history and traditions, but the train trips to get to them say a lot about what Russia is like today.
AP - No offense against the Galapagos Islands. Home to giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas and other exotic creatures, the archipelago off Ecuador’s coast ranks for me — and many other travelers — among the top places to visit before I die.
AP - Yankee magazine has been celebrating New England for three-quarters of a century, but even after all these years, there’s still room for surprise.
