National Geographic Traveler offers a number of interesting podcasts, one of which is a series of walking tours narrated by Rudy Maxa of PBS' Smart Travels.

Destinations covered include a wide range of cities including Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

I haven't listened to them yet, but I'll check out one soon and write a little review.

To subscribe to this podcast in iTunes click here.

Labels: amsterdam, audio_tour, california, dc, europe, france, iPod, new_york, paris, san_francisco, united_states

I've done a little bit of a site overhaul, but most of it is behind the scenes. You shouldn't notice much difference unless you are using Explorer 6 on a PC, in which case the graphics should be working correctly now. If you notice anything that's broken, please let me know and I will fix it.

Also, I've put up some photos from out New York/DC trip. You can find them by clicking on the link to the right or right here.

Labels: dc, new_york, photos, united_states

I always approach the end of a vacation with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm happy to return to the familiar comforts of home, but I'm also very sad that I didn't have more time to see more of what I wanted to see. And that was very much the case this time as well. We only had three and a half days in DC, and that was not nearly enough time. But I don't want to get ahead of myself.

We arrived in New York (well, Newark, actually) at around 5pm and were picked up at the airport by J, who took us back to their apartment on the upper west side where A and little J were waiting for us. A is five months pregnant and starting to show a little. We dropped off our stuff and headed out for dinner to an Indian restaurant that had recently opened near by (can't remember the name). We don't go out for Indian much at home (don't know why, really), so we were excited to have some good curry. And it was very good, particularly the Lamb Somethingorother.

The next day, Sunday, we all went to the Feast Of St Gennaro festival in Little Italy, but only after stopping by The Pickle Guy for a variety of pickles (the full sours proving the most popular), and The Doughnut Plant for what A assured were the best doughnuts ever*. And next door to the doughnut place was a bagel shop where we had to stop for a Bialy. And then, while walking to the festival we stopped at the Yonah Schimmel Knishery for a Knish, because Irene had never had one before and the place had been around for over a hundred years.

So by the time we got to the festival, we had all ready noshed quite a bit, and after sharing a Mozzerepa we had no extra room for any of the extremely tasty looking festival food that was everywhere (sausage and peppers, steak sandwiches, pasta, pizza...).

After walking the festival from one end to the other and back (with a short stop for some playground time for little J) we parted company with A and J so they could take little J home for his nap. We spent the rest of the day walking around SOHO and before heading over to Katz's Deli , where we split a Reuben for a late lunch.

I guess I won't give you the play by play, and will instead hit the highlights. So:

Museums we hit included The Jewish Museum (for the comic artist exhibit, which included work by the incomperable Will Eisner, and the amazing Chris Ware [man, that bastard is too good]), The National Design Museum (which at $12 a pop is not a good deal).

We had an amazing meal at Public restaurant. We both had the Grilled Lamb Tenderloin, kinda lame to both get the same thing but we both really wanted it and it was super tasty. If you are in New York anytime soon I highly recommend the place. Plus the interior and desgin is very cool.

As this was only the second time Irene had been to New York and the first time was a short trip as well, we did a few of the tourist things that she'd missed out on last time. Like going up to the top of the Empire State Building . Which let me tell you was an overpriced and obnoxious expierience. Let me tell you why obnoxious. As we were waiting in the line at the top, a woman kept yelling about and pushing this audio tour that was for sale for only $6 more. And to sell she intimated that you would need the tour or you wouldn't know what you were looking at while you were up there as there were no signs telling you. Which in fact turned out to be a lie, there were in fact displays with the skyline and markings on every side. So if you do decide to go up, keep that in mind. We passed on the audio tour. I'm glad we went up though, because now we never have to do it again.

A much more pleasent experience was hopping on the Staten Island Ferry which was free. Free! and the short 20 minute trip takes you with in photo taking distance of both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

I guess this is running kind of long so I'll end it there and continue in Part 2 later.

*We were skeptical because we have Top Pot Doughnuts here in Seattle, and those are some pretty damn fine doughnuts. So while we were in the shop, the guy behind the counter asked us where we were from, and when we said Seattle, asked if we knew Top Pot. He then claimed that Top Pot stole one of there doughnuts. Well, whatever, I'm going to show my home town loyalty, because I think that Top Pot makes the better doughnut.

Labels: journal_entry, new_york, united_states

Labels: moblog, new_york, photos, united_states

Labels: moblog, new_york, photos, united_states

Labels: moblog, new_york, photos, united_states

Staten island ferry

Labels: moblog, new_york, photos, united_states

Mmmm good.

Labels: moblog, new_york, photos, united_states

There is a very exciting exhibit going on at The Jewish Museum on the Jewish comic artists. We will most definitely be making an effort to see this one.

It will feature such great talents as:

• Will Eisner
• Jack Kirby
• Harvey Kurtzman
• R. Crumb
• Gary Panter
• Chris Ware

Can't wait!

Labels: museum, new_york, united_states

As of Saturday my baby and I will be on vacation. First we head to New York for four days and then D.C. for four days.

I will hopefully be blogging a bit from the road, and will at the very least be moblogging photos here with the help of my newish phone.

So stay tuned for that, and when I return, I will be posting up photo's from our trip not taken with me phone.

Labels: dc, journal_entry, new_york, united_states

I can't remember where I first heard about the Soundwalk audio walking tours (although I suspect it was probably Gridskipper), but I was immediately interested. I loved the idea of a walking tour that I could load onto my iPod and do at my leisure.

So last year when I was in New York to see Spamalot I bought three of their tours to take with me (the Brooklyn Dumbo, Lower East Side, and Meat Packing District walking tours). In the course of my visit I managed to do all three, and thoroughly enjoyed them. I even got to meet the narrator of the Meat Packing tour (at one point she instructs you to ring her bell, and you can go up to her gallery and talk to her). Of the three I liked the Lower East Side tour the least, all though that one was still pretty good and the Dumbo tour the most.

So how do they work? Every tour comes with an audio file and a pdf of the tour route, but really you only need the pdf to find your starting point, and I suppose, if you get hopelessly lost along the way, to reorient yourself. But the directions are usually pretty clear and I mostly always found myself ahead of the narrator, and had to wait on the corner (like they suggest) until they could catch up. One problem I ran into, was with both the Meat Packing tour and the Dumbo tour, the areas are changing so quickly, that some of the mentioned locations were gone, or inaccessible. Although this only happened a few times and didn't ruin my enjoyment.

For our upcoming trip, I purchased the Wall Street and Little Italy tours. I don't know if we'll have time to do both, but I'm sure we can squeeze at least one in.

The company also offers a walking tours of Paris (which we will definitely be using on our trip next year), India and other locals in and around New York.

Overall I think this is a brilliant concept whose time has come. I've found a few other companies offering similar things and those links can be found on the resource pages.

Labels: audio_tour, iPod, new_york, paris, united_states

I've created a pocket map guide for comic book stores in Manhattan.

Feel free to download the PDF.

Labels: maps, museum, new_york, shopping, united_states

"I've come up with something I'm really quite excited about: pocket maps.

Let me explain.

You may recall this post from a while back in which I made location maps for sites and shops of interest and put them on my iPod. And I still like that idea, but the problem comes when you don't have your iPod out or don't want to take it out, for whatever reason. That's were pocket maps come in.

Using the technique detailed here and the fantastic Wayfaring web site (you could also just use Google Maps), I created a booklet showing the locations of various museums around New York city. I plan to create a few more of these for carrying around (stores, restaurants, etc.) and the great thing about them is they fit conveniently into the back pocket of a Molskine.

I offer up a PDF of my New York City Museum map to any one who wants it. Feel free to print it and disseminate at will.

Down load the PDF here.

The museums included in this Pocket Map are: Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, International Center of Photography, Skyscraper Museum, Neue Gallerie, Museum of Modern Art, and the Guggenheim.

Labels: maps, museum, new_york, shopping, united_states