Travelcraft Journal – Page 64 – Championing the makers, artists, and wanderers in all of us.

August 8, 2016July 24, 2016

Peru, Indiana and Other Perplexing Place Names

It seems to me that Indiana has an unusually high concentration of places named after other places. When I tried to ask my aunt about this, she didn’t think it was weird that her state has cities named things like Kokomo and Brazil. She brought up the fact that a lot of states have places named after presidents, for example.

Madison county, indiana

But I’m not talking about the various Madison Counties or other places named after notable people or landscape features. I mean the ones named for a very different and far away place for no obvious reason. In Arizona, we have Miami and Florence. Indiana, however, has cities named Peru, Rome, Warsaw, Mexico, Cairo, Dublin, Paris, Alexandria, London, Manhattan, Jordan, Holland, Versailles, Shanghai, Milan, in addition to those above.

Florence, AZ benches
Does that seem unusual to anyone else?
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August 4, 2016

L.A. Photo Hunt during #BlogHer16!

The first year I went to BlogHer, I challenged myself and fellow attendees to a photo scavenger hunt. It was just a fun way to share what we were seeing of the city and connect.

This year, BlogHer is in LA, and I thought a SoCal photo scavenger hunt would be in order.

Downtown LA

If you’re in Los Angeles this week, see how many of the things on the list below you can spot. Tag photos #LAphotohunt16 on Instagram and/or Twitter.

Palms
Hollywood
Sunglasses
Stars
Traffic
Theme parks
Studios
Waves
Santa Monica
Your choice!

#10 is for whatever else you think belongs on the list.

Since conference schedules tend to be really packed, feel free to take some creative license! (Like I did the last time.)

Hollywood sign

The list has some room for interpretation. “Waves,” for example, could be in the ocean or your hair or when you’re saying hello to friends.

If you’re not going, feel free to post whatever you’re doing this weekend and tag it #notinLAphotohunt16.

Disneyland Anaheim
Afterwards, I’ll share some of the scavenger hunt results here. Can’t wait to see what you find!

July 30, 2016December 10, 2025

Anaheim Resort District Dining 2016

I got a little obsessed hunting for local food options in the Anaheim Resort District (where the Disney Theme Parks and Anaheim Convention Center are located) ahead of Star Wars Celebration last year.

I talked to frequent Disneyland-goers about their favorite spots, exchanged emails with the Anaheim Convention Center and their concessions-provider Aramark, and even tried sorting through online business license records.

Once I was in Anaheim, I walked into restaurants I hadn’t been able to find information for to ask questions and pick up take-out menus.

In the end, I had this list of restaurants that are some combination of unique to the area, highly recommended, and/or offering something local, as well as being walking-distance from the Disney Parks and Anaheim Convention Center – without requiring admission.

So here it is, updated with current information and grouped geographically. I marked up a map to help you visualize it all.
Continue reading “Anaheim Resort District Dining 2016”

July 25, 2016April 30, 2026

Phoenix to Pasadena

Since I couldn’t take all of you to Pasadena with me, here’s the one-minute version of the drive.

You can see us travel from the Phoenix freeways, through the desert, over the state line/Colorado River, past the Cabazon Dinosaurs, and finally make it to the (much cooler!) Los Angeles County and City of Pasadena.

I put it together from the Snapchat photos and videos we took along the way. I snapped most of them from the passenger seat. When I took over driving for awhile, Phillip learned how to use the app and took on the videographer role.

Feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss our upcoming videos!

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July 21, 2016July 6, 2016

What’s in your browser?

I can be kind of a browser tab pack rat, keeping things open I want to get back to, accumulating tabs with various sites throughout the day.

Melissa of Stirrup Queens posted about her tendency to do this one Microblog Monday and asked everyone to share what they had open. I started typing what turned out to be a pretty lengthy comment about what was stacked up in my browser that day.

Then the page refreshed and erased it all.

So I decided that it was probably better as a post than a comment anyway and started over. Since it’s been awhile, there are updates in brackets.

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I’m writing this March 7 just before noon [see what I mean? been awhile!], and here are the tabs I have open on my iPad browser:

1. Local news article about Souhwest Maker Fest, which I’ll be presenting at. [And did.]

2. BlogHer 16 conference info, because I’m going and wanted to post about it. [I’m now also going to be speaking.]

3. Hotel I was thinking of staying at, but it looks like it’s permanently closed. [It’s actually not open yet.]

4. Alternate hotel that maybe I would stay at instead if they’re done with renovations in time. [Nope. No end in sight!]

5. Draft of a review of markers. [Done!]

6. Coffee shop I was checking the hours of.

7. tumblr.com/register because my friend Anne recommended moving my other site to Tumblr. [I still might.]

8. tumblr.com/docs/en/blog_management, because I still have so many questions about tumblr. [Yep.]

9. devoutfashion.com, a tumblr site with a nice layout.

10. themestation.co, the site where devoutfashion.com’s nice theme came from.

11. Mesa Arts Center calendar to see what outdoor movies they had coming up.

12. ScotteVest, because my friend Lori and I were discussing whether you could actually do all your packing in a jacket with a lot of pockets. [Maybe.]

13. My watercolor therapy post, so I could grab the link for Microblog Monday.

14. The Stirrup Queens, where Microblog Monday lives.

15. And a draft of this post. #meta

So that kind of ended up being a weird journey through my head.

What’s on your mind and in your browser? You certainly don’t have to go into that much detail, but feel free to post a list or share a screenshot!