November 2014

Off-Season in Sonoma Valley Wine Country

By Dick Jordan | November 25, 2014 | Comments 0 Comment

From late spring through early fall when the weather is likely to be warm and sunny sounds like the ideal time to visit “Wine Country” north of San Francisco.

Weather-wise, it is, and that’s why during that time of year you’ll find lodgings fully-booked, restaurant reservations hard to come by, roads clogged with cars, and winery tasting rooms chock-a-block with those seeking to sample the wares.

The grape harvest, beginning from sometime in August and extending through sometime in October, is a particularly busy time, not just for grape growers and wineries, but for the area’s tourist industry as a whole

But like leaves on trees, tourism begins to fall by November, “locals” begin reclaiming their must-loved wine region for themselves, and savvy travelers take advantage of the quiet time in wine country.

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Travel Photo Thursday: Move Back to the SLR?

By Dick Jordan | November 20, 2014 | Comments 0 Comment

Nearly two years ago in “Travel Photo Thursday: Junk Your Camera!” I suggested that most leisure travelers could ditch their stand-alone digital point-and-shoot or DSLR cameras and simply use their smartphones to take trip photos.

And since I wrote that story camera sales have dropped rather dramatically.

But sales of point-and-shoot cameras appear to have taken the biggest hit, while those of the higher-end DSLR models may be increasing. Or depending on which information source you turn to, maybe the DSLR is facing “doom” as well.

And that “doom” is something Nikon is trying to avert with a new advertising campaign aimed at convincing those members of “GenX/Y/Z” (is there a “Gen Z” yet?) that seem to have been born with smartphones as permanent appendages to their hands to “move up” (or back) to using bigger, heavier, but perhaps more functional, DSLRs.

httpvh://youtu.be/aWF-DRl41fY …

Flying Is Fun (To Watch)

By Dick Jordan | November 19, 2014 | Comments 0 Comment

The “Golden Age of Air Travel” when flying was fun is long, long, gone.

Back then, even if you weren’t hopping on plane to take off on vacation, you could hang out at an airport and just watch other people do so.

Today, the only reason to subject yourself to the aggravation of air travel is when flying is the only practical way to get to a destination.

But there is one way to experience “The Friendly Skies” without ascending into the not-so-friendly-skies: Make a virtual trip to the airport.

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