While others were unwrapping presents or scarfing down turkey or perhaps banging forlornly on the doors of closed stores, 20 of us gathered for a Christmas Day hike.
A long one.
It was hosted by the Wanderbirds, a hiking club that more typically hires a bus to drive hikers from the Washington, D.C., area to the Shenandoah Mountains for day-long, scenic hikes.
The hike was one of at least three offered by area hiking clubs.
Just one pileated woodpecker made its presence known during the four hours we tromped through the woods. Often I hear lots of them on local hikes, "creating starter homes" as a fellow hiker joked.
The day was chilly. But you warm up nicely at a brisk pace and this pace was more than brisk. That leader had some long legs!
A guy I hardly knew cooked me breakfast yesterday. Pancakes. An Israeli guy from New York.
Actually, "hardly knew" overstates things. I didn't know him at all. But Raz from Queens not only cooked me a batch of pancakes, he also gave me a rundown of all the places I should go and see in Israel - which I'm planning on visiting in January.
This is what I love about hosteling. Particularly when traveling solo.
At first, I didn't think of this as something to write about on a solo travel blog. But scanning (or should I say "spanning") the photos stirred up so many memories of my travels.
I thought maybe it would do the same for you, even if you haven't been across or in view of any of these particular bridges. For instance, seeing the bridge in Venice - one of so many you cross as you walk the quiet, carless streets - reminds me how special a place that city is.
If you've never gone because you haven't had someone to travel with...not a good excuse. You could wander for hours on your own marveling at the uniqueness of the place and stopping for pizza, gelato, cappuccino (what's not to like about eating in Italy?!) Bring a camera and a book and take your sweet time exploring any which way you'd like.
I didn't see too many other bridges I'd actually visited represented on the 50 Fantastic Bridge Photographs post. But as my mind wandered, I remembered Chain Bridge in Budapest. I got to visit that one because I had gone to Club Med alone, met someone I became friendly with and a couple of years later she moved to the city for work and invited me to visit.
The cherry blossoms are coming! Very soon now. I happen to be highly aware of the impending pinkness (pinker as buds, then very pale pink as blossoms) because I was immersed last month in writing a cherry blossom guide for a hotel magazine.
While a lot of the cherry blossom events are for kids and families, several would be perfect for solo travelers looking for company while in D.C. I'm thinking about doing one or two of these myself, even though I've been to the Tidal Basin's beautiful cherry trees many, many times. And even though I might visit at other times with friends.
Washington Walks offers a "Blossoms Secrets Stroll" that teaches you all the cherry tree lore you could possibly want. I just learned that the 17th-century Japanese stone lantern near the Tidal Basin, where a veritable forest of cherry trees resides, is the oldest manmade object in the country that's not housed in a museum.
On Saturday, at 5 pm, under a full moon, a group of us set out in the chilly night air for an eight-mile hike. Along a road called Beach Drive in Maryland. In the dark.
We brought flashlights but never used them. Between the moon and our eyes adjusting we were able to see enough not to fall into the creek that we walked along for part of the way.
Six out of eight of us showed up solo. I didn't hang with the companion I came with for long. The leader for this Northern Virginia Hiking Club hike was walking really, really fast. I was not. Neither was Christiane, a French woman who works at the French embassy here in Washington, DC.
So we fell to the back. And I got to learn an awful lot about the life of a roving international worker who has lived for three to four years at a stretch in Canada, the U.S., Italy, Spain and elsewhere.
This time of year people arrive at the temple not just for the twice-nightly musical performances or the life-sized nativity scene. No, people of all faiths come to gawk at the lights. More than half a million of them. And 16 Christmas trees. Even pagans would be likely to point and say, "Ooh, pretty."
Some solo travel is a tad more difficult than I'd care to do. For instance, a British ex-Army officer is in the midst of walking the length of the Amazon River in South America.
That's, um, 4,000 miles. As the crocodile swims. But longer, really, since the river widens in many places and Ed Stafford can't always take the shortest route. By February, Stafford had passed the halfway point.
He's accompanied by a guide named Cho, so though he started out solo in April 2008, he now has someone along on the trip.
When I set out solo, I usually go to some cushy place with all the amenities. And often meet up with a guide, too. Stafford, on the other hand, has had to deal with venomous snakes, flooding, electric eels, piranhas and jaguars.
$500,000 in free stuff in 16 major cities around the country. I don't know much about this site called zozi but that's what they're giving away. Starting today. But not for long.
It seems like it's another one of those discount sites that slashes prices so you will frequent a local business. I recentlywrote about groupon and livingsocial deals and this seems similar.
Go. Now. Get something free.
I just went to the site and it tells me I'm eligible for a free paddle board rental at Chesapeake Beach in Calvert County, Maryland. Hm, never heard of that. But why not try it?
Anyway, I'm putting this out there without an endorsement, since I'm not familiar with the organization and I've never used it. Just in case you want to read the fine print and explore what you can get for free in your city.
Report back if it's something amazing!
According to the press release I received, you can get two free Zumba lessons in Chicago, a rock-climbing class in Los Angeles and a half day biking trip in Moab if you're in Salt Lake City. Among other things.
It almost seems as if solo travel is becoming the vogue.
The Los Angeles Times has a story on 10 vacations for solo travelers. It covers just about every option you can think of, from road trips to special-interest vacations to choosing villages over big cities.
Another highly useful LA Times story suggests ways to avoid the single supplement, from setting up a Google alert using the words "single supplement waived" to booking with companies such as Adventure Life to letting a tour company pair you with a roommate, which many will do.
A story in the Guardian offers strategies for traveling alone by a veteran solo traveler. And the rationale. "You travel alone, you do exactly as you want," says author Jenny Diski. Being on vacation with others makes her anxious. "Are they comfortable, happy, restless, bored?"
I totally get this. You feel selfish if you don't consider others' needs and yet you've paid all this money for a short time in a vacation place. Compromises make you feel resentful.
My absolute LEAST favorite words while on vacation are, "Do you mind if..." If I've had to say those words it means I've had to ask permission to do something I want to do.
Not permission, exactly, but I've had to let someone else know I want to do it and hope they come along happily or want to do the same. If not, I find myself thinking that I'm boring them or keeping them waiting. And how many times am I willing to do that? Argh.
Solo Friendly offers five reasons for solo travelers to take an organized tour. They include the ability to socialize, letting someone else do the driving and navigating and hearing the interesting stories of locals who are hired as tour guides on these trips.
National Geographic says it chooses these tours for the "outfitters' commitment to authenticity, immersion, sustainability, and connection."
One example is a tour in northern India that "has you riding camels, rickshaws, rafts, and jeeps
to observe leopards, rhinos, monkeys, mongoose, and more at five
national parks and wildlife refuges." Er, except that it costs more than $7,000 for the 19-day trip.
My rich friends, please tell me how fabulous it was when you return!
"Ideal for solo travelers," says the press release from Western River Expeditions about its rafting trips on the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon, Utah. I vouch for that statement.
I had one of the best trips of my life floating on peaceful sections of the river and holding on for dear life through Class III and IV rapids (read: "big"). And camping by the side of the river with new friends who I was happy to spend every minute with.
These are professionally guided rafting trips with all meals and equipment provided. I call them "one-phone call" vacations because you sign up and then let the company do all the work of getting licenses, providing boats and setting out food.
While many people spent Easter Sunday at church, 14 of us spent it in nature's cathedral, hiking seven miles in Sky Meadows State Park, on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains. While the cherry blossoms are now past peak, the trees in Delaplane, Virginia, are just beginning to bud.
Many people may not realize that while the U.S. has some grand and well-known national parks, states also maintain a system of beautiful parks. Sky meadows is less than an hour from downtown D.C. In "the country."
Once in the parking lot, we were greeted by the sounds of a cow lowing and, later, the smell of, well, cows. As the state park brochure says, "Generations of farming these hills makes for an incredible blend of pasture and woodlands."
The Sierra Club scheduled this hike three months ago and our leader got extremely lucky in that the weather was just about perfect. A light breeze and temperatures somewhere in the 70's.
As
you might imagine, these local hikes are perfect for solo travelers.
People bond quickly. In fact, 12 of the 14 hikers who joined the group
came alone.
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