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On the Map: Rome If You Want To
We’re almost back to New Jersey aboard the Royal Caribbean Odyssey of the Seas, following a 14-night cruise with ports, and storms, and detours, and six nights across the Atlantic. But first, let’s take a look at our Rome trip. We flew there for a three-night stay before heading to the cruise terminal and sailing off. It wasn’t a lot of time, but we saw plenty. Check out my travelogue below with some photos.
We stayed at the Mascagni Hotel, a boutique hotel near the busy central city. I’m not giving it a thumbs up or down. I knew from past experience that European hotels in general are smaller, and that was the case here. But the decor is lovely, the staff was (mostly) friendly and helpful, and it was easy to get everywhere … until you started walking to your destination! Rome’s streets are very pre-grid, and even using Apple Map we got lost. The pathways are winding, in comes cases even seeming tortured, and if you take a wrong turn the map just reorients and takes you another route. Maddening, especially when your walking tour leaves at 10:30 a.m. and you’re sure you won’t make it. But we did! And here’s what we saw …
Say hello to Genny and Paul, the lovely couple from Canada who were among the travel friends we made, and these folks are keepers!
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On the Map: A Triple Treat with Tarrytown, Mystic, and P-town
Narration provided by Wondervox
By Mark McNease
Who doesn’t need a vacation in these challenging times? We made our annual pilgrimage to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where we have a timeshare at a lovely development called Eastwood at Provincetown. Opened in 1983, it has the feel of a sprawling motel complex that’s very popular with gay men and lesbians. My husband Frank bought our unit not too long afterward, though he and his late partner Michael rented it out most years. We began coming here about seven years ago and now it’s a regular event as August and summer come to an end.
Eastwood is about a thirty minute walk from the center of town, providing us with a twice-daily hike to accumulate at least 15,000 clicks on the step meter. We head over to Commercial Street in the morning and then again at night for dinner and shows. That’s a good two hours of walking each day, helping to mitigate the damage of all the food we eat here.
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On the Map: Cruising the Caribbean on the Anthem of the Seas (Includes Slideshow and Video)
Narration provided by Wondervox.
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a feature at LGBTSr offering travel reviews and experiences.
If you know us, you know we love to cruise, and we’ve been doing it for the 17 years we’ve been together. Now that we’re both retired from the 9-5 world (I prefer the word emancipated), we’re cruising even more. We went to Canada last October, with stops in Boston, Portland, Bar Harbor, Halifax and St. John. We’re heading on another cruise in May, but in the meantime … we just did an 11-nighter to the Caribbean, on Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas.
Cruising is one of the most popular ways to travel and relax at the same time. Cruises offer a variety of benefits that make them appealing to people who like just chilling out at sea, and people who love visiting ports and taking excursions. You can get it all on a cruise, and it’s one of the most affordable getaways available. If you didn’t want to spend any extra money for food, you wouldn’t have to. It’s included! We like going to some of the specialty restaurants, and I enjoy eating locally for lunch, but there’s food available on the ship 24/7.
Five ports in five days!
I love sea days, when we have the entire day and night just to relax, do activities on the ship, encounter people we’ve made friends with on the cruise, and … nap! I’m a big napper. If I can’t get an hour’s sleep in the cabin, I’m happy to recline in a chaise on deck or by the pool, and settle in for a good read and a snooze.
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On the Map: A Two-Day Getaway to Jim Thorpe (PA)
On the Map is a feature at LGBTSr highlighting travel and events of interest to readers.
By Mark McNease
It’s not surprising that so many people don’t know Jim Thorpe is a place. Named after the legendary Native American athlete, the town changed its name from Mauch Chunk when Thorpe’s widow agreed to have him re-buried here in exchange for the town being named after him.
This is our second trip here. We’d visited a couple years ago during the pandemic, and I wanted to come back when the weather was warm and things were normal – although we’ve learned that the old normal will never really return.
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Gay Travelers Magazine: Steven and Tom Visit The Wizard of Oz Museum
Reprinted with permission from Gay Travelers Magazine
By Steve Skelley and Thomas Routzong
The Wizard of Oz Museum in Cape Canaveral, Florida near Cocoa Beach is filled with an amazing collection of memorabilia and a 20000 square foot room where you can enjoy an immersive Van Gogh experience and the immersive Wizard of Oz experience.
In 1900, L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was an instant hit with over three million book sales, a Broadway musical and an iconic 1939 movie. The Wizard of Oz Museum in Cape Canaveral, Florida has an impressive display of autographs, clothing, dolls, comics, toys, maps, original props and costumes, collectible figurines, posters and first editions including the earliest recorded copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!
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An App for That (and a Website, Too): Mister B & B Helps Locate Accommodations for the LGBTQ Traveler
An App for That is a regular feature at LGBTSr highlighting useful apps and technology tips for our readers. Have an app to recommend? Email me at: Editor @ LGBTSr.com
My husband Frank and I love to travel (we just did another two-night stay at Philadelphia’s Morris House Hotel, and had the best meal of the year at Talula’s Garden). I enjoy short getaways we can drive to, but we also like cruising and the occasional vacation that requires a dreaded trip to the airport.
I’m a hotel guy myself. I love waking up in a hotel, working on a laptop while I have coffee in the room or a public space. And while we’ve never stayed at an Air B&B, I know a lot of people use that kind of service. The market for renting out rooms and homes has exploded over the last decade, giving travelers more options that they could have imagined just a few years ago. Enter Mister B & B, a service that connects the LGBTQ traveler with friendly accommodations in the destinations of their choice.
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On the Map: Taking the Provincetown Cure
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
Last year I said, ‘It’s been a year,’ never expecting 2021 to be just as stressful. New president, new Covid variant, new expectations, new disappointments.
What better way to get away from it all than with an annual trip to Provincetown, Massachusetts? We have a timeshare there. My husband Frank has had it since 1985, and among all the things he’s saved over the years is his first ID card for the complex, complete with a photo from 36 years ago. It’s reserved for us the 34th week of every year, which is always at the end of August. For most of our time together (15 years), we didn’t go. I’d never been to Ptown. I’d read about it, but I had no personal experience of the place. Then, four years ago, we started making the trip. And I love it! Except the excruciating drive, which I’ll explain.
The timeshare is in a complex called Eastwood at Provincetown. It’s a very nice place, with a variety of unit sizes. Ours is a one-bedroom, two-bath, with a full kitchen, living room, and a sofa bed that’s too narrow to comfortably lie on but works if you have more than two people staying there. Each unit has a small deck area outside, with a modest size swimming pool in the courtyard. We’re on the second floor, and it’s nice to sit outside having coffee while other guests are downstairs at the pool. A lot of those guests are lesbians and gay men. And being a timeshare, you often see the same people year after year, as well as ones you’ll only meet once.
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Gay Travelers Magazine: Pride Journey – Colorado Springs
This article first appeared at Gay Travelers Magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Pride Journey: Colorado Springs
By Joey AmatoDid you know that Colorado Springs is also known as Olympic City U.S.A.? Neither did I. Not only is the city home to the U.S. Olympic Training Center, but Colorado Springs recently celebrated the grand opening of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, a stunning state-of-the-art building showcasing the history of the Olympic games as well as athletes that competed. The 60,000 square-foot facility focuses on the core values of the Olympic and Paralympic movements: friendship, respect and excellence, determination, equality, inspiration, and courage. The museum was voted “Best New Attraction” by USA Today and it’s easy to see why.
Visitors enter a grand lobby and take an elevator to the top level of the building where they can view a chronological history of the Olympic and Paralympic torches, medals, and other items. The museum is divided between the summer and winter games and the self-guided tour includes an emotional video highlighting the greatest U.S. Olympic triumphs as well as some struggles Team U.S.A. has faced along the way.
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On the Map: Laid Back in Lancaster County (PA)
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
The frequent sight of horse-drawn buggies clopping and rolling along the roads is a perfect image for Lancaster’s life in the slow lane. This is Amish country, something you don’t have to verify with a Google search because the evidence is all around you: in the buggies crisscrossing the roads, in the clotheslines with daily wash fluttering in the breeze, in the houses without electricity or cars. It’s a way of life that can be appreciated without being romanticized: the lives the Amish choose to live are not easy. They may look simple, folksy and nostalgic, but they are lives of toil and prayer. That’s my caveat – to remember when you visit that beneath the calm, relaxed surface of this country life are days of work from sunup to sundown, and a chosen detachment from the lives most of us live.
My husband Frank and I recently took our third trip to the Strasburg/Lancaster area. Frank had been there before we met, but it was all new to me. Three years ago he took me there for a surprise trip and we stayed at the Red Caboose Motel, where each room is a caboose salvaged from trains that stopped running long ago. There are small cabooses, medium-size cabooses, and large ones that can accommodate big families or friends traveling in groups. There’s a restaurant on the property, Casey Jones Restaurant, set in a replica of a dining car, with an attached gift shop. (We ate there on Monday, since it was one of the few places open that night.) I loved the novelty of it all, but there are a LOT of horse flies! Each room/caboose includes a fly swatter, and you will use them. This is not just Amish country … it’s horse country, too.
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On the Map: The Marvelous Morris House Hotel (Philadelphia)
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
As the most restrictive aspects of this pandemic-burdened year begin to lessen, my husband Frank and I are hitting the road again. For now we’ll be taking local-ish trips we can enjoy with just a few hours’ drive in the car. We have a cruise booked for December that was postponed twice because of Covid and the inability of cruise ships to dock in U.S. ports (combined with our own significant concerns), and I’m looking forward to an extensive trip report when we finally board two weeks before Christmas. Cruising is my favorite form of extended vacation, so stay tuned for a late December travelogue.
This time we took a two night trip to Philadelphia. For a number of years now we’ve treated each other to surprise getaways. One of us takes the other on a trip, and the person being surprised does not know where we’re going. A few months ago I’d seen a recommendation for an outdoor classical concert “under the stars” in Philly, and thought it would be a perfect way to start getting out there again.
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Gay Travelers Magazine Visits The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
This article first appeared in Gay Travelers Magazine
By Steven Skelley and Thomas Routzong
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is a place that everyone should visit. Learn about the exciting “space race,” climb inside space capsules and a Space Shuttle, watch IMAX movies, dine on-site, eat with an astronaut or watch an actual thundering, ground shaking rocket launch.
Each year, more than 1.5 million guests from around the world experience their very own space adventure by exploring the exciting past, present and future of America’s space program at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Built in 1967, today the Visitor Complex is one of Central Florida’s most popular tourist destinations.
SUGGESTED ITINERARIES
ONE DAY VISITS
One Day Visit: Family with Children Under 10 Years of Age
- Heroes & Legends featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame® presented by Boeing® – 1 hour
- Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour including Apollo/Saturn V Center – 2 hours
- Space Shuttle Atlantis® with Shuttle Launch Experience® – 2 hours
- Journey To Mars: Explorers Wanted – 30 minutes
- Children’s Playdome for Junior Astronauts – 30 minutes
- Dining and shopping – 1 hour
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Travel Time: Amsterdam and Utrecht Travelogue, by Sue Katz
Reprinted with permission from Sue Katz’s Consenting Adult Blog
By Sue Katz
All photos courtesy of Sue Katz
May 19
The taxi driver at the Amsterdam Centraal Station tries to rip me off. That’ll be €20, he says. What? says I. No way. Oh, says he, I meant to say €10. Turn on the machine, I suggest. Too late, he says.
The delightful flat where we’re staying is up two narrow steep flights of steps and luckily my friend Sue has already arrived and comes to help me wrestle my modest suitcase up. The problem is that the width of the first flight is cut in half by the rails of a Stairmaster. And it is also missing a bannister. Bannisters are essential to anyone who does not bounce up stairs with athletic buoyancy and tightrope walker balance.