Staycation Ideas

Archive for June, 2008

Here’s a staycation idea.

I was on an extended business trip a few years ago and found myself in Orlando for a few weeks. During the first week we hit up all the usual bar-and-grill restaurants and began to grow tired of hamburgers & steak. One of my coworkers and I decided for the second week of our stay to have an international food week.  Each night of the week we would eat at a restaurant that had food from a different country or region. We had Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Thai and German! It was great. It was a good way to try some different restaurants we normally wouldn’t go to and provided a little variety for a otherwise boring trip.

So give it a shot at home! Go out and make a point to try some different cuisines in your neighborhood. Even better would be to pick a meal from a different region or country and cook it at home yourself. To help you get started cooking your own international meals I found a book on Amazon. It is entitled the The Best Recipes in the World. This is a book from legendary author Mark Bittman which is geared toward the home chef (perfect for me.)

Enjoy your international food week staycation!

I was watching T.V. tonight (which is rare) and I saw a commercial for the ESPN Golf Schools. This got me thinking. I never have any money to take golf lessons because I am always having to save for a summer vacation. Because this year I’ll be taking a staycation, I can take golf lessons at a local club with the money I saved by not taking my normal vacation.

I went to the ESPN Golf School website and was surprised to find that the prices were not completely out of reach. You can get a basic 3-Club Tour for $525. There are, of course, more expensive options but I’m trying to stay cheap. I also wanted to make sure this idea could qualify as a staycation idea, which means minimal travel. They have courses available in just about everywhere so you won’t have to travel far. You can go to the website to find more information.

You can also Save up to 40% off your next round of golf at over 200 golf courses!

FOUR!

I don’t know about you, but nothing quenches my summer thirst like a good refreshing microbrew. A nice feature about the local breweries is that many of them offer a guided tour of how beer is made. Sometimes they will even let you have a small sample of some of their wares! I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a great staycation idea to me! You’ll be amazed at the science and the technology that goes into making one of the world’s oldest and favorite drinks.

The problem is, especially when you are traveling or new to an area, is finding a brewery nearby. One of my favorite tools for finding a microbrew is The Beer Mapping Project the creator of this site has gone to great lengths to map just about every microbrew and brew pub. He also done a great job of including lots of tools and interactive content like reviews and forums. They also just released a Google Homepage widget that displays a random “location of the day” You can download the beer widget here

Funny little sidenote. I actually started my own beer mapping project at: Beerfindit.com before I discovered The Beer Mapping Project. Sometimes, you just have to know when you have been beat.

You can also make your own microbrews at home!

Well, gas prices are high and you might not be able to travel in person to your favorite exotic destination, but you can still see your favorite place live…from a webcamera! I was traveling through the blogosphere when I stumbled upon this interesting post from Lifecruiser about seeing the world by webcamera. Not a bad staycation idea at all!

EarthCam - probably the best organized webcam site on the internet

OpenTopia – has a great directory of webcams from around the world and encyclopedia as well

Fisgonia.com – nice collection of beach webcams (*grab a Corona and your there*)

The Webcam-Network – very long list of webcams from…well, everywhere!

Thanks to Lifecrusier for the suggestion: See the world by webcamera

Here’s a staycation idea!

If you are having some guests over this summer, why not impress them with a Retro looking Hot Dog Roller! Nothing brings back memories of classic diners, ball games and family gatherings like gathering around a Hot Dog Roller. I enjoy the taste of hot dogs that have been cooked on a roller, much more than a grill!

Retro Series Hot Dog Roller

Wal-mart.com also has available a Retro Series Kettle Popcorn Maker and a Retro Series Kettle Popcorn Maker! How Cool!