June 13, 2026 • 54 mins
The Wishing Well's Harry Reif discusses why travel is the ultimate Father’s Day gift in this inspiring episode of A Life Less Ordinary.
From unforgettable multi-generational trips to bucket-list adventures like Normandy, Route 66, African safaris, and luxury cruises, we explore how creating shared memories beats any traditional gift. Whether your dad loves history, adventure, sports, or nostalgia, get expert travel ideas, planning tips, and destination inspiration to make this year’s celebration truly meaningful. Listen for heartwarming stories, insider advice, and the best ways to turn miles into lifelong memories with dad.
From unforgettable multi-generational trips to bucket-list adventures like Normandy, Route 66, African safaris, and luxury cruises, we explore how creating shared memories beats any traditional gift. Whether your dad loves history, adventure, sports, or nostalgia, get expert travel ideas, planning tips, and destination inspiration to make this year’s celebration truly meaningful. Listen for heartwarming stories, insider advice, and the best ways to turn miles into lifelong memories with dad.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a Lifeless Ordinary. It's a travel show and
podcasts from your friends at the wishing Well two forty
three f Avenue in Harsmurg and online at the wishing
Well dot biz. The wishing Well is your ultimate luxury concierge,
travel agency and A Lifeless Ordinary is a travel show
and podcast hosted by Terry Dean, bringing her over forty
years of experience in the travel industry to help guide
(00:21):
you to great experiences in your travel, whether it be
around the block, around the country, or around the world.
Let's bring in Terry Dean and say hello. But today
let's bring in Harry Rife and say hello. Well, hello, Chris,
It's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good to see you too. Terry took her own advice.
She's on vacation.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Good for her. Yes. Indeed, if there's ever a person
in the travel business who needs a vacation, it's Terry Dean.
You get that right, say you, Ben.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I've been great, been everywork, been to Hawaii and I
had a great trip out there with a group of
our travelers. We explored four of the different islands. I
was up in the volcano before it erupted recently. Good
about a day and a half. I beat it and
came down. Pele was kind to me.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You didn't end up as a sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I was not the sacrifice. The bus driver threatened to
sacrifice one of us. And it was great. We were
up there on top of the on top of the volcano.
We were up there on top of some of the
old volcanoes where the observatories are now where you look
down upon the clouds. Oh, you're not in an airplane,
but you're looking down upon the clouds. You're at fourteen
(01:29):
thousand feet. Oh, actually the tallest mountain if you count
the part of it that's below sea level.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Interesting, Yes, indeed, Huh.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
So what else is new in the travel world?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, lots is happening in the travel world, But I
think the biggest things that are happening is that people
are traveling like crazy. Crest they are. We talk about
pentop demands so many times after COVID. It's not COVID anymore.
It's just people love to try. They love the experience,
(02:01):
they love creating the memories, they love exploring.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Has any events this year, like the two fifty celebration
or the FIFA World Cup, has that contributed to travel.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I think it has. That doesn't affect us as directly
as it does some other agencies that specialize in that
kind of travel. But FIFA World Cup clearly has a
lot of people coming, most of them coming to the
United States from outside from other countries. So that's not
affecting the wishing well as directly, but it does affect
(02:33):
the travel industry. It does affect our ability to schedule
vacations to some of the cities all in North America
where the FIFA action is happening. The hotels are scarce,
transportation is scarce, air is scarce. Everything is scarce.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And we're going to talk a little bit about some
of those travel options in our show today, Yes we are.
Our show today is entitled Miles and Memories with Dad.
Travel is the ultimate Father's Day gift. I'm a stepdad,
and so I always think, well, I'm not, this isn't
my holiday. My wife always says, you know, as much
as a step ladder isn't your real ladder. You know, yeah,
(03:13):
it's your day. I think it's real. And so I'm
excited today to be talking about travel as a Father's
Day gift because if my step sons are listening. This
is a great idea to take your stepfather on some
travel vacation plans.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
That's right. And grandfathers too, What about grandfathers. I'm a
father and a grandfather.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Any man in your life that's been instrumental in your success,
they get to celebrate on Father's Day.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
You get that, right. And there are so many dads
that may not be biological dads. Yeah, but dad is
the person that shaped you, that made you who you are.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So when I was a kid, I was involved with
Big Brothers Big Sisters Love that organization. I was the
little obviously, we were the longest match in the organization
at that time. And his name is Paul. He's since
past he had cancer. Paul was he was very much
a father figure. He and his wife, she had a
(04:11):
little and the four of us we were this little family,
and you know, they really were instrumental in in who
I became. He was the one who got me interested
in radio and photography. And then my mom got remarried
when I was a teenager, and my stepfather he got
me interested in building things. And he's a mechanic and
(04:34):
taking care of cars. And I've never been good at that,
but I still like to talk to him about it.
And you know, now I find myself in that role
with two step sons.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So it's a big job being a father figure.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
It is. They don't warn you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So my question, and I don't know if you went
through this. I know I did with my dad because
my dad was one of those guys who he was
a simple man. There was whatever he he needed, he had.
And my question to you this morning and to listeners
also to think about a little bit, is have you
ever found yourself right about this time of year, just
(05:11):
ahead a Father's Day in a store because you're looking
for a Father's Day gift and you're looking around, You're
looking around, You're still looking around, and you're wondering another tie,
a coffee mug, a gadget, a shirt. There's nothing here
for my dad. Have you found yourself in that position ever?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Most gift giving opportunities like that, I find myself in
that position.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah. And when you think about dads, what they really
cheerish as a dad, you myself everybody listening, as a dad,
what you really cherish is time time with your family,
memories with your family, special occasions with your family, and
so That's what I want to talk about this morning,
(05:57):
and I want to talk about in the context of travel,
because travel creates shared experience. Travel creates memories, and if
you have shared experience that you have great memories. Those
become family stories that get handed down generation to generation
to generation. And I think that's you know, you were
(06:18):
talking about some of the changes in travel that we
are seeing this year. One of the big trends, and
you and Terry have talked about this a lot, is
multi generational travel.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right, And I'm going to ask about that. I know
you have different categories of travel, different different types of dads,
different places that they'd enjoy. If I'm you know here
I am. I'm fifty four years old, and I'm trying
to plan some travel with my father, and maybe you
know my children are going along as well. We want
(06:50):
to make it multi generational. Am I picking a place
that dad wants to go? Am I picking a place
that the grandkids will enjoy, so that he enjoys the
time with them a little bit of everything. How do
I make the decision of where to go if I'm
taking Dad and grandkids? Get The answer is, and do
we bring wives and grandma too? Yeah, the answer is
(07:11):
all the above and more.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And that's the fantastic part about travel if you do
it thoughtfully. If you plan travel thoughtfully, Chris, you can
find travel that's interesting to everybody. Every piece of that
travel may not be interesting to everybody, but as long
as people have things that they can do along the way,
(07:36):
they're going to come back with some great memories. And again,
you and Terry talk so often about how she interviews
potential travelers. What she's trying to find is what's interesting,
what do those people like? And when you ask about
mom and grandma and sisters. We love to have the
family come in, all the people that are going to
(07:58):
be traveling. If I know what they like, I can
curate something that's going to have something attractive for every
one of them.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Is it a bad idea to try to surprise dad
and say we've already booked the travel or should he
be or should the surprise be We're going to do
this and now we want you to.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Be part of the planning. That's a great question. I
think that depends a lot on who the dad is.
There are some of us dads that like to feel
and we know we never are, but we like to
feel in control, and surprises may not be the best
for us. Other dads say just do it and if
I'm there, I'll be happy because I'm with you. You
(08:36):
have to know who your dad is. And again we
have solutions for all that. We can't help you plan
that trip and get very specific. We can also help
you plan that trip and lay it out as a
template and say here's what you can tell Dad he's got,
but you've got the flexibility to change it. We don't
lock things down real well, it's kind of like a
(08:58):
tinker toy version of the trip. Or if dad wants
to be in control, then you give Dad a travel
gift certificate and you let them know that here are
the people that are going on this trip, and he's
going to head honcho this, you know, with your help.
So that way Dad's in control. So you have to
(09:18):
play to the personality. That makes sense. Yeah, so I
talked about Dad's and I talk about the best Father's
Day gift is not something that you put in a
box like a shirt or a tie, but it's something
you experienced together. And the key is matching that trip
to the dad, and the Dad's going to be the
the what do we call lead dog? I guess on
(09:39):
the trip, so everyone's got to be pleased. But it's
really dad's gifts. So I think if somebody gets that
extra percentage in there, it's going to be dad. So
I thought about several different types of dads, and I
want to walk through some ideas this morning with you
and our listeners about things that I would propose if
(10:00):
I know a little more about your dad and he
happens to fit in one of these categories. How's that
for a place to start. I like it, all right.
So the first one I'm going to do is really
geared toward my son, who is a dad. I said
it was a granddad. One of my sons is a
history loving dad. He has a job that's not in history,
but he studied history because he loved it. I know
(10:23):
you love history too. He went off and did a
different thing for his career, but deep down inside, he's
a history loving dad. So I've got a couple ideas
for these dads. One of them I'm going to suggest
is a very special trip, and that's one that I've
been on personally and love it. And that was I
(10:43):
visited Paris, Normandy and the d DA Beaches. Okay, how's
that sound?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Okay, So I put together a tour where you spend
a week in Paris. The better part of the week
in Paris, you're going to tour the Louver. A lot
of history there, a lot of art, a lot of culture.
Maybe you go up in the Eiffel Tower, the historic
Eiffel Tower, have lunch, have dinner, then moving on. You're
(11:10):
going to move out of Paris. After you explore the
city a little bit, you're going to move on and
you're going to go out to the fantastic Normandy region
when you're going to experience Omaha Beach, You're going to
experience the American Cemetery, the German military Cemetery, and you're
going to see where a lot of history happened. All
(11:32):
of World War Two is right there, you're talking about
D Day. You're going to get to see the way
that the French people feel about Americans. You're going to
experience both Paris a lot of stereotypes about that. I
think the Parisians are very nice. As long as you're
a nice American, you'll find nice Bearisians. But when you
(11:54):
go out to Normandy, it's a very very special feeling
when I went their people are still thanking me for
what happened during World War Two, and it wasn't me
that did it, but they're thanking me as an American.
That's a very very special feeling. And you see the
appreciation the patriotism there. It's a wonderful trip seeing those cemeteries,
(12:20):
walking on those beaches, walking through those cemeteries. I mean,
doesn't it just spark your imagination and the sensory kind
of feelings you'd have.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Well, when you mentioned Normandy, my first thought was, this
is going to be a heavy vacation, a lot of
emotion visiting the beaches there. But the fact that you're
doing Paris and you have that part, you're teaming up
those two events. I can see how this would be
something that especially if dad is old enough to remember
(12:54):
maybe his father serving in World War Two. I could
see where this would be an amazing experience. And I'm
going to balance that with another activity at the end.
This trip went out to the Blayu region.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It's got the half timbered houses, cobblestone streets, historic Norman
Gothic cathedral, and after that you're going to taste some
traditional Calvados. You know what calvados is. That is a
special type of apple brandy. It goes back to the
eighth century, now eighteenth eighth century, so I'm talking about Charlemagne.
(13:35):
It's a kind of a hybrid kind of cider, and
you're going to taste that in this region. That's where
they make it. It's native there. You can if you
don't want to go with the brandy, you can go
with the cider. Maybe you've got the grandkids with you
and the brandy's too much, so maybe some cider for them,
brandy for the grandpa's and the dads. But then there's
(13:59):
also a beautiful museum in this town of art and history,
the town of Bayou. So that would be a great trip.
I've looked at it for late August. Prices out very well,
and I think that would make for a fantastic Father's
Day gift. Depending on how big you make that group,
(14:20):
that family, we can tailor that trip because it's just
too iconic destination. Yeah, okay, so maybe that's not where
you want to go. Maybe you want to look at
something different. I think that's a great trip, but maybe
you could do both. Probably not, But how about if
you stay on this side of the pond. It's America's
(14:41):
two hundred and fiftieth birthday yere, So I'd be remiss
if I didn't come up with a trip that I've
titled the American Story. Okay, And when I think about
the American Story that starts in Boston, the Revolutionary area,
all the revolutionary roots.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I have never been to Boston.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Oh, Boston's that fantastic town. I lived up that way
up in New Hampshire and I was two hours from Boston,
so I travel there often. Boston's full of history and
when you get to downtown Boston, it's a very lived
in city, Chris, very pleasant city, lots of great places
to stay. And for this trip I would include some
(15:21):
of the iconic destinations down there. The Old North Church.
Everybody knows about the Old North Church, Paul Revere, right
Faniel Hall, where a lot of the historic deliberations happened.
And then right across from that is some of the
most iconic education educational institutions, including MIT just right there.
(15:46):
I celebrated Fourth of July in Boston Harbor one year.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
That sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, it was a great trip. The fireworks that they
do down there is fantastic, but it's a place where
you can go all year round. You've got the old
historic market down there in downtown Boston, the old farmers Market,
and all of this is right, you know, in a
just walking distance from some nice hotels downtown. You can
(16:13):
see some of the historic ships that they have docked there.
So you spend a couple of days in Boston. But
from Boston, you'll jump on and I chose to ride
the train because what a great way to travel up
and down the East Coast. Ride the train up to
New York. Okay, Okay, So you'll take the Amtrak Acela,
which is the fast train that'll take you up to
(16:36):
New York, and you'll visit the South Street Seaport, you'll
visit some of the historic neighborhoods there, little Italy, Chinatown.
You can't be in New York and not do Times
Squaring Broadway, right, Yeah, as long as it's not New
Year's Eve. Yeah, too many people for you, Oh my gosh,
there all day. I was there a day before New
(16:57):
Year's Eve one year. You're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I love New York City. I went to Chinatown and
just picked a restaurant I didn't. Nobody made any suggestions.
It was I think because there was a parking spot
out front. The singularly the best Chinese meal I've ever
had in my life, I still to this day, and
that was twenty some years ago. To this day. Wish
(17:22):
I knew the name of the restaurant so I could
make a trip up just to go back.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah. New York is a fantastic city. They say it's
the city that never sleeps, and they're right, it never sleeps.
There's always something to do, always something to see. And
New York is a relatively safe place to be. It
really is, especially if you stay in the you know,
the touristy neighborhoods. It's well patrolled, pretty safe, I think.
(17:48):
And Chinatown has some very special places in there. Just
going into it with the big arches is fantastic. We
always do the hop on, hop off bus in New
York City, even though I've ridden it a dozen times.
Every time I ride it, I see something new. Those
are those double deck or London buses where you see
(18:09):
the sites, you see the iconic architecture. You come about
six inches below the traffic lights as you're going through
the intersection, so you've got a great vantage point and
you get to a lot of places. One of the
places that I included on this tour that you have
to visit. If you're talking about the American Story, you've
got to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty,
(18:30):
so you'd also do those locations.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
New York.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You're going to also see the brand new ninet eleven Museum,
which is absolutely fantastic, so well done, so well executed.
Just places that you can't miss in if you want
a deli, New York's a place to go right, and
you can catch a Broadway show if you do it right.
(18:54):
You have some help, some guidance, which we're happy to
provide for you. You will show you where to go
on and find the half price Broadway tickets so you
can go see The Lion King or some other show
that's that's playing. There lots of smaller theaters as well
as the well known theaters. But New York City's fantastic,
But you got to move on. The American Story isn't
(19:16):
just Boston and New York.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I gotta go to Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Philadelphia. I lived there too.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I love Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I do too. I think it's fantastic city.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
I went and I did sort of a self guided
tour of Independence Hall, kind of just let you roam around,
and I enjoyed that thoroughly. The Liberty Bell wasn't as
exciting as I thought it was going to be because
I didn't like having to wait to get in, and
then it was like, yeah, that's a bell. I was like,
you gotta go early in the morning. Yeah, And then
(19:45):
I wanted to go to the Mint, but they were close.
It was a Saturday billy mint.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
You don't they don't work weekends, and then they don't.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So keep that in mind if you got someone who
loves coin collecting like I did.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
That whole area downtown is I think it's one one
of the smallest national parks, and it's one of the
few that's entirely, you know, part of a city. But
that whole Independence Mall area there is a national park.
You can go visit Ben Franklin's uh you know, business
(20:17):
place and home right there. But then if you get
outside just a little bit of that area not far
you visit South Street. Back to the sixties songs, remember
South Street, South Street, where you're gonna meet on South Street?
You have the river that that that runs, you know,
right on the edge of the city there between Philly
and New Jersey. City Hall, iconic piece of architecture, and
(20:42):
of course the Philadelphia Museum of Art, famous for the
statue out there, a rocky statue. Yeah, he's been temporarily relocated,
I understand for some renovations, but I'm sure he's in
the neighborhood somewhere. And if you're in downtown Philly, you're
going to enjoy some of those Philly pretzels. You're going
(21:03):
to enjoy a cheese steak. And if you like Farmers
Market and didn't have enough in Boston, guess what they
have in Philly right downtown as well, a fantastic the
Italian market down there. You're going to see a lot
in Philly. Spend some time there. But then if you're
doing the American story, one more stop, go south to Washington, DC.
(21:27):
And if you haven't spent time on the National Mall,
visiting the Lincoln Memorial, of World War II Memorial, the
Vietnam Memorial, you've missed a lot, but take a tour
of the Capitol. If you've never done that, check out
the White House area. So those are all great, great
areas that you can do. But that's the history loving Dad.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
And really, with it being the two hundred and fiftieth birthday,
this is the time to go hit all those historic
spots because they really the impact is going to be
much bigger now is everybody's talking about it. I'm thinking
about what was happening quarter millennia ago. Yeah, pretty exciting.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
If you think about each one of those locations, there
a story, and you've got three generations that you can
pass this story, discuss that story. What a great thing
to talk about is you're enjoying dinner for your history
loving dat.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Our show today today is entitled Miles and Memories with Dad.
Why travel is the ultimate Father's Day gift? And if
you haven't figured out the answer to that already, it's
because you get to spend time together, yes, and enjoy
some great sights and great time together. We're going to
take a quick break when we come back, we're gonna
visit other locations for maybe a different type of Dad.
(22:40):
It's next here on a lifeless ordinatey. Why do you
recharge your cell phone?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Maybe because, just like you, it functions much better with
a little revitalization. The wishing Well helps people refresh and
revitalize with individually designed, customized vacation planning. We'll send you
anywhere in the world, plus offer advice on packing, navigating customs,
and more. Really do come true at the wishing Well.
Visit us at two forty three and a half Avenue,
(23:04):
call us at five four zero nine zero eight two
three three three, or on the web at the Wishingwell
dot biz.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Hey, welcome back to a lifeless ordinary. Every Saturday morning,
we sit down and talk travel, and it's with our
friends from the wishing Well. They're on f Avenue in Harrisonburg.
You can find them online at the wishing Well dot
biz or give them a call. They'd love to talk
to you. Five to four to oho nine oh eight
twenty three thirty three. Our show today is entitled Miles
and Memories with Dad Father's Days Next weekend, Yeah, yeah,
(23:35):
a week coming up. I better plan out something from
by that why travel is the ultimate Father's Day gift.
We were talking about Dad's who are history loving? And
we talked about a great trip to France and Normandy
and then the patriotic two fifty celebration Boston to Philadelphia,
(23:56):
d C. New York City and Washington, So lots of
great places for history loving dads. Now, what's our next
category of travel loving father? I'm talking next about the
dads that say, remember when I did you? Nostalgic those guys,
(24:17):
those ones that all tell you about what happened that
they did. That's me.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, So I'm talking about nostalgic dads. Chris, and I've
got a couple of things that I looked at for them,
and one of them is the classic trip down Route
sixty six. I've been on a very short portion of
sixty six Route sixty six, and you can approach it
a number of different ways. There are people that approach
(24:42):
it by getting in their car and driving down Route
sixty six. There are people who can work on trips
that you actually travel the route of Route sixty six,
but you do a lot of it by train, which
is really a great way to do it because driving
in a car bring some pyrols sometime, especially if you
(25:02):
want to take a nostalgic car right because it might
break down. So a train is not going to break down.
And there's also some trips that we have that combine
motor coach and train. So Route sixty six trips are great,
very affordable, very exciting.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Where's the entrance and exit of Route sixty six. It's
not a short drive. No, it's not a short drive.
You can go all the way to the West coast.
A lot of these trips will start in Chicago, That's
where I thought, and move from there and go all
the way to the West coast. But you don't have
to do the whole Route sixty six this year. You
can segment it and do it in a.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Couple of years.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
I don't remember the town we were in, but it
was when we went to the Grand Canyon. I think
we were on Route sixty six for maybe a quarter
of a mile.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You did it.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
We stopped at a McDonald's and there was a sign
outside saying I got my big Mac on Route sixty
six or something. So we got our picture taken and
got back on the bus.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You need to get on the bus and see the
Burmachhe signs too. But let me talk about another one,
and this one is especially dear to my heart because
it's a place that I used to go every year
as a child, and that is to the Henry Ford
Museum and just outside of Detroit, and dearborn. There's two
(26:19):
areas right next to each other, both created by Henry Ford.
One is the Henry Ford Museum, which is about the
size of a Smithsonian museum, one of the large Smithsonian museums.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I've heard of it, but I'm not familiar. Is it
a museum that was founded by Henry Ford so it's
named after him, or is it a museum about Henry Ford.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
It was founded and built by him and his good buddy,
with a lot of help from his good buddy guy
by name of Thomas Edison.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, part of him.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Okay, so this is a This is basically his collection
of everything related to the Industrial Revolution. Okay. So it's
got old cars in there, It's got very historic cars
in there. Of course, got model ts. Can show your
grandson or your son how the Model Tea was built.
They've kind of exploded it hanging on strings to see
(27:11):
how all the pieces fell together. You can see the
first Honda built in the United States. You can see
the limousine that President John Kennedy was in when he
was assassinated, and see how you know the car was
evolved for the special purposes of transporting the present. You
can see farm equipment if you like red or yellow
(27:33):
or green, whatever your brand of farm equipment. He's got
all that, you know, the old reapers and harvesters, and
I don't even know the names of all the things.
He's got the power plant that used to and I
mean the physical power plant that used to power the
old Rouge plant where they built some of the first automobiles,
Henry Forest production facility. He's got things that go back
(27:56):
in all kinds of areas. He's got old drive in
theaters with with the posts and the speakers on there.
I remember that drug stores with the stools and the counters.
He's got the bus that Rosa Parks was in for
the Civil rights move This is a big museum. He's
got locomotives that come from all around the world, including
(28:17):
half sized locomotives, and I never saw one until I
went there, a double sized locomotive that the Canadian Pacific
Railway used to use up in the north of Canada
to fight through the snow in the wintertime. So that's
a great place. And next to it is a place
called Greenfield Village, which is a place where he's assembled
a collection of historic workshops. Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Workshop,
(28:42):
the Wright Brothers Workshop from Kitty Hawk, the Goodyear Workshop
from Ohio. He put them on trucks and transported them
in and built a little town. And so these are
next to each other. And this trip is really good
for Father's Day for nostalgic dads because it's part of
a trip that we have going the summer, Chris, and
We're going to visit Macana Island and on the way
(29:06):
back we're gonna stop at Henry Ford Museum. So we've
combined Macano Island. We stop in a German town called
Frankenmuth and have a very traditional family style apple strudel
and everything German dinner. We're doing that in September of
this year.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
If you haven't had an authentic German dinner, Man, you
are missing out. You are.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
My grandfather was from Germany. I ate this place so
many times. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I As you talk about this, I'm like, I'm on board.
Let's go, and if you want more, they bring you more.
This is German.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Hospitality, family style. Love it. And you know, if you
want to wash it down with a traditional German adult beverage,
they have some of that there too.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Can I bring my own stein. I've got my stein
from Germany.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
They may well fill that stein for you bring that.
So yeah, if you're interested in that, please do visit
our website though wishing well dot biz and look under
group trips. There are still I think just a handful
of spots left from for that trip. It leaves from
our office right here on nef Avenue in Harrisonburg, and
that is September twelfth through the nineteenth. What a great
(30:20):
thing to give dad for Father's Day, especially if he's
that nostalgic dad. So a couple others, and I just
want to list them without going into him, because I
want to make sure I have time for us to
talk about the other kind of dads too. But if
Route sixty six and classic car museums and old fashioned
places like mcin Island that have no cars on them,
(30:42):
there are but three. There's a police car, a fire car,
OH car, and ambulance and a fire engine. That's it.
The rest are bicycles and horses. I thought everything was
horse you know, there are bicycles and there are those
three vehicles. There's a police car, a fire engine, and
an ambulance.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, so we're going to visit the island and all
part of that trip. But the other kinds of things,
if you've got a nostalgic dad, let us put together
a trip to one of the hall of fames, maybe
the Baseball Hall of Fame, maybe the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. Maybe. Also, if he's nostalgic, think about
a family vacation that you took when you were very
(31:20):
young and recreate that. Ask us to recreate that for you,
relive that, you know, twenty thirty forty years later, and
bring the grandkids along. You know, sometimes the greatest trip
isn't somewhere new, but it's somewhere that's really meaningful and
filled with memories. And it lets this nostalgic dad say, hey,
(31:41):
let me show you where I used to come when
I was your age. Sonny, I have to go to
Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach, we can do it. Another kind
of trip that I think is really interesting is for
the dad that's action and adventure. This is the dad
that loves moving, loves going, loves challenges. And I've got
(32:02):
a couple one we've talked about many times on here,
and that's the Rocky Mountaineer trip. Yeah, that's a trip
where you get to explore the Canadian Rockies, go through
two of the Canadian National parks and get off and
just commune with nature while you're living in the lap
of luxury.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It looks like something out of a movie. You're gonna
be this isn't real. It is real, amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
It's fantastic. And the animals that you see along the way.
And if you don't want to go to Canada or
don't think that that's the right place for you, there's
a version of this same trip that does the American
Rocky Mountains. So the Rocky trips are fantastic. We love them.
We've got trips with dude ranches. I'm looking at one
(32:46):
of those for my family this year. That's going to
be my Father's Day gift to my family. I guess
I can give a gift to my family on a
Father's Day. Why not. I'm looking at some dude ranches,
but a couple that I want to talk to you
and the listeners about this morning. I have something I'm
calling the Polar Bear Adventure. Okay, if you are the
(33:07):
adventure dad, the action adventure dad, We're going to take
you up to Winnipeg, Canada, and we're going to travel
to a small town called Churchill. That's a trading post, Chris.
It was established in nineteen excuse me, seventeen seventeen, a
trading post seventeen seventeen, so it's you know, three hundred
(33:27):
years old, and it was used by the famous Hudson
Bay Company. While you're there, you're going to board the
especially built thirty passenger vehicles that they call polar Rovers.
And what they do is they'll go out in the
tundra in search of polar bears, Arctic foxes, Arctic hare
(33:48):
and in search of the infamous Northern Lights. Can you
imagine that. Yeah, this company works side by side. It's
one of our virtuoso providers. They work side by side
with the World Wildlife Federation, so they are doing things
that are in the interest of these animals. But what
a tremendous experience to be able to do that, spend
(34:11):
a week and be out there in the wilderness. So
that's if you're the action adventure dad or one of
the things I know, you know Terry has talked with
you about before too, are the African safaris. They come
in so many flavors, so many varieties, and they're so
filled with happy, thrilling, one invoking things that you can do.
(34:35):
What a great way to bond with your family. When
you're looking at zebras blending into the to the environment there,
you're looking at their predators. You're looking at lumbering giraffes
grazing the tops of the tree tops. You're looking at
lion cubs wrestling like big housecats. The safaris have a
(34:55):
lot of different flavors and they can take you to
places that you know I would never go by myself.
These are escorted again, they're curated. They're done in concert
with the government and wildlife authorities to make sure they're
doing everything they can to preserve that wildlife so that
generations and generations of families can be out there. When
(35:21):
I was in Hawaii, I was on the set where
they filmed Jurassic Park. Okay, so I wrote by the sign.
I have a picture of myself with the Jurassic Park sign.
These safaris aren't just like riding through Jurassic Park getting scared.
But you've got nature advisors, curators, experts. They can explain
(35:43):
what's going on with the animals and their habitats. They
tell you more about what you're looking at, so you
don't just see things, but you understand things. And if
you see something and you understand it, you're going to
remember it a whole lot longer. Some of these people
and some of these safaris, excuse me, also include activities
(36:03):
where you can go swimming. So you're out there in
the jungle and you're swimming safely at the base of
Victoria Falls. How about that for an action and adventure Dad.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
You're gonna tell people about that.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, that's a message that will go on. You've given
dad challenges, thrills. I didn't mention Costa Rica. That's another
place that you can go for a lot of adventure, thrilled,
very safe, very lovely, ziplining through the jungle and Costa
Rica rainforest exploration. All of these are for your dad
(36:37):
if he's that action an adventure person, the one that's
the thrill seeker. Just a fantastic I think, a fantastic opportunity.
My next one that I want to talk to talk
about are the cruise dads, and cruising is probably one
of the most popular things. Cruise ships keep coming online
(36:58):
and coming online and coming online and coming online. But
One of the things that I think is important is
you look at your dad and think about what kind
of trip is right for him. Is to think about
the differences in cruising. There are river cruises that we've
talked about, there are ocean cruises that we've talked about,
(37:19):
and there are expedition cruises that we've talked about. So
I'm want to start with the expedition cruises because we
just talked about those action and adventure dads. Expedition cruises
are those ones where you may down a wet suit, okay,
and you may visit Antarctica. You're going to see penguins
and glaciers. You're going to pass through the Drake Passage
(37:42):
where the oceans meet the Atlantic Pacific meat one of
the roughest pieces of water in the world.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
You don't have to do that, but you can do that.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Some of these expedition ships have onboard marinas where they
send out little submarine and smaller watercraft so that you
can get out there and actually be a part of
the nature and be close to the animals. Expedition cruising
is fantastic, very seasonal cruising. You can do Antarctica, you
(38:18):
can do the Arctic circle either one that's for that
adventurous to add, but then they're the tamer kinds of
river cruising too. That'd be me, that's you. Okay, So
you have to choose. We have river cruising and we
have ocean cruising.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I mean, I would prefer the river cruise based on
everything I know, but I think the ocean cruise is
probably more in line with my budget.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Both of them are great. They have river cruises and
ocean cruises that are local in the United States, and
when you think of river cruising, most people think of Europe.
The one that I looked at that we have our
most common cruise on the Rhine River. It's a week.
I have twelve people that are returning, actually returning to
(39:05):
the United States later today that got together as a
group and said we want to do this. So they
did a Rhine River cruise with a couple extra days
ahead of time, and they're on their way home this afternoon.
That's our most popular river cruise. The thing that's attractive
about river cruising is you get to see history and
(39:28):
you actually step off inside of these small and medium
sized towns along the way. It's not like you go
from the airport take a bus there, you are there,
you get off the ship, you are downtown. You walk
to city center in about five minutes or less on
a river cruise, and they are so plentiful. The cruise
(39:52):
lines have different kind of personalities to them in terms
of the food, the decor what's included. Most of them
will include some types of tours along the way, so
you can go up and watch them make cuckoo clocks
or torts. You can go in, you know, go into
the black forest and see those kinds of things. Or
you can go and experience different different kinds of activities
(40:16):
as you're going through the areas. Go see the windmills
in person. Maybe whatever's you know, your fancy. You can
see that. Lots of castles along the way, you see
nine hundred year old castles, you see palaces. You can
stop and learn the waltz. If you want to have
that German dinner that we were just talking about in Germany,
(40:37):
that would be one you wouldn't forget. You couldn't couldn't
miss that. The food, French pastry, Austrian pastry. It's so
tough to decide. You have to do both. Chris German
sausage beers, wines and more. And one of the other
real popular river cruises are up and down the Nile
River in Egypt, something that I've done a little short
(40:59):
segment of, but I want to do the larger cruise.
You're cruising through history, so again the type of Dad manners,
but you can combine that too. We talked about ocean cruises.
I mentioned I would just return from Hawaii. One of
the neatest cruises that we do in Hawaii is on
a ship called the Pride of America. It's one of
(41:21):
the few cruise ships that's flagged in the United States.
That means it's subject to all the US maritime laws
in terms of staffing and all of that. A little
tougher to flag it in the United States, Senators, in
some other countries where most cruise ships are headquartered. But
the reason that the Pride of America is flagged in
(41:42):
the United States is because every where she stops is
in the United States. You are in Hawaii the whole time,
including you know what the name of the Big Island is,
don't you? No Big Island. The formal name it's Hawaii.
That is Hawaii. The group of islands is Hawaii, and
(42:02):
the big island is Hawaii. So you make two stops.
You stop at Kona and you stop at Helo, and
the big island you do Owahu, you do Maui, you
do Lanai, and you do it from a cruise ship,
which is really cool. And that's the advantage of all
kinds of cruising. Once you get on board, you unpack
once and then you move destination to destination to destination.
(42:26):
So if you're not a lover of packing, cruisings for you.
Lots of different styles. There's the little ships, the river cruises,
there's them big ships, the specialty ships, like the exploration ships,
the expedition ships. Some of the ships have cities on
them in neighborhoods. They have roller coasters, they have go
(42:47):
kart tracks, other ones very intimate, small, high levels of service,
luxury end to end. And when you do ocean cruising,
that's when you see that biggest variety can go literally
anywhere in the world. And one of the things I'll
say about cruising and ocean cruising, there are a lot
(43:09):
of cruising security cats out there. They say, I don't
know if I'm gonna like this. I'm afraid I don't
want to rock. I don't want to be on the water.
One of the most popular cruises is something that makes
a great Father's Day gift is what I call my
training Wheel cruise. You can leave from either Baltimore or
from Norfolk and go to Bermuda, very safe, very beautiful,
(43:35):
very close island. You cruise there overnight and the ship
parks there for several days and stays there for several days,
and you can do activities and you have your headquarters
on the ship, so again all your lodging, all your meals,
all your activities are headquartered on the ship. And then
you sail back. So if you don't like that short
(43:57):
sail out and that short sail back, you still had
a great vacation and at least you know, if you
like it, then we're going to move you up from
the training Wheel crews to something a little bit bigger.
But that's for the cruise dad, And it's a great
way to bring multiple generations together because on a cruise
ship there's something always going. Some of the cruise ships
(44:18):
have casinos, almost all of them have kids clubs in there.
They have pools, they have Bengo, they have trivia, so
there's going to be something and you can meet at
meals and share what you've been doing all day long.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
I think that if my kids are listening, that's the
one for me so far.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Us.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
You know, take some mental notes. Our show is some
title Miles and Memories with Dad. Why travel is the
ultimate Father's Day gift. Next up, we're going to talk
about sports, love and dads here on a Life Less Ordinary.
Why do you recharge your cell phone?
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Maybe because, just like you, it functions much better with
a little revitalization. The wishing Well helps people refresh and
revitalize with individually design, customized vacation planning. We'll send you
anywhere in the world, plus offer advice on packing, navigating customs,
and more. Wishes really do come true at the wishing Well.
Visit us at two forty three and a half Avenue,
(45:13):
call us at five four zero nine zero eight two
three three three, or on the web at the Wishingwell
dot biz.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
And welcome back to a Life Last Ordinary travel show
and podcasts from your friends at the wishing Well on
nef Avenue and Harrisonburg online at the wishing Well dot
biz and you can call them at five four h
nine oh eight twenty three thirty three. Our show today
is Miles and Memories with Dad. Why travel is the
ultimate Father's Day gift and we're up to sports loving dads.
(45:40):
I did a sports vacation once and enjoyed it immensely.
I look forward to hearing some of your ideas of
places we can take dub if you love sports.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, and sports is such a huge category.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
I'm thinking golf trips, I'm thinking baseball. You mentioned Hall
of Fames earlier. There's gonna be a lot of places
to dead.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
And part of the finesse of planning the right sports
trip with dad or with granddad, remember I'm granddad with
either one of us, is thinking about what to do.
I did a trip last year with my sons who
were certified divers, and they wanted to go and do
(46:19):
some diving, and they wanted to begin to introduce their
children to the world of deep sea diving. So I
found a resort and we spent time at that resort.
And one of the perks at that resort was they
had a diving school that was included in the resort fee,
(46:39):
and you could do a dive every single day. They'd
give you a tank and you could do a dive
every single day. So the two dads recertified the children
that were old enough. Both boys were old enough. One
of them got certified and went out on his first
you know, ocean dive with his dad and with his uncle,
(47:03):
and the younger one did the what they call snoobo,
which is a you know, in a large pool, and
he's practicing. He's going to go back and he's going
to do his ocean dive sometime. And I talked about
mixing everything together, remember making sure everyone's happy. Well, here's news, Grandpa,
don't dive. But I bet you loved hearing the stories.
(47:26):
I loved hearing the stories, and I loved watching them.
I've got video watching them, and I just, you know,
I let him know, hey, Grandpa doesn't feel like getting
in the water today. I didn't say I'm afraid to dive,
which is a little bit true, a lot true. But
we had such a wonderful family experience. I didn't do
any diving, but I had all the pleasure in the world.
(47:47):
So that's one way to mix mix sports together and
do things. They a lot of it. Basically, it's a
function of how much do you want to participate in
what is your level of participating. There's people that have
gone on trips and they've golfed, as you mentioned. There
are other people who want to do a trip to
the Masters Tournament. There are people who have driven a
(48:09):
race car. There are people who want to go to
NASCAR races. There are people who have gone to a
horse farm or a dude ranch. There are other people
who want to visit the Kentucky Derby. We've had tours
with Major League Baseball stadiums, NFL weekends. We've done tours
for folks going for college games, Formula One events, so
(48:29):
the game's part of the experience for a sports tour,
it's a matter of sharing time together. So you see,
we've got a lot of different kinds of dads that
we can talk about. But that's only part of the question.
How do we get all this planned out? That's the
big part. Planning tips and I want to share some
(48:50):
of those with listeners this morning, because no matter what
type of dad you have, and what type dad you're
planning for and granddad, you have to plan that trip carefully.
And where we started is where you want to start.
Think about what dad's interests are. If you're not focusing
on that. It's a great vacation, it's a great trip.
(49:12):
But maybe that shouldn't be the father's day trip. You know,
it should be another trip. So think about that, but
start with his interests. Make sure as you're planning, you
include lots of family time, shared meals, shared experience, so
where people get together after they're doing their diverse activities. Also,
don't overschedule. Some people want to schedule something for every
(49:34):
minute of every day. Dad's, granddads, even kids get tired.
Save some time for relaxation, save some time for getting
together and sharing. Take a lot of pictures, a lot
a lot of pictures, and how do you do that?
The same advice we give folks every single week. That's
work with a travel professional. Travel professionals know what's out there,
(49:56):
they know what the pitfalls are, they know about all
the details. They know about the special things that you
need to do. Maybe you need a you know, a
wheelchair assist. Maybe you need some special meals, maybe you
need some special kinds of rooming, maybe you need rooms
that are adjoining, maybe you need kids actions. Travel advisors
are the people for that. So that's the kind of
(50:19):
help that we at the Wishing Well and other great
travel professionals can provide for you. So I guess as
I wrap it up together, I think you know. The
greatest souvenirs, the great kinds, the greatest kind of gifts
you can give aren't the things that you bring home
and put on the shelf or in your suitcase, but
(50:40):
they're the stories that you bring back from all these
experiences that we've had fun talking about this morning. Your
dad might be adventured, might be history, might be sports, cruising,
or simply spending time together. It's got a unique travel
just does that. It's a magnet to bring people together.
And if if if you don't believe what I'm saying,
(51:01):
try it. It's just so fantastic. I am always amazed
when i come back from a vacation, especially when I've
got my family with him with me. And this Father's Day,
I'm going to ask people consider giving Dad something that's
not going to sit in the shelf. Give them a vacation.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
If you're going to give them a shirt, make sure
it's a Hawaiian shirt or something that will be the
hint to where they're going.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
Yeah, that'd be a great idea, and he'll come back
with memories. He'll come back with fantastic experience, come back
with I think something most important, and that's spending time
with the people that he cares about and loves more
than anything in the world. Because when everything's said and done,
(51:47):
maybe Dad can't keep going on vacations with you. But
when you're sitting there talking to Dad or granddad, the
memories are going to be there, The pictures are going
to be there. And think about it. Three generations of people,
maybe four in some cases, can talk about something and
say they all did it together.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
Yeah, what's your best memory of your dad?
Speaker 2 (52:11):
My best memory of my dad is when he took
me to Arizona and he challenged us on New Year's
to jump in the pool. And I said, or in Arizona.
He pulled out, He pulled out I think it was
a five or ten dollars bill. Today it'd be a
fifty maybe, but a five or ten dollars bill, and
(52:31):
he said, I challenged you to do this. And years later,
as my kids were growing up and we spent time
together in Arizona, guess what he did, same thing, same
thing to them. The stakes got higher, the bill got higher,
but every New year my voice will talk about Grandpa
challenging him to jump in the pool and celebrate New
Year's together. He didn't jump in, He just watched like
(52:53):
I did when we were scuba diving.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
But that's my favorite memory, Chris. I'll never forget Dad
on there, forget the boys, and I'll never forget how
I felt.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
Yeah. I, Uh, my dad and I didn't travel lot.
Granddad took us on vacations at Disney World. Oh wow.
He took me to Epcot when I was like five,
and so that's probably the best memory of with Grandad.
We're out of time. How do we get in touch
with you?
Speaker 2 (53:17):
We're easy to get in touch with. We're at two
forty three nef Avenue in Harrisonburg. We're on the web
at the Wishingwell dot biz. You can give us a call.
We're at five four zero nine zero eight two three
three three. We love to hear from you wherever you are.
Please give us a call. Please let us know what
your favorite vacations are. This has been a life less ordinary.
(53:38):
The Travel Show from your Friends at the Wishing Well
at two forty three nef Avenue in Harrisonburg. If you
have any questions on topics, discussed today. Please reach out
to the wishing Well online at the wishing Well dot
biz or five four oho nine eight twenty three thirty three. Eight.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Past episodes are available on the iHeartRadio app. And we'll
see again next Saturday morning at ten for a life
less ordinary from the wishing Well
This is a Lifeless Ordinary. It's a travel show and
podcasts from your friends at the wishing Well two forty
three f Avenue in Harsmurg and online at the wishing
Well dot biz. The wishing Well is your ultimate luxury concierge,
travel agency and A Lifeless Ordinary is a travel show
and podcast hosted by Terry Dean, bringing her over forty
years of experience in the travel industry to help guide
(00:21):
you to great experiences in your travel, whether it be
around the block, around the country, or around the world.
Let's bring in Terry Dean and say hello. But today
let's bring in Harry Rife and say hello. Well, hello, Chris,
It's good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good to see you too. Terry took her own advice.
She's on vacation.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Good for her. Yes. Indeed, if there's ever a person
in the travel business who needs a vacation, it's Terry Dean.
You get that right, say you, Ben.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I've been great, been everywork, been to Hawaii and I
had a great trip out there with a group of
our travelers. We explored four of the different islands. I
was up in the volcano before it erupted recently. Good
about a day and a half. I beat it and
came down. Pele was kind to me.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You didn't end up as a sacrifice.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I was not the sacrifice. The bus driver threatened to
sacrifice one of us. And it was great. We were
up there on top of the on top of the volcano.
We were up there on top of some of the
old volcanoes where the observatories are now where you look
down upon the clouds. Oh, you're not in an airplane,
but you're looking down upon the clouds. You're at fourteen
(01:29):
thousand feet. Oh, actually the tallest mountain if you count
the part of it that's below sea level.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Interesting, Yes, indeed, Huh.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
So what else is new in the travel world?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, lots is happening in the travel world, But I
think the biggest things that are happening is that people
are traveling like crazy. Crest they are. We talk about
pentop demands so many times after COVID. It's not COVID anymore.
It's just people love to try. They love the experience,
(02:01):
they love creating the memories, they love exploring.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Has any events this year, like the two fifty celebration
or the FIFA World Cup, has that contributed to travel.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I think it has. That doesn't affect us as directly
as it does some other agencies that specialize in that
kind of travel. But FIFA World Cup clearly has a
lot of people coming, most of them coming to the
United States from outside from other countries. So that's not
affecting the wishing well as directly, but it does affect
(02:33):
the travel industry. It does affect our ability to schedule
vacations to some of the cities all in North America
where the FIFA action is happening. The hotels are scarce,
transportation is scarce, air is scarce. Everything is scarce.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And we're going to talk a little bit about some
of those travel options in our show today, Yes we are.
Our show today is entitled Miles and Memories with Dad.
Travel is the ultimate Father's Day gift. I'm a stepdad,
and so I always think, well, I'm not, this isn't
my holiday. My wife always says, you know, as much
as a step ladder isn't your real ladder. You know, yeah,
(03:13):
it's your day. I think it's real. And so I'm
excited today to be talking about travel as a Father's
Day gift because if my step sons are listening. This
is a great idea to take your stepfather on some
travel vacation plans.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
That's right. And grandfathers too, What about grandfathers. I'm a
father and a grandfather.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Any man in your life that's been instrumental in your success,
they get to celebrate on Father's Day.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
You get that, right. And there are so many dads
that may not be biological dads. Yeah, but dad is
the person that shaped you, that made you who you are.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So when I was a kid, I was involved with
Big Brothers Big Sisters Love that organization. I was the
little obviously, we were the longest match in the organization
at that time. And his name is Paul. He's since
past he had cancer. Paul was he was very much
a father figure. He and his wife, she had a
(04:11):
little and the four of us we were this little family,
and you know, they really were instrumental in in who
I became. He was the one who got me interested
in radio and photography. And then my mom got remarried
when I was a teenager, and my stepfather he got
me interested in building things. And he's a mechanic and
(04:34):
taking care of cars. And I've never been good at that,
but I still like to talk to him about it.
And you know, now I find myself in that role
with two step sons.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So it's a big job being a father figure.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
It is. They don't warn you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So my question, and I don't know if you went
through this. I know I did with my dad because
my dad was one of those guys who he was
a simple man. There was whatever he he needed, he had.
And my question to you this morning and to listeners
also to think about a little bit, is have you
ever found yourself right about this time of year, just
(05:11):
ahead a Father's Day in a store because you're looking
for a Father's Day gift and you're looking around, You're
looking around, You're still looking around, and you're wondering another tie,
a coffee mug, a gadget, a shirt. There's nothing here
for my dad. Have you found yourself in that position ever?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Most gift giving opportunities like that, I find myself in
that position.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah. And when you think about dads, what they really
cheerish as a dad, you myself everybody listening, as a dad,
what you really cherish is time time with your family,
memories with your family, special occasions with your family, and
so That's what I want to talk about this morning,
(05:57):
and I want to talk about in the context of travel,
because travel creates shared experience. Travel creates memories, and if
you have shared experience that you have great memories. Those
become family stories that get handed down generation to generation
to generation. And I think that's you know, you were
(06:18):
talking about some of the changes in travel that we
are seeing this year. One of the big trends, and
you and Terry have talked about this a lot, is
multi generational travel.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right, And I'm going to ask about that. I know
you have different categories of travel, different different types of dads,
different places that they'd enjoy. If I'm you know here
I am. I'm fifty four years old, and I'm trying
to plan some travel with my father, and maybe you
know my children are going along as well. We want
(06:50):
to make it multi generational. Am I picking a place
that dad wants to go? Am I picking a place
that the grandkids will enjoy, so that he enjoys the
time with them a little bit of everything. How do
I make the decision of where to go if I'm
taking Dad and grandkids? Get The answer is, and do
we bring wives and grandma too? Yeah, the answer is
(07:11):
all the above and more.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
And that's the fantastic part about travel if you do
it thoughtfully. If you plan travel thoughtfully, Chris, you can
find travel that's interesting to everybody. Every piece of that
travel may not be interesting to everybody, but as long
as people have things that they can do along the way,
(07:36):
they're going to come back with some great memories. And again,
you and Terry talk so often about how she interviews
potential travelers. What she's trying to find is what's interesting,
what do those people like? And when you ask about
mom and grandma and sisters. We love to have the
family come in, all the people that are going to
(07:58):
be traveling. If I know what they like, I can
curate something that's going to have something attractive for every
one of them.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Is it a bad idea to try to surprise dad
and say we've already booked the travel or should he
be or should the surprise be We're going to do
this and now we want you to.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Be part of the planning. That's a great question. I
think that depends a lot on who the dad is.
There are some of us dads that like to feel
and we know we never are, but we like to
feel in control, and surprises may not be the best
for us. Other dads say just do it and if
I'm there, I'll be happy because I'm with you. You
(08:36):
have to know who your dad is. And again we
have solutions for all that. We can't help you plan
that trip and get very specific. We can also help
you plan that trip and lay it out as a
template and say here's what you can tell Dad he's got,
but you've got the flexibility to change it. We don't
lock things down real well, it's kind of like a
(08:58):
tinker toy version of the trip. Or if dad wants
to be in control, then you give Dad a travel
gift certificate and you let them know that here are
the people that are going on this trip, and he's
going to head honcho this, you know, with your help.
So that way Dad's in control. So you have to
(09:18):
play to the personality. That makes sense. Yeah, so I
talked about Dad's and I talk about the best Father's
Day gift is not something that you put in a
box like a shirt or a tie, but it's something
you experienced together. And the key is matching that trip
to the dad, and the Dad's going to be the
the what do we call lead dog? I guess on
(09:39):
the trip, so everyone's got to be pleased. But it's
really dad's gifts. So I think if somebody gets that
extra percentage in there, it's going to be dad. So
I thought about several different types of dads, and I
want to walk through some ideas this morning with you
and our listeners about things that I would propose if
(10:00):
I know a little more about your dad and he
happens to fit in one of these categories. How's that
for a place to start. I like it, all right.
So the first one I'm going to do is really
geared toward my son, who is a dad. I said
it was a granddad. One of my sons is a
history loving dad. He has a job that's not in history,
but he studied history because he loved it. I know
(10:23):
you love history too. He went off and did a
different thing for his career, but deep down inside, he's
a history loving dad. So I've got a couple ideas
for these dads. One of them I'm going to suggest
is a very special trip, and that's one that I've
been on personally and love it. And that was I
(10:43):
visited Paris, Normandy and the d DA Beaches. Okay, how's
that sound?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Okay, So I put together a tour where you spend
a week in Paris. The better part of the week
in Paris, you're going to tour the Louver. A lot
of history there, a lot of art, a lot of culture.
Maybe you go up in the Eiffel Tower, the historic
Eiffel Tower, have lunch, have dinner, then moving on. You're
(11:10):
going to move out of Paris. After you explore the
city a little bit, you're going to move on and
you're going to go out to the fantastic Normandy region
when you're going to experience Omaha Beach, You're going to
experience the American Cemetery, the German military Cemetery, and you're
going to see where a lot of history happened. All
(11:32):
of World War Two is right there, you're talking about
D Day. You're going to get to see the way
that the French people feel about Americans. You're going to
experience both Paris a lot of stereotypes about that. I
think the Parisians are very nice. As long as you're
a nice American, you'll find nice Bearisians. But when you
(11:54):
go out to Normandy, it's a very very special feeling
when I went their people are still thanking me for
what happened during World War Two, and it wasn't me
that did it, but they're thanking me as an American.
That's a very very special feeling. And you see the
appreciation the patriotism there. It's a wonderful trip seeing those cemeteries,
(12:20):
walking on those beaches, walking through those cemeteries. I mean,
doesn't it just spark your imagination and the sensory kind
of feelings you'd have.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Well, when you mentioned Normandy, my first thought was, this
is going to be a heavy vacation, a lot of
emotion visiting the beaches there. But the fact that you're
doing Paris and you have that part, you're teaming up
those two events. I can see how this would be
something that especially if dad is old enough to remember
(12:54):
maybe his father serving in World War Two. I could
see where this would be an amazing experience. And I'm
going to balance that with another activity at the end.
This trip went out to the Blayu region.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It's got the half timbered houses, cobblestone streets, historic Norman
Gothic cathedral, and after that you're going to taste some
traditional Calvados. You know what calvados is. That is a
special type of apple brandy. It goes back to the
eighth century, now eighteenth eighth century, so I'm talking about Charlemagne.
(13:35):
It's a kind of a hybrid kind of cider, and
you're going to taste that in this region. That's where
they make it. It's native there. You can if you
don't want to go with the brandy, you can go
with the cider. Maybe you've got the grandkids with you
and the brandy's too much, so maybe some cider for them,
brandy for the grandpa's and the dads. But then there's
(13:59):
also a beautiful museum in this town of art and history,
the town of Bayou. So that would be a great trip.
I've looked at it for late August. Prices out very well,
and I think that would make for a fantastic Father's
Day gift. Depending on how big you make that group,
(14:20):
that family, we can tailor that trip because it's just
too iconic destination. Yeah, okay, so maybe that's not where
you want to go. Maybe you want to look at
something different. I think that's a great trip, but maybe
you could do both. Probably not, But how about if
you stay on this side of the pond. It's America's
(14:41):
two hundred and fiftieth birthday yere, So I'd be remiss
if I didn't come up with a trip that I've
titled the American Story. Okay, And when I think about
the American Story that starts in Boston, the Revolutionary area,
all the revolutionary roots.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I have never been to Boston.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Oh, Boston's that fantastic town. I lived up that way
up in New Hampshire and I was two hours from Boston,
so I travel there often. Boston's full of history and
when you get to downtown Boston, it's a very lived
in city, Chris, very pleasant city, lots of great places
to stay. And for this trip I would include some
(15:21):
of the iconic destinations down there. The Old North Church.
Everybody knows about the Old North Church, Paul Revere, right
Faniel Hall, where a lot of the historic deliberations happened.
And then right across from that is some of the
most iconic education educational institutions, including MIT just right there.
(15:46):
I celebrated Fourth of July in Boston Harbor one year.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
That sounds fun.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Yeah, it was a great trip. The fireworks that they
do down there is fantastic, but it's a place where
you can go all year round. You've got the old
historic market down there in downtown Boston, the old farmers Market,
and all of this is right, you know, in a
just walking distance from some nice hotels downtown. You can
(16:13):
see some of the historic ships that they have docked there.
So you spend a couple of days in Boston. But
from Boston, you'll jump on and I chose to ride
the train because what a great way to travel up
and down the East Coast. Ride the train up to
New York. Okay, Okay, So you'll take the Amtrak Acela,
which is the fast train that'll take you up to
(16:36):
New York, and you'll visit the South Street Seaport, you'll
visit some of the historic neighborhoods there, little Italy, Chinatown.
You can't be in New York and not do Times
Squaring Broadway, right, Yeah, as long as it's not New
Year's Eve. Yeah, too many people for you, Oh my gosh,
there all day. I was there a day before New
(16:57):
Year's Eve one year. You're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I love New York City. I went to Chinatown and
just picked a restaurant I didn't. Nobody made any suggestions.
It was I think because there was a parking spot
out front. The singularly the best Chinese meal I've ever
had in my life, I still to this day, and
that was twenty some years ago. To this day. Wish
(17:22):
I knew the name of the restaurant so I could
make a trip up just to go back.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah. New York is a fantastic city. They say it's
the city that never sleeps, and they're right, it never sleeps.
There's always something to do, always something to see. And
New York is a relatively safe place to be. It
really is, especially if you stay in the you know,
the touristy neighborhoods. It's well patrolled, pretty safe, I think.
(17:48):
And Chinatown has some very special places in there. Just
going into it with the big arches is fantastic. We
always do the hop on, hop off bus in New
York City, even though I've ridden it a dozen times.
Every time I ride it, I see something new. Those
are those double deck or London buses where you see
(18:09):
the sites, you see the iconic architecture. You come about
six inches below the traffic lights as you're going through
the intersection, so you've got a great vantage point and
you get to a lot of places. One of the
places that I included on this tour that you have
to visit. If you're talking about the American Story, you've
got to visit Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty,
(18:30):
so you'd also do those locations.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
New York.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You're going to also see the brand new ninet eleven Museum,
which is absolutely fantastic, so well done, so well executed.
Just places that you can't miss in if you want
a deli, New York's a place to go right, and
you can catch a Broadway show if you do it right.
(18:54):
You have some help, some guidance, which we're happy to
provide for you. You will show you where to go
on and find the half price Broadway tickets so you
can go see The Lion King or some other show
that's that's playing. There lots of smaller theaters as well
as the well known theaters. But New York City's fantastic,
But you got to move on. The American Story isn't
(19:16):
just Boston and New York.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I gotta go to Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Philadelphia. I lived there too.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I love Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I do too. I think it's fantastic city.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
I went and I did sort of a self guided
tour of Independence Hall, kind of just let you roam around,
and I enjoyed that thoroughly. The Liberty Bell wasn't as
exciting as I thought it was going to be because
I didn't like having to wait to get in, and
then it was like, yeah, that's a bell. I was like,
you gotta go early in the morning. Yeah, And then
(19:45):
I wanted to go to the Mint, but they were close.
It was a Saturday billy mint.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
You don't they don't work weekends, and then they don't.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So keep that in mind if you got someone who
loves coin collecting like I did.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
That whole area downtown is I think it's one one
of the smallest national parks, and it's one of the
few that's entirely, you know, part of a city. But
that whole Independence Mall area there is a national park.
You can go visit Ben Franklin's uh you know, business
(20:17):
place and home right there. But then if you get
outside just a little bit of that area not far
you visit South Street. Back to the sixties songs, remember
South Street, South Street, where you're gonna meet on South Street?
You have the river that that that runs, you know,
right on the edge of the city there between Philly
and New Jersey. City Hall, iconic piece of architecture, and
(20:42):
of course the Philadelphia Museum of Art, famous for the
statue out there, a rocky statue. Yeah, he's been temporarily relocated,
I understand for some renovations, but I'm sure he's in
the neighborhood somewhere. And if you're in downtown Philly, you're
going to enjoy some of those Philly pretzels. You're going
(21:03):
to enjoy a cheese steak. And if you like Farmers
Market and didn't have enough in Boston, guess what they
have in Philly right downtown as well, a fantastic the
Italian market down there. You're going to see a lot
in Philly. Spend some time there. But then if you're
doing the American story, one more stop, go south to Washington, DC.
(21:27):
And if you haven't spent time on the National Mall,
visiting the Lincoln Memorial, of World War II Memorial, the
Vietnam Memorial, you've missed a lot, but take a tour
of the Capitol. If you've never done that, check out
the White House area. So those are all great, great
areas that you can do. But that's the history loving Dad.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
And really, with it being the two hundred and fiftieth birthday,
this is the time to go hit all those historic
spots because they really the impact is going to be
much bigger now is everybody's talking about it. I'm thinking
about what was happening quarter millennia ago. Yeah, pretty exciting.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
If you think about each one of those locations, there
a story, and you've got three generations that you can
pass this story, discuss that story. What a great thing
to talk about is you're enjoying dinner for your history
loving dat.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Our show today today is entitled Miles and Memories with Dad.
Why travel is the ultimate Father's Day gift? And if
you haven't figured out the answer to that already, it's
because you get to spend time together, yes, and enjoy
some great sights and great time together. We're going to
take a quick break when we come back, we're gonna
visit other locations for maybe a different type of Dad.
(22:40):
It's next here on a lifeless ordinatey. Why do you
recharge your cell phone?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Maybe because, just like you, it functions much better with
a little revitalization. The wishing Well helps people refresh and
revitalize with individually designed, customized vacation planning. We'll send you
anywhere in the world, plus offer advice on packing, navigating customs,
and more. Really do come true at the wishing Well.
Visit us at two forty three and a half Avenue,
(23:04):
call us at five four zero nine zero eight two
three three three, or on the web at the Wishingwell
dot biz.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Hey, welcome back to a lifeless ordinary. Every Saturday morning,
we sit down and talk travel, and it's with our
friends from the wishing Well. They're on f Avenue in Harrisonburg.
You can find them online at the wishing Well dot
biz or give them a call. They'd love to talk
to you. Five to four to oho nine oh eight
twenty three thirty three. Our show today is entitled Miles
and Memories with Dad Father's Days Next weekend, Yeah, yeah,
(23:35):
a week coming up. I better plan out something from
by that why travel is the ultimate Father's Day gift.
We were talking about Dad's who are history loving? And
we talked about a great trip to France and Normandy
and then the patriotic two fifty celebration Boston to Philadelphia,
(23:56):
d C. New York City and Washington, So lots of
great places for history loving dads. Now, what's our next
category of travel loving father? I'm talking next about the
dads that say, remember when I did you? Nostalgic those guys,
(24:17):
those ones that all tell you about what happened that
they did. That's me.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, So I'm talking about nostalgic dads. Chris, and I've
got a couple of things that I looked at for them,
and one of them is the classic trip down Route
sixty six. I've been on a very short portion of
sixty six Route sixty six, and you can approach it
a number of different ways. There are people that approach
(24:42):
it by getting in their car and driving down Route
sixty six. There are people who can work on trips
that you actually travel the route of Route sixty six,
but you do a lot of it by train, which
is really a great way to do it because driving
in a car bring some pyrols sometime, especially if you
(25:02):
want to take a nostalgic car right because it might
break down. So a train is not going to break down.
And there's also some trips that we have that combine
motor coach and train. So Route sixty six trips are great,
very affordable, very exciting.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Where's the entrance and exit of Route sixty six. It's
not a short drive. No, it's not a short drive.
You can go all the way to the West coast.
A lot of these trips will start in Chicago, That's
where I thought, and move from there and go all
the way to the West coast. But you don't have
to do the whole Route sixty six this year. You
can segment it and do it in a.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Couple of years.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
I don't remember the town we were in, but it
was when we went to the Grand Canyon. I think
we were on Route sixty six for maybe a quarter
of a mile.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You did it.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
We stopped at a McDonald's and there was a sign
outside saying I got my big Mac on Route sixty
six or something. So we got our picture taken and
got back on the bus.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You need to get on the bus and see the
Burmachhe signs too. But let me talk about another one,
and this one is especially dear to my heart because
it's a place that I used to go every year
as a child, and that is to the Henry Ford
Museum and just outside of Detroit, and dearborn. There's two
(26:19):
areas right next to each other, both created by Henry Ford.
One is the Henry Ford Museum, which is about the
size of a Smithsonian museum, one of the large Smithsonian museums.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I've heard of it, but I'm not familiar. Is it
a museum that was founded by Henry Ford so it's
named after him, or is it a museum about Henry Ford.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
It was founded and built by him and his good buddy,
with a lot of help from his good buddy guy
by name of Thomas Edison.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, part of him.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Okay, so this is a This is basically his collection
of everything related to the Industrial Revolution. Okay. So it's
got old cars in there, It's got very historic cars
in there. Of course, got model ts. Can show your
grandson or your son how the Model Tea was built.
They've kind of exploded it hanging on strings to see
(27:11):
how all the pieces fell together. You can see the
first Honda built in the United States. You can see
the limousine that President John Kennedy was in when he
was assassinated, and see how you know the car was
evolved for the special purposes of transporting the present. You
can see farm equipment if you like red or yellow
(27:33):
or green, whatever your brand of farm equipment. He's got
all that, you know, the old reapers and harvesters, and
I don't even know the names of all the things.
He's got the power plant that used to and I
mean the physical power plant that used to power the
old Rouge plant where they built some of the first automobiles,
Henry Forest production facility. He's got things that go back
(27:56):
in all kinds of areas. He's got old drive in
theaters with with the posts and the speakers on there.
I remember that drug stores with the stools and the counters.
He's got the bus that Rosa Parks was in for
the Civil rights move This is a big museum. He's
got locomotives that come from all around the world, including
(28:17):
half sized locomotives, and I never saw one until I
went there, a double sized locomotive that the Canadian Pacific
Railway used to use up in the north of Canada
to fight through the snow in the wintertime. So that's
a great place. And next to it is a place
called Greenfield Village, which is a place where he's assembled
a collection of historic workshops. Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Workshop,
(28:42):
the Wright Brothers Workshop from Kitty Hawk, the Goodyear Workshop
from Ohio. He put them on trucks and transported them
in and built a little town. And so these are
next to each other. And this trip is really good
for Father's Day for nostalgic dads because it's part of
a trip that we have going the summer, Chris, and
We're going to visit Macana Island and on the way
(29:06):
back we're gonna stop at Henry Ford Museum. So we've
combined Macano Island. We stop in a German town called
Frankenmuth and have a very traditional family style apple strudel
and everything German dinner. We're doing that in September of
this year.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
If you haven't had an authentic German dinner, Man, you
are missing out. You are.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
My grandfather was from Germany. I ate this place so
many times. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I As you talk about this, I'm like, I'm on board.
Let's go, and if you want more, they bring you more.
This is German.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Hospitality, family style. Love it. And you know, if you
want to wash it down with a traditional German adult beverage,
they have some of that there too.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Can I bring my own stein. I've got my stein
from Germany.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
They may well fill that stein for you bring that.
So yeah, if you're interested in that, please do visit
our website though wishing well dot biz and look under
group trips. There are still I think just a handful
of spots left from for that trip. It leaves from
our office right here on nef Avenue in Harrisonburg, and
that is September twelfth through the nineteenth. What a great
(30:20):
thing to give dad for Father's Day, especially if he's
that nostalgic dad. So a couple others, and I just
want to list them without going into him, because I
want to make sure I have time for us to
talk about the other kind of dads too. But if
Route sixty six and classic car museums and old fashioned
places like mcin Island that have no cars on them,
(30:42):
there are but three. There's a police car, a fire car,
OH car, and ambulance and a fire engine. That's it.
The rest are bicycles and horses. I thought everything was
horse you know, there are bicycles and there are those
three vehicles. There's a police car, a fire engine, and
an ambulance.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, so we're going to visit the island and all
part of that trip. But the other kinds of things,
if you've got a nostalgic dad, let us put together
a trip to one of the hall of fames, maybe
the Baseball Hall of Fame, maybe the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame. Maybe. Also, if he's nostalgic, think about
a family vacation that you took when you were very
(31:20):
young and recreate that. Ask us to recreate that for you,
relive that, you know, twenty thirty forty years later, and
bring the grandkids along. You know, sometimes the greatest trip
isn't somewhere new, but it's somewhere that's really meaningful and
filled with memories. And it lets this nostalgic dad say, hey,
(31:41):
let me show you where I used to come when
I was your age. Sonny, I have to go to
Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach, we can do it. Another kind
of trip that I think is really interesting is for
the dad that's action and adventure. This is the dad
that loves moving, loves going, loves challenges. And I've got
(32:02):
a couple one we've talked about many times on here,
and that's the Rocky Mountaineer trip. Yeah, that's a trip
where you get to explore the Canadian Rockies, go through
two of the Canadian National parks and get off and
just commune with nature while you're living in the lap
of luxury.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It looks like something out of a movie. You're gonna
be this isn't real. It is real, amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
It's fantastic. And the animals that you see along the way.
And if you don't want to go to Canada or
don't think that that's the right place for you, there's
a version of this same trip that does the American
Rocky Mountains. So the Rocky trips are fantastic. We love them.
We've got trips with dude ranches. I'm looking at one
(32:46):
of those for my family this year. That's going to
be my Father's Day gift to my family. I guess
I can give a gift to my family on a
Father's Day. Why not. I'm looking at some dude ranches,
but a couple that I want to talk to you
and the listeners about this morning. I have something I'm
calling the Polar Bear Adventure. Okay, if you are the
(33:07):
adventure dad, the action adventure dad, We're going to take
you up to Winnipeg, Canada, and we're going to travel
to a small town called Churchill. That's a trading post, Chris.
It was established in nineteen excuse me, seventeen seventeen, a
trading post seventeen seventeen, so it's you know, three hundred
(33:27):
years old, and it was used by the famous Hudson
Bay Company. While you're there, you're going to board the
especially built thirty passenger vehicles that they call polar Rovers.
And what they do is they'll go out in the
tundra in search of polar bears, Arctic foxes, Arctic hare
(33:48):
and in search of the infamous Northern Lights. Can you
imagine that. Yeah, this company works side by side. It's
one of our virtuoso providers. They work side by side
with the World Wildlife Federation, so they are doing things
that are in the interest of these animals. But what
a tremendous experience to be able to do that, spend
(34:11):
a week and be out there in the wilderness. So
that's if you're the action adventure dad or one of
the things I know, you know Terry has talked with
you about before too, are the African safaris. They come
in so many flavors, so many varieties, and they're so
filled with happy, thrilling, one invoking things that you can do.
(34:35):
What a great way to bond with your family. When
you're looking at zebras blending into the to the environment there,
you're looking at their predators. You're looking at lumbering giraffes
grazing the tops of the tree tops. You're looking at
lion cubs wrestling like big housecats. The safaris have a
(34:55):
lot of different flavors and they can take you to
places that you know I would never go by myself.
These are escorted again, they're curated. They're done in concert
with the government and wildlife authorities to make sure they're
doing everything they can to preserve that wildlife so that
generations and generations of families can be out there. When
(35:21):
I was in Hawaii, I was on the set where
they filmed Jurassic Park. Okay, so I wrote by the sign.
I have a picture of myself with the Jurassic Park sign.
These safaris aren't just like riding through Jurassic Park getting scared.
But you've got nature advisors, curators, experts. They can explain
(35:43):
what's going on with the animals and their habitats. They
tell you more about what you're looking at, so you
don't just see things, but you understand things. And if
you see something and you understand it, you're going to
remember it a whole lot longer. Some of these people
and some of these safaris, excuse me, also include activities
(36:03):
where you can go swimming. So you're out there in
the jungle and you're swimming safely at the base of
Victoria Falls. How about that for an action and adventure Dad.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
You're gonna tell people about that.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, that's a message that will go on. You've given
dad challenges, thrills. I didn't mention Costa Rica. That's another
place that you can go for a lot of adventure, thrilled,
very safe, very lovely, ziplining through the jungle and Costa
Rica rainforest exploration. All of these are for your dad
(36:37):
if he's that action an adventure person, the one that's
the thrill seeker. Just a fantastic I think, a fantastic opportunity.
My next one that I want to talk to talk
about are the cruise dads, and cruising is probably one
of the most popular things. Cruise ships keep coming online
(36:58):
and coming online and coming online and coming online. But
One of the things that I think is important is
you look at your dad and think about what kind
of trip is right for him. Is to think about
the differences in cruising. There are river cruises that we've
talked about, there are ocean cruises that we've talked about,
(37:19):
and there are expedition cruises that we've talked about. So
I'm want to start with the expedition cruises because we
just talked about those action and adventure dads. Expedition cruises
are those ones where you may down a wet suit, okay,
and you may visit Antarctica. You're going to see penguins
and glaciers. You're going to pass through the Drake Passage
(37:42):
where the oceans meet the Atlantic Pacific meat one of
the roughest pieces of water in the world.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
You don't have to do that, but you can do that.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Some of these expedition ships have onboard marinas where they
send out little submarine and smaller watercraft so that you
can get out there and actually be a part of
the nature and be close to the animals. Expedition cruising
is fantastic, very seasonal cruising. You can do Antarctica, you
(38:18):
can do the Arctic circle either one that's for that
adventurous to add, but then they're the tamer kinds of
river cruising too. That'd be me, that's you. Okay, So
you have to choose. We have river cruising and we
have ocean cruising.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
I mean, I would prefer the river cruise based on
everything I know, but I think the ocean cruise is
probably more in line with my budget.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Both of them are great. They have river cruises and
ocean cruises that are local in the United States, and
when you think of river cruising, most people think of Europe.
The one that I looked at that we have our
most common cruise on the Rhine River. It's a week.
I have twelve people that are returning, actually returning to
(39:05):
the United States later today that got together as a
group and said we want to do this. So they
did a Rhine River cruise with a couple extra days
ahead of time, and they're on their way home this afternoon.
That's our most popular river cruise. The thing that's attractive
about river cruising is you get to see history and
(39:28):
you actually step off inside of these small and medium
sized towns along the way. It's not like you go
from the airport take a bus there, you are there,
you get off the ship, you are downtown. You walk
to city center in about five minutes or less on
a river cruise, and they are so plentiful. The cruise
(39:52):
lines have different kind of personalities to them in terms
of the food, the decor what's included. Most of them
will include some types of tours along the way, so
you can go up and watch them make cuckoo clocks
or torts. You can go in, you know, go into
the black forest and see those kinds of things. Or
you can go and experience different different kinds of activities
(40:16):
as you're going through the areas. Go see the windmills
in person. Maybe whatever's you know, your fancy. You can
see that. Lots of castles along the way, you see
nine hundred year old castles, you see palaces. You can
stop and learn the waltz. If you want to have
that German dinner that we were just talking about in Germany,
(40:37):
that would be one you wouldn't forget. You couldn't couldn't
miss that. The food, French pastry, Austrian pastry. It's so
tough to decide. You have to do both. Chris German
sausage beers, wines and more. And one of the other
real popular river cruises are up and down the Nile
River in Egypt, something that I've done a little short
(40:59):
segment of, but I want to do the larger cruise.
You're cruising through history, so again the type of Dad manners,
but you can combine that too. We talked about ocean cruises.
I mentioned I would just return from Hawaii. One of
the neatest cruises that we do in Hawaii is on
a ship called the Pride of America. It's one of
(41:21):
the few cruise ships that's flagged in the United States.
That means it's subject to all the US maritime laws
in terms of staffing and all of that. A little
tougher to flag it in the United States, Senators, in
some other countries where most cruise ships are headquartered. But
the reason that the Pride of America is flagged in
(41:42):
the United States is because every where she stops is
in the United States. You are in Hawaii the whole time,
including you know what the name of the Big Island is,
don't you? No Big Island. The formal name it's Hawaii.
That is Hawaii. The group of islands is Hawaii, and
(42:02):
the big island is Hawaii. So you make two stops.
You stop at Kona and you stop at Helo, and
the big island you do Owahu, you do Maui, you
do Lanai, and you do it from a cruise ship,
which is really cool. And that's the advantage of all
kinds of cruising. Once you get on board, you unpack
once and then you move destination to destination to destination.
(42:26):
So if you're not a lover of packing, cruisings for you.
Lots of different styles. There's the little ships, the river cruises,
there's them big ships, the specialty ships, like the exploration ships,
the expedition ships. Some of the ships have cities on
them in neighborhoods. They have roller coasters, they have go
(42:47):
kart tracks, other ones very intimate, small, high levels of service,
luxury end to end. And when you do ocean cruising,
that's when you see that biggest variety can go literally
anywhere in the world. And one of the things I'll
say about cruising and ocean cruising, there are a lot
(43:09):
of cruising security cats out there. They say, I don't
know if I'm gonna like this. I'm afraid I don't
want to rock. I don't want to be on the water.
One of the most popular cruises is something that makes
a great Father's Day gift is what I call my
training Wheel cruise. You can leave from either Baltimore or
from Norfolk and go to Bermuda, very safe, very beautiful,
(43:35):
very close island. You cruise there overnight and the ship
parks there for several days and stays there for several days,
and you can do activities and you have your headquarters
on the ship, so again all your lodging, all your meals,
all your activities are headquartered on the ship. And then
you sail back. So if you don't like that short
(43:57):
sail out and that short sail back, you still had
a great vacation and at least you know, if you
like it, then we're going to move you up from
the training Wheel crews to something a little bit bigger.
But that's for the cruise dad, And it's a great
way to bring multiple generations together because on a cruise
ship there's something always going. Some of the cruise ships
(44:18):
have casinos, almost all of them have kids clubs in there.
They have pools, they have Bengo, they have trivia, so
there's going to be something and you can meet at
meals and share what you've been doing all day long.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
I think that if my kids are listening, that's the
one for me so far.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Us.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
You know, take some mental notes. Our show is some
title Miles and Memories with Dad. Why travel is the
ultimate Father's Day gift. Next up, we're going to talk
about sports, love and dads here on a Life Less Ordinary.
Why do you recharge your cell phone?
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Maybe because, just like you, it functions much better with
a little revitalization. The wishing Well helps people refresh and
revitalize with individually design, customized vacation planning. We'll send you
anywhere in the world, plus offer advice on packing, navigating customs,
and more. Wishes really do come true at the wishing Well.
Visit us at two forty three and a half Avenue,
(45:13):
call us at five four zero nine zero eight two
three three three, or on the web at the Wishingwell
dot biz.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
And welcome back to a Life Last Ordinary travel show
and podcasts from your friends at the wishing Well on
nef Avenue and Harrisonburg online at the wishing Well dot
biz and you can call them at five four h
nine oh eight twenty three thirty three. Our show today
is Miles and Memories with Dad. Why travel is the
ultimate Father's Day gift and we're up to sports loving dads.
(45:40):
I did a sports vacation once and enjoyed it immensely.
I look forward to hearing some of your ideas of
places we can take dub if you love sports.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, and sports is such a huge category.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
I'm thinking golf trips, I'm thinking baseball. You mentioned Hall
of Fames earlier. There's gonna be a lot of places
to dead.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
And part of the finesse of planning the right sports
trip with dad or with granddad, remember I'm granddad with
either one of us, is thinking about what to do.
I did a trip last year with my sons who
were certified divers, and they wanted to go and do
(46:19):
some diving, and they wanted to begin to introduce their
children to the world of deep sea diving. So I
found a resort and we spent time at that resort.
And one of the perks at that resort was they
had a diving school that was included in the resort fee,
(46:39):
and you could do a dive every single day. They'd
give you a tank and you could do a dive
every single day. So the two dads recertified the children
that were old enough. Both boys were old enough. One
of them got certified and went out on his first
you know, ocean dive with his dad and with his uncle,
(47:03):
and the younger one did the what they call snoobo,
which is a you know, in a large pool, and
he's practicing. He's going to go back and he's going
to do his ocean dive sometime. And I talked about
mixing everything together, remember making sure everyone's happy. Well, here's news, Grandpa,
don't dive. But I bet you loved hearing the stories.
(47:26):
I loved hearing the stories, and I loved watching them.
I've got video watching them, and I just, you know,
I let him know, hey, Grandpa doesn't feel like getting
in the water today. I didn't say I'm afraid to dive,
which is a little bit true, a lot true. But
we had such a wonderful family experience. I didn't do
any diving, but I had all the pleasure in the world.
(47:47):
So that's one way to mix mix sports together and
do things. They a lot of it. Basically, it's a
function of how much do you want to participate in
what is your level of participating. There's people that have
gone on trips and they've golfed, as you mentioned. There
are other people who want to do a trip to
the Masters Tournament. There are people who have driven a
(48:09):
race car. There are people who want to go to
NASCAR races. There are people who have gone to a
horse farm or a dude ranch. There are other people
who want to visit the Kentucky Derby. We've had tours
with Major League Baseball stadiums, NFL weekends. We've done tours
for folks going for college games, Formula One events, so
(48:29):
the game's part of the experience for a sports tour,
it's a matter of sharing time together. So you see,
we've got a lot of different kinds of dads that
we can talk about. But that's only part of the question.
How do we get all this planned out? That's the
big part. Planning tips and I want to share some
(48:50):
of those with listeners this morning, because no matter what
type of dad you have, and what type dad you're
planning for and granddad, you have to plan that trip carefully.
And where we started is where you want to start.
Think about what dad's interests are. If you're not focusing
on that. It's a great vacation, it's a great trip.
(49:12):
But maybe that shouldn't be the father's day trip. You know,
it should be another trip. So think about that, but
start with his interests. Make sure as you're planning, you
include lots of family time, shared meals, shared experience, so
where people get together after they're doing their diverse activities. Also,
don't overschedule. Some people want to schedule something for every
(49:34):
minute of every day. Dad's, granddads, even kids get tired.
Save some time for relaxation, save some time for getting
together and sharing. Take a lot of pictures, a lot
a lot of pictures, and how do you do that?
The same advice we give folks every single week. That's
work with a travel professional. Travel professionals know what's out there,
(49:56):
they know what the pitfalls are, they know about all
the details. They know about the special things that you
need to do. Maybe you need a you know, a
wheelchair assist. Maybe you need some special meals, maybe you
need some special kinds of rooming, maybe you need rooms
that are adjoining, maybe you need kids actions. Travel advisors
are the people for that. So that's the kind of
(50:19):
help that we at the Wishing Well and other great
travel professionals can provide for you. So I guess as
I wrap it up together, I think you know. The
greatest souvenirs, the great kinds, the greatest kind of gifts
you can give aren't the things that you bring home
and put on the shelf or in your suitcase, but
(50:40):
they're the stories that you bring back from all these
experiences that we've had fun talking about this morning. Your
dad might be adventured, might be history, might be sports, cruising,
or simply spending time together. It's got a unique travel
just does that. It's a magnet to bring people together.
And if if if you don't believe what I'm saying,
(51:01):
try it. It's just so fantastic. I am always amazed
when i come back from a vacation, especially when I've
got my family with him with me. And this Father's Day,
I'm going to ask people consider giving Dad something that's
not going to sit in the shelf. Give them a vacation.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
If you're going to give them a shirt, make sure
it's a Hawaiian shirt or something that will be the
hint to where they're going.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
Yeah, that'd be a great idea, and he'll come back
with memories. He'll come back with fantastic experience, come back
with I think something most important, and that's spending time
with the people that he cares about and loves more
than anything in the world. Because when everything's said and done,
(51:47):
maybe Dad can't keep going on vacations with you. But
when you're sitting there talking to Dad or granddad, the
memories are going to be there, The pictures are going
to be there. And think about it. Three generations of people,
maybe four in some cases, can talk about something and
say they all did it together.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
Yeah, what's your best memory of your dad?
Speaker 2 (52:11):
My best memory of my dad is when he took
me to Arizona and he challenged us on New Year's
to jump in the pool. And I said, or in Arizona.
He pulled out, He pulled out I think it was
a five or ten dollars bill. Today it'd be a
fifty maybe, but a five or ten dollars bill, and
(52:31):
he said, I challenged you to do this. And years later,
as my kids were growing up and we spent time
together in Arizona, guess what he did, same thing, same
thing to them. The stakes got higher, the bill got higher,
but every New year my voice will talk about Grandpa
challenging him to jump in the pool and celebrate New
Year's together. He didn't jump in, He just watched like
(52:53):
I did when we were scuba diving.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
But that's my favorite memory, Chris. I'll never forget Dad
on there, forget the boys, and I'll never forget how
I felt.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
Yeah. I, Uh, my dad and I didn't travel lot.
Granddad took us on vacations at Disney World. Oh wow.
He took me to Epcot when I was like five,
and so that's probably the best memory of with Grandad.
We're out of time. How do we get in touch
with you?
Speaker 2 (53:17):
We're easy to get in touch with. We're at two
forty three nef Avenue in Harrisonburg. We're on the web
at the Wishingwell dot biz. You can give us a call.
We're at five four zero nine zero eight two three
three three. We love to hear from you wherever you are.
Please give us a call. Please let us know what
your favorite vacations are. This has been a life less ordinary.
(53:38):
The Travel Show from your Friends at the Wishing Well
at two forty three nef Avenue in Harrisonburg. If you
have any questions on topics, discussed today. Please reach out
to the wishing Well online at the wishing Well dot
biz or five four oho nine eight twenty three thirty three. Eight.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Past episodes are available on the iHeartRadio app. And we'll
see again next Saturday morning at ten for a life
less ordinary from the wishing Well
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