myretroperspective

I have a really special treat for you today. I want to introduce one of my sponsors, Michelle to you all. A girl after my own heart, she lives in the South and is determined to prove that the South is ' a soul-stirring mecca of culture, decadence, passion and the unknown'. She proves with each post not only does the South have a ton to offer but she also provides great ways to be a tourist in your own city. Something I think we could all take advantage of! Here she highlights some of her best tips on how to travel and how to make the most out of your vacation. Be sure to check out her blog, Dixie Lust ! At a local Indian Associations Holi Festival. I may never get to go to India, but I did get to experience Holi - a tradition that's mesmerized me for years. Build Your Advice Panel via Social Media A fellow blogger on my "panel" suggested this place, Tacky Jacks, while I was in Orange Beach. I would have never tried it if she hadn't recommended it. We all want

Yep.  That was on my work list for this morning.  At least there were three of us working on that detail.  Remember all those hundreds of kids that have been visiting out at the Chippewa Picnic Area the last couple of weeks and all the rain?  Use your imagination to picture what this does to a pit toilet bathroom with five stalls.  Yuck!  Add to that the fact that there is no running water there.  We had to haul in two of those big yellow 5 gallon water coolers that you see strapped onto construction trucks so we could wash the floors.  Apparently the mops have disappeared so we had to use a toilet brush and rags to clean the muddy floors.  Did I mention these were pit toilets?  P-U!!  After the picnic area, there was one other pit toilet to clean several miles away.  It was only a one holer, so we thought it would be a breeze.  Ha!  Turns out someone had gotten sick and spewed their guts all over the throne.    Our clean up crew consisted of myself, an intern, and a staff member, bu

As of 7:00 pm this evening, I declare that the mosquito season in Minnesota has begun, and I’ve got the first two bites to prove it.  So now I’ll have to deal with ticks and mosquitoes.  Uf-duh.  I haven’t been to a National Wildlife Refuge yet where I didn’t have to battle biting bugs.  I guess it just goes with the territory.                                                                   Red-bellied woodpecker The other 120 fourth graders from Moorhead, MN, cancelled their field trip to the refuge this morning.  It was a good thing they did because overnight and throughout the morning we had another inch of rain.  Kids and adults would have had a miserable time of it had they come.  That wraps up the school groups for this spring.       <-----/--^            Male purple finch. Since my work for the day was cancelled, I decided to head to Detroit Lakes to take care of several errands.  Rainy weather really doesn’t matter when you need groc

Dear Readers, in case you missed it yesterday, I have new sponsor options! Check out my sponsor page to sign up now. And for the next week, I'm offering a 20% discount on all ads with the code 'bloglove'. If the spot you want is all booked, go ahead and still sign up to reserve your spot in line!  Dear Beach,  after two days of serious typhoon weather this week, we're so ready for you. Please don't rain. Dear Hubs, I'm glad you started mountain biking so much because let's face it, who doesn't love a man in padded biking pants? But I admit I get just a tad bit nervous when you come back and show me crash footage like this. This picture is actually of our friend Jared  and thankfully he walked away with just a bruised rib. Dear Hair,  it's time to cut you again and even though I found a great place to go that does exactly what I want, it's still nerve-wracking to go to a place that you have to explain what you want through charades. Dear Zeke, I

Didn’t think I’d have anything worth posting about tonight, but I was wrong.  We had 120 or so fourth graders from Moorhead arrive this morning for four different environmental education presentations.  I was slated to help out at the Water Cycle station.  Local volunteer Craig was doing the presentation to groups of 36 students at a time for 50 minutes each.  Since I’m new here, my assignments have been about helping rather than presenting.  This refuge has a great support system of local volunteers, many of whom are Minnesota certified Master Naturalists.  What a resource for these visiting school districts!  They do a marvelous and exhausting job each day that students visit.  These school groups are busy enough for all of us that there is no time to take pictures. We got the whole four hour program in just in time before the rains began again.  I decided to give the wildlife drive a go on my way back to the rig even though it was raining.  I’m glad I did. The chestnut-sided w

This is my 'excited' face for new sponsors Want to sponsor Lost in Travels? Great! I would love to help your business or blog grow in any way that I can! I have some new sponsor options up right now so hopefully you can find something that works for you. Check out this page too see all options available and also some stats on how this blog o mine is growing each month. Also, don't forget that for the next week, I am offering a 20% discount on all ads with the promo code: 'bloglove'! Is the spot you want already booked? Go ahead and purchase it and jump in line for the next available date! Have another idea of how to work together? I'm always open to new ideas! Please email me at lostintravelsblog@gmail.com. I can't wait to hear from you! ______________________________________________________________________________________ Speaking of sponsors, I want you to meet some of the lovely ladies on my sidebar this month! I'm so lucky that I have such amazin

If you're curious about recommendations for a visit to Taipei (from a Taipei novice), and would rather skip the details scroll to my Taipei short list at the bottom. Taipei is a food lovers paradise. I guess we're considering ourselves food lovers now. side note: Recently a friend emailed a group of us and addressed us as "fellow gourmands" (she once lived in Taipei for a year, go figure). It was the first time I confronted that fact. Hello, my name is Meagan, I am a food lover.  fellow gourmands- taipei is for you! We really only sat down for 2 meals out. We filled up on breakfast at our fabulous little boutique/budget hotel each morning and then grazed from snack stand to snack stand every few hours. We averaged a large pearl milk tea every day of the trip since Taipei is the birth place of this delicious drink. I wish I was drinking one now. C'est la vie. For lunch on Friday we ate at Din Tai Fung (famous the world-over with restaurants in Seattle(!), and soon