The Travel Architect: Recent Episodes
The Husband & The Travel Architect
The Travel Architect and The Husband discuss all things travel related. From our own trials and tribulations, to our dreams and ambitious travel goals. Read more at www.thetravelarchitect.wordpress.com
Podcast episode 121 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
After complaining about our most recent heat wave (the 58th this summer, I’m pretty sure), we learn just how many reasons now exist to call off school for a day. We follow that with a pair of national days that have “the husband” written all over them. I’m excused from the humiliation of thinking up quick responses to Travel Quiz questions—instead, the husband uses that time to reveal the answer and explain the clues to his latest ELC podcast (#30). The bucket list activity gets two instantaneous and vigorous thumbs down, after which listener/reader comments are discussed, as is Airbnb’s dubious descriptions of parking amenities. Then it’s onto a discussion of the first two destinations of our trip: Toulouse and the Pyrenees. Finally, I chat a bit about Australia travel planning and some wisdom I’ve gained from the process, followed by creative ways citizens around the world are telling tourists to buzz off.
Episode 121: Broken English
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Snow Day!!!
- Jamaica: A Tale of Four Visits, Part I
- AirBnB vs. Traditional Accommodations: A First-Timer’s Perspective
- Planning for Portugal!
Egyptology must be the most fascinating and complicated subject of human history. Spanning …
Podcast episode 116 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
Today’s joke will either have you rolling your eyes or quacking up, and both national days will simply make you hungry. In fact, that’s how I spend this episode: underfed and hangry, but I soldier on, bombing the travel quiz with a grace and dignity that belie my peckish feelings. The bucket list activity not only stimulates my appetite further, but also provides a hint to a new travel destination on our horizon. After that we learn several items of import: that in the space of one week I managed to accumulate approximately 3½ minutes of fame, that the least visited countries in the world are the least visited for a reason, and that you may want to shell out for insurance on your next international car rental. As we wind down the episode, we reveal the identity of the person who will be joining us on our daring ascent of Minnesota’s highest peak, and I reveal why an airline I’ve never flown—Alaska Airlines—is king.
Episode 116: Churrrrrrrros!Ersatz donuts to tide me over until I get the real thing on National Donut Day.
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- National Donut Day? Sure. Why Not?
- France: Gâteau à la Noix
- A Death Valley Christmas
- Handcuffed to Delta? (sigh) Maybe just a little . . .
- The “What to Eat Where” List
- Thoughts on Air Travel
Podcast episode 115 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
It’s Coronation Day at Travel Architect Studios (oh, and also in the UK). Fresh off viewing the crowning of Britain’s new king, we bring you an apropos joke and a national day that I skillfully shoehorn into the regal theme. Soon, though, it’s time to focus on travel. The husband’s Travel Quiz, which I actually mentally prepared for, was much harder than expected. If you’re the kind of person who tends to boast about liking certain bands or authors or fashions “before they were big,” the Quiz introduces a list of travel destinations that will be right up your flight path. After that it’s a smorgasbord of travel bits and pieces, including some potential bad news surrounding our summer travels, but also some great news surrounding next year’s spring break. Annoyingly cryptic? Ok, then I’ll end with “Até logo!”
Episode 115: A Crowning Achievement
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Blogging vs. Gardening: An Epic Battle for Supremacy
- Is a Viking® River Cruise Right for You?
- Travel Prep: Pre-Departure Reading
- France: Gougères
Podcast episode 114 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
Between our ghastly new car insurance premium and the wintery late-April weather, I start out the pod in a bit of a funk, but one lame joke and one ridiculous national day later, I’m halfway to happy. Then the husband’s fun and not overly technical Travel Quiz catapults me the rest of the way, thanks in no small part to his unique understanding of the English alphabet. A few listener/reader comments have us discussing sister cities and out-of-date bathroom décor. After that I reveal a rookie travel mistake I made going to Jamaica. We end with a couple of pieces of less-than-great travel news, bringing us full circle back to Funk Town.
Episode 114: L, M, N, N, O, P
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Thoughts on Air Travel
- Near Misses and a Direct Hit: Driving in France
- Trivia for the Travel Lover
- British by Marriage, or What It’s Like Having an English Expat Husband
- White Sands? No. White Gypsum.
- A Death Valley Christmas
- Blog Buddy Meet-Up #4: Georgetown, Colorado, USA
- Home Construction? Yes. During a Pandemic? No.
- Blogging vs. Gardening: An Epic Battle for Supremacy
Speeds of up to 60 mph? I’ll pass.
Podcast episode 113 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
The husband shows off his MENSA-level knowledge of US states when he correctly guesses the answer to my joke, after which I lament that I accidentally violated the national day and will have to celebrate it tomorrow instead. The husband named this week’s Travel Quiz “The 5 Stans,” which turns out to be a bit of a misnomer. We learn how a dessert can be the centerpiece of a protracted court battle and we engage in a bit of ~~schadenfreude~~ commiseration over friends’ and family members’ recent ordeals trying to get home from travels abroad. We hear the husband’s thoughts on his recent trip to . . . wait for it . . . Indianapolis! before learning we have yet another language to master ahead of our summer travels.
Episode 113: The SubSTANdard Episode
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Travel-Inspired Baking
- Thoughts on Air Travel
- Oh, the People You Meet: Siena, Italy
- Pre-Departure Reading
As promised, here’s a picture of today’s in-studio guest:
“Travel’s overrated. Except to Great Britain, of course.”Source: https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-digital-exhibition/index.php/dressing-the-stans/item/106-the-stans-of-central-asia
Podcast episode 112 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
St. Patrick’s Day is done and gone, but the luck of the Irish must still be with you, because in addition to the joke you get a mini language/culture lesson. Further, there are not one, but two national days. One involves shameless self-promotion and the other is a slap in the face to anyone who sees snow when they look out their back window. The husband’s Travel Quiz will have you appreciating most of the flights you take, even if they seem long and boring. The rest of the time we talk Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica: getting there, being there, and getting home from there. Tales of confiscated weaponry, underwater animal attacks, and broken planes await! It’ll Jamaica you crazy!
Episode 112: Jamaican Me Crazy
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Germany: Black Forest Cake
- Prepping for Travel: Learning Welsh
- Three Days in Seattle – A Petsitter’s Tale, Part 1: Petsitting
- The “What to Eat Where” List
- Is a Viking® River Cruise Right for You?
- Handcuffed to Delta? (sigh) Maybe just a little . . .
- Thoughts on Air Travel
- Sedona . . . Finally.
- Laos, Days 1-2: Cycling & Sightseeing
- Bobbie the Travel Trailer: An Adoption Story
Podcast episode 111 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
We start off our eleventy-first episode with a joke that’s a harbinger of our upcoming travels, followed by a reasonable national day that’s falling on an unreasonable day of the week. If you didn’t guess our travel destination from the joke, you get a second shot with the Travel Quiz. Though I bombed it, I’m now armed with several fun facts I can use to engage with the locals. The bucket list destination leads to a discussion about the husband’s surprising jealous reaction to the new TV show, The Reluctant Traveler. Next up, I reveal the latest contender for our 2025 travel dollars, followed by news of the states of emergency declared by our soon-to-be host country. We end by learning where the husband wouldn’t go even if he won a free flight there.
Episode 111: Crepuscular
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- WBTHTGT, Episode 3: The Ocean Ate My Wedding Ring!
- WBTHTGT, Episode 6: A Compendium of Childhood Travel Follies
- A Death Valley Christmas
Podcast episode 110 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
We begin with a joke in honor of that upcoming holiday that people either love to love or love to hate. The national day has double meaning in our house, and is loved whichever way you slice it. The husband serves up a very unloving Travel Quiz that sounds nice on the surface (The Caribbean, ooh) but that basically couldn’t be completed without a visual aid, which I’ve included below so you’re not utterly lost, as I was. Next we discuss some interesting updates from our last pod, reveal the details of our differing Global Entry interviews, share our latest domestic travel booking (hint: it’s not Savannah, but it’s close), and dream aloud about our next trip to the UK while decrying the new hoops I’ll have to jump through to get in. All that and some other bits and bobs and we’re done in an hour. It’s a Valentine’s miracle.
Episode 110: Declare Your Bananas!
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Party of Five—One Year In
- “Hiking” Wales’ Highest Peak: Mount Snowdon via Crib Goch
- Anyong Haseyo, Incheon Airport!
- WBTHTGT, Episode 1: The Layover of a Lifetime
- The Travel Bucket List Party & Fundraiser!
- Trivia for the Travel Lover
Podcast episode 109 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
As we embark upon a week of frigid temps in the Upper Midwest, we combat the chill by reminiscing about our recent stay in the warm desert, starting with the joke. The national day has nothing to do with deserts, or even travel for that matter, but it is celebrated in our house gleefully and often. I did unexpectedly well on the Travel Quiz (admittedly, a few hints were given) despite arcane clues like GVB, T, and L. We then dive headlong into recollecting our Christmas in Death Valley, including unexpected winners like Beatty, Nevada and surprising losers like the Area 51 Alien Center. We then learn that I have a big interview coming up and that we aren’t the only ones to commit accidental moving violations while vacationing in Europe.
Correction: The husband just realized he misspoke about which desert Death Valley is part of. It’s the Mohave* Desert.
Episode 109: Speaking of Death . . .
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Is a Viking® River Cruise Right for You?
- Dear Nebraska, We Need to Talk…
- Long Live Spontaneity: Death Valley National Park
- UK Road Trip, Part 1: Family Time in Newark
- Bracing for the Deep Freeze
Podcast episode 108 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
After a few weeks away, we’re back with our first episode of 2023. The joke doesn’t seem travel-related on first blush, but it very much is as far as my travel track record is concerned. Come to think of it, the national day is all about me as well. The husband tries but (mostly) fails to stump me on this week’s Travel Quiz. The rest of the time we discuss our trip to Death Valley. Well, not the destination exactly, but all the peripheral stuff: flight delays, airport lounges, flight attendants who don’t follow the rules, that sort of thing. Peppered throughout this discussion is a motley assortment of travel news from horrible turbulence to boa constrictors to Read ID. Buckle up—it’s a wild ride.
Episode 108: Finally, Some Real Travel News
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Thoughts on Air Travel
- White Sands? No, White Gypsum: White Sands National Monument
- When Bad Things Happen to Good Travelers, Episode 3: The Ocean Ate My Wedding Ring
- Laos, Days 1-2: Cycling & Sightseeing
Podcast episode 107 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
In this, our last episode of 2022, we turn the tables for the second time in a few months. After giving an overview of his insane Twelve Days of Christmas Swim Workout, the husband makes a meager attempt at a joke and then once again does the National Day incorrectly. Researching the travel suitability of Albania led to a Travel Quiz by yours truly that greatly frustrates the husband, putting him squarely in my shoes for once. After a few listener comments, I talk about this technophobe’s first experience changing a flight online (spoiler alert: it was easy and nothing bad happened—a Christmas miracle indeed) and how we got reservations at our Jamaican couples’ resort in just the nick of time. We discuss the latest updates for Death Valley, including a sweet stop in the wonderfully named Pahrump, Nevada. Then we talk Balkan road trips and World Cup losses before revealing the latest crackdowns on users of Delta Sky Club airport lounges . . . just as we’re about to start using them more frequently. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Joyful New Year, everyone! Thanks for listening and we’ll see you in 2023!
Episode 107: Am I Feeling Greece-y?
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- On Traveling Overseas With Bicycles
- On Traveling Overseas With Bicycles: How It All Played Out
- Not as Advertised: Bikepacking the San Rafael Swell in Utah
- Sonoran Sojourn: Bikepacking in Arizona’s Sky Islands (a blog takeover by the husband)
- Long Live Spontaneity: Death Valley National Park
- The Travel Bucket List Party & Fundraiser!
The Travel Architect & The Husband Team Up to Talk About Travel (Mostly)
Podcast episode 71 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
Things are atypical this week at the Travel Architect Podcast: the Arsenal Update comes before the joke and we dispense with the Travel Bucket List destination (gasp!) and the Travel Quiz (double gasp!!). Instead, I interview the husband using the travel-related questions posed to me on my recent Outstanding Blogger Award post, as well as the questions I posed my nominees. It’ll get you thinking about travel without all the stress associated with the Travel Quiz. We then muse over the way a certain car rental policy differs between the US and Europe, our autumn travel plans, and whether it’s acceptable to discuss future travel while traveling (of course it is). The husband then expresses his strong opinion on whether we’ll see space travel in our lifetimes, and we end by scratching our heads over something called Cincinnati chili. Huh?
Episode 71: Going Off-Piste
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- Stuff I Bought & What I Thought: A Critical Analysis of Travel Gadgetry & Paraphernalia
- When Bad Things Happen to Good Travelers, Episode 3: The Ocean Ate My Wedding Ring
- Not As Advertised: Bikepacking the San Rafael Swell in Utah
- The Outstanding Blogger Award
- UK Road Trip, Part 5: London
- The “What To Eat Where” List
- Mice & Snakes
- A Travel Running Run-In
The Travel Architect & The Husband Team Up to Talk About Travel (Mostly)
Podcast episode 70 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
A debate from the home front spills over into the pod (like maple syrup over a stack of pancakes) before I tell another underappreciated joke and deride the poor timing of the national day. The husband didn’t like my perfect performance on last week’s Travel Quiz, so purposely crafted a difficult one about a very remote place with a unique history. As usual, the husband takes the bucket list activity very literally while I just shrug and say, “Sure. Why not?” We end with a bang as I reveal the travel bombshells the husband dropped on me this week.
Episode 70: Not Waffles!
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this week’s episode:
- The “What to Eat Where” List
- Gardening vs. Blogging: An Epic Battle for Supremacy
- Little Things That Are Oddly Satisfying
- Oh, the Places I’ve Been: Breadth vs. Depth
- UK Road Trip, Part 5: London
- Plan B Travels: Hiking & Cycling in Southern Utah
- Long Live Spontaneity: Death Valley National Park
The Travel Architect & The Husband Team Up to Talk About Travel (Mostly)
Podcast episode 69 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
In an effort to explain and apologize for the husband’s distracting sniffles last week, we expound upon our weekly rabbit-shaving chore before the joke is even told. The national day causes some head scratching, and then I score a rare perfect 10 on the back-to-basics Travel Quiz. The husband surprises me with his enthusiastic thumbs up for the Travel Bucket List activity, and it spawns some discussion on Moscow as a travel destination. We continue our argument about whether you can get a same-day flight in this day and age, and then I disabuse the listening public of a long-held travel myth. Finally, we discuss United Airlines’ recent engine failure and subsequent emergency landing in Denver before realizing we are way over our time limit and beat a hasty retreat.
Episode 69: Running the Table… Or Is It the Gauntlet? Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- National Donut Day? Sure. Why Not?
- Things I Learned From My Travel Agent
- Metro Misery in the City of Light
- Stairways to Heaven: Riverwalk Stairways, San Antonio
- The Dust-Farm-Pail List
- Travel-Inspired Baking: England & America—Apple Pie
The Travel Architect & The Husband Team Up to Talk About Travel (Mostly)
Podcast episode 68 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
Brace yourself for a mini-monologue about our planetary neighbors before we even get to the joke and national day. The husband presents a Travel Quiz that looks at average June temps—both highs and lows—for several US travel destinations that may be of interest as we all start to dream of the possibility of summer travel. The bucket list book activity elicits some tension in the Travel Architect studios, which is surprising because it’s about a fairly noncontentious topic: family genealogy. We gush a little bit about the Solgaard® Check-In Closet suitcase, which remains unused but sits in the basement waiting to be packed (picture below). If you tend to fly Delta® (and even if you don’t), I share several airline updates. We close with a look at a Palm Springs attraction that has reopened with new COVID-era safety measures and discuss whether those measures are enough to get us spinning up the mountainside . . .
Episode 68: The Husband Blows Hot & Cold My new luggage just waiting to be filled, hauled, rolled, and tossed. It’s already greatly admired…
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- British by Marriage, or What It’s Like Having an English Expat Husband
- Petsitting—My Latest Obsession and a New Way to Travel?
- Another Fun Petsit: Beaver Creek, Colorado
- Not As Advertised: Bikepacking the San Rafael Swell in Utah
- San Antonio, Texas: The Riverwalk & Beyond
- When Bad Things Happen to Good Travelers, Episode 6: A Compendium of Childhood Travel Follies
- UK Road Trip, Part 5: London
- COVID Sucks The Joy Out of Travel Planning
The Travel Architect & The Husband Team Up to Talk About Travel (Mostly)
Podcast episode 67 is available by clicking below. It is also available on iTunes, Pocket Cast, and Spotify under the travel architect.
After a home construction update, I tell two travel-related jokes in quick succession (which decreases the chance of a pained moan from the husband in between each joke). The national day is a good one, but the timing is awful. My frequent correct answers on the romance-themed Travel Quiz elicits many impressed “wows” from the husband, and though not inclined to see many faults in each other on this Valentine’s Day, we both like the idea of seeing Earth’s faults, whether in Africa someday or in California next month. A reader comment makes our day and gives us a new marketing angle to consider: Don’t take No-Doz . . . listen to our podcast instead! We round out most of the rest of the pod discussing an article from Scott’s Cheap Flights which talks about the last-minute nature of air travel in a COVID world and several useful things to consider.
Episode 67: The Travel Architect Knows Romance
Previous blog posts referenced or hinted at in this episode:
- It’s a Small World After All
- UK Road Trip, Part 5: London
- Stuff I Bought & What I Thought: A Critical Analysis of Travel Gadgetry & Paraphernalia
- Laos, Days 1-2: Cycling & Sightseeing