2011 highlights: Israel, Rome, and Wall Street Journal and Fox News articles about home

Traveling with daddy on his work trips, like to Montana's Ranch at Rock Creek, can be rough on a girl.

And I’m spent.

2011 work highlights included having a full-page spread in The Wall Street Journal, trips to Israel and Rome, and Louisville.com becoming the city’s most-read independent website and winning a couple of big honors in the process.

Luckily my wife and daughter were able to join me on many of my trips. The latter turns two next week and already has visited 18 states and Washington, DC. We got her a passport this year, but it might be a few months at least before she’s able to get her first stamp—her little sister is slated to arrive in February.

Here are some of my writing and travel highlights for 2011:

• In January, Air Canada’s enRoute published my article about taking a poker lesson from two-time World Series of Poker winner Mark Seif and then hitting the tables solo in Las Vegas.
• Later that month I went to Israel, visiting Tel Aviv, Galilee, and Jerusalem. Turns out Jerusalem has some fun drinking venues.
• In February, enRoute published my article about photographing flowing lava with Photo Safari Hawaii on the Big Island.
• BlackBook added Louisville to its City Guide mobile app and website in March, publishing 100 reviews of bars, restaurants, and hotels that I wrote as the Louisville City Editor.
• Also in March, I spoke with Louisville’s Society of Professional Journalists about being a travel writer.
• Later that month, I visited the Rome Cavalieri, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts; my article on a gladiator fighting lesson I took ran as an enRoute web exclusive and in Air Canada’s onAir frequent flyer newsletter in June.
• The attention the Kentucky Derby brings to Louisville has been great for my career: in May, The Wall Street Journal devoted the entire back page of its Derby-day edition to an article I wrote and interviews I conducted on city hotspots. And Fox News published my piece on five horse racing-related activities travelers to Louisville can enjoy on non-Derby weekend visit.
• In July, I visited Montana with my wife and daughter, the highlight of which was glamorous camping at The Ranch at Rock Creek
• Louisville.com won the 2011 Louisville Magazine‘s readers’ choice award for best local website in July
• I trekked around in 107-degree heat in Dallas for enRoute, scoping out the city’s art scene for a yet-to-be-published article on buying art.
• Indianapolis really impressed me—seriously!—when I took the trip 2.5-hours north in August. Super Bowl fans will find plenty more to do than just watch the game this February.
• Nantucket did likewise when I returned to where my family vacationed a couple of times when I was a kid. Don’t plan on reading anything about this trip: it was a family trip and I didn’t take a single note.
• In October, Louisville.com writers and readers stuffed the ballot box enough to earn second place for best local website in LEO Weekly’s, the city’s alt weekly, Readers’ Choice awards.
• Louisville.com was again an official media partner of the Breeders’ Cup, horse racing’s world championships, this November. In addition, BlackBook dispatched me to cover the Jocktails party, part of the run-up to Breeders’ Cup, and preview Downs After Dark, the sole night race of Churchill Downs’ 2011 fall meet.
• Also in November, Louisville Magazine published an account of my bravest assignment yet—eating at the Paula Deen Buffet in Southern Indiana’s Horseshoe Casino
• Louisville Magazine made a bold move when it let me write about why Kentucky isn’t that great a state for basketball (as well as break down the differences between Kentucky Wildcats and Louisville Cardinals fans) in its December issue. Expect letters to the editor.
• An eight-point 170-pound buck died because I shot him through both lungs. My hunt was televised on KET’s Kentucky Afield this December. Louisville Magazine will publish an account of my hunt in early 2012.

Wall Street Journal publishes article on Louisville I wrote in its Off Duty travel section

The Wall Street Journal, May 7-8, 2011—"Louisville, Ky.: Day at the Races"

On May 7, The Wall Street Journal published an article I wrote about Louisville as a travel destination—”Louisville, Ky.: Day at the Races”:

• Download a .pdf of the article here
• Read the article on The Wall Street Journal’s website here

Running on the day of the Kentucky Derby, the full-page feature in the Journal’s Off Duty section included

• a 500-word essay sharing insider insight on Louisville
• the top local picks from notable Louisvillians: musician Jim James (lead singer of My Morning Jacket), novelist Sue Grafton, chef Edward Lee of 610 Magnolia, and hotelier Laura Lee Brown (owner and curator of 21c Museum Hotel)
• a sidebar on five of my favorite local venues

I also assisted the editor and photographer with selecting subjects for the nine pieces of art that accompanied the article.

In mid-April I received an email from an editor at the paper asking if I was interested in writing an insider’s guide to Louisville to run in Off Duty on Derby day. He’d been editor-in-chief of BlackBook and apparently figured that publication’s Louisville City Guide editor would be a good writer to consider for this assignment. That’d be me.

When I speak about writing, I stress the importance of promoting your work on your own website and via social media. This assignment is a perfect example of why that’s important.

In addition to the Louisvillians who graciously contributed to the piece, thanks to Louisville Magazine‘s publisher Dan Crutcher (also the owner/my boss at Louisville.com) and staff writer Josh Moss who gave me ideas and helped me track down contact info.

Fox News and I report on Louisville as a travel destination, you decide

The day before the Kentucky Derby (that’d be May 6 for those of you who don’t live in Louisville or aren’t degenerate gamblers followers of the sport of kings), FoxNews.com published an article I wrote profiling five horse racing-related activities travelers to Louisville can enjoy on non-Derby weekend visits:

Fox News—Travel: Louisville in 5…

Along with my 1,200-word article, photos I took accompanied the piece. Fox News also produced the following video, based largely on my text (and included some of my photos and body parts too—that’s my hand holding the mint julep).

It was a fun article to write, especially with the challenge of having to frame all of the venues in the context of horse racing.

Talking travel–namely how to make money from other people’s trips–on Louisville TV

From WHAS 11′s May 4, 2011 5 p.m. newscast’s segment on renting out your home for Kentucky Derby:

Yes, our lawn did get mowed before our guests arrived (although my hair still needs a trim). And, a minor correction: my site is KentuckyDerbyHomeRental.com—I’m totally slapping the “As Seen on TV” logo on it.

2010 travel highlights: Beijing, the Big Island of Hawaii, and a new travel buddy

A trip to San Diego in June marked my daughter's first dip in the Pacific Ocean.

Just over a week into 2010, I became a dad. During the year I realized though that any concerns I had about parenthood—and my new editor-in-chief gig at Louisville.com, which I also started in January—impacting my travel were unfounded.

Here are my travel highlights for 2010 (and while my daughter didn’t go on all of these trips with me, she did make it to 14 states and Washington, DC in her first year):

• In February I visited the Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach and wrote about its teen club for Air Canada’s in-flight magazine, enRoute, and one of my rare visits to a spa for UpTake.
• A road trip to Milwaukee and Chicago in March marked my daughter’s first trip out of Kentucky; I talked about the experience on a podcast for UpTake and mentioned our Chicago hotel room’s wonderful view in enRoute.
• As much as I enjoy traveling, it’s nice when a big event comes to me. In May it was the Kentucky Derby, which I wrote about for BlackBook and oversaw Louisville.com’s best week of traffic ever (November’s Breeders’ Cup did well too).
• While family was the focus of my June visits to San Diego (brother’s wedding) and Kamiah, ID (to see my grandmother), I wrote about San Diego restaurant Jsix’s chef’s kitchen experience for BlackBook.
• In June I made it back to New York City for TBEX, a travel bloggers conference, and finally got to meet in person a lot of folks I’d only known on the tubes. They were terribly disappointing exceeded high expectations.
• Coming from a small family (no aunts or uncles), my wife’s family’s annual reunion just outside of Morgantown, WV is a can’t miss—I’m serious.
• In Columbus, Ohio for my brother-in-law’s wedding, I stayed in a hotel where James Thurber use to live.
• In August I flew to the The Big Island of Hawaii on assignment for enRoute to take a fine art photography class with Photo Safari Hawaii.
• Later that month Las Vegas was the destination for another enRoute assignment, this time to take a poker lesson from two-time World Series of Poker champ Mark Seif.
• I wrote about looking out over Gerald Ford’s grave site from my hotel room in Grand Rapids, Mich. for UpTake and visiting the art fair with the world’s largest prize (if not the best art) for Gridskipper.
• On Columbus Day weekend we trekked to Watoga State Park in West Virginia for another of my wife’s family reunions (it’s a big clan).
• At Thanksgiving I returned to my hometown of Reading, Mass. for the first time in 17 months, the longest I’d ever gone without a visit; I reviewed the accommodations at my parents’ house for UpTake (executive summary: meh).
• For the second year in a row, I visited China with the Ritz-Carlton (this time it was Beijing); I won’t complain if trips to China with that hotelier become an annual tradition. Culinary highlights already have been posted on Gridskipper.
• It was fantastic to get back to Washington, DC and see our friends. I wrote our stay at the Ritz-Carlton, Washington DC about for UpTake.
• For the third time in four years, both my wife’s family and mine gathered in the neutral playing location of Deep Creek Lake Maryland for Christmas.