Baton Rouge Temperature: 92°
Thursday, August 7, 2008

TRAVEL

BEIJING — Faced with my blank look of incomprehension, the taxi driver took a deep breath and tried again. “Ha-pi-tu-mi-te-yu,” he intoned.

Leave it to the women of Covington to think outside the box and come up with an unusual use for Mardi Gras beads.

VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Rwanda — Something is cracking, crunching and rustling its way through the jungle. The noise is loud. It sounds closer. Our guide, Olivier Mutuyimama, pauses, extends his arm and holds us back.

Dauphin Island sits at the edge of Alabama just waiting for visitors. Generations of families have played there leaving little but footprints in the sand. The barrier island has survived many a storm and still it stands, calling to beach lovers.

KIGALI, Rwanda — Visiting places famous for death is nothing new. You can tour the Nazi concentration camps of Dachau in Germany and Auschwitz in Poland. Tourists sought glimpses of the World Trade Center ruins within days of the Sept. 11th attacks.

While travel expenses are up this summer, Genevieve Shaw Brown, Travelocity’s senior contributing editor, said summer travel is still very strong. “What’s different is how people are traveling,” Strong said in a telephone interview.

New Yorkers and visitors alike can immerse themselves in refreshing public art this summer. The talk of the town is “The New York City Waterfalls,” created by Olafur Eliasson, the Danish-Icelandic artist who is world-famous for creating his own weather systems. The four waterfalls ranging in height from 90 feet to 120 feet will appear until Oct. 13 They run from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

The Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau is settling into its new building at 359 Third St., and the doors are open to all visitors.

Louisiana families start planning in mid-summer for schools starting in August, but summer fun is far from over. A short trip to a state park swimming pool is an easy, low-cost way to cool off for a day.

New appointments in the Louisiana Department of Culture Recreation and Tourism bring experienced leaders to the forefront. Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, who oversees the department, has appointed Pam Breaux as acting secretary of the department.

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