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Adventures Start @ Your Library

Edie Strate
Grand County Libraries

OK. The holidays are over. Martin Luther King Day is over. Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day are over.

The excitement of the new year has definitely worn off, and it is still cold and snowy. What to do? The best and surest cure is to turn your thoughts to a travel experience somewhere else. This is where the Grand County Library District can come to the rescue.

Would you believe there are over 1,500 travel-related items in the district? These may be in all sorts of formats: books, recorded books, magazines, downloadable materials, videos. Topics covered range all over the world.



Where to travel is a good place to start. Our well known Fraser Valley Library staff member, Suzie Cruse, just got back from an exciting trip to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.

“We knew we were going to attend the Olympics over a year ago so most of our planning included Frommer’s and Fodor’s travel books for the Vancouver and Whistler areas. I also used the book British Columbia : a Walking Guide by Janna Leigh Fleming. I used Sports Illustrated and Skiing Magazine to follow up on some of the athletes and their stories. All the travel books we used helped us plan our meals, travel strategies and information on things like the Sea Bus … [and the] Sea to Sky Highway to get to events,” she said.



There are many travel DVDs. They do not offer such practical details as addresses, phone numbers, hours, admission fees, or highway numbers. Rather, their benefit is to give a wonderful overview of an area and start you dreaming of other ways of life and warmer climates. Hot Sulphur Springs Library owns The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World, by Eric Weiner. On the flip side, Granby Library has Don’t Go There: The Travel Detective’s Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World, by Peter Greenberg.

All Grand County libraries have road atlases and world atlases to help you locate that interesting spot.

Most people are familiar with travel guides. These are detailed books on selected cities, states, regions, countries, or on specialized activities such as skiing, adventure, or camping. Kremmling Library, as well as others, owns the popular Colorado Scenic Byways, by Jim Steinberg. Granby offers The Unofficial Guide to Adventure Travel in Alaska, by Melissa DeVaughn. Bill Heffron, Juniper Library customer, praises the GCLD collection, stating “The range of travel books available is great for the planning process.” He often checks out multiple books on the same destination and cross-references the information to pinpoint the best sights. Heffron adds, “Recorded books are great company for the car, for trips to Denver and even closer to home”.

How to travel resources will help you economize on money and time. Juniper Library owns Ask Arthur Frommer and Travel Better, Cheaper, Smarter, by Arthur Frommer. Juniper also carries the travel magazines Conde Nast Traveler, and Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel. These contain helpful travel hints plus articles on tempting places to visit. Juniper’s Travel Yoga, by Darris Zeer, will help you keep fit and feeling rested, whether you are caught in a service station, airport, plane seat or hotel room.

Travel writing offers a way to be an armchair traveler if your budget won’t allow for a break. Fraser Valley can offer The Best American Travel Writing. Tired of the old, familiar place names? Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country, recounts his travels in Australia, reporting that “The following are all real places: WeeWaa, Poowons, …and the supremely satisfying Tittybong.”

Travel back in time, too. If you are a history buff, Grand County Library District has many books and videos on ancient civilizations: the Mayans, Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Visit Civil War America and go wild imagining the battles and Underground Railroad routes. Dive into The Great Unknown, an adventure book on John Wesley Powel’s journey down the Colorado River. If you truly want to celebrate staying at home, read The River of Doubt, on Theodore Roosevelt’s darkest journey down the Amazon River! Grand County never looked so good.

So don’t let the winter blahs get you. Instead, plan a trip to your library.


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