BOOK BRIEF
Reaching for the stars Do you love visiting the planetarium? Are you fascinated by the history of NASA? Is seeing the Northern Lights on your life list? If so, "Guidebook for the Scientific Traveler: Visiting Astronomy and Space Exploration Sites Across America" by Duane Nickell (Rutgers University Press, $21.95) can help you plan your next trip. The book includes chapters on visiting planetaria, space museums, NASA research and flight centers, and optical and radio telescopes and observatories that offer tours, such as the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., and the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. Another chapter lists homes and historic sites associated with eight astronomers and astronauts from physicist Albert Einstein to John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
web watch
Finding award seats You've signed up for fare alerts that send you an e-mail message when a flight you want to buy goes down in price. Ever wish you could get a similar message when a frequent-flier seat opens up on that plane? Starting on Tuesday, Yapta.com will do just that. Known for alerting travelers to airfare price drops even after the ticket has been purchased, the site is testing a service that allows travelers to receive an e-mail alert when an award seat becomes available. Travelers simply do a normal online search for airfare on Yapta.com and click "include award tickets" to begin tracking the flight. Yapta will automatically send alerts via e-mail if either the price drops or an award seat opens up. The service, which is being offered free in a test phase, comes at a time when travelers, faced with sky-high airfares in a tough economic environment, may be increasingly tempted to use miles for flights. But finding an award seat, while rarely easy, could be particularly challenging as airlines cut capacity. The site will offer award-seat alerts for five major airlines -- Alaska, Continental, Delta, United and US Airways -- when it introduces the service on Tuesday, with plans to add carriers in the future.
NEW YORK TIMES
THIS JUST IN
A jump in ski rentals Colorado ski-rental shops are expanding their inventory and making it easier for vacationers to rent equipment amid increasing airline baggage fees, according to the Denver Post. The spike in inventory at some shops comes as industry experts say bringing all the necessary skiing equipment in a second, oversized bag can cost skiers as much as $250 each way on some airlines -- and that's not counting what it would cost to bring skis for the whole family. "You can buy a new set of skis for these prices," Mike Boyd, with Evergreen's Boyd Group aviation consulting firm, told the newspaper. Ski shops are banking that the high baggage fees will put their rental equipment in high demand this season. Winter Park spent $250,000 on new rental gear and Monarch Ski and Snowboard Resort tripled its inventory while others are enticing skiers by offering to deliver ski and snowboard rentals to hotels and condos, the Post reported.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ESCAPE ARTISTS
Will you fly Sun Country? I've been watching the struggles of Sun Country this fall and wondering if the airline will survive. Losing Sun Country would be a shame for many reasons, including healthy competition for Delta. But I would miss its service and comfort most of all. Amid an increasingly cramped and grungy mode of transport, Sun Country manages to provide relatively comfortable, competent and cheerful service (for which it was recognized as among the best in the nation for the third time in October.) For consumers, the question is when do you give up your loyalty for security? What if you book your vacation to Mexico for February, and the airline goes under in late January? Consumers who buy their tickets with credit cards typically are protected from the loss of the cost of the tickets, but booking a new flight on short notice could be prohibitively expensive. If you're planning a winter getaway, what are you going to do? Join the conversation at www.startribune.com/escapeartists.
CHRIS WELSCH
sideroads
Working with leather World-renowned artist and Mille Lacs Band elder Margaret Hill will offer a two-day puzzle pouch workshop next weekend at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum in Onamia, on the south shore of Lake Mille Lacs. Participants will learn techniques of working with leather and create a secret leather pouch, also known as a puzzle pouch, to hide treasures. The workshop will be noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and noon to 2 p.m. Sunday. The cost is $50, $45 for Minnesota Historical Society members and $30 for Mille Lacs Band members; additional supply fee of $20. Registration and prepayment required; call 1-320-532-3632 .
KERRI WESTENBERG
