Travel Gifts: Haptic Lab Map Quilts

New Orleans

Looking for a gift for a new parent who loves to travel?  Or who loves a particular city? It would be hard to do better than one of these sweet cotton quilts from Haptic Lab.

Boston

These sweet yet geographically precise printed quilts measure 36" x 42" and are hand knotted. They come in three color ways and can even be personalized.

Haptic Lab also makes large all-white city quilts with hand-stitched (rather than printed) maps - featured cities include London, New York, Paris, and more.

Paris

Favorite Places x2: The Adventure Playground and Fourth Street in Berkeley, California

These two favorite places go together beautifully, with something for everybody!  If you are visiting the San Francisco Bay Area and don't know about the Adventure Playground over in Berkeley, you should - there aren't too many of these parks and this is a great one.  It was created in 1979 and still has that old 70s feeling, where kids run (relatively) wild and build their own world.  

By helping with a bit of cleanup, kids may earn hammers or paintbrushes, which they may use to make their own mark on the place.  They may also simply play - there's lots to climb on, in and through.  There's a zipline (for ages six and up), which my son's favorite part.  He also loves rolling down the small hill tucked inside a plastic barrel.  To each his own!

One of the excellent things about this park is it's location. It's right down by the water, with wonderful views in all directions, a little beach right next to the entrance, and plenty of places for walking and exploring.  It's a beautiful spot.  It also happens to be a few minutes drive from one of the best shopping districts around: Fourth Street in Berkeley. While Fourth Street is home to some chain stores, you will also find a large number of small and beautiful independent stores - The Gardener,  The Builders Booksource, Rabat (shoes), Castle in the Air, Miki's Paper... There are also several wonderful places to eat - I love Tacubaya, Bettie's To Go (I love eating a slice of their pizza out on the sidewalk), and O'Chame.

Back to the Adventure Playground: as a city park, admission to the Adventure Playground is free. However, for a small fee (a $10 flat fee as of this writing), kids aged seven and older maybe left here for up to three hours. Can you see where I am going with this?

Here's what you do: After registering at the office (a few steps from the Playground), drop the kids (remember, they must be at least seven) at the Adventure Playground. Then head up to Fourth Street for  lunch a bit of shopping.  When you're ready, pick up the kids... but don't leave yet.  Take a walk together down to the pier, or around Cesar Chavez Park.  It's a wonderful way to experience the bay - the views are fabulous, the air is bracing, and there's just so much to see.  

P.S. On April 18, the merchants of Fourth Street are hosting a sidewalk sale, with deals ranging from 40-60% off. Wish I could be there!

Armchair Traveler: Holiday Shopping at KIOSK

A tiny flock of sheep from Columbia, available at KIOSK

One of the fun things about traveling is shopping - and there are so many ways to shop!  You can shop for beautiful clothes, or antiques, or fabulous textiles...  Or (and this is my favorite, as a budget traveller) you can shop for little things - unfamiliar drugstore or candy items with intriguing packaging, little toys (a given with us), or other little bits and bobs that are easy to justify hauling back home.

My favorite souvenirs from Denmark include a handful of miniature (and cheap) comic books featuring Rasmus Klump, and a gorgeous (and rather hefty) 1950s book of nature photographs entitled Geheimnisvolles Leben Am Wasser - Mysterious Life on the Water. These sorts of unexpected finds from far-flung lands make great Christmas presents - they always feel special somehow.  But if you haven't managed an overseas shopping trip this year, have no fear - I have a solution!

Kiosk is a wonderful online shop (they also have a bricks-and-mortar shop in New York City, which also a delight). They describe themselves thusly:

"KIOSK is a travel story depicted through objects, a collection of interesting things from around the world, a study of material culture, a shop, several people's efforts to preserve unique and indigenous objects, an installation, maybe just something other than what we are used to."


The shop proprietors travel the world (Finland, Japan, India, Columbia, and more, including the U.S.A.) and sell what they discover. Chances are good that you'll find something you like too - something you won't find anywhere else.  Like these tiny terra cotta bricks from Columbia:

Or these funny cards from Portugal:

I love the look of this dartboard from Finland (it isn't for children, but I still love it):

Kraul in Germany makes wonderful toys (Walter Kraul was a teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School in Germany), but they're difficult to find in the U.S..  Kiosk offers this one:

Colorful chalk from Germany:

And from the good old US of A (specifically, Vermont), this beautiful wooden sled:

The product selection at Kiosk is always changing, and you just never know what will turn up. You can shop all of their children's items here.