Vacations Blog

Innovation Analysis Group does a bunch of cool stuff, but that didn’t stop them from hosting yours truly in their ongoing series of travel-related podcasts.

Listen to the patient Addison keep me on track as I discuss the perils and benefits of traveling with children.  Really, there are benefits!

It’s only 14 minutes of your life that you’ll never have back. And yes, sadly, that is my real voice.

Traveling With Children

Let’s say for the sake of this post that it is spring and that you are a young man* and that you have thoughts turning that are pretty fancy.

If those fancy thoughts are of scenic places then you may already be a winner.

UpTake is having a photo contest to replace our current home page photo.  The penguins have had their moment.

You can win $250.  You can have your picture featured on UpTake’s home page for 4 months.  The possibilities are limitless (within limits).

There are rules, of course.  There are always rules.  Read them.  Live them.  Love them.

Submit your photo(s) and be somebody.

*Contest also open to women and old people.

Aloha! Welcome to the Vacations Blog for UpTake- your first step to a great trip.

You may find yourself reading this blog and wondering who all of these fascinating people are. They’re us! We’re a group of road-tested individuals that have vacationed all over the place and lived to tell about it. We are here to share the best, the worst and everything in-between.

Whether you are looking for family fun, romantic getaways, trips with the pooch or travels on a limited budget, we have what you need.

For press information on UpTake please visit: Press & Blogger Information.

Contact the Vacation Team

And now, your Bloggers of Leisure:

Whit Honea

Whit Honea is an award-winning writer in the greater Los Angeles area. He is a husband of one, a father of two and the lifeline to many relatively tame creatures.

Whit’s writing can be found at FameCrawler, AOL’s StyleList, Green Daily, DadCentric and the Disney Blog. His personal site, Honea Express (Honea sounds like pony), is an eclectic mix of family fun and foul-mouthed tirades.

Whit’s Favorite Vacation: My favorite vacation would either be the trip I took to Europe one summer while I was is in college or the time that my wife (when she was still my girlfriend) and I went to Walt Disney World in Orlando.

The trip to Europe consisted of museums, drinking, hearts and heroes. There may or may not have been jail time. Walt Disney World was romantic and relaxing and by a random act of spontaneity, the spot where I proposed to my wife. I better go with the latter.

Jay Romeo

J. Edward Romeo has 16 years experience in software development and team management. He was the founder of New Jersey Online Travel and served as the director of Redbank.com before they were acquired by Banyan Vines along with ePresence, where he worked on the design and development of Switchboard.com, YourHomeDirect.com and the original Survivor site for CBS.

Presently he serves as the Director of Fire Services at Emergency Software Products , as well as the co-host of the Parentograpy Podcast. He spends his free time photographing his travels and maintains a personal blog Triple Venti.

Jay’s Favorite Vacation: This dramatically changed in 2006, when I made my first trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida, where I had the opportunity to become a kid again and experience it with my wife and daughter for the first time. Sights, activities, everything that both young and old could enjoy to a point of exhaustion. We had originally planned it as a “once in a lifetime” trip, but found that the happiest place on earth doesn’t allow you to escape with just one visit, so we will be returning.

Britt Reints

Britt Reints has been blogging at Miss Britt since 2005. Offline, she has a fancy title that includes words like “VP” and “marketing” – which essentially means she sells stuff. Online, she’s entirely too open about her personal life and has embraced the motto, “Dignity is Overrated.” She neglects to tell any of this to her editors at her paid blogging gigs where she portrays a very responsible working mother, childcare expert and travel aficionado for the entire state of Florida.

Britt’s Favorite Vacation: I’ve been fortunate enough to visit numerous white sandy beaches and European destinations, including Switzerland and Italy. But my favorite vacation experience was a three day trip to New York City. I traveled alone, leaving my husband and kids at home and meeting friends upon my arrival in the Big Apple. I spent less than $500 on the entire weekend and jammed an exciting tourist experience into 72 hours. Beaches are fabulous for rest and relaxation, but nothing gets my blood pumping again like a full body immersion into city life.

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry, CEO of Blogging at Childsplayx2, has been chronicling the highs and lows of parenting twins since he knocked up his wife in 2004. Childsplayx2 has been featured in Parents Magazine, the New York Daily News and his mother’s annual Christmas newsletter. When not battling twins, Matthew is an executive for the YMCA who enjoys exercising, reading and eating fine desserts – not necessarily in that order.

Matthew’s Favorite Vacations: My favorite vacations include ones where there are plenty of sandy beaches and crystal blue waters. However, when traveling with toddler twins, I believe that successful vacations are the ones when nobody gets killed. As a child, my own mother took me and my brother on a train trip across Canada and we once crisscrossed Mexico via bus, train and burro. It is my hope that I can introduce my own kids to those same experiences through travel. Well, maybe not the burros.

Joe Romano

Joe Romano works in in the field of corporate communications and has worked as a freelance writer and blogger since 2005. His blog, Hey Joe, is a collection of random bits of flotsam concerning life, his family, dead celebrities and other miscellaneous drivel that strikes his fancy.

Joe’s Favorite Vacation: To me a great vacation should provide abundant opportunities to relax. As much as like seeing new sights I never feel that a vacation was a complete success unless I managed to finish at least one book. Therefore, beach trips (Anna Maria Island, Florida comes to mind) have to rank up there as some of my favorites. They offer both the time to relax and time for fun with the kids. When we manage to get away sans kids, my wife and I enjoy exploring the many cozy coastal locations of California.

Charles A. Downs III

Charles A. Downs III has been blogging at The Goat and Tater since July 2008. Tales of misguided youth/adulthood are evenly balanced by heartwarming ramblings of days spent with his two daughters, the Goat (age 7 and ruler of all things pink and horsey) and the Tater (age 1.5 and ruler of all things 36″ and below). When Charles isn’t reading “The Lady with the Alligator Purse” for the 27th time or getting hustled in a game of Sorry, he enjoys fly fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, writing, reading, or letting the current of one of Kentucky’s scenic waterways pull him into destinations unknown.

Charles’ Favorite Vacation: This must be broken down into two categories. Category one being the family vacation. Spent with my lovely wife, oldest daughter, and youngest daughter (in utero) in the pristine beauty of Kiawah Island, SC. Exploring marshes and wetlands, watching the Dolphins play under a setting sun, letting the surf tickle our legs, and doing absolutely nothing at all. Category two would be a trip to Europe to play soccer in the summer of 1989 where I came, just inches, from starting an International Incident at Checkpoint Charlie. Long story.

Kim Tracey Prince

Kim Tracy Prince is a television producer and freelance writer in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. With two little boys under 4, she writes about the messy underbelly of family life at House of Prince, contributes to the colorful group of voices at Los Angeles Moms Blog, and guides parents to enriching activities at Being Savvy San Fernando. Kim also writes a column in the local newspaper The SFV News. When she and her husband can wrestle the kids into their car seats successfully, they enjoy trips within a 7-hour drive, max.

Kim’s Favorite Vacations: My favorite vacations are the ones that get me away from as many people as possible. My honeymoon, spent aboard a 32-foot Beneteau in the British Virgin Islands, was the most relaxing time of my life. That said, family trips to places that delight my children can be worth the crowds. A recent vacation to SeaWorld for the opening of Sesame Place now ranks up there among the faves.

Warren Toland

Warren Toland is a VP of Development and Public Relations for a non-profit located in Central Connecticut. Warren has been blogging for over three years at his personal site, mr big dubya, and is a founding member of the irreverent and very popular dad blog, DadCentric. He also contributes to The Whinery, My Wife Hates My Xbox, and Draft Day Suit.

Warren’s Favorite Vacation: My wife and I have always loved to travel – even more so now that we have children. My favorite vacation was a trip to Ireland several years ago just after we got engaged. We journeyed across the pond so I could be introduced to my wife-to-be’s extended family and receive the blessing of the Hynes family matriarch (I kid.). It was a 10-day, whirlwind tour spent in such fine locales as Galway, Dublin and Beleek. We are anxious to get back and introduce our children to the Emerald Isle.

Phil Corless

Phil Corless is a stay-at-home dad in North Idaho. He also homeschools his two kids, which makes it easier to make frequent road trips around the West as a family. He’s been writing about this unique life since 2004 at his blog, A Family Runs Through It. Corless received his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Idaho and his undergraduate degree from Cal State Fullerton.

Phil’s Favorite Vacation: Two years ago we had an extensive dream vacation planned in Western Canada, including stays in Banff, Alberta, and Victoria, British Columbia. A month before the trip, I realized I couldn’t find my birth certificate to get back across the border. Cancelling all those plans, I made some last minute arrangements at a resort in the Olympic National Park that I’d never heard of called Kalaloch Lodge. That trip turned out to be a family favorite. Five days along the gorgeous Pacific beaches of Washington. It was so memorable and enjoyable, we returned to the Lodge this past summer and had just as much fun.

James Grayson

James Grayson is a photographer that loves to write. He currently resides in Austin, TX, with his wife and kids who provide endless hours of humor in his life. He shares some of it with the world at his blog, Daddyshack. James and his partners at Quirkee Media also publish a humor and entertainment magazine at Quirkee.com. He loves to travel and plans on doing it more often as his kids grow older. He wants to discover more of the world around him with his family and capture the moments in photographs. See more of his photography at JamesGrayson.com.

James’ Favorite Vacation: One of my favorite and most memorable vacations was earlier this year when I went with my dad and uncles to Augusta, Georgia, for a Masters tournament practice round and Par-3 contest. I love to play golf and just stepping foot on the grounds at Augusta National Golf Club was an honor. When they first went in 1998, my grandfather was still with us and they were the foursome on that trip. I was able to fill his shoes this year and walk the course he had walked before me. That will always be a memorable vacation for me even if it only lasted three days.

Darren Farrington

Darren Farrington is a theater manager and producer living in Connecticut with his wife and daughter. He got in on the blogging scene in 2005 as a daddy blogger and later incorporated posts into his professional consulting website DarrenFarrington.com. Darren began working in arts organizations in 1991, but took a much-too-long break for law school and legal practice in New York and Connecticut. Even then, his strength was writing and persuading readers to go (mentally at least) where he told them. As a big fan of vacations, he’s glad to be using his cultural and writing experience to promote travel and tourism.

Darren’s Favorite Vacation: Any vacation with my wife and daughter is a favorite, but we’re most drawn to sandy beaches and warm temperatures. Coastal New England in the summer (sometimes even into the early fall) fits the bill, but nothing beats cold-shouldering the snow and ice and taking off for the Caribbean in the middle of winter. We’ve all become fans of kid-friendly cruises where my wife and I get some adult time while my daughter spends a couple of hours each day in supervised kids’ clubs. Give me sand in my toes and the smell of sunscreen and I’m a happy man.

Ed Lamaze

Ed Lamaze has spent the better part of his life dreaming of someplace else and traveling less than extensively. Elated when offered the opportunity to be a part of the Vacations Blog team at UpTake.com, his wife flatly countered, “But you don’t take vacations.” “I know, that’s the beauty of it!” Ed is a Stay-at-Home father of five children having left a career as a Registered Nurse in a Children’s Hospital ER to tend to the scrapes and bruises of everyday life at home. Rest assured that when Ed speaks of a vacation destination, it’s been tested kid friendly.

Born and raised in Louisiana, Ed currently resides in a historical home (that means it’s old) outside of Columbus, Ohio where he will be writing of vacation adventures in America’s Heartland. His personal blog, Zoe’s Dad, chronicles some of the zaniness of raising five crazy kids.

Ed’s Favorite Vacation: My wife and I spent a carefree week in Jamaica before we were married in a little resort located just outside of Montego Bay. A private villa nestled along the shores yielded panoramic views of sunsets to the west and the lush greenery of the mountains to the east. For an entire week, we golfed, snorkeled, swam, hiked, dined and lounged in a near Utopian setting. We immersed ourselves in all that Jamaica had to offer. Best of all, not once during that week did anyone refer to me as Daddy! Good times.

Jason Roth

Jason Roth, a resident of Las Vegas, provides UpTake readers a local’s take on the hotels, restaurants, attractions and events that make for an ultimate family vacation in the City of Sin. A blogger for nearly four years, he also chronicles his journey as a husband and father under the pseudonym of VegasDad on his personal blog ivegasfamily.com. In addition to blogging, Jason is director of marketing and public relations for a private university in Southern Nevada. He has more than 10 years of experience in public relations, having served clients in variety of industries at firms in Southern California, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Jason’s Favorite Vacation: My family and I enjoy any opportunity to take a break from the Las Vegas scene. Our favorite places to visit are large cities, such as San Francisco, New York and Montreal, where we take full advantage of the cultural experiences not available at home. We’re especially fond of culinary art and always make an effort during our trips to discover great restaurants.

James Austin

James Austin is a longtime Seattle, WA resident and Pacific Northwest native. A husband of 10 years and a first time father of an energetic toddler, James enjoys discovering and experiencing all the diverse beauty and wealth of exciting things to do within minutes of his Seattle home. James has been documenting his experiences as a new father for the past year on his dad blog “Luke, I am your Father.” In his free time, James enjoys managing people, as well as systems and operations, for a mid-sized office in a non-profit organization.

James’ Favorite Vacation: The destination is Kailua Beach on Oahu, Hawaii. Kailua Beach is just my speed. It is located on the windward side of Oahu, far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Honolulu to make you feel like you are actually on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but close enough that you can do an excursion to the city for some night life, if you desire. Kailua Beach is a wonderful place to take the family. The sand is soft, the water remains shallow several hundred yards out, and it is not overly crowded. It is also a perfect place to wake early and watch the sunrise, which once complete highlights the stunning topography of the surrounding mountains.

The Ohio River in Gallipolis, Ohio

It’s funny how the even the most simple of errands can lead you on a grand and interesting adventure.  My daughter celebrated a birthday last week and in lieu of a pony, we got her a puppy.  My job was to retrieve the puppy from a little farm outside of Gallipolis, OH.  And while my sojourn there was little more than passing through, I saw and learned enough that I’m planning a trip back to the area with intents on a longer stay.

Gallipolis, OH is a small city nestled along the Ohio River first settled by the French in 1790, an immediate appeal considering my French heritage and a pleasant contrast to the German and Welsh areas where I currently live.

The downtown area is quaint with old buildings and antique shops.  Think New Orleans but on a much smaller scale and without the hookers and urine filled alleyways.

Downtown Gallipolis, OH

The area, well within the boundaries of the Appalachian foothills, is rich with natural beauty, gentle hills and gorgeous overlooks of the Ohio River.

Bridge to Point Pleasant, WV

Just across the river is Point Pleasant, West Virginia.  You may remember The Mothman Prophecies….

That was Point Pleasant, WV.

For a thirteen month period beginning in November 1966 locals reported sightings of the Mothman in and around the area along with many other strange phenomena.    On December 15, 1967 the 700 foot Silver Bridge connecting Ohio to West Virginia collapsed during evening rush hour killing 46 people.  After the catastrophe the Mothman sightings ended.  Some people considered the Mothman sightings as a warning of the impending disaster.  Spooky!

There are several lodging options available, though I think I’m going to be checking out the historic Lowe Hotel downtown on the corner of Fourth and Main Streets.  It’s budget friendly, centrally located and convenient to several area attractions:

The Mothman Statue Point Pleasant, WV

- – Tu-Endie-Wei State Park (four blocks away)- -

The park is the commemorative site of the famous Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 between Virginia militia and American Indians.  The battle  is considered by many a precursor to the American Revolutionary War.  The park is open year round including holidays.

- – The Historic Point Pleasant Walking District (outside of the hotel doors) – -

- – Point Pleasant River Museum (four blocks away) – -

The River Museum focuses on past and present history of life and industry on the Ohio River.  The museum is closed on Mondays.

- – Point Pleasant Riverfront Park (next door) – -

- – The Mothman Museum and Research Center (in the hotel building) – -

They offer tons of information about the Mothman sightings as well as informative narrated tours to several area sighting locations.  The museum is open daily noon to 5 pm.

- – The Ohio and Kanawha Rivers (the trail is behind the hotel building) – -

Silver Bridge Collapse Marker--Point Pleasant, WV

Gallipolis, Ohio and it’s neighbor Point Pleasant, West Virginia is the idyllic area for a relaxing family get away.  Whether you’re in the mood for a soothing stroll along the banks of the Ohio River watching the riverboats pass or the thrill of investigating the unexplained, there’s just enough intrigue to keep it interesting for everyone in the family.

Photo Credits:  Ed Lamaze, Creative Commons via Flickr incendiarymind and jimmywayne22

At UpTake, we consider ourselves a Web 3.0 company. In fact, I will be presenting at the Web 3.0 conference in Santa Clara on Oct 16th-17th. But, to paraphrase Sarah Palin, “Gosh, just what in the heck is this doggone Web 3.0?”

Web 2.0 let everyone publish their thoughts on the internet. Millions of blogs, millions of product reviews and billions of tweets later, has the internet become a more informative place? Or are we just drowning in a sea of unorganized opinions?

The problem is that most of the knowledge from Web 2.0 is locked away in this black-box called “text”. Whether it is the text of a user review, a blog post, a newspaper article or a tweet, opinions expressed in text can only be had by asking people to read the full output of every Web 2.0 user who expounded on a subject.

Attempts to date to summarize that information are rather crude. The state-of-the-art seems to be statements like this: “4.0 star average rating from 124 users.” Have you ever noticed that the avg user rating is almost always between 3.5 and 4.5 stars? And what are we to make of the fact that Scooby Doo and A Streetcar Named Desire have the same 4.5 star rating at Amazon? (If you are a serious Saturday morning cartoon buff, that rating for Streetcar is ridiculous.)

Web 3.0, sometimes called the “semantic web”, is about trying to make sense of all that Web 2.0 content. And that means all that text content. Web 3.0 is about opening that black box called “text” and understanding what it says so that you can make better decisions, faster.

A Web 3.0 search engine would filter and rank information based on the collective intelligence of opinions scrawled all over the web. It means getting beyond the “avg user rating” and understanding why people like something, what parts about it are good, what parts are not. It means directing you quickly to the meat of what people say about something that matters to you.

Like Scooby Doo and A Streetcar Named Desire, what’s “good” and what’s “bad” is highly personal.  Only by understanding what people say about something can we understand for whom to recommend it and why. When the web is able to do that, we will have arrived at Web 3.0.

(Read more opinions on what Web 3.0 means at the Web3Beat)

We are looking for extraordinary individuals who enjoy working in collaborative, results-driven teams. If you are creative problem-solver, collaborative and eager to push the edge on where web search and travel planning will evolve, please email us your CV concerning one of our open positions:

• Application/ UI Engineer
• Data Extractor / Web Data Miner
• Natural Language Engineer
• Business Intelligence and Data Analytics Lead

Why Join UpTake?

• Travel is the largest e-commerce sector
• We are addressing a significant unmet consumer need in that sector
• We have a leadership team with prior entrepreneurial success and deep travel and search experience
• We have proven our unique technology, our complementary approach and our business model
• We are centrally located, 1/2 block from the Caltrain station in Palo Alto
• We don’t have so much free food that you’ll put on 15 pounds during your first month
• We are a results-driven, fun and collaborative team
• We are fully funded to profitability with proven top-tier investors

Our “Week at the Ritz” (or $5K) Referral Program

To thank you for introducing us to an engineering candidate we add to the UpTake team, we will send you to the Ritz. Any Ritz, anytime for a week (our President is a Canuck who is partial to the Four Seasons and can recommend a few personal favorites, so we’d be happy to send you to a Four Seasons for a week instead)! We’ll pay for your room, breakfast for a week and a daily spa treatment too, if you wish.

-or-

If you prefer, we’ll pay you a referral fee of $5,000.

-or-

Donate $7,500 in your name to the Bay Area chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters. To be eligible, please send your referrals to jobs@uptake.com before this Thanksgiving (and be the first to send us the candidate). If candidates come to us directly as a result of your introduction, please make sure they mention your name in the subject line of their initial email.

Thanks!

On Wednesday, September 17, UpTake announced it received  more than $10 million in new funding, including a Series B round of investment led by Trinity Ventures and Shasta Ventures, and additional backing from other sources. The new funding built on our Series A round of $4 million from Shasta Ventures announced in December 2007, when we opened the site to its first private beta users.

We will use the new funding to achieve three main objectives. First, we will expand search beyond UpTake Hotels into new categories including:  UpTake Lodging, UpTake Things to Do, UpTake Restaurants and UpTake Beaches.  Second, we will invest in our search technology to improve travel recommendations based on its analysis and filtering of collective intelligence. Lastly, we will pursue opportunities to grow the company through acquisitions.

We also announced a new Content Partner Program to enable publishers to provide their most up-to-date content to the UpTake visitor. UpTake partners include: BedandBreakfast.com, Restauranti.ca, OpenTable, La Quinta Inn & Suites, Away.com, and FriendCommunications, the leader in online reservations for RV parks and campgrounds.“

Here are the highlights of the media coverage resulting from the announcement:

VentureBeat

UpTake, the travel search engine that gets its traffic from Google, takes in $10M

“Unlike many content-focused travel sites, which seem to proliferate daily (see TripWolf, IgoUgo, TripSay), UpTake has no illusions about becoming the first place people turn for travel info. It has instead built a strategy almost entirely based around aggregating high-quality content from other sources and pulling in traffic from travel searches executed on major search engines.”

TechCrunch

UpTake Raises $10 Million in Series B Funding

“The funding round was led by Trinity Ventures, which ostensibly believes UpTake has a bright future ahead of it.”"Considering it’s competing in a well-trodden space where sites like TripConnect and TripHub have failed, it’ll be interesting to see if the travel search engine can transition from an SEO-driven strategy to a more natural uptake.”

ZDNet

UpTake Announces $10,000,000 investment with a new Series B

“As I reported back in May when the company entered public beta, they’re applying some interesting semantic approaches in an attempt to enhance the quality of results.”

TheDeal.com

UpTake travels in style with $10M

“Calling itself a travel search and discovery Web site, UpTake wants to be the first place travelers look when deciding where to go on vacation, where to stay and what to do. It searches more than 1,000 other travel sites and scours the Web for other travelers’ opinions to provide matches to help people make better travel decisions.” 

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal

Travel Search Site UpTake gets $10M

“UpTake said it will use the new funding expand search functions, invest in technology to improve travel recommendations based on analysis and filtering of collective intelligence, and pursue opportunities to grow the company through acquisitions.”

We are looking forward to using these funds to deliver better travel information to our visitors and as a result give them a better trip.If you need further information, we like Paul Miller’s analysis of UpTake written for our public beta announcement on The Semantic Web.  If you are looking for more press and blogger information, go here.