I found some travel tips among my catch-all notes that might be useful to pass on in this season of holiday travel.
First, tips from a book by Mark Lawson, The Battle for Room Service: Journeys to All the Safe Places (1993), with advice that might make you think of Anne Tyler's novel, The Accidental Tourist (1985). The protagonist, you may remember (Macon O'Leary, I think - I'll have to check: I did. The name is Leary, not O'Leary. Not bad for a book I read almost 3 decades ago.) Anyway, he made his living as a travel guide, advising people of places to go that are Just Like Home (J LH). Some people really don't went travel to be broadening; it's too threatening.
Lawson advises you to decide how much physical activity you want. I notice that the ElderTreks travel brochure breaks activity down into several categories from easy to moderate to strenuous, or the equivalent thereof. It never uses the term "Couch Potato" but CPs get the message.
Walk around the plane. Here's a statistic I never read before: The full distance from nose to tail and back on a 747 is about 400 feet. Thirteen times - your fellow passengers will love you - and you've covered a mile. Now have a Bloody Mary (my advice, not his).
This is not on Lawson's list, that I know of, but I remember reading that the Duke of Edinburgh advised travellers to "tinkle when you get the chance." (It could only have been the Duke of Edinburgh.) Because you never know. The same is true of napping. Lie down when you can. This is the best treatment for jet lag that I know.
Here's one I never thought of: send a postcard home to yourself. I'm not sure why. Maybe just to see how long it takes. Well, you already know how I feel about postcards.
This is the best one: take a magnifying glass with you, not just your magnifying spectacles and not just for reading the small print. You can really look at things, like lichens and mosses, for example. SOW, did you know there are 100 different kinds of lichens in that neat little ravine in northern Ontario? I forget the name (not Leary), and I'll have to look it up. I've long since despaired of any of you out there helping me. That's okay.
Perhaps we should talk about picnics next.