No FOMO this Summer

Things sure do look a lot different than they did in Summer 2020. In fact, some people are finding their calendars are filling up faster than ever. Apparently, spending some time in quarantine has given everyone a severe case of FOMO (if you aren’t hip to the lingo, FOMO is short for fear of missing out). Here’s a quick roundup of events, openings, and fun things to do this summer to avoid that FOMO:

Across the country, state and county fairs are making up for lost time and planning some great events. Some summer fairs of note include the Wisconsin State Fair (August 5-15), the Maine State Fair (July 29-August 7) and Oregon’s Clackamas County Fair (August 17-21).

Narrows Too in Trenton, ME.

Florida is glad to welcome back the Key West Key Lime Festival (July 1-5); Maine’s iconic seaside town of Bar Harbor will host the 55th season of the Bar Harbor Music Festival through July 25; and the Lake George Music Festival is back after its 2020 hiatus and will run August 18-25. Nashville will host the Music City Brewer’s Festival on July 31 which will highlight local, regional, and national breweries along with live music and lots of fun games and then in August welcomes the Blended Festival (August 13-14) which blends music, celebrity chefs, and all kinds of culinary delights.

“Fiesta In Santa Barbara” by Prayitno / Thank you for (12 millions +) view is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Oregon’s Mt. Hood area has plenty of summer fun on tap including an Outdoor Vintage Faire (July 17-18) and the Oregon City Festival of Arts (August 14-15) while Bend, Oregon’s summer events include Bend Summer Festival (July 10-11) and Balloons over Bend (July 23-25). Sunny California events include the Monterey Artichoke Festival (July 24-25) featuring all things artichoke, plus live music, and cooking demonstrations while beautiful Santa Barbara will honor their roots with the Old Spanish Days Fiesta, set to run August 4-8 with plenty of music, dance, and pageantry.

Major theme parks are open again and new rides and attractions include Hershey Park’s Candymonium steel roller coaster, which opened last summer and a thrilling new stunt show at Universal Orlando, the Bourne Stuntacular, promises a lot of excitement as does the park’s Jurassic World VelociCoaster.

And don’t forget the beaches, woodlands, trails, bike paths, and our beautiful national parks are all open again and welcoming back everyone who missed summer fun in 2020. So, check out our fabulous accommodations at PetiteRetreats.com, make a reservation and see all there is to see. No FOMO here!

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Fields of Flowers

Is there anything more summery than a sunflower? From the canvases full of these flowers painted by Van Gogh to the real-life sunflower fields across the U.S., a glimpse of these sunny flowers is bound to make you smile!

Tiny House Clara at Tuxbury Pond Tiny House Village in South Hampton, NH.

Coppal House Farm in Lee, New Hampshire, will host the 2021 Sunflower Festival from July 31 through August 8. Book a tiny house at Tuxbury Pond Tiny House Village and make plans to see these sunnies in bloom. The festival will not only have the fields open but will also have a daily farm stand, food vendors, and live music.

Thompson’s Strawberry Farm in Bristol, Wisconsin, does have a pick your own strawberry option (mid-June to early July), but it also has fields and fields of sunflowers where you can pick your own, too! The sunflower picking season runs from July through October. Drive on over from your cozy cabin at Plymouth Rock (about 90 miles), pick a bunch and head back to camp! 

Cozy cabin at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, WI.

Won’t the sunflowers you harvest at Oregon’s Lee Farms Sunflower Festival look great in your tiny house accommodation at Mt. Hood Tiny House Village? The festival begins August 6 and runs through the month. Learn about the sunflower, enjoy a hayride through the sunflower maze, listen to some live music and frolic among the fields of 30 varieties of sunflowers. For more information, visit oregonsunflowerfestival.com.

Book a cabin at Spring Gulch in New Holland, Pennsylvania, and make plans to attend Maple Lawn Farms Sunflower Festival 2021. Less than 45 miles from your cabin, you’ll find roughly eight football fields’ worth of blooming sunflowers. Variety is the spice of the sunflower festival here because in addition to the classic sunflower, the farm also has 40 different types of sunflowers planted. There’s the Red Sea section where the blooms are a beautiful velvety red. There’s the Land of the Giants where the sunflowers tower over the visitor walkways. Plus, there’s food, music, and a bajillion great photo ops! Visit sunflowerfestivalpa.com for all the details.

Some of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous paintings were those of the sunflowers he painted in the south of France. An interesting way to immerse yourself in these fields of flowers is to visit the unique Immersive Van Gogh, a digital experience of Van Gogh’s most famous works, including those sunflowers, at various locations across the U.S. The experience is currently at several locations including Dallas (through October 3, 2021); Orlando (opens October 7, 2021); San Francisco (through September 6, 2021) and Nashville (opens November 4, 2021.) Visit petiteretreats.com to reserve a unique accommodation near these cities. 

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See You Outside!

Great Outdoors Month turns 23 this month. It initially began as Great Outdoors Week, designated by President Bill Clinton in 1998, but continued to grow under each Administration and became Great Outdoors Month. So, you have to ask – haven’t we always celebrated our great outdoors? Or was it only after the advent of computers, video games, and cable and streaming services that serve as major forms of recreation, albeit indoors, that the call came to remind people to get outside?  

The premise behind Great Outdoors month is to remind Americans about the abundance of great outdoors that exist in our country as well as to re-educate them (or in some cases, educate) them about the importance of conservation and preserving our beautiful woodlands and waters. So, how do you celebrate Great Outdoors Month? Well, the whole month of June has specific days dedicated to outdoor activities, like National Trails Day (June 1); National Fishing and Boating Week (June 5-13) and the Great American Campout (June 26). We say, start with a glamping trip and go from there. Here are a few ideas:

Hiking:  While the events of National Trails Day have come and gone this year, that doesn’t mean you can’t take to the trails any other day this month. Hiking has been proven to improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels, strengthen your core and improve your balance. It’s one of the greatest outdoor activities and requires the least amount of skill. You just walk – a lot! Rent one of the great new tiny homes at Natchez Trace Tiny House Village just outside Nashville and hike the Narrows of the Harpeth Trail – an easy 1.1-mile trail with great views of Tennessee’s Harpeth Valley. Another tiny house and trail is what you’ll find if you visit Oregon’s Mt. Hood Tiny House Village and tackle the nearby Salmon River Trailhead – tackle being the operative word here as it is 7.8 miles, yet still considered a moderate trail that winds through an old growth forest and has great views of the Salmon River.

Cottage at Marina Dunes in Marina, CA

Birding:  According to James Morgan of BirdwatchingBuzz, some the of the best summer birding spots can be found in Maine’s Acadia National Park; Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and California’s Monterey Bay. Birding may seem like a somewhat sedentary activity but there are plenty of benefits – findings show that birding can benefit our overall well-being, mental health, and cognitive functioning. So, grab your binoculars and bird guides and plan a stay with us in a cabin at Mt. Desert Narrows in Maine, a glamping tent at Marina Dunes in California or a cozy cabin at Appalachian RV Campground in Pennsylvania and get into the birds! Maine birders can expect to see warblers, eagles, and puffins while Cali birders might spy a Black-footed Albatross, plenty of seabirds and hummingbirds, too. Visitors to PA’s Hawk Mountain Sanctuary can enjoy the birds as well as hiking trails and native gardens.

Cozy Cabin at Tranquil Timbers in Sturgeon Bay, WI

Fishing: Celebrate National Fishing and Boating Week by either learning to fish or adding to your collection of “fish stories.” We’ve got great accommodations near some of the best fishing locations, so grab your tackle box and gear, wish for some good luck, and drop a line. The waters that surround our cabins and yurts at Tranquil Timbers in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, are teeming with fish, including walleye, northern pike, trout, and bass. You’re bound to get lucky here so rent a yurt and fish away (don’t forget to check out the fishing license requirements). Or book a charter and let the pros show you how it’s done – for specific info, visit travelwisconsin.com/things-to-do/outdoor-fun/fishing. Do you remember the beauty of the fly-fishing scenes from the movie “A River Runs Through It”? Fly fishing not only gives you a total body workout thanks to all the wading, casting, and reeling it requires, but is also known to lower cortisol levels, which means you are de-stressing while wading, casting, and reeling! Head to Leavenworth, Washington, where some of the most scenic fly fishing can be found. Rent one of the great tiny houses at the Leavenworth Tiny House Village and try your hand at wading, casting, and reeling in nearby Fish Lake which is great for yellow perch and largemouth bass in summer.

And don’t forget to make sure to participate in the Great American Campout on June 26. We’ve got plenty of great glamping spots for you– check out www.PetiteRetreats.com for locations!

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Turtle Time

Have you ever considered some of the things you can learn from a turtle? Like slow and steady wins the race, or you can only move forward by sticking your neck out? Plus, they are quite the study when it comes to patience and perseverance. Fun fact – a female loggerhead turtle will swim thousands of miles to nest her eggs on the very same beach she herself was hatched as a baby! Now that’s perseverance. World Sea Turtle Day is June 16 and we believe there’s no better way to celebrate than to highlight our partnership with the Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC) and to share a few ways you can help these shelled friends of ours. 

What we learn from sea turtles is so important as they tell us the health of our oceans and in turn, our oceans tell us the health of our planet.

Speaking of loggerhead turtles, Thousand Trails campgrounds and Encore RV Resorts recently announced their partnership with Loggerhead Marinelife Center (LMC).

Through its four core pillars of rehabilitation, research, education, and conservation, LMC serves as a conservation hub with international reach. As a worldwide agent of ocean conservation, LMC has developed and implemented comprehensive solutions to man-made threats impacting sea turtles. Designed to reduce common injuries seen in sea turtle patients, LMC’s conservation efforts focus on providing individuals and industry partners with actionable solutions.

Last year, the Center celebrated several accomplishments including: 

  • Reaching 20 countries with its mission
  • Releasing 48 treated sea turtles back into the wild
  • Documenting and protecting more than 16,500 sea turtle nests 
  • Removing 99,967 pieces of marine debris during underwater and coastal cleanups
  • Releasing 802 sea turtle hatchlings back into the wild

Thousand Trails campgrounds and Encore RV Resorts will collaborate with LMC to encourage environmentalism and sea turtle research, including on-premise conservation solutions and awareness campaigns to share marine education programs at every touchpoint. 

What a perfect month to visit the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, which is located in Juno Beach, Florida, since June is World Oceans Month. Loggerhead turtles are found in our world’s seas, specifically the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. To find details about the best time to visit LMC and what you can expect when you arrive, go to marinelife.org.

Long Beach in Seaview, WA

To see Loggerhead turtles in their natural habitat, there are several beaches in the U.S. where you just might have the opportunity (no promises though). The John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in North Palm Beach, Florida, has ranger-guided tours (make a cottage reservation at Sunshine Travel); North Carolina’s Topsail Beach is another prime nesting spot and visitors here can also see the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in nearby Surf City (plan a stay at White Oak Shores or Whispering Pines if you’re renting an RV). On the Pacific side, Long Beach is a spot to see the turtles and also visit the Aquarium of the Pacific, which successfully rehabilitated a sea turtle in 2015 and released him back into the ocean. Plan to stay in a cabin or yurt at Long Beach or reserve one of the unique accommodations at Rancho Oso and take a leisurely drive to Long Beach.

Cottage at Rancho Oso in Santa Barbara, CA

How can you help? Aside from any donations or volunteering your time, the points below are ways that glampers can help with the conservation efforts:

  • Properly recycling monofilament lines at fishing sites to prevent derelict marine debris. It could easily drift elsewhere and entangle or strangulate marine life as well as nearby wildlife. 
  • Being cognizant of single-use plastics at restaurants or while glamping. Plastics eventually break down into nano plastics and trickle into the food and water we consume. 
  • Supporting local beaches during sea turtle nesting season. Best practices involve turning off artificial lights at night, knocking over sandcastles and filling in holes, collecting beach chairs, and so on.

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5 Things to Do in… Northern California

California is big – in fact, it ranks number 3 in terms of square miles, measuring 163,695 square miles, falling between Texas and Montana in terms of size. And yet for as big as the Golden State is, most people tend to refer to it in terms of either Northern California or Southern California (although the residents trying make Central California a thing may disagree). Northern California is considered pretty much anything north of San Francisco. Yosemite National Park is in Northern California as is the Napa/Sonoma Wine Country and several national forest lands that are home to California’s famed giant sequoias. Northern California is also home to four great campgrounds with each offering its own bit of Northern California charm and fun rental accommodations. So, we’ll round up the campgrounds, highlight the best there is to see near each and throw in a fifth highlight for additional fun in the North!

Cabin at Ponderosa in Lotus, CA
  1. Ponderosa is in Lotus, California, on the South Fork of the American River, which means plenty of water sports including kayaking and rafting right onsite. An interesting day trip would be to visit the historic town of Folsom, which is about 20 miles away. If Folsom sounds familiar, it is the same Folsom made famous by Johnny Cash’s song “Folsom Prison Blues” written about the Folsom State Prison. Visitors can check out the Folsom Prison Museum which has exhibits and artifacts about the 100-year-old-plus facility. There is also the Johnny Cash Trail, which is a Class I bike and pedestrian trail. The town is also home to the Folsom History Museum, the Railroad History Museum and plenty of shops and restaurants. Ponderosa offers a number of cabin options, perfect for a glamping vacation.
Cabin at Tahoe Valley in South Lake Tahoe, CA
  1. Tahoe Valley is in beautiful South Lake Tahoe, which is a mix of towering pine trees, sandy beaches, and of course beautiful Lake Tahoe. Things to do include the Heavenly Ski Resort, with its non-snow summer fun that includes a gondola ride and a mountain coaster, several casinos, and the South Lake Tahoe Beer Trail. Emerald Bay State Park is great for hiking, scenic views of Eagle Falls and to see Vikingsholm Castle, a California landmark that is considered one of the finest examples of Scandinavian architecture outside of the Nordic countries. Enjoy a cozy cabin surrounded by towering pine trees and nature and you’re set for a Tahoe adventure.
  1. Lake Minden has its own 41-acre lake, perfect for fishing for catfish and largemouth bass. This is a great home base camp if you want to check out California’s capital city of Sacramento. Sacramento highlights include the State Capitol building with its beautiful gardens, the Capitol Museum, and the California Automobile Museum which has over 150 vintage autos on display dating from 1885 to 2011. Don’t miss the Crocker Art Museum which is the oldest art museum west of the Mississippi and has collections that include California art and other American works dating from the Gold Rush to current times. Check out a cabin or cottage rental while at Lake Minden.
  1. Lake of the Springs is in Oregon House, California, and sits at the foothills of the Sierra Mountains. The 120-acre private lake is the jewel of the campground and is great for fishing, boating, and swimming. The area offers several wineries, the Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum, and lots of outdoor fun. A great photo op would be at the historic Bridgeport Covered Bridge in South Yuba River State Park, which also has great hiking and private swimming spots! Lake of the Springs offers cabin rentals and adorable yurts!
  1. Lodi, California, is a charming town that could serve our Northern California glampers very well as a day trip adventure. There are 85 wineries in the area, plenty of bike trails, and hiking, as well as rafting and kayaking opportunities. Visitors to the town of Lodi are welcomed by the Lodi Mission Arch, which was built in 1907 and topped with a gold-leafed covered bear – which is the state’s official animal. Once you pass through the gate, the Lodi adventure begins. Check out the Lodi Murals, a serial of murals painted around town to commemorate Lodi’s centennial. Or, visit the World of Wonders Science Museum where science provides the entertainment. There are also galleries, shops, plenty of dining options, plus wines, and ciders and craft brews to sample! Add Lodi to your Northern California glamping trip for the ultimate adventure.
Yosemite National Park

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