Duckwyn's Travel Blog - Duckwyn | Your Family’s Travel Guide To World History

St. Louis Cathedral

1/20/2021

The St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans is one of the oldest cathedrals in continuous use in the United States. The church was first built on the site in 1718. It was burned by a fire in 1788 and went through several construction projects in the following years. Most of the present day structure dates to 1850. Starting today, you can use the Duckwyn Travel app to collect the St. Louis Cathedral stamp.

If you're in New Orleans be sure to check out this beautiful cathedral. It's located next to Jackson Square.

The Hoover Dam

1/19/2021

This week we'll start off by adding the Hoover Dam. It's our first destination in Nevada and one of the most popular places to visit outside of Las Vegas. The dam was built during the great depression and provides electricity and drinking water to millions of Americans. Las Vegas wouldn't exist as we know it today without the dam. It's a 40 mile day trip from Vegas. If you're at the Grand Canyon, it's about a 100 mile drive.

Starting today, you can visit the dam to collect your new stamp. If you don't have an account, get one now to start sharing your travel experiences.

World City Tour Challenge Update

1/14/2021

This week we've added 5 more cities to the World City Tour challenge. These cities include Beijing, Hanoi, Ljubljana, Singapore, and Wellington. You can check out the full list of cities on the challenge page by visiting the link below.

World City Tour Challenge

First new destination in 2021: Joshua Tree National Park

1/4/2021

The first new destination for 2021 is Joshua Tree National Park. The unique Joshua trees are mostly found in the Mohave Desert at an elevation between 400 and 1800 meters. The park was named a national monument in 1936 and joined the national park system in 1994.

If you're a star gazer then this park needs to be on your list. The location of the park limits the light pollution you find in most locations throughout the United States. This, along with the parks typical weather conditions, make it an ideal place to enjoy the night sky.

Resources

The Duckwyn Travel Passport 2020 Year in Review

1/1/2021

Happy New Year! Hopefully you and your family have remained safe through 2020. It was a tough year. As it's now 2021, I wanted to look back at what we were able to accomplish over the last 12 months.

Despite the lack of travel, or maybe because of it, 2020 was a busy and productive year. We added over 100 new collectible stamps, stickers, and badges. This includes new city stickers, national park badges, and summit medals. We now have destinations on every continent except Antartica. Here's a recap of what was added:

32 new destinations
45 new cities
12 mountains to explore
11 national parks
4 new historical people

In addition to new collectibles, several new features were added including:

City and castle challenge badges
New City Tour pages for Milan, Florence, Pisa, and Washington DC
New maps based on the 3d mapping provided by Mapbox
Image upload optimization to speed up journal entries
Optimized screens for desktop and tablet screens
Redesigned overview, journal, and passport pages

We've also been working on a couple of new features that will be available in early 2021. We're adding a way for you to share your travel stories through interactive maps and photos. These will integrate into your passport so you can review where you've been each year. A new Wander List will help you share and learn about the places and things that your friends and family want to do on their upcoming travels.

Hopefully later this year we'll be able to travel again. We're anxious to get back to our own Wander Lists but for now, we'll be focusing on staying safe, enjoying close family time, and dreaming about our adventures to come.

Take care and stay safe!

-Chris

New National Park Badge: Glacier National Park

12/31/2020

There are now 11 U.S. National Park badges for you to collect. Today, we've added Glacier National Park to the collection.

Glacier National Park is located in Montana close to the Canada-U.S. border. Its vast territory encompasses over 1 million acres of terrain varying from mountainous areas to lakes, prairies, and tundras. The park's many features were formed by massive glaciers that carved out the valleys and lakes over thousands of years.

The region was first inhabited by Native Americans. The Blackfeet and Flathead people dominated the area until European explorers arrived. In 1895, parts of their land were ceded to the federal government and would later become part of the national park.

Today the park can be explored on foot, by wooden tour boats, or buses called Red Jammers. These old coaches date back to the 1930's. Their unique style makes them easy to spot.

If you enjoy hiking, mountain climbing, fly fishing and other outdoor experience, Glacier National Park has a lot to offer.

More information:

A Unique and Fun Way to Track Where You’ve Traveled

12/22/2020

Want another way to track the places you’ve been? The Wander Club makes these nice tokens that you can purchase for the countries, cities, and national parks you’ve visited. They can make a great gift for your kids or the travel junkies in your family.

Check them out at the Wander Club.

First Destination in Africa: Church of Saint George in Lalibela, Ethiopia

12/21/2020

The first destination in Africa was added today and no, it's not the Pyramids of Giza (although several places in Egypt will be coming next year). It's the Church of Saint George in Lalibela, Ethiopia. I saw these churches carved out of a single stone on 60 Minutes and thought, this needs to be a destination in the Duckwyn Travel Passport. I don't know when I'll get to Ethiopia but I was fascinated by how they were constructed. Hopefully, one day, we'll be able to travel there and take in this beautiful location.

Want to start collecting stamps from destinations around the world? Sign up today for your Duckwyn Travel Passport and start tracking all the countries, U.S. states and destinations you've visited.

Olympic National Park

12/16/2020

Olympic National Park, located in the State of Washington, has been added to our national park collection. The park lies on the Pacific coastline on the Olympic Peninsula. From the coastline, it expands inland to include the Olympic Mountains.

The park is best experienced through its network of hiking trails that take you to the remote sections of the park. In the winter, there is a small non-profit ski area and backcountry terrain for the more experienced skiers.

Visit the park today to collect your Olympic Park badge using the Duckwyn Travel Passport app.

Grand Teton National Park is now part of our national park collection

12/5/2020

Starting today, you can visit Grand Teton National Park and collect our new national park badge.

Grand Teton National Park is located in Wyoming just south of Yellowstone National Park. It's 300,000 acres are made up of the Teton Range, Snake River, and the 15-mile-long Jackson Lake. There are over 200 miles of trails to explore. If you enjoy hiking, mountaineering, camping, and fishing, this pristine ecosystem is for you.

Sign up for your Duckwyn Travel Passport today and start exploring your world.