Michelle Higgins, who writes the Practical Traveler column for the New York Times Travel section, has an, umm…stimulating column about ‘Nakations’. Simply put, that’s a nude vacation - No clothes, no shoes, nothing… Well, maybe a pair of Rayban sun-glasses to make you look better than the all the other nude bums, but that’s about all. Photo credit - New York Times

To many, the mention of a nudist resort conjures up images of isolated beach colonies with volleyball courts, hippie-style gatherings in a secluded campground or R.V. parks tucked away in the woods for vacationers who still talk reverently about the Summer of Love.

Dude, that’s Black’s Beach, San Diego - The finest clothing-optional beach ever in the history of beaches. Anyway, point Ms. Higgins is trying to make here is that nudism is becoming socially acceptable, and mainstream resorts and hotels are responding by coming to terms with nude vacationers and offering them discrete stays tucked away in an isolated part of the resort.

Sea Mountain Inn, a two-year old nude resort and spa in Desert Hot Springs, Calif., with room rates ranging from $269 to $900 a night, features Asian-influenced rooms with Egyptian bed linens, flat-screen TVs and natural mineral water pumped into the shower.  In 2007, nude recreation represented a $440 million industry — up from $400 million in 2001 and $200 million in 1992 — and it’s still growing, says the American Association for Nude Recreation, which promotes au natural vacations as “nakations.” Vacationers can now roll out a mat at all-nude yoga retreats, share banana bread with other guests at all-nude bed-and-breakfasts, gear up for nude mountain biking in California’s High Desert and saunter around the decks of cruise ships chartered specifically for clothing-free travel. - Nude vacations - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Worries, Michelle Higgins, New York Times

Let’s move from crazy naked guys to a crazy lion, who is also naked. What? You ever seen a lion wearing a tuxedo? Ok. All right. I’m a bit stressed out here. Just finished writing a long, long piece for Mother’s Day for my editor, and it really drained me. If just writing about it can be so exhausting, I pity the poor sod who actually tries to follow the Mother’s Day plan I wrote about, not to mention aforementioned editor who has to verify everything I wrote (that should be fun….).

Anyway, back to the lion. This mounatin lion goes jump a 5 foot chain link fence at a farm in Gilroy, CA and kills five goats before fleeing the scene of the crime, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The mountain lion fed on two of the slain animals and attempted to drag one of them under the fence before spotting the homeowner and fleeing, said Kyle Kroll, a warden with the state Department of Fish and Game. “It got into a killing and feeding frenzy,” Kroll said. “It was just kill, kill, kill.” And Oh, if you think that this only happens in hick towns, on Friday, a mountain lion was spotted perched in a tree in the Eagle Rock neighborhood north of downtown Los Angeles.

So if you see a mountain lion with a crazy look in his eyes, you know what to do, right? What? You just outrun the guy next to you, that’s what. Look, I told you I was a bit stressed out…

Posted on May 4th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Travel News