Posted: 23 Nov 2009 07:39 AM PST

AP Travel for week of Nov. 23

LLOYD WRIGHT SYNAGOGUE

ELKINS PARK, Pa. - Did you hear the one about the rabbi and the architect? Few people have. Which is why the members of Beth Sholom - who worship in the only synagogue designed by Frank Lloyd Wright - are stepping forward to tell the story of how their landmark spiritual home was built. Described as a symbolic Mount Sinai made of concrete, steel and glass, the iconic building somehow never received the attention of more famous Wright designs like Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum. But new public visiting hours might change that. By KATHY MATHESON. AP Photos

ST BART'S

ST. JEAN, St. Barthelemy - Wheels up at the island of St. Maarten and we skim across the waters of the French West Indies to St. Barthelemy - a tiny Caribbean jewel for Francophiles, foodies and fashionistas. By SOFIA MANNOS. AP Photos

HOLIDAY TRAIN SHOWS

Replicas of the Obama White House, the Obamas' home in Kenwood and Michelle Obama's childhood home are among the model buildings on display this year at holiday train shows in botanical gardens. The shows are an annual tradition at a number of gardens around the country, with model trains running past 2-foot-high versions of local buildings made entirely from plant materials. By BETH J. HARPAZ. AP Photos

DAISY BATES HOME

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Every day before heading to Little Rock Central High School in the fall of 1957, nine black students gathered at Daisy and L.C. Bates's home to prepare for the angry mob they faced as they integrated the all-white school. The small tan brick home in south Little Rock is easy to miss, with a plaque in the front yard marking it as a national historic site. But a nonprofit hopes to change that by eventually opening the house as a museum. By ANDREW DeMILLO. AP Photos

AMTRAK AUTO TRAIN

ABOARD AMTRAK AUTO TRAIN 52 TO WASHINGTON - All aboard on this train doesn't mean just people. It means minivans and motorcycles, too. To board you have to be packing some serious luggage: every traveler must also be transporting a vehicle. Amtrak's Auto train, the only one like it in the country, has only two stops: one near Orlando, Fla. and the other near Washington, D.C. For more than 25 years it has carried vacationers and their vehicles, but with a new station expected to be finished in Florida in 2010, Amtrak only expects more passengers. By JESSICA GRESKO. AP Photos.

TRAVEL BRIEFS

Eds: Items on NJ resort-Branson; Relais & Chateaux; frequent fliers; carbon offsets stopped; holiday travel; Grand Canyon permits; Chaplin museum; Sleeping Giant; Art Basel Miami; Wisconsin governor's mansion. Some items moved on financial and national lines.

TRAVEL VIDEO

Tour the just launched world's largest cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas.

Filename: 1123trav_oasis

UPCOMING TRAVEL STORIES:

Eds: For planning purposes, here are some of the print stories scheduled for the AP Travel package for the next few weeks (list subject to change).

For Nov. 30:

3 stories for Olympics-themed ski package: A look at the 3 U.S. venues that have hosted the Olympics and how the winter games influenced those destinations: Squaw Valley, CA; Lake Placid, NY; SLC, Utah.

Colorado - ski season

Virginia - pirates exhibit

For the near future:

Midtown NYC Christmas - planned for Dec. 7

Bethlehem, PA: Christmas City - planned for Dec. 7

East v. West skiing - pros and cons

Rethinking green skiing

Motorcycle - tour rentals

Bonaire

January - Vancouver - one month out from winter OLY

Late January - cruise trends

AP Travel editor Beth Harpaz is reachable at bharpaz(at)ap.org. For AP Photos, call 212-621-1921.

Reruns of stories are available from http://apexchange.com or from the Service Desk (800-838-4616).

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Travel gadgets, anyone? - KING5.com

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 11:15 AM PST

by TIM ROBINSON / KING5 News

Posted on November 23, 2009 at 11:13 AM

SEATAC, Wash. - Portable DVD players and iPods aren't the only gadgets that are good for the being on the go. "Travel and Leisure Magazine" has a short list of items you may want to consider.

Perhaps the smartest "portable buy" is a luggage scale. It's just like a good old fashioned fisherman's scale but, in this case, you hook your suitcase to the contraption to find out if you're under your airline's baggage weight limit. Keep in mind that if you invest in one of these (under $25), you'll be able to find out ahead of time if you need to repack, or maybe just buy a really cheap bag that will end up being less expensive than the additional-weight fee you'd otherwise be charged.

And speaking of bags, T&L recommends a Swiss Army portable bag that rolls, can be shouldered and comes with a 10 year warranty.

If you'd like to tune out that whining jet noise that fills the plane's cabin (or if you want to tune out other passengers!), T&L suggests the Klipsch Image headphones. They improve the hearing experience both tonally and dynamically.

The Sony "Reader" digital book is new and runs about $200. It stores 350 books and has a two-week battery span. With its partnership with Google, the Reader gets you access to more than one million free books.

T&L thinks the most talked about gadget of the season could be the Cinemin Swivel. It's a pocket projector that lets you project a movie or photos on any surface.

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Increased Holiday Air Travel For Bing. Airport - FOX 40 News WICZ TV

Posted: 23 Nov 2009 03:37 PM PST

It's one of the biggest travel weeks of the year, and this year's rough economy isn't expected to change things.

The Greater Binghamton Airport says it expects to see a nearly three percent increase in Thanksgiving traffic over last year.

The airport says the last week of November is traditionally a busier time of year than even Christmas.

"At Christmastime, the travel is spread out over a few weeks. When you're talking about travel or leisure travel during the Thanksgiving holiday, it's all compacted into one week," said Carl Beardsley, Commissioner of Aviation.

The Binghamton Airport says ticket sales in general started picking up for the airport after a weak holiday season last year, with traffic steadily growing throughout 2009.

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