Talking FACS
Host: Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky
Guest: Dr. Jason Swanson, Assistant Professor of Retailing and Tourism Management
Episode 4, Season 3
0:00 Welcome to Talking FACS; what you need to know about family, food, finance and fitness. Hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program, our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families and communities to improve quality of life.
0:21 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Hello and welcome to Talking FACS. This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
Today, I'm pleased to be joined by Dr. Jason Swanson, Associate Professor in the Department of Retailing, Tourism and Management. Dr. Swanson has a specific emphasis in tourism.
Jason, thank you so much for joining us today.
0:44 Dr. Jason Swanson: Thanks, Jennifer. It's great to be here. And you can call me Jason.
0:48 Jennifer: Thank you. I probably would have anyway. But I can switch to Dr. Swanson, if you would like for me to.
So, Jason, I always think and just for our listeners to know that we are friends outside of the work environment. And I think that you're a great friend to have because anytime that my family is thinking about going someplace or doing something, I can walk down the hall and say, “Hey, Jason, what do you think about this or what do you think about that?” Which you probably get tired of that, because I'm certain probably all your friends are always asking you for travel tips and questions or fun ideas and things to do. Is that true?
1:25 Jason: That is true. Yeah. But I don't mind. That is fun for me to think about travel always. And I've been fortunate enough to go to a fair amount of places. And so, I like sharing my experiences and telling stories or thinking about new places and talking about those places with other people who are thinking about going there, too.
1:42 Jennifer: Well, because I know I pick your brain a lot. And, as I think about travel this summer, it looks quite a bit different. And I know last fall, we were talking and I actually popped in your office one day and said, “Hey, we're thinking about taking the kids to the Grand Canyon” and we talked about some of the neat things that we could do out West and the national parks and that type thing. And obviously, all of that got put on pause, get postponed until our kind of our current situation evolves and maybe we get back more to normal.
So, given that this summer is certainly different, but people are still -- I think at least, in my family, I know we're antsy; we're kind of tired of being in the house. And so, we've kind of taken the opportunity to explore around, since we live in Lexington or around the Fayette County area or surrounding counties and do a little bit of staycation thing, but then also getting out and exploring the state.
And that's really kind of what we're going to talk about today is just how families might be able to get out and some of the things that they may be able to do this summer.
2:46 Jason: There are tons of things to do just right here in Kentucky. And that's proven by the fact that millions of people visit the state as tourists. They come here from where they live. And so, they're finding the fun and exciting things to do, just as we can do as residents.
That's one thing that my family has done this summer. We haven't traveled far, but we will spend a day or a half a day going from our home to places that are nearby to participate and do some of the experiences that are out there.
A lot of it; outdoor recreation. And so, we're not supposed to be inside too much these days or in crowded areas, but a lot of what Kentucky has to offer, particularly in the eastern part of Kentucky and the southern part of Kentucky and even out west, a lot of the experiences are outdoors, nature-based outdoor recreation activities.
So, there's plenty of things to do if you're -- even depending. It doesn't matter what your skill level is. There's easy hikes. There's more moderate hikes or harder hikes. There's a lot of canoeing and kayaking opportunities. There's places to rent equipment. So, anything that you're interested in doing outdoors can almost always be found in Kentucky.
3:58 Jennifer: So, I really like your point that other people in a normal year do schedule vacations to come to the state of Kentucky. And I think sometimes, as residents, that we take for granted so much of what is around us and what there is to explore. And summarily, we've been outside and done quite a bit of outdoor recreation, much more hiking than we normally do. My family's probably not huge outdoorsy people, but we are this summer for sure.
And those folks that listen often know that my kids are pretty far age gap away. That there's seven full years in between them. And so, sometimes it's hard to find something that entertains both of them. But we've been fairly successful, though, with some of the outdoor activities. As you mentioned, we might have to modify. We might take an easier hike, just because we know we have a little one.
We have determined that two and a half miles is her max. That we do not need to attempt a hike that's beyond two and a half miles because at the two-and-a-half-mile mark, she is done.
4:57 Jason: Speaking of, too, I have a two-year-old daughter and we were hiking; my family – my wife, my son who’s five, and my daughter who’s two. We were hiking in the Pinnacle's area in camp. Part of the Forestry Center of Berea College, just this past weekend.
And she decided she didn't want to go any further. So, she and I just sat down the middle of the woods and we played on the ground there. And my son and my wife went up there and they reached the big view point there and they were excited to see that.
So, even in the same place, like you're saying, depending on -- it doesn't necessarily matter who you're with, you can have different experiences depending on their interest and skill levels.
5:35 Jennifer: And I will say the Pinnacles is one of the hikes that we have done as well fairly recently. And I also think one thing that we have found that's kind of fun to explore is that as we've kind of travel to these other areas to go on a hike or to do something outside, is that we've tried to find a local restaurant and we predominantly been doing carry-out takeout. So, calling ahead and ordering; that type thing.
But specifically, when we went to Berea, we took the opportunity to go to the square and find a local restaurant on the square and did take out, went over to the Berea Campus and had a little picnic there on the grassy area of campus and then headed out to the Pinnacles.
And so, it really made for a full day activity that the kids kind of thought it was neat. They got to walk through college campus and explore that area as well.
So, I think it's just really and truly taking the time to pause and see what is out there and what it is that a family can do.
6:32 Jason: You can have that experience in 100 different places. Find something to do outdoors; hiking, biking. Like you said, go to the restaurants, sit in the park. Those sorts of opportunities exist almost everywhere.
We've also taken our bikes to places this summer as well. So, we're trying to venture out of our home community, even with kids, on bikes and seen what else there is out there in other cities or in other towns in Kentucky and doing things in different ways. So, hiking, biking, paddling in a canoe or kayak.
You get to see a place in different ways. Even if it's the same place, you're experiencing other views that you might not get if you were just walking around town.
7:19 Jennifer: And I will say so our oldest, he's kind of pointed that out, because some of the places we've been or towns or communities that we've driven through a lot or been through a lot, but we haven't really taken the time to stop and explore them before. So, he has pointed that out.
And one thing that I wanted to kind of talk with you a little bit about today, is and you worked with students at the University of Kentucky to offer a class that was called Transformative Travels. Which was actually you had a television crew that that went along with you as the students explored the state of Kentucky.
And one of the concepts that I thought that was so neat about that is that it focused on our own backyard. And I know not all of those students were in-state students. They weren't all native Kentuckians.
But kind of as with our oldest as I've seen this summer, as we've gone to these places that we've been through before, but now we've truly stopped to explore them, he's seeing them in new and different ways.
And I think that that was some of your Transformative Travel Program as well. And I would appreciate if you could share with our listeners a little bit more about that project and kind of how it was framed and what the students learned and how our listeners could even learn more about it or actually watching KET, if available.
8:35 Jason: Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. I love to talk about that project; it was one of the highlights of my career so far. Essentially, taking 10 UK students and putting them on a bus and driving West for six days.
And like you say, there was a television crew tagging along and that weeklong experience was turned into six episodes for KET that aired even earlier last year. But it's still available on their Web site and it's streamed on their YouTube channel. And eventually they may air it again.
But a diverse group of 10 students traveling through Western Kentucky. We stopped in cities like Bowling Green and Paducah. Smaller places like Irvine. We spent the nights in the state parks. We did horseback riding and we did orienteering, we went to some Native American sites. We went to a fish processing factory, cut heads off of fish, which freaked a lot of the students out, spent some time on the water.
FCS Extension was involved in part of a segment where we did a cooking challenge and we spent the week leading up to that cooking challenge, buying food throughout our stops. We went to some farmer's markets and a lot of community based-tourism activities.
It took a good bit of work to discover opportunities in those communities. I had never been to most of them, but just by doing some research, you can find out some very interesting opportunities that are available to anybody as you are trying to learn about a place. So, look for that. Maybe we can provide a link available.
10:20 Jennifer: Yeah, we can definitely link it in the show notes. And I will say that as I watched the series, because we had talked some as you were in the planning phase. So, I knew quite a bit about the frontend, but did not have the opportunity to participate as much as maybe in in the actual week experience.
But then having the opportunity to watch it on KET, I've just seen the student's eyes open to truly what there is within the state of Kentucky to explore. Many of the things that you just mentioned would still be things that would be considered safe to do during our current situation in terms of outdoor activities.
The orienteering, if I can even say that correctly, I felt like that that was that was really, unique and something that individuals across all ages could learn about and do. So, it's just some really, really neat things that are within the state of Kentucky that I feel like it brought to light.
And I also heard other people that, because with my job, I have the opportunity to travel the state and spend time and all 120 counties. So, some of these things I had seen or had the opportunity to do before. But I've even heard folks say, “That made me want to go explore this part of the State” or “To go see this part of the State” or “To go do that.”
And so, I'd really encourage our listeners to check that out. And we will link that in our show notes today.
And so, Dr. Swanson, as we kind of wrap up today –
11:46 Jason: You can call me Jason.
11:48 Jennifer: Jason. As we wrap up today. If an individual unit, you know, if a family's at home or an individual is at home and they're trying to figure out, “What is there that's close to me or in my part of the State to explore?" Could you share a little bit about resources or where an individual may be able to go online to learn more about tourism opportunities within the state of Kentucky?
12:11 Jason: In the first place, I always go to the State tourism website. That's kentuckytourism.com. You can search by different activities, depending on what you're interested in. You can also search by different regions or specific towns and find. Anything that you want to do is pretty much available in Kentucky. Not everything; I guess things are opened up now, but there were some things that, like museums or indoor activities that weren't always available. But there was always, generally, always stuff to do outside.
It's been my experience, doing some different things around the State just recently, that there's usually some pretty good social distancing rules in place. So, you should feel safe at most of these outdoor experiences that you can find.
And one more thing about the TV show. If you watch Episode 5, you'll see a cameo appearance by Dr. Jennifer Hunter. She's serves as one of the judges for the cooking competition.
And another thing is, last spring, a year ago, I was in London, England. And we filmed another season of Transforming Travels with some students who I was with in London. So, look for that coming to KET soon, probably later this year.
13:28 Jennifer: And, you know, Jason, you plug the cooking challenge there. And that was a tremendous amount of fun. But just to help our listeners understand a little bit more about that, that as you all travel the State, you mentioned that you picked up different local products and then we challenged the students to make certain recipes.
But that's something -- And some of our other webinars during our summer series and some of our other podcasts have kind of focused on how to still have interaction, but be socially distant. That shopping your local farmer's market and picking up some veggies, that you could even challenge another family or other family members that maybe live in different areas, that these are things that you can do remotely via some type of online Zoom or whatever your platform of choice may be and still have some of these experiences, even if you aren't in the same location.
14:23 Jason: Yeah, that's a that's a cool idea. So, getting some of those played up, Kentucky proud recipes, whatever is available in another State, going to your local farmer's market or a place where you get fresh food and then having contest, but also comparing what's available, place to place, and the different local recipes would be fun.
14:42 Jennifer: Yeah. So, I agree. The cooking challenge was a lot of fun for Transformative Travels, but something that I think anybody could go out and do with their own family.
Jason, thank you so much for joining us today and helping us think through those ideas of what we might be able to get out and explore in our own backyard. And I'm thinking and reframing kind of summer travel this year.
15:06 Jason: Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's always fun to talk about traveling. It's more fun to do it when, hopefully, we all get back to being able to travel how we want to, but there's plenty of opportunities close by.
15:16 Jennifer: And even I think we can kind of take this as a lesson that when things do return to normal, some of the things that that we have picked up have certainly been healthy habits, as we're talking about the hiking, that I hope are some things that our family might retain going into the future as well.
15:32 Jason: I think that's going to surprise a lot of people, what actually sticks with you because you try new things that you might not realize you enjoy.
15:40 Jason: Yeah, I am not certain how much our little girl is going to enjoy hiking in the future, because she's hitting her max right now. But we keep working on her and, you know, she's eight. So, if we say we're going, she just has to get in the car and go.
Thanks, Jason.
15:58 Jason: Thank you.
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