Ah, the Hawaiian luau, so much a staple of the Hawaiian vacation experience. Before I actually went to one, I pictured a giant big fat pig roasting on a spit. I envisioned scantily clad men and women dancing near tiki torches under the stars and moon. And I imagined there’d be lots of loud shirts and goofish tourists scarfing down umbrella-clad cocktails.

Some of that vision was myth, and some was, indeed reality, as I found out last month at Waikiki Starlight Luau at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort & Spa. So what really goes down at a Hawaiian luau? Read on, and I’ll give you the luau lowdown.

Jim: Dwight, if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Dwight: I can travel anywhere, except Cuba, and I will travel to New Zealand and walk the Lord of the Rings trail to Mordor and I will hike Mount Doom.

Even though Dwight may dream of traveling down under to bond with his Hobbit friends, there are plenty of sights to see right in his own backyard. In honor of The Office being back, I thought I'd do a round-up of the must-see (cough, cough) sights of the greater Scranton area.

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So your mom joined Facebook, your dad's on Twitter, and last week your grandma showed you the pictures she took while bungee jumping on vacation. Know what we think? (Apart from the fact that you should probably untag yourself in a couple of those jello shot photos before your mom discovers your wall, we mean?)

Well, it might be time to get a little wackier with your vacation activities. You want grandma's bungee jump to be the most interesting travel story you've ever heard? We thought not. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

Glastonbury? It's a mudbath. Bonnaroo? Been there, done that. Woodstock? Oh, that's so 1969, darling. If you're looking for the next big summer music festival, look no further than Butte, Montana, where the 71st National Folk Festival is taking place this weekend, July 10-12.

But what's it got going for it? Well, for a start it's gloriously, magically, wonderfully free, and we all know that free is the best price in an economy like this. For another thing, it sounds like an awful lot of fun: featuring everything from gospel to polka to bluegrass to klezmer to mariachi to western swing, the festival runs for three days on seven separate stages, meaning there's always going to be something to watch.

So Uncle Sam gifted you a huge refund and you spent it on a ticket to Coachella? NICE. After six straight months of grim economic news you’ve more than earned a chance to blow off a little steam. But don’t space out yet. There will be plenty of time for that once My Bloody Valentine starts their set.

Here are some tips to make your Coachella experience rock.

Glowing is for Glowsticks:

Baseball fever is in the air and in just a few days Major League Baseball will be kicking off opening day in the City of Brotherly Love, where the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies will play against the Atlanta Braves.

And if there's one thing is for sure, die-hard baseball fans will be traveling miles away, braving the rainstorms, humidity, cold, or the extra long ball games (you know, the ones that goes into extra innings and neither team scores a run until the 12th inning) to cheer on their teams.

Last season, as a compromise with my significant other over baseball and shoe shopping, I accompanied him to three baseball games across the East Coast from Boston to Philadelphia to follow his New York Mets team and suprisingly, I had a wonderful time!

I just opted out of trips to attend the Coachella and Pitchfork music festivals (not that I don’t love me some Palm Springs, Chicago, and Paul McCartney, but I’m saving my travel budget for some other things this year). So I was pretty excited to read today that Woodstock might return for a 40th-anniversary edition, right here in New York City.

We’ll have to wait to see if the idea will materialize, but Woodstock’s founder is reportedly seeking sponsors for a free, environmentally friendly NYC concert, possibly even in Central Park. If it happens, I’ll be among the first to dole out my $2 to travel uptown.

I have a friend who says that when he gets married, he wants a pirate-themed wedding, where instead of marching down the aisle, the bride and groom walk a plank (note: he’s yet to find a bride taker). If he can find it anywhere, he can find it in Vegas, where wacky weddings are a whimsical nod to what’s otherwise a rather stuffy institution.

In 2007, Clark County received over 108,000 marriage applications. That number was expected to rise in 2008, and although weddings are a year-round business in Las Vegas, the month of March kicks off the “I do” high season in which Elvis and a whole host of other characters are ready and willing to officiate your Nevada nuptials.

Maybe it’s because I’m a travel writer, but some of my favorite movies are ones that transport me elsewhere. Whether it’s seeing John Goodman emerge from the underbelly of the desert southwest in Raising Arizona, or watching Dustin Hoffman drive the wrong way across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in The Graduate, movies are certainly cheaper than a plane ticket if you want to escape to another time and place.

That’s why I love this list of airport and airplane-centric movies compiled by David Armstrong over at Aviation.com. Here are his top 10:

Photo: Me and my good pal Ricky Bobby, of Talladega Nights.

About 10 years ago, Hollywood wasn’t really much to see. Rundown and dirty, you had to dodge the homeless and their shopping carts to see the handprints in the ground at Mann’s Chinese Theater. The stars on the Walk of Fame had lost their luster, and many tourists went back home disappointed. But last weekend, I headed to Hollywood for the first time in years, and was shocked. It’s got its star power back! The streets are clean, the stars are bright, and stores like H&M have opened up and are thriving. Once again, Hollywood is the land of movie stars and fancy cars--and I was about to have a weekend straight out of the pages of Us Weekly.

Photo: Me and a scary new friend at the Quarantine movie premiere.