On the morning of 9/11, I remember repeatedly thinking to myself, “things are never going to be the same again.” But here we are nearly 10 years later, and things over the past decade have been creeping back to sameness. Yes, the Twin Towers will never again punctuate the skyline of New York City, but rebuilding in the region takes place 24/7, shops are back in business, and commerce is flowing. Perhaps one of the biggest indicators of this return to normalcy is the announcement that a brand-new hotel is using its Ground Zero location as a unique draw to bring in tourists.

Last week, a star performer at SeaWorld tragically killed its trainer before a live audience. The star in question was a killer whale named Tilikum, who was captured in the wild off the coast of Iceland many years ago. Since his capture, he has been made to perform for audiences in theme parks in Canada and the United States. While debates may rage about whether or not creatures like killer whales should be kept in captivity and turned into performers, there’s no question that seeing such an animal in its natural habitat is an incomparable—and elusive—experience.

As of yesterday, the traveling public is now allowed to bring loaded handguns into most of our national parks as long as they follow the local state laws (for permits and whatnot). Hunting, however, still is illegal within national parkland, as is discharging your weapon, as is bringing a loaded gun into a visitor’s center, so I’m a little unsure of what this new law is supposed to achieve.

As I wrote last week in my post about Mammoth Mountain, the Groundhog predicted six more weeks of winter, and, given the Snowpacalypse that’s taken place in the Mid-Atlantic, I’d say Pennsylvania-based Mr. Groundhog has more than earned his prognosticator’s keep (although he may have to worry because I’d imagine that by now several people want to put a bounty out on his head). Unless you’ve been channeling the Groundhog himself and hiding in a burrow all this time, then you’re probably aware that in the Mid-Atlantic, it has snowed ridiculously, copiously, and epically, forcing airports to stop operations, flights to be cancelled, and many neighborhood streets to be impassable.

Today is Groundhog Day, which always seems the unofficial point at which most people take a look at Old Man Winter, shake their fists, and say, okay man, enough is enough. It’s clear to me, however, that none of those people have been to Mammoth Mountain, set in the Sierra Nevada, where the fun of winter is very much alive, embraced, and holding sway.

When the news broke last week that a flight was diverted due to a suspicious passenger engaged in a prayer ritual, I couldn’t help but remember a trans-continental flight I was on, many years earlier, to Jerusalem. At the time I was a very nervous flyer, the kind who has to stay awake all flight long to make sure “nothing happens.”

It is with heavy hearts that we at the Window Seat have been watching the coverage of the disaster in Haiti. Political instability, economic poverty, and a series of natural disasters have kept many would-be tourists from experiencing the rich culture and beautiful shores of this small country--but this has not kept the travel industry from responding with donations and acts of charity. Here’s how a few travel companies have stepped up to help.

Travelocity: As of Tuesday, 1/19, Travelocity/Sabre Holdings and its employees have already committed $30,000 to relief efforts.

Pity the poor Florida traveler right now. Maybe this is their one beach vacation for the year, the one they’ve been saving up for, and instead of frolicking in the warm waves and pulling up fish from the sea, they’re shivering on the beach in a scarf and wishing for mittens. The current cold wave gripping much of the country is treating Florida especially hard, threatening staple crops like the state’s ubiquitous oranges, and keeping the fishing charters tied up in harbor due to lack of interest.

But all is not lost if you’re a tourist on a Florida vacation right now. Yes, if you were planning on beaches and suntans, you may have to call an audible, but there is much you can still do in the Sunshine State that doesn’t require warm temps and, well, sun.

With the start of a new year and a new decade, Dubai unveiled what is now the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, which stretches to a height of 2,717 feet. To put that in perspective, the San Francisco Bay Area’s Mt. Tamalpais reaches a height of 2,574 feet, which means that Dubai’s new building is taller than a mountain.

In addition to apartments and offices, the world’s highest swimming pool and mosque, and a hotel designed by Georgio Armani, the building will also have something for tourists to add to their “must-do” lists: the observation deck on the 124th floor, which boasts views beyond the cityscape into the surrounding desert and toward human-made islands in the shapes of palm trees.

This weekend, along with a sizable portion of the rest of the country, I saw the movie Avatar. Through my 3-D glasses, I entered into the bioluminescent forestlands of a fictional distant moon named Pandora, where flowers bloomed rampantly, trees stretched into the skies, and rivers glowed. Although the plot was a little trite and silly, the Pandora landscape was a true escape. Much like an avatar, while my body sat in a darkened theater surrounded by hundreds of others in our dorky glasses, the rest of me entered into this forest world for 2 ½ hours. On a year when I’d opted not to travel for the holidays, this movie was my ticket to a realm beyond San Francisco, somewhere exotic and indelible—and not once did I have to step on a plane.