This week, as the Olympics ended, we welcomed blogger David Breisch to the Gadling fold. This was a busy week of diverse travel options, breakthroughs and oddities.

• Jerry tuned us into what travel to a volcanic island is like with two separate posts. The first post, of his two part series "The Krakatau Journal: An island paradise that can kill you,' and the second post, offer Jerry's personal account of his trip to this volcanic island in Indonesia. He also details other volcanoes one can hit on an adventure vacation.
• If you're thinking that Hooters in Beijing is like Hooters in the U.S., like the big Os in the word "hOOt," think again. As Josh, pointed out, the waitress costumes and build are not the same, even though it sounds like the food is. Josh's story caught my eye because there was a knock-off Hooters in the town where I lived in Taiwan--except the name was wrong. The sign said, "Hooties."
• We can chalk one up for consumer complaints. As Grant reported, United Airlines has decided to nix the idea of charging people for meals on international flights. Who would ever have thought charging was a good idea is beyond me.
• If you're looking to bed down for the night in an unusual place, Scott has the answer. In his post "Spend the night in a Jumbo jet without leaving the ground," he gives the scoop on the Jumbo Jet hostel that will open at the airport in Stockholm. As Scott says, you need to be a mile off the ground a mile to join the Mile High Club. Having adult fun in a jumbo jet on the ground is not the same thing.
• For entertainment that is not particularly expensive, Meg's post on the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia presents an idea that might be perfect for a fall weekend. The ticket price of the plays are reasonable and the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the theater is located, are stunning when the leaves change color.

Have a wonderful weekend. I hope there's a festival near you. I hit the Popcorn Festival in Marion, Ohio today and am heading to the Honey Festival in Lithopolis tomorrow. Last week was the Sweet Corn Festival in Millersport.

Whenever there's a list of cities or neighborhoods like the ones that are dying or thriving the most, I flip through them looking for a connection.

I was surprised to find one on the list of Top-Earning Towns. It's not where I generally hang out--trust me, I couldn't even afford to live in a garage there, but I've been to New Canaan, Connecticut several times. It's the town near to where relatives of mine used to live until last year when they headed for new digs in North Carolina.

When I think of New Canaan, and the area around it, I don't think of big houses, but of a place where country roads still wind through woods of enormous trees edged by stone walls.

Sure there are big houses, but the area has retained the beauty of the natural environment. New Canaan, described on a realty company's Web site as evoking images of a Norman Rockwell painting, is a place where people's clothes are pressed. There is even a park called Bliss Park where the New Canaan Nature Center is located.

Besides visiting the town, this is a region of the U.S. to see fall foliage, and take in fruit and vegetable stands and antique stores along the way. This is also the land of small white churches with graveyards of weathered tombstones on gentle slopes of hillsides. Picturesque with a capital P.

First off, Happy Labor Day weekend if you happen to be in the United States. For anyone else, happy weekend and don't work too hard. If you've read Gadling this week, perhaps you noticed posts on changes occurring , new additions to the travel field and what this means for travelers.

1. Josh, for example, talked about the upcoming opening of the Holiday Inn in Hanoi and what this signifies for the city. My first trip to Hanoi was in 1994 and I've been back four more times. As he noted,and what I've also noticed with each visit, the increased affluence has brought considerable change. Josh muses about the outcome.

2. If you're one of those people who have noticed how air travel just isn't what it used to be (how could you not notice) Scott's read "The top eight things I miss most about the current state of air travel" may seem familiar. Oh, how I long for the good old days, and I've never been on the Concorde.

3. Abha pointed us in the direction of a new travel guide resource called Trazzler.com that tailors recommendations to your location and the type of travel you are interested in such as culinary arts.

4. In case you're looking for the latest food snob trend, Jeffery found the answer at Forbes.com and added his two cents into the discussion. For all you backpackers who settle for cheese and bread while hopping on and off trains in Europe, you can go more upscale than those little triangles of cheese that doesn't need much refrigeration. Jeffery, is not a cheese wiz, but you might be able to convince him with a bottle of wine. (In case you missed it, I made a play on words. Cheese wiz = Cheez Whiz)

5. Here's a trend in weight saving that I, for one, don't hope other airlines start using. Grant wrote about how Jazz Airlines, a subsidiary of Air Canada is doing away with life vests. If the plane lands in water, passengers need to hold onto their seat cushions as flotation devices.

You've probably noticed if you've browsed your local paper that Labor Day weekend, along with kicking off football, is a great one for festivals. Last night I started off my Labor Day weekend early by heading to the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival. I proclaimed it a hit after we had only been there for about 15 minutes.

So did my brother and a friend of his. They live in the heart of Manhattan and said several times over how clean it is was. Seriously. Folks in Millersport know how to use trash cans. Plus, the corn can't be beat. It was not uncommon to see people with a pile of buttered ears in front of them, all to be chowed down in one sitting.

For other places to head to make this Labor Day weekend a stand out, Intelligent Travel has a post of festival offerings. These are unusual events that capture the fun you can find without a lot of effort besides getting in the car and going.

If you can't make it to one of these this year, consider them for next year's Labor Day. Why stay at home when there's corn to eat , grapes to stomp, dancing to do, and more?

• Kansas City Irish Fest in Kansas City, Missouri
• The Irvington Stomp in Irvington, Virginia.
• Marshall County Blueberry Festival in Plymouth, Indiana
• Hard Crab Derby and Fair in Crisfield, Maryland
• New York State Festival of Balloons in Dansville, New York
• Albuquerque/Denver Tango Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Head to the Intelligent Travel Website for links to each festival. Make sure you click on Irvington Stomp. What a hoot.

Yes, there is a sundae that costs $2,500 in New York City--maybe. I think that's what Kathie Lee Gifford said this morning on the Today Show. I was half-listening, but when she said Serendipity 3, I perked up.

I'm almost sure that's the dollar amount she quoted. If your wallet is fat enough, you can order one of these whopping treats at the restaurant located on East 60th Street in Manhattan.

Serendipity's menu says that the Golden Opulence Sundae costs $1,000. At $1,000 it's still touted as the Guinness World Record holder as the most expensive. Maybe Gifford was eating a version of this and it's an unpublished secret? Maybe she said it was $25,000. She did say it's never been ordered. I have searched and searched for this story to no avail. I've become obsessed.

I've been to Serendipity 3 for ice-cream. No Golden Opulence for us, but I do remember that my husband ordered the Forbidden Broadway Sunday for $13.50.

It was an enormous dessert of chocolate cake, whipped cream, and ice-cream, big enough for a few of us to chow down. For other sundae choices cheaper than that, check out the menu.

My recommendation is to not try going here on a hot summer day on a Sunday. We tried that once and couldn't wait that long. We were hungry enough to start chewing on furniture. Our sundae success came on a week night after dark--also in the summer--perhaps on a Wednesday.

As Kathie Lee Gifford was eating bites of opulence, letting the flecks of gold slide down her throat, she did mention that it seems frivolous to show off a sundae of such a cost when many folks are having problems putting gas in their cars. Even the $13.50 sundae can buy 3 gallons or more.

The photo, from an article review I came across, is of the $1,000 version. It does not look like the dish Kathie Lee was eating. Oh, well.

Has the eating of strange foods gone too far?

Sure, Andrew Zimmern might be brave, but does he really know what he's putting in his mouth?

While the Bizarre Foods guru (or his producer) usually provides a bit of background on what he's eating, you have to wonder, is it considered a normal food in whatever "exotic locale" the show is currently being filmed in?

Phil Lees of The Last Appetite points out that you can't always believe what people tell you.

A journalist named Sean Thomas found himself in Cambodia. He penned an "eating weird food" article for a U.K. newspaper. Aside from the fact that his article is rife with the gross over-generalizations typical of a parachute journalist, Lees, an old hand in Cambodia, points out that Thomas ate some things that were not meant to be eaten. The poor guy chowed down on a dried frog and compared it to a eating a dead mermaid. The problem: in Cambodia dried frogs are not meant to be eaten as a snack. According to Lees, "Dried frog is for medicinal purposes and occasionally, a rice wine additive. Complaining about the way it tastes is a little like eating a few spoonfuls of straight cloves, then writing them off as useless as a foodstuff."

One has to wonder if this is just an isolated incident or if more of the "I'm eating strange food" shticks are also ill-informed.

Location: This week Tony finds himself in Egypt, home to the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx and plenty of other tourist stereotypes. Egypt is one of the world's great cradles of civilization as well as a crossroads of many cultures (and great cuisine) from all points north, south, east and west.

Episode Rating: Three bloody meat cleavers out of five. Bourdain indeed delivers the unexpected when it comes to Egypt. Some interesting culinary discoveries but also some "snoozefest" segments that could have been left on the editing table. Also, I must say...you came all that way and didn't go to the Great Pyramids? I don't care how jaded you are towards tourists - how do you skip that?

Summary: Egypt is the kind of place most of us know at least a little something about. Whether you've already been, or it's the trip of your dreams. most of us with an urge for exploration and discovery reasonably know what to expect. Ancient pharaohs, the Nile, papyrus, mummies. But then again, we are talking about Anthony Bourdain here...

Bourdain sets a manifesto from this episode's outset - he's going to skip the prototypical Egyptian tourist spots. Why you might ask? He doesn't want the view to be cluttered by all of those tourists. But still, one has to admit the man has a unique method to his madness. Much like a Egyptologist cracking open a pharaoh's tomb for the very first time, Tony's urge to push his boundaries leads us into some interesting culinary crevices. Was Tony attacked by mummies? Does he eat more camel like in the Saudi Arabia episode? Read on to get the full story.

With the new onslaught of baggage check fees upon us, many people are looking to creative ways to package special items into their carry on. My friend Bruce tried to bring back a cooler full of lobster on one transcon trip a few years back. That ended up tipping over and leaking water all over the guy in front of him.

Something similar happened on Irish carrier Ryanair earlier this month. A passenger trying to transport frozen mushrooms stowed a package in the overhead compartment, but briefly after takeoff the package melted and sauce dripped all over an adjacent passenger.

In this case, however, this passenger had an allergy to the sauce and started to have an adverse reaction. Complaining of problems in his mucous membranes, the passenger became ill and the crew decided to divert into Frankfurt to offload the passenger and send him to the hospital.

Take heed, transporters of food, a little bit of vacuum sealing always helps to keep your food fresh, protected and in its place.

I'm going to really try to not be too snide here, but occasionally one stumbles onto a "travel story" and must let out a little sigh, given all the other possible subjects in the world that might have made a worthy 1000-word feature story.

Forbes Traveler brings us its latest survey of the best restaurants in America to go for...cheese.

I am trying here, dear Gadling readers.

First off, the article by its very existence implies that Americans' knowledge of the cheese world pretty much stops with Kraft Singles. But there is a more sinister implication to such a piece: Is cheese becoming the next arena for the snob?

I make allowances for oenophiles, who can be truly insufferable, simply because I like drinking good wine too much, and if you have one or two in you regular stable of friends you are far more likely to get hooked up with some good stuff free.

Beer fanatics and connoisseurs of other spirits (whiskey, tequila, sake) can be tolerated (same reason as above).

My best friend is somewhat of a "foodie," or so the term goes these days, and yet his exacting standards on many cuisines and restaurants somehow does not allow the overall joy of eating a meal together to seep from the table.

I'm not so willing to accept cheese aficionados into the fold, though.

To be sure, the world of cheese is as varied as that of any specific spirit, with distinct origins, scents and tastes to consider. I even like the cheese plate (or cheese course) that caps off a lot of European meals, though it was hard for me to get used to consuming so much dairy after the real task at hand.

My objection to such a piece is that I feel another snob trend is very much afoot, and I'm not sure there's room for it. (A secondary objection might just rest in the fact that I can't imagine pitching to an editor such an article along the lines of, Hey! Where can you go for the best cheese in America?!)

Cheese snobbery is probably already among us, I realize that. And it will be harder to deal with. After all, the chief antidote for dealing with a drink snob is to, well, drink more. I'm thinking of a Kingsley Amis line right now that says something along the lines that a booze bore begins to make sense after the third round.

So, you can dull your senses in this case.

But what happens when the person across from you has his nose dancing across a piece of smoky Auvergne gaperon? Or English Caerphilly?

Soon, he (or, to be fair, she) will start telling you that the next time you're in Louisville, you must sample Kenny's Kentucky Blue cheese at the venerable Seelbach Hotel. Or that the scrumptious Virginia cheese plate at the Inn at Little Washington is to die for.

What will take the edge off this? Fondue? Hey, it's got schnapps...

Postscript: I didn't pull the above reference of Auvergne gaperon out of my own knowledge of cheese. It's highlighted in the ridiculous Forbes story about cheese I reference, as presented at La Panetière in Rye, N.Y.

The piece says that this noble cheese goes particularly well with "the 1914 Château Latour brought up from the award-winning cellar." If you want more evidence that such silly features are out of touch with most travelers, consider that the wine mentioned goes for, oh, about $3,000.

However, if you're willing to bring me in on that bottle, then I'll listen to you talk about cheese all night long.

If you are looking for an all night party, head for the Twin Cities next weekend.

Seriously. It's the RNC, but even if you are affiliated with another political party, be it of the mainstream or fringe variety, it might be worth the trip.

In a bid to bring more convention dollars into the area, St. Paul's city council decided to allow bars to stay open until 4 a.m. That's two hours past the usual last call. The catch: the bars would have to pay a hefty fee to the city.

But, because there haven't been many owners willing to pay, Saint Paul is consider lowering or even waving the fee.

Yes, you're right. That means there will be plenty of places where you can play drinking games with Wolf Blitzer and hit on Mrs. McCain until 4 in the morning.

But the scene in MSP isn't really about politics. It's about more important things like patios, nice weather and beer.

The Twin Cities are full of beer lovers and therefore, a good brew is never far away. Sure, the hard bitten political journalists might stay with the usual low-ball of scotch, but there are plenty of spots with local microbrews and Belgian beers with easily mispronounced names on tap.

And, because it's early fall, the weather is neither hot and mosquito-infested nor freezing. Drinking on the patio is a favored local pastime at places like The Happy Gnome (pictured). Hopefully, convention-goers won't be taking over places like this. Maybe, just maybe, they'll simply be joining in the fun.