Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LIED LODGE, RIVER OF LIFE FARM, & UNTOURS
put your money where your heart is
NEBRASKA CITY, NEBRASKA; DORA, MISSOURI; & MEDIA, PENNSYLVANIA
If your heart is pulling you in a direction that has mystery and wonder,
trust it and follow it.
—David Wilcox, singer-songwriter
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Vacations, as we all know, cost money. And somebody benefits from the dollars you ex-
pend to “get away from it all.” So here's the question: Would you rather line the pockets of the
big corporations who run the major hotel chains, or would you instead like to use your buy-
ing power to support little guys who are trying to change the world? That's what most people
think. So here are three amazing vacations where your dollars keep right on giving.
Lied Lodge and Conference Center.
If you can't see the forest for the trees, you can thank J.
Sterling Morton, the editor of Nebraska's first newspaper, who on April 10, 1872, started the
tree-planting holiday we now celebrate as Arbor Day. Although it varies state to state (the hol-
iday is also celebrated in dozens of other countries), Arbor Day is most often observed on the
last Friday in April. Morton, of course, is long gone, but his 260-acre Nebraska estate is still
there, along with his National Arbor Day Foundation that, like Dr. Seuss's Lorax, still “speaks
for the trees.”
The foundation's Lied Lodge, an environmentally friendly timber-and-stone building with
144 well-appointed rooms, offers easy access to the Kimmel Orchard, Tree House Trail, and
the greenhouse where more than 300,000 trees are grown. All proceeds from the lodge are
poured back into the Arbor Day Foundation's mission of environmental stewardship. Even the
lodge itself is completely self-sustaining, getting all its heat and cooling from an innovative
power plant fueled by wood chips. The property has lots of wooded walking trails, a fitness
center, an indoor swimming pool, weekend carriage rides, and Arbor Links, an ecologically
friendly golf course designed by Arnold Palmer. During the fall apple harvest, guests can pick
their own apples, ride ponies and hayracks, climb trees, throw tomahawks, and taste heirloom
