Talley Your Adventure – The Blog

Adventure Awaits!

At Talley Your Adventure, we don’t just plan luxury and culturally rich travel experiences—we live and breathe them. Our blog, travelingtalleys.blog, is where we share the real stories behind our adventures: kayaking alongside glaciers in Alaska, exploring temples in Japan, chasing waterfalls in Iceland, and wandering through storybook towns in Germany. If it’s unforgettable, chances are we’ve done it—or we’re planning it next. Impact-Site-Verification: 8a69d429-4a55-4b53-b8f6-72c437661af5

Nicolette brings deep experience in travel and heritage. With a Master’s in Public History, she’s worked as a Supervisory Park Ranger, Revenue Manager, and Program Analyst across multiple national parks for over a decade. Her career has taken her from managing interpretive boat tours in Alaska’s wild backcountry to overseeing large-scale visitor service projects with million-dollar budgets. And yes—she’s also a licensed 100-Ton Inland Master Boat Captain who’s led cultural and ecological tours from riverboats to remote beaches.

Clinton’s travel roots run just as deep. He’s worked in logistics and operations for the National Park Service and was a key member of the hospitality team aboard National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions. From managing guest services on remote international voyages to coordinating facility software systems stateside, he knows what it takes to deliver seamless, high-end travel experiences—even in the most unpredictable places.

Together, we created Talley Your Adventure to bring our experience, passion, and attention to detail to your travel planning. Whether it’s a fully curated group trip or a personalized vacation built just for you, we combine expert-level service with insider know-how—so you can focus on the magic of the journey.

Want us to help you on your next adventure? Head over to www.talleyyouradventure.com!

@talleyyouradventure_dv
Sakura Blooms – Inuyama, Japan

  • Graduation and Thank You!

    Welcome back Bloggers! It’s been an exciting two years, and while this is not goodbye, I will not be updating this blog as often as I have. I will be graduating today, and I am so excited to begin the next phase in my life. I will be announcing this officially on Facebook here soon, but if you are one of the few that actually read this blog when it is posted, you will be the first to know that I have accepted a position with the National Park Service at Fort McHenry in Baltimore Maryland, and am just waiting on an official start date to move!

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    Mary Lee Harris. Collection I processed at CAHC.

    It has been a whirlwind of events since Clinton and I moved to Little Rock at the end of 2013. I received my first graduate assistance at the UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture, where I learned about archives and how to process collections. Thank you Colin, Shannon, Kaye, Kimberly and Dr. Baldwin for all of your help that semester. A special shout-out to Chad for all of his help, for he not only put up with me that semester, but brought me back as the digital archives intern over the 2014 summer, allowed me to take his Archives of the 21st Century class that fall semester, and worked with me on an independent study in spring 2015 where I created the BitCurator manual along with Lydia for CAHC. Without their help, I would never have heard about Carl Bailey, created my digital exhibit, met Bailey’s son, or learned about archives in the first place! Lydia, you were such a help with the BitCurator manual, so thank you personally!

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    Rockwell original I helped install!

    I applied and was hired as a graduate assistant at the Clinton Library to help add to my museum experience, where I stayed for the next year and a half of my academic studies. I learned so much while I was there as well, which is also chronicled in this blog. Thank you Chris, Jennifer, Joe, Kit, Stephanie and Joseph for working with me and teaching me everything you know. It was such a delight working with great minds and being a part of your team! I also was able to cross-train during my time there to keep my archival experience relevant, for a semester with Rachael in archival processing and Adam in digital processing. Thank you, both!

     

    The Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum has always held a special place in my heart. I love working around veterans and giving tours about military history, and this place had both. Thank you Greg and Allison for 20151207_145052allowing me the opportunity to work in such a great place, giving tours on Razorback, and I am so excited to see Hoga made it to your site before I officially left. Thanks Telina, Neal, Lyle, Bryce, Ashley, Joseph, John Jones, Paul, Jim, Joe, John Barr, Mark, Meridith, Bill, and all the other employees and veterans I worked with during my 10 months there. It was such a wonderful experience!

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    Driving the Mark Twain

    I held one other position while I was attending graduate school (yep, 3 jobs, 50+ work week and a full time graduate student!) More personal than the rest was my time as a Captain on the Mark Twain, a paddle-wheeler that is docked in North Little Rock. Thank you Dwayne for training me and being such a delight to work with, and of course I cannot forget Roberta, Anita, Stacy, and Justin and your two sons! It was great working with you all, having a great time, and adding to my seatime!

     

    Central High School NHS helped propel me from a Pathways student to a full time permanent employee in the National Park Service, and their efforts cannot go unnoticed. I am especially fortunate to have such 12244299_10104429397229291_3266207034626971897_oknowledgeable staff who helped me in my personal and professional life grow as an individual and future NPS employee. Thank you Robin, Enimini, Toni, Jodi, Kara, Nick, MarQuis, Fabian, Sally, Chelsea, Markelle, Brian, Rob, Roberto, Evan, Josh, Mike, and all the students I worked with in some fashion for CHS. I also want to thank everyone I worked with professional through NPS that are not located at this site. There are a ton to mention, but thank you!

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    Carl Bailey and me!

    Last but not least, thank you UALR History Department. I was able to receive a graduate assistance to pay for my college, I learned so much about Little Rock and Arkansas because of the opportunities available, and the teachers were excellent. Thank you especially to my thesis committee, Dr. Romney, Dr. Moneyhon, and Chad, and a special shout-out to Dr. Baldwin, who helped immensely by teaching me how to act as a leader in the seminar class and how to work with a large group professionally. Thank you to additional teachers: Kurt, Dr. Stricklin, and Jodi.

    I’m sure I missed someone, so a general THANK YOU to anyone and everyone who helped me along the way. I could not have done it FB_IMG_1449671517500without you! Continue to look to this blog in the future, mainly for large projects or great professional accomplishments that I will write about during my career. Clinton and I will be creating a new blog about our camping and hiking adventures once we move to Baltimore, so I’ll still have something for you bloggers to follow!

    Until next time!

     

     

  • Day in the Life: Christine Mouw, Curator

    20151209_142044Hello everyone! The end of the semester is upon us, but we still have one more person we need to talk about at the Clinton Library! Christine Mouw, or Chris, is the Curator of the Clinton Library and the head of over 100,000 objects. One of her greatest goals is organizing this vast collection and de-accessioning the objects into a working order, not only for her but to help with exhibit set up and relevancy for patrons who visit the library.

    Chris started with a BA in history from Calvin College, and after her adviser mentioned she could use her degree in museums, she decided to check it out by working for a summer at Mackinac Island State Park in Michigan, painting numbers on Minié balls and cannon balls from the War of 1812. Falling in love with historical objects (and realizing you can do more with a history degree than teach) she decided to attend the University of Delaware and received her MA in History with a certificate in Museum Studies.

    From there, Chris decided to expand upon her knowledge of museums, and spent a summer at Colonial Williamsburg before gaining her first long term job at the Philadelphia Maritime Museum (now called the Independent Seaport Museum), where she worked for two years as a curatorial assistant. One of her best memories is working on her first exhibit at the Maritime Museum, called “Exploration of Delaware Valley” and the “Wheel of Death”, where patrons can learn about all the various ways that you can die when you are at sea. How educationally exciting!

    After that, Chris gained employment in the federal government for the 20151209_142024first time as a museum tech at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. She worked her way up to become the Exhibit Specialists, and then transferred to the Clinton Library as a Supervisory Curator, where she has been for almost eleven years! One of the most intriguing exhibits she worked on (so far) at the Clinton Library was the exhibit titled “The Long Struggle – African American Civil Rights and Presidents” where the museum explained what presidents did, or didn’t do, in the Civil Rights Movement. The library even had the original Emancipation Proclamation and worked with Central High School National Historic Site since it was the 50th Anniversary of the Little Rock Nine entering Central High School!

    It’s been so wonderful working with these great people over the last year and a half, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for them. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time, and my career has definitely been defined based on these experiences. Thank you Chris, Jennifer, Joseph, Kit, and Stephanie for all of your help and dedication!

     

  • Day in the Life – Jennifer Wisniewski, Exhibit Specialist

    20151209_113813 (1)Welcome back to another Day in the Life! We are nearing the end of my graduate assistance here at the Clinton Library, but before that happens we still have two wonderful people I need to talk about. Today, I interviewed Jennifer, who is the exhibit specialists. What is an exhibit specialists, you ask? Exhibit specialists here in NARA first and foremost work with anything exhibit related, such as exhibit building, maintenance, and exhibit mounting.  One of the unique things about the position here at the Clinton Library (relative to other presidential libraries), is the ability to work more with objects and items, or the collection itself. Since the Clinton Library has such a wide range of exhibits, this can be defined as installing Rockwell’s, researching objects, creating floor plans, or even, as Jennifer quotes, “troubleshooting animatronic dinosaurs”! You never know what the day will bring!

    Growing up in Pittsburgh during her junior high and high school years, Jennifer loved going to museums. After receiving her undergraduate in International Studies with a French minor, she soon learned that you can earn an advanced degree to help you find work in museums. Jennifer

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    Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood Trolley, located in the Clinton Library

    received her MA in Public History with a focus in Museum Curation from the University of California – Riverside. There, she also worked as an intern at the California Surf Museum and worked (either paid or un-paid, depending on the time!) at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. Her first full time job out of graduate school was the Curator and Collections Manager at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum. A favorite memory was when the maritime museum was doing an exhibit on surfing. Working with surfers, understanding their lingo and way of life, surfing etiquette, learning about the different surf boards, and in general their local connection to Santa Barbara is all intertwined in the experience!

    20151209_114314The future looks great for Jennifer. Her love of museums and working with collections will no doubt propel her into her goal of becoming a Curator for a Presidential Library, or a head curator in the private sector. If you want to see some of her passion in real life, stop by the Clinton Library and see the new Coca Cola Exhibit that she helped to install! It could not have happened without her!

    Until next time, bloggers! Have a great week!