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

  • Back to School! #summerisntover #iloveschoolsupplies

    Welcome back, Bloggers! It has been an amazing summer filled with fun, heat, sand, and history! But, like all good things, it has to come to an end today. Tomorrow, I start my first day of my LAST semester in graduate school! I am beyond excited. Museum Administration, Seminar and Thesis class and then I will be receiving my Masters in Public History! How cool is that? (Super cool!) So, while we say goodbye to summer, I say hello to fall…and then hopefully we just skip winter. But, enough about weather…lets get to the good stuff!

    20150816_123159This summer at the Central High National Historic Site, I was involved in so much more than the usual tours of the school and desk shifts in the front. I participated in the CLMOOC, where I was part of a Twitter chat and a really cool Make Cycle Archive on Geo-locating your Spaces! In addition, I created a really cool YouTube video (where I wrote the script as well!) where I talk about the Magnolia/Mobil Station that sits right across the street from the Visitor Center. History can be anywhere, including an old 1950’s gas station! I also assisted with an exhibit to highlight National Outdoors Month (June) and the Great American Camp-Out. Lastly, I was tasked early on with the important role of “brochure procurer” and I believe I went above and beyond to make sure that we not only had all of the museums in Little Rock represented, but many of the National and State sites as well! I even have the state highway maps, the North Little Rock dining, RV park and city map AND the bus/trolley schedule! Whose ready to come to Arkansas and see all the amazing things we have to offer?!

    The summer wasn’t all work and no fun! I got MARRIED! Spend a great week down in my gorgeous homeland of Florida, got to visit with friends and family that I haven’t seen in years and got the chance to marry my best friend! (insert sappy music here) All in all, it was a wonderful summer with great experiences!

    Now I will be starting back to school, back at the Clinton Library with my GA and here at Central mainly on the weekends. It’s gonna be a busy fall. Between my jobs (three!) and classes (two!), I also hope to FIND A JOB before I graduate! Hopefully, either attending the National Association of Interpreters Conference in November or my position here at CHS in the Pathways program will help me with that path!

    As always, fellow bloggers, keep your eyes here for more fun filled history updates! Until next time…

  • CLMOOC – Make Cycle #6, #findyourpark

    11162066_10103843923218901_7670015356853181453_oWelcome back, bloggers! This week, I want to introduce you to something that I am honored to be participating with called the Make Cycle (CLMOOC). This is a dedicated program to encourage other around the country to expand upon their idea of education, classrooms, and what we consider public spaces. This is the last week, or “cycle”, and it is fantastic to be involved in the wrap up because we are encouraging you to get out of the door and explore all of these wonderful ideas that have been discussed the last five weeks! So, let’s Geo Locate our Spaces!

    I am currently sitting inside the Visitor Center at Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. We are experiencing (well, for the last week and a half experiencing…) a heat advisory, where our heat index is reaching 110 degrees! It’s hot out there! But, I still encourage everyone to get outdoors. I led the 9am tour this morning, and we first started here at the visitor center. We have a great room with large windows to give an excellent view of the mobile station and the side of the school in an air-conditioned room before we head outdoors. It’s encouraging to not only the visitors on the tour, but who honestly wants to listen to an out of breath , sweaty tour guide? I sure don’t (and I don’t want to be one!) But, inevitably, we are going to head outdoors.11154733_10103843923702931_958900502941452782_o

    There are three wonderful stop on our educational tour. The first is the mobile station, which serves historically as a reminder of how gas stations looked back in 1957, but more importantly tells the story of the media. Next is the school itself, and today we were luckily able to get into the school. We are not always able to enter this school since it is still a functioning high school, but with the blessings of their principal (Mrs. Rousseau), we are able to show a limited number of visitors a couple times a day when the school is open and available for business. Next, we head to the memorial garden, a fantastic place for someone to have a quiet reflection, see pictures from the 1957 school year and onward, and wrap up after an hour long tour.

    20150727_105645I find the most fascinating place to be is the mobile station. It tells not only the story of the media, but the Little Rock Nine, school desegregation, and of course the history of gas stations. It’s also not a bad place to see how much gas was in 1957! (22 cents, btw!) I think that the most important part of the CLMOOC and this weeks last cycle, is to encourage everyone to not only get outdoors, but find out the historical, cultural and your own personal meaning behind a site. It may just look like a gas station, but it has a large and diverse history. We don’t even go inside the gas station, and I can tell you tons of fun and interesting facts that eventually lead back to the story of this Mobil gas station. How wonderful is that? And, to tie it in with public spaces, it is located on Daisy Gatson Bates Drive in the urban area of Little Rock, Arkansas. We don’t have to lead you to a large museum, or even the downtown district. Right here, in the middle of a neighborhood, is a fantastic site to explore, educate and enjoy. (FOR FREE!) 11816893_10104136807426601_4202177987131436607_n

    There are so many places around the state of Arkansas that one can enjoy. From Mount Magazine, to the Delta, one can get a world view unlike any other. Arkansas has a fascinating history, and one that is not always what it seems at first glance. I encourage anyone reading this blog to go explore a new area in you town. Who knows, maybe it is the most fascinating piece of history or cultural significance to date that you discover. But, you won’t know until you put on those hiking shoes, pack some water and GET OUT THE DOOR!

    Have fun exploring, bloggers! Until next time…

  • First Exhibit at CHSNHS, camping and the heat of summer!

    11230598_10153401323262866_7419151943014937239_oWelcome back, bloggers! It has been a while, hasn’t it!? Well, here is a semi-quick update on everything going on with me before we get into the good stuff. I got married on May 30th (yay!) at Cocoa Beach, Florida, where I went all the time growing up. It was a great few days celebrating, and I can’t wait to see what married life brings to the table! In addition, I’ve been madly applying for jobs for when I graduate, and I am hoping a few of them pan out for me here in the future! I am in my last 11270374_10153401334042866_6389205161071879466_osemester this fall and have already signed up for my classes. Luckily, since I’ve successfully defended my thesis, I only have to worry about two of them before I actual graduate. I’ll be binding my finalized thesis here soon, which is so exciting to me! It’s great to see my work on nice paper for everyone to read like a book! 🙂

    20150627_091537June was the Great Outdoors Month, and what better way to celebrate than creating an exhibit about camping? This is exactly what I did June 27-28. June 27th was officially the Great American Campout, sponsored by the National Wildlife Foundation. Since we are not able to camp out ourselves on the property, I decided that setting up an exhibit would be the best way to tie in both the National Park Service #findyourpark campaign, and the Great American Campout idea. I printed off handouts for each person to take home with them if they so choose, and they were able to sign their name and pledge where they were going to camp this year, whether it be in the Grand Tetons or right here in Arkansas. 20150626_091429

    This exhibit did much more than just set up a few tents and have kids play in them. It encouraged others to go out in the world and discover a new park or area around them that they had never been to before. The handouts were the Ten Essentials that every backpacker, day or overnight, should have in their backpack with them at all times. In addition, there was also a list of things to pack for the backpacker staying the night in the wilderness.

    There were two tents sent up, one in the front (my persona tent!) and one of the back next to a great pictures of what the fields looked like back in 1957 when the 101st Airborne were camped outside the school. A small exhibit was created in our rotating exhibit case that featured the map of the US with all the National Park Sites around the country, as well as brochures of different sites across Arkansas. Lastly, we encouraged each person to go inside the two tents, one a 3 person and other 2, to see how they would feel camping in such a small area for weeks on end. It was a great experience, and ever more wonderful talking to the people from around the country who also enjoy camping!

    20150627_091618From here, I hope to expand upon this idea of the soldiers and their experiences living in Arkansas during this time period. In September will be the anniversary of their arrival, and I will be asking a few speakers to come in and talk about the logistics in moving so many people to one location, as well as their behavior being in an urban environment as a solider who is training to be overseas fighting wars. It will also talk about how important it is to understand the fundamentals of being outdoors and even will feature a few stations to understand how to pack a backpack,  how to set up a tent and maybe we can even learn to start our own camp fire!

    I leave you mid-summer with the promise that I will be back sooner than last time and update you on all the wonderful 11401392_860964057316313_5954720940963903059_nthings happening not only in may life, but here at Central High National Historic Site. I will be here full time until the end of the summer, when I go back to the Clinton Library and continue part time here. See you next time!