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Exhibits

Grateful Dead

gets a reprieve

The Grateful Dead exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland has gotten a reprieve. The exhibit opened in April and was due to wrap up by year’s end. Now the rock hall says the exhibit, The Long, Strange Trip, has been extended through March 24.

The exhibit features manuscripts, handwritten notes, five Jerry Garcia guitars, a custom-painted drum kit and promoter Bill Graham’s “Father Time” robe.

Several members of the Grateful Dead have toured the exhibit and participated in related programs, including Mickey Hart, Donna Jean Godchaux, Tom Constanten and Bill Kreutzmann.

The Grateful Dead were at the epicenter of the sweeping culture of San Francisco in the 1960s.

Airlines

Spuds sub for people in Wi-Fi tests

Engineers at aircraft maker Boeing are using an odd mix of high and low-tech tools as they strive to iron out weak spots in onboard wireless Internet signals. The engineers needed full planes to get accurate results during signal testing, but they couldn’t ask people to sit motionless for days while data was gathered.

Boeing spokesman Adam Tischler says that’s where potatoes come into the picture: Turns out that because of their water content and chemistry, potatoes absorb and reflect radio wave signals much the same way as the human body. So, Boeing engineers put sacks of potatoes in seats to stand in for passengers.

Boeing says the work has greatly improved Internet connectivity on its planes.

New service

•  American Airlines will add two new routes between Miami and the Caribbean in the spring. The airline will start Saturday flights between Miami and both Martinique Aime Cesaire International Airport and Pointe-a-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe on April 6.

American also said it will add service to Curitiba and Porto Alegre, both in Brazil, from Miami in late 2013.

•  JetBlue Airways has announced its intent to expand its service between Fort Lauderdale and Colombia by adding daily nonstop flights to Medellin beginning in June. JetBlue already serves Bogata via FLL.

•  Two airlines have begun nonstop seasonal service between Key West and the Northeast.

Delta Airlines is offering flights from New York’s LaGuardia Airport daily through Jan. 5. Those flights also will run each Saturday from March 2 through April 6. Key West airport officials say the 1,211-mile flight is the longest commercial route ever to serve the city.

Daily U.S. Airways flights from Washington’s Reagan National Airport are being offered through Jan. 5. Those flights will continue each Saturday through April.

Southwest will begin daily service between New Orleans and Key West on March 9.

All smiles now

Cathay Pacific Airways and its flight attendants’ union, which threatened a labor action that included not smiling at work if a labor deal couldn’t be made, have come to terms with Asia’s biggest international carrier. The union represents more than 5,800 of Cathay’s 9,000 cabin crew.

Miami Herald

wire services

Read more Just In! | Travel News stories from the Miami Herald

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The former Empress of the North has been acquired by the American Queen Steamboat Co. and will sail rivers in the Pacific Northwest. (The photo was retouched with the boat's new name, American Empress.)

    American Queen Steamboat Co.

    River cruise line adds a second vessel to sail Pacific Northwest

    The American Queen Steamboat Co., which launched steamboat cruises on the Mississippi River last spring, has bought a second riverboat that will sail the rivers of the Pacific Northwest starting in April 2014. The company, named for its Mississippi River paddle wheeler, announced Tuesday it had purchased the former Empress of the North and will rename it the American Empress.

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Eagle Creek Afar Backpack

    Gear + Gadgets

    Got your backpack

    Always improving its lines of luggage for the adventurous, Eagle Creek has fine-tuned its new Afar Backpack to be all business and a pleasure. About the dimensions of a standard wheel-aboard bag (12.5 inches by 20.5 inches by 8.5 inches deep), the Afar weighs in at a mere 1 pound, 11 ounces. It is equipped with a slew of great features: well-padded contoured shoulder straps, a tuck away padded hip belt, adjustable sternum straps, external compression straps and a sturdy top grab handle. A padded breathable mesh back panel makes for comfy cushioning. The back panel cleverly incorporates a zippered padded compartment for a laptop (up to 17 inches) that doesn’t broadcast your precious cargo to would-be thieves. The spacious main zippered compartment is blessedly unstructured, three roomy external mesh pouches are great for jackets, water bottles, snacks and maps, and a very well-designed zippered front organizer pocket has pouches and elastic slots for a cell phone, camera, sunglasses, pens and other essentials. Double-lock zippers, hidden slip pockets for documents, and reflective accents for nighttime visibility are smart security elements. Available in a dreamy slate blue, sunny ochre and basic black.

  • Viking Cruises

    Company known for river trips announces ocean ship

    Viking Cruises, a company known for offering river cruises, on Friday announced that it was launching a new cruise line for ocean-going trips.

Miami Herald

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