Hertz offers media player to keep kids happy in car

Hertz offers media player
to keep kids happy in car

NEW YORK — If you’re renting a car from Hertz, you can also rent a media player packed with programming from Nickelodeon to entertain the kids.

The cost is $17 a day, and if you rent for five days, you get days six and seven free.

Hertz began offering the media player, called “Nick on the Go,” on Dec. 15.

“Nick on the Go” is pre-loaded with more than 40 hours of episodes from shows such as “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Drake & Josh,” “Unfabulous,” “Zoey 101,” “Dora the Explorer,” “Blue’s Clues” and others.

“Nick on the Go” uses touch-screen technology and can either be taken with you and used as a hand-held portable device, or mounted on the back of the front seats for back-seat viewing.

Hotel rates expected
to keep increasing

NEW YORK — Be prepared to pay more for a hotel room next year, according to the annual lodging industry report from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Hospitality & Leisure Practice, which was released Dec. 13.

Hotel rates increased 7.5 percent in 2006, and are likely to finish 2007 with a 5.7 percent increase, according to a spokesman. For 2008, the price of a hotel room is forecast to go up an additional 5.6 percent.

The spokesman said that although occupancy for hotels was down a bit overall for the year, travelers do not appear to be “trading down,” or staying in less expensive hotels than they normally would.

Susan B. Anthony
birthplace to be restored

ADAMS, Mass. — A house in Adams will be transformed over the next 14 months to look as it did in 1820 — the year Susan B. Anthony was born there.

The founder of the women’s rights movement lived in the Federal-style home until the age of 7, when her family moved to New York state.

The house stood vacant when it was bought in August 2006 by Carol Crossed and designated as the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace and Museum.

Plans for the house include adding a period fence and restoring windows on the south-facing façade.

Crossed calls Anthony one of the most significant women in U.S. history. She founded the women’s suffrage movement, which culminated in 1920 with passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.

Details at www.susanbanthonybirthplace.com.

8 to promote Maine skiing
on 17 state mountains

PORTLAND, Maine — A group of eight skiers is planning to whoosh down 17 of Maine’s ski mountains over a 31⁄2-day span to promote the state’s ski industry.

The event is scheduled for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend and is being organized by Ski Maine Association.

The challenge aims to make the public aware of the state’s variety of places to ski and snowboard. Ski Maine Executive Director Greg Sweetser said the state’s 17 member mountains have a total of 560 trails and 83 lifts. The skiers will start at Spruce Mountain in Jay on Jan. 18 and end up at the Camden Snow Bowl on Jan. 21. In between, they will travel nearly 1,000 miles and ski 85 trails on 15 other mountains.

Details on skiing in Maine visit the Ski Maine Association at www.skimaine.com.

Associated Press