the travel queen

2010-04-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

Trip Report for Puerto Vallata April 11-17, 2010

Day 1

Departed DFW in the morning and arrived Puerto Vallarta about noon - awesome that we can fly non stop and be to a lovely beach destination in 2.5 hours. Read extensively about the warnings of the timeshare people at the airport after you exit immigration before the taxi area so we zoomed through them and made no conversation with them. They are polite but if you give them the slightest indication you might be interested in what they are selling, they pounce on you.

got to the taxi booth, paid for our taxi and hopped in. The taxis from the airport to your local destination are price controlled and only white taxis are allowed to take people from the airport. Our fare was $180 which is a little less than $18. The fare is based on which zone you are traveling to within Puerto Vallarta.

Dropped at Villa del Palmar - lovely resort with lush grounds. Again after checking in, the "timeshare" girl needed to sit us down to explain the resort to us - as if we didn't have the intelligence to do it on our own but we played her game. Eventually after giving us the resort information she made her "offer" for us to tour another Villa property Flamingos which is their newest one. It is much further north from where we were staying and we decided not to stay there when we made our trade due to that fact. they make it worth your while if you will take their tour but we were not interested. So we parted ways with her amicably.

Spent the remainder of the day at the resort on the beach and had dinner at the resort that night. There is a small market that has basics which is all we needed in the way of food within a block of the resort plus the internet cafe and we made a trip there on Day 1. dinner that night was quite good - had tortilla soup and shrimp burritos and it was about $470 which is a little less than $47 US. The peso is about 11.6 to the US $1 right now.

Day 2

This was another lovely beach day. because we went in low season, there was never a problem finding a palapa or chairs on the beach or at the pool. Low season starts right after Easter and extends until the end of September. There is a constant parade of beach vendors all day long which is entertaining. they are not pushy and cannot approach you if you are behind the "yellow rope" unless you invite them to you. They do make eye contact and ask if you are interested in their wares but go away easily if you say NO. on a daily basis we had silver jewelry vendors, the "muffin man" selling muffins, ladies selling beach cover ups and dresses you would only wear in Mexico, a guy selling hats, vendors selling t shirts, shrimp on a stick, fresh fruit cut up,tablecloths, carved wooden items, but probably the two "most unique" were the guy wearing like a jet pack on his back offering to spray you with suntan lotion for a price and the guy carrying around his 3 foot iguana wearing a sombrero (yes the iguana) and offering for you to have your picture taken with the iguana for a price. Only in Mexico!!! again, very entertaining.

you could do kayaking, parasailing, fishing, snorkeling by just showing interest to one of the many beach guys offering these services in front of our place. also lots of cheap massages directly on the beach in private settings.

Monday night we rode the bus downtown to Cafe Roma for thin crust pizza. The evidence of our visit there can be seen at www.romamexico.com, look at their april 2010 photo gallery and we are photo number 09148. Great place and great pizza for under $10. took the bus back to villa del palmar and watched the sun set.

Our villa is rated by interval as a gold star which is the highest level but this is mexico and it is not the quality of a marriot in the US for sure but still a good place. Clean, maid service every day, again grounds are immaculate, timeshare rooms could stand to be updated but nothing was wrong with the place at all and they are in a great location. the beach in front is great for adults and kids and they have two great pools.

Day 3

Ned and i took a taxi to the marine terminal to catch our catamaran for our trip to Las Caletas for the day. This is where all the ocean going tours depart for vallarta adventures, our tour company. Continental breakfast served aboard, arrived to Las Caletas which used to be the home of John Huston who produced Night of the Iguana and pretty much brought Puerto Vallarta onto everybody's radar screen. Vallarta Adventures has done an incredible job with this place - you have beach time here, guided snorkeling and kayak tours, walking tours, live macaws and monkeys to see and a wonderful lunch provided. About an hour by boat each direction. We quickly figured out the bus system and rode the bus back to Villa del Palmar from the marine terminal for 50 cents. We just snacked at the resort that evening still very full from our late lunch.

Day 4

Got up and took a taxi to the other side of downtown - the longest ride we had - to La Palapa - a beachfront restaurant for breakfast. i had fried eggs and a tamale and guacamole - a good Mexican breakfast. what a wonderful view from this place. This is where the water taxis depart from to Yelapa. Got back from our breakfast and spent the remainder of the day on the beach. again took another taxi to a place that had wonderful reviews for dinner - El Arrayan - and it was great. I had plaintain empanadas with black bean/cheese filling and a hominy/shrimp soup. ned had a small plate (duck pate) as his stomach was a little under the weather.

Day 5

Another tour for me this day zip lining with vallarta Adventures in the afternoon. took a taxi to their office at the Marina and again figured out by watching how to get home on the bus. There were 14 of us in this tour - i was definitely the oldest. Rode in a vehicle like the military might use - canvas covered top, bench seats on both sides about an hour or more out of Puerto Vallarta to dense forest. it is amazing how they hauled in all the materials to build this place. again a first class operation by vallarta adventures. safety was number 1 everytime they put somebody on a zip line. they use double lines and have the highest safety standard afforded for this type of activity. i was never afraid and it was very exhilerating. we probably went on a dozen or more zip lines and did some rappeling and walking on swinging bridges and climbing ladders. Got back home, jumped in the shower and we were off to town again on the bus to eat dinner at the River Cafe. Wonderful food - i had mahi mahi and ned had a large calamari dish. this restaurant sits right on the river so we saw hummingbirds, iguanas in the trees, etc. the river wasn't very nice here but the foliage and animals were. Bus back home.

Day 6

Final tour for me today - a snorkel excursion and trip to Yelapa. I took the taxi to the marine terminal again and passed by the huge sea lion that they were using to have people's pictures made with. he is standing up on something that looks like a podium to prop him up. Vallarta adventures makes a lot of money with their photos. they have a photographer everywhere - she is even ahead of you on the zip line shooting you as you zip across. I didn't buy any of their pictures. Breakfast on the catamaran and then a stop to snorkel and kayak. Lots of fish - saw a pair of angel fish and lots of clown fish. Back on board for a big lunch and head over to Yelapa. Yelapa is a place only accessible by boat - it is a place where probably alot of poor people live as well as aged hippies and people that just want to escape society i suspect. although there were some tee shirts hanging for sale there by an artist that had a studio in Santa Cruz as well so i assume he is an american with studios in both places. When we arrived at Yelapa, you could either go on a 45 minute walk into town and to the waterfall or go to the beach. i didn't know how steep the walk would be so opted for the beach. we were all set up with chairs, umbrellas, beverage service, food(if you wanted to pay for it)and again the beach vedors passed by including another guy offering his iguana for a picture - this iguana was wearing a necklace. The pie lady was on Yelapa and i approached her before she started her beach walk and bought a piece of coconut pie - very good. You could kayak from the beach or parasail but this again was at your own expense.

we had about two hours on the beach here. and then back to port. had dinner this night at Vitea which is right on the malecon (boardwalk along the water with vendors, artists, etc.)I had shrimp and scallops and it was excellent. ned and i walked the entire malecon (10 blocks) and there are shops and restaurants for whatever you would like. again a bus ride home.

Day 7

Departure day
i spent up until about 1:30 on the beach enjoying my last day. We got packed up, checked out and taxied to the airport for our flight home. The PV airport is practically brand new - i think two years old - and it is state of the art for a Mexican airport - clean, lots of shops and restaurants.

as you can tell i was very much taken with Puerto Vallarta and look forward to my next trip there or as arnold would say "I WILL BE BACK"...

2009-12-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

Sunday, November 29 – taxi from Hotel Regencia Colon to airport. Got all checked in for flights and bought some pastries to eat on the plane. Flight to New York’s JFK fine but that airport is a zoo. You have to clear immigration and customs and drop your bags for rechecking and go through security (again) so if we had had less then 90 minutes, we might have missed our flight on to DFW (via Pittsburgh first).

Got home about 10:45 PM and glad to be home but it was a fabulous trip.

2009-12-03T13:28:00.003-08:00

Barcelona, Spain – Saturday, November 28

We arrived back to port about 6 AM. No rush for us to get off so we had a leisure breakfast and then departed the ship about 8:45. Took a taxi to our next hotel – Hotel Regencia Colon – located right across the street from the Barcelona cathedral. Could not get into our room until after lunch. Hotel staff gave us directions how to catch the #19 bus to La Sagrada Familia – the Gaudi Cathedral that is still under construction – supposedly two more decades of construction. We arrived just fine and ned chose not to tour the LSF. He sat in a nice park across from this and people watched and also there was a dog park so he watched it, too. I rented a headset and started on my tour. it took about 90 minutes. There were lots of tour groups there but when I exited the LSF, the line was around the corner and down the block just to get in. It is am amazing site.

Found our way back to bus #19 and took it back to our hotel. There was some kind of Christmas festival that had started this day so there were shops set up (like Canton) all along the street between us and the cathedral. So we browsed along those and then had a very nice lunch at the Hotel Colon. Had some down time in the hotel room and then went out searching for some place to have a light dinner about dusk time again tons of people at the Christmas festival. We settled on a place close to the cathedral to have churros and cocoa for dinner and it was excellent.

2009-12-03T13:28:00.001-08:00

November 27 – FRIDAY _ DAY at Sea – this should have been a relaxing day but really wasn’t. Ned entered the slot tournament which took 3 rounds to win and won $264. I played in two bingo tournaments and won $135 in one of the rounds.

We had great wait staff and cabin staff on this cruise.

2009-12-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

more amalfi coast ophotos.

2009-12-03T13:20:00.001-08:00

more photos from Amalfi Coast.

2009-12-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

Naples, Italy –November 26 THURSDAY – Ned and I both went on t his tour. Our tour guide was Bruno. This was an amazing tour. We drove from Naples along the Amalfi coast to our first stop which was Sorrento. Had about 90 minutes to walk through Sorrento. Ned and I got a cappuccino and then headed off to buy some souvenirs. The drive along the Amalfi Coast is not for the faint at heart. Very steep walls and narrow two lane roads with lots of winding blind curves. I would never attempt this drive in a small car much less a bus. Beautiful views. We lunched with our entire bus group at a restaurant sitting over the cliffs with beautiful views and a nice lunch. Then the bus dropped us in Amalfi for some walking time. You wonder how people have built houses on these steep cliffs.

2009-12-03T13:13:00.001-08:00

Rome, Italy – November 25 WEDNESDAY – I went on this tour alone as Ned has been in Rome many times. My first overall impression of Rome is overwhelming – the amount of people, the amount of stuff to see, etc. Fortunately I was on a bus riding through town touring all the ruins we saw. The bus dropped us adjacent to the Vatican where we had about 1 hour to tour. I headed to some of the souvenir shops and took quite a few pics. There were people everywhere and our tour guide (Giorgia) told us to plan for a minimum of 3 hours to view the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel. I got another gelato which wasn’t nearly as good as the one in Florence. We also almost didn’t get of the parking garage here because some stupid person had parked a car in a no park zone & the bus had to go through a lot of contortions to get the bus going again.

2009-12-03T13:09:00.001-08:00

Florence, Italy – November 24 TUESDAY – Ned and I both went on this short tour. Good tour guide Trudy. Entered Florence from a hilltop and took great photos of the panoramic view of Florence. Bus then dropped us off at the Ferragamo Store which was our meeting place. We had about 90 minutes in Florence to walk again, take photos, etc. Only thing I would have liked to do was visit the Accademia and see the David statue but that will have to be another trip. Got some great panna cotta gelato in Florence. Walked over the Ponte Vecchio bridge and I guess in high season alla those jewelry vendors making a killing but they were all selling basically the same stuff.

2009-12-03T13:02:00.000-08:00

Genoa, Italy – November 23 MONDAY
I signed up for a tour to the Cinque Terre. Ned didn’t want to do this tour. We had a drive through the countryside to get to the Cinque Terre from Genoa and it was VERY foggy but once we got to the water side of the mountain, it was beautiful sunny weather. Our tour guide was Andrea. He was fantastic. We all wore headsets where we could hear his “spiel” wherever we might be in the pack walking. We departed the bus in the second village (Riomaggia I think) because the bus could not get into the first village and have a place to park. We walked along the pathway of love and arrived at village #1 (Manarola) & took the train to Vernazza . Had some free time here in Vernazza. I got a Cappucino in a small place lisa told me about. Took some photos, enjoyed sitting by the water and visited a few souvenir shops. Alot of the town was closed up as this is very slow season now. Took the train past village #4 (Corniglia) as it requires many steps just to get up to this town which is built on the top of a hill on to village #5 which is the largest Monterrosa al Mar. Had free time here but again a lot of shops closed for the season. had a wonderful lunch out on the patio in a restaurant here.

2009-12-03T12:59:00.001-08:00

Cannes, France – November 22 SUNDAY
We signed up for a shore excursion going to Nice, France and Monaco. The bus dropped us in Nice first and we walked around the old quarter in Nice. Had lunch at an outdoor, very smoky café with delicious crepes. Did some shopping at the wonderful flower market. Reboarded the bus for the drive to Monaco. We departed the bus in a parking garage under the Palace in Monaco and went upstairs. Toured all the gardens and grounds of the Palace, souvenir shops, etc. and took the small train that takes you from the Palace grounds down into Monte Carlo along all the expensive shops, the roads used by the racing cars, the casino (dress code and entry fee) and then back up to the palace. This was the only place it was really very cold atop the hill where the Palace sits.

2009-12-03T12:58:00.001-08:00

Barcelona-November 21 SATURDAY

Slept good and departed hotel for Las Ramblas. Had breakfast on Las Ramblas. It was early. Most street performers hadn’t set up yet or were in the process of putting on their costumes/makeup. As we finished breakfast the crowds starting picking up & performers were out, we walked to the Columbus monument and then back through the crowds to our hotel. No problem with pickpockets although we had nothing displayed they would have wanted.

Took a cab to the cruise port and boarded the cruise ship. Had already printed out our cruise documents so that makes boarding very simple. Got assigned (to our good fortune) to a room with a window. Cruise ship departed Barcelona about 6 PM.

2009-12-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

Barcelona – November 20 FRIDAY

Arrived BCN about 9AM. Took a cab and checked into Hotel Jazz located close to Placa Cataluna. Good hotel. Location was excellent. Departed hotel to catch Bus Turistica just a couple of blocks from our hotel. We rode around the first loop that covered all of the Gaudi buildings plus some other stuff. Got back to Placa Cataluna on the bus and exited and went to El Corte Ingles (a large department store) and had lunch. I had read on a bulletin board that the view from the top floor of El Corte Ingles was magnificent and it was. The food was just OK. walked back to Placa Cataluna and picked up the blue line of the Bus Turistica and rode it for another hour or so.

After this went back to our hotel for some down time. Went down to the bar in the hotel for a glass of wine and ordered dinner in the hotel and had an early night.

2009-03-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

here are a couple of photos i left off the previous blog posting - photos of Amanda and the monkey and some alhambra palace photos.

2009-03-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

Day 1 - March 14, 2009

This was arrival day into Malaga, Spain. Ned and I met up with Neil and Amanda at the Madrid airport for our final flight to Malaga, Spain. They had flown in from Chicago and we flew via Miami to Madrid. Upon arrival at Malaga, we picked up our two station wagon type car rentals and headed towards the Marriott in Marbella, spain. Somewhere along the way from the airport to the Marriott, Neil and I (we were driving the two cars) got separated. I had the directions to the Marriott and he did not. Ned and i found our way there and then I freaked out when i realized that i had lost Neil and Amanda. and they had no directions with them. we checked into the Marriott and our villa was ready for us. i was beside myself since i had no way to contact neil. i was even contemplating sending him an email from the marriott's computer room when they drove up after having been lost a while. I was very glad to see them. We had an enjoyable lunch out on the patio at the Marriott. (see Marriott Timeshare photo and photos of the girls on beach of the mediterranean sea).

Neil and amanda had to go back to the airport to pick Lisa up when she arrived from Paris and ned and i had to go the Malaga train station to pick up Ryan, Holly and Pax. We found the train station just fine and they were standing out front waiting for us so we picked them up and were on our way home (we thought). we got lost coming back to the Marriott because we took the toll road instead of the coastal road (also happened to Neil once). Eventually we made our way to the Marriott, but i was pretty frazzed after all this not to mention considerable jet lag i was experiencing. we finally had everybody together. lisa's luggage hadn't arrived at malaga but it did arrive the following day so she wasn't inconvenienced and it was delivered to the Marriott. Ned and ryan went to the grocery store and bought considerable food and we had pasta, salad, good bread and wine on our first night in marbella and called it a day pretty early the first night.

Day 2 - March 15, 2009

Every morning that we were all together Ned fixed a big breakfast and we usually ate about 9 AM. Our days tended to start either before or after Pax's nap depending on whether we were driving a distance to see something or staying local. After his nap on this day, we headed to old town Marbella for lunch and sightseeing in the old town. We found a tapas bar that i had read about in someone's trip report on Trip Advisor and it was fantastic. we ate outside and they kept bringing us hot tapas (the cold ones we served ourself from inside the bar) until we told them we had had enough. Very good food and reasonable. they actually count the skewers left on your plate at the end to determine how much you pay. (see photos of us at the tapas bar and having ice cream and at the port in Puerto Banus).

we had lunch for 7 adults and Pax plus beer and wine to drink for around 75 euros which was very reasonable. we walked down to the waterfront for a while for pax to play at the playground and then got some ice cream and headed back to the cars. On the way back to the parking garage, we walked through an esplanade that had statues by Salvador Dali so they were all very abstract. From here we drove to Puerto Banus. This is where all the rich and famous people come and park their huge boats. Quite a people watching place.

we stayed and observed all the huge boats and very high end shops and then headed back to the Marriott. By this time, i was no longer a driver of the cars. Neil and Ryan did all the driving from here on out with occasional back seat driving from me. Mostly when i was directionally challenged would i offer my opinion and it was always wrong. we went back to the marriott and had a light dinner. Some evenings we would go to the hot tub, sauna or steam room. The Marriott property here is wonderful and we had a great set up for our accommodations. Neil, Amanda, Lisa, Ned and I were in the 3 bedroom villa and right next door (we were the only villas on our floor) Ryan and Holly and pax were in a one bedroom villa. we had plenty of space and privacy for everyone.

Day 3 - March 16, 2009

This morning again a large breakfast and we were on the road to Ronda about 11 AM. Ronda is one of the pueblos blancos settled in Spain in the 800-900s. It is up in the mountains so a windy mountainous road to get there. I failed to mention for the previous day's posting that there basically is no such thing as street parking so everywhere we went in the cars to a town we had to park in underground parking garages. i had read about this so was aware of this. (see photos of the gorge and us walking to see the gorge).

In Ronda, we found a parking garage not too far from the center of town and left the cars. Fortunately i wasn't leading the gang to Ronda as i don't have a very good sense of direction. we made it to the information booth which is adjacent to the indoor bull ring (Ronda is the home of bull fighting) and a few more steps we would be treated with a view that Ronda is famous for. It sits on top of a huge mountain and there is quite a gorge to look down into the valley. we found the restaurant that i had again read about on Trip Advisor and had our lunch. It was called Dona Pepa and was fantastic. Again wonderful outdoor dining and everybody had a great lunch. we then lined up in front of the old church in the plaza where we had lunch and took one of our group photos. neil had brought his tripod. we did some more sightseeing around Ronda - narrow cobblestone streets, lots of shops, lots more views of the gorge and the "new" bridge over the gorge - new is a relative word since this town is so old. we went back to the plaza for some desserts, coffees and ice cream and headed back to the parking garage. we were looking for the arab baths in ronda to see before we left town. No street signs in town to direct you and after a couple of attempts to find them we were finally successful although it meant driving down what Ronda would call a road and what i would call a narrow alleyway. we parked the cars and walked down to the arab baths only to find that they had closed at 4 PM that day but we could see from outside what they would have looked like. Ronda was settled as was most of this part of Spain by the Moors (arabic people) and these baths were down on the lowest level of the city by the river where bathing took place. We headed back to the marriott and had a lite dinner in our villa.

Day 4 - March 17, 2009

This morning found us going in 3 different directions. Neil and Amanda left very early for the airport to fly to Barcelona for the day. Ryan, Holly and Lisa also left early to drive to Tarifa to take the high speed ferry across to Morocco to meet Aziz for their tour. About 9 AM Ryan called to say that because the winds were so high, the ferries had all been cancelled for that day. He and i both got word to Aziz that the tour for today was off because the kids could not get on the ferry. the kids were disappointed but drove on to cadiz and several other pueblos blancos for the day and enjoyed their sightseeing. They were on their own with what to do and see because i had done no research on this part of Spain because we hadn't planned to visit. Ned and i were taking care of pax on this day and after he got up from his nap, we took a taxi to the Fuengirola Zoo for a couple of hours and then a taxi back to the Marriott. Very enjoyable and Pax was so cute seeing all the animals. About 5 Ryan, Holly and Lisa made it in from their daily adventure. We debriefed about their day and what they did and then walked to one of the beach restaurants just down from the marriott called Cristina's and had a wonderful meal. Neil and Amanda were not expected back from Barcelona until about 10:30. About 9:30 PM the phone rings and it was Neil. I think the kids debated whether to tell me he called or not. I was already in bed. They had gotten on the wrong train in Barcelona that was not headed to the airport and missed their flight back to Malaga. They ended up having to overnight in Barcelona and take an early flight back to Malaga wednesday morning.

Day 5 - March 18, 2009

Neil and Amanda arrived back from Barcelona about 10:30 and we chatted about their "adventure". Shortly thereafter, we piled into our cars again and headed to Gibraltar for the day. Again, Pax napped in the car on the way. This was another windy day and down right cold in Gibraltar. We found the parking garage recommended by Rick Steves and left the cars and walked from the Spanish side of La Linea across the border into Gibraltar which is british and you do have to show your passport to enter. I had done lots of research on what there was to do in Gibraltar but most of it centered around using the cable car to get to the top of Gibraltar and to the Apes Den. As we were going through the airport terminal (you actually walk across the runway at the airport to enter Gibraltar) we were asked by a nice gentleman if we would be interested in a guided tour. he also told us that the cable car was being renovated with new cables and closed for a couple of weeks. That sealed the deal on booking the guided tour. We all fit into one van and Alistair was our guide. He was fantastic. Is a native of Gibraltar and one of his kids is in Scouts so we chatted about that, too. Some of the things we saw in Gibraltar we probably would not have seen had i been planning our day there so he really made our day worthwhle. We had lunch at the Cannon Bar which is like a British pub and almost all of us had Fish and Chips. ned had bangers and mash and the beers were good, too. After we concluded the tour, we stopped back and had some scones and tea/coffee at Figaro's. Then we caught the bus back to the Frontier (the border). I cannot wait for you to see the pictures from this day. Amanda and I both had an up close and personal experience with the Barbary Apes that live on Gibraltar. (see photos of Amanda with the "monkey on her head".)

she had one on her head and i had one try to climb onto my back. They are a tourist attraction there so are overtly friendly to tourists. we drove back to Marbella and had another light dinner.

Day 6 - March 19, 2009

This morning we departed about 8:30 for our drive to Granada. The big attraction for the whole country of Spain is the Alhambra Palace in Granada. Again, this part of Spain was settled by the Moors in the 800s+ and one of the last Moorish rulers built the Alhambra Palace. It is an amazing palace. I have never seen anything like it. The intricate painting, detailing, color schemes, water everywhere, gardens everywhere. holly took some amazing pictures at the palace so i will post those when available. (see photos of the Alhambra Palace).

Also near the Alhambra is the first Christian king's palace - Charles V - which looked just like a round coliseum when you compared it to the Alhambra Palace. Also available for us to visit was the watch tower area which is only viewed from outside. we left the Alhambra Palace to go to a restaurant that i had selected for lunch that was supposed to offer a traditional Moroccan type meal. I had read that you cannot easily navigate the inner city of Granada and we found that to be an understatement. We spent 90 minutes trying to find this particular restaurant and when we finally did find it, they were closed. it was like all the energy had gone from me at that point but we walked across the street and had some tapas at a hotel restaurant and then picked up some desserts and headed for home. because we were looking for a lunch place about 4:30 PM - it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner and any place that was open would only serve you what foods they had for tapas - thus our tapas for lunch. we got home and some of us went for a late dinner at the marriott and some of us stayed in for the evening.

Day 7 - March 20, 2009

Today was basically an unscheduled day which we all needed. we found a flea market within an easy drive and went there for about an hour. Lots of good items to choose from and reasonably priced and easy to get to and adjacent parking to the flea market (amazing!!!) we got home about the time for Pax to start his nap. Several of us had massages scheduled for this day.

See photos of our final day in Marbella.

I drove neil and amanda to the airport as they were leaving on this day to fly to Rome for a few days before coming back to DFW. After the airport run (i did not get lost - hurray) we all enjoyed some beach time and pool time. It was a beautiful day. we headed down the beach to another beach restaurant for an early dinner (called Tony's) and we were their only customer for dinner at that time. everyone in spain eats dinner very late (except for us). Again we all had wonderful seafood dishes and shared some sangria and our final meal together.

Day 8 - March 21, 2009

Lisa, Ned and cathy get up at 4 AM to drive to the Malaga airport and return the car and catch their flight to Madrid. Ryan and Holly and Pax stay at the Marriott until check out time and then transfer to another time share on the costa del Sol for another week with friends who are flying in from the states and Paris on the same day we are leaving. Lisa meets her friend Courtney in madrid and they are still touring Italy as of this posting.

After 10 months of anticipating our family vacation, it was beyond my wildest dreams of what a great time we had experiencing Spain - the Costa del Sol- together as a family.

2009-03-13T06:49:00.000-07:00

today marks the departure of a trip in the planning for 11 months with my family. hope everyone has safe travels and arrives in Malaga when planned for our week together.

will chat more as the week unfolds.

2008-09-06T08:49:00.001-07:00

Alaskan Cruise

We started our cruise on August 29 flying from Dallas to Seattle and onboard to Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas. The first couple of days of cruising were pretty rough going as we were in the open seas. fortunately neither Ned nor I get seasick. We had a small cabin with no window and we were fine with that. we only spent time in the room to sleep and shower.

During the cruise, i played bingo 4 times and won on two of those days. total i won from those two jackpots was over $400. Ned also came in second in the slot machine tournament and did very well on the slots so it was a prosperous casino outing for us.

The food was excellent on the cruise, our waiters in the dining room were excellent and our cabin attendant was also great. If anything was a negative on the whole cruise, it was the port of Prince Rupert, B.C. which was not much of a port so not much to do or see. I understand from somebody on the ship that Prince rupert is being dropped from Royal Caribbean's ports for 2009. we were also a little disappointed in the amount of wildlife we saw = we saw some blow holes from what we knew were whales but did not see the whales, we saw a seal lion in the seattle harbor and saw a small brown bear in Juneau. Otherwise, nothing. We were able to catch an earlier flight home on Friday so got home around 5:30 which was nice.

I am going to post a few pics with some commentary.

First port of call in Juneau:

pictures of us pulling into port, the salmon hatchery we visited, the mendenhall glacier which was amazing, downtown Juneau.

(sorry i think these appear at the top of the blog)

There was also a tram that would take you to the top of Mt. Roberts in Juneau but we didn't have time to do this. we did some shopping in Juneau - cute stores and beautiful flowers. we also saw the home that the current governor of Alaska lives in. She is the vice presidential candidate this year on the republican ticket. Her home looked out of place in Alaska. A white and green colonial type house with white columns out front.

In Skagway, it was the favorite stop of mine. Alot of the town was at you would expect it at the turn of the century. very colorful buildings (wooden), wooden walk ways, horse and buggy rides, touring car town tours, lots of people dressed up in period costumes leading tours through the town. i hooked up with the girl leading the forest service tour and stayed with them for 20 minutes or so until the tour ended. we took the 3 hour ride on the narrow gauge white pass train up to the point where alaska and canada meet. Beautiful scenery, water falls, snow capped peaks, sheer drops down the side. it was up and back on the same tracks but the scenery was worth the trip - again no wildlife spotted on this trip.

did lots of shopping in Skagway - prices great. there are only two more cruises visiting alaska this season so they are practically giving stuff away and i got lots of christmas gifts.

final stop was Prince Rupert. We got off the ship and walked through the downtown area and then to the very small tourist area. Not much really to do or see. we saw quite a few totem poles, a beautiful sunken garden area and a few shops. It ended up being the worst day of our cruise with light rain. we returned to the ship and just had a restful day. There were some tours going out of Prince Rupert that day but they were very pricey and most involved riding in a boat, etc. so we were glad we weren't on the water with rain coming down.

The entertainment on the ship was top notch - a different entertainment act every night.

probably one of the most stunning scenery days was the day we cruise in the fjord. we were supposed to cruise tracy Arm fjord but it was fogged in so the captain took us to Endicott Arm to cruise. We got pretty close to the glacier (Dawes Glacier) as you can see from a couple of photos. Come to find out later that evening the cruise director said during the evening entertainment that it was the first time the captain had gone into Endicott and we really were not supposed to be in there - only cruise ships with 250 passengers are supposed to go in their but we had an upclose and personal view of the glacier.

a couple of pictures of Brice, Judy, Ned and I and one with our waiter (Jaydeep from Bombay) and his assistant waiter. They were superb. It is amazing what these people do to work for Royal caribbean. Since most of the staff is foreign, they work 6 months on the ship and then get 10 weeks off. Jaydeep is married and has two children and calls home whenever we are in port. Guess he can just make much more money to support his family than living in Bombay and working. He has been with Royal Caribbean for 14 years serving on several of their ships.

that is about it. it was a wonderful trip and i highly recommend it to anyone.

2007-02-27T07:19:00.000-08:00

Days 2 and 3 in San Francisco

This will be the "final chapter" of my trip to Japan and San Francisco. Sunday, Ryan, Holly and Pax and I traveled to the wine country in Napa Valley. We picked up sandwiches to have as we traveled from winery to winery. We did wine tastings at three wineries and had a very enjoyable time and the drive was nice - a few sprinkles but nothing to deter our trip. We got back to San Fran in the afternoon after stopping for Peet's coffee and scones and in the evening went to a get together of Ryan and Holly's "like minded" friends. There were three visitors at this get together of my age which is unusual - usually they are all Ryan's age, etc. Enjoyed some fellowship and a good meal of potato soup and bread. After dinner, i visited a while at Ryan's and then back to the B&B for another good night's sleep.

Monday, i got up and packed everything and Ryan picked me up and after Holly's parents arrived, we all headed to Tartine for a decadent breakfast. It was standing room only there (a very small place) and we intended to eat outside at the tables although it was a bit chilly. The rain ultimately drove us inside to eat standing up at the counter. Most of us had their signature dish - bread pudding - which was wonderful. After the over indulgent breakfast, we all went for a hike up Bernal Hill (the area where Ryan and Holly and Pax live)to work off our breakfast. It was very windy up there so we just did a 360 view of the aerial view of that part of San Fran and then went down the hill to walk on a bit more through the neighborhoods.

The kids took me to the airport around 1:30 and due to weather, i had a 1.5 hour delay out of San Fran putting me into DFW around 9:30 PM. Considering all the travels i have done, i was OK that i had not been delayed at any other time.

This whole trip was a huge success and very enjoyable for me.

This will be my last posting until i embark on another trip.

2007-02-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

Days in San Francisco

Well just to update everyone. I made it from Narita to San Francisco just fine, albeit a long day.

The Shinkansen train ride was spectacular.

I never really thought it was going as fast as it supposedly does travel. The only time you might get the least bit dizzy is if you watch out the windows when there is not wide open spaces to view. Sometimes when it goes through the many tunnels you just have to focus on the interior of the train and also when the sound barriers are up on the sides of the train, once again you have to divert your eyes. Otherwise, the view is spectacular of the mountains, etc.

The Tokyo Train Station is an absolute zoo. Had i not read up and had different postings online to relate to i might have been very intimidated. Signs everywhere, people everywhere, gates everywhere going into and out of the Shinkansen train gates, etc.

I had previously read that the train to the airport (Narita Express) was in the basement of the train building so at least that gave me somewhere to focus.

Narita Airport was easy to navigate so no problems there.

Our flight was very full but i still managed 4 hours of sleep on the plane.

Arrived into Lax and transferred to a flight to Oakland and Ryan and Holly and Pax picked me up. We had a nice evening and i ended up at the Bed and Breakfast i am staying at in Bernal Heights.

I got a very good night's sleep with my hostess who is a throw back to the hippie era. I'll post more tomorrow about our other activities in San Francisco.

Sorry no pics. i have a few more to post when i get home.

2007-02-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

Day 5 in Kyoto

I had no idea that Lisa had saved the most spectacular sightseeing for the final day. We woke up and it was raining and cold and foggy. No big deal. we knew it was supposed to rain on Friday. By the time we left the apartment it was just barely raining and no wind. Got on the train and it was a 1.5 hour ride from Yamashina to Himeji. Himeji is the home of a magnificent castle in Japan - i believe the largest. Himeji was a more normal town the part we walked through from the train station to the castle grounds. Wide streets, not as many people on bikes, people more normally dressed. By this time, the rain was gone and the sun was in and out so we were really leading a charmed life because of the change in the weather in our favor.

Bought our tickets to tour the castle grounds and the adventure began. In my wildest imagination, i cannot see how a structure of this kind could have been built. I have seen other buildings (very old) in Europe that i have thought the same thing. I cannot even begin to describe the size of this castle and all its out buildings. And the fortification was unbelievable. Hopefully some of the pictures that Lisa took will give you a general idea of its size. We were allowed inside after we took our shoes off (and they provided us slippers to wear). We climbed 6 stories (very steep) of stairs to get to the top of the castle but the views of the city from there were amazing on our beautiful day. Everything that we could see inside the castle was made of wood sitting on what appeared to be a limestone or rock base. Quite a few artifacts were inside the castle for us to see of old tools, etc. found around the castle. An absolutely amazing structure.

Then we went next door to a series of beautiful gardens. I am sure these are spectacular in the spring when all the cherry blossom trees are blooming. Some were just starting to bloom and some were in full bloom at this garden as well as all sorts of small trees in pots on display of various kinds of cherry blossom trees. This garden area also contained a bamboo forest and various other types of trees, vegetation and lots of koi ponds and waterfalls. Just a very scenic area.

After these tours, we crossed the street and ate at a corny dog stand that lisa had previously tried and i have to admit it was probably the best corny dog i have ever eaten. I know, you come half way around the world to eat at a corny dog stand???

Back to the train and we rode into Kobe. The Chinese festival was going on so we made our way to that part of town (a short walk from the train station) and watched some of the live entertainment and walked up and down the area of China Town and bought some food from the vendors as well as fruit.

We also passed by the world's longest suspension bridge (photo shown in this blog but not very good - pretty foggy) that connects an island to this part of the mainland. Another unbelievable structure.

Made our way back to the train station and after riding a couple more trains and subways were home by about 7-7:30 PM but not before passing through an area of Kyoto on a Friday night where all the "weirdly dressed" folk were hanging out. In a society that you think is ultra conservative, you wonder why these young people are going in such a totally different direction with their hair, clothing, shoes, etc.

The end of the sightseeing has come and boy my feet and knees are "SO VERY THANKFUL"...

Tomorrow begins my long journey from Kyoto to Tokyo Narita Airport via the Nozomi Shinkansen (bullet train) connecting to the Narita Express. Flight to Los Angeles departs around 5:30 PM.

I will try and post in the Tokyo Airport to tell of my train trips.

here are a few photos to leave you with for today.

2007-02-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

Day 4 in Kyoto

I won't have any pics yet of today's travels. As soon as Lisa gets up and we download the pictures from the camera she took yesterday, i'll insert some pictures.

Yesterday was supposed to be a low key day and by comparison of the two previous days, it was. We lolly gagged around the apartment in the morning drinking coffee, working on Lisa's income taxes and doing laundry. It was a beautiful sunny warm morning. Audrey played tennis with one of their other friends just across the street at the rec center. Lisa's apartment is very Western style except for the bedroom which is traditional tatami matting on the floor and we sleep on the floor on futons. It has been very comfortable. Every day we roll up our futons and store them until we need them for sleeping as the bedrooms are tiny and that gives us room to walk around.

We left the apartment around noon and took the train up to Lake Biwa up north. The largest man made lake in Japan. We strolled down the narrow streets and bought some pastries and took them over to the water's edge and ate. By now it was very foggy up in the mountains and you could hardly see the buildings on the other side of the lake. So it was a little chilly and the sun was struggling to come out. We walked around the water front and down to see a paddle wheel boat that takes people on lake excursions. I'm sure in the nice weather months, this place is packed with people. They were playing 90s type american music where the paddle wheel boat docked.

We went back to the train station and caught the train back to an area close to where Lisa lives that is well known for shopping. We grabbed a Starbucks coffee and sat by the river (inside Starbucks) while we rested a little bit.

Another observation about Japan here. Everything is immaculately clean - on the trains, on the buses, on the grounds of all the temples and shrines, etc. They also have heated toilet seats in some of the western style bathrooms. But there is not a lick of soap to be found to wash your hands and some of the bathrooms don't have toilet paper. Enough about that.

We walked through the shopping district and the people are wall to wall on the side walks. I believe (and I think Lisa will 2nd this) that their favorite hobby is SHOPPING. There are bicycle riders everywhere on the sidewalks and most of the time you do not hear them coming up from behind you. amazingly enough considering how many there are, they don't seem to run over the pedestrians.

We shopped for a little while. I was looking for scarves and found them and Lisa was looking for a new pair of work pants. We also visited a market - Nishiki Koji - which went on for blocks that sold primarily seafood (some unknown things to me) and some flowers, vegetables, fruits and sweets. In this market was a knife shop that is world renowned that we visited. I know Ned would have enjoyed the market and the knife shop. Had i not been carrying on my luggage, i probably would have bought a kitchen knife.

Took the train back home and rested for a while and then Lisa and Audrey and i went out to dinner at an Indian Place a short walk away. Small place but the food and service and ambiance was spectacular.

My knees and feet were reminding me that this was "supposed" to be a low key day. Relatively early to bed to resume more sightseeing on my final day of sightseeing tomorrow.

2007-02-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

Day 3 in Kyoto

Day 3 started out in a relaxed way. Didn't have to be anywhere until about 10 AM. Lisa, her roommate Audrey and I went to the Toji flea market that is held once a month (see photo above of the entrance). It is held on the grounds of the Toji Temple. It was great. It was a major pushing and shoving match just to get down the aisles most times but what a wonderful people watching place.

They had everything from fresh flowers and plants (alot of which were familiar to me), clothing, fabric, tools, weapons, antiques and a lot of food. Some of the food was recognizable and some was not. During the course of our time there, we ate a yummy pastry that had chocolate pudding in the middle and for lunch we had a steamed potato and an omelet like thing with lots of cabbage and egg and bacon topped with a sauce like BBQ sauce.

We were definitely enjoying the bright sunny day while sitting on the dead grass by a stagnate pool eating our lunch. We stayed at the flea market for about 3 hours. i was in search of silk scarves that were cheap and lisa was looking for a short kimono.

I have really been blessed by the wonderful weather during my visit. After all, this is probably the worst month to visit and so far only a little bit chilly at times but beautiful sunshine and no rain. I have to comment today on two interesting Japan observations. We have ridden on several trains by now - both local and rapid trains. On every given train, i would say 50-60% of the people sitting on the trains are sleeping, some so soundly they are snoring. These people look so overworked that they are just desperate to catch a few winks. The other observation has to do with the women's feet and the footwear they have chosen. Mind you, over the last two days, we have walked more than i have walked since going to Australia in 2005. Needless to say, my knees are definitely "nagging" me. The younger women here have on these pointy toe high heel shoes/boots and are racing through the train stations, climbing the steps at the temples, etc. It makes my feet hurt to just see them and some of them are so pidgeon toed you wonder how they take steps without falling over their feet. Enough about that.

After leaving the Toji flea market we took the train to Uji which is a little town north of Kyoto just a short train ride. It is on a beautiful river and has lots of cute shops down narrow streets.

We strolled through the streets and lisa and i dropped into a tea house and had green tea. Hers was rather earthy - don't think she particularly liked it but mine was more sweetened so was very good. It smelled like marijuana in the tea house which must have to do with the way they process the tea leaves into dried powder.

But the main draw for Uji is the temple there - Byodoin - and the museum built adjacent to it. See above for a picture of the temple. It was very big and very old and the grounds around this area were very nice.

The museum was very modern and contained alot of artiifacts that came out of the temple as they restored it and the artifacts. Another World Heritage Site. I'm sure there must be many in Kyoto because of all the temples left standing here because it was not bombed during World War II. A very enjoyable day.

Here is a wisteria arbor at the temple that must be gorgeous when it is in full bloom. all of these temples we have visited have lots of cherry blossom trees planted; however they don't bloom until April so i missed that beautiful site.

Another photo of Lisa and I having our tea.

More to follow tomorrow.

2007-02-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

some more photos from Day 2 in Kyoto.

2007-02-20T15:42:00.000-08:00

here are some photos from Day 2 in Kyoto.

2007-02-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

Day 2 in Kyoto

Got up yesterday morning. Lisa and I sat around the apartment until about 10 Am and then left for our "temple hopping" day. It was a beautiful day, chilly but bright sunshine. No wind at all so that was great. I can now understand why people come here. There are very, very old temples everywhere. I was beginning to wonder yesterday if everybody lived in a temple many hundreds of years ago when these were built. The construction of the temples is just amazing. We did ALOT of walking yesterday. First temple we went to was also seen most recently in Lost in Translation (the Bill Murray movie). Lisa took lots of pics so she can help me post several later. A few observations at this first temple: no grass on the ground anywhere to be found, only moss. I have yet to see any grass anywhere. we went on a long walk through town yesterday beside a water aquaduct called the Philosopher's Walk and not a blade of grass anywhere. Don't know why. We saw a group of older Japanese ladies dressed in traditional clothing at the first temple. a picture of them will follow. We took several buses yesterday and several subways to get around. The public transportation system is fantastic. Lisa's Lonely Planet book always gave us information which bus to take, etc. The second temple was called the Golden Pavilion. This is a World Heritage Organization site. The only other WHO sites i have seen were in Australia. The grounds here were beautiful with lots of ponds and walking trails. We left here and went to a little diner for a very late lunch and then went on to our final Shinto shrine where you get a view of Kyoto (it is very elevated up on a hill) at dusk. Also lots of shopping on the streets leading up the hill to the Shrine. Once again, more pictures to follow courtesy of Lisa. After the shrine closed, we went back down the hill to catch the bus back to Kyoto. Not realizing that at 6:30 PM the buses were overloaded, we waiting through 3 buses and finally walked back to the subway station to get back to Lisa's neighborhood. We grabbed a coffee and a dessert for our dinner and were home by 7 PM. I was in bed by 9 PM and lisa stayed up and watched a movie with her roomie, Audrey and a neighbor from down the hall who is also a NOVA teacher, the "other" Lisa. a great but very tiring day from all the walking.

2007-02-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

Day 1 - trip to Japan
The trip definitely started out on the right foot. i got a seat on the two seat side of the aircraft and no one sitting next to me. Thank you American Airlines. I had changed my seat three times prior to coming to the flight so that was a good thing that my final seat choice was a good one. Flight from DFW to Tokyo Narita was uneventful. Good food on the plane, a reasonably good movie - Russell Crowe in A Good Life but no sleep for me on the plane. i rested alot but never could go to sleep. Landed in Tokyo a few minutes early, cleared immigration and customs without a hitch and without much waiting. Went to check in for my connecting flight to Osaka and then went to the departure lounge for that flight. i had about a 3 hour time period to kill. I could have gotten on the earlier flight to Osaka but lisa was at work so it would not have done me any good. Flight departed about 45 minutes late but was only 20 minutes late in landing so made up time in the air. The Tokyo Airport was not nearly as crowded as i expected and the part of the terminal my flight departed from was a ghost town until about 30 minutes prior to boarding. When the announcement was made to board, everyone rushed the gate to scan their boarding pass so guess they don't board by groups. The JAL flight was also uneventful from Tokyo to Osaka. The funniest things on this flight were that the stewardesses kept checking the overhead bins - bin by bin- to be sure they were locked in place. they did this 3 times during a one hour flight - a possible lawsuit from a falling bag prompt this attention to detail???then the video they showed about airplane safety did not have real people in the video - but what looked like wooden people. I guess they worked cheaper than the real people...ha ha ha...

Arrived Osaka just fine and made my way outside to catch the bus. A young lady saw that i was standing in line and she pulled me out of line and took me to the vending machine and helped me buy my ticket. So i waited about 5 minutes for the bus and then was off from Osaka to Kyoto. The bus was full of people - very few seats and the traffic was horrendous going both directions on the freeway - and this was at 8:30 PM at night. An hour later we were in downtown Kyoto near the Kyoto Train Station. Lisa did not know for sure where the bus let out. So i got off the bus and walked for a while looking for the Starbucks we were to meet at and did not see it. Went into a small coffee shop type restaurant and asked a couple of young men if they spoke english - NO - but i gestured enough and said starbucks they indicated it was on the other side of the train station. So I went into Kyoto Station and all the way through it and out the other side and saw Starbucks. Lisa was waiting for me inside. A big bearhug reunion!!!

We took the train from Kyoto station to Yamashina about - 4 minutes and it was definitely standing room only and got off and walked about 10 minutes to her apartment.

Met Audrey - Lisa's roommate and one of their other friends who live in the apartment complex - Lisa from the UK. Had some hot tea and sacked out. Slept about 6-7 hours so i'll be tired today but we have lots of sightseeing to do and i'll update more tomorrow morning.

2007-02-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

i am less than 24 hours from departure to Japan now. today has been a day of packing, going to get snacks for the plane and getting my hair cut so i won't have to fool with hair for a few days. and giving myself a "pep talk" for all the travel starting tomorrow morning.

if i have access to the internet tomorrow at the airport(s), i'll post again along the way; otherwise, i'll post when i arrive to Lisa's apartment in Kyoto.

bye for now.

2007-02-15T12:19:00.000-08:00

More details coming together for my Japan trip. Lisa sent me basic information today on how to know when to get off the bus traveling from Osaka to Kyoto (assuming the announcements are not in English), how to order something at Starbucks while i wait for her - either a hot or cold beverage - and a few key phrases like "good evening", "thanks a lot" and "where is the toilet". i need to have a "voice" lesson with her to get the exact pronounciations of these phrases. I already have some Yen to spend so won't have to run for a money changing place immediately. i should have sufficient time in the Tokyo Airport to browse around and people watch and get something to eat if i find anything identifiable and maybe even check the internet before i have to check in for my flight to Osaka.

More to follow.

2007-02-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

i am in count down mode for my departure to Kyoto - 5 more wake ups and i will be on a plane first to Tokyo Narita airport and then another flight on to Osaka.

Then i board an airport bus for the 1 hour ride to Kyoto.

Lisa works on the night i arrive until 9 PM so we will meet up at Starbucks around 9:15 PM and then be off to her apartment in Yamashina.

More to follow.

2007-02-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

I have been off blogging since late 2005 but am now starting another international trip so will keep everyone updated through this blog during my trip to Japan and San Francisco.

2005-12-21T10:32:00.000-08:00

More pics...

2005-12-21T10:13:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from the trip...

2005-11-29T11:01:00.000-08:00

well, this could possibly be the last posting i make for this trip.

we are flying air tahiti nui and don't know if they will be as "upscale" as Qantas in having a very nice club at the airport.

up this morning and having breakfast in the lounge. another gorgeous day here in auckland - bright blue sky - not a cloud in the sky.

forgot to mention there were two other couples that shared our tour yesterday on Waiheke Island - two of them were a married couple from the UK who were journalists for the Sun. The other couple were from Orange County California although he is a new zealander and has lived in the states for quite a few years.

hopefully our future travel plans will include this part of the world.

our plane trip today takes us to Fiji for a short layover and then on the LAX flying through the night so hopefully will get some sleep then.

it is hard to imagine in about another day and 1/2 i will be back to work and it will all be behind us.

Ciao!

2005-11-28T22:09:00.000-08:00

end of day Tuesday.

we spent most of the day today on Waiheke Island. Just a 35 minute ferry ride from Auckland but a world away. This is like a get away place for the Aucklanders and some very pricey real estate for those with money.

It is a beautiful little island that has many wineries on it dating back about 20 years. We visited three of the wineries today during our tour and sampled their wines. Two were very small wineries - one owned by a couple from the US - the other one pretty sizeable. Primarily they have grapes to make red wines but are trying other types to see if they will also grow well here.

This little island has nice beaches, lots of good restaurants, art galleries and lots of accommodations. Has a population of 7000 permanent residents alot which work in auckland and commute everyday on the ferry. and over 20 wineries now. It is amazing how you can have wine to sell with only 10 acres of land. one of the wineries also has olive trees so sells olive oils as well.

also we saw cork trees today. I never gave any thought to how cork was made - just assumed it was a man made product. But alas - it is a natural product - like a coat that is removed from the tree and pressed into a mold to form corks and then a new layer forms on the tree again. a perpetual product.

We are having our evening snacks and drinks in the lounge and headed over to the casino shortly.

We will be leaving the hotel in the morning around 11 Am headed to the airport. Our plane departs tomorrow for the states at 2:30 PM from here to Fiji and then Los Angeles before our final destination of dallas. arriving home around 4 PM on Wednesday your time and hopefully will see Neil's smiling face picking us up.

i told ned today i cannot believe it is all over - where did this two weeks go? Took a year to plan and is over too quickly.

Has definitely been a trip of a lifetime and i hope someday to visit all these places again.

2005-11-28T10:31:00.000-08:00

this is our tuesday morning about 7:30 AM. ned is still sleeping and i am at the crowne lounge having breakfast and checking emails.

today we are leaving from the harbor at 10 AM on a ferry to waiheke island. supposedly a place the Aucklanders go when they want to get away from Auckland.

a beautiful little island with wineries, olive groves, art galleries, beaches, etc.

so that will take us until the afternoon and then i'll post again.

last night we had our evening drinks and canapes at the hotel. ned had been wanting to eat dim sum one night and we didn't know when we were going to fit it in and last night the snacks were dim sum so he was pleased.

we went to the casino last night played the penny and 2 cent machines and had no luck. so came home about 9 PM and went to bed.

will update more.

auckland is a great city - nothing like sydney as far as beauty or things to do but very safe, clean and multi cultures here.

2005-11-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

it is 8 Am Auckland time on Monday morning. Beautiful morning but chilly.

We are having breakfast at our hotel in the crown lounge - fresh fruits, chocolate croissants, salmon, etc.

Last night we left the hotel about 7:30 and walked about 2 blocks away to Sky City - the large casino/hotel/tower complex.

We spent a little while playing the 2 cent slot machines and then i went up to the Sky Tower. This is the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere so i had to take advantage of doing this while we are here. The views are spectacular 360 degrees around. It was a clear, beautiful night and i stayed until all the lights had come on. And yes Neil, i did stand on the clear glass floor but it was kind of freaky.

Came back to the hotel around 9 PM and called it an early evening.

This morning we are catching the on/off bus this morning at Sky City at 9:45 and have several get off points we are doing today.

will post more later.

2005-11-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

it is now 6:30 PM auckland time. we arrived auckland about 2:30 PM today; cleared customs and immigration in record time and got into a shuttle with 7 other people headed to our hotel.

it took over an hour to get to the hotel because they were having a santa clause parade today for the children and some of the roads were blocked and that included our hotel's main access. so we rode around in the shuttle for a good 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get close enough to the hotel to "deposit " us.

got checked in and we are in a very nice hotel - crowne plaza - and are on the club level where we get free breakfast, snacks, drinks and other snacks in the evening and free internet access. we decided it was worth paying the upcharge to have these things. we are on the 28th floor and looking out at the Sky Tower which is still much taller than us.
we are going over to the Sky Tower (tallest building in the southern hemisphere) this evening and i am going up to the top and then we are going to check out the restaurants over there and the casino. probably an early night this evening.

tomorrow is an on and off bus trip again around the city getting off at 4 or 5 stops. was cloudy when we landed today and rained on us coming from the airport but is beautiful weather now. and cool.

this is the city of sails because so many people own sailboats here. beautiful blue water. that's it for now. i will post again tomorrow after we have more to "chat" about.

2005-11-26T13:07:00.000-08:00

today is our sunday morning. we checked out of our hotel about 7 AM and headed to the international terminal at the Sydney airport. we are currently in the Qantas club lounge waiting for our departure in about 90 minutes to Auckland.

Sydney is "socked in" this morning - raining, cold and very foggy. we are leaving just in the nick of time.

i would definitely come back to sydney. i just loved it and our hotel location was wonderful. it would be neat to live in a place where they offer various forms of transportation like the train and the ferries to get around.

auckland is supposed to be chillier than here but we are prepared with clothes for that.

our final night in sydney was great. found a little italian place to eat close to our hotel and food was wonderful. we walked around the harbor one last time before heading back to the hotel and an early night to bed about 9 PM. my knees could not take any more walking yesterday anyway.

i'll post again when we get to auckland. i got an email from our hotel a couple of days ago saying that the street our hotel is on is closed today from 2-4 for a Santa Claus parade so don't quite know how we are getting to the hotel yet but we will figure it out. from everything i have read, cabs are very expensive.

one more funny thing. we have been keeping all the receipts from everything we have done in australia where we were charged GST because we thought you could get that GST back. This morning when we went to the Tourist Refund Scheme office we were told you can only get the GST back if you bought things like jewelry or things other than hotels, rental cars and airline tickets. so that left us out.

ciao!!

2005-11-25T19:42:00.000-08:00

today is our Saturday here in Sydney. woke up this morning to very gloomy skies and it rained until about 11:30 AM. But no worries mate, we got up at 7 AM, went to have breakfast at a cute little place called Bakers Oven here in the Rocks and headed over to the ferry terminal. Bought our round trip tickets to Darling Harbor. We started out at the Aquarium when it opened at 9 Am and it is a wonderful aquarium. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

we got there at the right time because as we were leaving there was quite a line to get in.

from the aquarium, we headed over to the Queen Victoria Building. This building is beautiful decorated in victorian motif and 5 or 6 floors. They are all decorated for christmas and their christmas tree must have spanned 5 of the 6 floors and was decorated with swarkowski (sp?) crystals. Beautiful. had a coffee a the QVB and bought some LUSH products and then headed back to the ferry landing. Caught the 1245 PM ferry back to our area at Circular Quay and then had a light lunch at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Last night we went to the Rocks night market and it was a zoo- ned said they were expecting 25,000 people there and i believe they were all there. last night we saw everything imagineable in people. some people dressed for a costume party, and every kind of person dressed we saw there. we walked around for about 30 minutes - there was a live band, lots of food booths and lots of arts and crafts but we did not stay as there were too many people.

That ended yesterday.

right now we are in the room resting and will go back out shortly to do somemore sightseeing in our area and then are having dinner at 6:30 at an italian restaurant close by.

tomorrow morning early call to the airport - cab will be here at 7 Am and our flight to Auckland leaves at 9:30 AM. will post more tomorrow ehn we arrive auckland.

2005-11-24T23:14:00.000-08:00

Friday 6 PM Sydney time...

we departed Cairns yesterday about 1 PM on a brand new Airbus plane that had only flown 3 prior flights. beautiful plane. i saw Monster in Law with jennifer lopez and Jane Fonda...too funny. forgot to previously mention on the trip over i also saw Must Love Dogs and it too was very cute. also saw Charlie and the Chocolate factory but i never could get into that movie...just didn't look like johnnie depp...

arrived sydney about 5 PM yesterday and took the train from Sydney to the train station closest to our hotel. that was a new experience for me and fun. we arrived our hotel about 6 PM (it took forever to get our luggage) and checked in. It is not a luxury fancy hotel but very european looking - clean lines = no frills but very comfortable and usuable and the best thing it is in a wonderful location with walking to everything you could want. Slept like a log last night.

this morning woke up to very gloomy skies and rain. it rained until about 2 Pm and then finally cleared. didn't stop us at all. we ate breakfast at this cute little place - The Gumnut Cafe - across the street from Stafford Hotel and then headed to the visitors centre to catch the on/off bus. We boarded it at 9 :30 and just barely got home at 6 PM.

We rode it around one complete loop which took 2 hours with onboard commentary about everything and then we started departing the bus at various places we wanted to visit.

First off stop was the Opera House. I took the tour - ned opted not to - his loss. It was a fabulous tour. The Opera House is an amazing structure. We got to sit in and watch the Australian ballet company practice for about 10 minutes in the smaller of the venues. The main concert hall (the largest of the two) is just a work of art.

Departed the Opera House and back on the bus until we finally made it to the Fish Market. It, too, was an amazing place. Lots of seafood retailers and fresh fruit and flowers and fresh baked goods and liquor store. Ned and I bought a barramundi fish and chips basket - $8. each and had more food that we could eat. Also bought a couple of rolls from the bakery and a small bottle of wine for me and we ate outdoors. BY this time it was beautiful sunshine.

it was a very useful day - did not have to wait for the bus at any one stop more than about 10 minutes. After leaving the Fish market we went to the Star City which is the casino/hotel complex.

They had tons of penny slot machines and we played for about 30 minutes. i doubled my money and ned broke even so it was an eventful trip.

Got back on the bus and came back home.

don't know what we are doing for dinner tonight. didn't eat at the fish market until about 3:15 so still not hungry.

The area we are staying in is the Rocks and they are having the Rocks Night Market tonight with live entertainment and food and drink. We may try that instead of going to a restaurant since we are not very hungry.

Also forgot to mention after we got settled in last night, we caught the 8 PM harbor cruise around the harbor for 1.5 hours . Just about froze to death and finally had to go inside but it was a wonderful cruise to see all the lights especially the bridge at night and the opera house.

Today in the miserable rain and cold the bridge climbers were out in full force...

Tomorrow we are going to the aquarium and also the QVB building. Also going to manly beach if our time holds out and the weather is good.

Sydney has met all my expectations. wonderful city with great old architecture.

More to follow tomorrow after we resume our second and last full day in Sydney. Our plane departs Sunday morning at 9 :30 AM for Auckland.

2005-11-23T14:27:00.000-08:00

Wednesday activities:
started day with Bob Morrison of Australian Luxury Tours on a day trip to the Daintree National Park and Daintree River and Cape Tribulation.

Saw wallabies on way up north out in a field eating. Also saw white cockatiels, other birds, Ulysses butterflies, lizards, and a dog named Mambo.

Our tour guide picked up another couple Colin and Geraldine from Silky Oaks, this luxury resort out in the middle of no where and we were on our way. Headed north to Thornton each. But first we stopped at the Daintree River and took a cruise on the river with our guide Bruce. It was just the four of us and Bruce and his sidekick. The boat was like a barge. Saw lots of egrets and one croc sunning herself on the bank. Bruce was very knowledgeable and after cruising for an hour we met up with Bob again and continued north.

After driving for a short while, we stopped at Thornton Beach for breakfast which consisted of muffins/coffee/tea and fresh pineapple. At a nice roadside table complete with a cloth tablecloth.

During the course of the day we drove through Daintree National Park and made several stops along the way and did walking tours through the rain forest. They haven't had rain for several months so everything was very dry. We were in search of the Cassowary bird all day but never saw any. They are endangered and the size of an emu.

Bob identified and pointed out various plants/insects/bird/butterflies plus the age of some of the plants - mind boggling. This park is part of the World Heritage Organization (UNESCO) supported by the United Nations to preserve areas that might otherwise be destroyed. Then we headed north to Cape Tribulation.

This is the area where Captain Cook first set foot on australian soil. We were in a 4 WD vehicle now on a very rough road. This is actually where the rain forest touches the ocean and where the Daintree River feeds into the ocean. Beautiful wide sandy beaches but no one swimming because it is stinger season. Lots of backpackers - mostly young kids - in Daintree staying in places like hostels. This area reminds me of the north part of Kauai and the hippie look that the community has to it. Sometime in here we had lunch.

We drove to someone's property that had an entomological museaum - that is right - insects and butterflies. These people have an unbelieveable collection of both from all over the world in display cases. The Butterflies were beautiful. the insects were kreepy.

They have a picnic area made for visitors to the museum and this was our lunch spot. At each meal we had a tablecloth on the table and china plates and silverware and glasses to drink from. Beautiful setting in a shaded area overlooking a creek filled with fish and turtles while the birds and butterflies were overhead.

Meal consisted of homemade baked chickn, yummy bread, 4 or 5 kinds of salads and fresh and Pub Slush (lemonade) to drink. This was wehre we met Mambo the family dog. he is truly leading a charmed likfe at this plae.

A few more rain forest walks and we stopped for ice cream at the Daintree Ice Cream place. I had four scoops of ice cream - acacia nut, jack fruit, macadamia nut and one other kind i cannot remember from a fruit close to a persimmon.

Mid afternoon at this time we headed back to drop Colin and Geraldine off at Silky oaks and we arived back to trinty beach at 6 PM. This was the beat of our three tours because we had our very own personalzied tour guide for almost 12 hours.

Interesting note about colin and geraldine - london folks - she works for travelocity. Don't know his occupation but he loves going to thailand to fish at Phi Phi island and owns a boat there.

thats's it for now. this is thanksgiving day for us - not you yet - we are 16 hours ahead of you.

headed off for sydney in a few hours. our time at Trinity Beach has been magical.

2005-11-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

good day, mates!!! will try and catch you up on the Bergs happenings.

Sunday evening we had dinner at a wonderful beach cafe - italian food. people eating there also had a dog like misty so we made small talk with them - they were canadian. one of the guys sitting at the next table asked us where we were from and i said dallas and he immeditely said, what do you think of george bush. i told him i would rather not comment. that concludes sunday.

monday we cruised out to the great barrier reef with Ocean Spirit. A first class operation indeed. We had four hours on the reef, some snorkeling time, some time in the submersible and some time taking a bird tour. the Michaelmus Cay which was where we went is home right now to 30,000 nestig birds so you can imagine the noise level of being up close with that many birds. my new snorkel mask was wonderful. i saw lots of beautiful fish and corals and sponges. Food was great on this huge catamaran and i would highly recommend this to anyone.

The cruise met my every expectation of planning for it for almost a year.

Today finds us in Kuranda. We took the train up this morning at 8 :45 Am and it was very cool and beautiful weather. We are now at an internet cafe and i am using a MAC to send these greetings to you. It is a little warm today but there is a breeze. we are killing time waiting to go to the skyrail station to take the gondola back down the mountain at 2 PM. We had lunch at a wonderful little place - BILLY'S - thanks Neil for the recommendatio. the batter dipped fish was wonderful. went to the koala park here in Kuranda and fulfilled another of my wishes for my trip. I am now the proud owner of a picture of me holding Chibby the 3 year old koala. It is adorable...We also visited the butterly park and the bird park and they were fantastic as well.

we are dining tonight at a little seaside cafe called Atlantis. We have had beautiful weather, no bugs, no stingers sighted on our great barrier reef cruise although i did wear my wet suit for protection had we seen any.

Tomorrow is one of our most adventurous tours. We are going on a 4 wheel drive tour to the daintree forest (rain forest) and cape tribulation - also on a boat. an all day tour. So we should see the best of what this part of Australia has to offer.

One other item i will mention. Taking the bus into town yesterday to catch Ocean Spirit the guide told us about all the Queenslander houses built in the 40s being torn down now for new condos. These homes look like houses on stilts with lots of shuttered windows. They were built to last for ever. Recently the condo people paid 1.5 million AUS dollars for one just to have the property.

I'm signing off for now. will post again wednesday or thursday morning.

2005-11-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

today finds us sightseeing in Cairns. We took the city bus from Trinity Beach to Cairns which was about a 45 minute ride but we went through lots of neighborhoods and got to see how these people live. pretty nice. the plants and trees are beautiful.

downtown cairns is kind of eclectic - there is an area with a boardwalk where all the boats dock and some restaurants and a shopping mall. then there are all the downtown streets selling everything imagineable. only thing we bought was a hat for ned. surprisingly, the souvenirs are cheap.

Back from our bus trip we are at the corner store using the computer and getting ice cream. we are having dinner tonight at the italian place here in Trinity Beach.

The manager of our accommodations at Sea Change upgraded us (i'm sure there was a reason why) to a three bedroom apartment so needless to say, we have tons of room. we walked to the grocery store yesterday which was about a 20 minute walk to buy groceries and then the grocer drove us back home. I swam in the pool for a little while yesterday but it was after the sun had gone down.

Ned had an accident yesterday which he said i could repeat here in the blog. The way the apartment complex is set up there are lots of little water hole areas and ned fell into one of them yesterday. he wasn't watching where he was walking. So he pulled himself out (it wasn't deep) and we went back upstairs and cleaned up his boo boos and he changed his wet clothes. He felt so stupid that he wasn't watching where he was walking.

Tomorrow we go on the Ocean Spirit cruise for the full day. So you probably won't hear anything from me tomorrow.

Yesterday there were lots of people having picnics on the beach and they have a huge swimmers net out in front of our place to keep the stingers away from the swimmers. warning signs every where warning people to stay out of the water.

We love this place. Such a beautiful setting. It is warm and humid but not unbearable.

I'm signing off for now but will catch up again with the blog on tuesday probably.

Cheers>>>

2005-11-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

Day 1

our flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was great. We flew in a jumbo top 747 Longreach plane and we were in the upper deck right behind the pilots. Had tons of room and our seats actually reclined to full lay down position although they were still pretty narrow. I must have had some sleep on the plane as i wasn't just dead tired. i know ned took several naps. the food was plentiful and incredible. business class service was great. arrived sydney about 10:30 PM their time. They are 17 hours ahead of dallas time. Our bags arrived (hurrah) and we headed to our first night's hotel - the holiday inn at the airport. got all checked in and we were in our room by 11 PM. We did clear customs and immigration in the Sydney airport and that was a breeze - no lines. Ours was the only flight coming in that late at night.

Got a few hours sleep and are now in the Qantas club lounge waiting for our 945 AM flight to Cairns. It is overcast here in Sydney and in the 50s.

So far everyone has been super nice. We found out this morning that we want "flat white" coffee when we want coffee with cream...We should arrive Cairns at noon today and be met by someone from our Seachange Apartment staff for transfer to our hotel.

Here is our itinerary for the next several days in case you wonder where we are on a given day:

In Trinity Beach (north of cairns) until Thursday noon.

Thursday fly back to Sydney and stay there until morning on November 27.

November 27 AM fly to Auckland and stay until Wednesday, November 30 and then fly home.

i'll update more as our trip continues.

the bottom line of this posting is if you can possibly afford it GO BUSINESS CLASS. being upstairs in the plane there were only 16 seats and 3 flight attendants serving us constantly. There was no noise, good food and plenty of space for us and our stuff.

2005-11-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

we are currently in the Qantas club at the LAX Airport - very nice - free food and beverages and internet and TV. A nice way to pass the time. we are able to board the plane in about 1.5 hours.

flight out here was very good - even a good breakfast.

i'll post again when i have a chance. beautiful weather here in LA but the smog was very prevalent as we flew in.

2005-11-17T05:48:00.000-08:00

we are at the airport plane takes offf in one hour. we are in first class to los angeles and then business on to sydney. neil took us to the airport. a very busy place this morning. will post more when we either get to sydney or cairns.

2005-11-05T04:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I am closing in on my departure to Australia/New Zealand. I will be updating the blog hopefully every couple of days of our travels.

2005-08-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

Mom just returned from Phoenix, Arizona. I loved it there. The heat of the summer was relatively mild while we were there. there were no mosquitos to attack me whenever i sat outside on my hotel balcony. that is a plus in my mind!!!

highlights of the trip:

beautiful J. W. Marriott hotel; the Marriott actually has timeshares that adjoin the hotel called Canyon Villas if you ever want to check on Interval for getaways. they are two bedroom villas. they are only half built out so far and plan to finish the first phase of build out this year. maybe by next summer there might be some available inventory for getaways. they enjoy all the amenities of the hotel and spa. sitting outside one morning around 545 AM(yeah the time difference really played havoc on my sleep) i watched the sun come up over the mountains (spectacular) and the bunnies were playing around me as well as the birds and hummingbirds.

phoenix airport has some real beauty associated with it. the ceiling looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright lamp and some of the walls by the escalators reflect the boulders and red rocks of the area.

everything in Phoenix appeared clean - no litter. we went on a tour on wednesday to the Heard Museum and along the way we drove through several neighborhoods. lots of different types of housing but mostly stucco. We also passed through an area where Frank Lloyd Wright had built several homes. The tour guide said they were selling for a pretty penny now when they change ownership. Saw the Wrigley mansion that is now a private club and also the Barry Goldwater home (none of you probably know him - he was a prominent politician many years ago).

The Heard Museum is fantastic. Not a large museum but a real tribute to the Native Americans. We didn't have nearly enough time at this museum so just hit the high spots. They have a fabulous museum gift shop which you can view online at www.heardmuseumshop.com
the jewelry was fabulous but pretty pricey. I bought a CD of native american music (mostly instrumental) that is wonderful. This museum represents all the native american tribes in Arizona. There was a very sad side to this museum tour. Back in the early 1900s (i believe was the timeframe) the americans decided the best way to integrate the native americans into our%2

2005-08-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

well, i am attempting to enter the blogging world so bear with me. i hope to use this to update everyone on our travels when we take a trip.