Travel Tips & Adventures

Canyonlands, located in Utah and one of the US National Parks, cannot be judged by a photograph or other image. You really must be there to feel how open, deep and vast the earth stretches out in front of you. It seems to dwarf the Grand Canyon in immensity!

 
Standing on a ledge several years ago, wind blowing and rain threatening, I felt very small and insignificant looking out at the giant canyons, eroded by time and the Colorado and Green Rivers.

Canyonlands - nature at its most amazing

(more…)

By Guest Author Joan Koczor

As you pull into Austin, MN, you begin to see billboards along the highway advertising the Spam Museum. The billboards say things like “The SPAM® Museum– Even we don’t really understand,” and “The SPAM® Museum– Yes, we do answer the ingredients question.

SPAM® Museum's retro 40s and 50s look

 This sense of humor carries over into the actual museum, the shrine to the canned meat that is produced and packaged right there in Austin, Minnesota, otherwise known as Spam Town, USA.

(more…)

Christmas has come early this year. Until early November, The Walt Disney Company, partnered with Amtrak, has mounted a family-friendly exhibit on a train decked out as “The Christmas Carol.”

Christmas Carol train

(more…)

Sometimes you can travel to a place and they never prepare you for the realities of what you might experience. That was the case when we landed in Kauai. We were never alerted to the overpopulation of chickens.

(more…)

Scotland: Fall 2009

DAY 10

AVIEMORE

Scotch and CookiesTour!!!

Someone once said you can’t have cookies without having something to wash them down with. I believe they were talking about milk, so they must not have been from Scotland!

Today we are off on a tasting tour of the Highlands. No, we’re not looking for Haggis! We’re not looking for Cullen Skink! We’re looking for cookies … shortbread, to be precise. We’re also looking for something to wash them down with in the tradition of a fine single malt whiskey! (more…)

Dramatic cliffs, tropical scenery, gorgeous sunsets and beaches, pop culture and great food – that’s Kaua’i.   Although we don’t usually go on tours, we signed up for two in Kaua’i: (more…)

Scotland: Fall 2009

DAY 9 – Continued

We leave John O’Groats for a short trip to the town of Wick.

John O’Groats to Wick
Distance: 16 miles
Time: 22 min

A harbor town, Wick is also noted in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the Shortest Street In The World! 1 Ebenezer Place is a whopping 6 foot 9 inches. Yeah, that’s pretty short!

 
Wick is also noted for having the most northern malt whiskey distillery in Scotland, Old Pulteney Distillery. Although tours are given, we won’t have the time. (more…)

Hawaii was my dream vacation that I had waited over four years to take. Every time we tried to set a date, either my husband or I had a work commitment that got in the way.

We won an auction vacation package at a fabulous rate that included luxury hotels. Ultimately, we had to forfeit the package because we couldn’t travel by the deadlines. Boo hiss!

So, finally, we planned our own Hawaiian getaway without a travel agent and on our own. We had 10 days to experience all/most of the things we wanted to do and see.

Waterfall in Hawaii

Our itinerary required us to spend time flying between the islands, but we were resigned to that since we really wanted to see more than just Oahu.

We divided up our time on the Big Island (Hawaii), Oahu and Kauai. Each had its own points to recommend it. The Big Island had lush open areas with many waterfalls. Oahu had the tourist experiences with shopping, Diamond Head and a chance to see the Pearl Harbor monument. Kauai was the real, laid back vacation that I yearned for and wished would never end.

At Pearl Harbor Memorial

Along the way, we took a tour of popular spots where movies were filmed, ate more Spam (not the e-mails, but the meat) than I could ever imagine and saw the Dole Pineapple Plantation. And we did hang out at beaches, watching the waves.

Hawaiian beach- one of many

We do have a tendency to overdo our itinerary with too many things to do and too much crowded into a vacation. Leisure and vacation do not always equate for my husband and a crowded itinerary is a badge of honor to him. I’m at the other end of the spectrum, not quite working on a tan on the beach every day, but wishing for some “goof off time.” We strike a balance.

Arrival in Hawaii

When we arrived at the airport in Oahu, after a layover in Los Angeles, we were eager to experience the true Hawaii. That had to wait while we traveled through traffic in our rental car to our downtown Oahu hotel. Our booking said we had an ocean view. We did – if you walked out on the balcony and craned your neck and did some contortions. We did finally get to walk up and down next to the ocean.
I love the water, so I was in heaven.

We were only staying in Oahu for a day, so we could get to the other islands and some real Hawaiian adventures. We had our list of places to eat, but also asked natives where they preferred.

The biggest change we had to get acclimated to was the very intense humidity. Living in Arizona, we’re not used to humidity. That took some adjusting to.

Once we got past the tourist stuff and just took in the scenery, Hawaii was the place I had always dreamed it would be.

More Hawaiian adventures to follow …

A visit to 80-year-old Boyce Thompson Arboretum will inspire and delight nature enthusiasts.

If you are in the vicinity of Phoenix, it is well worth the drive. Located 55 miles east of Phoenix, just after mile marker 223 on US 60 before reaching Superior, Boyce Thompson Arboretum demonstrates the labor of love that Colonel Boyce Thompson began in the 1920s. He considered it a place to “instill in humanity an appreciation of plants.”

Breathtaking view at Boyce Thompson

(more…)

Frank Lloyd Wright is an iconic figure in the world of architecture. His buildings, which blend into the landscape, use geometric shapes to create eye-pleasing designs.

Taliesin West with the pool

(more…)