|
Upcoming Travel Calendar February 2012 - It's back to the Cancun time-share again! Friends Buzz and Doreen are coming along, and we look forward to the great margaritas there! (Another fun thing is the Cancun Wal-Mart; it's the most amusing mix of a tradional Wal-Mart store in the U.S. along with a Mexican mariachi party.) March 2012 - Having enjoyed their 33 day cruise, Mike and Sandy are now signed up for a 36 day trip, again on Holland America, departing in the Spring of 2012. It starts from Florida, but spends most of its time in the Mediterranean, also going up into the Black Sea for several ports. The trip includes 17 spots in the "1000 Places To See Before You Die" book that Mike is busy working his way through. July 2012 - Looking on to next summer, Mike and Sandy are signed up for two riverboat trips in Europe, a Viking River Cruise trip on the Elbe River from Berlin to Prague, and immediately after that, a trip along the Danube from Prague to Budapest on the AMA Waterways line. The latter cruise is another trip with a group of about 30 from Mike and Sandy's church in Danville. October 2012 - Mike's favorite of their several Westin time-shares is Maui, and Mike and Sandy will be back there in the fall of 2012 watching the beautiful sunsets from their balconey! January 2013 - Even further out, Sandy and Mike have decided to go all out, and have signed up for Holland America's 2013 World Cruise, which starts and ends at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (thus avoiding those long overnight international flights!) This trip, which will take 117 days, visits 44 ports of call, 32 of which Sandy and Mike have never visited before. There are lots of visits to places in the "1000 Places" book, as well. Maybe the biggest thing to figure out is how to handle the U.S. mail while we are away for such a long time. |
NEW YEARS EVE December 2011: Mike and Sandy headed to New York City and Times Square for the big New Year's Eve festivities this year --- sure you can see it better on TV, but the roar of the crowd, the confetti, the fireworks, the pick-pockets -- you just have to be there! They also took in the 9/11 Memorial (very moving) and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show (stunning production), and ate good food all over town. A few more pictures are here.
BRANSON TIME-SHARE November 2011: Mike and Sandy were guests of friends Buzz and Doreen at their time-share at Branson, Missouri. It was the start of their Christmas season, so all of the theaters, etc. were brightly decorated. The weather cooperated reasonably well most days, and a great time was had by all! Lots of pictures were taken, but as usual, Mike has selected only a few to post here.
MAUI TIME-SHARE October 2011: Mike and Sandy took friends Jessie and Pat along for a week at their Westin time-share on Maui's Ka'anapali Beach. A few pictures are here.
HOT IN FLORIDA! AUGUST 2011: Mike and Sandy took Great Grand-daughter Kerri to Disney World and surrounding attractions for her 12th birthday. It was fun, but August in Florida is a real shock to the system! Pictures and notes here.
CRUISING FJORDS & THE ARCTIC July 2011: While not the longest, this certainly was the coldest cruise for Mike and Sandy. On the Crystal Serenity, they explored the big fjords of Norway, plus went WAY further north than they've ever been - not quite to the North Pole, but close! A few pictures are here!
ASIA-MIDDLE EAST CRUISE March 2011:
This is the longest cruise Mike and Sandy have ever taken, lasting 33 days. With friends Lee and Shirley, they boarded in Hong Kong, traveled through South-east Asia to India, then into the Middle East, and finally into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. Of all the sights, the high-lights were the Taj Mahal, Petra, Jordan, and Luxor, Egypt. Dubai was surprising, as well. Click here to see some of our pictures.
PALM SPRINGS & SOUTHWEST January 2011:
Mike and Sandy drove to Palm Springs, staying at a Westin time-share, visiting son Rick and saw several live concerts at McCallum Theater (where Rick's the Marketing Manager). They also saw the Palm Springs Follies, with "comp" tickets secured by Rick's friend Gordon. They did a street fair, an outlet mall, dinner with a friend wintering there, and drove over to Scottsdale to visit Earl and Karin. (Earl was the best man at Mike and Sandy's wedding 30 years ago.) They stopped by Visalia, where son Michael moved from Bakersfield for his job as a Physician Assistant.
Mike and Sandy joined in with 14 other couples from their church in Danville for a 10-day cruise in the Baltics (including St. Petersburg, Talinn, Estonia, and Gydnsk, Poland), with a pre-cruise stay in Copenhagen and a post-cruise day and night with old neighbors from when we used to live in London 25 years ago.
See pictures and highlights here.
KAUAI TIME-SHARE April 2010:
Mike and Sandy, along with Mike's daughter Ginger and her husband Blake, spent a week at the Westin Princeville time-share resort on the island of Kauai. Sightseeing included a helicopter ride all the way around the island.
Click here for a few Hawaii pictures.
CANCUN TIME-SHARE Feb 2010:
Mike and Sandy traded their Maui time-share week this year for a trip to a brand new Westin resort on the beach in Cancun, Mexico. They were joined by long-time friends Buzz and Doreen from Bakersfield. See some pictures here.
CARIBBEAN CRUISE, PLUS FLORIDA-ALABAMA ROAD TRIP Jan 2010: About every 3 years Mike and Sandy attend a financial seminar whose speakers include editors of investment newsletters Sandy reads. Since these seminars usually take place on a cruise ship, Mike and Sandy headed for Miami to board the Crystal Serenity for a week's trip around the Caribbean. The ship visited 3 ports, but unusually cold weather made them rather uninviting for sight-seeing.
Upon returning to Miami, Mike and Sandy rented a car, and headed for some visits and gulf coast sightseeing. (Roadtrip!!!) Visits included former Californians, and some of Mike's relatives (including a 90 year old aunt). Mike also visited the cemetery where his Mother and Father are buried. The sightseeing aspects of the trip were rather tempered by the poor weather, but Mike and Sandy managed to visit several interesting places along Florida's panhandle and west coast.
You can see a few pictures of the cruise, the visits, and the sights here.
We Still Remember some older trips .....
OREGON - WASHINGTON ROAD TRIP 2009: Mike and Sandy took off again in their trusty old Honda Pilot SUV, heading north to visit some long time friends now living in Eastern Washington State. Both going and coming, they worked in lots of sightseeing -- some of which was natural (Oregon coast, Olympic Peninsula) while other days focused on the man-made (Grand Coulee Dam, Boeing 747 factory at Everett, Washington). Returning, they met a nephew of Sandy's that she hadn't seen in about 30 years!
Some trip pictures are here.
MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE 2009: Mike and Sandy spent nearly three weeks in June and July in the Mediterranean on the ms Noordam, one of Holland America's newer (3 years old) ships. The ship carries 2000 passengers, so is big, but not enormous, like the 5000 passenger Royal Caribbean ship we docked next to in Athens. We visited 16 ports in Italy, France, Spain, Tunisia, Greece, and Turkey. We enjoyed lots of historical sightseeing (including the old Roman towns of Ephesus and Pompei, the site of the first Olympic Games in Greece, the Phoenecian town of Carthage (Hanibal and his elephants came from there), and Dubrovnik, a medieval walled city in modern day Croatia. There were lots of shopping opportunities (including a real Turkish Bazaar and several rug factories) and lots of great food! Sandy and Mike don't usually like to travel in the summer (hot, big crowds), but this bargain was too good to pass up!
As an added attraction, the second half of the cruise included some famous guest speakers on the ship for a series of seminars - Dick Morris, Cal Thomas, John Bolton, etc.
A few of our cruise pictures are here!
SOUTH-EAST ASIA 2009: Mike and Sandy, along with friends Joan and Gary from their old Walnut Creek neighborhood, toured Vietnam from north to south at the beginning of the year, and then visited Angkor Wat and other ruins in Cambodia. They stopped a few days in Bangkok on the way home to visit some friends living there. (At least Mike still has a few United Airlines miles left in his account, so they were able to upgrade to Business Class.)
There are some selected pictures from Vietnam and Cambodia here.
LAS VEGAS 2008:
Lee and Shirley, friends from Mike and Sandy's old lake house at Lake Wildwood, came over to Hawaii a few years ago to visit Mike and Sandy's Westin time share on Maui. They didn't succumb to the sales pitch there, but they did end up buying into a brand new Marriott time share just a block off the strip in Las Vegas. This year they invited Mike and Sandy down to help inaugurate it.
It was a nice week, with time for the big air show at nearby Nellis AFB, plus seeing four shows (Blue Man Group, "O," Bette Midler, and a Frank Sinatra / Rat Pack impersonation group, along with LOTS of good food (the best of many quite good places probably being the Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace). See some great pictures from Las Vegas here.
ALBUQUERQUE ROAD TRIP 2008: Mike and his friend Dick headed for the annual hot-air balloon festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Going to New Mexico (via Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado) and on the way back home (via Arizona), they also took in quite a few air museums and Air Force Base exhibits.
See more great pictures of the balloons here.
EAST COAST ROAD TRIP 2008: Mike and Sandy had a good time on their spring East Coast road trip, covering three weeks and lots of miles. They started by flying into Boston, and spent lots of time on Cape Cod, in New York City, in Washington, D.C., and in Williamsburg, Virginia.
CRUISING THE DANUBE RIVER 2008: Mike and Sandy joined the MS River Concerto, a 360 foot long mini-cruise ship, carrying 140 passengers. (This was Mike and Sandy's first "river boat" adventure, and it turned out VERY well.) They visited 5 countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary), and found something surprising in each. Traveling with Mike and Sandy were their friends Marv and Joni from Danville, and Buzz and Doreen from Bakersfield.
OMAHA AND THE MID-WEST 2008: Mike and Sandy enjoyed a mid-West road trip in May on a six-state 1900 mile adventure that unexpectedly included dodging tornados, learning about the siren signals, where to go in the motel if the alarm sounds, etc. The trip was initially planned to attend the annual shareholder's meeting at Berkshire Hathaway, the company Warren Buffet runs in Omaha, but expanded to include some sightseeing around the mid-West. And then Sandy remembered she had some distant relatives in the area, an old neighbor wanted pictures of the little town in Illinois where she grew up, etc., so our plans grew and grew, and off we went !
AIR MUSEUMS. Mike and three friends toured air museums on a trip down to Southern California. First stop was the old Castle AFB near Merced. Next they headed to Palmdale to an airpark next door to the famed Air Force Plant 42 (home of many famous projects, including the Space Shuttles, the B-2, U-2, F-22, F-35, F-117 Stealth, Global Hawk and Global Predator, the SR-71, etc.), and then to March AFB near Riverside, now run by the Air National Guard. (This base has about 50 planes, plus a nice museum.) Next two stops were at the Chino airport, where two private air museums are located -- quite different from the volunteer-staffed museums at the Air Force Bases, with most planes in flying order, since they also make money by renting out planes to movie studies. A visit to the NHRA's national museum in Pomona broke up the routine, along with dinner at the Proud Bird Aviation Restaurant and Museum near LAX. Our last stop was the Commemorative Air Force base in Camarillo, where we saw a variety of WWII era planes.
Know about the Copper Canyon? It's longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon, but can only be reached by train. With friends Buzz and Doreen, Mike and Sandy headed down into Mexico late in 2007 for a bit of excitement and nostalgia, on the retored 1950's era Pullman cars.
Sandy and Mike enjoyed a two-week trip to Alaska in June 2007, with one week on a cruise ship and one week on land. Lots of glaciers, bears, moose, and souvenir shops!
With friends Lee and Shirley, Sandy and Mike spent nearly 3 weeks in Japan and China in May 2007. Mt. Fuji and a ride on a bullet train were highlights in Japan, while the Three Gorges Dam, the Terra Cotta warriers, and the Bund in Shanghai were most memorable in China.
Mike and Sandy try to do one of the "Cruise to Health and Wealth" seminar-at-sea trips every few years, and the 2007 trip was out of LA and down along the Mexican Riviera. Driving down to the ship, they stopped at the Regan Presidential Library. Nice ship, nice passengers, lots to learn, and Mike enjoyed his first zip-line adventure in the mountains above Puerto Vallarta.