I never could figure out why Rice-a-Roni was the San Francisco treat. My aunt, uncle and cousins who live out there don't even like the stuff!
I used to visit them when we were younger (when my mother took us for a visit in the summer) and I have great memories of those trips. We'd see the sights and EAT. San Francisco is a great seafood town. I remember chowing down on crabs until I couldn't move!
Pier 39 is San Francisco's version of Fanuel Hall. We would always spend a day there when we visited. I rented roller skates one summer-back when "roller disco" was big and I boogied all over the pier. Good God was I a schmuck!
Mom was always good about taking us all over town to see the sights. We rode a street car, saw the crookedest street in the world, went to Golden Gate park, and we even spent half a day on Alcatraz Island. I always liked the zoo best. San Francisco has a fantastic zoo.
There are tons of things to do in San Francisco and mom always managed to find fun stuff for my brother and me.
I'd like to go back for a visit as an adult. I'm sure I could get into lots more trouble now! I wouldn't go with mom either. I'd have someone like Trusted Tours & Attractions run me around town. I like taking an organized tour of a city and then going back to the places that interest me. Of course when I was a kid, we didn't have online travel guides to review before planning a trip.
If I'm looking for things to do in Boston, I KNOW where to go. But if I wanted to go to San Francisco or Kennedy Space Center, I'd do some online research first.
There's a great site with tons of travel info called Trusted Tours and they've got a cool contest going on. Just for signing up for their travel newsletter, they'll give you a shot at winning a $150 iTunes gift card.
Just don't ask for Rice-a-Roni.
San Francisco Treat
Working for It
My fourteen year old is working with me two days a week this summer in addition to her job as a cashier at a local grocery store. Getting a job was her big priority last summer because she wanted to save up for a laptop computer. Now that she has the computer, she's got designs on some other things.
Her school offers educational travel opportunities. Next year, they are planning to travel to London.
The kids get to see a lot of England's historical attractions including St. Paul's Cathedral, Windsor Castle, Royal Albert Hall, Trafalgar Square and, of course, Big Ben. They're chaperoned by professional tour guides and the company provides security guards for the kids while they're touring.
They'll also get to travel to Dublin and Barcelona on this tour!
While it gets a bit cramped with two folks in the Hot Dog Truck, I like the idea of a kid seeing other parts of the world and learning about history. I don't care if they travel to New York or Rome, the experience is priceless. My kids are lucky their high school offers educational travel as an option. I also like that my daughter's taking it upon herself to earn the money for the trip. I'll bet a lot of the kids on these tours are going on mom and dad's dime. She'll appreciate it a lot more than many of those kids since SHE earned it.
Germany Redux
I traveled in Germany a little over 20 years ago. My family went to Cologne to see the Cathedral. We also stopped in Frankfurt and we spent a week driving down the Rhine Valley. The Rhine was gorgeous! There were medieval castles on nearly every hillside and we visited quite a few of them. For the longest time, I wanted to live in a castle! The small villages along the way reminded me of fairy tales. We stayed in a different hotel every night and every day was full of adventure and surprises.
We traveled through the Bavarian Alps and the Black Forest. We stayed in Bed and Breakfast Inns during this part of our journey and didn't look for a hotel in Deutschland during that leg of the trip.
We did not visit Berlin. When we were in Germany, just traveling to Berlin was a dicey proposition, never mind finding a hotel in Berlin. I'd like to go there now and see the united city and the Brandenburge Gates.
Munich is another city I'd like to see in Germany. I'd need a hotel in Munich if I went during Oktoberfest, because I don't think I'd be driving! I'd also like to see the Olympic Village in between pints of beer.
I hope to get back to Germany soon!
Brisbane Holiday
I was perusing the 'net looking for Hotels in Brisbane as we continue to plan for our next trip "Down Under" when I found some very interesting beach info on the "Gold Coast." The Gold Coast is the coastal area near Brisbane and it has some of the most stunning beaches in the world. There are miles and miles of beautiful white, sandy beaches that are home to dolphins and dugongs. Many folks encounter these gentle marine mammals while travelling to the beach from their Gold Coast Accommodation. Australia is a very outdoorsy country and is filled with opportunities for sailing, jet skiing, snorkeling, diving or just chillaxin on the beach. This is my kind of place!
There's also a slew of great restaurants in Brisbane. Restaurant 2 offers fine dining and a typically robust wine list-Australia has FANTASTIC wine. There are also, as you'd expect, a whole host of seafood restaurants in Brisbane. If you get tired of the beach and fine dining, you can take a day trip to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. While there you can hand feed Kangaroos or even hold a real live koala bear! We went to a similar place in Western Australia. Generally speaking, these koala sanctuaries rescue injured or sick koalas from the wild and nurse them back to health. Since they can't be released back into the wild, they spend their days entertaining and snuggling tourists. They're such gentle creatures. We put a Red Sox hat on one and snapped a picture!
Whatever we decide to do while staying in our Brisbane Accommodation, we probably won't have enough time to do everything we want to!
Kiwi Holiday
The next time we go to Australia to see the wife's family, we're going sailing in her cousin's 42 foot catamaran from Sydney to New Zealand! The trip is going to take weeks, but it should be one helluva good time. My wife has another cousin in the greater Auckland area, so we might look for a cheap hotel in Auckland while we visit there. If we have the time (we want to be traveling for two months-January and February) we'll travel throughout New Zealand and see the countryside.
There are great mountains in New Zealand. The Southern Alps is a breathtaking mountain range that could take years to explore fully, we'd probably just grab one of the many cheap hotels in New Zealand and go exploring at our own pace.
I don't think we'll make it down there for the Rugby World Cup (its this week) but there is always lots of sailing and mountaineering to be done. We both love Australia and we're very excited to see New Zealand and find out what New Zealand accommodations are all about.
Travelin' Hot Dog Man
The wife and I want to go to Amsterdam with the extra cash I am making with my websites. I have been there before, but she has not. It is quite possibly the most deliciously decadent city in the world.
While we're in Europe, I'd like to see some other cities. I have always wanted to go to Rome, but I think the wife wants to stay in the north. She really wants to see Dublin
and the rest of Ireland. It would be easy to talk me into visiting the city where Guinness is made!
If we went to Ireland, a stop in London would be easy.
I'll still argue for more "exotic" locales like Barcelona or even Prague, but I'll be happy to go just about anywhere I can book a flight and a hotel.
I'd like to begin and end the trip in Amsterdam and book a hotel in Amsterdam near one of the coffee shops!
Down Under
I have been to Australia. My wife has a whole bunch of cousins down there in Freemantle and Perth. What a gorgeous part of the world! One of my wife's cousins has a 42 foot catamaran and they took us out sailing for a few days. We saw dolphins, whales, octopii, skates, sharks, penguins and sea lions. We even did some fishing for "breakfast herring."
We really want to go back and explore other parts of the country. Much of Australia is still very unspoiled and "wide open." I imagine it is a lot like the USA was at the turn of th 20th century.
One of her cousins now lives in Sydney so we've promised to go visit there. We might not need a hotel in Sydney for our whole stay, but I hate to impose for too long on friends and family. He's an aspiring Aussie Rules Football Player, so we may get to go see some games while we're there. Sydney is far more metropolitan and populated than Freemantle, so it will probably be a more urbane visit.
My wife's always wanted to go to Brisbane, since she was born there. I don't know much about the city or the area, but the opportunities for coastal recreating, bushwhacking and urban exploration are abundant. We don't know anyone in that part of the country, so we'll need a hotel in Brisbane.
Melbourne is way down south, so you could go skiing there in the (northern hemisphere's) summer time. I'd prefer to visit in the winter (their summer) and travel the great Ocean Road while exploring the miles of deserted coastline. There's lots of good wineries in this part of Australia too. We'll definitely need a hotel in Melbourne, especially in wine country!
When we visited Freemantle, we spent nearly 3 weeks exploring the region, I'd like to spend a year in Australia on "walkabout" (OK, maybe "driveabout") the next time we go.
