WAWeekend: A Northwest Island Getaway

Ever dream about getting away to an island – just you, the sand and sea – perhaps a book, a glass of wine or both? It is one of our favorite travel daydreams. . .

The island would be the kind of place that was accessible only by boat, perhaps a small ferry, on a crossing that takes but a few minutes. . .

We found such a place earlier this year just a stone’s throw from Anacortes.  In fact we could see the island from our small balcony in this once-bustling fishing town to the north of Seattle.



Guemes, (guh-weems) is accessed by private boat or the Guemes Island Ferry (pictured above).

It is a small place with a very rural atmosphere, where ferry schedule changes and community events are posted on a chalk board near the ferry dock.

A place served by two small grocery stores. One in particular, Anderson’s General Store serves such good food in its tiny café that it is worth a trip to the island just to eat there:

There’s a single resort on the island, the Guemes Island Resort, –operating since 1947  -- that offers a selection of water-front cabins (still heated by fireplace) and other more modern accommodations.

Guemes Island Island Resort

Private homes line the island’s perimeter, but there are a couple of good sized parks and plenty of public beaches for strolling as well. 

If you are wondering about the island’s somewhat tongue-twister name. . .it was named after the Viceroy of New Spain, Juan Vicente de Guemes, who commissioned the expedition that discovered the island to Spain in 1791. . . or at least that is how Wikipedia says it got its name.



If You Go:

Anacortes and nearby Guemes Island are less than two hours drive north of Seattle.  Anacortes has many hotel/motels and retail stores.

Guemes Island Resort: www.guemesislandresort.com
Thanks so much for stopping by today. Happy Travels!  Stop in again next week - we'll leave the welcome mat out!

Milan’s Duomo – The Inside Story

Milan, Italy  - “What can you tell us?” asked friends who are planning a trip there next year. 

So many things come to mind – fashion and food among them – but what symbolizes this capital of the Lombardy region in Northern Italy for us is its Duomo (ˈdwōmō); Cathedral.


Each time we’ve visited the city with a 1.35 million population, we’ve been two tourist pilgrims, setting out on foot - just as religious pilgrims must have done before us - making our way to the imposing Gothic Italian structure eagerly seeking the first sight of its towering spires.

We entered Piazza del Duomo at the back of the Cathedral last fall, our mid-morning arrival before buses disgorged the masses of fellow tourists who fill the square, each angling for the best shot of the building that stands 148-feet (45 meters) tall and took six centuries to complete.

At this time of day there were no lines waiting to enter the Duomo dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente.

This seat of the Archbishop of Milan is crowned with 135 spires. On a previous visit we took the rooftop tour and walked among those intricately sculpted towers – it was amazing and we highly recommend it.



It isn’t until you go inside that you grasp just how enormous this place is and you understand why its construction took 600 years.

At 5’10” The Scout shrinks in size when compared to those massive pillars.



And how about that wall of organ pipes?

The stained glass windows which tower over visitors are works of art that tell through their illustrations the stories of the Virgin and Saints and, as such, were once considered  Biblia Pauperum, a pauper’s bible – easy to read and appealing.

The Duomo’s 3,400 statues and 700 figures are decorating elements typical of  all Gothic Cathedrals, used to send the message of Christian salvation (sometimes, rather violently depicted it seems, as illustrated in the photo above!)



And other times quite whimsical as we noted with this fellow – one of many such figures on the Duomo’s exterior.

That’s it for Travel Photo Thursday at Budget Travelers Sandbox and Travel Photo Discovery updated each Monday.

If You Go:

Duomo Milano
Piazza el Duomo, Milano
www.duomomilano.it

As always, thanks for the time you spent with us today. Happy Travels!

Tuesday Travel: Air, Land, Sea and Rail

So, where are you going next? we are often asked; the polite but somewhat pointed inquiry by those who think we are ‘never home’.

“And what is there?” is the question that follows the first.

We’ve learned that sometimes travel isn’t about the ‘there’; sometimes it is the experiences you have in getting ‘there’.  (Remember Gertrude Stein’s famous quote, “There’s no there, there”?)

TravelnWrite was recently invited to join in on one of the blogosphere’s many competitions--- one that by virtue of it’s theme caught our fancy because it isn’t about ‘there’ – it is about getting there via air, land, sea, and rail.

Air – a heavenly view

As much as The Scribe hates flying, The Scout has convinced me that once we are up in the air, I might as well enjoy the view.  Our recent trip to Las Vegas convinced me again that his advice was wise.

From where else would I get this view of Washington State’s Mount St. Helens, the volcano that erupted in 1980 blanketing a good portion of the state (including Yakima, where we lived at the time) in ash?

Or of the amazing contrasting geography of the Western United States – as evidenced here with irrigated crop circles dotting the dry, barren desert lands that surround Las Vegas?

Rail – The Train in Spain

We love European train travel and perhaps the train travel  Spain was among our favorites.



Osuna, Spain’s train station that had served passengers in this small agricultural city was such a contrast to the modern train that slid to a rest on the tracks in front of it; a train that would whisk us at high speeds to Malaga, on Spain’s Gold Coast.






Sea – Sailing the Wine Colored Seas

There is nothing like a sunset from the deck of a cruise ship. . .unless it is sunrise. Both times of day are simply magical.

Road – Where the Winds Blow Us

Our road trips both here and abroad are – for as much as possible – unstructured travel times. We set out in a direction – no schedule, no reservations, and a willingness to follow our whims – going ‘where the winds blow us’.

And sometimes the highways themselves become the most unexpected places. . .like this ‘highway’ in Greece’s Peloponnese!

So what is your favorite way to travel? Tell us in the comment section below or send an email!

This is our entry into the contest, Travel Your Way, being sponsored by RhinoCarHire. (click that link if you’d like to enter the contest yourself!) And to get the ball rolling I am tapping five other travel bloggers to participate in the competition:

Noel Morata – Travel Photo Discovery
Marcia Mayne – Inside Journeys
Cathy Sweeney – Traveling With Sweeney
Leigh McAdam – Hike, Bike, Travel
Dick Jordan – Tales Told From the Road

You'll also see this post on Time Travel Plans Wanderlust Wednedays.

WAWeekend: On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

If you are a reader, you probably recognize the title of this post as part of the title of  Jamie Ford’s New York Times best-selling historical novel, Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

His story of love and friendship during a dark time in our country’s history is set in Seattle. It was during World War II, when President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order sending Japanese-American citizens (many born here) to internment camps for the duration of the war.




Like elsewhere in the country, it uprooted families in the Seattle/Puget Sound area. Many families  stashed their bags in the basement of the Panama Hotel, before leaving for the camps.  (Some of those belongings were never reclaimed. They can be seen through a section of glass flooring in the present-day Tea House.)

A few weeks ago while researching another article I am writing, I made my first I visit to The Panama Hotel, located in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District – the same hotel as featured in Ford’s book. 

So taken with its ambiance and history, was I, that I’ve since returned to its Tea and Coffee house with another  friend.

Panama Hotel Lobby

Both visits have prompted me to not only read the novel but to also learn a bit more about what was once  Seattle’s Nihonmachi, or Japantown, that grew up in this southeastern corner of Seattle.

Main Street, on which the hotel is located, was once the main spine and economic hub of Nihonmachi, an area which reportedly stretched for many blocks.

History is everywhere in the hotel and tea room pictured here

The walls of the hotel and its Tea/Coffee House are lined with photos of this once-bustling part of town along with hand-drawn maps reconstructing the former area. Names are added by those who still remember.

The vibrancy of that long ago Japantown was described by HistoricSeattle.org:

“This neighborhood became a diverse tapestry of homes, churches, grocery stores, theaters, language schools, hotels, restaurants, bathhouses, and other businesses interweaving with the edges of other Seattle communities nearby.

Seattle's Japanese American population reached its peak in the early 1930s with a population of roughly 8500, but it didn't last.”

Hing Hay Park - Chinatown/International District Seattle

While the pulse of the entire International District seems to be getting stronger in recent years, the renovation of the Panama Hotel -- designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006 -- is contributing to the life of the area. 

My friends and I were among a  steady stream of customers – hotel guests and those, like us, who had come for the refreshments – at the hotel. 

Teas galore are available as well as Italian roasted coffee drinks

We had hoped to see the hotel’s basement where there remains one of the few intact Japanese bathhouses, (Sento) on the West Coast.  We didn’t, though, as we’d missed the regularly scheduled tour, led by the hotel owner  . . .Next time!

If  I’ve encouraged you to visit, keep in mind they have a regular Happy Hour in the Tea/Coffee room. This August and September (2013) at 2 p.m. on Saturdays there’s Panama Hotel Jazz, featuring music inspired by the novel and Oscar Holden, ‘the patriarch of Seattle Jazz’.  Admission is free.


If You Go:

Panama Hotel, 605 1/2 Main St.  is European style with shared bathrooms; published rates are $90 single, $125 double. (TripAdvisor reviews swing wildly on this hotel, and make for entertaining reading). Phone: (206) 223-9242      Fax: (206) 624-4957  E-mail: reservations@panamahotelseattle.com, web: www.panamahotelseattle.com

Panama Tea and Coffee House, adjacent to the hotel lobby, at 607 Main St., Phone: (206) 515-4000
Call for tour dates, times, and prices.

The links above take you to the Amazon.com site to read more about the book.

An Arabian “Tail” ~ Arizona’s Moroccan Mirage

Mirages, caused by the intensity of the desert’s heat,  are those shimmering images of things that don’t really exist.

Los Cedros USA, (pronounced los said-rows) could be – for the unsuspecting anyway-- thought of as a mirage in the expansive Sonoran desert north of Scottsdale, Arizona between Cave Creek and Pinnacle Peak.

 

Up until June the word ‘Scottsdale’ conjured up images of  the Old West: blue jeans, checked shirts and tablecloths, boots, and cowboys and cowgirls and work horses, of course.

Those cowboys and cowgirls these days are most likely behind the wheel of a late-model over-sized pickup and as for those horses. . . let us tell you. . .

One heat-draped afternoon, during our Scottsdale stay we visited Los Cedros USA; a visit that felt as if we’d walked into one of Scheherazade’s stories from 1001 Arabian Nights.

As we stepped through the enormous intricately carved entry doorway we found ourselves in. . .well, a modern replica of some 2,500 year old  Moroccan citadel right there in Arizona USA.

We’d sought out this Moroccan ‘mirage’ after seeing a cover photo of it on Experience Scottsdale’s tourist publication.  The small print “about the cover” told us it was open to the public – free of charge, in fact. Yet, we were  the only visitors on the week day we visited.



The entryway led us to an enormous (15,000 square-foot ) courtyard.

There wasn’t a sound to be heard as we continued our explorations, but it didn’t take long to realize that’s because the Los Cedros ‘residents’ were resting . . . they took little note of their visitors.

Los Cedros USA is an elegant multi-purpose development,  first and foremost, a luxurious home for performance  horses. Those large open spaces when not being used by horses and their trainers, are cleaned up and used for  hosting human events that can range in size from 50 – 500 people. 

We were winding down our self-guided tour of the horses (petting is allowed) and their ultra-luxe accommodations which include a modern spa-like shower room and therapy pool, (pictured to the right) when we went in search of someone who could tell us about the place.

Dawn M. Green, the general manager, upon learning that I planned to write about Los Cedros USA, said, “Well, then you need to see the Throne Room!” and led us down a hall, to this: 

I couldn’t help but think as I wrote today’s post, just what Scheherazade could have done with this Arabian ‘tail’! 

That’s it for this week’s Travel Photo Thursday; check out Budget Travelers Sandbox for more photo journeys.  And thanks for your visit – we appreciate the time you spend with us and hope you’ll be regulars here!

If You Go:
Los Cedros USA, 8700 East Black Mountain Road, Scottsdale, www.loscedros.com

Travel Tuesday: What’s New in Vegas?

We’d not been to Las Vegas in more than a year and half and part of the reason was that from McCarran Airport to The Strip, it was becoming a comfortable -- but an almost too predictable -- travel experience.

Not so, this trip! What a difference a bit of time makes. . .

McCarran International Airport - Las Vegas, Nevada

We had a slightly disconcerting moment as we entered the concourse from the jet way; had it not been for the slot machines, we would have almost thought we’d arrived at the wrong place.  There was nothing familiar or predictable, about this airport!

The new wing in which we found ourselves opened a year ago in July 2012.  Its now wide, sleek hallway is interspersed with moving walkways, retail outlets andtempting eateries.

There are numerous easy access points to  the lower baggage claim area and ground transportation. (yea!).








And The Strip also had several surprises including:

Where once stood the Imperial Palace Casino and Resort (across from Caesar’s Forum Shops), we found The Quad. From reviews on TripAdvisor it sounds as though the revamping of the old hotel is still a work in progress. For those of you who saw the Australian group, Human Nature, performing on stage there, don't despair. You can now see them at The Venetian.

To the side of The Quad, Caesars Entertainment is reshaping the the Vegas Strip with The LINQ, a 200,000 square-foot open-air retail, dining and entertainment district, anchored by what they claim to be the world's tallest observation wheel, known as the High Roller (that’s its beginning in the photo below).

Construction begins on High Roller - Las Vegas

Developers say “the High Roller at 550 feet and measuring 520 feet in diameter, will eclipse both the London Eye and Singapore Flyer. Facing north and south (parallel to Las Vegas Boulevard), the wheel will feature 28 glass-enclosed cabins that will unveil broad views of the famed-resort city in the 30 minutes it takes to complete one full revolution. Each cabin will accommodate up to 40 people and will be available for individual or group experiences.”

We even encountered this new centerpiece on display outside the Encore Theater, at Wynn/Encore, where we were staying. Some of you might recognize the piece by Jeff Koons, as the one that was previously on display outside Christie’s (Auction House) Gallery at Rockefeller Center, New York City.
The piece was made in five versions over a time period spanning 1995 – 2004 and is the culmination of Koons’ “Celebration Series”. Tulips, says the creator, are a symbol of spring, hope and fertility.

As the story goes (in the in-house Wynn Magazine publication) the piece was auctioned last November 2012 and the highest bid was from a telephone bidder by the name of Steve Wynn (owner of the resort).

The small print on the sign in the first photo above says, “Price available upon request.”  We were told  that if it doesn’t sell, it will be moved to the rotunda of Cotai, Wynn’s new resort/casino opening in Macau, China.

If you are interested in buying the piece, I should tell you, that we were also told that Wynn wants a bit more for it than what he paid.

His purchase price was $33,682,500.  

By the way, if you do buy it, let him know that we sent you – it’s a gamble, but we might even get a free overnight stay (in Macau, we hope) as result!

That’s it for this Travel Tuesday – thanks for joining us today. Hope you'll be back Thursday and  that you'll recommend us to others as well!