Hello to Hollywood

 

We’ll soon be saying Hello to Hollywood. . .Florida that is. This Hollywood is snuggled between Fort Lauderdale and Miami way down there on the state's southern tip.  

We’ll be snuggled between the Atlantic Ocean and Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway at the Hollywood Beach Marriott thanks to  Joel, who found another of  ‘those deals’ for which he’s famous for sniffing out.  And of all places; he found a hotel deal on the timeshare website I’ve mentioned before, Interval International. 

We checked calendars, noted the gray skies that darken and dampen our Pacific Northwest spring and it took no more than a matter of minutes to book a few extra days in Florida sunshine: the departure point for our Great Spring Adventure.

Our ‘boutique-style’ hotel, as its web site tells us, is on the city’s famous Broadwalk (yes, it is a ‘Broadwalk’) that has been named one of the best beach ‘boardwalks’ by Travel + Leisure Magazine.  We plan to keep the D2G alive with daily walks along the 2.5 mile brick walkway .

It is also close to Port Everglades from where our Celebrity ship will set sail for Barcelona.  Celebrity is one of 13 cruise lines – and some 50 ships -- that use this port.  We will be joining the estimated 3.8 million passengers who’ll pass through this place in 2010-2011.

Confessions of a White-Knuckler

What? You're afraid of flying?

How can that be, you fly all the time?

True. We do fly a lot.
And true, I'm still a white-knuckler.

So I'm always amused by people who tell me they don't travel because they don't like flying.  On the flip side, I am amazed when people tell me that they book overnight flights so that they can sleep through the flight.

(I may doze, but am always 'on alert' in case disaster happens in mid-flight because I've convinced myself that somehow the cockpit crew or flight attendants may need my assistance in event of crisis at 37,000 feet. Okay, maybe it's just the old journalist in me that doesn't want to miss the big story. . .)

And it seems airplane horror stories always start making media headlines in the weeks leading up to a trip we've planned.  Just like now, how many times must they show that hole in the top of that Southwest Airlines plane? And that's been followed by watching them haul chunks up from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean of that Air France plane that took the mysterious plunge a couple years ago.

So I am not sure why I opened the story on Bing this morning about unusual airports. . .maybe to torture myself. Actually the photos are so good, I had to share it with you: unusual airports.

It will give my fellow white knucklers nightmares but may spark new destination ideas for the rest of you travel gonzos out there.

Are we travel Gonzos or Geezers?

Gonzos or Geezers? 
The question has been nagging since a recent e-chat with a self-described '20-something' vagabond/blogger who shares our passion for travel and also writes a (very popular) blog, Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.  His blogging goals are much like mine: inspire others to travel, to stretch their comfort zones, and of course, offer tips for doing it as cheaply as possible. I call him the "Rick Steves of the 21st Century".

The circumstances of Matt and I e-chatting are irrelevant. But the questions he asked have left me pondering a bigger question: are we Gonzo (gutsy, no-fear,  long-term explorers) or Geezer (somewhat cautious old folks on the move) travelers. . .and I've decided we are poster children for a new genre:  Gonzo Geezers!


Matt had asked me:
"How often do you travel? All the time?"
"How long are your trips?"
"Would you consider yourself 'backpackers?"
"Where do you travel to?"
"Are you retired?"

I suspect my answers left the decades-younger-than-me traveler rolling his eyes and pronouncing us geezers.

But I am comforted the memory of a chat last fall with a fellow traveler (of my age) who asked of our after-cruise-plans. I replied, "We've got two weeks and plan to explore Greece but we don't know where we will go.  We've might just catch the first ferry to leave after we get off the ship and go where it takes us."

"Oh my!," she exclaimed, "You are so brave!  We've gotten too old to do that. . . but I am not sure we would have done that even when we could have."

A five-week trip began with city bus
to SeaTac - we took carry-ons
j.smith photo, (c) 2010 

And as for that backpack: We come across many our age who are traveling just as much - if not more than us - and frankly, we don't see many of them lugging those body-sized packs. . .well, maybe small carry-on size, if for no other reason than to carry those meds. Nuts, the pills alone required for even  healthy middle age, could fill a small backpack. Ever tried to pack one of those fish oil tablet bottles? It's the size of a Coho salmon. And sadly. . .wearing a suit or cocktail dress on cruise ship formal nights that you've just pulled out of the REI all-weather pack, does cause heads to turn.

25-euros a night -
Southern Coast of Crete
j.smith photo (c) 2010



We hike and log many, many miles  on our trips. What we don't want to hike is a hallway in the middle of the night to get to a bathroom. We seek cheap accommodations, but our standards are high. The room must be clean, the bed free of bedbugs and  EN SUITE bathroom is a must.  (Someday those Gonzo 20-somethings will understand that magic word, en suite.)

Re-tired? No, we've re-treaded into a new life style.

So how about you?
Have you re-tired or re-treaded into new adventures?
Are you a Gonzo Geezer?
If you're an armchair traveler, where would you go if you could?
They are questions worth pondering.

(And Matt, tuck a copy of this post away. Read it again when you are sucking air to blow out the candles on your 50th birthday.  My answers will make more sense to you then.)

Snowbirds on The Timeshare Trail

Snowbirds about to land
j.smith photo, c, 2011

Snowbirds are those folks -- okay, older folks, like us -- who live in the north and, like birds, wing our way towards sun and warmth during the northern winter's nasty weather.

This winter this pair of snowbirds followed The Timeshare Trail.  

Timeshare?  
'No, not timeshare!' you are probably thinking, eyes rolling, as your finger aims for the delete button.
Wait! Give me a minute. . .
and don't worry, I haven't gone into marketing and this isn't one of those famous 90-minute sales presentations for which timeshares are famous.

I do understand your reaction as we used to be the same way: 'Timeshare? Not us!'
Just like we said we 'weren't into cruising'.
Famous last words. 
You know by now that we love cruising and guess what?
We've decided the timeshare life is pretty darn nice as well.

Of course timeshares aren't those stark, cramped, worse-than-college-housing places that originated a half century ago. Can you believe they've been around for a half century? The first timeshare can be traced back to a 1960's French Alps ski resort.

One of three pools at the
Scottsdale Four Seasons Club
j.smith, (c) 2011

These days with the likes of Four Seasons, Marriott and Hilton  all  in the timeshare business, this travel niche has re-branded into upscale Residence Clubs and Vacation Clubs with equally upscale accommodations and furnishings.

On the Timeshare Trail

Our timeshare stays provided us ' second homes' on a Hawaiian beach, on the Las Vegas Strip and on a Scottsdale golf course.  Our goal was to make each stay as much like having a real second home as possible so we skipped tourist attractions and made outings to grocery stores and farmer's markets.
Although for those who were wanted an action-packed vacation, each place offered plenty of organized activities from classes to card games and exercise to excursions.

In Hawaii, we set up housekeeping at the Marriott Ko Olina Vacation Club.  Our days were much like those back home, except that when our daily chores were done (loading the dish washer, cooking, and maybe a grocery store run) we'd head to the beach for an afternoon of lazing in the sun. (No cleaning toilets, washing windows, shoveling snow. . . you get the picture.) 

Full disclosure (for those that didn't read last year's entries): We fell for this responsibility-free timeshare life several years ago. As owners, we can use our time at any number of locations around the world from winter-ski resorts to beaches - the selection is quite mind-boggling. Our ownership comes with membership in Interval International, a company that manages the trades and reservations. It was from them we found the deal on the week at the  Jockey Club, overlooking  the Las Vegas Strip that I wrote about a few weeks back.  Again, we set up housekeeping, rode their free shuttle to a super market and ate 'at home' several times during the stay.

We traded palm trees for Palo Verde trees and Saguaro cactus in Scottsdale, Arizona when we traded part of our Hawaiian time for the desert. We ended up at the Scottsdale Links Resort in a place so large that we could easily lived there year round:  two-bedrooms, two-baths, large patio, living room and dining room. (The spaciousness of these places would be a real plus for those traveling with children.)

Saving Money and Stress

We saved both money and calories by eating 'at home': a bottle of wine for $11 vs. a restaurant's $11 per glass; two steak dinners for the price of a restaurant's single fillet, refrigerator bins filled with fresh fruits and vegetables for the cost of a restaurant 'side'. Eating in wasn't a big deal. When the only 'chore' you have each day is getting a meal together, even it becomes a stress-free experience unlike the hurried, oft-uninspired preparations back home.

Renting a timeshare

Four Seasons Scottsdale
j.smith, (c), 2010

You don't need to buy a timeshare to vacation in one.  The Web is full of timeshare rental sites, which include: Diamond Resorts, Vacation Timeshare Rentals and Sell My Timeshare Now (don't be put off by the  name, it also offers rentals).  You can also rent directly from the resorts by going to their web site.  In some cases, you might see a real deal from the resort for 'introductory package' -- but be forewarned, those deals will likely require attendance at one of those 90-minute sales presentations and may come with other strings attached.  If you choose that route over a regular rental, read the small print.

Cruise 'extras' can sink your travel budget

By now you have probably figured out that Joel and I love cruising and that in recent years he's found some good cruise deals that allow us to pursue that passion.

Let me be clear, by 'deal' I don't mean booking some crammed inside room with no view, next to an elevator on an old bucket of bolts. What I am talking about is an unobstructed balcony room with a view that we nailed at a price far below the published one on a fabulous ship heading to some exciting destination.

One of the reasons that good 'ticket' price is important is that we've learned it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the total cost of a cruise. That payment  pays for that room and for as many meals and snacks as you can shovel in, (oink!) a day - pretty darn nice digs and good eats, to say the least.  (For our upcoming cruise, it also pays for port fees and taxes, but that isn't always the case, so check that out before booking as we are talking a chunk of change if it is added on top of the bargain price.)

Once on board, the real spending begins:  set-amount tips added to your bill at the end of the trip, beverages - (including soft drinks and specialty coffees), specialty restaurant surcharges, ship-sponsored shore excursions, spa visits, cooking classes. . .you name it and you'll probably be able to buy it or sign up for it.

The temptations and dollar-signs that go with them, can and do add up to hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars more, if you aren't keeping track of your on-board spending. And when you take a repositioning cruise like we are this spring -- the kind that that moves a ship from one part of the world to another -- the temptation to spend is hard to resist because during those six blissful days of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, we will be on the ship 24/7, eating, drinking and entertaining ourselves. (Thankfully, on longer cruises like these you usually get a 'mid-cruise' invoice to let you see how high you've stacked the dollar signs.)

Even world events can come tapping on your cruise budget.  Cruise lines clearly state that if a certain cost threshold for barrel oil is hit in the world market it will likely result in them adding an additional per day, per passenger charge for fuel. (On our upcoming cruise is is $10 per person, per day if levied = $260)

Yesterday we received an email from  Cruise Critic featuring an article on ways to curb at least those  tempting discretionary cruise costs. It's worth a read if taking a cruise is on your travel 'to do' list.

Dam?! . . . We missed it.

Yes, we sure did miss Hoover Dam when we headed south in Ol' Orange, our trusty rental car.

How could we have completely missed one of America's Top 10 Construction Achievements of the 20th Century - the one 'must see' on my list? Well, I'll blame it on the newest construction achievement of the 21st Century:

The Bridge. This sweeping, spectacular dam viewing stand/traffic by-pass opened with great fanfare last fall while we were cruising the Black Sea. How else could we have missed the news?  So on our recent southwestern road trip we zipped Ol' Orange over the span so fast that we barely gave notice to the sign marking the turnoff 'to Hoover Dam'.    (Click the link for a great time lapse video of the construction.)

"Did you see the bridge?" "What was the bridge like?" asked our friends in Arizona.  Well, we sort of missed it as well, . . .I guess we did notice the line of tourists off to the side, safely tucked away from cars by its tall cement walls that created the viewing area overlooking the dam and Lake Mead.

Hoover Dam as seen from The Bridge
j.smith photo, (c) 2011

Last time we'd seen this famous dam, built during the Great Depression in the early 1930's and once-named Boulder, was from inside our car as we crept across its crest on U.S. 93 a decade or so ago.  But that snaking, narrow roadway you see in the photo above was made history when the newest tourist attraction -- the Mike O. Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge opened Oct. 16, 2010.

If-you-go note:  There are a number of tours from Las Vegas that will get you to the dam in a motor coach.  If you drive, it is an easy 25-minute trip from Vegas on multi-lane freeways.  Before parking we did go through a security checkpoint, but the wait wasn't bad with only a dozen cars or so in front of us on a mid-week morning. But parking at the bridge was already tight.  We followed the walkway to the bridge and when we left less than an hour later, the line of cars at security had grown to nearly 100 and snaked back up the access road, nearly to the freeway. (You might consider a tour instead of renting a car).

Ghosts of The Old West

Wickenburg, Arizona continues to bring the Old West to life in its stores, on its street corners, well, . . .pretty much everywhere you look.  The City Fathers (and Mothers) have promoted the history to the point that you can stroll the streets, guided by free walking tour maps (available everywhere it seemed), and 'meet' the folks who walked these same streets more than a century ago.

One of my favorite stops was the Jail Tree, where in the late 1800's -- during the gold rush boom -- there just wasn't the time to take away from mining to build something as practical as a jail.  So, the bad guys simply got chained to what was, and still is, called The Jail Tree.

Wickenburg's Jail Tree
j. smith photo, (c) 2011

The 200-year old Mesquite tree is found in the center of town in the back lot of one of those ubiquitous modern day versions of the corner grocery that seem to be on every other southwestern city corner.  It was at the store, that I learned about the ghosts of Wickenburg.

We'd visited the tree Sunday afternoon and after that Pig Trough feast I stopped in for a bottle of water.  While paying, the clerk asked the usual visitor questions, "So. . . where are you from?  How you like the town? Did you see the Jail Tree?"   

When I said I loved the spiny old tree out back, he offered a bit more history telling me that a jail had finally been built on this same corner. Some of the holding cells metal walls were used in the store's freezer unit.  And then he added:

"And you know. . . we have a ghost.  She comes in about 12:30 a.m. It's a little girl, you can tell from her laughter.  I've been working and the bells that ring when the door opens will start ringing and I look around and there is no one in the store, but then I hear her laugh. I just said 'hello' to her one night and then I heard the bells ring - she had left."

It seemed such a nice story; and one that made me want to come back to the store and the town. It was so easy and relaxed and comfortable.  I mean a welcoming place where even the ghosts are happy and laughing! Maybe I was I caught up in another tall tale from the Old West? I am not sure, but it added to my growing list of reasons, why I love this town.  So on our next visit in addition to stopping by that store again, I am going to go in search of more ghost stories . . .

I will be signing up for Hassayampa Heather's 90-minute stroll through town so that I can hear her stories about legends and ghosts that include:  The Legend of the Phantom Coach and The Ghost of the Vernetta Hotel.  The tours are offered weekdays at dusk (is that beyond too cool?) and on weekends during the day and again at dusk. 

If you are planning a visit and want to sign up, call (928) 232-9691 or check the tour website, Wickenburg Ghosts.

Out Wickenburg Way ~ A Most Western Town

We were looking for America's Old West and found it in Wickenburg, Arizona.

"Wickenburg?!"  Long pause. . ."Are you sure?"
Several  friends seemed surprised that we planned to spend a night in Wickenburg, Arizona during our recent Southwest road trip.

"Have you ever been there?" they'd  ask, then add, "It is sort of a ranching area, you know. There's not a lot to it."

Wickenburg Train Station houses Visitor Information now
j.smith, (c) 2011

We assured them that our fueling stop there on our southbound journey, had prompted our desire to further explore this place named for its famous German immigrant gold miner from yesteryear.

We spent the night in a basic, (somewhat pricey for what we got), clean room at the Best Western Rancho Grande, (293 E. Wickenburg Way) but its central location was perfect for setting out on foot to explore this once Wild West hub of a gold mining town.

A shopkeeper told us we were visiting at end of "Snowbird Season" referring to those folks from the north who head south like the birds seeking winter warmth.  Their numbers double the population, he said, taking it into the 10,000 range.

Calling itself "Arizona's most Western community" and located 55 miles north of Phoenix, we found there were so many historical and artistic layers to this little place that we will simply have to return because we didn't have time to see it all.  And here's why:

1.  For years this place was known as, "The Dude Ranch Capital of the World," and there are still several to chose from include the Flying E Guest and Cattle Ranch that has been hosting visitors since 1946.  Rancho de los Caballeros, now in its 63rd year of operation,  offers guests, "spikes, spurs and spa".  (Next time partner, we'll be headin' to a ranch!).

2.  The Desert Caballeros Western Museum (21 N. Frontier Street, 928-684-2272, admission is charged) is a treasure trove of Old West history and art.  If you have no other reason for stopping in this town, this Museum is reason enough.  This two-level treasure will time-travel you back into ranches and early Wickenburg; you'll have a sampler of Southwestern Indian arts and crafts, see minerals, learn about mining and cattle ranching.  (The art gallery wing was installing a new show and was closed - gotta see it next time.)

3. The Historic Vulture Mine, some 14 miles out of town, is where you can take a self-guided tour of the remaining buildings and mining site. For information, call (602)859-2743). (Didn't get out there this time.)

4.  The town sits on the banks of the Hassayampa River, one of the best remaining examples of a rare type of North American forests: the Fremont Cottonwood-Willow riparian forest. The Hassayampa River Preserve is on U.S. Highway 60, about three miles southeast of the town near mile marker 114.  (Coming from the rain-soaked Pacific Northwest it was most interesting to see a riverbed with no water in it.)

5. We don't golf, but for those who do, the 18-hole Los Caballeros Golf Club, built in 1949, is ranked one of the top five in the state of Arizona by editors of Golf Digest and their subscribers have voted the course as a must "Place to Play." Green fees range from $35 - $50. (Sounds pretty good to me.)

6. Oh yes, there's also the 600-seat Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts where entertainers from Jose Feliciano, The Sons of the Pioneers and The Canadian Tenors are among this season's headliners.

7. Eateries.. .oh, my!  A fellow tourist told us we 'had to have the ice cream'.  She was referring, to Tony and Pam Rovida's  Chaparral Homemade Ice Cream (T45 N. Tegner St., 928-684-3252) which has been around some 30 years. Homemade ice cream, hot fudge, chocolate and caramel sauces - not to mention pastries -- are served here.  I am pleased to say we were saving ourselves for a barbecue feast at the newly-opened Pig Trough on Wickenburg Way. (A trough, is what a pig eats out of, for those of you city folk reading this).  Suffice to say, it lived up to its name: we were piggies at dinner.

Perhaps the best part of this place to our way of thinkin' are the 'real' ranchers and cowboys.  Boots, blue jeans and cowboy hats weren't props for some theme-town.  That's the way the folks were dressed as they drove huge pickup trucks through town hauling horse trailers as long as an RV, carrying as many as a half dozen horses. 

This place is America's West - and we struck travel gold when we discovered it.