On the Road in Tuscany. . .

Just saying the word, Tuscany, brings back memories of our day trip through Italy’s stunning countryside last fall.

As travelers you know those kind of memories; those images tinged with a just bit of regret because you didn’t .  . .

. . .breathe a bit deeper. . .

. . . linger a bit longer. . .

. . .appreciate more the experience as it was happening.

The kind of trip not dictated by a GPS, in fact, one not clearly defined on paper either. . .

. . .where the direction doesn’t matter. . .

. . .your route doesn’t disappoint . . .

. . .where your destination isn’t set. . .



. . .where you find unexpected treasures along the way. . .



That’s the kind of memories I am talking about.  Have you taken that type of carefree approach to trip planning lately? If not, give it a try – you might be surprised by what you find!  And if you’re ready for some armchair travel, head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for Travel Photo Thursday.

(And thanks to those who let me know you couldn’t leave a comment last week because of Google’s fickle support of its blogging system.  I don’t know what caused the problem nor how to fix it, but thanks for letting me know. . .if it continues, please let me know at travelnwrite@msn.com)

Travel Tuesday: Sailing to Oceania

“You are sailing to where?!” 

Oceania. . .you know, that region also called the South Pacific. 

We’ll be boarding our old favorite, the Celebrity Solstice this fall in Honolulu bound for Sydney, Australia.  Our journey by sea to the land ‘Down Under’ will take 19 days to complete.

As shown on the map above, our route will take us through the Pacific Ocean with stops at a few of the islands that make up French Polynesia, give us a sneak peak at New Zealand and provide two long, lovely stretches of leisurely days at sea. 

As seekers of great adventures at great prices, you know we sometimes have to have patience while waiting for the travel gods to bring those concepts into sync.  We’ve had this routing on the radar for at least two, maybe more, years.



And, as seekers of great adventures at great prices, we know we  must be able to act when opportunity knocks on the computer screen.


It rapped while we were in Ko Olina last month.  There it was in an email announcing the week’s Top 20 Travel Deals sent by Travel zoo. 

Even better, it was offered by our friends at Crucon, the New Hampshire on-line cruise agency that we’ve used (and recommend highly) for our recent cruises.

The Scout did a quick comparison of other cruise web sites we use, we checked dates and within hours of reading the email had made a deposit to hold the room.  We’ve learned good deals go fast.





The Good Deal:  The price of $2,199 per person guarantees us an outside balcony cabin, (my favorite place on the ship!) and includes prepaid gratuities ( a savings of about $450) plus complimentary alcoholic and specialty drinks (a savings of about $900 per couple over purchasing the cruise lines “drink package.”)

This illustrates our mantra: There are travel deals to be found out there.  Check TravelnWrite’s Deal Finder page for other tips on finding deals.  We’ll see you back here for Travel Photo Thursday!

Travel Planning: Moving Daydreams to Dates

We’ve been living in Hawaii this last month – watching palm trees sway before an azure sea and sky; a most pleasant change from the dark, gray (and very wet) winter days that exist at our more-full-time Pacific Northwest home.

But no matter where we are, January is a time to get serious about the year’s future big-trip travel plans. 

We used our laid-back days to move our daydreaming to dates on the calendar.

As all travelers know, nabbing frequent flier seats and booking rooms on hotel points, isn’t something that can wait until the last minute.

And travel – despite continuing dire economic reports in the media -- is on an upswing. If you don’t believe that, just take a walk through Waikiki – or book a hotel room there (and prepare for sticker shock).
 


I’d set my sights on Greece for a spring trip and so focused on it were we, that quite frankly we hadn’t been thinking about fall until The Scout found us an incredible deal while Web surfing. 


A springtime trip to our favorite places in Greece was my day dream for celebrating my summer ‘Big One Birthday’.  The Scout has nailed down the frequent flier miles and purchased tickets that will get us to Athens and back. We are using the ‘where the wind blows us-or the ferry sails’ approach to travels after reaching Athens.

And then there’s the Fall trip. . .you won’t believe where we are headed or the deal that we got! I’ll tell you about it on Travel Tip Tuesday. 

In  the meantime, a number of you’ve asked how we go about finding deals.  To check The Scout’s favorite resources, visit our Deal Finder page.

Valentine’s Day: A Re-Told Tale ~ Love and Legacy

On a ‘cool, slightly overcast’ Friday, March 23rd, 1956  -- the Italian freighter, Eugenio C, set sail at 8 p.m. from Dock 5, in Brooklyn, New York  heading to Genoa, Italy.

Among its passengers were a Central Washington State daily newspaper reporter and her photographer husband, Phil and Dean Spuler.

Following their April 8th arrival in Italy and a few days spent with friends on the Riviera; they boarded a train in Chamberey, France bound for Milan, Italy.
(photo of the Spulers departing France.)








In Milan they purchased two Lambretta scooters, (earlier versions of the one pictured here),
that would carry them on a year and a half  journey through Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, Scotland and Ireland.

But their story really doesn’t begin nor end with this journey . . .



Phil and Dean Spuler

Phil (who never used her given name, Phyllis) and Dean  had met in the late 1940’s while students at San Jose State College in California; both worked on the campus paper, the Spartan Daily. Times were tough, money scarce. Romance bloomed, they married and began their careers at the paper now known as the Yakima Herald-Republic in Central Washington State.

It was at that paper, in the early 1980’s, that as a ‘cub reporter’ I worked with -- and became friends with -- the Spulers. They were the seasoned professionals and as such, mentors, in a newsroom bursting with several other just-out-of-college-journalists. They’d returned to the newspaper at the conclusion of their European adventure (and stayed until their eventual retirements).

Their European Adventure
 
It was never clear what had sparked their desire to sell most of their belongings and head to Europe. Perhaps inspired by writer Ernest Hemingway who had returned to Paris in 1944 or Julia Child, of cookbook fame, who arrived in France four years later. . .they never said. Regrettably, I never thought to ask.

Their travel budget was $5 a day and that included all food, lodging and travel expenses. They stayed in youth hostels and rode their scooters in both good and bad weather.

Their travel journals tell of spending  the winter in Paris where they enrolled in a French language school, and spent time exploring art galleries, sidewalk cafes, and attending plays and operas.

Spring found them in Berlin. They returned to the United States the summer of 1957 on a small Italian passenger ship.



Their Love and Legacy


Our friendship grew over three decades and during that time their travels – although shorter and more luxurious than their Europe trip – included cruises and excursions to foreign lands. They drove “dune-buggies’ through the desert surrounding  their Arizona retirement community until age and health finally curtailed their dare-devil outings.

Then, they told us, they lived vicariously through our travels.

Prior to their deaths – now, a few years ago – they set forth their wishes to help other journalism students at their alma mater, San Jose State University.

Since then we’ve had the pleasure of working with the university to make that happen: Each year two scholarships are available to journalism and photojournalism students. They endowed an annual symposium.




Author’s note: This post originally appeared in April 2012 after we spent a day with the students and staff of the media and journalism department at San Jose State University. We'd attended the Annual Spuler Ethics in Media Symposium, we visited the college newspaper and magazine.

This year, the 5th Annual Spuler Ethics in Media Symposium will be held Tuesday, March 19th, from 6 – 7:30 p.m. on the San Jose State campus.  This year’s focus: Advertising Ethics.

We’d encourage your attendance at this free event if you are in the San Jose area.  And this is our contribution to the Valentine’s Day edition of Travel Photo Thursday. Stop by Nancie’s Budget Travelers Sandbox for more photos and tales.

Quick! Feed the Lions. . .

The Lions are on the prowl in Hawaii. Actually, they are dancing their way around the island of O’ahu in anticipation of Chinese New Year  - the Year of the Snake –  which begins February 10th.

It is advisable to ‘feed’ the lions with a bit of money usually put in a red envelop (if you’ve got one handy). And in return the lions promise to bring good luck and prosperity.

Last week some 10 Lion Dance teams participated in a Choy Cheng ritual (‘Choy Cheng’ means picking greens) and the Lions picked fresh lettuce attached to the cash stuffed envelopes along a route through Honolulu’s Chinatown.

Honolulu celebrates the Chinese New Year with gusto and a series of fun events, like Choy Cheng. Next year we must get ourselves into town to participate!





According to local reports, the ritual dates back to the Han Dynasty (220 – 206 B.C.)  Although lions weren’t indigenous to China, they had a mythical lore – representing the positive characteristics of success, strong business and courage.

Last year the Lions danced at Ko Olina one Sunday afternoon entertaining guests and staff members.  Perhaps they’ll return again today – I’d think they are hungry again!

Oh, the stories they could tell. . .

A college journalism professor once cautioned my class of ‘Pulitzer-prize-winning- wanna-be’s’ that we’d likely begin our newsroom careers writing obituaries. For that reason, we were  to both read and write them as classroom assignments.

When the resulting collective groan clearly indicated the task sounded worse than death itself, he added:

“That obituary is likely the last story that will ever be written about that person – it might be the only story. . .and everyone’s story is important, so write it well!”

Decades later, I still regularly read obituaries – everywhere we go.  And to illustrate my journalism professor’s point, today I want to introduce you to some of the folks I’ve ‘met’ in the obituaries during our stay in Hawaii.

If only I’d have met them in person . . . oh,the stories they could tell: 



A couple weeks ago, we tried for the first time, Honolulu’s Liliha Bakery’s famous coco puffs. Back in 1987 the baker there was assigned the task of creating a new cream puff; he filled the shell with chocolate filling and topped the creation with Chantilly frosting. The bakery that had sold a couple dozen puffs daily back then now sells hundreds of these gems daily.  Kame Ikemura, 80, was the baker who created the morsels, I learned from his obituary which appeared not long after we’d tried the pastry.

Returning from a day-trip to Maui on Sunday our flight followed the coastline of Molokai,.You can’t see Molokai and not remember the stories of  it’s Leper Colony and famous Father Damien. Sister Richard Marie Toal served those leprosy patients as well on Kalaupapa for more than 40 years – even for five years after she retired; until a stroke hindered her ability to do so. She died on Sunday, age 96.

Others I’ve ‘met’ didn’t have large write ups but their stories were likely just as interesting. . .



“age 101, retired Dole Plantation worker. Born Philippines”  

“age 80, retired Del Monte Company papaya packer. Born Hilo.”

“age 87, retired candy maker for former Hawaiian Holiday Macademia Nut Company and field worker for fomer Manakua Sugar Company. Born Kukuihaele, Hawaii”

“age 92, retired lei maker. Born Honolulu.”

“age 93, retired master lau hala* weaver and teacher. Born and died in Kuakini Medical Center, Honolulu.” *(tree leaves woven into baskets and/or mats)

“age 103, homemaker. Born Honolulu.”

“age 89, retired Royal Hawaiian Hotel bellman. Born, Maui.”

“age 87, retired assistant bell captain Kona Hilton Hotel and coffee farmer. Born, Hawaii.”

‘age 84, retired jewelry saleswoman at several Kaanapali Beach hotels. Born Tokyo, Japan.”



“age 85, retired Hawaiian Airlines crew scheduler, Born, Hawaii.”

“age 83, retired Pearl Harbor Navel Shipyard boilermaker and Korean War Veteran. Born, Honolulu.”

“age 83, retired surfer and surf board maker. Eva, O’ahu.”

“age 88, former noodle factory worker. Born Honolulu.”

“age 96, Territory of Hawaii Board of Health employee. Born Honolulu.

Nearly all of these folks were born and died in Hawaii. Some lived a full century here, others almost that  long. They were part of a generation born:
 
*  Shortly after Hawaii became a U.S. Territory in 1900. 

* After the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (now Dole) was established in 1901 and the first pineapple was planted  by James Drummond Dole in the Wahiawa countryside.

They would have been children or teens when:

* Earl Derr Biggers wrote his Charlie Chan book, “House Without A Key” in 1925, giving life to Honolulu’s famous fictitious detective.

*When the Royal Hawaiian Hotel opened in 1927. 

*When the first inter-island flight took off in 1929.”

They would have been young adults when the Japanese bombed Pearl harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.  And heading towards middle age when Hawaii became a state on August 21, 1959.

Everyone does have a story – and that’s what makes travel so interesting ~  the people and their stories.

(And you know what? My professor was right about those obituaries!)

And that’s it for Travel Photo Thursday. Stop by Budget Travelers Sandbox for more armchair-by-photo-travel.

Two Sides of Sweets

A photo I posted yesterday to the TravelnWrite Facebook page was so overwhelmingly popular that it took me by surprise.  I thought I’d include it here for those of you who don’t follow us on FB:

This was served to us at  Maui’s Kaanapali Beach Hula Grill Restaurant after the waitress told us that our Marriott guest card qualified us for “a free ice cream sandwich.” We expected to have a couple bites of some small cooler. 

It was served after we’d each consumed a fish burger and the macadamia nut salad that came with it.
Let me assure you that when you travel as much as we do, we can't eat like this all the time. Those of you following the blog know that we’ve followed a diet that pretty much eliminates both sugar and carbs (links to our Diet to Go posts can be found on our homepage).

This meal was an exception. (And in all truthfulness, even though we shared the dessert and didn’t finish it, that much sugar was enough to upset our tummies for a few hours afterwards).

So to show you the other – more normal view - of our sweet treats, I am adding this photo. This is how we start our days around here: locally grown pineapple and bananas topped with a locally produced mango yogurt – now that’s a ‘sweet treat’ we could eat every day. . .in fact we do!

Hawaii Tourism: Some Good and Bad News

I served a plate of Hawaiian pupu-news (tidbits) to you a couple weeks ago and have more items ‘hot off the press’ for you Hawaii-travel-aficionados:

The Good News:

* Hawaii anticipates the addition of 680,313 air seats this coming year. That means a lot more flights arriving from a lot of destinations bringing an estimated 10.75 million passengers to this tropical paradise.

(In 2012 nearly 8 million visitors spent $14.3 billion – the first time since 2006 that spending and arrivals set simultaneous year-end records).

*Hawaii’s Tourism Authority is crediting proposed new routes from the U.S. mainland and Asia-Pacific for the anticipated increase in visitors. Those  routes are: Boise, Idaho; Spokane, Washington; San Diego, CA; Taiwan; Auckland, New Zealand and Tokyo-Narita.

The Bad News:



Hawaii’s Governor Neil Abercrombie seems to want to bite the tourist hands that feed his islands:  he’s proposed increasing the hotel and timeshare room tax to 11.25 percent in July (it is currently 9.25 percent). 

The room rates, as I’ve told you in earlier reports are skyrocketing, so think of adding 11.25 percent to them.

Lawmakers here gradually raised the rate from 7.25 percent starting in 2009 to help ease state budget deficits caused by the recession.  The higher rate though was to be temporary and was to expire by July 2015.

The Governor says his proposal is to start a discussion. Might be time we regular visitors to Hawaii join in that discussion, don’t you think?

To contact Rep. Tom Brower, chairman of the Hawaii House Tourism Committee click this link; or write Gov. Abercrombie at gov@gov.state.hi.us and tell them what you think about House Bill 971/Senate Bill 1202 (hotel room tax increase).

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