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Posts tagged ‘USA’

Jun 30

The Windy City

It’s a long and arduous 30 plus hours of travel from Quito to Chicago.

Our day starts with a 4am pick-up from our hotel to catch a flight to Lima. We have an 8 hour wait in Lima for a flight to Panama.

We are now very skilled at passing time in airports.

The key is to find the café with the best wi-fi, a seat near a power point, order a coffee and make it last for hours!

Upon checking-in at Lima, Copa Air said it would ticket our luggage all the way through to Chicago, though we would need to collect it in Fort Lauderdale, where we are required to clear immigration/customs.

We are a little dubious, but with a 6 hour layover in Panama, you’d think the airlines would have plenty of time to sort out where our luggage is going, or perhaps plenty of time to lose it…

Arriving in Panama around 9pm, our Spirit flight from Panama to Chicago (via Fort Lauderdale) leaves at 2am; another 6 hour layover.

We decide to purchase a bottle of red wine. The one requirement is that it needs to be a screw-cap.

Slight problem; we need boarding passes to make the purchase and we won’t get these until someone from Spirit turns up at the boarding gate.

I think the sales guy was on to us; he suggested the only way he could sell it to us was if we consume it before the flight – which were exactly our intentions!

We find a quiet spot (on the floor) and have a picnic dinner of wine and Ecuadorian chocolate!

The Spirit staff are somewhat confused by our lack of boarding passes and are quick to say they take no responsiblity for our luggage turning up! That fills us with confidence.

Spirit is a low cost American airline. Luggage is charged per piece, including carry-on. There is minimal inflight service (at a cost), no entertainment, no blankets (lucky we purchased two alpaca rugs on our travels) and except for four premium seats you pay more for, they don’t recline.

We opted for the premium seats which put us in the first row, a good thing, because we had a tight connection in Florida.

Even though we are first off, we wait and wait at the carousel for our luggage, but to no avail. Taking the advice of the ground crew, we decide to leave the luggage behind and dash for our connecting plane.

Once in Chicago, the Spirit staff are helpful, though clearly see it as not their problem and point us in the direction of the Copa staff, who are also very helpful.

Our luggage is found to still be in Panama and they put it on next plane; we should see it tomorrow. If not, I have a very good excuse to go shopping!

True to their word, Copa call in the morning and confirm they have the luggage. We happened to be going past the airport and offer to pick it up – we’ll be relieved when we have our bags in our possession.

Potential disaster averted and all in all it was only a slight inconvenience.

We are staying with friends Derek and Susan Magilton, who have two children Gretta and Oliver. They live in Winnetka, a lovely area a little north of downtown Chicago. Derek’s parents Ann and Max, are also visiting from Australia for a month.

It’s a lovely few days spent catching-up, swapping stories and re-grouping (which means making use of the washing machine and repacking our bags).

We managed a bit of ‘wardrobe replacement’ shopping. You can’t go past a good sale in the US, it’s like they are giving you stuff for free!

We also spent a couple of nights downtown to explore a bit more of the city and go to a U2 concert. Even if we were up in the bleachers, U2 still put on a good show.

Our stay in Chicago was all too brief and a little hindered by problems with my foot, so much so that we didn’t really take any photos. I spent much of my time hopping (literally) to podiatrists and getting cortisone injections.

Don tried his best to play the patient and supportive husband, but let’s face it – that’s not his thing! He couldn’t wait to get on that plane and meet his mates in Scotland.

We definitely have to get back to Chicago sometime.

Feb 24

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349 Days

One Year done.  Actually, it’s been a total of 49 weeks and 6 days since we left Australia – close enough to call it a year.

We’ve covered 20 countries on 3 continents; some only got a brief look in as we passed through, others were explored in detail.

Africa:

  • South Africa
  • Botswana
  • Zambia
    Botswana Ngoma

Europe:

  • England
  • France
  • Italy
  • Serbia
  • Croatia
  • Bulgaria
  • Turkey
  • Greece
  • Montenegro
  • Slovenia
  • Austria
  • Switzerland
  • Germany
  • Spain

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North America:

  • USA
  • Mexico
  • Cuba

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And here are some useless bits of trivial information, the sort of thing you find yourself compiling when on holidays:

  • We’ve slept in more than 120 different beds.
  • Taken 19 flights in 1 year – all in economy!
  • Lost: 1 camera (that was about to die), several hats and random items of clothing.
  • Been healthier than ever: besides a couple of colds and stomach bugs in Turkey.
  • No accidents – survived two weeks skiing without breaking or tearing something.
  • Cheapest accommodation still must be: €15 a night on Leros.
  • Most expensive accommodation: €160 a night in Paris.
  • CPI (Coffee Price Index): Vail at US$6 overtakes Venice €4.50 as the most expensive coffee. I doubt we will ever beat €0.50 in Berane, Montenegro for the cheapest.
  • WCP (Wine Consumption Price): most expensive was £9 for a glass of champagne in London, the Cheapest in France (of course), €4 a bottle.  Even with our love of happy hours, we’ve not done better than that.
  • Cheapest haircut was US$5 for Don in Cuba.
  • The year is captured in 93 Blog posts – though often well behind!
  • Total photos taken – not exactly sure, but it easily exceeds 10,000.  Who wants to come to the slide show?

The list of friends around the world, who have extended their generous hospitality continues to grow, along with those friends who joined us along the way.

It began in Johannesburg with Mark and Alison Brown (we also spent a night with them in London). We also had a delightful few days with Alison’s parents, the Becketts on their farm in Choma, Zambia. In Europe we are joined by/catch-up with:

  • Ross and Kate for dinner in London.
  • Katrina spends 6 weeks on a road trip through Turkey before we bid her farewell on Santorini.
  • Along our journey we see Helen and Rod, Bruce, Penny, Dale, Leeanne, Elisa and Ian.
  • There is dinner in Paris with our Niece Claire.
  • My sister Jane joins us for three weeks.
  • Andrea and Margit (her Mum) took us hiking in the Austrian Alps.
  • The Ryan’s let us take over the washing machine and hang-out with the family in Lausanne, Switzerland.
  • In London, Don plays golf with Lloyd and we have a drink with Mike at the James Blunt concert, Lucerne.

State side:

  • Ang & Chris Hilsabeck make Dallas our home away from home.
  • Tom & Diane make us feel part of the family in Palm Springs.
  • I stay with Lindsey Haviland in Connecticut, before meeting Robina for two weeks of living it up in New York.
  • Seattle; Don has dinner with Peter and Debbie – whom we met in Turkey.
  • Sue Haviland and hubby John, join us for some skiing in Vail.
  • We overnight with Andrea again, in her new Park City abode.
  • Martha and Doug open up their home and have us to stay in Santa Barbara.
  • John & Holly Bracknell (and Hollis & Sally) provided us with our own camper in Florida and John joins our road trip to the Florida Keys.
  • Jamie flies into LA for a few days.  We catch-up with more of Don’s golf pals; Jeff and Neal, whilst skiing.

Don celebrates his 50th birthday.  It started with the boys playing golf on the West Coast, Footey (Andrew) is the only one not to follow onto Mexico.

A number of Australians join us in ‘Resortville Mexico’: Tyrone & Julie, Jeff & Georgie, Pete & Emily, Neil & Margie .

In Mexico, we meet Catriona (a fellow Australian) and she puts us up for the night in Puerto Morelos.

Last, but not least, all our Intrepid companions, too many to name here.  You made our travels through Mexico and Cuba loads of fun.

Yes, we are still talking:

Of the 349 days traveling, Don & I spend 335 of them together.

Outside of the few games of golf Don played on his own, or the odd hours here and there, we might split, we literally were together 24×7.

That’s not normal!

Yes, we had our moments – probably a ‘moment’ or two most days.

But, at the end of each day we still like each other and we’re still talking to each other.

I could get deeply analytical about relationships, but that’s really not what either of us are about.

All I can say, is it worked.  It worked well enough for us to continue our travels into 2015.

So, hang on – there’s more to come….

Feb 20

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White Stuff

Week 1: Vail

Our first day of skiing is at Beaver Creek, which also happens to be hosting the World Cup Championships.

Finding parking on the mountain was impossible, so we resorted to catching the gondola from Avon.

Expecting it to be crowded; we find no-one is skiing, they are all watching the racing.

It doesn’t take long before our muscles start protesting, as its been three years since we skied.  We take it easy, viewing the day as a warm-up.

Our accommodation is at Eagle Point, in West Vail (another timeshare).  Whilst not ski in – ski out, we have our own shuttle service to drop us at the Lion’s Head Gondola.

I’ve mentioned the Haviland family before.  I stayed with Lindsey in Connecticut in October.  We are finally catching up with Sue Haviland and her husband John.

I haven’t seen Sue for way too long; haven’t met John, nor Sue, Don.  Now living in Colorado, they drive-up to spend the weekend with us.

The years quickly dissolve, it’s not long before we feel like we’ve all know each other forever.

Sue spent time in Australia and knows my family well.  She worked for my brother Simon, played netball with my sister Jane and baby-sat my nieces.

We had a great weekend, chatting more than skiing – I don’t think any of us stopped talking for the entire weekend.

Sue and John, both have a love for travel and adventure, so we got lots of tips from them on our future travels into Central America.

Whilst the ski season in Colorado was not one of their better seasons, it still surpasses Australia.  Vail is such a large mountain, you can always find somewhere good to ski.

The George is an out of the way, hard to find bar, though not that hard, as it can get crowded.  Happy hour starts at 3pm and we’ve found ourselves sipping two-for-one martinis each trip we’ve made to Vail.

Another favourite spot is Vin 48, with a superb selection of wines, it also does a happy hour with a delicious selection of small plates.  A couple of these does us for dinner.

As you can see, we are a fan of the “Happy Hour”. Why not?  It’s certainly allowed us to eat (and drink) at some great places for much less.

Skiing is not a cheap sport, but you can be savvy with your money.  Firstly, we bought secondhand skis, much cheaper than renting them and better quality.

We also bought a season pass. The Epic Pass (which has just added Perisher Valley in Australia to it’s list), covers multiple resorts, which just happen to be the places we were skiing anyway.  It paid back after 5 days.

Someone on our shuttle to the gondola made the comment; “Even if I had all the money in the world, I don’t like being ripped off”. The prices on the mountain are extortionate; I get it, we’re in Vail, but US$6 for a coffee and it’s not even good coffee?

There is something in both our psyche that just wouldn’t allow us to pay US$12 for two (crap) coffees. Each day we packed an energy bar and shared one (crap) coffee between us.

We don’t seem to be able to go far in the US without one of Don’s golf buddies being nearby.

During the week Jeff Hall and is son (playing hookie from school) drive up from Denver for the day to watch some of the World Cup and we spend a few hours skiing with them.

The following week, another golf connection; Neal Zahn also happens to be skiing at Breckenridge and was the benefactor of Don’s ski helmet that we’d purchased for the trip (he’s got another at home).

Week 2: Breckenridge

We’ve moved up considerably in the luxury stakes.  Our accommodation for the week is One Ski Hill; Ski-in, Ski-out and a Ski Valet.

Each morning your skis are waiting for you. When you finish for the day, step out of your skis and someone is waiting to pick them up. This is my type of skiing!

The resort runs a Women & Wine ski lesson mid week.  A few hours skiing with an instructor, followed by a glass of wine (or 2).

I quickly realised that whilst after 10 days of skiing, I’d got a little bit of my fitness back, it still had a long way to go. The few hours skiing with a group of good skiers, pushed me to ski much harder than I do when skiing with Don.

It was also a great way to explore parts of the mountain that I wouldn’t otherwise take Don, as well as meet other people

Breck is an interesting mountain. With a better snow base than Vail this year and being slightly higher, the quality of snow was better.  We also got some fresh snow during our stay – fresh powder is always a highlight.

The black runs are not really black, even Don didn’t find them difficult.  I say that with the exclusion of the moguls.  Some people love moguls, but my knees buckled in long ago and I don’t hunt them out.

There are some good long runs, but the mountain is badly planned.  The mountain is divided into 5 peaks, called peaks 6-10.  Peak 6 is the newest and has one lift.

If you are energetic and like hiking up-hill in ski boots, lugging your skis to reach off-piste chutes and powder bowls, it’s fantastic.

My philosophy is; the lift takes you ‘up’ and you ski ‘down’, no additional ‘up’ required!

Week 3: Park City?

We had planned to continue our skiing in Park City, where our dear friend Andrea (who we saw in Austria), now resides.

However, the culmination of a number of factors, has bought us to the decision to return to Australia earlier than scheduled.

We still stop-off at Park City for a night en route to LA.  Donating our skis to her growing collection, perhaps with the hope to make it back for a future ski season.

It was a lovely surprise to find her Parents also visiting.  Whilst the stay was short, we had a great night catching-up and meeting her friends.

Once again, thanks Andrea.  And the bed is heavenly!

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Feb 6

Route 66

Route 66 would have to be America’s most iconic highway.

It’s a road trip full of nostalgia; classic American dinners, bright neon signs, vintage cars and Airstreams.

In 1926 it was planned as one of the first continential highways in America.

Transecting the country diagonally from Chicago to LA and known as the “mother road” for decades, it remained the primary highway into the 1980’s.

Replaced by larger/faster interstates, the route was decomissioned in 1985, to the demise of many towns along the route.

However, the route has been immortalised in pop culture through songwriters, authors and filmmakers for decades, which ultimately led to it’s revival

Most famous would be the highways unofficial anthem by Bobby Troup; “get your kicks on Route 66…”

The 2006 Pixar movie Cars is also believed to have significantly contributed to the roads regained popularity (and, perhaps a stagnant economy encouraging road-trip vacations rather than overseas destinations for the average American has helped).

We join Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona. This is apparently some of the best surviving stretches of the route.  It’s a nice change of pace after whizzing along the I-40.

Our destination for the night is the town of Williams, which turns out to be a laid-back, charming place.  After a pre-dinner aperitif at the local wine bar and a chat to the friendly staff, we follow the recommendations to dine at the Italian Bistro.

Williams
Williams
Route 66

Bearizona is a cheesy, but fun detour we make on the way from Williams to the Grand Canyon. It’s a drive-thru nature reserve.

They provide a GPS audio guide to talk you through the animals, which include: Mountain Goats, Bison, Alaskan and Artic wolf and American Black Bears.

After the drive you can visit the Fort Berizona with a petting zoo, as well as say hello to some bear cubs (no the bear cubs are not in the petting zoo).

Bearizona
Big Horn Sheep
Bear
Tight-rope-walking

Grand Canyon
From the east end of Williams, Hwy-64 continues to one of the natural wonders of the world – the Grand Canyon.

After visiting Copper Canyon in Mexico we are both looking forward to comparing the experiences.

Spending two nights at the Canyon we toured the Rim and enjoyed two spectacular sunsets. It’s an overnight hike to visit the Canyon floor, so we ventured into only part (a very small part) of the way into the Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is 277 river miles (446km) long, up to 18 miles (29km) wide, and a mile (1.6km) deep.  Whilst the Copper Canyon is larger and deeper, I would probably say the Grand Canyon is just that; Grander.

wpid-wp-1429282677810.jpeg

wpid-img_20150415_141343.jpgMonument Valley
In the distance fragile pinnacles of rock rise from the desert floor, carved by natural forces for over 50 million years to create a very dramatic landscape.

Monument Valley is recognisable to anyone that’s ever watched a John Wayne western. “Monument Valley is where God put the West”, he claimed.

We stay at The View Monument Valley, simply because it had just that – a spectacular view over the valley.

Watching the sunrise at 6am is chilly, but spectacular.

 

 

 

Some more pics…

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Jan 31

Palm Springs – Golf

Don has made a lot of friends through his love of golf, which is how we find ourselves staying with Tom and Diane Caress in Palm Springs.

Don randomly met Tom on a golf course in Perth (Australia), in 1994.

Tom loves his golf, possibly more than Don.

I think Tom, has probably played more golf courses around the world than even Don has!

Diane an Tom, along with their daughter Kym and her son Lincoln (who are currently residing with them) welcome us warmly into their home.

Diane kindly hands over the washing machine and we make good use of it!

Tom gives us tickets to the PGA Humana Challenge at La Quinta Country Club and we head out and watch the Pros for the afternoon.

Having spent two nights with the Caress’, we move down the road for a week at the Marriott Desert Springs, for a week of ‘resortville living’.  That’s another timeshare week used up!

Don has bought me new golf clubs – in the hope that I will take my golf a bit more seriously.  

If he’s prepared to follow me down snow covered mountains on two planks in a few weeks, I guess I can chase a little white ball around the grass for a week.

Throughout the week I have three lessons including a playing lesson. The golf Pro is Johnny; he’s straight out of college, but I like the way he approaches the game and imparts his knowledge.

Don of course is like a pig in mud!  He is surrounded by golf courses.  Actually there are over 130 golf courses to choose from in the Palm Springs area.

The highlight of the week would be PGA West TPC Stadium course. No easy course and whilst I started off with a par, it went downhill from there.

Aside from playing three games with me (though the playing lesson probably doesn’t count), Don squeezes in another three.

My golf did improve – but I’m not planning on turning professional anytime soon.

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