Tuesday, December 6, 2011

A week in paradise......Kauai

Just returned from an amazing week in Kauai at the Kauai Beach Villas in Lihue.  Normally a week in Kauai would be awsome but it's pretty hard to follow the week in Cabo at the Monte Cristo Estates.  The weather was less than desirable but we still managed to get in beach time and all in all it was a very relaxing vacation.  The beach villas were the usual tropical decor but had all the amenities, ie. full kitchen, washer and dryer, free internet, etc.






If you have ever been to Kauai you know about the chickens.  The chicken is the Kauia National Bird, they're everywhere, they're everywhere.  When Hurrican Iniki hit Kauai all of the chickens were released to run wild on the island.  As they have no natural predators, they have thrived.  Here is a picture of our resident chicken, Eddie
He would wake us up every morning at 6AM.  Now you may be wondering if these chickens are good eating and here is a recipe for cooking these chickens.  You put a chicken in a pot of boiling water and in another pot of boiling water you put a rock.  When you can stick a fork into the rock you know the chicken is almost done.    Here are some more pictures of the resort.

Here is a picture of the beach at the resort
We had very high winds this week and huge waves, most of the beaches were shut down because of the treacherous surf.  We did go to our favorite beach though, Anini Beach on the North Shore, great snockeling beach.
Basically we ate our way through Kauai, some of our Favorite eateries are the Shrimp Station (they have a new location in Kapaa), the Puka Dog place in Poipu (an increible polish dog inserted in a bun with mango or coconut sauce and many other variations, yum.  Also our new favorite the Mermaid in Kapaa for stir fry.  Buy one and share as they are huge.
Wyndham time shares have a new program similar to Pueblo Bonito Premier and offers lots of last minute deals at great prices/ Very tempting but we are very happy with our program.  We stayed at their beautiful resort for $99 for the whole week.  Can't beat that.
Just a few more pictures of the resort

Til next time, happy blogging.  Life is wonderful....................Bev

Monday, November 28, 2011

Back in business again........Yea, Cabo San Lucas

After a five month hiatus to take care of my 89 year old mother-in-law that  had spinal cancer, we are able to travel again.  My fingers have been burning up the keyboard on my computer looking for travel deals and boy did it pay off.  We just got back from an amazing trip to Cabo San Lucas.  We stayed in a threee bedroom villa at the Monte Cristo Estates at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach in Cabo for $200 for the whole week.  I know you are wondering how we get these good deals and I'm now going to tell you the secret.  We have a timeshare at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach that we bought 6 years ago.  First of all you must know that I was a firm disbeliever in time shares.  They didn't make such sense to me.  We were on a cruise ship and stopped in Cabo for the day.  One of the timeshare guys stopped us and offered us a free day at Pueblo Bonito and $100 to spend if we went the presentation.  We did this and after the salesman was done I  said "This is all fine and good but it  doesn't work for us as we both have very demanding jobs and we can't plan ahead of time for our vacations. He then said, we have a program called Pueblo Bonito Premier designed for "Last Minute Trips" just for you.  When he explained it to me I asked him "where do I sign".  After we went back to the ship we had buyers remorse and thought we made a horrible mistake.  I'm here to tell you that was the best decision of our life.   And friends, this past week has been the highlight of our travel experience.  Monte Cristo Villas are three bedroom, three and a half baths villas with their own infinity swimming pool and spa, two living rooms, five televisions, computer, full kitchens, washer and dryer, upstairs and downstairs decks and so much more. I am now going to show you some of the pictures.  We thought we were living like the "Rich and Famous".  If anybody is interested I can give you the phone number of a contact person at Pueblo Bonito.


Infinity pool at the lodge.
Beautiful sunset from the swimming pool.

Entry Courtyard
Master bedroom
Living room on top level

Blown glass factory in Cabo, very interesting.  Bought beautiful wine glasses.
Pueblo Bonito Pacifica
I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed this experience, what a vacation.

Happy Blogging

Bev

Monday, June 13, 2011

Portland and Canon Beach Oregon

Went to visit my granddaughter who lives in Portland Oregon.  Arrived in Portland at 12PM and picked up  Ashley and rental car and went immediately to Canon Beach Oregon.  We stayed at a wonderful hotel right on the beach called the  Tolovana Inn.  Booked this through Orbitz for $60/night.  The room was small but about 30 steps from the beach.

  Thirty years ago I lived in Astoria Oregon and was familiar with the area but Ashley had never been to the Oregon coast.  The next morning we walked on Canon Beach for 3 miles and found a wonderful bakery called The Waves Of Grain.  Five pounds later we ate our way through the bakery, yum.


We went to The Astoria Column.  Ashley walked up the spiral staircase 164 steps up and down.  Good thing she is young, I could not have done it.

The view from the top of the column was awesome, overlooks the whole Willamette valley and the mouth of the Columbia River.
On the way back to Portland on Highway 26, we saw the most unusual sight.  A guy was on a skateboard in the fast lane of the highway on a stretch of road that was downhill for about 5 miles.  He was kneeling on the board with only a helmet for protection.  He was followed by a car to keep people from running him down.  He really has a death wish as far as I'm concerned.  If he hit a pebble with the board he would be thrown into the oncoming traffic, would not be a pretty sight.
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We  arrived back in Portland and while Ashley was working I decided to go to a movie.  I discovered the Living Room Theater in Portland.  It actually is a restaurant and theater combined.  You order your dinner and they deliver it in the theater along with a glass of wine, very civilized.  I ordered a pizza which was $8.00 (less than a bag of popcorn in a California theater).      Somebody needs to start up a chain of these theaters in California, I'm sure they would go over big.  The next day we took a road trip to the scenic highway up the Columbia gorge towards the Bonneville Dam.  Every few miles we would come to an wonderful waterfall.


We ended up at the Fish hatchery where they had huge sturgeons and trout in breeding ponds.  The sturgeon were so big I couldn't get them in one picture.

After that we ended up at Edgefield Hotel.  This hotel was originally the "Poor House" years ago and they converted it into a truly original hotel, complete with golf course, distillery, Brewery and wine tasting room.

  This hotel is part of the chain of restaurants and hotels owned by "McMennamins".  Ashley works at a McMennamin restaurant so we got to wine taste for free and after much wine tasting decided to spend the night at the hotel .

  Very unusual paintings on the walls and lots of picures of Jerry Garcia of "Grateful Dead" fame.  Every hotel room door was an original painting.

The spa was a moat around an Island, very unusual.
My only bad comment about Portland would be driving the downtown area.  It's a lot like San Francisco driving but worse.  All their streets are one way streets and even my GPS couldn't figure them out.  After the second red light I ran I decided to avoid the downtown area.  All and all it was a wonderful trip and I really had a great time with my granddaughter (miss her).

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

IRISH BEACH

Just returned from a glorious vacation at Irish Beach on the Mendocino Coast.  This is an annual vacation I take with two of my high school classmates.  We stay at a house overlooking the rugged Mendocino coast.  Five wonderful days with no obligations other than to enjoy the beautiful landscapes.  We did get into some competitive mexican domino games though.  Here are some pictures of deer grazing in our front yard.

   Every morning we would go down to the beach and walk and enjoy the sounds and smells of the ocean.  First day we went to the quaint town of Mendocino, shopped until we dropped and had a wonderful lunch at the Mendocino hotel.  The food was great and not too pricey.  Here is a picture of a house with the most beautiful garden

  We then went into Fort Bragg  and this is a picture of my friends walking across the newly restored tressel.

The next day we went into Point Arena to a little bakery in the middle of town called "Frannies".  It's only open Wed thru Sunday.  The bakery is a small family run operation and the pastries are to die for.  Be sure and try their bacon slipper and lemon and berry slipper.  You will never again pass through this town again without stopping at this bakery.  We spent the rest of the day laying on the beach.  This was the most beautiful weather we have ever experienced at Irish Beach.  There was a mother seal and two pups playing in the surf.  It was so sunny we even got sunburned.


  The next day we made a special trip to Little River Inn for lunch and were very dissappointed to find they only serve brunch on Sunday and open for dinner.  Last year we had lunch there and the food was fabulous.  I did take lots of pictures of the Inn and the beautiful flowers.  The rhodedendrums are in full bloom right now and spectacular.


  We stopped at a little Inn called the Harbor House and I took pictures of the rooms and the unbelievable view from the rooms.  If you every want a romantic place to stay, this is the ultimate place.  All the rooms have a fireplace and decks overlooking the ocean.  The price includes gourmet dinner and breakfast.

 Just one more picture to describe the beauty of the Northern California Coast


 Happy Blogging.
 

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Home again

Returned home from Palm Springs to glorious rain in the San Joaquin valley.  We spent the last week laying around the pool in 80 degree weather.  We played some beautiful golf courses in Palm Springs.  My favorite was Rancho Mirage Country Club.  You cannot believe how many Canadians come to Palm Springs to live during the winter months.  They fly their Canadian flags in the campgrounds.  They aren't the only Canadians down there, the geese are everywhere.  We spent a week in a campground called Wilderness Lakes in Menifee.  When we got to the campground we found a wonderful campsite that we could just pull the trailer in (for all of you that don't have trailers, backing up into a campsite is an experience which is usually followed by a lot of yelling at the wife guiding the husband in and then followed by a stiff shot of brandy).  All went well until the second day we were there,  the sky opened up and rained continuously on us for around 10 hours.  We woke up the next morning and the trailer was sitting in the middle of a lake.  I looked out and geese were swimming by.  I now know why no one took that primo camping spot.  We renamed our trailer the ARK. 

VIEW FROM THE ARK
That's all folks until our next adventure.  The vagabonds are happy to be home.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Palm springs follies

One more picture from the AT&T

 On to Palm Springs

My friend Shirley told me to be sure to see the Palm Springs Follies and she was right, it was excellent.  Leslie Gore was the headliner.  This is the 20th year of the follies and they were spectacular.  The youngest person in the follies was 62 and the oldest 76.  You would not believe how beautiful the girls were.  They were all about six feet tall with 4 foot legs.  These pictures do not do them justice.  I can't use old as an excuse anymore for my body falling apart.  Hey, they were all Vegas dancers and Broadway stars at one time.  What can I say



I apologize for the quality of the pictures, I took them off of the program.

 LESLIE GORE (Sorry I couldn't figure out how to rotate picture)
Her famous song was "It's my party and I"ll cry if I want to"  (Boy that's really dating me)
 If you are ever in Palm Springs be sure to go to the Street fair at the College of the Desert on Saturday or Sunday.  It's the mother of all flea markets.
Later









 



Sunday, February 13, 2011

AT&T PEBBLE BEACH PRO-AM

John and I just finished our four day stint as marshals for the AT&T Pro-Am golf tournament at Pebble Beach.  In case you don't know what marshals are, they are the funny looking people in white knickers and red argyle socks and red jackets that take care of crowd control around the greens and look for balls on the fairways that are hit out of bounds.  We've been doing this for 5 years and by the end of the fourth day I swear I will never come back but by the next year I forget how exhausting it is standing on your feet for 8 hour/day four days in a row.







We do get some good perks doing this tournament..  On the Wednesday before the tournament we get a fabulous dinner at the Marriott in Monterey and the movie stars and entertainers put on a 2 hour show for us.  Some of the stars this year were Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Tom Dressen, Ray Romano, Clay Walker,John O'Hurley,George Lopez.
In previous years we have seen Glenn Frey from the Eagles, Kevin Costner and his band, Kevin James and Huey Lewis.

Two of my funny stories this year are, when Kevin Costner came to the tee box on Hole 11 on Monterey Peninsula GC, he had on these really spiffy two-tone brown suede shoes.  On of the spectators asked him what kind of shoes they were.  His reply was "I don't know, they're not mine" Whats up with that.......

Years ago Kenny G recorded a song called "Baby G".  I doubt if any of you have ever heard of the song but my husband downloaded the song from I-Tunes and he really liked it.  I don't think it ever was on any of his albums.  Anyway, when Kenny came up to the tee box my husband asked him to consider playing this song next year.  John then told four other marshals to ask him the same thing whenever they saw him on the course.
By the fourth day Kenny just shook his head in confusion every time one of the marshals would ask him this.
Just my husbands weird sense of humor and his way of messing with Kenny.

One of the funniest guys in the tournament has to be George Lopez.  After he hit his shot on #11 he turned around to the crowd and asked" Did anyone see where that went?"  He then pretended to be blind and hold onto his caddy to walk off the tee box.

Another odd fact I found out.  You probably have seen the wild pants that John Daly wears, really wild colors and patterns.  I found out he designs his own pants and his wife wears the same pants on the same day he does.  I saw her earlier in the day and thought to myself, that's a real pretty girl but boy does she have bad taste in pants.  Also he always has an armed guard follow him around the course (packs a gun and all).  I was told it's probably because he has so many ex-wifes that probably want to off him.







On Friday night we always have a party in the Volunteer Tent, they feed us and all the drinks are free.  After two or ten drinks I forgot how sore my body was from standing all day.  Clay Walker brought his band and played for us.  Chris Berman (ESPN) and Chris O'Donnell  (NCIS Los Angeles) joined him to entertain us.  Jeff Maggert also showed up.  Berman did a great rendition of Hotel California.  O'Donnell is a great Jimmy Buffett fan and also John Denver (go figure).


I was really bored on the fairway on #12 at MPCC on Friday and ten deer were playing right behind me so I took pictures with my illegal camera that I wasn't supposed to have with me.  I was a little leery to get too close after my encounter with the wild donkeys, and I sure as hell didn't feed them carrots.


I also saw a huge grey whale cruising by.  The views on 17 mile drive are breathtaking.  We had the most beautiful weather I have ever seen for the tournament.  Usually we freeze our arses off.

We got to see some great golf and I swear I'm not going to do this next year