Wes's Travel Blog

Small World

2012-02-12T14:36:00.000-08:00

Most of us probably rarely think about what a small worldthis has become. Not only do we flyacross the country in a few hours, we can arrive in the distant continents ofAustralia, Asia, Europe, South America and Africa in well under a day. We went from horses to trains to cars to jet planes.

We blasted through the age of Pony Express and telegraphs to telephones and television. We now Skype video calls around the world without leavinghome. We become friends with people onthe other side of the world over the internet. Our progress over the last 150 years dwarfs that which Mark Twain wroteabout in “Innocents Abroad” with such amazement as having progressed from thebeginning of recorded history to his "present" in the 1860s.

“Dan was the northern and Beersheba the southern limit ofPalestine—hence the expression ‘from Dan to Beersheba.’ It is equivalent to our phrases ‘from Maineto Texas’—‘from Baltimore to San Francisco.’ Our expression and that of the Israelites both mean the same—great distance.

With their slow camels and asses, it wasabout seven days’ journey from Dan to Beersheba—say a hundred and fifty orsixty miles—it was the entire length of a country, and was not to be undertakenwithout great preparation and much ceremony.-- When the Prodicgal traveled to 'a far country,' it is not likely that he went more than eighty or ninety miles. Palestine is only from forty to sixty miles wide. The State of Missouri could be split into three Palestines, and there would then be enough material left for part of another--possibly a whole one. From Baltimore to San Francisco is several thousand miles, but it wil be only a seven days' journey in the cars when I am two or three years older.--(The railroad has been completedsince the above was written.)—If I live I shall necessarily have to go acrossthe continent every now and then in those cars, but one journey from Dan toBeersheba will be sufficient, no doubt. It must be the most trying of the two.”

Twain's mode of transportation for his overland Holy Land excursion of several days in blistering heat was on the back of old, lame horses over rocky roads.

It’s good to reflect upon how fortunate we are, and whatamazing opportunities we have in the 21^st Century. Not everyone in the world enjoys ourprivileged perch, and in fact some still live pre-agricultural lives, like the nomadic Bedouins in the Middle East to this day, but I assume if you arereading this blog, you aren’t living in a cave illuminated and warmed by burningdung.

At this time and place, we live with greater dining andentertainment choices than royalty throughout most of history. And as far as travel goes, the vast majority of ancient peoples neverjourneyed as far as that Prodigal Son referenced by Mr. Twain. The question has ceased being "if" it ispossible to go somewhere but rather "when?"

Where in the world would you like to go? Once you decide, it’s just a matter of savingenough to do so in an acceptable style. Once you have your goal, you’ll be surprised how quickly your focused subconsciousmind will find ways to make it happen, and probably sooner than you would haveimagined. Take the first step today bysetting a goal. Better service leads tobetter trips!

Ireland In the Wake of Concordia?

2012-01-27T11:57:00.000-08:00

According to the talking heads on TV, cruise lines must be scrambling to stop cruisers from cancelling their bookings in the wake of 24-7 news coverage of Costa Concordia.

I certainly have received phone calls from clients who reference Concordia, but not in the way broadcasters seem to believe. I am receiving calls from people wondering if there are any deals due to cancellations.

The answer is a definite no. Let me rephrase that. Cruising is always an exceptional value, and sometimes there are even better deals, but Concordia has had zero impact on pricing or cancellatoins. That's not to say that some residual effect for Costa won't emerge, but experienced cruisers know what an anomoly this was. Cruising has always been and remains one of the safest ways to travel. You're safer taking a cruise than going to the grocery store. The most dangerous part of a cruise is the drive to the port, and that's not exactly a white knuckle affair.

This is not to say that there are not on occasion events that impact demand, but the last one that really impacted demand was September 11, 2001, a date most of us remember pretty well. The week or so following that horrific day, passengers cancelled and cruise lines scrambled to fill ships leaving in the immediate future. I couldn't resist a weekend cruise to Baja that left the weekend following 9/11, although I no longer remember what the price was other than cheap. Celebrity redeployed one of its ships to Alaska, which they felt would elicit less fear.

Go back less than eleven years, and you find a completely different world, a world where facebook and smartphones didn't exist, and even computers were much less prevalent. Amazing how fast things change. In those days, printed brochures were how most people learned about cruises, and a ship not in the brochure needed to stimulate demand with low pricing. That week, I locked in group space at what I would call stupidly low pricing, and over the course of the next few months found ready takers. Everyone got a bargain, and we all loved the cruise to Alaska, a remarkable destination to which we will return this summer.

There was another trip Julie and I booked immediately following 9/11/01. It was a self-guided/self-drive/bed and breakfast trip to Ireland for February of 2002. Now keep in mind that February is a low demand month for Ireland, which gets darn cold at that time of year, and in addition to that, people truly were saying they wouldn't get on a plane if they didn't absolutely need to fly in the days following THE September 11.

We didn't believe the world would come to an end, and it turned out to be a good bet, especially when you consider that if the world does end, then you won't care much about having thrown away money on a trip you would have taken if the world hadn't ended.

Anyway, we loved Ireland, despite some chilled bones.

As these things seem to happen, two other events brought my thoughts to Ireland. First, my friend Tom, whose last name indicates Irish ancestry, asked about adding hotels in Ireland and London --- at the end of his Northern Europe cruise scheduled for next summer. Second, a representative from Brendan Vacations happened to be a keynote speaker at a travel conference I attended yesterday, and the photos he showed reminded me of the ones I took on my trip with Julie ten years ago. Linked here is a guided tour of one that does almost exactly what we did. I also sell self-guided B&B tours, either self-drive or chauffeur driven, or hosted city stays in addition to totally on-your-own hotels or guided tours.

I went back through my blog to find posts I wrote about that trip, and it allowed me to relive those great memories. However, I realized it was pretty hard to dig up all these articles, so I decided to link them here. I hope you enjoy reading these articles about Ireland as much as I did re-reading these posts. If you do, why not take a trip there yourself?

While my name indicates I sell cruises, please remember that I am a full-blown American Express Vacations representative, and I represent virtually every major land tour, hotel and packager in the world. So, when you want a great land trip, contact me.

Here are the links, which include lots of photos as well as great memories:

Dublin

Glendalough

Powerscourt and Kilkenny

Rock of Cashel

Ardmore

Lakes of Killarney

Kerry and the Dingle

Cliffs of Moher

The Burren and Ennis

Italian Cruises Less Safe Than American?

2012-01-25T11:07:00.000-08:00

"Late in his life, Sir Winston took a cruise on an Italian ship. A journalist from a New York newspaper approached the former prime minister to ask him why he chose to travel on an Italian line when the Queen Elizabeth under the British flag was available.

"Churchill gave the question his consideration and then gravely replied: 'There are three things I like about Italian ships. First, their cuisine, which is unsurpassed. Second, their service, which is quite superb. And then — in time of emergency — there is none of this nonsense about women and children first.'" ---From "The Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill" by James C. Humes

The recent blunder by Costa Concordia's captain that resulted in tragedy off the coast of Italy has led to vocal concerns about cruise ship safety.

Please know that cruising remains one of the safest means of travel, and this reckless idiot is not representative of the cruise industry in general or even Italian cruises specifically.

Obviously, Concordia ran into trouble off its homeland's craggy coast, and as the largest cruise line in Europe, most of its passengers for that trip were European. Only 129 US passengers were aboard that ship. I've sent some Americans on Costa, and all have had great experiences, enjoying the signature toga parties and delicious pasta. They went with the understanding that most of their fellow passengers would be European and announcements would be made in about five languages (not that unusual for any ship operating in European waters, since even more familiar names like Royal Caribbean and Carnival also attract lots of locals when cruising the Mediterranean, even if they seem primarily marketed to Americans from our perspective).

Another Italian line, MSC, received lots of praise in Europe from my past guests, but on recent Canada/New England cruises, some of my clients complained of poor service and disorganization. I believe this must have to do with English skills of the crew to some extent, because the management of MSC seemed to have the line on an excellent track until I heard of these SNAFUs. Reports from Concordia reported similar language problems for English speakers trying to understand what was happening.

In Concordia's disastrous lifeboat evacuation, in which the captain and his crew were among the first off, Churchill's joke sounds plausible, and I can't say that it wouldn't be without merit for Americans to be cautious of non-US flagged ships, except for one problem: the only large American flagged ship is Pride of America, which cruises exclusively in Hawaii.

All of the other ships with familiar brand names that blast commercials on American television are flagged in places like Bermuda and Liberia, because America makes it too hard to be flagged in the USA. Critics will stand to say this is to avoid safety in order to save money, but that is not true. Cruise companies go out of their way to protect the safety of their passengers, crew and multi-million dollar floating resorts, if only because it is sound business practice. The lunacy of Concordia's Captain Catastrophe notwithstanding, cruise lines understand that safety is at the foundation of their offerings.

Most cruise lines hold lifeboat drills before the ship leaves its home port. Every cruise I've ever been on followed this protocol, and I believe it to have been standard for all cruise lines operating in US waters. If you've been on a cruise, you've heard people grumble about how boring lifeboat drills are, but obviously this training is important for the crew as well as the passengers. The law allows this drill to be done within 24 hours of departure, so if you happen to be on a ship that doesn't do the muster drill before you leave, take time to read instructions on your cabin door about the location your muster station and of lifeboats.

As my friend Bill and I discussed the other day, Costa will probably now become one of the biggest sticklers for safety, shutting the barn door after the bull has escaped. So too, may I add, will other cruise lines and their staffs re-focus their already strong attention to lifeboat drills and risk-averse navigation.

By the way, the reason cruise ships aren't US flagged has to do with labor protectioinism, not ship safety. It's another ironic case of unintended consequences of government action. I would love to have more US flagged vessels, built in the USA by American workers for the American audience for a change, and cruise ships are the kind of capital intensive, high skill production jobs that Americans can still compete in against manufacturers in other countries like Japan, Germany and Italy.

Why Not Reunite With Family and Friends On an Alaska Cruise?

2012-01-23T16:29:00.000-08:00

While cruises in the South Pacific, Europe and other placesfar afield always entice, don’t forget there are cruises close to home,including Alaska, a gorgeous natural destination a world away from hot citiesin summer.

Daughter Gina recently made plans to go on an Inside Passagecruise roundtrip from Seattle along with her husband Laszlo and toddlerEmma. When some friends from their daysat UCLA also contacted me about Alaska, I was happy they all came to agreementon Golden Princess, which will cruise roundtrip from Seattle, a fascinatingcity in its own right.

Despite being one of the top lines in Alaska with terrificseminars about Alaska’s history, nature and wildlife to supplement dazzlingentertainment choices, Princess also prices their trips to provide maximumvalue for travelers seeking a comfortable home away from home. Their large deployment of ships in Alaskashows their commitment to this amazing region.

Alaska wasn’t on Julie’s top 5 list, because we cruised theInside Passage in 2002 and still have too many places we haven’t cruised yet, butwe decided it would be a great alternative to flying to New York and staying afew days at a hotel to visit Gina, Laszlo and Emma. The cruise would cost considerably less thana hotel in Manhattan. Add in all thedelicious meals and great entertainment, and it became obvious that we need togo on this trip too. Crazy, I know, but we like cruises better than subways. And that’s beforeconsidering the beauty of the Inside Passage and Alaska, which of course arereasons enough to cruise the area.

There is a lot to be said for a north or south boundcruise, including the not insignificant facts that you see more of the Alaskacoast and have the opportunity to explore places like Anchorage, Denali andFairbanks on a tour after your cruise. But the easy access of an Inside Passage cruise along with inclusion of most of the same ports and outstanding vistas everywhere you look make it a great choice too.

Whether you drive or fly, Seattle is a convenient roundtrip embarkationport regardless of your home state, with flights west making the time changework in your favor to reach the ship on time.

But it's not just convenient. Did you realize people fly in from all over the world to see thewonders of the Inside Passage and Alaska? Last summer, I had two couples from London join their friends who hadmoved to Westminster on an Alaska cruise aboard Celebrity, which is a particularlyterrific line for empty nesters who enjoy fine dining.

Alaska can be an attractive alternative for your next reunionwith family and friends too. There arelots of great ships in Alaska this summer, and I’d be happy to help you zero inon one perfect for your group, or we’d love to have you join us aboard GoldenPrincess.

What is the Inside Passage, and what can you see on an Alaskacruise? Tune in next week (or whenever Iget around to it). Same Bat time. Same Bat channel.

The Cost of Search

2012-01-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

As someone who majored in Economics in college (or at least that is how my Chapman College Bachelor's degree reads although I have to confess that toward the end I was taking more religion and poli-sci classes than economics), I know the "cost of search" is a very real part of any equation for value, even if someone like my sister would claim that digging through sale racks for the occasional perfect outfit or pair of shoes that she might wear someday is entertaining as well as cost-saving.

Economically, "search" is not considered fun but time-consuming, frustrating and problematic. That's why a dress at Nordstrom's is worth more than the same dress at Ross Dress For Less.

Obviously, if you drive to Seattle to get a good deal on fish at Pike's Marketplace, then the cost of taking a few days off work, gasing up the Corvette and buying food and lodging en route would eat up any marginally insignificant price difference between buying that "bargain," which by the time you return home and cook is no longer fresh, and just going to Fleming's to order the fresh catch prepared by a gourmet chef.

That trip to Seattle might be fun, but from an economic standpoint, it would be considered the price of search, and a more thorough search might have taken you in a private jet to Juneau or Boston, which would have made it even costlier.

In the internet age, however, it is easy to flip through sites and search prices. I even see people at Best Buy scanning camera prices with an iPhone and, after thoroughly examining the real thing at Best Buy, which had to pay rent for the storefront, interest on their flooring of merchandise and for hiring and training experts to help their customers, go home and order the "same" product online to save sales tax or some other marginally insignificant amount compared to how much Best Buy saved this person in their cost of search. After all, if the internet really had all the answers, why did they want to go to Best Buy and actually hold the camera in their hands? I predict this sounds the death knell for many stores shoppers enjoy visiting.

I would be a fool to believe this doesn't happen in the world of cruises. I help clients find exactly the right product for them, most often narrowing it down to two or three excellent choices of which I know one is clearly superior, and make a professional presentation of the benefits of each. In order to give an accurate price, I have made it my policy to option rooms on behalf of my clients, so that if they come back to me in two days, I still have the room they wanted at the price I quoted. Most other reputable agencies follow the same policy.

Recently, however, I have been forced to re-think my process. A few weeks ago, a potential client phoned me to ask pricing, and knowing that Royal Caribbean would hold a cruise sale that would give them $100 onboard credit if they waited three days, I gave them the choice between gambling that the price wouldn't change to get the onboard credit or locking the room right then. I didn't hold a room for them at that time, as I knew under new strict promotion rules that Royal Caribbean might consider that to be "cancelled and re-booked," which would not allow the onboard credit. They chose the former, as I probably would have myself, and all went well, I thought, in that the price didn't change in the interim and they benefited by the half priced deposit under the promotion.

Fast forward to yesterday, when that client phoned me to add transfers to their cruise which leaves in about a month and as an aside asked about the onboard credit, which they had the impression might be even higher based on some ad they had seen. Royal Caribbean, however, shocked me by saying there was no onboard credit because the clients did not qualify for the credit due to having cancelled through another travel agency before booking with me.

In fact, my clients had not cancelled with another travel agency, but they had checked a different travel agency for pricing, trying to be thorough in their search for the best deal. Because I happened to have a group on that same cruise with $50 onboard credit, Royal Caribbean generously allowed my clients to have that, as if they were in that now "closed" group, but the cost of search reared its ugly head in a way I haven't seen before, as $50 lost onboard credit (which should have been $100).

All of the cruise lines have strict policies against presenting prices or rebates that vary from their official prices, with substantial penalties for violation. A good agent can go through the cruise line promotions and find better deals for past guests, seniors, residents of specific states or some other categories, but we aren't supposed to wing it, because the cruise lines understand that makes decision making harder for the consumer, who will bog down the system doing a "thorough" search of travel agencies that results in the ship appearing to have more sold rooms than it does, since most couples don't require more than one room on any given trip.

Add the special one day promotions into the mix, along with the prohibition to cancel and re-book, when in fact cancelling only means that you checked the price, and you can see that the cost of search expands into twilight zone dimensions. If you want to work with a travel agent like me and benefit from our insider experince and knowledge, please do, but do us all a favor and just work with one. The cost of search is higher than you think, and now it comes with backfire costs.

Mark Twain and Luxury Cruises

2012-01-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

If you doubt the ability of the human mind to attract exactlythe information you need from highly unlikely and seemingly unrelated sources,try doing a daily crossword puzzle in your newspaper. You’ll be amazed. For example, a couple of days ago I readabout Mark Twain visiting Genoa, Italy, and seeing where Christopher Columbuswas born, and in today’s crossword puzzle, the clue for 49 down was “Hometownof Columbus.”

I’ve been slowly perusing “Innocents Abroad,” a book Twaincompiled from articles he wrote for a newspaper that sent him on a world cruiseas a correspondent. At the outset, Twainplaced his ten percent deposit on the $1250 cruise and “rejoiced to know that afew vacant staterooms were left.” I hopeall my clients feel exactly this way upon booking a cruise through me.

Just paying the fare, however, was not enough on thisforerunner to modern cruising, as passengers needed to be approval by the“Committee on Applications” to join the august company of excursionists, whichaccording to the circular would include many celebrities and dignitaries.

“I did avoid a critical personal examination into mycharacter by that bowelless committee, but I referred to all the people of highstanding I could think of in the community who would be least likely to knowanything about me.”

In the 21^st century, every American citizen ingood standing is welcome on every cruise ship, as long as we have the price ofadmission, and while $1250 was a princely sum in the 1800s, and young MarkTwain could only afford it because his newspaper paid for him, today there are cruiseaffordable to virtually any American. Ilove these mainstream cruises, but for some, the crowds attracted by thisegalitarian approach are a bit too much, and for those who can afford it, thereare luxury cruises.

The luxury cruises include all of the perks we all enjoy,like packing and unpacking only once while seeing a panorama of amazing cities,as well as fantastic meals and entertainment, but luxury buyers demandmore. They want more inclusions likegratuities, fine wines, alternative dining, selected excursions and evenpre-cruise hotels and air travel in a seamless package, with service that notsimply meets our needs on request but anticipates them without asking. Of course, we all would ideally like that,but luxury travelers can afford luxurious things others dream about.

What is not so obvious is that luxury travel is not theexclusive purview of some privileged elite class with “old money.” A secretary who brown bags it daily may saveto splurge once a year on a lavish holiday. Someone celebrating a honeymoon, retirement or monumental anniversarymight make the occasion extra special with a luxury cruise. Someone who survived a tragedy and nowrealizes how precious each moment of life actually is may also take a luxuryvacation, as might an explorer who wants to go to the small ports that only asmaller ship can visit.

You may be surprised to learn that the average age of theluxury cruiser is actually 49, reflecting many entrepreneurs and fast risingexecutives who consider travel the ultimate reward for a job well done. In the final analysis, what these people havein common is recognition of value over price and the means to pay for theirtrips. Like the well-healed of Twain’sday, they enjoy collecting experiences, recognizing that the ultimate luxury isknowledge.

Do you deserve to experience a truly luxurious cruiseexperience accompanied by seekers of excellence?

It's the Light and Hotel Zoso Palm Springs

2012-01-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

Once you’ve reached a certain age, you’ve probably had this experience.

You look in your friendly bathroom mirror, and while you acknowledge the careful application of makeup or hair color if you’re a woman or maybe quickly applied Grecian Formula (to control your dandruff only, of course) if you’re not, you say to yourself, “I still look pretty much the same as I have for decades.”

Later that same day, however, someone pulls out her iPhone or camera, and when you see your picture you are surprised to discover how you look to the world. A recently circulated email about two friends sitting at a bar hits the nail on the head. “See those two drunks sitting at the end of the bar. In ten years, that could be us.”

His friend replies, “You idiot. That’s a mirror.”

No wonder they call that bathroom sink area a vanity. While it may have something to do with how comfortable we are with the “home court advantage,” I think the lighting has a lot to do with it.

Properly lit, our faces are shadowed under the cheeks whereas the unforgiving camera flattens the image. An unfriendly mirror in Fantastic Sam’s does the same. Bags under what formerly appeared to be bright eyes seem to pick up plenty of shadow in either of these situations. What’s the solution?

Find better light.

Ever since Bob Hope essentially invented Palm Springs by purchasing a bunch of real estate and making it a chic weekend escape from Hollywood for golf and nightclubbing, Southern Californians and snowbirds from all over have been going to Palm Springs for that amazing light.

It’s no surprise to find lots of art galleries in the area, because artists love to paint with that light.

The sky is bright blue, and the desert sun beams down glorious light seemingly unrefracted by whatever grabs it in ordinary city streets and turns us into relics in public. Sure, you can get similarly great light in the South Pacific, Mediterranean or Caribbean, but they aren’t a two hour drive from Los Angeles.

And the fact that the sun tan that comes with the exposure gives us a healthy-looking glow doesn’t hurt either.

I know what you’re thinking. "Stay out of the sun, because it’s bad for you." My wife certainly tells me that, even as we are resting between snorkel dives on the beach in Moorea, sipping ouzo at a Cliffside bodega in Santorini or lounging by the pool bathed in that glorious Palm Springs sun.

But I ask you this: when you see someone your age who avoids the sun, do they really seem younger to you?

In contrast, Palm Springs attracts lots of retirees who seem to think they are twenty or thirty years younger than they are. I see them out walking in their jogging suits at sunrise when I head out to find a Starbucks or McDonalds, and at lunch I see women dressed to the casual nines including carefully selected jewelry and shoes along with men wearing what George Castanza’s father called “cabana wear,”sipping margaritas or coffee and munching chips or bagels at sidewalk cafés. Apparently, none of them got the health guidelines and live to ripe old ages in ignorance.

When I glanced at the obituaries over coffee, expecting to see a long list of octogenarians, I found mostly people with Hispanic names born in the 1950s. I’m not sure exactly what that means, other than perhaps they’re the product of more recent immigrations, working themselves to death doing the jobs Americans won’t do. Then again, maybe it just means the families place the obits in the home town papers where the old folks lived before retiring, but these sunshine aficionados seem to be at least delaying the reaper.

In any case, Julie and I have been going to Palm Springs for years, sometimes with the kids and sometimes as an extended date night. We stayed at Doral Desert Princess in Cathedral City so often that we called it our desert house. For our 26^th Anniversary, we decided to go to Palm Springs once more, partly because our youngest daughter Amy, who is on winter break from UConn, said it would be fun to go again.

Doral Desert Princess seems to have been discovered finally, after years of serving up amazing views of the golf course and mountains from a lovely pool at bargain rates, so we looked for an adequate replacement. Using the B.E.A.C.H. (booking engine for air, cars and hotels) at CruisePlanners1.com, we found Hotel Zoso, a four star property in an excellent central location with an astonishing low price.

Julie read the reviews and found them to her liking, and I looked at the pictures and figured that even if they were taken in perfect lighting immediately after a remodel, the place still must be livable, and we booked it.

Stylishly decorated in a modern motif harmoniously combining glass, shiny metal, natural materials and vibrant red, Hotel Zoso exudes panache in the public spaces and comfortably appointed rooms. Does that sound like me?

Perhaps another element of Palm Springs influenced my description. Hotel Zoso apparently attracts a significant number of gay and lesbian guests, or at least there were quite a few same-sex couples in town for the film festival who were enjoying the pool area. If you’re homophobic, then Palms Springs may not be a good choice. Amy and I walked past a clothing store called Gay Mart on our way to the Circle K to buy Diet Pepsi, which turned out to have an expired date code (check date codes on sodas, as the taste definitely fades in the can).

Despite the odd tasting Diet Pepsi, which we drank in a poolside cabana, flaunting a sign that prohibited outside beverages from entering the pool area, we enjoyed reading as we lounged under that glorious desert sky.

Acknowledging my turtle-like reading progress, I am still making my way through Mark Twain’s first book, “Innocents Abroad” on Julie’s Kindle Fire. I’ve found, by the way, that Fire may not be as good as the traditional Kindle for reading in the sun. I say “may not,” because I am only going with the reputation of the original Kindle. The Kindle Fire, in order to have the full color images apparently, has a more reflective screen which makes colors pop from the internet but also obscures the black and white book pages. I adjusted the size of the font and carried on, and as I read Twain’s descriptions of Napoleon III, I was happy to be able to toggle over to the internet to read more about this fascinating historical figure, who for me had been a footnote in history as the nephew of “the great” Napoleon Bonaparte but I have recently learned was obviously much more. Being so easily sidetracked contributes to making book reading a longer term proposition for me than Julie, but she also reads faster and more regularly.

You may be asking yourself if Wes has become an untracked train at this point, since this article on Palm Springs (or is it about self-image or lighting?) seems to be twisting this way and that, like the Kuranda Railway, but in fact this is the way I used to write before I became more focused in my approach. In reading Mr. Twain’s first book, I find that he writes in this manner, and I rather enjoy reading it, so I thought, “Why not regress to my natural inclinations, at least for this one post?”

Whether it is embarrassing or simply factual, this is how my brain often works, bringing tangentially related subjects together to find some synchronistic, holistic truth. As a travel consultant, this type of thinking allows me to help my clients find what they really want, moving beyond "interchangeable commodity" thinking where price and simplistic notions of category and slogans that otherwise result in less than optimal choices for specific individuals.

Anyway (how’s that for an awkward transition back to the topic of Palm Springs?), strolling out to the pool, you can see the craggy peaks that, along with the natural desert topography, resembles a Martian landscape in some low budget scify movie (and perhaps was used as such before the little metropolis of Palm Spings grew up). Neither pool nor hot tub are unusually large, but they don’t need to be based on what I saw. Like others, we took a couple of turns in the hot tub, but the pool was more for a quick cool down rather than a swim. In fact, I never saw anyone swim a single lap in the pool. Most were content to while away their time chatting or reading in the padded lounge chairs, which were also more than adequately numbered.

We took advantage of the complimentary cabanas, which allowed me to both see the Kindle Fire screen that almost disappeared in the bright sun and allay Julie’s fear of me getting too much sun exposure. Plus, they were cool, literally and figuratively. I would surmise that one day there probably will be a charge, but for now cabanas are presumably covered by the $15 per day (actually, that is an understated amount, because HZ assesses a tax on it in the final bill) resort fee.

The resort fee would also cover the spa, which will probably conform with the rest of the property but was closed while under construction. More significantly, the resort fee does cover free internet, which is how I could access the web on my Kindle by the pool. In the room, we at first thought the wireless would not work, but Amy eventually figured out that she needed to simply point her Mac and iPhone at the “Conference” network rather than the one Hotel Zoso provided in other parts of the property.

While this resort fee is mentioned in the small print while booking, whether on my website or at the hotel itself (which actually cost more than my site), you would be wrong to assume this includes parking. Valet parking is another $15 for overnight, or $6 for day use. We found we could park on the public street behind our hotel for free and actually be closer to our room. During the day, however, we parked in the free parking garage about a block away so that the black Jeep stayed cool.

If it feels like you will get nickel and dimed at this place based on those two fees, relax. Beyond those, you won’t, and keep in mind that the hotel is quite affordable, at least currently. Plus, there are a couple of perks designed to get you to spend more money there. The indoor/outdoor restaurant gives overnight guests 50% off breakfast, whether that is the $19.95 buffet or $10.95 eggs bennedict or some other choice. We chose our usual non-cruise vacation gourmet fare, McDonald’s, for breakfast instead, but this deal in a lovely setting would beat most of the restaurants in town.

There’s also a chic bar which features a daily happy hour from 5 to 8 PM (did I really need to point out that it wasn’t AM?), with $3.50 well drinks and $3.25 draft Stellas. There were other special prices as well, but those were the deals. For what it is worth, I asked if ouzo and ice water would be considered a well drink, and it would not. We had happy hour drinks in the lobby both nights. On the second night, about five minutes before nine, a formally dressed lady told us we would need to leave, as there was a scheduled function for the Palm Springs Film Festival. We were about to exit anyway, but I have to say it looked like they could have used us as seat fillers until the stars arrived. From what I heard, George Clooney and company had split by the time we arrived on Sunday morning to learn the Film Festival was in full swing, and I presume the stars were big donors like the one or two early arrivals.

We didn’t see any of the movies in PS, by the way, but Julie and I did go to see Mission Impossible 4, Ghost Protocol, on Saturday back home, and I doubt any of the these art house movies would have been as impressive to us. Two thumbs way up! I should offer the caveat that unlike the old TV show, this movie used considerable exposition and other spoon feeding to make it easy to follow the plot. Personally, I liked that spoon fed story to go along with my popcorn and soda in this case. Jump on a couch, Tom Cruise, you deserve the exuberant celebration.

The location of Hotel Zoso is terrific. One downside of Doral Desert Princess or even the improbably designed J. W. Marriott Desert Springs is their isolation from downtown Palm Springs.

We enjoy wandering up and down the streets, checking out cowboy clothing at Pony Express or surprisingly good selection of women's clothes at some S16 and under store. Okay, I don’t really like the shopping that much, but I like walking around with a sense of purpose before grabbing a frozen yogurt.

And of course, downtown Palm Springs has lots of great restaurants. Our favorite, Las Casuelas Terraza, is a short walk from Hotel Zoso. We often eat there immediately upon arriving in Palm Springs, and after checking into our hotel, we did so on this occasion. Julie’s half order of beef quesadilla ($7.50) and Amy’s sweet corn tamale special ($8.95) satisfied them, but I won the award for best value (and flavor as far as I’m concerned) with the two item combo, which for me was a chicken taco and chili relleno served with beans and rice for $8.95. We like sitting in the outdoor patio by the palapa bar, but on Sunday an excellent band attracted a crowd that filled that section, so we sat on the other side at a table by the sidewalk, which was just as good. Because they were busy, service was on the slow side, but the assistant waiter kept bringing chips and salsa to replace our empty bowls. When we were first dating, Julie and I used to go to El Paso Cantina on the Long Beach Marina to play backgammon and have a glass of sangria before dinner, and we inevitably ate so many free chips that we begged off on dinner. Things haven’t changed too much, except that at Las Casuelas Terraza we ordered our meals as soon as we sat, and we dutifully finished them, too. Only Amy had any left over.

On Monday, we decided to return to Las Casuelas, and again I won the award for best value when I repeated my order, while Julie went for a beef tostada ($10.95), which for all intents and purposes is a giant salad served in a big fried tortilla, and Amy a chicken salad ($10.95), with a major difference being a large leaf of purple lettuce as a bowl instead of a tortilla. However, Amy did snag some of Julie’s tortilla bowl. Apparently, word of these bottomless chip-eating gringos from the day before had spread through the kitchen, so they made sure to get our food out pronto on this day.

You’ll notice I skipped dinner on Sunday. I will sheepishly admit that we drove to Panda Express and split a three piece combo three ways, which we found quite amusing. I’m happy as long as I get to have Kung Pao Chicken as the third item in one of those little to-go boxes and shovel it in my face with chopsticks.

Monday night was our anniversary, so we actually went out for a nice dinner at Zin American Bistro, where we sat at a candlelit outdoor table. Julie’s fillet mignon ($31) was thick and juicy, definitely not some top sirloin masquerading as the real thing. Amy’s chicken schnitzel ($23) was fried to perfection, and though she at first wanted to substitute for the pickled vegetable side dish, she loved the reality it proved to be. I once again won the prize for best value and flavor with the fish special of the evening, a macadamia-crusted Mahi Mahi served with mashed potatoes and spinach at $25. This restaurants gets three thumbs up, or whatever the designation for good food and atmosphere happens to be. As we patted ourselves on the back for splurging for such a nice anniversary dinner, Amy schooled us on an alternative reality where a college friend of her boyfriend spent $120 for his own share of a birthday dinner. How do kids have so much money to spend?

When Amy went to Paris, she said she planned to get a haircut there. I’m not sure if I dissuaded her or she just ran out of time, but in Palm Springs, she insisted to accomplish the task. We gave her $25 that we would have paid for The Haircutters in Manhattan Beach (assuming she wouldn’t follow my Fantastic Sam’s lead), and she chose Raphael’s, which prides itself on the perfect haircut, according to their ads. On our way there, we passed another salon that would have been $18 less, but Amy had made up her mind.

And the $46 plus tip she paid made her quite happy. It included a massage as well as a 20 minute shampoo leading to a haircut that took over an hour to complete. When she came back to our hotel, her long locks were gone. While a haircut may not seem like that significant an occasion to those of us who go in every few weeks to maintain equilibrium, Amy’s hair previously stretched to the middle of her back, and when properly brushed it elicited compliments wherever she went. Eliminating such a crowd-pleasing feature would be tantamount to cutting off a nose for most people, but Amy is fashion fearless, and it turned out great. With the eight inches cut from the bottom, the hair that remained sprang back into angelic curls, and I think she looks even prettier than before. I told her to send a photo from her iPhone to her Aunt Darlene, who as a former hairdresser would appreciate the beautiful transformation, but Amy said the last time she saw my sister that Darlene had specifically complimented her on growing out her hair. Amy didn’t want to say, “See, I did the opposite,” although I know Darlene understands.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and after reading this long, long post, you now fully understand that statement, so here is a photo of Amy après haircut.

As these things seem to work, while Amy indulged in her Palm Springs salon session, I came to a section in "Innocents Abroad" where Mark Twain wrote of his less satisfactory experience getting a shave in Paris, where no fit barber could be found and the "wigmaker" nearly skinned him alive.

Symmetry between introduction and conclusion is a key to a well-crafted story, although at this point you probably have come to the conclusion that brevity is vastly underrated. Can you imagine if I took this blogging approach to an entire cruise? I dare say you would be able to psychoanalyze me better than Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung if you slogged through it all.

Anyway, somehow I have returned to contemplating image, in this case my youngest daughter cutting her hair. Despite changing what many thought needed no change, Amy emerged more beautiful than before. Certainly she has that unfair advantage of youth, when she can look at herself in pictures and see the same face that was in the friendly vanity mirror, but it is more than that. It is that she enjoyed a nice vacation, an escape to a land of beautiful light and sumptuous dinning, where strangers discuss interesting concepts we haven’t recently pondered and familiar habits are forgotten, at least to some extent.

While driving home yesterday, I glanced at the driver of a new BMW convertible next to me. She was a middle-aged blonde, and with the top down in her new car I would have thought she’d look relaxed and happy. Instead, I saw stress in her taut facial muscles as she glanced worriedly at her Blackberry. As to what she thought she saw there I don’t know, but what I saw was someone who thought happiness would come with shinier possessions, when in fact happiness and perhaps youth come from embracing the present moment.

In looking back at photos of our Australia and South Pacific trip from a year and a half ago, I couldn’t help noticing how Julie and I changed over the course of the trip, actually getting younger if I didn’t know better. One of the best ways to remember that happy person is to escape on a vacation, and with that rediscovery of your inner self, you may find the mirror image begins appearing with your public persona.

Princess and the Pacific

2012-01-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

Mention cruising, and visions of the turquoise waters and sandy beaches of the Caribbean quickly come to mind, and Princess Cruises certainly does a great job there. We've enjoyed Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises with Princess. Their seven and ten night offerings to the Southern Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale are quite tempting.

Princess also has outstanding itineraries in Europe. Their wonderful onboard presentations bring history alive, adding context to the ports visited.

If you remember back to the old Love Boat television show from the 1970s, which for most of us was how we learned of destination cruising for the first time, you may recall that Captain Stubing usually sailed the Pacific Princess from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera, and it is that presence on the Pacific Coast that makes Princess particularly appealing for Californians.

The recent troubles in Mexico have curtailed demand for ports like Mazatlan and Acapulco, so Princess has increasingly taken passengers along the Pacific Coast. These are terrific cruises for both out of state vacationers who want to visit California as well as for Californians who enjoy visiting great cities in our fair state without the hassles of packing and unpacking.

In the summer, of course, Princess is one of the best cruise lines in Alaska, with seven ships in the region delivering diverse options including two ships doing the Inside Passage from Seattle and one ship doing longer Inside Passage voyages from San Francisco as well as four ships on the Voyage of the Glaciers route that shows you more Alaska and opens the door to amazing tours to Denali and other inland Alaskan wonders.

However, there is more to the Pacific than just the West Coast of North America. Did you realize that for the 2012-13 season, Princess will have eight ships in Hawaii, Tahiti and the South Pacific?

Cruising to Hawaii roundtrip from Los Angeles is a terrific way to visit these great American islands. Begin with four days at sea, unwinding from the stress of your daily life, enjoying the welcoming comfort Princess is famous for. Then island hop between the four major islands, spending a full day in each. Because this is a cruise, you don't have to spend a fortune for expensive meals on shore, and Princess will even bring local entertainment like Polynesian dancers onboard.

At some point, you probably dreamed about the South Pacific. Bali Hai. French Polynesia. Nobody has more ships visiting this amazing area than Princess. You can even cruise between Hawaii and Tahiti, enjoying the best tropical islands in the North Pacific before cruising across the equator to the southern hemisphere. Quite simply the best places I have ever been for snorkeling and water activity, Moorea and Bora Bora, must be visited, and re-visited. And cruising, with meals and evening entertainment, is the very best way to do this.

Australia and New Zealand are two more amazing destinations in the Princess focus, and going once will make you want to return. My wife Julie always has a list of vacations she wants to take, and this one topped the list for several years, but with kids in school, it is hard to figure out how to get away for a long enough time to make the long flights worthwhile. With our youngest away in college, we finally crossed this off the list in 2010, with a sweeping vacation that took us from the Great Barrier Reef to Hawaii on what I highly recommend as a trip of a lifetime.

Admittedly, these longer voyages in the South Pacific, especially the ones where a couple of itineraries are strung together, may be difficult for younger people to swing, but if you're an empty nester, rather than lamenting the flight of your baby birds, take flight yourself...or should I say set sail? The South Pacific awaits those bold enough to make the journey.

Kindling and the Holiday Hearth

2012-01-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

Giving Julie a Kindle Fire for Christmas proved to be a good excuse to download Mark Twain's first book, "Innocent's Abroad," which long ago entered the public domain and is a free download.

Published in 1867, this travel book by the renowned humorist appeals to me on several levels, not the least of which is because he writes about a world cruise. Just as visiting his house in Connecticut revealed how remarkably the technology, utensils and built environment of our homes have changed in a little over a century, this book reveals how cruising and travel have advanced, and as such, I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys cruising.

Because he is Mr. Twain, there are lots of insightful observations that bring a smile of recognition despite the wide chasm of time between the time he wrote them and now. In a funny section about an excursion, Twain describes zigzagging through a village in the Azores on donkeys, coming to this timeless conclusion:

"It was fun, scurrying around the breezy hills and through the beautiful canyons. There was that rare thing, novelty, about it; it was a fresh, new, exhilerating sensation, this donkey riding, and worth a hundred worn and threadbare home pleasures."

Beginning with the promises of the advertising circular, Twain revealed that onboard the steamer passengers would enjoy wonderful entertainment, which meant a small library, church services and musical instruments, including "a disreputable accordion that had a leak somewhere and breathed louder than it squawked - a more elegant term does not occur to me just now. However, the dancing was infinitely worse than the music. When the ship rolled to starboard the whole platoon of dancers came charging down to starboard with it, and brought up in mass at the rail; and when it rolled to port they went floundering down to port with the same unanimity of sentiment. Waltzers spun around precariously for a matter of fifteen seconds and then went scurrying down to the rail as if they meant to go overboard. The Virginia reel, as performed on board the Quaker City, had more genuine reel about it than any reel I ever saw before, and was as full of interest to the spectator as it was full of desperate chances and hairbreadth escapes to the participant. We gave up dancing, finally."

Twain also wrote about passengers who began the trip writing page after page in their journals, but who eventually gave it up. "If you wish to inflict a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him to keep a journal for a year."

This blog is something of a journal, but no one forces me to write it, and for whatever reason, I find the act of writing pleasurable. It is a way to pass on information to anyone who happens to read it, which apparently includes you on occasion, but primarily, I would have to say it is a way of reliving the experiences, passing time while waiting for the phone to ring, and so when I am busy with visiting family or my actual travels, I don't generally write much.

Anyway, that is my long-winded way of saying that I haven't posted much to this blog lately because I've been busy. My oldest daughter Gina came into town just before Thanksgiving to work with USC, and she brought my granddaughter Emma along to have time to get to know her California grandparents, which of course was a terrific treat. While I love to travel, it proved just as entertaining to see where I live through the fresh eyes of a child.

A few weeks later, my youngest daughter Amy arrived for Winter Break, and my son Jay started spending more time away from his home in the Valley to be with us in Manhattan Beach. For Christmas, we drove to Montana for an amazing ski vacation with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Following that, we returned home to a family reunion of Julie's side of the family, with her older sister Cheryl and our nephew Jered staying on a few days, so this is the first time I've sat down to blog since dashing out our Christmas letter.

I've included a couple of videos to show what we were up to while I played hookie from writing my blog.

Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!

2011-12-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

In my annual Christmas letter, I focus on the positivechanges and events, but sometimes a shadow of sadness must be reported. This year, Julie’s mother Edna passed away inthe fall after a long period of declining health. She will be missed by all of us, but she wasready to make her transition.

At the other end of the life spectrum, granddaughter Emma turned one in June, andshe seems to already understand everything, or at least everything within hersphere of influence in the present moment. We were fortunate to spend some time with her and her parents on severaloccasions throughout the year. DaughterGina brought Emma to California for an extended visit in November and December, whichhas been fantastic. Gina worked at USC as part of hernew five year grant project. Securing that grant was the biggest headline for Gina this year,ensuring her position at Columbia University. Gina continues to have a steady stream of public health articles published in prestigious journals, and she serves as an editor for American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Her husband Laszlo couldn’t join us in California due to his obligations as acomputer teacher at the Museum School, a public high school in New York, but his mother Ria came forabout the last three weeks to help care for Emma.

Jay’s big headline also related to work. He secured a permanent position withUniversal Music Group, the leading music company in the world. He’s been enjoying all aspects of his job,which involves music placement within television and film soundtracks, and hasbeen receiving lots of positive feedback from supervisors and associates. Finding employment has been difficult forcollege graduates the last three years, but Jay managed to land one exactlyin his preferred career path. He loves his work, which utilizes his extensive knowledge of music, TV, movies andvideo games. His vocation is truly his avocation, and he has attended many concerts and screenings. He still lives in the SanFernando Valley, where he added a new roommate who has become a goodfriend. Jay has been hiking in thewilderness on weekends, frequently accompanied by his roommate or one of hisother friends. We're happy to say Jay still takes time to come visit Mom and Pop, whether for some homemade meatloaf or a happy hour at Patrick Molloy's.

Amy has been busy at UConn. Amy started the year with Julie and Wes at the Grand Canyon, a preamble to cheering on UConn’s football team in Phoenix'sFiesta Bowl. UConn didn’t fare nearly as well on the gridiron as theirbasketball team did during their amazing run to the NCAA Championship. Amy went with Honors students to help rebuild New Orleans over spring break. For the summer, Amy landed a prizedinternship with Hearst Publications at Country Living Magazine, a job thatprompted her to send e-mails saying, “Love love love my job!” She stayed with Gina, Laszlo and Emma for thesummer, which made it even more special. She only came home for a weekend in summer, to attend cousin Kelsey’swedding, an occasion that also brought Laszlo, Gina and Emma from New York to join the California contingent. For Thanksgiving Break, Amyflew to Paris to spend the week with a UConn friend spending semester studyingabroad. In between, Amy managed to holddown a paid editor position with the Daily Campus and earn straight A’s despitea heavy load.

With Julie’s company of the last 10 years, CSC, announcingthey would consolidate headquarters in their Virginia headquarters near DC, webalked at making the cross-country move, opting to stay in SouthernCalifornia. Julie officially leaves inearly 2012, but she already landed a new position as Director of CorporateBenefits at Wyle Labs, which happens to be about a hundred yards from where shecurrently works. She has high hopes,because she no longer will have 71 unions to juggle as she did at CSC.

Wes continued to work as a cruise consultant, helping lotsof great people embark on dream vacations. Jay, Amy, Julie and Wes took an amazing vacation to the Greek Isles,spending time exploring Rome and cruising to fantastic ports including Chania,the beautiful village on Crete where Julie’s grandfather Nick embarked forAmerica about a hundred years ago. Wehad the privilege of visiting the mountain village of Madaro, seeing the smallstone house where Grandpa Nick was raised as one of eleven brothers. We’re grateful to her cousins Nikos helped usmake connections and Vasilis, who acted as both translator and guide.

Julie and I also flew to Connecticut for a week at the startof the school year. We enjoyed a greattrip visiting the Hartford area. We evenattended another UConn football game, which they again lost despite the homefield advantage. Gina and Laszlo came up to join us for a weekend trip toMystic, CT, along with Amy and Jordan.

Julie and Wes continued to stretch the wings of empty nesters, taking some weekend trips to places like Las Vegas or day trips to local landmarks like the Getty Museum.

We will end the year skiing in Big Sky, Montana, an annual trip we cherish courtesy ofmy sister Darlene and her husband Brooks. It is always a highlight of the year for us to return to these gorgeousmountains and enjoy several days of great home cooking, comfortableaccommodations and fantastic skiing.

Enjoy a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

San Diego Zoo

2011-12-04T09:35:00.001-08:00

People cruising from San Diego should plan to spend at least a couple of days exploring that wonderful city before their cruise, including a visit to the world famous San Diego Zoo, which truly earns its acclaim. It is only a short taxi ride from the port to the Zoo, and while you're in the area, you can also visit the museums at Balboa Park next door.

The Zoo is a great place for kids of all ages, but I guess that is stating the obvious. Adults will love it too.

When my children were small and my family lived in San Diego, we had annual passes for the San Diego Zoo, which included admission to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Our children grew up with an appreciation of nature and love of animals. With annual passes and free parking (parking is still free!), we didn't have to make it a long day. We'd pack a snack and head to the Zoo to spend a couple of hours and just see a few exhibits.

Now that we live in L.A. County and my youngest daughter Amy is about to graduate from college (a year early), I have to say I can't remember the last time I went to the Zoo prior to Saturday.

My daughter Gina made plans to bring my graddaughter Emma to meet her cousins Kendra and Kelsey, along with Kelsey's son Lucas, at the Zoo, and Julie and I were happy to drive them there and go along.

We enjoyed a wonderful day. With cell phones and texting, we had no trouble meeting up with the cousins despite being about an hour late.

The San Diego Zoo is one of four zoos in the U.S. currently displaying large pandas (the others being Memphis, Atlanta and Washington D.C.), but the highlights for Emma were the elephants and the monkeys.

In the monkey section, the big kid that is me liked the Mandrill best. This huge ape would be recognizable as anyone who has seen "The Lion King" as Rafiki, the ape that annoints the baby Simba, but his face is much more brightly colored in real life than I would have imagined.

After the Zoo, we met Gina's brother-in-law Szilard who had been visiting with his mother Ria at the Urban Grind, a coffee house in Hillcrest. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food, which was attractively presented. Julie and I only split a delicious, sugarfree Caramel Sutra cappuchino served in an oversized cup like you might find in France.

Fascinating River Cruises

2011-11-12T08:54:00.001-08:00

Ocean cruises aboard dazzling floating resorts remain the bulk of my business, but many experienced cruisers are ready for more port-extensive experiences. River cruises offer fantastic opportunities to explore interior regions away from the "Seven Seas."

While sea cruises have hotel stays and tours as add-ons, river cruises long ago established a combination of land and cruising as standard, allowing extended stays in fascinating cities like Paris or Prague at either end of the river cruise.

Interior Europe remains strong, whether for Winter Markets in Central Europe, Springe Tulip Time in Holland or summer cruises to elegant cities on the Danube, but river cruises take you to more exotic locales, too.

The fastest growing river cruise line, Ama Waterways, recently introduced cruise vacations on African safari routes to their other itineraries in Europe and on Sotheast Asia's exotic Mekong River.

Viking River Cruises has always been the leader, and with their fantastic Russia, China and Egypt itineraries long ago proved exploring exotic frontiers doesn't require roughing it. Did you realize Viking recently leveraged their Russian expertice with Glories of the Hermitage, a unique wintertime land vacation for an in depth exploration of the Hermitage when it is otherwise closed to the public? This time of year is too cold to navigate Russian rivers, but this all-inclusive vacation has been arranged with the care they put into their river cruises.

Whether you want the pinnacles of civilization, storybook settings, or the most primative places on earth, river cruising delivers great destinations. The perfect balance of land stays and cruising makes a perfect vacation into regions that should be on your bucket list.

Live your dreams.

Better service leads to better trips!

Malibu Creek State Park

2011-10-31T16:47:00.000-07:00

People cruising from Los Angeles frequently visit Hollywood before or after a cruise. With the addition of the Hollywood Cirque du Soleil show, Iris, which is quite entertaining, and some nice posh eateries, Hollywood is recapturing some of its appeal, but Universal Studios still is a better one stop experience to capture a glimpse into the movies business.

A lot of outdoor scenes in movies were filmed in Malibu Creek State Park, which is about 6 1/2 miles up the hill from the home of many movie stars, Malibu Beach. For $12/car parking fee, you get to see where movies like Tarzan adventures from the 1930s, the original "Planet of the Apes," and Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" were filmed. And that's just the bonus to getting back to nature on assorted hiking trails.

Julie and I visited Malibu Creek this past weekend. One of the clearly marked destinations is the filming site for "M.A.S.H." Both the movie and the long-running television series were filmed here, and its not hard to imagine this being 1950s Korea for Hawkeye, Hot Lips and Klinger.

The Visitor's Center is located in a charming house erected for the 1948 Cary Grant movie, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House." Fortunately, they had ice cold water or sodas for $1 each to quench our thirst after hiking a couple of hours in temperatures topping 80 degrees. We were welcomed by several workers who enthusiastically shared their love of the park. They played a short video for us about movies and television shows filmed here.

It was funny to see how in movies it could be Spain one day and Virginia the next. It was the "jumping off point" for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," China for Steve McQueen in "The Sand Pebbles," a world for He-Man to battle Skeletor in "Masters of the Universe," South Wales for "How Green Was My Valley" (which won five Academy Awards in 1941, including Best Picture, beating out "Citizen Cane" and "The Maltese Falcon"), Mexico for "Viva Zapata!" and the quaint American setting of "Pleasantville."

After the movie, one of the park workers said we must go down to the rock pond, where so many scenes had been filmed. It was only another ten minutes away, so we checked it out.

After hiking through nature, we were hungry, and since we hadn't brought a picnic lunch, we headed down the hill into Malibu where we snagged lunch at a fashionable eatery adorned with Golden Arches. We order McDoubles for a dollar each, and because we were still thirsty from our sunny afternoon hike, we splurged on a large Diet Coke.

We backtracked to Malibu Lagoon State Park, where we settled in the sand to enjoy our meal with an ocean view. Once you buy admission to one state park, you can go to as many as you like on the same day in California, so you can combine the mountains with beaches like we did.

California Dreamin'

2011-10-30T14:42:00.000-07:00

Several ships make their home port in Los Angeles from September through May, including two Princess ships this season, Sapphire and Golden. I enjoyed touring Golden Princess recently.

Having chosen Princess frequently for my own family's cruises, I'm very familiar with the brand, which prides itself on introducing and retrofitting ships with a philosophy of an evolution rather than a revolution. I wanted to see how Golden Princess has aged, just to be sure. I'm happy to report that the ship is beautiful, clean and updated.

As always when the ship is in port, workers painted and prepped various sections in a never-ending refurbishment.

Golden Princess spends this season making two week cruises to Hawaii. It's a great trip if you have the time, and when you consider that you save not only the hassles of flying but also the cost, it offers tremendous value for Hawaiian vacationers. Plus, you have all the meals, great onboard entertainment and transportation between the islands included.

In the wake of concerns about Mexico, Sapphire Princess also makes some of these same Hawaiian cruises, as do some other lines, which means this year has the best values for Hawaii cruises from Southern California that you're likely to ever see.

Hawaii is certainly wonderful, but California has been a dream destination for decades, so why not enjoy some time exploring our beautiful state before boarding your cruise? An easy destination a short distance from the cruise port is Manhattan Beach. With the exception of volleyball tournaments and a handful of summer events that receive heavy promotion, the beaches of my home town are usually uncrowded.

There are lots of great restaurants and shops, but the top attraction remains the beach itself, including the beautiful pier. It's easy to add a few days in Manhattan Beach to any cruise, whether you prefer a boutique hotel near the pier appropriately named Shade or the golf-oriented Marriott. You can save money at Hawthorn Suites, a modestly priced hotel in a less scenic location that nonetheless includes complimentary breakfast and wine happy hour. Manhattan Beach is a stone's throw from Los Angeles International Airport, but flight patterns rarely breach our air space.

While you can cruise to Mexico or Hawaii, Princess also offers several cruises perfect for California Dreamin' sprinkled into their season this year. In addition to the repositioning "wine cruises" between Southern California and Vancouver on the shoulders of the Alaska season, Sapphire Princess does some great roundtrip cruises from L.A. focused on California, visiting the amazing cities of San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco, plus a day in Ensenada for spice.

Isn't it time to live your dreams? If you aren't you, who will be?

Better service leads to better trips.

It must be fun being you!

2011-10-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

Laszlo,Gina,Jay,Julie,Wes,Darlene, Brooks, Amy in St. Petersburg

This morning, someone told me, "It must be fun being you."

I thought, "That's exactly what I needed to hear. It is fun being me."

Changing the emphasis of the words, I realized that we all must make an effort to have fun being ourselves, or we will become a burden on others who have their own troubles to sort through.

Dolphins in Cozumel

A good way to hit the reset button is to spend a week or two finding yourself among other happy people visiting amazing places you've never been or returning to favorite ports.

Better service leads to better trips.

Sipping Coffee in the Caribbean Cup

2011-10-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

Smuggler's Cove, Tortola

This morning, I poured my morning vanilla nut coffee into the Caribbean coffee cup Julie bought in St. Thomas a couple of years ago. It reminded me that I haven’t written much about cruising lately.

While Mexico is close for Californians, and distant destinations like the Mediterranean and South Pacific require very long flights, the Caribbean in many ways is the Goldilocks choice, not too near and not too far.

Jay, Julie, Wes and Amy cave snorkeling.

December through May is the perfect time for cruising the Caribbean. While many parts of the U.S. suffer through inclimate weather with the arrival of winter, the Caribbean hits its best weather of the year. Sunny days on the beach, snorkeling through warm, turquoise water, followed by balmy nights, cruising through calm seas, appeals to anyone with a pulse.

Other than peak holiday periods for Christmas and New Year’s, pricing is moderate for the Caribbean in the winter and spring. Hurricane Season, which usually has more bluster than substance, has passed, but prices are still moderate, because school schedules make it difficult for families to get away, keeping demand low at a time when most major cruise lines bring most of their ships to the region to take advantage of the ideal weather.

If you’ve never been to the Caribbean, then any itinerary will give you a great first taste. The Western Caribbean is most accessible from ports further west like Galveston, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana, while the Eastern Caribbean can most easily be reached from east coast ports including New York and Charleston. The hub of most Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises is the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area, which allows for easily doing East and West back to back, something that an increasing number of Californians opt for, taking advantage of the fact that the flight costs the same no matter how long you cruise.

Beach at Tulum.

The favorite Caribbean cruises for many people embark from San Juan to the Southern Caribbean. Not only are the ports great, but the proximity of the home port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to so many great islands means more port days. Most cruise lines do alternating Southern Caribbean itineraries, making it possible to double your pleasure without repeating many if any ports in a two week sojourn. There also are longer Southern Caribbean cruises from Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, but of course it takes a few sea days to get down there and back.

This season, Crown Princess also offers 7 night cruises from Ft. Lauderdale to the fantastic Southern Caribbean ports of Curacao and Aruba, with a stop at their private island in Princess Cays en route.

What kinds of cruises can you take? It’s up to you.

Do you love fine dining and possibly have a thing for Apple iLife? Try a beautiful Celebrity ship. Do you just want the latest and greatest family cruise experience? You can’t beat Royal Caribbean, especially Oasis Class. For casual fun, how about Norwegian Cruise Lines? Small ships? Windstar or Oceania. Of course, Carnival’s fun ships are the largest year round presence in the Caribbean, and Holland America always does a great job delivering 5 ½ star quality for 5 star pricing. And Princess never fails to hold my interest with great onboard lectures and a wonderfully balanced approach. And there are lots more choices you've probably never heard of!

Does it all sound too confusing? Fortunately, you have a friend in the travel industry to walk you through it all. Better service leads to better trips.

Au Revoir, Edna

2011-10-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

Because this is a travel blog, I frequently ignore many personal experiences and thoughts unrelated to exploring the world, whether near or far away, and even then I mostly write about the happiest moments. As the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3, however, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die."

Edna Mittman

Monday morning, we were awakened by a call from Julie's sister saying their mother, Edna Mittman, had passed away. It was not a surprise. My mother-in-law seemed to give up on life as 2011 arrived, rapidly wasting away from the wheelchair-bound woman in assisted living who was already a pale shadow of the strong, vibrant woman she had been just five years earlier and throughout most of her life.

By the time I met Edna, her children were grown, and from what I could tell, she had done a wonderful job raising them, as they all turned out to be friendly, competent adults, living and enjoying their own distinctly individual journeys. With four children clammoring for attention and requiring transportation and support for their assorted activities, plus her own obligations of her Shriner organizations, she must have been constantly engaged. It should give perspective to those of us with less than four children who claim to be busy. Edna didn't have the modern conveniences we take for granted that came to be after her child rearing days, including telephone answer machines, microwave ovens, cell phones, video devices, computers, call forwarding and texting, but she managed to keep everything pretty much on schedule.

Kendra, Edna, Amy, Kelsey, Jay and baby Brett

My memories of Edna begin when she was about my current age, and she had the same zest for life that I feel right now, which is to say the zest of a child happy to welcome each new day. For the first few years, I rarely saw her. She and her husband Al allowed us to live without interference as they enjoyed the social aspects and fundraising for their assorted Masonic organizations. Only after Al passed away did I really become acquainted with the old gal.

Brad, Bree, Brett, Amy, Jered, Jay and Wes

She was a funny woman who always loved me, as I loved her. She and my mother were always happy to join in card games with the grandkids and me, and we enjoyed many afternoons laughing around someone's kitchen table. Our family would also spend time with the cousins in Edna's Anaheim pool, and while she never went in to my memory, Edna always enjoyed watching the frolicks.

Mary, Amy, Bree and Edna

I think of her at her grandmotherly peak one afternoon in Escondido, when we went to Sizzler before Amy's ballet show at the beautiful performing arts center. Amy must have been about seven, so I would guess it was around 1998, which was one of my favorite years (then again, isn't that what I say about every year?). Edna picked up the tab for dinner, as she always tried to do for her family, although we would successfully fight her for the bill frequently because, after all, we were just paying for our family and her, while she was paying for everyone else. She was, in short, a very generous woman, and a woman who lived with an attitude of abundance, at least during the times I knew her. Of course, when any of her grandkids or children did anything well, she glowed with pride and praised their performance, often exaggerating the event a bit more with each re-telling.

Edna and Jay

As I said, 1998 was one of my favorite years, a year when Jay became a big San Diego Padres fan and our family rooted for them all the way through their World Series loss to the Yankees. In later years, when Edna became a resident of a nursing home, watching Padres games became one of her favorite distractions, along with watching Jeopardy. She'd also play poker in a weekly game. When she stopped caring about participating in those activities, we knew the end must be near.
When she refused to accept our offers to arrange for a special taxi to take her to her granddaughter Kelsey's wedding in August, it was obvious she had given up on life.

Gina, Mary and Edna

Fortunately, we had the opportunity to stop into Edna's room when the kids came into town for their cousin's wedding. Jay, Amy, Julie and I stopped in for a visit before the wedding, and we were all saddened by her frail, wan condition, but at least Edna got to meet baby Emma from New York City when Gina and Laszlo brought her by to visit Edna the morning after the wedding.

Last weekend, Jay joined Julie and me when we visited one last time, knowing we were probably saying farewell.

Edna's 80th Birthday Party

At the risk of sounding crazy, in the morning just before Jacque phoned, I had a vivid dream of my smiling Uncle Edwin, always one of my favorite people, a good man quick with a joke or a friendly word. I can't think of a better emissary to welcome Edna into heaven, where I imagine her laughing and dancing, happy to have use of her legs again and finally out of pain. May God bless and keep her. We will miss her.

J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center

2011-10-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rites."---J. Paul Getty

Charles Ray's sculpture of a boy proudly holding up a prize frog greets visitors to the Getty, and it is with the same pride that J. Paul Getty posthumously greets visitors to appreciate his amazing art collection accumulated over a remarkable lifetime.

Getty made a fortune in the oil industry, a feat many would dismiss as merely luck. After all, he was born December 15, 1892, into a wealthy family already established in that industry.

Upon graduating from college with degrees in Economics and Political Science in 1914, and having spent summers working for his father's oil company, Paul moved to Tulsa where he made his first million in two years. In 1917, he retired at age 25 to become a Los Angeles playboy, but two years later he returned to Oklahoma, where he made another $3 million during the Roaring '20s, a time he apparently enjoyed quite a bit.

By the time his father died in 1930, he had dismissed Paul as a wastrel unfit to oversee the family business, leaving him only 5% of a ten million dollar estate. Admittedly, a half million bucks in 1930 was a lot of coin, but by 1959 when J. Paul Getty moved to a Sutton Place, a 16th Century Estate in England, to live the rest of his life, he was one of the richest people who had ever lived.

He had taken advantage of the rampant pessimism of others to make shrewd investments in the 1930s and learned to speak Arabic to better negotiate oil contracts with Saudi shiekhs en route to his fortune.

While flying home when I was in the Air Force, I purchased his biography at an airport news stand a year or two after his 1976 death. Reading it, I became amused by many aspects of his life, especially his legendary thriftiness that belied his great wealth.

Because he felt like people were always taking advantage of him, he installed a pay phone at Sutton Place for his guests to use. For many years before that, he lived in posh hotels which he argued were less expensive than living in a staffed mansion. As you may recall, Mark Twain had a similar epiphany after he went bankrupt.

Infamy attached itself to his penny-pinching when he refused to pay the full ransom demanded by the kidnappers of his grandson, but in essence it serves as an example of the peril that comes with being outrageously wealthy.

Throughout his fascinating life journey that included five marriages and negotiating oil rights for 60 years on a seemingly unremarkable slice of desert in Saudi Arabia near Kuwait, Getty accumulated art, usually with the same parsimoniousness with which he approached the rest of his life.

I wonder how he would feel about the museum's purchase of Vincent Van Gogh's "Irises" in 1990. The painting, completed about three years before J. Paul Getty was born, sold in 1987 for $53.9 million to Alan Bond, who didn't have the money to close the deal. This led to the Getty buying it in 1990 for an undisclosed amount. I imagine Paul would have only wanted it at a discount. In any case, it is now valued at over $90 million, and it is the most expensive art on exhibit at the gallery.

Vincent Van Gogh undoubtedly would have been more shocked than Getty by the value of the painting he made in an insane asylum. During his lifetime, Vincent sold only one painting, and that being to his brother Theo, who we might surmise only bought it to give his crazy brother some sense of hope. A year after Vincent painted this impressionist picture of a patch of irises he found in the sanitarium garden, he killed himself.

Our guide did an excellent job explaining the museum highlights, including "Irises," in which she pointed out the purple outline of the leaves, which would never be found in nature. Art historians dispute the meaning of the vibrant painting, but I agree with those who say Van Gogh is represented, whether consciously or unconsciously, by the white iris that is the focal point due to the way the other irises lean toward it, almost as if they want to attack it. With the perspective of his popularity after death, perhaps the irises leaning could be considered a posture of interest rather than hostility.

We travel halfway around the world to appreciate remarkable palaces and exquisite art, but too often we ignore what can be easily found in our own back yard. The Getty Villa, which Julie and I visited earlier this year, and the Getty Center, are both beautiful palaces housing outstanding collections, a fitting monument to American royalty of the past century.

Like the Acropolis in Anthens, the Getty Center is perched with a commanding view of the surrounding area, including the city skylines, the beautiful coastline and even the artery pumping blood to the heart of Los Angeles, the 405 freeway. Getty bought the hillside in one direction to ensure no one would build on it. The person who sold the land for the museum to Getty kept a piece of land across the freeway, and his terraced vineyard brings another aspect of California within view.

Fourteen years after completion, the design by architect Richard Meier still feels modern or slightly futuristic, but more importantly, the design remains immentently functional as well as beautiful.

Upon arriving by tram at the museum from the nearby parking structure, we joined a free architecture tour, which briefly highlights different aspects of the structure, including how Meir used a combination of 30 inch squares and their multiples or submulitples to clad the structure in two materials designed to bring together ancient and modern, beige travertine and white aluminum. To placate neighbors whose mansions find the Getty in their direct sightline, Meir was forced to compromise his vision by painting some external aluminum beige. Because from the free the 30 inch squares would seem small, he made them 60 inch squares in that direction.

The architect included louvred panels in the gallery ceilings to allow natural light to filter through in order to see the paintings in the same light the artists saw them. The panels swivel to block direct sunlight from destroying the art. This type of thoughtful touch is included throughout the museum design.

Four galleries at the Getty Center house different periods between the Rennaissance and 1900, with primarily paintings on the second floor and three diminsional objets d'art on the bottom floor. More ancient art is housed at the Getty Villa in Malibu, and Getty disliked modern painting, so there is no permanent collection housed here or at the Villa, although on the outside modern sculpture enhances the architecture.

The fifth gallery breaks the rule against contemporary paintings with a temporary exhibit entitled Pacific Standard Time, featuring art from Los Angeles created between 1950 and 1970. There are some interesting pieces, including a huge canvas of stripes that start out dark on the bottom and become bright yellow on top which definitely caught my attention, but I'd say J. Paul Getty had good reason to disdain much of this "art" that honestly looks like poor attempts to re-create kindergarten paintings on large canvasses.

Then again art critics of an early Renoir impressionist painting now displayed at the Getty complained that the subject's dress looked like it was smeared with oil rather than conveying the impression of a beautful gown he intended.

For whatever reason, the temporary exhibit is the only section of the museum where photography is prohibited.

J. Paul Getty's generous endowment makes visiting the Getty accessible to everyone, with free admission, free highlight tours and, at least for the extent of the Pacific Standard Time run, free iPod audio guides. We really enjoyed both the architecture and art highlight tours, but we decided to bug out of the garden tour.

Parking is $15 per car, but you can forego even that modest cost by taking a city bus. We normally spend two or three hours at a museum, but the Getty enticed us to while away our day from 10 AM until 5 PM. The museum grounds include many lovely spots for meals and coffee breaks. We enjoyed a great Saturday.

Thank you, Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

With the passing of Steve Jobs, we should once again take a moment to reflect on what our lives really are: miracles unfolding daily. I posted his commencement speech from a few years back at the top. Steve's death brings greater poignancy to his words.

Until we face the fact that our time on earth is limited, we are tempted to put off for tomorrow what we could do today. We blow off small moments as if we could kill time without damaging eternity.

Regardless of what you believe will happen after you depart this earthly plane, and philosophically the argument might be made that it may be a self-fulfilling prophecy, you have this moment in time here.

Not long after Steve Jobs passed away, a baby named Kai was born, the new grandson to my old friend Pete and the child to his son Andrew. I consider that a vote of confidence by God to carry on.

Enjoy the journey.

Uconn Versus Yale

2011-09-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of this year, we enjoyed traveling to Phoenix to support UConn's losing effort in the Fiesta Bowl. Being honored with a bowl berth turned out to be an expensive proposition for UConn, as the Fiesta Bowl forced expensive tickets and travel costs down their throats for resale, and they weren't able to unload them all, primarily because Arizona is a long, inconvenient trek from Storrs, Connecticut.

After reading a series of articles about the financial debacle that bowl games can be, I came up with my own solution. The problem, as I see it, is that northeastern and other far-flung teams are at a considerable disadvantage to more centrally located colleges like Oklahoma when it comes to transportation costs for the teams and enticing fans to come support their teams. Most bowl games gravitate to relatively warm southern locales (although it was in the 40s in Phoenix last January which felt cold to Californians). Instead, promoters should hold regional bowls at neutral stadiums located no more than a few hours drive from any given campus. While the games would have less national hype, I think most of us enjoy the drama of a battle between teams from our home region. UCLA vs. USC is always of interest in Southern California regardless of the team records going in. Fans including students could more easily justify three digit ticket prices if they didn't have to fly across the country.

However, as Arlo Guthrie sang long ago, "that's not what I came to tell you about." UConn Versus Yale is not the matchup of New England football titans in the First Annual Sam Adams Micro-Bowl.

It is simply a quick comparison of the two schools. I know her love of Gilmore Girls plus the prevalent attitude among her high school friends about how cool it would be to attend college on the east coast made New England sound enticing, but I'd guess the fact that her boyfriend Jordan enterred Yale during Amy's senior year of high school really sealed the deal. Despite earning straight A's with a challenging academic load that included enough Advanced Placement Courses to allow her to enter college as a sophomore and having extra-curricular activities that kept her at school from 7 AM until 10 PM on a regular basis, Amy was not accepted into Yale. She was, however, accepted into the UConn Honors Program, which at orientation they described as a small liberal arts college embedded in a major research institution.

Jordan and Amy in Mystic, CT

I dragged my feet more than anyone about Amy going out of state rather than attending either UC Santa Barbara or UC Irvine, both of which accepted her into their Honors Programs. When I visited UConn myself, I was extremely impressed by the state of the art institution I saw, and it has proven to be a great college filled with amazing fellow students and faculty.

On the other hand, Yale certainly has a rich history, and the buildings have great architectural integrity. Certainly, many of their graduates went on to hold high government offices and prestigious positions in financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, as well as impacting many other areas. The library's collection, including two copies of the first printed book, the Gutenberg Bible, is impressive, a treasure-filled vault of wisdom.

I also give Yale a nod for the little city around it, which includes some very walkable areas with nice restaurants, like Kelly's Gastropub where we enjoyed some great hamburgers and fries for lunch on the Friday we visited there before attending the UConn vs Iowa game in Hartford. By comparison, Uconn has a little strip mall with Subway Sandwiches and Husky Pizza: certainly tasty but nowhere near the variety available in New Haven. Then again, Storrs doesn't have a bad neighborhood nearby, either.

Overall, however, I personally like UConn better, and I'm happy Amy has attended college there. She's done very well and made lots of great friends for life. I am a bit concerned that the connections she's made will stop her from ever returning to California permanently, but that's how life is. Her older sister went to UCLA first, then Seattle for grad schoool and the landing in New York to begin her career. We want our baby birds to find their wings, and sometimes that means ending up on the other side of the country. I'm happy my son isn't too far away, but he on the other hand made his college connections in California and works in the music and entertainment industry, which of course is spearheaded in California, so he's not making a sacrifice to be here.

Oh, and I'm happy we didn't have to pay for four years of Yale, which would have strained our finances. Go Huskies!!

Manchester, Connecticut

2011-09-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

About twelve miles from Hartford, the suburb of Manchester seems like a logical place to stay one night when flying into Bradley International Airport to visit the University of Connecticut, which is another eighteen miles in the same general direction.

For our purposes, visiting our youngest daughter between classes at UConn over three days, eighteen miles was a bit of a stretch, but Amy's schedule is so crammed full for hours at a time, it actually worked out okay.

Manchester lacks the pastoral setting of Storrs, but it is certainly treesy in comparison to where we live, even if our neighborhood is known as The Trees. Our hotel can only be described as quirky, which is something I never thought I would say about a chain hotel.

Our floor of the Baymont Inn featured Nacar memorobilia, including framed photos of cars, drivers and trading card displays. By the elevator, a display case contained Hotwheels cars and other three dimensional tributes to Nascar, but sharing the space was a collection of footballs emblazoned with the logos of pro teams.

Walking down the stairs, I peaked through the small window to see a gold record for Don McLean's "American Pie," which tempted me to further explore that floor's walls adorned with more framed records and musical souvenirs.

Coming out of the stairs on the way to the lobby, there are old store fixtures like a pre-electronic cash register followed by a fish aquarium, some stuffed dolls posed like real little boys checking out a candy machine, then of course the Elvis Presley statue in the parlor next to the lobby.

The 50s era Elvis foreshadowed the 1950s diner-inspired breakfast room, with Coca Cola wallpaper broken up by posters of James Dean, Rick Nelson, Lucille Ball and assorted others including, of course, more Elvis. If all this sounds too gauche and off-putting, I wouldn't recommend staying here, but if you always thought the Kinks had a good ironic sense of humor, and enjoy spending time with people who don't take it all too seriously, then you'll love it.

Surprisingly, a lot of business people stay here, and I'm guessing it isn't exclusively because of the great pricing (we paid $64 per night plus tax). The buffet breakfast in the cheerful diner was very good, though not for a serious Atkins proponent. The waffle batter Baymont provided for the do-it-yourself waffle machine made fluffy, delicious, Belgian-thick waffles, and the bagels also toasted up tasty.

When we arrived on Wednesday evening, they had warm oatmeal cookies by the check-in desk. They tasted like my mother's recipe: fantastic. On Thursday evening, I think Julie grabbed one on her way out to meet me when I arrived back from the Mark Twain House just in time to proceed to UConn to see Amy. We were very disappointed to find they were out by the time we returned after dinner.

We had brought pizza to Amy's job at the Daily Campus as an excuse to linger around the office where she spends so much time. It's great to spend time with the bright, ebullient friends she loves working with. Amy would probably call us "lurks." By the way, Husky Pizza, located next to the UConn campus, is great, and if lurking at the Daily Campus meant missing the cookies, it was a fair exchange.

On Friday evening before heading to the football game, we were devestated to learn they only have hot cookies Monday through Thursday, apparently enticing those big kids disguised in stodgy suits known as business travelers to stay with them.

We had a great time tailgating before the game, even if our menu was limited to chips, salsa and drinks. Too bad Jay, Gina and Laszlo weren't there with us to share the Sam Adams 48 Degrees IPA I bought in honor of this New England occasion. I could only finish two bottles from the six pack.

The game started great, with UConn looking unbeatable, especially on defense, but by the end of the game, Iowa State came out on top.

I won't let a small setback like the outcome of sports even ruin my memories of our stay at the Baymont Inn of Manchester. By the way, on the practical side, our room was comfortable and well-furnished, with a cable-fed, big screened TV and excellent wireless internet access that allowed us to work on two computers at once at high speeds.

Into the Mystic

2011-09-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

The seaport town of Mystic was the centerpiece of our Connecticut sojourn. My oldest daughter Gina and her husband Laszlo took the train in from New York City to join us.
Youngest daughter Amy, her boyfriend Jordan, Julie and I enjoyed the tree-lined, hour-long drive from Storrs where Amy attends the University of Connecticut. While my hometown of Westminster, California, has been proclaimed an All-American City, the bedroom communities of Connecticut, with their Cape Cod and colonial houses scattered among seemingly endless forests, truly look like a Disney version of America.

As we approached our destination a week ago, Julie, who used to work for General Dynamics Electronic Systems in San Diego, pointed out the factilities of sister spinoff General Dynamics Electric Boats. GDEB builds nuclear submarines along a channel near Mystic. The U.S. also builds other military ships, so we still know how to make seaworthy, state of the art vessels.

Connecticut has a proud history of shipbuilding, as the Mystic Seaport Museum of America and the Sea attests. Actually, we just saw the impressive periphery of the seaport, deciding not to fork out $24 per person to go inside. Instead, we enjoyed a delicous lunch overlooking the harbor at the outdoor picnic tables of the Sea View Snack Bar, which fries up fresh seafood and assorted fast food. Like much of America, Mystic has become primarily a place for tourists to visit and see monuments to past greatness when it comes to non-military manufacturing.

As a proud American who works in the growth industry of cruising, I am saddened that the floating wonders of the world which house such fantastic vacations are not built in the United States. You may think that our labor must be too high, but in fact other first world countries including Germany and Japan build ships.

A few years back, American Classic Voyages received heavy government subsidies to build two ships in Mississippi for its United States Cruise Lines to replace its aging American flagged ship in Hawaii. Unfortunately, American Classic Voyages went bankrupt in 2001, taking Project America down with it.

Norwegian Cruise Lines bought the unfinished ship out of bankruptcy and made some kind of deal to allow it to finish the ship under construction in Germany. That ship became Pride of America and, after some initial difficulties finding sufficient American staffing, it has been quite successful cruising Hawaii in recent years as an American flagged ship that doesn't need to call on a foreign port. I love the itinerary and recommend it highly, but it is sad that NCL America felt compelled to bring the ship to Germany to have it finished, even after our Congress had provided its prior owner huge subsidies to build it in America.

If you wonder why more ships don't cruise exclusively in U.S. waters, it is because they must be American flagged and staffed with an all-American crew. The Jones Act from the 1800s was an act passed to protect U.S. jobs, but it prohibits any foreign staffed cruise ship to not call on at least one foreign port of call, which ironically costs Americans commerce and jobs in favor of places like Mexico and Canada, which can be easily reached from the United States. NCL Pride of America is the last "American made" cruise ship in the world.

Why don't we build cruise ships in the United States when we make up such a large part of the world demand for cruises? Obviously, they are capital intensive projects which allow higher salaries and good benefits, as my business classes taught regarding marginal and fixed costs, but we seem to have conceded this growth industry to other countries. If you have seen the insightful movie The Company Men, perhaps you too wish some rich investor like Warren Buffett would dig into his pockets to build cruise ships in America rather than fighting the tax system, but no one seems willing to take the risk.

When I hear about the government wanting to create American jobs, I can't help but wonder why they don't look at reducing regulations related to the cruise industry, a business model which consumers have proven they are willing to voluntarily support. From the experience of Project America as well as other recent SNAFUs of government manufacturing, however, it is obvious that the government shouldn't fund the projects but rather make it easier for American entrepreneurs to concentrate on building instead of filling out forms and jumping through hoops.

For what it is worth, in Germany they had some major problems finishing the ship, including the partially finished ship burning and almost sinking. As to whether this was simply bad luck or something related to 9/11-type conspiracies or union unrest is unclear.

In any case, Mystic definitely provides lots of great choices for tourists. In addition to Mystic Seaport, where we enjoyed some great free samples of fudge, we also walked over to Olde Mistick Village on the first day.

The Garlic Festival was in full swing, and various aromas enhanced with fresh garlic filled the air. In several locations, talented minstrals played folk music, and of course lots of people sold crafts. We enjoyed taking it all in, eventually buying some Jah Makin Me Crazy Coffee that had a rich caramel and vanilla flavor to it.

We checked into the Absence of Malice on Gina's computer, because Amy needed to watch it for a journalism ethics class paper. We all enjoyed the flick and saved Amy a couple of hours of study time in her overloaded university schedule.

Before watching the movie, we walked to Thai One On for dinner. Everything we tried from their extensive menu proved to be great. I had their signature dish, Thai One On Noodles, which was listed as spicy, but the waitress asked if I wanted one to four stars, with four being hottest. I asked for two stars, and it was really hot. I think even my sister would have called it flaming hot, but it was delicious. My Mystic Bridge IPA helped cool my tongue.

On Sunday, Gina and Laszlo went to the Mystic Aquarium, which they said was terrific, including the Beluga whales and stingrays. Julie and I went to Stonington, a nearby town with an historic lighthouse, and then back to the Garlic Festival. College students Amy and Jordan worked on homework in the spacious lobby of our hotel, which has free internet.

For lunch, we all walked into downtown Mystic to have lunch at the famous Mystic Pizza, which of course was made famous in the Julia Roberts movie of the same name. A loop of the movie played without sound constantly on televisions throughout the restaurant, among walls of movie memorobilia. The barbecued chicken pizza was excellent, as was a salad that included some fruit and nuts along with the greens and vinaigrette. It's good to know they didn't let fame screw up their recipes.

After lunch, we browsed some great shops with unique items in downtown Mystic. As usually happens, all too soon it was time to go. We enjoyed a nice weekend in Mystic.

Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut

2011-09-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

I always imagined Mark Twain to be a southern gentleman in a white suit, relaxing on a porch with a view of the Mississippi River in a bucolic community.

While he did live by a river during his most productive years as a writer, it was not the mighty Mississippi but more of a stream, one which has since been replaced by a walking path. And instead of the rural south, Twain built his dream house in one of the most modern cities in the late 19th century, Hartford, Connecticut.

The brick multi-story mansion wasn't the biggest in the world, or even in Hartford, but it was one of the most modern when completed in 1874. Mr. Twain (or should I say Samuel Clemens, which was his birth name that he used throughout his life except as a byline?) was a man who fully embraced the most cutting edge technologies in his personal life while he wrote stories based loosely on his idyllic childhood in Hannibal, Missouri. Yes, this is where he wrote about the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

How did he come to live in Connecticut?

Halley's Comet streaked through the sky on November 30, 1835, the day Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in the small town of Florida, Missouri, where he "increased the population by one per cent."

Four years later, his family moved to Hannibal, a small town on the Mississippi where he met people who would later be the basis of fictional characters who populated some of his popular novels. There was a local man named Injun Joe who got lost in some caverns near his house for days and was rumored to have survived by eating bats. There was a kind slave that Sam and other local boys called Uncle Daniel who regaled the boys with ghost stories told at night in his old shack. And of course, there were pre-adolescent boys, including himself, who would fish at a little island near their homes and dream up silly pranks to play on the townspeople. As Twain would later reflect, there was no more idyllic place to be a boy than Hannibal.

On a personal note, I felt the same about my home town of Westminster, California, for the era about 120 years later. It's Mark Twain's ability to convey that love of life that made his best works so special to all of us.

At age twelve, Samuel's formal education ended with the death of his father. He became a printer's apprentice, later joining his older brother Orion's newspaper where he got his first taste of writing. One headline on an apparently slow news day announced a tragic accident in which 500 people died, followed by the story which briefly said he had set up the headline but unfortunately the event had not yet occurred, so the story would be continued later.

At age seventeen, he heard the call of the big city, St. Louis, where he became a printer. For some reason, the Elton John song Honky Cat comes to mind. Watching the riverboats gliding down the Mississippi enticed Sam to leave his printer's career in 1858 to become a licensed river pilot. The next four years he cruised up and down the MIssissippi, meeting more great characters to fill his books. This is where he picked up the pen name Mark Twain, which meant 12 feet of water depth necessary for safe navigation of the river.

If you remember your history, it was about three years that the Civil War broke out, and the riverboat trade ground to a halt, so Sam, a southern boy who couldn't abide with defending slavery, headed to California to mine for gold and silver. He wasn't a very good miner, so he returned to writing, becoming a reporter. One of his stories about a Jumping Frog Jubilee in Calavaras County, California, became syndicated around the country, and Twain's renown as a humorist began.

Mark Twain became a famous travel writer, being sent on the newspaper's dime to Hawaii and then Europe and the Holy Lands, which he chronicled in a series of articles that later were compiled into his first book, Innocents Abroad.

By the time he was 33, Mark Twain was a well-known journalist with three books under his belt, and he faced the dilemma of wanting a wife too good to marry a man like him. He married Olivia Langdon, the daughter of a prominent New York family, to whom he remained happily wed for the rest of her life. Her father bought the young couple a mansion complete with butlers in New York, but after a year, they moved to Hartford where they commissioned the whimsical house next door to the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe ("Uncle Tom's Cabin").

It was a very modern house. The coal burning stove in the basement where servants prepared lavish dinner parties required for prominent members of society in Hartford, had pipes running to the bathrooms, so not only did they have indoor running water, which is something my grandparents didn't have in their home, but had running hot water. When I visited my grandparents house in the 1960s, taking a bath meant heating pots of water on the woodburning stove in the kitchen and pouring them into a wash tub on the porch. While my family didn't do this, the tradition on many farms in the 1800s was for the father to take the hottest bath, followed by the mother, and then through the kids until finally the baby was washed in water so cloudy with soap and grime that the old saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water," was born.

Twain also had flushing toilets, although the historical society hasn't been able to ascertain exactly what type for the restoration. At my grandparent's house, they didn't add a flushing toilet until the 1960s. I remember hating that stinky outhouse, although I did kind of like the novelty of peeing in a pot at night when we didn't want to walk outdoors to relieve ourselves. Incidentally, that type of arrangement led to the saying about "being so pour we didn't have a pot to pee in."

Nobody had electricity in homes of 1874, but Samuel and Olivia had a house illuminated by natural gas, something made possible by being in thoroughly modern Hartford. Because there was no thermal paned glass, the windows were small to conserve heat in winter and cool in summer, and it was really the color of the walls that was used to create atmosphere. The parlor was a bright gold, making it relatively light, while the dining room walls were dark maroon to create a sort of candle lit atmosphere of a fine restaurant. The family room had a beautiful conservatory at one end, with a view to the creek and rolling countryside below.

The oldest daughter had her own room, and the two younger daughters shared a room. While two girls sharing a room with separate twin beds may not sound like cutting edge luxury today, consider that at the time it was a luxury to have a bed to share back in those days. It is also a nod to high childhood mortality rates of the era which did cost them a baby boy.

Sam had a billiard room perched at the top of the house, and that's also where he wrote his books. Friends who visited him while he worked said he had open books on the desk and discarded papers surrounding him on the floor. At night, his friends would come over to play pool and smoke cigars. Sam was said to have smoked 20 to 25 cigars per day. On two of the windows in the billiard room are opague marble panes carved by Tiffany depicting pool cues and balls on one and cocktail glasses on the other, giving me the image of Mark Twain as a Tommy Bahama of his era.

The seventeen years in this house were the happiest of his life. Of course, most of us can relate to the age of raising children being the happiest days. With no television or radios in the 1800s, Sam would entertain his daughters by telling them stories using a handful of objects on the fireplace mantle as props. He would make up a history for each item and, using them in the same order, spin a completely different yarn each evening for his children before they went to bed.

Being a thoroughly modern man with experience in the printing trade, Sam became enamored by a modern typesetting machine, the Paige Compositor, that could set type at six times as fast as any man. Unfortunately, it wasn't extremely reliable, and a slightly slower but more reliable competitor took most of the market while the Paige Compositor wound its way through the patent process. Only two prototypes were ever built, and Sam's gamble busted with the financial panic of that era. He went bankrupt.

Because the house was in his wife's name, as were his publishing rights for his books, he didn't lose them, but he couldn't stand the public humiliation and moved to Europe where he lived in what he called exile for nine years, eventually earning enough money giving speeches to pay off his creditors and return home. It had been cheaper for him to live in hotels in Europe than to maintain his household staff and social schedule in Hartford.

Unfortunately, one of his daughters had returned home alone and died of meningitus in the Mark Twain House, so he could never bring himself to return there. His beloved wife and one of his other daughters also died, and a bitterness became more apparent in his writings. He was a brilliant, well-read man, and he became more of a serious writer, attacking the problems of social ills directly rather than with the subtle prods of fictional situations like Huck's friendship with Slave Jim.

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together."--- Mark Twain

Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910, as Halley's Comet streaked across the sky.

The Other Side of Life

2011-09-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

Wes in Cunard Queen Victoria's Theater in February, 2011

Around the time I graduated from high school, one of my favorite bands was the Moody Blues, so I had no hesitation when I saw they would be performing at the former home of the Lakers, the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood. I took high school friend Lee Ann Bauer. She had recently returned from Japan having represented the US in an international beauty pageant, which I found quite impressive for someone who lived at the end of my street growing up.

That 1971 show was excellent. At that time the Moodies were at the peak of their popularity, having released a string of impressive concept albums that their fans cherished. However, the Moody Blues concert I would put into my top five concerts of all time came about a quarter century later.

Julie on Coronado Island, June 2010, with San Diego backdrop

Once again, I had a beautiful…make that gorgeous…woman with me, this time my wife Julie, who had actually gone to that earlier Moody Blues concert too, before we met. Oddly enough, Julie had heard about the show at GDE Systems where she worked, and we attended the show with a couple of other executives and their wives.

I remember one of the VPs was also a leather-wearing member of a Harley Davidson club when he wasn’t wearing his corporate suits and ties. It’s funny how old hippies grew up and assimilated for success.

Crystal clear waters of Tulum

The show was part of the San Diego Pops series, and I wish I could pinpoint the date, but they did similar shows in 1994 and 1996. I’d guess the one in September of 1994 was the one we attended, but I really don’t know. I confess here that my crystal clear memory for other concert dates is really a nod to internet searches and deductive reasoning.

In any case, they performed with the San Diego Symphony in an outdoor venue on San Diego harbor. With harbor lights, the fresh sea air, great company and the Moody Blues accompanied by a full orchestra, it was nothing short of amazing. Those extra decades of practice sure paid off.

As any serious concertgoer knows, the audience response feeds the performers, and this crowd of usually buttoned down business people brought out the best in the Moody Blues and the symphony.

While we listened to old albums as we drove to the show, thinking of all the old favorites we hoped to hear live, it was the newer material that we actually enjoyed the most. The highlight of the show for both Julie and me was “The Other Side of Life.” The bass seemed to be hardwired into our nervous systems. It was positively electrifying.

As a further note, the Moody Blues actually helped me win Julie’s heart, it turns out. When we were on one of our very first dates, I bought a cassette of The Voice that I happened to see on a shelf while on a short stop of our day trip. Julie told me years later that she was impressed that I would pick such good music for us to enjoy together on the rest of our date.

Wes and Julie aboard Radiance of the Seas

I have no doubt the great entertainment so easily accessible every evening is a reason we love cruising. I haven’t seen a cruise show centered around Moody Blues music yet, probably because their songs don’t generally bring to mind dance numbers, but I’ll let you know when I find one.

Better service leads to better trips

Where To Now, St. Peter?

2011-09-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

When I wrote my article Forever Young, it made me think about other great concerts I have attended. One of the five best would have to be an Elton John show in the 1970s, but which one?

The Dodgers Stadium show in October of 1975 comes immediately to mind. Hosted by local celebrity Cal Worthington, and with Joe Walsh also on the bill, the show featured Elton successively throwing piano benches of different colors into the crowd after songs, or at least that’s what it looked like standing 30 yards from the stage where my friend Sam Cracchiolo and I watched the show. Elton had already accumulated an impressive string of well-crafted albums, and he was a great showman. For part of the show, he wore a glitter Dodgers uniform, and throughout two long sets, he and his
band were in peak form.

However, the one I would rank as more memorable would have to be the September 7, 1973 concert at Long Beach Arena. I went to the show at this much smaller venue with three friends from grade school, Chris Crabtree, Jim Bommer and Steve Coleman. In the basketball court area of the arena, we stood about 30 yards from the stage in an area without seats.

“Where to Now St. Peter?” is the song I remember clearly. For some reason, the four of us sat down to smoke among the sea of standing fans for that particular song, and it felt like we really were in a blue canoe drifting along on the music. As the song title indicates, it is about the death of a young soldier or cowboy, shot unexpectedly and transitioning from this earthly plane.

What cemented that moment in my memory was that Jim, who had only recently moved back into the area, took his own life about a month later.

Elton John also factored into my learning of Jim’s death. I had just returned home from Platterpuss Records where I had bought a copy of the brand new album, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and called Jim to see if he wanted to come over to hear it. His dad answered the phone, which was surprising because Jim lived in his own apartment, miles from his dad. I asked to speak to Jim, and after a long pause, he said, “Jim’s Dead.”

It’s still hard for me to believe that someone so young would take his own life, but at that moment, it was a crash of darkness that I remember to this day.We all have to go sometime, and even though we rationally know our parents will most likely die before us, we are inevitably shocked when it happens, and it unnerves us.Learning someone barely 20 years old had taken his own life was even more shocking for me, and it certainly changed my life path and recognition of mortality.

Living in the present moment became paramount, at the expense of focusing on college and my future. Playing my guitar, something Jim had encouraged me to do so that he could practice playing lead guitar to my rhythmic strumming, became absurdly important, even though I had no particular talent for it beyond having taken lessons in fourth grade.

While I certainly had some good times and didn’t go down a blatantly destructive road, I nonetheless was going sideways instead of progressing, and my sixth year of college didn’t seem to have an exit strategy in mind.

I sort of woke up a few years later and put myself back on track, the first of several rebirths I would experience in my life. I joined the Air Force and finished college at night. For what it is worth, with Air Force buddies Larry Jaramillo and Mike Weber, my trio Backroom Blues won our Air Force base talent show, which was the pinnacle of my musical performing career and sort of completed the prior phase I was going through. I swore to myself I would never allow any circumstance, no matter how bad it might seem, derail me again.

Like Rod Stewart and the Rolling Stones, Elton John continues to have a productive music career four decades later, and I can’t help think how little of life Jim had tasted before he made his transition.

How sad that death seemed a viable alternative to what were most likely transitory problems. From what I learned later, I think the catalyst might have been losing the job he loved, delivering Sparkletts Water. Could that really have been enough? Something that mundane?

A few days earlier, Bommer had asked me, as someone he knew to be a Christian, if I thought everyone who asked Jesus to be their savior went to heaven. I interpreted this as an invitation to discuss in the abstract something not of immediate concern. I remember pontificating with my college student regurgitated wisdom how I couldn’t believe God would punish someone who was perfect who lived in a remote area never hearing about Jesus and forgive someone who was evil but asked Jesus to be his savior on his death bed. I probably referenced the Kung Fu television series, which I was into at the time.

I wish I could have given him a better answer in light of what he did, or spoken to him before he made that fateful decision and told him to choose life. It’s so obvious from my perspective now that the best was yet to come.

To you I say the same. God put you on this beautiful garden planet. Appreciate every moment here, and be grateful for your time. It is most likely no less significant than any other part of infinity.

On a lighter note, most cruises feature outstanding live stage shows, including some featuring the hits of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. I’ll be happy to help you choose a cruise to suit your entertainment tastes.

Better service leads to better trips.

Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena

2011-09-05T08:37:00.001-07:00

For people cruising to the Mexican Riviera from Long Beach, the freeways into downtown Los Angeles can seem daunting, but the big city and its suburbs offer lots to see and do.

On Sunday, Julie and I braved the freeway to visit one of the world class museums in the area. Pasadena's Norton Simon Museum has an outstanding collection of impressionist artists, as well as art from many other time periods.

Now it might have been an intentional bias of my Golden West College teacher, but I still remember many of the paintings and sculptures from her slides of key examples of artist works in my History and Appreciation of Art class.

You're greeted to the beautiful grounds by full sized copies of Rodin's famous "Burghers of Calais" and "Balzac" scupltures. After purchasing a ticket for $10 (my daughter Amy and I went a year ago on a day when it was free for some reason, but that is not ordinarily the case), which is well worth the price, we headed to the left, into the impressionist to modern art section. Later, we headed over to the other side. We don't spend as much time as many people staring at one picture, but we enjoy reading information on some works that interest us and try to spend enough time to actually see a lot of them.

Whereas it doesn't have nearly the inventory of the Louvre in Paris or the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, it does feature beautiful paitings, and usually something surprising that we missed previously. Julie and I both for some reason sounded on A Courtyard on the rue de Fontinelle, a small picture by the French artist Lépine tucked away in an alcove.

In addition to a truly excellent art exhibit, the outdoor gardens featuring a pond with lily pads might inspire you to become the next Monet. Julie and I split a poorly presented but, once it thoroughly defrosted, rather tasty turkey wrap and salad with a plastic cup ("Sorry, we're out of wine glasses.") of Sauvignon Blanc in the courtyard cafe.

The modest pricing obviously only limits crowds and can't possibly defer the cost of upkeep and security, much less acquisition of such an extensive gallery of treasures. Just as Sam Walton's daughter Alice recently opened the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, with money made providing bargains to the masses at WalMart, there was a successful businessman of a prior area who made the Norton Simon Museum possible, and while you have no trouble guessing his name, perhaps you didn't know the source of his wealth.

Norton Simon was an industrialist and entrepreneur who built an empire which included Hunt Foods, McCall's Publshing, Canada Dry, Max Factor and Avis Rental Cars. It's a good reminder that captains of capitalism not only provide valuable goods and services to consumers, as well as employment with benefits to thousands of others, to meet our present needs but also support the very preservation of civilation's greatest treasures. Think about that the next time politicians bash them as not paying their fair share.

Even someone unfamiliar with the maze of L.A. freeways should have no trouble negotiating the drive. Get on the 110 Freeway and stay on it until you enter Pasadena and see a sign for the Norton Simon Museum on Orange Grove Boulevard and keep your eyes peeled to turn left on Colorado Boulevard about two miles away. It's right there on the corner. It is also possible to take the Metro Rail or bus from Long Beach to Pasadena.

Better service leads to better trips.

Should You Feel Guilty About Cruising?

2011-09-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

I currently have the privilege of working with a religious association on their national conference, which they will be holding at sea this year.

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

One of the reverends mentioned that in the ministry, she and her husband were not used to being pampered, going on to say they would feel selfish.

In college, I took about as many World Religion classes as I took in my major subject, Economics. In conjunction with all those Sunday school classes I attended as a child at First Brethren Church in Seal Beach as well as assorted church services as an adult, I've learned "selfish" is a pejorative word for most religions.

Tulum, Near Cozumel

I jotted down a quick reply, and she wrote back thanking me for what I wrote and saying she would share it with others having similar guilt issues. Just in case you feel guilty about going on a cruise, I thought I should share the same message, which is based to a large extent on what I learned in school and in life about economics, with you:

The Parthenon, Rome

As far as being "selfish" and not feeling guilty, consider that a happy person is never a burden on someone else, so by doing your best to enjoy your life, whether through the joys of altruism or a lovely meal, you make life better for others.

Consider that if cruise passengers did not enjoy dining room experiences, there would be no demand for the cooking and serving staff.

Many of those people and their families would live in abject poverty in third world countries, dependent on the whims of corrupt politicians, were it not for the opportunities made possible by cruise lines who cater to clients like you.

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Instead, those staffers are allowed to earn a living providing valuable services to grateful passengers, and as a result, they can support families in their homelands.

On most cruises, 50 or more countries are represented by the onboard staff, and they all manage to co-exist harmoniously. Cruises are better than any government sponsored foreign aid program in advancing freedom. Smile, you're helping to save the world from poverty by taking a cruise.

Better service leads to better trips.

Forever Young

2011-09-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

One of the five best concerts I ever attended was Rod Stewart and Faces at the Hollywood Palladium back about 39 years ago, back on August 27, 1972.

They were at the peak of their popularity with Maggie May and Stay With Me. The show opened with the Dixieland Jazz Band from Disneyland, 50 year-olds wearing their red and white striped sport coats and straw hats. My buddy Chris and I could never imagine becoming as old and corny as these guys, but they were talented, entertaining musicians, and the audiencer loved them. After a standard intermission, a bagpiper in full Scottish regalia came out and marched from side to side across the stage playing that eerie sound from the weirdest looking instrument of all.

Finally, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones took the stage, and it was magic. All of them were young and vibrant, and they all performed like the rock stars they were. While Rod Stewart never seemed to be able to carry a tune after he'd screamed out about three songs, the party atmosphere of their shows was contagious, filling the room with intense joy.

Who would have guessed back then that Ronnie Wood would still be rocking four decades later with the even more improbably ancient Rolling Stones? Rod Stewart has lived like a vampire, dating and sometimes marrying young women and sucking their young blood to revitalize his own youth, although I assume he'd object to that metaphor.

Sewart changed with the times, morphing into an act for disco, the 80s and beyond, never as good as the old stuff but impressive for his stamiina if nothing else. He's done a lot of old standards in his American Songbook albums, which would allow him to age gracefully, but he can still rock. In fact, only Ronnie Lane wasn't around for a recent Faces reunion.In a way, these rockers are representative of the Baby Boomers. We just don't seem to know how to grow up.

At Huntington Beach the other day, I mentioned to Julie that when I was a teenager, it seemed like most of the people at the beach were young, but now there are lots of people with gray hair. No one told us we couldn't still have fun.

Are you still having fun?

A cruise is a terrific place to rediscover who you really are. 60 is the new 30...if not younger.

Becoming an empty nester means you can return to the activities you enjoyed when you were a young adult. Instead of being sad, embrace change. It's going to happen whether you're ready or not.

If you have the time and resources to travel the world, footloose and care free, why not do it?

Better service leads to better trips!

Your First Cruise

2011-08-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

According to CLIA, over 75% of Americans have never cruised. Surprisingly, despite a down economy, that means another 10% of Americans were first time cruisers over the last couple of years.

The consistent growth in the popularity of cruising is amazing. The problem for me is how to get novice cruisers to book with me.

A few nights ago, I watched an amusing movie called Roger Dodger on cable. The movie's protagonist has risen to the pinnacle of copywriting by exploiting the advertising gimmick of making people feel bad about themselves and then offering his magic elixer as a solution. Wayne Dyer once said, referring to one of these types of ads, that it was no longer enough to just please other people; we now must be concerned with what our dogs think about us.

While I understand this concept and believe it does work, I prefer the Coca Cola approach of simply associating so many good memories to cruising and my service that you will want to take a cruise yourself.

For most people, the quintessential cruise takes us to tropical destinations, so why not start there?

We can enjoy sunny days on the sandy beaches of exotic islands or cruising the turquoise and deep blue waters of the Caribbean, Mexican Riviera or South Pacific by day and becoming accustomed to the joys of the dining and entertainment onboard at night while effortlessly gliding between destinations.

In non-holiday periods between fall and spring, prices are always the lowest, so for empty nesters, young couples and singles, this is an outstanding time to try cruising. If you are slaves to the school schedules, of course, you have to expect to pay a bit more, but it is still well worth it.

Visit http://www.CruisePlanners1.com to see a few specials and do a little research, but be sure to phone the number you find there to be sure you get on the perfect cruise for you. All cruises are not the same, and you have a friend in the cruise industry to help guide you to the right one for your next dream vacation. "Better service leads to better trips."

7 Places I Want to Go In My Life

2011-08-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

I recently attended my 40th high school reunion, an event attended by about 10% of my graduating class.

It's only about a half hour down the freeway to my childhood hometown, Westminster, but it brought a lot of memories flooding back. I enjoyed seeing people for the first time in four decades, some of whom had been close friends, though not consistently. Others were people I admired who surprised me by remembering me.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks, "Oh, if I had known then what I know now..." We can never go back and re-live our experiences, but we can learn from our mistakes and plan our futures.

Where have you always dreamed of visiting? Knowing you will not live forever, you should have a list of seven vacations you want to take, and this year should be when you cross off the one at the top of your list.

In this economy, perhaps you can't afford a vacation at all. That's nothing to be ashamed of, and I don't want you to spend money you don't have. Being broke, however, is not the same as being poor. Everyone is broke sometimes, but it's understanding that is not your permanent state that will help pull you through.

Having a list of places you want to go is an excellent motivator. So what seven places do you want to go?

I'd love to help you get there. "Better service leads to better trips."

Gettin' Hitched at the Hazy Meadow Ranch

2011-08-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

As you may know...or perhaps nobody reads my blog except me...I try to stay focused on items related to travel in my articles, although I intermix a lot of my personal existential viewpoint.

This post really doesn't have too much to do with travel. I did negotiate the freeways from Manhattan Beach to Lakeside by way of Leucadia and El Cajon to reach the Hazy Meadow Ranch to attend my niece's wedding. Does that count?

I say it does, and since my editor is too busy playing video poker to notice, I think I'll just slip the home movies I shot of Kelsey and David getting married into this travel blog. Just in case my editor happens to read this article, let me add that I do represent lots of great cruise lines and land resorts that do terrific destination weddings, including weddings at cruise ports from which a honeymoon cruise departs.

Anyway, here are my home movies of the lovely wedding. Please note that due to copyright laws, I was unable to use the original music from the wedding, even if the music was just playing in the background, so I had to replace the soundtracks. Nonetheless, I think there are some good memories to be harvested by family and friends of the happy couple.

BONUS FOOTAGE!!! Alternative Rock take on the arrival of the wedding party.

Los Angeles Rapid Transit

2011-08-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

Most of us who live in Southern California prefer to rely on our personal cars for tooling around the freeways, which has helped make our traffic jams world famous. It is widely considered that rapid transit in Los Angeles County is a joke, but is it?

People from out of the area might be interested to learn that there is a system of metro trains and buses that offer a reasonable alternative to hopping on the 405 to the 105 to the 110 to the 101.....

When I was in college, living on just the other side of the Orange Curtain, I regularly rode buses and knew that it was possible to get close to where I wanted to go as long as I didn't mind stopping every hundred yards, turning a three mile ride into a fifteen or twenty minute affair. I would play my guitar or read on the mostly empty buses.

Downtown Los Angeles

I always thought that if they would just make people walk up to a half mile in either direction, the buses could be much more efficient (and riders healthier). To that end, the LA Metro system includes the Silver Line, which is a super bus that takes this concept a step further, with even fewer stops than my every mile or so recommendation. It starts due south of downtown Los Angeles in Artesia, makes stops at major points of interest in downtown like L.A. Live and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, then heads east to El Monte, stopping at points of commuter interest like USC Medical Center and Cal State Los Angeles along the way. But in the end, it is, after all, still a bus, and so it doesn't have that mass transit panacache of riding the Tube in London or some other rail system.

Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant.

Yesterday I headed to the Redondo Station of the Metro Green Line to check out the Metro Rail System for myself. With free parking at the station, I found that in 50 minutes, I could take the Green Line to the Blue Line and make it to Staples Center for a Lakers game for $1.50 per person each way.

While theoretically it should take less time to drive it, that is certainly a viable alternative to slamming into the almost inevitable traffic jam and paying $10 or more to park near Staples.

Disney Concert Hall

Riding further on the same ticket, I changed to the Red Line (although I could have taken the Purple Line) to Union Station, which is the hub of not only the Metro System but also Amtrak and buses to other parts of the country. There's also a shuttle to the L.A. Airport there, as well as the Dodger Stadium Express bus for baseball games.

My trip to Union Station took almost exactly an hour, despite changing trains twice. Because the trains run every fifteen minutes or less rather than on a specific schedule, there certainly will be some leeway.

USC logo, etc.

I was actually on a mission, to see how easy it would be to get to USC Medical Center, because my oldest daughter will be doing research there soon. At Union Station, I was picked up by a white bus clearly marked with the USC maroon and gold logo, which took me to the Medical Center in about ten minutes.

Between 10 AM and 3 PM, shuttles run routes between the main campus and the USC Medical Center about once an hour in each direction stopping at Union Station. In the mornings and late afternoons, the shuttles come every ten or fifteen minutes. This shuttle is free, but you need to check to see which direction it is headed before you get on, or you could end up at the wrong campus.

The Southern California lifestyle.

Where else can you go? Well, to quote Randy Newman, "from the South Bay to the Valley, from the West Side, to the East Side."

For cruise passengers, the Long Beach station for the Blue Line isn't too far from Carnival's year-round cruise port. From San Pedro, it's a little more challenging but do-able. For passengers flying into LAX, it is even easier to get to the Metro rail. Come to where "everybody's very happy, 'cuz the sun is shining all the time."

MSC Yacht Club

2011-08-12T14:46:00.000-07:00

Starting a few months ago, I decided to make it my personal mission to introduce clients to a little known Italian cruise line, MSC, because I could see a tremendous value proposition forming with former Celebrity exec Rick Sasso at the helm of a developing brand. Prior to that, MSC was still finding its way as a cruise line, although with 45,000 employees and as the second largest container ship company, MSC certainly understands navigating the world's oceans while satisfying customers.

Started in 2003 with a couple of older ships that carried a total of less than 4000 passengers, the cruise segment has expanded to 11 ships, most custom built for MSC, carrying more than 24,000 passengers. Next year they will add another 3500 passengers to that capacity with the introduction of Divina.

Divina will join Splendida and Fantasia offering their unique Yacht Club lifestyle year-round in the Mediterranean.

More than a separate section of the ship for suites, the Yacht Club gives privileged guests the opportunity to enjoy the butler-pampered service and unlimited beverages of premium brands Regent and Silversea without losing the opportunity to go "out on the town" in the main part of the ship for big production shows and all the other entertainment found on a big ship.

You'd love it, just like you loved it when I convinced you that a balcony would be well worth a few extra dollars a day, but how can you justify the considerably higher price?

First, there's free air. That's right. Free air. You also have a free hotel night. When you arrive at the ship, you have a special Yacht Club embarkation area where your butler will meet you and whisk you to your room on a special YC elevator. You should be in your room in ten minutes. Your butler will be there to serve you right through packing your suitcase and seeing you off the ship at the end. Wouldn't you like to live that kind of lifestyle at least once?

Never Been to Spain?

2011-08-11T15:01:00.000-07:00

I love Barcelona, and I would guess almost anyone else who spent at least a few hours there agrees. It's wonderful to stroll along Las Ramblas, stopping occasionally for some tapas or a refreshing beverage. A lot of Mediterranean cruises begin or end in this wonderful city.

However, there is a lot more to Spain than just this impressive port metropolis.

My friend Danny asked me today about cruises to Spain and Portugal next summer, preferably starting near London to add that world class city to the itinerary.

I explained that most cruise lines focus more on the Eastern Mediterranean, primarily Italy and Greece, or up in Scandinavia and Northern Europe during the summer. The Spain/Portugal/Canary Isles cruises are more of a fall to spring phenomenon, much like we have many more Caribbean and Mexican Riviera ships during the winter months than in summer. In the case of Northern Europe and, in North America, Alaska, it is really a case of going while the waters are most navicable and the weather most pleasant for those cold climates.

However, the deeper I searched, the more terrific choices I found for SUMMER, 2012. I thought, "I haven't blogged on this subject before, so why not?"

Princess is a destination specialist, always providing terrific onboard lecturers to help you get the most from your time ashore. Ocean Princess is one of their smaller ships, carrying only about 700 passengers, so it is a more intimate cruise experience, very much like a boutique hotel. You will become quite familiar with the crew, and they with you, on this 8 night cruise that starts in Dover (near London) and ends in Barcelona.

Azamara Club Cruises, the small ship sister of Celebrity Cruises, offers a similar ship, but with a unique spin. It takes you a bit more upscale in terms of service, with a butler for every stateroom, including the interior rooms. Their truly unique selling proposition includes long, long port stays. On this voyage as on many other Azamara cruises, they even stay overnight sometimes. Azamara Journey's itinerary starts in Southampton (near London) and spends a lot of time in both Portugal and Spain. Because there's only one sea day, there's also time for a lot of time in the Bordeaux region of France.

How about a small ship with an Italian flair? Costa Allegra makes an unlikely voyage from Amsterdam to Italy, stopping in the UK, France, Portugal and Spain along the way. This is a considerably older ship, and I wouldn't put in the same class as the first two, but if you enjoy a toga party and a lot of pasta on the side with Spain, this is a great way to go.

Want a larger, newer Italian ship? MSC Opera is a beautiful large ship, although these days it might be seen as on the smaller side still. Since hiring Rick Sasso from Celebrity Cruises to take the helm, MSC has become something of the Italian Celebrity, although the lines are not otherwise affiliated. Sailing roundtrip from Southampton, you'll add a port in the Netherlands to Spanish stops.

Okay. I hear what you're saying. You want a full blown big ship. How about taking Cunard's beautiful Queen Victoria roundtrip from Southampton? While this one takes you away from Spain to add visits the French Riviera and Italy, you have to admit it is a great 13-night itinerary.

Not big enough or focused enough on the Iberian Peninsula? I saved the biggest for last: Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas! With so many things to do on the ship, from surfing to ice skating, you could enjoy a terrific vacation without leaving the ship, but definitely do go ashore to enjoy these amazing ports on a spectacular 14-night cruise roundtrip from Southampton (near London).

The only hard part will be choosing which one to take. Call me, and I will be happy to help you one that will fit you like a glove.

History of the Roman Forum: Emperor Nero

2011-07-31T15:27:00.000-07:00

I relied entirely on videos to relate how we spent a day in Roma this May, because we saw so much that I feared being bogged down in details when I also wanted to talk about other parts of the cruise.

On this trip, we made our first visit to the Forum, where the remarkable advance of western civilization by the Roman Empire was spiced with a strange assortment of Emperors who seemed intent on concurrently leading a degradation of individual morality.

One of the strangest was Nero, who was said to have fiddled while Rome burned, a story I remember from childhood. I think it was included in some popular cartoons on TV. It turns out he played a lyre rather than a violin, and perhaps he strummed it like a young Elvis strummed his acoustic guitar while singing on stage.

Did you realize that Nero actually wasn't in Rome when it burned? I had an image of him on a verandah playing his instrument with blazes rising against the black of night in the background.

Nero was actually on stage singing and playing his lyre in costume in Antium, about 35 miles south of Rome.

At the time, actors and performers were cosidered to be near the bottom of the social strata in ancient Rome, which of course is quite a contrast to today, when they are treated like royalty. Nero, however, insisted on taking to the stage to entertain the masses as emperor. The crowds loved Nero's hamming it up, reciting poetry and performing on stage.

He was also quite an athlete. Nero raced chariots and always won the races he entered. Once, his chariot overturned, and he couldn't finish the race, but he was still given the gold medal. Everyone understood that a good sport to Nero was anyone who let him win, and that not letting him win, whether he deserved it or not, could not be tolerated and might lead to imprisonment or death.

Sexually, let's just say that Nero was a champion of debauchery, including castrating a boy to take him as his wife and raping a Vestal Virgin. A joke of ancient Rome said that Nero was every noblewoman's husband and every nobleman's wife.

Did Nero start the fire to clear an area to build his new palace? He seemed capable of doing anything, including killing his own mother. Perhaps like the Godfather's baptism/murder scene, Nero intentionally picked a time to execute his plan when he would have a solid alibi, sending his henchmen to do the deed.

In any case, when he came back to Rome, he needed a scapegoat. This being 64 AD, the Christians had begun prosthelytizing Romans with their new religion. Like Hare Krishnas in the 1970s, the early Christians apparently were annoying a lot of people anyway, so Nero decided to blame the arson on them.

Nero publicly humiliated and executed Christians in the Colisseum, serving to entertain the mob at the same time. It was so cruel and obviously unfair that eventually Nero made martyrs of the Christians and, when they refused to recant and showed such firm belief to the end, the spectacles actually converted more Romans to Christianity. Without Nero, perhaps we wouldn't have so many Christians today.

Still Blogging After All These Years

2011-07-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I used this title as the subject of a message I sent out.

I checked for a video of the song and really liked this one, which captured an interesting moment in time. Make of it what you will.

By the way, I can't help but notice that shortly after I wrote a blog based on Tim Gunn's catch phrase, "Make it work," that Expedia came out with a campaign starring Gunn.

Can an interview of the Travelocity Gnome by Dick Cavett be far behind?

Standing on a Whale

2011-07-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

French Polynesia, July, 2004

"Are you standing on a Whale, fishing for minnows?"

--- Polynesian saying quoted by Joseph Campbell

Totem Poles, Sitka, Alaska, July 2002

Why do some people find so much more joy in life than others?

We all have an equal number of minutes in a day.

It's not just how we spend our time but what we think about it.

When we were children, most of us were happy to be given the opportunity to play where we were. On a hot day, a garden hose was a party.

Piazza Margherita, Venice, Italy, July 2007

As we get older, money becomes more of an issue, and certainly when I'm helping someone buy a cruise, I'm hoping they earn a lot more money than what they need to get by. Hopefully, they find enjoyment in their daily work, too.

Venice canal, July, 2007

While we don't need to go on vacation to enjoy our lives, vacations frequently rank as lifetime high points, landmarks that remind us of who we are in our personal evolutions.

No matter what you decide to do, why not make the most of your life?

Fully appreciate where you are standing rather than worrying about the small stuff.

Getting Out of Touch

2011-07-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

"You're out of touch."

Most people consider that an insult.

Tisa's Barefoot Bar, American Samoa in November, 2010

However, in this rapidly advancing technological world where cell phones have expanded to instant messaging and constant access to broadband internet via mobile devices, we are losing those free moments of escape that we used to take for granted.

Walking to the post office the other day, I passed a young guy behind the steering wheel of a new BMW convertible. Next to him sat a beautiful girl spreading sun tan lotion on herself. It was a bright, sunny day in a beach city, but the driver was too focused on his text message to notice any of it.

At least he was sitting at a red light while texting, although I've almost been run over on many occasions by people checking their e-mail while driving around a corner and over a crosswalk I occupied.

Gdansk, Poland, July 2009

How many times have you met friends for lunch and lost half their attention to their mobile device?

At a family dinner, someone will get a text or an e-mail that calls them away, if indeed there is a time when everyone can get together for dinner.

Don't get me wrong. I love this technology, which allows me to use call-forwarding and my cell phone to take care of necessary errands without leaving my office phone unanswered.

But how often do we really need to check our e-mail? And will it really matter if we have lunch before we find out the meeting for next week is cancelled?

We are losing the ability to be PRESENT, and I truly believe being in the present moment is a key to happiness and self-actualization.

Wes at Smuggler's Cove, Tortola in September 2009

On a cruise, we still have access to cell phones and the internet onboard and in port. However, it comes with a per minute charge that helps those with impulse-control issues (and isn't that all of us these days?) resist checking mobile devices every 60 seconds.

Escaping the worries of the world comes at a price, but I think you'll find yourself truly relaxed, possibly for the first time since Y2K turned out to be a bust.

Find yourself in paradise.

What's Happening On The Mexican Riviera: Is It Criminal?

2011-07-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

We've become accustomed to cruise lines clearing out of Southern California for the summer. If you want to cruise roundtrip to Hawaii from L.A. or San Diego, you have to wait until the fall, and this year we are left with our two stalwarts from Long Beach for Mexican cruises.

Carnival Paradise continues to alternate Friday through Monday cruises to Ensenada with Monday through Friday cruises to Ensenada and Catalina. In the summer months, demand swells to almost double winter pricing on these popular escapes, but I just saw a Pack-n-Go special for 7/22 departure that starts at just $279 per person, plus about $40 tax. If you've never done one of these weekenders, you should really try it. You'll be amazed how much vacation you get in three nights away from home.

What can you do in Ensenada besides go to Papas & Beer? A special treat is Wine Country Tour. You'll be surprised to find these terrific wineries in the rolling hills outside Ensenada have great wine and lovely grounds. The bullring draped in bougainvillia makes a great backdrop for photos.

If you're not a wine afficionado, there are many other options from horseback riding to 4 wheeling in Jeeps to visiting the remarkable coast by La Bufadora.

Carnival Splendor continues its 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise, and the substitution of two days in Cabo plus one in Puerto Vallarta remains the order of the day. A few criminal incidents in Mazatlan have pushed cruise lines away.

In fact, when Disney and Princess return in the fall, they will not call on Mazatlan either. In addition, Princess has decided to replace Puerto Vallarta with Ensenada. Princess will also use that same ship for wine country cruises and Hawaii cruises, so she won't have too many Mexican Riviera cruises anyway.

Other lines like Norwegian and Royal Caribbean have ditched the Mexican Riviera altogether, so this year we will have fewer ships than in many years. Carnival will bring back Spirit, which will be alternating five night trips to Cabo (2 days there) with 9 night cruises to the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles instead of San Diego to fill part of the gap.

San Diego is the odd-man out, with only Holland America making it their home port for the school months. Oosterdam still is scheduled to do the traditional ports of Cabo, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, but keep in mind that they are owned by the same company that owns Carnival and Princess.

A real delight is the 11-night itinerary on Zaandam, which if it goes as scheduled will visit Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Acapulco, Huatulco, Zihuatenejo and Cabo San Lucas. With the way cruise lines have been running from Mexico, you better visit these ports while a ship still goes.

By the way, regardless of the length of cruise you select, be sure to enjoy Southern California before and after your cruise. Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes, for example, is a world class spot to stretch your vacation.

Trump National Golf Course, Rancho Palos Verdes

2011-07-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today Julie and I finally had lunch at Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes. We've driven past the beautiful resort a few times, and once almost had Sunday Brunch there, but despite it being a short drive from our home, we had never eaten there prior to today. We simply didn't realize what we had been missing.

The lunch menu may not be cheap, but it certainly is reasonable, and the setting is quite remarkable, with rolling fairways along the rugged coastline.

There were a lot of sandwiches and salads under $15. The sandwiches come with a tasty cold slaw and your choice of fries, onion rings or fresh fruit. My Trump's Club Sandwich with apple bacon, roasted turkey and avocado was delicious, as was Julie's grilled tuna and Swiss.

After lunch, we strolled through the public park that's embedded in the course, enjoying the panoramic ocean views.

For passengers on Mexican Riviera cruises from Long Beach or Los Angeles (San Pedro), this is a great excursion to stretch your cruise experience by a day. While it is not on the most direct route to LAX, it is well worth going out of your way.

If you have enough time for a round of golf, I would surmise you'd love this challenging course. In my video above, you can see an amateur successfully finding the green on Trump's signature waterfall hole.

One Short Day in New York

2011-07-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

American Airlines shuttled us to the Marco LaGuardia Hotel by Lexington, a 3 1/2 star property. The lobby and public spaces looked recently remodeled, and by the luck of the draw, our room was great. Actually, it was a suite, with large, flat screened televisions in both the living room and bedroom, plus a stainless steel and granite kitchenette.

Emma!

Between the delays and long flight, we were tired by the time we turned in around midnight, so we didn't take the fullest advantage of the room, especially because we awoke early to head from Flushing to Washington Heights to visit Gina, Laszlo and Emma.

By the time we made it across town on the subway, Laszlo had left for work and Gina had pushed her departure back about as far as she could. She skipped taking the subway and instead took a taxi to give us a few minutes together before she headed to a conference at which she was a featured speaker.

However, Emma was able to clear her calendar, and we enjoyed spending the morning with her and Laszlo's mother Ria, who lives around the corner from Gina. The Laughing Cow cheese package that Julie had kept from her airline meal proved to be a pretty fun toy.

Gina was able to meet us for lunch at an authentic New York Deli, where I had a great pastrami sandwich while the ladies enjoyed less fatty sandwiches. We took a pleasant stroll with Gina before she headed back to her conference to make her presentation.

Emma and Ria headed home, while Julie and I caught the subway that connected to the Air Train, which dropped right at JFK's jetBlue terminal two hours before our 4 PM flight. We used our American Airlines meal vouchers to buy a box lunch to eat on our flight.

While we hadn't seen a Yankees game, scaled the Empire State Building or seen a Broadway show, we enjoyed our forced overnight in New York far more than flying to Chicago where who knows what could have disrupted our change of planes. I would have gladly paid for the privilege...if American Airlines hadn't wanted $800 per person for a planned stayover in New York booked in advance.

The Tim Gunn Approach to Travel

2011-06-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

My wife and daughters love Project Runway, so I've found myself playing video poker while on our family room TV Tim Gunn repeats his mantra, "Make it work!"

When air travel is involved, those are words to live by. Concerned that we might miss our train from Civitavecchia to the airport, Julie and I skipped one last breakfast with the kids aboard Navigator of the Seas. Despite carrying our luggage off, we missed the first round of shuttle buses but decided not to splurge for a taxi all the way to the airport. Taxis refused to take us the short distance to the train station. We were on the first bus to return to the pier, upon which we waited while the other two filled up and departed moments before us.

Off the shuttle bus, we followed the herd pulling their rolling bags along sidewalks and over crosswalks until we reached the train station about eight blocks away. At the ticket window, a sign announced a train strike. Another red flag, but we were allowed to buy tickets to Rome connecting to the Leonardo Express. I assume the ticket sellers must have been management, forced to fill in for striking union workers. We validated our tickets to Rome and hoped that management could also drive the train.

Our train to Rome was late, and no one checked our tickets, but otherwise the trip went fine. In Rome, we validated our tickets to the airport, and on that more expensive express route, a manager did check our tickets.

Despite running later than we hoped, we were at the airport with enough time to catch our scheduled flight. When we checked in, we learned the flight was delayed by four hours, which would make catching our connecting flight in New York impossible.

To make a long story short, they gave us a meal voucher, which bought a plate of pasta painted in a thin red coat of ragu, an orange and water. We had a deck of cards as well as some interesting books, so we settled in for the wait, eventually buying a chocolate brioche and cappuccinos on our own dime. There were unnecessary delays as we boarded, culminating with the pilot announcing that they had not, on a plane four hours late, yet cleared customs after we had boarded the plane.

American Airlines apologized for the delay and wisely bought drinks for the passengers, although they didn't announce the latter. When the stewardess came by with a drink cart, I asked if a rum and Diet would be complimentary, and she said, "Yes." Julie said she wanted one of those. I said, "Make it two," and after serving Julie hers, the stewardess gave me two of them. Smile. Watching movies and relaxed by the unexpected happy hour, it was a good flight overall.

Most of the passengers were fretting about their connections, but Julie had checked her Blackberry at the airport and knew all flights to LAX that night would be long gone by the time we arrived, so why not make the best of it?

Why not indeed? We landed and found they had booked us on a flight the next day on American at noon, connecting through Chicago, and despite the fact that we would be comped two meals, transfers and a hotel, we refused. We asked about the jetBlue nonstop leaving at 4 PM, and the American Airlines rep managed to snag us two seats. We would have made Tim Gunn proud, because that meant that instead of spending the next 24 hours essentially in transit, we could fit in a visit with our granddaughter Emma and possibly catch a glimpse of her working parents Gina and Laszlo, who live in the Big Apple, while still arriving home at about the same time the next day. We would "Make it work!"

Chania Harbor, Crete

2011-06-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Chania Harbor

Stairway as Display Case at Chania Harbor

After concluding our visit in Madaro, we drove back into Chania and headed to the beautiful harbor for lunch.

It's not at all hard to understand why Vasilis called this his personal paradise.

During his Greek Navy career, he had spent twenty years in the megalopolis of Athens, and that was enough for him.

Chania Lighthouse

Chania has plenty of great dining and entertainment plus friendly citizens and beautiful surroundings. We told Vasilis we'd love to have him visit us in California, but he said he had no desire to leave Chania.

Boats harbored in Chania

Walking past delicious wafting aromas emanating from inviting restaurants on this sunny day was a treat in itself.

Despite the fact that we had already had three meals that day, we stopped at a corner sidewalk cafe featuring our Greek favorite, souvlakis.

Once again, this gyro pita sandwich was delicious accompanied by Mythos Hellenic Lager.

Shopping area by Chania Harbor

After lunch, the under-25 set headed out to explore the shops while Vasilis and I sipped our beers and solved the world's problems, with Julie sipping a Diet Coke awed by our wisdom. If only the world paid as much credence to our musings as the ancient world paid to Socrates and Plato, although maybe they were considered to be the Bill and Ted of their time back then.

By the way, if you know Julie, you understand that she might have expressed a few opinions herself, couched in the humility of Athena.

3 Ladies of Madaro

2011-06-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

Upon arriving in Madaro and exiting our cars, the only sounds to be heard were birds chirping, a gentle breeze rustling leaves and goats bleating. Almost immediately we were met by a lady that Vasilis seemed to know well.

I assumed this to be Eftalia, the woman whose name we had found on an envelope addressed to Julie's father, but she turned out to be Ermioni Migiakis.

Based on the last name, she is probably a more direct relative to Julie than Eftalia, but to some extent this is just playing connect the dots on my part.

Another woman dressed in black arrived. She took control with the air of being the proud civic leader of her community. I assumed this must be Eftalia, but she turned out to be Ermioni's sister, Heraklia.

We were directed into her house, where we looked through photos and chatted about family history. Vasilis always interpretted everything to make the conversation possible, filtering out extraneous phrasing from what I could tell, while adding his own insights. Before long the sisters were serving us Greek coffee, goat cheese and bread, rich with flavors of the area. The sisters were wonderful hostesses.

A few moments before the distinctive thick, sweet Greek coffee arrived, the third lady of Madaro arrived. This indeed was Eftalia. When the coffee and snacks arrived, she became quite animated. Vasilis translated that she was upset because we were her guests, and it was she who was to feed us. Heraklia countered that she always hosted any Migiakis who visited from anywhere in the world.

With a smile on her face, she pretended to hit Vasilis with her cane, and she cuffed me on the back of the neck before hugging me. The best I can make out, she had been waiting for us for a few days, possibly believing we were supposed to have arrived on the day our cruise embarked from Rome. In any case, when we headed to her house, she had a giant bowl of refrigerated cooked goat and chicken for us to eat. It was tasty, but we were already full from the cheese and bread.

She proudly showed us the room where Julie's dad had stayed, and the bed where he slept. Like the sisters, she seemed immediately connected to my son Jay. He probably reminded them of young men who had left the village to move out into the world, and of course his naturally sweet disposition is always appealing, especially to seniors. Who can help but be humbled by such generous women so ready to share their food and homes with strangers, especially in light of the fact that our little band of visitors probably doubled the population of their village?

The Road to Madaro

2011-06-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

Sisters Julie, Cheryl and Jacque with their families in July, 2007.

When we returned from a summer cruise to the Greek Isles almost four years ago, I wrote an article about Julie and her sisters visiting Chania, Crete, to see the area where their Grandpa Nick had grown up.

A few weeks later, I received this e-mail:

Dear Wes:

It is with great interest and curiosity that I read about your trip to Madaro, a small Cretan village south of Chania (Hania) on the island of Crete. You see, during my lunch break yesterday, I decided to “google” the village that my grandfather hailed from “Madaro”. Consequently, I came upon your blog. My name is Harold Migias. My grandfather was Haralambos Migiakis aka Charalambos Miyiakis aka “Harry Migias” upon his arrival at Ellis Island in 1912 with his cousin Joseph “Iosif” Birakis. I visited Madaro in 1996.

Road to Madaro in July, 2007.

How does your family fit into the Migiakis-Birakis family tree? As I recall from my visit, those are the only two families up there.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Harold Migias (son of John Migias)

Sorting through family trees, Harold determined his grandfather was the first cousin of Julie's grandfather, but their last names had been altered differently at Ellis Island.

Julie's father, John Megas, had visited Chania and Madaro about ten years before Harold had, and it was his stories of the warm hospitality of his distant cousins including Eftalia Birakis that planted in Julie the idea of hooking up with relatives on Crete.

Amy in taxi to Chania in July, 2007.

For the previous trip, Julie's sister had tried to contact Eftalia before we arrived on Crete but unfortunately could not. After making phone contact through a taxi driver while in Chania, however, we did start sending letters translated by internet programs to Eftalia in case we tried again. It was never quite clear how we would actually communicate once we were there, but when we found a cruise spending a full day in Chania, Harold brought us the solution.

He had met Nikolaos Mygiakis, a younger member of the family in Chania, on his trip to Crete, and Nikos knows how to speak English. We suddenly had someone of our generation as a connection in Crete. As luck would have it, Nikos would be forced to work on the day we arrived, but he introduced us by e-mail to his brother, Vasilis.

Road to Madaro in May, 2011.

Vasilis proved to be a Godsend. He set up a meeting place near Souda Harbor. We worried if he knew the exact pier for our ship and if we would find our meeting spot. We worried he may not show up at all for "cousins" whom, after all, he had never heard of until a few weeks earlier. We arrived a few minutes early and scouted out the area to be sure we were in the right place.

Aunt Ermioni and Cousin Vasilis upon arrival in Madaro, 2011.

Right on schedule, Vasilis arrived in his car, and he had a Mercedes taxi following him to drive the other three of us up to Madaro. He spoke English fluently, and the taxi driver could understand most of what we said. A palpable spark of excitement said, "This is actually going to work!"

Turkish Bazaar in Kusadasi

2011-06-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

Turkish Bazaar in Kusadasi

Most shore excursions in Kusadasi end with a visit to a rug merchant. Complimentary beverages accompanied a dazzling display of handmade Turkish rugs. A craftswoman tediously weaved a thin row on a new rug. As all this unfolded, the manager described the type of threads and natural coloring methods, encouraging attendees to touch the rugs to feel the differences. At the conclusion of the presentation, a professional sales force moved in to convince some to buy, but we slipped out as quickly as permissable.

Outgoing and friendly in Kusadasi.

The Turkish Bazaar outside the door features all kinds of wares pitched by aggressive, friendly salesmen. Aromas of exotic spices wafted through the air. We negotiated a bit on soccer shirts at one stand, but it was a guy silently offering shoe shines that reeled us in. Amy wore her favorite cowboy boots which had been worn to bare leather by a long Connecticut winter. For 5 Euro, the craftsman agreed to polish them. It took about ten minutes, during which the shirt guy came back with incrementally lower pricing, and when the cobbler finished, the rich shine on the cordovan boots had everyone smiling.

Refreshments in Kusadasi

The merchants in the Turkish Bazaar didn't ignore customers or talk on their cell phones to friends like teenaged clerks in an American mall. They were professional salespeople who zeroed in on anyone who passed their stores and engaged them in conversation. This made Julie somewhat uncomfortable, but she did find some lovely pashminas to buy as gifts.

Jay at sidewalk cafe

Jay and his girlfriend, on the other hand, spent the afternoon in the Bazaar, celebrating in the friendly atmosphere. "Hi, I'm Katie," reportedly echoed through the alleyways and shops, and the merchants "gave them major love" everywhere they went. They reciprocally loved spending the afternoon in Kusadasi rather than going to Miletus and Didyma like we did.

"Hi, I'm Katie!" back on board in new jacket.

The big purchase was a soft leather jacket for Katie, but there were also other purchases like a purse for Julie, pashminas and keychains. They also enjoyed the food and drinks of the region at a sidewalk cafe.

Authentic Turkish meal for Jay and Katie.

For shoppers in particular, Kusadasi is a great destination in its own right, but treat yourself to at least visiting Ephesus on your first visit.

(All photos courtesy of Jay and Katie.)

Kusadasi, Turkey: Miletus and Didyma

2011-06-07T06:02:00.000-07:00

Roman Theater in Miletus

In Miletus, our guide focused primarily on the Roman Theater, a true semi-circle which had the architectural advantage of easy replication on any flat site in the Roman Empire. Arched tunnels not only served as passageways through which patrons could reach their seats, but also supported the stadium seating, allowing those further back to see over those in front of them. The Greek Theaters in Ephesus and elsewhere, on the other hand, were built into natural bowls with seating going up the side of the hills and are not true semi-circles. We had a few minutes to look around the theater on our own.

Wildflower where once a planned city grew.

Miletus was the birth place of Hippodamos, the father of urban planning. While we were in Ephesus, our guide had spoken about how Roman cities were laid out according to a specific plan that took into account how many people lived there, with the size of the theater being enough to serve 10% of the population at once. Knowing 18 inches as the width of a seat, the population of the city can be calculated from the size of the theater, helping to know the size of other facilities like hospitals while doing excavations. Season ticket holders had their names or symbols carved into their seats.

About noon we were off to have lunch in Didyma at exactly the same restaurant where my youngest daughter Amy and I dined four years earlier.

Our group arrived before any other to the restaurant. Dictated to some extent by the season, the food choices were different. The juuicy, fresh pears Amy and I enjoyed last time nowhere in sight, but the delicious meal included lots of treats to go with the panoramic view of the Temple of Apollo.

Temple of Apollo from Restaurant

Our guide proclaimed the Temple of Apollo as his favorite site on this tour. Again he described it differently than our Turkish guide had four years earlier, describing other aspects, including the construction techniques. Pointing out the precisely flat sides of the stone blocks that allowed them to fit together perfectly, he said they were cut with silk thread, which is an incredibly strong natural fiber, pulled back and forth rapidly for hours. He said he observed the technique in a demonstration. The incredibly time consuming process required water to be regularly applied during the process to cool it. I tried to verify this online, and I came across fascinating video about huge watermills in the Roman Empire that created flour for bread. At the very end of the video, there's a briefly stated theory that these sophisticated watermills, created many centuries before the industrial revolution, might have been used to cut stone blocks, harnessing energy from the water power plant rather than what would have been hard, painstaking work for slaves. When dealing with events that happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago, everything is open to intepretation. Who knows exactly what happened or what people were thinking over 2000 years ago?

Return to Ephesus

2011-06-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

While clients frequently reject cruise itineraries that take them back to ports they've already visited, there inevitably are alternative side trips on paths not previously taken. On our return to Kusadasi, I found that taking the exact same shore excursion route can also yield a unique experience. How?

Library of Celsus in Ephesus

All of us bring our personal backgrounds and beliefs to our travel and jobs, and that influences how we approach our subject matter. As luck would have it, our guide was the grandson of immigrants from Crete, which gave us an additional connection, since Julie's grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Crete.

In Ephesus, our guide shared stories about early Christians. In the first century A.D., Christians could be thrown to the lions and ripped to shreds for the entertainment of the masses simply because of their beliefs. This obviously made them cautious about what they said and to whom. To be certain he was talking with a fellow Christian, one person would casually scratch an arc in the ground with his toe. If the other was a Christian, he would casually scratch a mirror image of the arc, crossing through at one end, with his toe. The result was what looked like a crude outline of a fish, the same symbol you'll see on the back of mini-vans throughout the heartland of America.

Our guide four years earlier spoke about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Apostle John, who reportedly spent their final days around the great city of Ephesus. He spoke at length about Paul, who wanted to preach the Word of God in the large Greek Theater in that city and who wrote letters to the Ephesians which, like John's Book of Revelations and the fourth Gospel possibly written in Ephesus, are included in the Bible. Our guide this time touched on those pillars of history, but not in as much detail, preferring to share less famous anecdotes, including an explanation of a more complex symbol found etched all around Ephesus that, like the fish, had secret meaning for Christians.

A far less religious marking along the road leading up toward the town from the coast was a primitive ad for the house of ill-repute at the corner across from the Library of Celsus. Our guide said there was a tunnel beneath the street from the library to the whore house. While certainly not exactly the same experience, it reminded me of how my high school friends and I would walk to Thrifty's for an ice cream while we were ostensibly at the library to study. We were always looking for girls too, but we certainly never found carnal knowledge there.

Afternoon in Athens

2011-06-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Acropolis

As we departed the Acropolis, we experienced first hand the effectiveness of a walled city with a narrow gate against invasion.

Jordan and Amy hold off Barbarians at the Gate

With ingress and egress squeezed through the same passageway, it was a struggle to go anywhere. If we had swords and spears, we could have held off an otherwise overwhelming force of invaders a long time.

Eventually, we battled our way out without needing to smite anyone.

The downhill march brought us past souvenir vendors on the sidewalks and in shops, and we bought a few trinkets. Julie bought a black and gold Greek shot glass to display in our living room, and Katie bought some key chains.

We perused restaurant menus looking for street gyros, which we always enjoy in Greece, but gyros always refers to the kind of spit-cooked meat but not always the folded pita sandwich Americans call gyros. Fortunately, most of the menus have photos to inform diners who don't understand the language.

Gyros

After asking several places, I came to a sidewalk cafe with rolled-out cloth awnings where I could see others ordering exactly what we wanted by the rotating vertical spit along the sidewalk. With a few sprinkles of rain hinting of an imminent cloud burst, I hustled back to gather the troops so we could seize a table, and hunger turned our herd of cats into an efficient assault team.

The restaurant owner pulled two tables together under an awning and handed us menus.

"Gyros?" I asked.

He pointed to a dinner platter on the menu, which certainly looked delicious but wasn't what we had in mind. I pointed to some girls eating the folded pita sandwich nearby, and he said that was take-out food.

"Can we eat it here?"

"No problem."

Katie's Mythos, Jordan, Amy, Wes, Julie and Jay

Circling my finger to indicate everyone at the table, I indicated we all wanted one. Pointing to myself, "Mythos." Aroud the table, Jay and Katie went with beer also, with Julie and Amy ordering Diet Pepsis. While this photo makes it look like Jordan must be working on his second Mythos, he was actually drinking Pepsi and blinked as Katie snapped the photo.

The owner brought us a basket of rustic bread accompanied by vinegar and oil along with our drinks to enjoy before our sandwiches arrived. Mythos is a light, refreshing beer that tastes just right in Greece, especially after defending our fortress from invading Spartans.

Jay and Katie eating souvlakis.

The gyros, which are most often called souvlakis in Athens, were fantastic. I had a second one. By the way, just to confuse you even more, souvlakis may also describe a shiskabob instead the pita sandwich, so your best bet is to point find what you want and point to it.

The owner complimented me on my beautiful family as he brought us a dessert of yogurt and honey at no charge. This kind of genuine hospitality is an Eastern Mediterranean specialty. We finished off the two plates without any problem.

baklava

We also ordered a couple of baklavas, and they were also amazing. They were much larger than we expected, but we managed to finish them both.

With a big tip it came to 45 Euro. Greece definitely has family friendly pricing.

Theater of Dionysos with Athens in background.

By the time we finished our meal, the rain had passed, having spritzed us just enough to cool us down.

At that point, we had already enjoyed a full day's adventures, and we could have simply walked back across the square to board the Green Line back to the ship, but instead we hiked into downtown.

Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing the modern city of Athens, although for me modern cities usually pale by comparison to their ancient ruins. We had a destination in mind, the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and following our map we eventually arrived.

Katie and Jay at National Archaeological Museum.

Surprisingly on free museum day, it was not crowded at all. There are nice artifacts and sculptures on display, including a famous rendering of Poseidon hurling his trident, although the trident had been stripped away at some point. The athletic pose is not different from that of a quarterback poised to toss a pass on a football card, although the quarterback is generally not naked.

Katie, Jay, Amy and Jordan in Viking Crown Lounge.

We allowed an extra hour to get back to the ship, which is fortunate because the line we needed was shut down at the nearest Metro station, so we had to do some extra walking to get to the next station.

That night, we enjoyed another great meal and terrific entertainment as our floating resort headed for another of the greatest ports in history.

The Acropolis

2011-06-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

Julie on the hike to the Acropolis

"By all means marry;
if you get a good wife, you'll be happy.

If you get a bad one,
you'll become a philosopher."

---Socrates

Wes and Julie by the Parthenon

According to Greek mythology, the gods Poseidon and Athena both wanted to be the patron of a beautiful area, strategically positioned by the aqua Aegean Sea. Poseidon struck the land with his trident, producing a spring which promised naval prowess. Athena touched the ground with a spear and created an olive tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. The people chose Athena, who is honored with the city's name.

Jay, Amy, Wes and Julie at the Acropolis

That olive tree survived many centuries but was burned in the Peloponnesian War by Persians, who were allied with the Spartans, when their superior allied naval power destroyed Athens' fleet. From the burnt stump, however, a new sprout emerged and grew to be another olive tree that would last several more centuries.

The Erechtheum

It's interesting how mythology is so intertwined with history that it now is hard to separate them, although in fact by definition the earliest years of Athens are not historic but pre-historic, known through oral traditions passed on by poets. The leap from cave dwellers to the highly advanced civilization that gave birth to democracy, architecture, philosophy, psychology, arts, science and in essence made further advancement possible is hard to fathom. Did the mythological stories of the gods start as entertainment, similar to movies like Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean and Sex In the City? Or could there be some truth in those "Ancient Astronaut" theories my buddy Sam enjoys?

The Erechtheum with Porch of the Caryatids

In any case, according to Plato's Cratylus, both Athena and Athens come from the root words theos, or God, and nous, or mind, so the names of the Goddess of Wisdom and her city logically refer to God's Mind, which certainly should be an ideal place to dwell.

The Odeun of Herodes Atticus (a "new" Acropolis structure built in 161 AD)

Athens is one of the oldest cities in the world, and today she is a city of about 5 million. Her current government financial house is in disarray, but I wouldn't count the city of Athena out. She's like that sprout, always poised to come back. As one of three great playwrites of tragedy in Classical Athens, Euripides wrote, "There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change."

Real Ionic Columns

Our plan for the day was to visit the Acropolis, which of course is the most famous site in Athens. Built on a hill 490 feet above sea level, there's a commanding view of the area. It is the perfect setting for a walled fortress as well as a place of worship, which it was in ancient times.

Katie and Jay by the Temple of Athena

The most famous building, and one of the most recognizable structures in the world, is the Parthenon, built by the site of the olive tree where Athena won her contest with Poseidon.

Commanding View from the Acropolis

There are too many millenia of history to possibly cover in a short article, so let me just get to what we did, on what will probably go down as one of the most legendary days in the history of Athens.

Believing it to be a short walk to the Metro station from our ship's dock, we trekked beside the harbor for a good 45 minutes or more.

The Porch of the Caryatids

I bought a pair of Roy Ban aviator sunglasses for 5 Euro on the walk, replacing my $5 pair of Burn Notice shades I'd purchased in Hermosa Beach the previous time I couldn't find my sunglasses. It turned out my old glasses were buried in my cargo shorts after all, but at least I have a souvenir and gave a sale to the old shopkeeper who confirmed we were going in the right direction.

View On the Hike to Acropolis

As we arrived at the station, we heard a police car blast his siren as he pulled up to the corner, and some less permanent cardboard watch-and-sunglass stands were rapidly folded up and carted off by their owners who humously scattered like cockroaches.

The Metro cost 1.4 Euro (.7 Euro for Students) to take the Green Line to a station at the foot of the Acropolis hill. The uphill climb also turned out to be a longer hike than we expected, especially when we went the wrong way at one point, but we enjoyed it.

Wes by the Parthenon

There was good news and bad news about visiting Athens on this day. The good news, that all the museums and the Acropolis had free admission, was of course also the bad news, because the entrance was jammed with people when we arrived. Despite the crowds and ongoing restoration projects that added to the din, we all enjoyed visiting this remarkable area.

Lovely Taormina

2011-05-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

Katie and Jay on our balcony docked in Messina.

Being caught between Scylla and Charybdis is a lot less frightening aboard a large cruise ship than it seemed to Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.

The sea approaching the sickle shaped harbor of Messina was calm, which is probably why, in conjunction with the narrow naval squeezepoint between the Italian mainland and Sicily, Messina was a strategic military port throughout history.

Church in Taormina

Starting 7 1/2 Centuries before Christ, conquerers including Greeks, Carthagenians, Romans, Mammertines, Goths, Byzantines, Arabs and Normans took control of Messina, which was already settled before the military invaders began arriving. Throughout the Middle Ages, Messina was an important jumping-off point for the knights of the Crusades, with Richard the Lionheart of England and Phillip II of France visiting in 1190. Contrary to Monty Python's version of the Crusades, the English and French were allies.

Amy and Jordan in Taormina

Sitting in the hillside about 45 minutes by bus from Messina, Taormina has been a vacation resort for over two millenia. With its panoramic views of he coast and Mount Etna, it isn't hard to understand why. Though never conquered, Taormina surrendered to the Carthagenians and then the Romans to maintain peace.

Roads by Mt. Etna

After the Roman Empire took over in 212 BC, Taormina became home for Roman aristocrats and consuls, who built vacation villas there. Similar to Messina, Taormina changed political hands through the ages. It usually was a source of tax revenue for distant empires.

Taormina Street

When I hear a quaint medieval village is a scheduled stop for multiple excursions on a large cruise ship, I find myself a bit trepidatious, and when we arrived at Taormina, the many tour buses from other ships as well as our own seemed to confirm my concerns. We found hordes of tourists filling the narrow street, but as we walked onward, the crowds cleared out, whether because tours headed to the next stop or the visitors were happy with the first shops they found.

Taormina nightclub

On the tour bus ride, our guide told us to try the delicious local Sicilian food, including arancini or arancina, a deep-fried ball of risotto coated in Italian bread crumbs with a chunk of mozarella cheese at the core. The appearance is sort of like an orange, which is how the Italian name translates. It was tasty, something I could see catching on as a special menu item at Jack In the Box or TGI Fridays.

Ionian Sea and Mt. Etna from Taormina

Amy found a restaurant with a beautiful view for an afternoon break. The logo on the menu for Ristorante La Buca was an ostrich. Isn't it odd how things you think about keep showing up in your life?

Wes & Amy at La Buca Ristorante

At La Buca, I had a beer while the others ate desserts. Julie's tiramasu was the best I've ever tasted, uniquely Sicilian in its preparation with intricate lacing of deep brown mocha icing. My Birra Messina was a tasty tropical beer with a touch of citrus, though it turned out it was brewed in Milan instead of locally. All in all, we had a relaxing day in Taormina. For those who can't quite place where you heard the term "caught between Scylla and Charybdis," here's an old video:

Rome to Sicily

2011-05-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

Navigator of the Seas Promenade

After our fantastic Saturday in Rome, we decided to drop into low gear Sunday morning, sleeping in and enjoying a leisurely breakfast at the Hotel Corot. Included free with the room, the buffet includes coffee from an easy-to-use cappuchino/espresso machine, great pastry and cereal choices and some deli items. I enjoyed a combination of hard-boiled brown egg, prescutto and Laughing Cow soft cheese, with a chocolate croissant and several espresso mixes.

Cross in Messina

Actually, Julie and I didn't sleep as late as we planned, so we walked to Hotel Quirinale before breakfast, just to check it out. I have frequently recommended it because of its reasonable price (under $400 per night) for a 4 Star, centrally located hotel that has a rich history. Giuseppi Verdi and other great composers, dancers and musical artists have stayed at this former palace located by the Opera House. I have to say that it seems to be fading and could use a bit of primping, but at half the price of a 5 Star property, it's still a cool option, and the courtyard garden between the hotel and Opera House is a lovely spot for dining and relaxation.

Being close to Termini meant we could walk to the station and board a train to our port in Civitavecchia for just 4.5 Euro. After a pleasant hour and a half ride, we caught a tax at the station for $20, which carried four of us directly to the port. We had plenty of time to catch the free cruise shuttle a fifteen minute walk away had we chosen to do so.

By the time we finished a great lunch at the beautiful buffet onboard, we were happy to learn Jay and Katie had made it to the ship on time. They cut it closer than I would have preferred, because they needed to attend Katie's sister's graduation. Their nonstop Alitalia flight arrived on time to FCO at 12:15. Had there been any delays, they understood they might have to take the 12 hour train ride to Messina to catch the ship. By the time they went through customs, they decided to take a taxi to the port, negotiating a rate of 100 Euro (down from 150).

Staircase to Church in Messina

While even I get bored with all this minutiae, for some people making a similar trip, it could be valuable information. If you find it too mundane, just skip to the video. One other order of business this evening was our dining reservation. Because Jay and Katie had been added late, they were seated at a separate table, but I spoke with the Maitre d' that evening, and he said he would do what he could to get us seated together. The next evening, we were all moved to a new table for the duration of the cruise, and we loved our waitstaff.

Ceiling in Messina

Jay and Katie wanted to explore our arrival port of Messina, and they enjoyed a reportedly terrific day. The photos in this post are from their trip. The rest of us went to the medieval village of Taoromina, which I'll tell you about next.

A Day In Roma

2011-05-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

Hotel Corot Near Termini Station In Rome

2011-05-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

"When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there."
—Zig Ziglar

Some people travel first class. They easily justify the additional costs of taking the best scheduled flights in Business Class seats, a limo transfer and Premium accommodations. They have taken time away from busy lives and successful careers and insist on making the most of their vacation time.

Wes in Rome, May 21, 2011

If you can afford to stay at a 5 Star property like the Stafford London or the Cavalieri in Rome, you obviously should expect to pay more, but you will also enjoy a truly remarkable experience.

Most of us, however, aim somewhat lower on the price scale. In reading reviews on Trip Advisor, a lot of people seem to believe that because they paid three times what they paid once for a Motel 6 in Nebraska, they should be staying in a palace in Rome, even if it had a 1 or 2 star ranking. I would advise you to NOT believe a nice photo and glowing description of a 1 star property, especially in Europe, but a well-located three star property may fill your need for a place to stay for a night or two before a cruise. By the way, keep in mind that many of the best reviews at Trip Advisor are probably written by the hotel's own staff, who might also trash a better competitor.

Rome overview from Forum

We stayed at the Hotel Corot, a 3 Star property a stone's throw from Termini Rail Station. It is an extremely convenient place to stay, although we managed to exit the wrong door at the station and walk the perimeter before we reached our hotel's street upon arrival. The street is scarred with graffiti and lined with parked motor bikes. The teens hanging out at midnight don't give you warm and fuzzy feelings, if you arrive late as we did, but the hotel itself is decent.

The bathrooms had been recently remodeled, and the rooms had enough space to walk around the bed without tripping over our luggage, which is pretty spacious for a well-located 3 Star property in a big city. The only small negative was the carpet on the stairs, which had received heavy wear during the rain and slush season and could have used a good cleaning, but the small elevator was big enough for a couple with luggage. The staff was polite and efficient. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet both mornings of our stay in Rome. By the way, remember I also book hotels and resort packages.

Getting to Termini Stazione from the FCO airport is simple. We got off the plane, walked through the terminal and boarded the Leonardo Express, which took us directly to Termini Stazione for just 14 Euro each.

Amy and Wes walking at the Roman Forum

Flying from Los Angeles to Rome, however, isn't as easy as it once was, at least if you watch your budget like we do. There are few non-stops these days, possibly because the FCO terminal can't handle processing as many Americans in the post-911 regulatory world. In any case, our reasonably priced flight on American Airlines came with a long layover London and a bit of an unplanned panic.

We packed light as usual for our trip, each of us carrying one rolling bag and a backpack, because it avoids checking bags, but in switching to the British Airways flight to Rome, their rep said my rolling case was too big. I immediately insisted I could compress it a bit more, zipping the expansion closed, but it was the wheels extending a quarter inch too far that stopped it from clearing the metal measuring bin.

Not at all happy to be without my bag, I headed to security, only to realize I didn't have my passport. I returned to the BA rep, who insisted she had returned it to me. In what approached being a Monty Python argument, we went back and forth. After numerous denials, she invited me to come around her counter to search for myself, and I found my passport laying on the bag tag printer, where she had set my little blue booklet when the machine had jammed. But who can stay mad at a Brit, when they have such a cheery culture?

Getting What You Want

2011-05-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."
— Zig Ziglar

My parents lived by the same principals espoused by Zig Ziglar, and they raised me to do the same. I wish I had been more attuned to their lessons when I was a teenager. I wouldn't have been the equivalent of an "American Idol," but I would have accomplished far more than I have career-wise.

However, I have enjoyed an amazing life, primarily due to helping others get what they want. As a travel agent, a field with admittedly limited financial potential for a one-person operation, I do my best to help my clients get the most from their vacation time. As a father, I have successfully worked to help my children find their own paths. As a husband, I have supported my wife's career, holding down the home front so she could focus on her career goals.

My wife is arguably my best "customer." Whether getting her Baby Ruth bars and Johnny's pizza when aerobics burned off the calories in the 1980s, Reduced Fat Doritos and Wow potato chips during her low fat days of the 1990s, or sunflower seeds and Atkins bars for the low carb decade, I have tried to provide her what she wants.

Madaro, Crete

Julie's an avid traveler with a bucket list full of check marks, and as ironic as this seems for a Cruise Planner, I really have little say in where we go on vacation. I just help Julie get there, and in doing so, I end up seeing some amazing places myself.

Most recently, the goal was a return to Crete so that we could visit the village of Madaro where Julie's grandfather Nick was raised before immigrating to America as a teenager about 100 years ago.

Nick wasn't deterred by 35 miles of winding roads between Madaro and the coastal town of Chania, most likely riding there in a bumpy horse-drawn cart, or by thousands of miles working and living in the belly of a ship without stabilizers crossing the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas and then the vast Atlantic Ocean. He reached his goal, America, and then migrated across country until finding work in a coal mine in Rock Springs, Wyoming. As a result of the courage of his convictions and the sweat of his brow, his son was able to attend college and become an engineer, and that man was Julie's father John.

What's stopping you from getting what you want? I would love to help you get there. "Better service leads to better trips."

A Great Year to Cruise the Mediterranean

2011-05-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Due to unanticipated conditions, this could be the best year ever for a cruise deal in the Mediterranean.

Every year unfolds differently for the cruise industry. For 2011, many cruise lines devoted more of their fleets to the Mediterranean. Why?

Essentially, cruise lines want to maximize their revenues, and Europe is highly attractive for most travelers. Events from negative news stories about Mexico to higher taxes in Alaska gave cruise lines the impetus to redeploy ships from closer to home at the same times fleets continued to expand.

Ephesus, Turkey

This made a great deal of sense at the time they were planning their 2011 itineraries, but world events unfolded a bit differently than planned.

First, there was the BP oil spill off the gulf coast, which gave the American government an excuse to implement a crack down on domestic oil production. This cut well-paying American jobs, dampening demand for travel, while at the same time pushing the price of oil higher and of course making the world more dependent on Middle East oil.

The next shoe to fall was the economic crisis in Europe. Greek government workers protested in the streets in response to austerity measures, which created some uncertainty with potential travelers who watched it unfold on non-stop cable news. However, that certainly did not create as much concern as the upheavals in Egypt, Lybia and other Middle East countries.

Corfu, Greece

Troubles in the Middle East led to more uncertainty about oil pricing that further spurred on oil speculators. The high prices of oil soon cut into American pocketbooks, and at the same time airlines were forced to raise prices on long flights.

I doubt that I am telling you anything new, but that is a quick recap of how we now have arrived at a summer of amazing values on Mediterranean cruises. Northern Europe has remained relatively strong, presumably because it is rather distant from Greece and the Middle East.

Venice, Italy

What I have found over the years is that a perceived crisis is always a great opportunity, as the problems are inevitably overblown. If you have lots of air miles, this is a great summer to cash them in to take an unplanned Mediterranean cruise. Despite the fact that air prices are high, you may also find that the money you are saving on your dream cruise more than makes up for the higher air price, especially if you tweak your departure dates to take advantage of the best available rates to spend some extra time in Rome, Barcelona or some other great beginning or ending point for your vacation.

Barcelona, Spain

I always feature a few specific deals at CruisePlanners1.com, but a better approach is to send an e-mail to Wes@CruisePlanners1.com and let me know what your ideal cruise is. I will then use my years of experience and training to zero in on the perfect cruise for you at the best value.

"Better service leads to better trips."

Happy Cinco De Mayo

2011-05-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

My favorite television show as a child was Walt Disney's "Zorro," which of course was set in Los Angeles. The teaming of Antonio Banderas with Catherine Zeta-Jones in their salute to the franchise also ranks as one of my favorite movies. Pancho's in Manhattan Beach, where I had lunch with my friend Bill yesterday, brings to mind the idealized Spanish haciendas of those storied days of yore. The Numero Ocho Combinacion was delicious, and the setting on a balcony overlooking the patio area below creates a special ambiance at Pancho's.

Patio Restaurant in Puerto Vallarta

Growing up in California, the influence hispanic culture runs deep. My family would go to La Fonda for dinner on Sundays when I was in grade school, and I would always order side orders of beans, rice and tortillas as my full meal. At home, my mother would make us what we called taco stacks, using a recipe she learned from Romaine, a Mexican-American who worked in my dad's beauty salon. Even Disneyland for me was highlighted by Mexican influence, with an inevitable lunch at Casa de Frito and, on one memorable day, a Zorro stunt show which my parents took me to see after I saw it advertised on my favorite show. That stunt re-enactment starred Guy Williams, TV's Don Diego de la Vega, aka Zorro.

Papas & Beer

Over lunch, Bill said he's ready to get down to Ensenada again on a short cruise from Long Beach, a trip he's done thrice with his daughters. He said he has his leather guy, where he buys a wallet or jacket, and his favorite cantina for imbibing an authentic Margarita. It's funny that a lot of people joke Ensenada is Spanish for "stay on the ship," because I too enjoy that stop. Personally, I prefer taking the tour to the fine wineries outside Ensenada, or taking the bus to

La Bufadora a short ride from Ensenada

La Bufadora to have drinks and chips at the rooftop bar of La Habana Banana overlooking the rugged coastline, but there's something to be said for Papas & Beer in town. In any case, it is an incredibly relaxing getaway, one that provides a surprisingly full vacation experience.

Wes & Senor Frog in Mazatlan

It's a shame that news shows bombard us daily about the drug war criminals along the border, which has definitely impacted thought about travel to Mexico. However, if you stay away from troubled areas, remaining in the well traveled streets, it is no less safe than Southern California.

Amy plunging into jungle river outside Puerto Vallarta

The cruise lines move with the mood of their market, and as such they have been pulling ships from the Mexican Riviera cruises. Looking ahead for next season, you would be well-advised to book your Mexican Riviera cruise early, because there will be much lower capacity for these convenient sojourns to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. Mazatlan may or may not be on the menu next year due to some problems primarily centered a good distance from the port, but whether you go to Mazatlan or get an extra day in Cabo or some other port, you shouldn't discount the value of visiting Mexico.

The Castle at Tulum

Anyway, if you go to a full-blown fiesta or simply dine at Taco Bell to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, think about how great it would be to cruise to some of the great ports of Mexico.

Carnival Splendor Pool

And by the way, this Cinco de Mayo let's salute Carnival, the fun ships that keep a regular presence for the Mexican Riviera, Baja and the Caribbean side of Mexico year round. While some people quickly dismiss Carnival, often without trying it, Carnival continues to deliver great vacation value for average families, couples, friends and solos looking for a fun, easy vacation.

Do you want to be a Tour Guide?

2011-04-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

In a survey that ranked 300 potential professions, Tour Guide ranked seventh in desirability. Specifically among women, it ranked second.

Perhaps you also think traveling the world and sharing what you know would be an ideal way to earn a living.

I know my wife likes nothing more than thoroughly researching every aspect of a trip and then following through on the voyage. She definitely has other necessary traits like being decisive and well organized.

My old buddy Mike loves to show people a good time. He genuinely likes everyone, and he's enthusiastic about sharing things he enjoys. Again, these are great traits for a Tour Guide.

However, it's hard to have a home life or build a significant financial future if you spend all your time at sea or on the road, no matter how much you may enjoy the lifestyle.

If you could be a Tour Guide just a few weeks every year, how would that sound?

No one gets rich being a Tour Guide, but you may be able to make money the next time you go on vacation. How?

As you probably know, I am a travel consultant who primarily specializes in cruises. I know the ins and outs of researching cruises and land tours, making reservations and planning for groups. While many people tell me they'd love to be a travel agent, most wouldn't particularly like dealing with the mundane elements of booking trips, which aren't much different from those in any office environment, except with generally lower pay.

Instead of chucking a job where you enjoy a great paycheck and excellent benefits (or even those regular unemployment checks), why not let me be the back office for your travel adventures as a Tour Guide?

If you're someone who already regularly travels with your own entourage of friends, then you already have the start of your first group. If you're a musician or chef with a true fan base, so much the better.

While I can help you set up a totally independent tour with your own itinerary, most people have found that it is easier to bring a sub-group into a previously established tour or resort package, possibly putting a few extra activities just for your followers.

One of the most sure-fire bets for your group having a great time is with a cruise, adding special events and group shore excursions. Whatever you want to do, however, I can help you become a Tour Guide. E-mail me (Wes@CruisePlanners1.com) to get started.

We'll customize the approach for you and your group, with private party space, special gift bags or whatever you want to include. Plus, we can set up the follow-up trip for you to present at the end of this trip, so you can multiply your success. Each successive trip tends to be bigger than the prior one, if everyone has a great time with you.