Archive for the ‘Tropical Destinations’ Category
Monday, September 1st, 2008
(An early morning view of the beautiful Mission San Jose in San Antonio’s Missions National Park.)
Thank you, Hurricane Gustav. We are sitting high and dry in one of the loveliest cities in North America, San Antonio. We are supposed to be in New Orleans. But thanks to a little convincing by Gustav and American officials, we changed our plans.
On the day we were set to arrive in NOLA, evacuation orders forced nearly two million folks to leave the southern seaboard. We had planned a holiday riding the rails, the Amtrak rails, but the trains were needed to take people out of New Orleans, so Amtrak cancelled our reservations.
We were in Houston (another area slated to be hit by Gustav) so we had no choice but to rent a car and head north to San Antonio. In fact, on our way, we passed a convoy of 2 dozen buses that were heading south on a rescue mission. Later, on TV, we watched as an endless line of buses, filled with those folks escaping the storm, headed away to safer zones like Dallas and Houston.
Now we are watching as the eye of Gustav makes landfall — the good news, maybe, for New Orleans, is that the eye will be passing farther to the west than expected.
But in the meantime, we are in San Antonio, where we have rented a comfortable house, we have walked the famous Riverwalk, we have ridden the canal boats, we have paid homage to the Alamo, and we have made an early morning trek to the old Spanish missions. What a joy!
Read on . . .
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Tags:hurricane gustav, mission conception, mission espada, mission san jose, mission san juan, Missions National Historical Park, San Antonio, spanish missions, Texas
Posted in Adventure Travel, Family Vacations, San Antonio, Texas, Tourist attractions, Train Travel, Travel photography, Tropical Destinations, United States, Variety | Comments Closed
Saturday, June 14th, 2008
This is a typical sight from an Alberta highway. A quiet little pond, so innocuous, so charming. But many countries, many lands have similar vistas – sights which look perfectly safe, including those sights in some of the more questionable areas of the world like Egypt and Africa.
How can a traveler know if a decision to explore a new world is a smart decision?
Luckily, there are many web sites that can help you make an informed decision. Some even have links to other travel tools (like currency conversion charts) that make travel to a foreign land a whole lot easier.
Read on . . .
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Tags:diseases in other countries, safe travel, travel advisories, travel alerts, travel reports, travel safely to another country, world currency converter
Posted in Adventure Travel, Family Vacations, Travel - General Advice, Travel Destinations, Travel safety, Travel tips, Travel with kids, Tropical Destinations, Variety | No Comments »
Friday, June 13th, 2008
There’s “adventurous” travel and then there is “dangerous” travel. Since neither my husband nor I are members of the CIA, nor are we navy seals, we have placed limitations on our travel experiences. Those limitations recently affected one of our travel decisions: an end-of-summer trip to Belize.
Having reviewed a recent Canadian foreign affairs travel report, we have decided that Belize is not the place for us – at least not this year.
Read on . . .
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Tags:Adventure Travel, canada travel advisories, caye caulker belize, crime in belize city, dangerous travel, government travel reports, how to travel safely, tropical storm arthur
Posted in Adventure Travel, Beach Vacations, Belize, Caribbean, Family Vacations, Ports of call, Texas, Travel - General Advice, Travel Destinations, Travel safety, Tropical Destinations, United States, Variety | Comments Closed
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Malaria?
It’s a word I have heard, but I never really spent much time thinking about it. That is until I began researching Belize (I am tripping there end of August).
I thought Malaria was prevalent only in far away countries like Africa and India, not the Americas. But I was wrong. Malaria is also common in South and Central America.
Yikes, I thought, what do I do? Read on . . .
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Tags:bednetting, Belize, central america, cure for malaria, deet, malaria drugs, malaria prevention, malaria vaccine, mosquito bites
Posted in Adventure Travel, Beach Vacations, Family Vacations, Travel - General Advice, Travel Destinations, Travel Products, Travel safety, Travel tips, Tropical Destinations, Variety | No Comments »
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Who are these people? We didn’t know them either, that is until we attended their wedding, uninvited. But you haven’t lived until you’ve crashed a Mexican wedding.
My husband and I don’t normally go uninvited to the wedding of strangers, but cheap happy hour drinks, great Mexican food, and authentic Mariachi music were too attractive to resist. An evening out at a local Mexican restaurant sounded like a great idea. We weren’t planning on the wedding.
Read on . . .
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Tags:brownsville, crashing weddings, jr restaurant and bar, mariachi bands, mexican weddings, southern texas tropical destinations, things to do in brownsville
Posted in Adventure Travel, Beach Vacations, Family Vacations, Food and Wine, Mexico, Texas, Tropical Destinations, United States | Comments Closed
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Looking for drugs? Do you need a tooth fixed? Or maybe you just have a yen for a darn good taco.
A visit to Brownsville, Texas is great but you must spend at least one day in a foreign country when in the area. And that’s so easy to do, because Mexico is just a short drive, or walk, away.
You can choose from a variety of entry points (International Bridges), but double your fun with a drive up Hwy 281, the “Old Military” highway, and hang a left at Progresso.
Read on . . .
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Tags:armed Mexican border crossings, brownsville, cheap dental care over the border, cheap Mexican prescription drugs, crossing the mexican border in brownsville, progresso mexico dentists, staying safe in mexico
Posted in Adventure Travel, Budget Travel, Food and Wine, Mexico, Texas, Tourist attractions, Travel - General Advice, Travel safety, Travel tips, Tropical Destinations, United States | 4 Comments »
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Okay, call me a traitor, call me a fool, call me any name you like but I had to take the chance. I made a decision, before a recent trip to southern Texas and New Orleans, to leave my heavy Olympus Evolt E-300 DSLR at home. I replaced it with a sleek little 12-megapixel Fuji FinePix F50 compact digital camera.
My husband looked at me askance as he repeatedly asked me if I still wanted to take my DSLR camera. I told him, firmly, “No.” That I would take my chances. And that I would live with my decision. Only time would tell if I had made a terrible mistake . . .
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Tags:choosing a camera that's easy to carry, choosing a small compact digital camera instead of an S, f50, fuji finepix, good 12 megapixel digital compant cameras, olympus evolt, small digital cameras, travel photography
Posted in Adventure Travel, Cruise Ship Travel, Digital Cameras, New Technology, Photography tips, Texas, Tourist attractions, Travel - General Advice, Travel photography, Travel Products, Tropical Destinations, United States, Variety | Comments Closed
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
There is hell on earth, and it’s called, “deep sea fishing.” What was I thinking, or rather, what was my husband thinking when he agreed to a 5-hour deep sea fishing adventure?
We took our first deep sea fishing trip just off the coast of South Padre Island in Texas. To me, it was an adventure; to my husband, it was an unending journey into the depths of hell.
Read on . . .
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Tags:deep sea fishing, osprey charters, seasickness cures, south padre island, texas fishing, treatment for seasickness
Posted in Adventure Travel, Beach Vacations, Family Vacations, Texas, Travel tips, Tropical Destinations, United States | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 11th, 2008
In the army, you never know who you’ll be bunking with. Except Simon Vega had a fairly good idea that the dark-haired handsome guy from Tupelo, Mississippi, was special. Back in 1958, Vega shared army duty with none other than the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Vega remembers fondly his days with a young Elvis. But remembering his former army buddy wasn’t enough for Vega; only a museum would do. But what a place to put a museum!
Read on. . . (more…)
Tags:brownsville texas, elvis attractions, elvis memorabilia, elvis memories, Elvis Presley, king of rock and roll, little graceland, los fresnos, museum, priscilla presley, record albums, simon vega, south padre island, things to do in south texas
Posted in Adventure Travel, Beach Vacations, Celebrities, Family Vacations, Texas, Tourist attractions, Travel tips, Tropical Destinations, United States | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Who owns the most haunted house in New Orleans, Louisiana? He’s a big star, he’s done lots of movies, he’s an Oscar-winner, and he was once married to the child of a King. Can you guess?
Okay, here’s another clue: he lives down the street from another famous star, in fact, a pair of Hollywood notables: Brad and Angelina.
Have you guessed yet? No?
Read on. . .
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Tags:haunted houses in new orleans, haunted houses in the united states, haunted real estate, lalaurie mansion new orleans, nicholas cage houses, nicholas cage most haunted house, tortured slaves new orleans
Posted in Adventure Travel, Family Vacations, New Orleans, Ports of call, Travel - General Advice, Travel tips, Tropical Destinations, United States | 7 Comments »
