End of our Hawaii and CA journey

April 26

The Francis Ford Coppola vineyards were fun to visit. If we had more time there we could have swum in their pool and just enjoyed the resort. There is a movie museum and a fantastic gift shop selling all sorts of movie memorabilia. The tastings were delicious. I appreciate the fact that Coppola purposely does not charge an arm and a leg for his bottled wine. He wants to keep them affordable.

It's already 4pm and time to leave. Dinner will be in Chinatown at the B & G restaurant. There are lots of unique Chinese dishes here including a whole crab fried. Jose had that. I enjoyed the scallops and a fried rice to die for, all so yummy.

The walk uphill to our parked car (San Francisco is the hilliest city in  the US) helped us burn  some of the calories. 

April 27

Our last day, heavy sigh, well at least it started with a take out from a local Chinese bakery near Margo's home. We ate meat filled buns that were oh so delicious.

Time to pack up and go. Hope to return to the beautiful states of Hawaii and California.

Still in Wine Country

April 25

Our dinner in downtown Sonoma was special. We are celebrating Margo and Jose's 26th wedding anniversary at The Girl and the Fig, country food with french passion, and it was beginning with the steamed mussels in fennel flavored broth to the duck on spinach spaetzel and topped us with chocolate covered figs for dessert. All so heavenly.

April 26

Our last day and we want to get in 2 more wine tastings before heading back to San Francisco. Silver Oaks was a superb choice. They only make Cabernets and we sampled a 2005 and 2008 Alexander Valley and Napa Valley. Beginning at $70. a bottle we decided on buying souvenirs instead. As they say "Life is a Cabernet".

Napa and Sonoma Valleys

April 24

We headed out to wine country today. It was a 2 hour drive in Jose's very comfortable big, blue truck.

First stop is Rodney Strong in Sonoma country, Eddie's favorite. We loved them all so much that we joined the club and look forward to deliveries all year long.

From there we moved on to the downtown district for a fantastic lunch at a deli - fine wine, grapes, cheese and bought some pasta and sauce for dinner tonite. Life is Good!

April 25

Today is Margo and Jose's 26th Wedding anniversary and so we are celebrating. First stop of the day is Sterling. We take a gondola ride to the top of the hill which overlooks all the vineyards and it's an amazing view. Along with wine tastings we take a self guided tour and have lunch on an outdoor patio along with our red wine tastings.

A fantastic tour of San Francisco by Michael

April 23

Michael was our San Francisco tour guide today. I think he missed his calling, he's a natural. His love  for the city he grew up in shows. We began with breakfast at the Cliff Shouse overlooking the Bay. Just beautiful scenery from our window.

A drive to Golden Gate Bridge was the next stop. I can't believe it when I see it life and in person. What a beauty it is.

From there on to a drive to Fisherman's Pier, first stop Ghiradelli's for some delicious infusion of chocolate. We walked and shopped and had fun seeing all the entertainers on the street including the Bush Man. (I won't give it away, you have to see him for yourself). We had a delicious lunch at Boudin's Sourdough factory. I had my favorite comfort foods Grilled cheese and tomato soup. It was heavenly.

Driving From Carmel By The Sea to San Francisco

April  22

Before leaving lovely Carmel we decided to check out the 17 mile scenic drive and boy was it ever worth it, so scenic, crashing ocean waves, beautiful homes, Pebble Beach golf course.

Our driving trip took us past miles and miles of farms which were growing what looked like lots of Romaine lettuce and artichokes. We stopped at a farmstand in Castro on the way to San Francisco and the strawberries bought there, huge and red and oh so juicy, were the absolute tastiest strawberries I've ever had.

Aaahhhh. Lovely San Francisco. Jose and Margo are the best hosts. They treated us to a superb dinner in Little Italy at the North End Restaurant. The waitstaff and food were all outstanding and let's not forget the delicious wine.

Prior to eating out we drove on hilly and curvy Lombard St. Now I know I've arrived in San Francisco.

Trip up the coast with stops in Santa Barbara and Carmel

April 20

Sad to say goodbye to our dear friend, but it's time to move on and moving on we are with a stop in Santa Barbara. Taking Rte 101 was the best way to explore California with the Pacific Ocean to our left and desert and rolling hills on our right. We even went through a mountain pass. Loving it. In Santa Barbara we found cute little wine store and relaxed in our room having our daily happy hour.

April 21

Next stop is Carmel By The Sea. Luckily our hotel is on the corner of Junipero Road and Ocean Avenue which is the main drag. Carmel is hilly and filled with boutique shops, restaurants, pubs and Ocean Avenue leads to the ocean. It's dreamy here.

Days At Sea

4 Days At Sea and visiting a dear friend in San Diego

Oh the luxury of it all. For 4 days we relax by the pool, are entertained by comedians, lecturers, classical music, ukulele musicians, etc. We are free to roam around, to eat (we do try to eat healthy), and to count our blessings for all that we have. I'm reading the book Hawaii by James Michener which I bought in Lahaina, Oahu in a Used book store. What a find! As I am learning more and more about the paradise islands of Hawaii, how they were formed (by volcanos), and the lovely Hawaiian language and beautiful, warm people I find that this book parallels what I am learning.

April 17

We arrive in Ensenada, Mexico at 8:30pm due to windy weather at sea. This does not give us a lot of time for exploring, but we do decide to take a bus into town. The stores are closed on Main St., but we located an outdoor bar where we can enjoy a bottle of Tecate. While enjoying our refreshing beer a couple little girls came around to our table selling jewelry and candy. They were cute and insistent. It's 10pm, don't they have school tomorrow? Anyway, we bought a bracelet. 

After a little shopping by the dock we're back on board looking forward to San Diego.

April 18

Our good friend Tim Hurt picked us up at the port and drove us directly to lunch with Heather at Maira Callandras restaurant (the chicken pot pie lady). So good to be with old friends and do a lot of catching up.

See The USA Part 3

See The USA Part 3

We have just returned from a 24 day trip to Hawaii on a Celebrity cruise from San Diego and on our return a visit with a dear friend in San Diego and a road trip to San Franciso. This was a wonderful way to get to know Hawaii, its culture, its people, its language and to get a beautiful visual slice of the gorgeous state of California.

April 3, 2013

We barely made it to the ship. Our plane from Fort Lauderdale was delayed. We missed our connecting flight in Houston. Phew!! Thank God our luggage was the first off the plane in baggage claim. Hurry! Catch a cab to the port. Ahhhhh! a half hour before cutoff time.
Yes a glass of wine poolside is just what the doctor ordered.

April 4

Day at Sea. Checking our the itinerary for the day we find hula lessons for me and ukulelee lessons for Eddie. Yes!!!! June is our teacher, the Hawaiian Ambassador for Celebrity. She is pretty, funny, talented and passionately loves her state. I know I'll learn a lot from her. The Hawaiian music, e.g. Little Grass Shack, are all familiar tunes.

Two new friends on board smelled Eddie's cigar and because they love the scent came to join us on the back deck. They were from Salt Lake City, Utah and told stories of Mormons and polygamy they knew about. It was very interesting.

April 5

Not only Hula but I also took a Flash Mob dance lesson today. However, sickness came upon me. Enough said.

April 6

A lecture given by a Music Historian of the Smithsonian Museum was all about The Phantom of the Opera. Did you know that there have been 100 movies made, the first one made was in German.

A seat by the pool; a wine in the cafe while listening to a 3 string classical group called Beacon Street, life doesn't get much better than that. In the evening we were entertained by the most talented violinist I've ever seen. She was from the Ukraine and played everything from classical to Irish jig to Orange Blossom Special.

April 7

Hula lessons, although I know I'm not as together as the other dancers I am having a ball and learning so much about the Hawaiian body language in the meantime.

April 8

Last day at sea before we dock in Honolulu in Oahu. Eddie and I have a recital today on stage in front of an audience. It's our graduation day. We performed marvelously and each received a Master in Ukulelee and a Master in Hula dance certificates. I am so proud of us.

Tallahassee/New Orleans

Our first stop was Tallahassee, FL, the state capitol. Hurricane Isaac is following us, but we are beating him by a day. Sunday morning breakfast was a delicioius find thanks to Yelp. We ate sweet potatoe pancakes at Canopy Road Cafe. They were delicious.

Next stop is New Orleans, LA with Isaac following behind. We drive on I 10 for miles and miles and it's pleasant. New Orleans is sunny and pleasant. Our Bed & Breakfast, the Green House Inn, is an old historic home, built in 1840. It has survived many hurricanes. It's cozy and we were upgraded to a room which opens onto the tropical pool area. Loving it. Our innkeeper does not seem overly concerned about the hurricane. And we learn later that no locals we run into, taxi cab driver, bartenders are not worried, so we will enjoy New Orleans to the fullest. First night, after a delicious cajun meal at Landry's - Fried Green Tomatoes Acadienne, served in a crawfish sauce for our appetizer. My entree was Grilled Shrimp on dirty rice, the best I've ever eaten. Eddie had Ettouffee and loved it. This all served with Louisiana's own Abita beer. Oh my how yummy. Now we're ready for entertainment and there's plenty of it on Bourbon Street. We found zydeco music in one bar. It is alive, people are dancing, laughing, partying, the music is amazing. Once the band stopped we went out for more music and found another bar with more jazzy and 60s songs. The band members were young, but they could play so well.
More to come. Loving New Orleans a lot. I will  post pictures when I get home on my PC. I am finding it difficult to post pictures here on my ipad.
On our second day in this vibrant city we visited the WWII National Museum just down the street from our Inn. It gives the history and personal stories of that war and that time. The best part was the 4D Imax movie. We received a complete understanding of the war, why it started, and why we had to fight.
From here we walked to the French Quarter (13 blocks) to Johnny's Po Boy for a shrimp Po Boy, oh so yummy.
We would have liked to spend a few more hours in New Orleans before heading to Shreveport, but, alas Hurricane Isaac is all over the news and heading right at us. After a heart warming discussion of what to do next with our innkeeper (He was not too concerned about the hurricane, but said we should do what we felt comfortable with) and a mojito at the bar across the street we made the decision to leave early. We left at 6am.
 "Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?" I do and we will return.

Part 2 of our See the USA trip

We leave at the end of August, driving to Aurora, CO to see our daughter and her family. We will make many stops along the way- Tallahassee, FL, 2 nights in a B&B in New Orleans, Shrevesport, LA, Oklahoma City, Salina, KS. From Aurora we will be driving with our daughter, her husband and our 3 grandchildren to Yellowstone National Park.
One week later we are heading home and going to take our time getting there. First stop will be Santa Fe, NM for 2 nights in a B&B. From there to El Paso, TX to visit some favorite spots we liked when we lived there many years ago. Next, San Angelo, TX and then a weekend visit
with our niece's family in Austin, TX. From there to Lafayette, LA for 2 nights, going to enjoy some zydeco music and take a Cajun tour, then onto Pensacola, FL and to Gainsville, FL and then home again.
We do love to travel and are looking forward to this trip. I hope I'll be able to upload images on my ipad. I wasn't able to in June. Here's hoping.

We have figured out our destinations on the way to New England and back to Florida.
We are traveling to St. Augustine, Charleston, SC, Hopewell, VA, Atlantic City, NJ, Westboro, MA, York Beach, ME, Fitchburg, MA, Brewster, MA, Edgartown, MA on Martha's Vineyard, Great Barrington, MA, Strasburg, PA, Staunton, VA, Charlotte, NC, Boiling Springs, SC, Amelia Island, FL. Whew! That's a lot of places as we drive and discover our beautiful country. We just love the driving trip as much as we love the destination. I will post a picture per place we arrive at.

Driving Trip to New England

We have planned a 3 week driving trip to New England to visit family and friends. Oh, the luxury of having time to do and see all that we want. We will take our sweet time getting there, driving no longer than 5 hours a day tops and staying in small towns at bed and breakfasts along the way. I look forward to blogging our trip along the way using my ipad. More to come.

Pompeii



Mt Vesuvias overlooking Pompeii



Entrance to Pompeii



Victim of Mt. Vesuvias



Pompeii was a rich city, a place to visit for vacation in 79 AD.

But then Mt. Vesuvias erupted and 20 feet of ash covered the

entire city suffocating all living beings immediately. It was discovered in the 1800s



 We walked the entire city and even visited one of it's Brothels. It was small with three rooms and a bed in each one. There were pornographic images on the walls.

A rich man's home was very well preserved - murals on walls, and many bedrooms. The people seemed to live very well, but it was all destroyed in an instant.

Jerusalem & Bethlehem



Praying at the Western Wall



Dome of the Rock



Church of the Nativity



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Garden of Gethsemane



Church of the Holy Sepulchre


We began our day at the Garden of Gethsemane, Mount of Olives. The big olive tree in the picture is 2000 years old. It was there when Jesus prayed the night before His crucifixion. The size of the Garden is now 10% of its original size. The Church of Nations built on the Mount of Olives is beautifully designed inside and out. The inside is designed to look like what the Garden looked like when Jesus was arrested. The ceiling looks like a starry night. There are also murals depicting the Apostles sleeping while Jesus prayed and another mural showing Judas betrayal of Jesus.
  From here we were taken to Old Jerusalem. Inside the ancient gate we walk to the Western Wall where, because today is Thursday, we are told that Bar Mitvahs are occurring. On the right side the women are praying. On the left side are the men and their thirteen year old sons reciting from the Bible. It's a beautiful scene. The mothers, aunts, sisters stand on benches to look onto the left side to watch their boys. The Western Wall is what remains of the second temple which existed in Jesus time.
  Walking distance from the Western Wall is the Via De La Rosa (Stations of the Cross) where Jesus carried His cross to His crucifixion. The street is narrow and cobblestoned. There are shops all along the way leading up to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It's quite an experience to walk the same street as Jesus did  2000 years ago. The Church is shared by 8 Christian denominations.  A Muslim family holds the key to the church. They open and close it every day. That way there is no disputes between the 8 denominations. On the Greek Orthodox side ithe altar has a large silver crucifix on the exact spot of Jesus Crucifixion. 
  Bethlehem was our afternoon excursion. The town of Bethlehem is owned by the Palestinians. We saw the Church of the Nativity, site of where Jesus was born. There are many Christian Palestinians with some restrictions in Bethlehem. We were happy to be able to shop in one of their Bethlehem shops where we found some beautiful olive wood creations of nativity scenes and the Jerusalem Cross.









Jerusalem - First Day Masada & Dead Sea



Looking to the Dead Sea from the top of Masada

 Our first of 2 days in Jerusalem took us to Masada and the Dead Sea. Oh My! What a Day! The Masada Hill sits on the Dead Sea. One thousand Jews lived there till troops of the Roman Empire tried to conquer it. For three years the soldiers kept coming. Finally the little community of Masada knew they couldn't win and made a pact with each other to commit suicide rather than be made slaves of the Roman Empire. To this day there is a famous saying in Israel "Masada will never fall again." We were taken to the top in a cable car and walked the circumference of the place. This community, though situated on a hill in the desert, had plenty of water and food. They were living well. We saw the storage rooms and the synagogue etc. As is told the remains of a woman and two children were found in a cave. 

The storage area in Masada


  It's believed that she was left to tell the story of the suicide. Before committing suicide they burnt everything down except for the storage bins to show that they were not suffering for want of food or water. The ruins were found in 1967.
Herod the Great built his summer palace here before the Jewish community moved in.

Resort at the Dead Sea

 Back on the bus to transport us to the Dead Sea for a little float. I say float because you're not allowed to swim there or even put your head in the water. It's extremely salty. The Dead Sea is 1300 feet below sea level. It's the lowest point on earth. Needless to say nothing lives in it. After a nice lunch at this reort on the Dead Sea we changed into our bathing suits and walked in. Wow!! What a unique and other wordly experieice. The water is turquoise like the Carribean and you can see clearly to the bottom. We can see Jordan on the other side. I believe the Dead Sea is 15 miles long.  Anyway, there is no way anyone could drown here. You float. Even when you walk in over your head 



Floating on the Dead Sea

you can be in a standing position and the water

 is at your chest level. Also the Dead Sea has a

slimy feel, but when the water evaporates your skin feels so soft. The rules stated not to stay in the water for more than 15 minutes at a time. There were showers on the beach to rinse off. I had a slight cut on my foot and it hurt while in the water, but no harm done.



Haifa, Israel



 From the Haifa port we can see the B'hai Temple and the gardens going to the top of the hill. Instead of taking a ship excursion we decided to walk up to the temple and see the gardens. It was a very long, steep climb. The exercise was good for us. Unfortunately, we had to walk through some littered, smelly neighborhoods to get to this lovely temple. It is a holy place where their founder is buried. We were asked to remove our hats and our chewing gum (whoops) before entering. Inside this temple we could see where he is buried. That was all. The gardens, though, are beautiful and well maintained



Gardens at B'hai Temple



Cyprus - Garden of Delights

Our excursion called Garden of Delights, took us into the hills of Cyprus where olive and carob trees grow. The hillsides are beautiful overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. In, what was called a Theme Park, we were shown the old style of how olive oil was made in ancient times. Huge stones, monoliths, with holes in them gave a clue as to how. We learned that an olive tree will always return. In ancient times a person would be punished by having their olive trees burnt to the ground, but a new shoot always appeared. Carob in Greek means locust. According to our tour guide from the Greek translation of the Bible John the Baptist ate Locust. We were lead to believe this meant grasshoppers, but he actually ate carob.

Our next stop was into a little village to sample some local wine. The wine tasted like port, very good. We were also offered some fire water. Oooooh, this tasted like moonshine. No Thank You.

The Church of the Holy Cross in this village has a holy relic, the hem of Jesus robe which He wore to His Crucifixion. St. Helena, Constantine's mother gave it to the Church.

Time for shopping in the little shops. Most of the shops sold doilies. I'm not too crazy about them, but they were handmade by little old women. I went into one shop to look around and, sure enough, sitting there was an elderly woman crocheting these doiles. Nice, but not interested. As I left the shop out the back way an elderly man grabbed my wrist and asked me to go back into the shop to buy his wife's doilies. I said "no thank you". He insisted. He even offered me a glass of wine. "Okey" I said. He had me taste the grapes that the wine was made from. They were small and purple. Tasted good. Then he poured me a small cup of wine. It was ok. He wanted to sell me a bottle. I told him  "I can't take it on the plane". He then said "look at his wife's lacy doilies". I figured I better buy something or I'm never getting out of there. I picked up a doily for 6 euros, but only had a ten and two five dollar bills. I showed them to the old lady and she said "that's good" and was about to grab my $20.00, when I said "Wait a minute, these doilies are only 6 euros". So she took the ten. Oh well, the price was worth it for the story. The doily now sits on my dining table and it will always remind me of Cyprus and that elderly couple.

I love Cyprus. It's a very Christian country. Many small villages that are all named after a saint, plus the village church is the name of the Village saint. People there are, for the most part, named after a saint and celebrate their patron saint's day, including receiving presents, moreso than celebrating their own birth date.

Cyprus has 320 days of sun and so each home has solar panels on the roofs to heat their water, which began in the 1960s. Cyprus is definately worth a revisit.

Ephesus, Turkey - I would love to return

Turkey surprised me. It appears to be very modern. 97% of the people of Turkey are Muslim, and yet it is a secular country and is tolerant of all religions. Our first visit was to fhe final home of the Virgin Mary. It is believed that St. John the Apostle brought her here after Chist's crucifixion. Her home is small with 3 tiny rooms. It is now a chapel. The house sits on a quiet hill overlooking Ephesus surrounded by green trees and there's a spring that she would have received her water from. We were given a clay pot to fill with the water, but I wasn't able to bring it on the plane. : (. Oh well, I still have the pot and that water has been running for over 2000 years. The original foundation of the house is shaped like a cross.                                                                     

From Mary's home we were driven to Ephesus, the third largest city.of the Roman Empire. 250,000 people lived there. The city is well preserved. Walking down the streets I could imagine Mary and John walking here, doing their shopping. Well, why not? It made Mary feel more human to me thinking about this. There were many shops, theatres and to the left was their library. Our tour guide told us that when the king visited Ephesus red wine was poured out onto the street, thus the saying "roll out the red carpet".

Athens, Greece has so much history

Sadly, Athens is filled with graffiti and litter everywhere you look. The traffic is atrocious and there seemed to be a red light every 50 feet and detours. OK, enough of the negative.
Our excursion was to the Athens National Museum. What a treasure trove this place is. It is filled with antiquities and our knowledgable tour guide gave us a full explanation pertaining to each sculpture she showed us. I was like a sponge taking it all in. To the right is a statue of Poseidon, the Sea god. He was found in the sea. I know I've seen pictures of this statue many times, and here it is up close and personal.

We also were taken to the Parthenon and it's beautiful.

Athens is the capitol city of Greece. Too bad the people of Greece don't take more pride in their famous capitol city. It was so sad to see the dirt and graffiti covering every blank space on most every building. I've never seen so much of it as here.

Day at Sea and then to Mykonos, Greece

I like that our first full day on the ship was a Day At Sea. This is so relaxing. You can sit on your balcony sipping a glass of wine and just let the ship take you wherever, listening to the waves crashing against the boat is therapeutic. Of course, it's your choice to do nothing or pick from a myriad of things to do. Since we're traveling to the Holy Cities of the Mediterranean I chose to attend a lecture on Alexander the Great. The lecturer is a Historian and does know his stuff. He was very entertaining as well. I learned a lot. There also was a drawing class offered by a Master Artist. Loved it all.

We arrived at Mykonos, Greece. It's a beautiful, picturesque little island.  All the buildings, businesses, homes are white and they all have blue shutters plus they're clean. This is a definite must revisit place. There are some nice hotels overlooking the port. It's very quiet, although the lady I bought my jewelry from said that it gets very windy there. We had a Greek beer, called Alpha, overlooking the port  at an outdoor restaurant. So lovely. I took out my sketch book and Eddie was able to check his email while enjoying a delicious beer. Oh yeah!!