TPThursday: When Life’s a Beach. . .

As our summer days come to an end and autumn promises cloudy, cool – and damp – days in the Pacific Northwest, we start daydreaming about sun and sand.  Beaches beacon. Memories of some of our favorite beaches are the topic of today’s post.

Malaga, Spain’s  Costa del Sol: A Sunday morning stroll last November on the beach included a stop to inspect this new-to-us way of fishing. Tall poles were inserted in the sand and the line (barely glimmering in the sunlight) stretched out into the sea – so high you could walk under them.

Ko Olina, O’ahu, Hawaii:  We’ve spent the month of January ‘living’ at Ko Olina the last couple of years thanks to taking a plunge into the ‘timeshare’ world.  This is one of our favorite spots at this development on O’ahu’s western shores, some 30 minutes from Honolulu.

Copalis Beach, Washington State:  Now you might think this photo, taken last March, is of a cloudy beach, but in this part of the world we have ourselves believing this is ‘filtered sun’.

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico:  A Carnival Cruise stop introduced us to the beauty of the beaches in this part of Mexico last April.

Riviera Nayarit, Mexico:  As much as we enjoyed our quick visit to Cabo, it was the week spent at Rancho Banderas, just north of Puerto Vallarta where our place overlooked this beautiful – and little used – beach.

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada:  While images of beaches may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of this city on the tip of Vancouver Island, all you need do is walk a view blocks from the Inner Harbor and you’ll find them.  Well-maintained trails lead from the roadway overlooking them to the cove beaches below.

How about you?  Has life been a beach this year?

This is post links to Budget Traveler's Sandbox weekly feature, Travel Photo Thursday.  Head over there for more photos.  Hope you’ll stop by again as we tell you of our continuing adventures in Italy this month.  You can subscribe at TravelnWrite or follow along on our Facebook page

Dining at Carnival’s “Chef’s Table”

The cooks moved in synchronized precision preparing and handing off  plates to the parade of wait staff who would deliver them to the hundreds of fellow cruisers eating that night in Carnival Spirit’s formal dining room.

We watched the  choreographed movements from the pastry table at one side of the ship’s shining stainless steel galley; a culinary arts gallery, not galley, we thought.  We also sipped a glass of Prosecco, (that white Italian wine with just a bit fewer bubbles than champagne), with our Head Chef Jerry Furtado.

Actually our Chef Jerry only sipped only enough to make a welcome toast to the 13 of us who were embarking on a near three-hour, eight-course gastronomic odyssey known as “The Chef’s Table,” ~ a fine dining experience that surpassed anything we’ve ever experienced on any of our previous cruises.

Our extravaganza began with a tour of the galley, and a private reception there which included a sampling of appetizers with such goodies as: Chorizo and dates, Piquilo Sofrito and Langoustine and Sundried Tomato Jam Fritters. (sorry, photos weren’t allowed in the galley).

Then it was on to our private dining room and a parade of food so delicious that even writing about it now, several weeks later, can make my mouth water.   There is not enough room to show you it all, but here’s a taster:

Our wait staff  hovered throughout the meal to make sure everything was as it should be, asking repeatedly, “Is it to your liking?”





This garlic brioche was too much for my will-power. It was baked in a miniature flower pot. Way too cute and way too tasty. . .I ate it all and they brought another!


The Chef’s Table was launched as a pilot on a few Carnival ships in 2010 and as result of its popularity it is now offered on all 23 ships in the fleet. 

We had been on the ship for only two hours when we learned of the dinner and that there were only a couple of spaces were left. Make note, word is out: this experience is popular!

The cost was $75 per person which included unlimited wine (as if you had room to drink to excess) and included the galley tour and souvenir photo.

The photo above was of the salmon course (which arrived fifth in a series of scrumptious offerings).  What I found most delightful on this plate was the paper thin red rolls standing to the left of the salmon. They were dehydrated beets and the dark speckles on the carrots were a dusting of truffles.

The salmon was followed by a course called Wagyu, slow stewed short ribs and the dinner finished with the plate pictured to the side, simply titled, “Chef in a Candy Shop”.

Each morsel was mouth-watering, including all those little morsels tucked between the wafers. By the time we got to this course I was in a near coma- state from overeating. . .I sampled half these ‘tasties’ wishing I had just a bit more room.


Should you find yourself on a Carnival cruise in the future we would wholeheartedly recommend signing up – early! -- for The Chef’s Table. You won’t be disappointed.  I can tell you that meal alone is reason enough for me to take another Carnival cruise.

Note:  Google has changed its format and I am on the road, bear with me if the spacing and flow of this post is jumbled.

Signs: Preventing “Lost” ~ Providing “Laughs”

When visiting a new place, don’t you find yourself often relying on signs to get you to where you want to go?  We do.
And often, while preventing lost, signs are providing laughs, like that morning in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. . .



If you didn’t know it, Cabo is a deep-sea fisherman’s paradise, so how appropriate to name the streets after the pescados? Here it is for Dorado and Marlin fish, both types of fish caught in these waters. (And two very important directions – to our ship and restrooms).




How about those rickety buses belching exhaust fumes as they pass? They may not be modern, but one look at the window and you know where they will be stopping.



Cabo is also a  party town – this store seemed to offer ‘parties-to- go’. . .or vitamin water; whatever the bebida, (beverage) it took to refuel your engine.



One thing travelers to Mexico’s beach towns must be aware of are the ‘free breakfast. . . or lunch. . . or tour. . . or drink’ offers from timeshare sales touts.  This bar made it clear you wouldn’t have to be on guard.



We spotted this bit of Happy Hour philosophy while sipping a latte across the street at . . .yes, I have to admit it: Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee company.

And for my grand finale on this Travel Photo Thursday, I leave you with this gem outside a farmacia, (pharmacy)we walked past:





For more travel photos be sure to stop by Budget Travelers Sandbox today!

Safely South of the Border, down Mexico Way

Two month ago, the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, issued a lengthy advisory about travel to Mexico. 
It notes that while hundreds of U.S. tourists and students continue to successfully visit our neighbor to the south, there are some places that should be avoided and others where common sense when traveling should be used.






We didn’t pay much attention to the early February warning because Mexico travel wasn’t on our radar screen then.

That’s changed. Not only did we take a short cruise to Cabo San Lucas  in March, we are soon heading to Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit for a two-week timeshare stay.

A few friends have responded to our south-of-the-border destinations with the skeptical raised eyebrow and almost whispered: “Are you sure you want to go there? It’s not safe right now is it?”

An answer to those questions:

We had two days to wander through Cabo San Lucas; around the touristy marina area and then on cobbled streets with uneven sidewalks into the town’s el centro, the center. On our two morning excursions we were on our own, heading where ever our feet led us.

I wore jewelry and carried a purse and camera. We felt safe . . . aside from a fear of breaking an ankle on those crazy Mexican sidewalks, pictured to the left,  that raise and lower without notice.

The streets were pretty much empty other than for shopkeepers and a few other tourists.

The only time we were verbally accosted was when a timeshare salesman called out. We stopped. He showed us photos of the development he was pitching and then of his family.

Ricardo Garcia Castro, director of Planning and Tourism Development in Baja California Sur, quoted in Los Cabos Magazine, may have said it best: 

“Mexico is a very large country and the lack of knowledge of geography by the American media make people [think] an incident in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua affects Los Cabos and the California Sur. It is like if an incident in New Jersey would affect Florida or Montana.”


Nayarit Advisory:
Out of curiosity, not concern, I’ve read the U.S. State Department advisory and this is what it says about our upcoming destination. (I’ve added the boldface highlight):

“Nayarit: You should defer non-essential travel to all areas of the state of Nayarit north of the city of Tepic as well as to the cities of Tepic and Xalisco. The security situation north of Tepic and in these cities is unstable and travelers could encounter roadblocks or shootouts between rival criminals. There is no recommendation against travel either to Riviera Nayarit in the southern portion of the state or to principal highways in the southern portion of the state used to travel from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta.”

Our planned safeguards: I will be leaving  jewelry in our safe deposit box at home, but by now you know I can’t travel without a camera. It will be with me, as will my purse.

We will travel using common sense when out exploring. But are we going to get out and explore our old haunts tucked away in the Sierra Madres between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta?

You can be sure of it! 

What about you?  Been to Mexico lately? If so, what was your experience?

Note: Click the link in the opening paragraph to read the entire U.S. Department of State travel advisory for Mexico issued Feb. 8, 2012. Click the map pins for details.

In the “Spirit” of Spring Break ~ American-style

College has obviously been too many decades ago for these two travelers. Because it didn’t cross our minds that our five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas would take place during a time traditionally known as “Spring Break” in the United States.

While Spring Break can fall at different times in March and April depending on the school; it is a week when those with young children can enjoy family travel and when college students can get as far away from school and families as possible as they seek sun and fun. . .



It would therefore make sense for large numbers of both groups to be on our ship, the Carnival Spirit.  The company’s known for sailing “Fun Ships”.

And so they came, by the hundreds, it seemed. Families with eager wee ones and giggling gaggles of scantily clad girls with suitcases the size of steamer trunks. Groups of young guys in similar abbreviated duds were drawn to those girls like magnets.








And speaking of magnets, as we entered the Cabo marina from the small tenders that brought us from the ship, one business in particular drew the college students  like a magnet. It was standing room only at Senor Frog’s, a place that played party tunes at the highest decibels making it hard to resist its pull. (Notice the foot-tall glass the young man in the right hand corner is holding!)


On Celebrity and Holland America cruises we are often the ‘youngsters’ – that wasn’t the case with his cruise.


Don’t get me wrong. . .we found it delightful atmosphere. In fact, it was a good reminder that with the right “Spirit” . . .fun can be had ~ no matter what your age.

Los Colores de Cabo ~ The Colors of Cabo

We are sailing the Carnival Spirit towards the United States on this Travel Photo Thursday.  We’ve spent two days at Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. 

It was our first- but now, definitely not our last — trip  to this area that we’ve dubbed “Scottsdale by the Sea” because the leather-brown landscape and surrounding hills remind us of Arizona.

Cabo’s colors livened the muted desert tans:



This corner in the Marina flea market doubled as an ‘internet cafe’and a souvenir shop.




Even the trees were in bloom; blossoms in bright orange intensified against a cloudless blue sky.



Cafe table clothes and chairs were fiestas of brilliant colors
.
    Fushia colored bougainvilla blossoms lined driveways and filled pots along the sprawling marina.

For more photos from around the world, visit Budget Travelers Sandbox, the host of Travel Photo Thursday. And I’ll have more cruise tales coming in future posts.

Ole’! We are going to a ‘Carnival’. . .

. . . a Carnival cruise ship, that is.

The upcoming trip was prompted in part by the recent wet, dreary Pacific Northwest weather and in part by taking advantage of some of the great cruise fares currently available. 

An article in the Seattle Times newspaper about our weather, summed it up by saying, “Rain, rain, and, more rain. Then a new front moves in with - guess what – more rain!”

The day that article appeared I received some photos I’d requested from the cruise line for use here until until I could take my own.

We looked out our living room window . . . and then at the photos:



Hmmm, bare-feet, sun-tan oil. . .we started counting the days until we set sail for Cabo San Lucas where the temperatures are in the 80’s. 

We likely will not – at least I won’t be - -using this water slide, one of the new features on the ship since we last sailed on it five years ago.  But I sure will be found on one of those chaise lounges pictured above with a good book in hand.



Joel, the researcher of this vagabonding duo, found a good price not long ago on this five-day getaway.  There are any number of good deals to be had right now so if you’ve got a cruise on your bucket list, you might want to do some shopping.

Just one example of the other deals we found was a seven-night Mediterranean cruise departing from and returning to Malaga, Spain in May on Royal Caribbean, and the price of a balcony room was only $444, per person – several hundred dollars less than an ocean view room on the same ship. 

Had it fit in our travel schedule, we would have nabbed it.

Click on this link, Travelnwrite’s Deal Finder, page for links to some of Joel’s favorite travel shopping sites.

Getting into the “Spirit” of Cruising

On a Sunday in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be setting sail from San Diego, California on our old friend, Carnival Spirit.  In all, our five-day cruise will give us two days at sea and two days to explore Cabo San Lucas on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.

It will be a rather quick trip, compared to a cruise we took on this same ship five years ago.  That one took us as far south as Acapulco on Mexico’s western coast.  This one will provide what we are seeking: a shot of sea and sun – a change from our slate-gray Pacific Northwest.  An added bonus is Cabo; we've never been there so plan to do some exploring during our short stay.

This trip is one of those that one minute wasn't on our radar and the next minute it was, thanks to a last-minute travel deal we couldn’t pass up – our favorite kind of travel.

Joel's travel bug was roused by the cruise price he saw in an email we received from Travel Zoo . We made a quick call to our cruise specialists at CruCon Cruise Outlet who offered the same good rate, so we booked with them.

Since our 2007 cruise, the ship has undergone some major renovations in preparation for its repositioning later this year to Australia. 

Our first day at sea we’ll log a few miles on the pedometer just exploring on board and getting into the Spirit of this 88,500 ton ‘Fun Ship” that carries 2,124 passengers.