Category: Travel

Seattle And Bumbershoot 2011 – Part 1

We just got back from our annual trek to Seattle for the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival (and more). I’ll post some pictures soon, but in the meantime here is a short synopsis of what we did. Enjoy, and maybe we’ll see you there next year…

Wednesday August 31

We flew to Seattle (Southwest Airlines) and arrived in the afternoon. Seattle has a great light rail train system that took us from the airport (nowhere near the actual city) all the way up to three blocks from our hotel. For just a few bucks! We checked in at The Camlin and then walked about five blokcs or so to the nearby Whole Foods Market, to get some supplies. You know, chips, salsa, cereal, fruit, soy milk, bottled water, wine, just the necessities. We lugged all that back to the hotel and then we were truly ready for anything. Well, pretty much. But we were hungry too! We were walking the block or so to Cyber-Dogs, a great vegetarian hot dog place, when we bumped into a couple of our fellow Sacramento friends, Mama O and Liz. We chatted a bit on the street (sidewalk actually) and then went to Cyber-Dogs for our meal (menu). This place gives you a lot of food, not just a measly hot dog. Next it was back to the room to plan out the event of the next couple days. Yes, I love Seattle!


Liveblogging The Hawaii Trip

Saturday June 25th

We left Sacramento by car in the late afternoon and arrived in Oakland (near San Francisco) a couple hours later. We are traveling with Petra‘s parents to Hawaii to attend her brother’s wedding. After checking in to the hotel for an overnight stay before the Hawaii flight in the morning, we went to a nearby Italian restaurant (Francesco’s) for some dinner. It was good and we all ate a lot of the great bread too. Then Petra’s dad and I dropped the car off at a lot and caught the shuttle(s) back to the hotel. We’ll see the car again in a week or so. Now it’s time to get some rest. There’s a very early wake-up call with my name on it.

Sunday June 26th

It was an early morning. The shuttle came to take us from the hotel to the airport at around 7:40 or so. At the airport, Petra got frisked and felt and her hands checked for something (powder residue or who knows what). Just lucky, I guess. It was a long flight to Oahu and a very short one from there to Kauai. The good news, they actually served food on the flight. The bad news, nothing vegetarian at all. Someday when I am king things will be different 😉  


The San Diego Trip Pictures

As promised, I’ve posted some pictures from our recent trip to San Diego with our granddaughter Josephine. Take a look by clicking here. There are three pages of pictures so don’t miss a one! Click on the first small one to see the larger ones. Then you can just click through them or use the right arrow. Have fun! And maybe leave a comment below if you want to…

2011 San Diego pictures

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The 2011 San Diego Trip

We recently took a short vacation to the San Diego area of California. This trip was a bit different, because we had our 9-year old granddaughter with us. Because of that, we tried to work this trip so that she would have a great time. And I think she did.

Here’s a quick overview of what we did. Oh yes, there will be pictures. Later. For now, thrill to the exciting recap of… “Our Trip to San Diego”!

Monday – April 25th

It’s a long way to San Diego. Even though we had six days of vacation, two of them (one on each end) were driving days. On this one, we headed south from Sacramento, on our way. A few hours 


Elvis Is King In Reno

Last Saturday night we traveled to Reno to see Elvis Costello and the first night of his “Spectacular Spinning Songbook” tour. First a bit of history: about twenty-five years ago Elvis toured with a big spinning wheel with names of songs on it. We saw that tour but it was a l-o-n-g time ago. And now, all these years later, he is doing a short tour again with a new, huge, updated wheel. The photo on the right gives you an idea of the size of the wheel. He gets people from the audience to come up and spin the wheel. Then he and the band play the song that is chosen by the wheel spin. Meanwhile, the audience member(s) get to relax with a beverage in some chairs on stage, or also have the option of dancing in the metal go-go cage at the left side of the stage. Yep, big fun!

To start, Elvis and his band, The Imposters, came out and played a few songs, starting with


A Night In Reno With Elvis

imageThis weekend we drove up to Reno, Nevada to see Elvis Costello at the Grand Sierra Resort and Hotel. I’ll blog about the Elvis show soon, this post is a recap of the trip.

First off, the road (I-80) is terrible, at least on the California side! It needs paving really badly, especially through the Sierra Nevada mountains. But we made it to Reno, arriving in the late afternoon. We got a free room upgrade, to a pretty nice and roomy room, because they didn’t have exactly what we reserved. Sweet. So I got some much needed coffee and we decide to gamble a little since we had a few hours until the show. Petra had some luck. Me, well, not so much. Easy come easy go?

We had some dinner at a very ordinary casino cafe. On the plus side, free or cheap drinks were easy to find. 😉

As I mentioned, I’ll blog more about the Elvis show soon so be patient! After the show we gambled a little more and quench our wicked thirst too. Then sleep. Crisp white hotel sheets and zzzzzzz…..

And then it was morning. Mother’s Day too! So we went in search of the only all vegetarian restaurant in Reno. You guessed it, closed. We wandered into a nearby casino for a few minutes to ponder. Then we went to a nearby pizza place that offers vegan pizza options. We had a really good vegan pizza (dead serious) at Pie Face Pizza. They do regular pizzas too. And then we hit the road, full and happy. On our way home after a heck of a nice weekend.

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Seattle And Bumbershoot 2010 Photos Here Now!

Hello again, family, friends, and everyone else too. The pictures from our Seattle 2010 trip are now online! We had a great time as usual. There are Seattle pix, Bumbershoot Festival pix, and just some other weird pix we took on the trip.

Note: These photos came from three different cameras: a real digital camera and two different cell-phone cameras. So, they may not be exactly totally in order. Still fun though…

Any questions, just ask. Besides Petra and me, you might even notice a couple pictures of our friend Mama O and members of her posse too. Take a look! Leave a comment if you want, I’ll be waiting….

Seattle/Bumbershoot 2010 photos

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Seattle 2010 And Bumbershoot Part 3

You can find part one here and part two here.

Sunday September 5

Day three of the festival and I am loving it! No surprise there. Same routine, we took the monorail to the Bumbershoot Festival and grabbed a snack at the hospitality area. Our first show to see was David Bazan at the KEXP secret lounge. While we waited, we heard a few songs from a nearby stage by The Tripwires which were ok but nothing special. Then we went in to see David. He’s the former singer-songwriter behind Pedro The Lion, now with a new band. We were really close up to see and hear his new songs mixed with PTL songs too. Good stuff. After that, Petra wanted to see Art Corps Presents so she went to that. I wandered a different direction to see a couple songs by Crash Kings, who I didn’t really like too much, and then The Redwood Plan at the cool Sky Church venue. They were quite a bit better. I also


Seattle 2010 And Bumbershoot Part 2

First off, part one is here in case you missed it.

Friday September 3

And a happy birthday to the daughter too. We started the day, as with the past few, by having a light breakfast in the room. Then we were outta there, to walk a few blocks to the monorail station. We took the two-minute train to the Seattle Center, because it was the day before the Bumbershoot Music and Arts festival. The day before? So what, you say? Ha. Yeah. Well, they open up the visual art exhibits a day early (for one thing), so we got a great chance to check all the art a day early before all the crowds were there. And it was totally great, just like every year. After a while of this we finished and then picked up our Bumbershoot Gold Passes. Yep, we bought some VIP treatment but not the Platinum. That takes the big money!

Art, gold passes, monorail, wow doesn’t that make you hungry? Well it did us! A few blocks away was Pacliacci Pizza so we stopped by for a slice. We actually had a two-for-one coupon from last year and they honored it no problem. The pizza was pretty good too. Then it was across the street to Easy Street Records. We shopped quite a while and found some CDs that we absolutely positively needed wanted. Same old story for us! After, we took the monorail back to the hotel so we could drop off the CDs, passes, and other stuff.

Then back to the Seattle Center to check out the


Seattle 2010 And Bumbershoot Part 1

We just got back from our annual trek to Seattle for the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival (and more). I’ll post some pictures soon, but in the meantime here is a short synopsis of what we did. Enjoy, and maybe we’ll see you there next year…

Tuesday August 31

We took the Super Shuttle to the airport, and you know, once you are on the shuttle then you are on vacation. It was a quick flight to the Seattle Airport (SEA-TAC). The city of Seattle recently built a light rail line from downtown to the airport (they are way ahead of us) so we tried it. It was much better than a bus and only $2.50. We checked into our hotel, The Camlin, and even thought we were a little early our room was ready. Nice. First stop for us hungry travelers was nearby Cyber-Dogs. This is a great place, all vegetarian, with awesome and filling dogs with lots of toppings and combinations. Suitably stuffed, we went to the grocery store and bought a few supplies to keep with us back at the hotel for quick breakfasts and snacks. Then we


Pictures From The 2010 Indio/LA Trip

Happy day! I posted some pictures from our 2010 trip to Indio (and a little bit of Los Angeles). The bad news: the pictures hardly tell the whole story, not at all. There were so many things we didn’t get pictures of. But the good news: Pictures!

You can and should read all about about the trip here to get the rest of the story, then be sure to check out the pictures (two pages worth) here on the photo page. Click on the first small photo to see the larger image and then you can either click through them, or use the arrow keys, or watch the slide show. Be sure to look at both pages too! Have fun and leave me a comment afterwards!!

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Another Warmer Week In Indio

A little over a year ago we spent a week in the Indio-Palm Springs area. You can read about it here. But this year we were invited again. Petra’s parents offered use of a two-bedroom condo, once again. It was cold in Sacramento and warm in Indio so we headed south. Our friends Larry and Robin were going to join us there for part of the trip. Here’s a short summary of what we did, and I’ll get some photos on the site soon.

Friday March 19

It’s a long drive to Indio. With a stop for brunch and a couple pit stops, it took about ten hours of driving. Petra actually drove the whole way, though I did my part, helping out by taking a nap. We had a pretty good brunch in Kettleman City on the way and made it to our destination in Indio in time for dinner with Petra’s parents, who were staying about a mile or less away. We talked and visited a while then she and I made it back to our condo and called it a day. Which it was.

Saturday March 20

We went on this trip to relax and have some downtime. But we still wanted to see


Pictures From The Big Boat Bash

Here they are! I’ve posted some pictures from our 2010 Mexican Cruise! We went with friends Larry and Robin, Jared and Ashleigh, and new friends Jeremy and April. A great time was had by all!

We didn’t take pictures of everything but we did take a lot. You can read about the trip here, then be sure to check out the pictures (five pages worth) here on the photo page. Click on the first small photo to see the larger image and then you can either click through them, or use the arrow keys, or watch the slide show. Be sure to look at all five pages too! Have fun and leave me a comment afterwards!!


I Was On A Boat

That’s where I was. What, you didn’t notice I was gone? Well, I sure was! Last week I was on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. That’s the ship in the picture. Big-ass boat, huh? Yeah, about 3000 or so people and over 1000 crew members. The life of luxury (for a week anyway).

We had three days in three different ports. First was Cabo San Lucas, where we wandered around the city and checked out the sites. Sammy Hagar’s hyped “Cabo Wabo” was nothing that special. We stopped at another place for some chips and guacamole, which tasted pretty good. The margaritas were omnipresent and were all good. The restaurants were hawking 2 for 1 specials (what could we do?) and buckets of beer (we didn’t have any of those).


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