a New Years break...part 1

 Going to break this mini vacation into 2 posts....lots of pics to share!

I needed a break and the opportunity was right. We arranged to join our good friends Georgienne and Ted for a New Year weekend get away to Leavenworth Washington. A good six hour drive from our home, we decided to break up the drive and stay the first night in the historic Hood River Hotel located on the beautiful Columbia river gorge. Certainly a step back in time....we loved the charm and character of this well preserved 100+ yr old Hotel. It was the same accomodations my grandparents would have experienced other than now the bathrooms are inside each room rather than shared in the hallway.

although this brass gate elevator was a bit of a pain, it was pretty cool

original Craftman's woodwork and radiators

My room pic didn't turn out so I borrowed one from the website.

For dinner we walked up the street to a Brew Pub, and we climbed  a LOT of stairs to get into the pub, but is was worth it. The brews were awesome and so was the food.

After dinner we snagged a bartender to snap a pic of all of us.

It poured rain that night so we got pretty soaked walking back down to the Hotel.

Stay tuned....

My next post later this week will be sharing our trip to the Barvarian theme town Leavenworth, Washington

If you would like to see more (and better) pics of this hotel here is the direct link

http://hoodriverhotel.com/index.html

Our adventure in the Caribbean Day 11-13

I was in meetings for 2 days, so a bit behind here. I am going to finish up the tale of of Caribbean adventure today. Our last day on the cruise was a day at sea headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We spent a lazy day just plain relaxing. Becky and I did go to a "napkin folding" class, and now I can fold about 8 kinds of napkins instead of 2 LOL. After departing the ship, we checked our bags at the hotel, grabbed a cab and headed into Old Town San Juan.

The above pic is one of the side streets I snapped a pic of. I wanted to show the narrow brick streets of Old Town. Most of the streets are full of people and bumper to bumper cars. San Juan is also know for the decorative "doors". You see so many different colors.

 loved these balcony gardens!

I have to say the shopping was fabulous! Good prices, lots of variety. As you can see the "old farts" got tired and sat for a spell and let us continue on.

 

Above is the last gate to San Juan. San Juan used to be a completely walled in city to protect itself from its many enemies. Below ares pics of  Jim and I just to the right of that wall overlooking the harbor.

 

After shopping we decide to venture over to one of the two old forts of San Juan. The pics are below. These very old stone structures also were retrofitted and used by the US in WW2.

 Below is the other fort in the distance--we were warned not to go to the beach shown between these forts as is it is a very dangerous area.

Sadly, we must return to our hotel, and prepare for the next day's (Day 14) travel home. We had wanted to trex to San Juan's rain forest, but we needed one more day to do that.Maybe the next time...

Jim and I discussed our "first cruise" experience. We loved all the ports of call. It gave us the chance to get a flavor of all these islands and choose our favorites if we ever decide to do a resort vacation. There were many things we loved about cruising, but some we didn't. We decided, yes, we would probably cruise again someday, but we really we are "resort" or "condo" vacationers. We still call the Kona Coast of Hawaii our favorite destination, but would love to revisit St. Lucia and St. Croix sometime in the future. I hoped you enjoyed "traveling" with me in blog posts this week. Now I am praying this Oregon rain will turn into summer sun, so I can play in my cottage garden with my roses!

Our adventure in the Caribbean Day 10&11

Okay, continuing on to our next ports of call...St. Maartin was on day 10. .St. Maartin is divided into 2 parts. The Dutch side is St. Maartin and the French side is St. Martin. The French side is known for its "clothing optional" beaches! We decided to just do a beach and shopping day since you could do both without having to get into a cab, so we didn't see that beach!

 The day we docked, there were three ships total and we were told there was about 6000+ visitors to the island that day!

We were able to eat lunch directly across from the beach and even got some local beer here too

 

After soaking the sun, it was time to shop. Even to we were told this was the best shopping, it was mostly expensive jewelry and high end clothing. Not too much local art, which is what I look for. The interesting part is they have 2 shopping streets--Front Street and Back Street...

Now on to St Croix Day 11 of our Caribbean Adventure. This is the island where you really see the American influence, since it is a US Virgin Island. By American influence, I mean a K-Mart store and lots of the same fast food places. They still drive on the "other side" of the road, but the cars have the steering wheel on the left just like the US. On this island we decide to do an "old folks" tour...a botanical garden, a historical sugar cane and rum making plantation, and a current working Rum factory.

I love this tropical cottage! It was at the historical W.H.I.M plantation

 

inside the plantation owners house

 

the old windmill on the plantation

a cactus garden on a tropical island? It is because this is the dry side of the island-gets very little rain

Last stop was a Rum factory..and they treated all of us to free Pina Coladas--as much as we could drink until the bus picked us up! Did I mention the rum was good on every island we have visited???

I hoped you enjoyed!! My next post will be a wrap up of our cruise and our day in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Our adventure in the Caribbean Day 8 & 9

I combined St. Lucia and Antiqua ports of call since I really didnt have the opportunity to take a lot of photos. Our excursion on St. Lucia took most of the day, so what we were able to see of the actual island was limited.

 I took this pic at day break just as we were puling into port at St Lucia

We took a fun ride to a private island on the same pirate ship that was used in Pirates of the Caribbean! On the beach where we docked was right next to one of the exclusive Sandals and Windjammer resorts. We were fed lunch and had a treasure hunt too.

The next day our port was Antiqua. It was a rainy (but warm of course), so we decided to hire a cabby to take us on an island tour. This guy was quite a character!

We drove over to the other side of the island, coming upon a most beautiful bay, with a bit of shopping too

Last, but not least, our driver found us the most beautiful white sand beach that was almost empty, and it was time for a cold local brew beer--do we look like we need one here?

On the way back we stopped on a hill and snapped this of the town and our ship at the port, then off to do some shopping--lots of local vendors here and some wheeling and dealing could be made!

I hope you enjoyed! Next will be the islands of St. Maartan and St. Croix....

Our adventure in the Caribbean Day 1-4

Finally----as I promised I would share some highlights of our 2010 vacation with you. I came home a week ago with a nasty cold I picked up, so just getting thru the last week was a challenge. I am rested, refreshed, and now over that yucky stuff, so here we go! We stopped so many places, that I have decided to divide the posts into segments, so keep following in your dashboard to see everything!

First stop was Key West for Days 1 thru 4. Of course the first day was ALL traveling 11 hours of it. We landed at the small Key West airport on a 20 seat prop plane (our connection from Ft. Lauderdale) just at sunset and it was fabulous~but the humidity was a shock at first for us Pacific Northwest folks We have been to Key West before, but only for an afternoon as we stayed further north in the Keys, we vowed we would come back, and I think we will go back again someday!

Didn't take long to get to our condo, and a cold beer! The next morning, It was a treat to take to Smather's beach, which was just across the street from the condo. This was so beautiful!

After some sun, it was time to head into the heart of Key West and experience this party central place! If you love to have fun, this is the place to bar hop, and eat some of the most wonderful food. Not to be missed-

Ernest Hemmingway's bar--Sloppy Joe's

Mallory Square at Sunset for the local entertainment

A sunset cruise 

Some serious shopping

Some seriously good local food
 Key Lime pie

Some fabulous rum drinks

Cinco de Mayo at Sloppy Joes!

the fun is just starting at Mallory Square as seen from the boat

I could live in this house!

Jim and I on our sunset cruise

Just a sampling shown here--hope you enjoyed--watch next for our first day on our very first Caribbean Cruise!