Home » Discussion Forums » Talk » Trips & Tips
| Trips & Tips [message #31658] |
Wed, 21 July 2010 04:12  |
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 L.R.K.
Messages: 1081
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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Where Are You Going?
Are you going anywhere? Do you want advice on what to do? what to see? what to avoid?
Where Have You Been?
Want to share travel photos? Anecdotes?
(So, I thought, seeing as we have members from several countries, and several well-seasoned travellers, it might be a good idea to have a particular thread dedicated to the subject - so that it would be easy to find for everybody who had an interest in it - rather than it being divided up between a lot of different threads. Personally, I never really go anywhere, so I doubt I'll be contributing much to this thread - but I, and any other homebodies, can still enjoy your journeys through you!  )
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #32829 is a reply to message #32827 ] |
Mon, 16 August 2010 18:47  |
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Well, you have to go to Lombard Street http://www.lombardstreetsf.com/ Of course, it would be even better if you came on it unexpectedly as happened to me - driving up an extremely steep but straight street, and then I came over the top of the hill ...
(I have heard that after the fire the city fathers contracted with some firm on the east coast to do them a city plan. They then proceeded to implement the straight-street-grid document they received. Obviously they did not supply the planner with topo maps. This of course may be apocryphal, but it does explain the straight streets going uphill and down so steeply that a warning sign is needed to prevent vehicles with too long a wheelbase from bottoming out on the crests.)
Wander around the Victorian residential blocks taking pictures of the Painted Ladies http://www.paintedladies.com/
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #32844 is a reply to message #32827 ] |
Mon, 16 August 2010 23:50 |
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equus_peduus
Messages: 437
Registered: September 2009
Location: France |
Senior Member |
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| CathyR wrote on Mon, 16 August 2010 14:17 |
San Francisco for three days in May, would be greatly appreciated.
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What do you want to do? Do you want to be a Typical Tourist and See the Sights (Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park, etc), or would you rather spend a day exploring the Asian Art Museum or the Museum of Modern Art? Go to a SF Symphony concert? Watch a musical? Go to the Zoo or an aquarium? There's all manner of quirky little things to investigate as well. And a TON of day/half day trips. 3 days isn't a lot to explore SF, much less the Bay Area.
[Updated on: Tue, 17 August 2010 01:27]
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #32849 is a reply to message #32844 ] |
Tue, 17 August 2010 02:43 |
CathyR
Messages: 575
Registered: July 2009
Location: NW England |
Senior Member |
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Thanks guys. I'm afraid we are probably going to be mostly Typical Tourists, and it is only a very short visit unfortunately. This is my first visit to SF, and my husband's second after about 20 years. He is running the Big Sur Marathon on 1st May next year, prior to which we will have spent one day in LA, three days in St Luis Obispo and three days in the Monterey Bay area. Paul wants to go to Alcatraz, and I want to see the usual sights - Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street and Fishermans Wharf, and generally walk around and try and soak up some of the atmosphere and see some of those quirky things as well.
As with all our holidays, we just remember not to get stressed about what we don't/can't fit in; after all, it's not a tick box exercise! I'll still come back with hundreds of photos! 
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #32850 is a reply to message #32849 ] |
Tue, 17 August 2010 02:53 |
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If you have time, make an excursion over to the Muir Woods redwoods 11 miles north of the Golden Gate. Even a short walk, with time to stand under those magnificent trees, is an amazing experience.
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #32851 is a reply to message #32849 ] |
Tue, 17 August 2010 03:03 |
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equus_peduus
Messages: 437
Registered: September 2009
Location: France |
Senior Member |
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| CathyR wrote on Mon, 16 August 2010 23:43 |
St Luis Obispo and three days in the Monterey Bay area. Paul wants to go to Alcatraz, and I want to see the usual sights - Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street and Fishermans Wharf, and generally walk around and try and soak up some of the atmosphere and see some of those quirky things as well.
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Will you be driving?
If you have even the most passing interest in fish, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a must. They've also got river otters and a little freshwater and birds and things as well. (The Aquarium by the Bay in SF is a nice little aquarium - a couple hours - if you're particularly into fish and want more than one aquarium on your trip; the Steinbeck aquarium is now part of the CA Academy of Sciences and is fairly nice; the Academy isn't what I remember it from when I was a kid (a classic, old-style natural history museum), but it is fun, esp if you don't have the memories hanging over you).
Spend a day in Carmel (near Monterey). Pretty. If you're into that kind of thing, Mission Carmel is neat to visit (as are the other missions, but Carmel's my favorite of the ones I've been to (not that many)). I think they have fairly limited hours, so double check before you go. The 17-mile drive is pretty, but I think you have to pay for it; there's a sort-of parallel drive that isn't quite as scenic but doesn't cost more than gas  Or drive up the coast from Monterey via Hwy 1.
The 49-mile drive in the SF area takes you past most of the sights, IIRC. (hmm, looking at the list... actually *following* the 49-mile drive in a car might be uh, interesting. I'd pick some from the list and walk/public transport to them instead. But I also hate driving in the City just on principle). Lombard street, though, is best experienced in a car, at least once.
If there is interest in boats, there's a couple old schooners and a navy boat or something open to the public. Ghiradelli square might be worth a visit. Angel Island, IIRC, has some nice walking trails or something... been a long time.
Especially if you are driving, get some good maps. AAA makes great ones (also basic guidebooks), not sure if they're available for purchase (probably, but I could probably acquire some for you for cost of postage).
SF might be cold, or it might be warmish, that time of year. Pack for both. Monterey tends to be pretty cool most of the year.
I will think about this and get back to you with more. There's other people in the Bay Area on the forums... hopefully some of them will chime in as well.
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #32875 is a reply to message #32851 ] |
Tue, 17 August 2010 13:16 |
CathyR
Messages: 575
Registered: July 2009
Location: NW England |
Senior Member |
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Thanks so much again, guys. I really appreciate your thoughts.
The MB Aquarium is on the list; we will have free passes courtesy of the owner of the place we are staying, which is in the country about 30 minutes drive from Monterey Bay. Carmel sounds lovely from all we have heard about it.
We will have a hire car, but the owner of the SF apartment we are staying in (in the Mission district) has told us that parking is tight and difficult, so we were planning on returning the car as soon as we got to SF and relying on the public transport. I don't want the stress of driving in a strange city, it certainly doesn't add to the enjoyment!
Muir Woods sounds good, if we can get there without the car; we always like to get away from cities if we can for a short time. When we were in Las Vegas a few years ago, we thoroughly enjoyed the strip for what it was, but were hugely pleased to find Red Rocks (I think it was called), a wonderful walking area with fabulous red rock (!) formations only 25 minutes drive away. Quite unexpected, and all the better for it.
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #34152 is a reply to message #31658 ] |
Wed, 15 September 2010 13:03 |
Susan in Melbourne
Messages: 184
Registered: October 2008
Location: Melbourne |
Senior Member |
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I am currently jaunting around north America, soaking up this wonderful scenery. We had a bit over a week in the Alaskan pan-handle (the south east), and it was just staggeringly beautiful.
Have you been to Glacier Bay? If not, start making plans immediately to go there next summer. It's remote, gorgeous, the Lodge is friendly and fun, the boat trip up to the glacier front is fabulous. The tidal glaciers have their toes in water which is warmer than they are, so they are 'calving' - great chunks falling off on a regular basis. The wildlife is abundant. We saw sea otters, puffins, sea lions, humpback whale, bears, lynx, bald eagles, mountain goats all in one day on the boat trip from the Lodge.
The really big cruise ships weren't in evidence at Glacier Bay, although they've certainly had an impact on towns like Juneau and Skagway. However, as an independent tourist (we can recite the ferry schedule from memory!), it didn't take much to move away from the 'trinket alleys' near the cruise ship berths and see more of the 'real' towns.
Haines is more of a real town as they only have one smaller cruise ship a week come in. We did a drive out along the river to the lake, and at one point counted 35 bald eagles sitting on a sandbank in the river, and saw two mama bears with cubs fishing salmon out of the river.
Alaska was just fabulous and we're determined to return soon. If you haven't been - GO!
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #34176 is a reply to message #31658 ] |
Wed, 15 September 2010 23:01 |
skating librarian
Messages: 571
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont |
Senior Member |
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Susan ... been wondering how your trip was going.
Some leaves already turning in VT due to a very dry summer. I stand by to advise anyone on New England travels.
I used to travel a lot ... now I shuttle between my garden and Cape Cod where I do parent care ... but Sweden (and Norway, Denmark, Finland) calls to me. So the day may come when I ask for tips on travel there. I once spent about a week trying to translate information on long distance ice skating there (before the Internet) with very little knowledge of the language ... only to arrive in February of the warmest winter on record .. no ice. I admired the skates in a shop.
San Francisco ... I enjoyed just traveling by regular city bus through the neighborhoods and "observing". The ferry to Saulsalito was a cheap spur of the moment excursion on a sunny day.
"Winning a war is like winning an earthquake" Jeanette Rankin
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #34196 is a reply to message #34152 ] |
Thu, 16 September 2010 17:28 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1081
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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Oh, Susan, it sounds like you're having a just marvellous trip - thanks for sharing, your descriptions are so lovely, I really feel like I've got to experience some of that with you! Thanks!
| Susan in Melbourne wrote on Wed, 15 September 2010 19:03 |
The wildlife is abundant. We saw sea otters, puffins, sea lions, humpback whale, bears, lynx, bald eagles, mountain goats all in one day on the boat trip from the Lodge.
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Haines is more of a real town as they only have one smaller cruise ship a week come in. We did a drive out along the river to the lake, and at one point counted 35 bald eagles sitting on a sandbank in the river, and saw two mama bears with cubs fishing salmon out of the river.
Alaska was just fabulous and we're determined to return soon. If you haven't been - GO!
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Oh, how wonderful - all those animals! I feel like jumping up and down in excitement like a little girl.
I hope you will tell us more as you progress on your travels!
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #34197 is a reply to message #34176 ] |
Thu, 16 September 2010 17:40 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1081
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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Skating librarian - I'm not the world's best advisor on travelling (it took me ages to fix it into my head that we live south of Stockholm - and I've lived in this area all my life...), but I could ask around - my mother is Finnish, so I'm sure I'd be able to get some tips from her on "the country of the thousand lakes" (I think it was thousands? [looks unsure and worried]). Anyway, I'm very willing to help if I can - and should you find something exciting about any of those countries and the text isn't in English - well, I can help translate anything in Swedish, and I can at least decipher some Norweigan and Danish (so long as it isn't spoken Danish - then I'm lost entirely! written is much easier), and I can get my mother to help translate Finnish.
What bad luck about that winter - we have had some bad winters - but the last one was a good one! Properly cold and everything. Not like the one a few years ago when we reached February without any proper snow - and I was working at a library at the time, and had made a winter-book display, too! And I felt quite bitter when I saw on the news that it had snowed in Jordan of all places - but not here!
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #43268 is a reply to message #31658 ] |
Fri, 08 July 2011 01:20 |
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Reviving an old thread!
I just got home from a long (three-week) trip. Spent four days in Vancouver, BC, boarded a cruise ship (Holland America) to Alaska - Inside Passage, Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, College Fjord, Seward - bus to Anchorage, train to Denali, more train to Fairbanks, and then a brief stop in Seattle on our way back.
It was a lot of fun, and really amazing to experience the looooong summer days. Since we were there for the solstice, it basically never got to full dark for the entire week and a half we were in Alaska! I definitely want to go back to Vancouver, and if I get a chance, would love to be in Fairbanks for the Ice Festival they do in March.
I took lots of pictures (though the trip made me realize that I -really- want a dSLR of my own...), and figured I'd share them with all you lovely people: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moritae
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| Re: Trips & Tips [message #43302 is a reply to message #31658 ] |
Fri, 08 July 2011 22:29 |
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I was a little astonished by the sheer volume, once I was uploading everything!
There are many animal pictures. Lots of birds, Caribou, Musk Oxen, Stellar Sea Lions, Sea Otters.... and a bunch of glaciers/scenery, too.
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