Travel Diaries

We review as we travel… destinations, lodging, cruises, resorts, you name it.

Parks & Outdoors | Travel Diaries

No TV, no internet, so what?
Byuser August 4, 2009July 7, 2021

“If I had it I’d be on it but I’m not really missing it,” said 15 year old Jake Blacutt. Instead, they’re playing marathon games of slapjack and hearts, making origami, and with the grown-ups — telephone charades. Seventeen year old Drew Redmond shows 13 year old Miles Singer card tricks. Eleven year old Charlotte doesn’t let the boys phase her. It is a lot easier, I think, for the kids to get to know one another without the distractions of TV, internet and video games.

Read More No TV, no internet, so what?
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Snap…crackle…BOOM! Kayaking among glaciers and ice bergs
Byuser August 3, 2009July 16, 2021

We are in the middle of Glacier Bay, paddling through the ice — big icebergs, little icebergs. One looks like an alligator. “I thought they were cool — they were so little on top and, oh wow — they were huge underneath,” said 14-year-old Xander Majercik.

Read More Snap…crackle…BOOM! Kayaking among glaciers and ice bergs
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Learning how to kayak among ice bergs
Byuser August 2, 2009July 16, 2021

“Our aim is to keep your wilderness experience from being impacted by the cruise ships,” says Kimber Owen, who found her way to her boat and Alaska from a Texas horse farm after she was widowed in her early forties. “It was too sad to stay,” she explained.

Read More Learning how to kayak among ice bergs
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To Glacier Bay on a converted WWII minesweeper
Byuser August 1, 2009July 7, 2021

We’ve joined three other families — together we have seven kids ranging from one 11 year-old girl and six teenage boys — for a week-long cruise through the 300 square acre (the size of Connecticut!) Glacier Bay on the 12-passenger Sea Wolf — built in 1941 as a U.S. Navy Minesweeper

Read More To Glacier Bay on a converted WWII minesweeper
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Day 2 in Alaska — the joys of fishing
Byuser July 31, 2009July 16, 2021

DAY 2 — “The fish must hate us,” moans 13 year old Miles Singer. We are on the world-famous Kenai River in Alaska with one…

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Back the to the bush — Day One of a new Alaska adventure
Byuser July 30, 2009July 16, 2021

DAY ONE (July 15, 2009) — Bears on the runway? “Routine,” says Gerry Winkler, the pilot of our six-passenger Cessna. Routine, that is, when you…

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One last stop — and beautiful and historic island of Moorea
Byuser July 15, 2009July 12, 2021

We hopped a short flight from Bora Bora to the French Polynesian island of Moorea that is spectacularly beautiful with its crystal clear lagoon and the green cliffs. This island is known less for its manicured resorts than for what there is to do here — taking a hike, passing by ancient marae (ancient temples excavated by archeologists), checking out the spinner dolphins and humpback whales, playing with the stingrays in the crystal clear water.

Read More One last stop — and beautiful and historic island of Moorea
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The life aquatic on Bora Bora
Byuser July 14, 2009July 17, 2021

We’re diving in an area called Muri Muri just north of the island of Bora Bora and nearly as soon as we get under the water, our dive master Benoit Gratas introduces us to a Hawksbill Sea Turtle (like Crush, the character in “Finding Nemo”), showing us how to feed him a piece of sea sponge. He’s so big — more than two feet in diameter.

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At the Four Seasons Bora Bora
Byuser July 13, 2009July 12, 2021

I’m sitting in an over the water bungalow, the ceiling fan whirring, with a thatched roof and expansive deck with its own swimming dock and outdoor shower? Did I mention that gigantic tub big enough for two with views of the lagoon as well?

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Our last day on the catamaran with Turo
Byuser July 12, 2009July 7, 2021

DAY 8 — Sad! It’s our last day on our Catamaran with our captain Turo Aritu, who for the past week has regaled the girls…

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Spa treatment day for the ladies on Bora Bora
Byuser July 11, 2009July 16, 2021

DAY 7 — I’m face down on a massage table looking through glass at fish swimming in the lagoon as the Polynesian masseuse caresses me…

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At the Heiva Festival on Bora Bora
Byuser July 10, 2009July 16, 2021

They look like they are hemming curtain rods. But actually, they are working with a kind of dried plant called Pandanus. We are again at the famous Polynesian Heiva festival that is held here in July. We first visited a Heiva on Raiatea and now on Bora Bora. Along with dancing and celebrating are competitions for dancing, canoe racing and this morning, thatch making.

Read More At the Heiva Festival on Bora Bora
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Another perfect sailing day and did we mention we caught a Mahi Mahi?
Byuser July 9, 2009July 16, 2021

We’ve just caught a 16-pound Mahi Mahi! Amazing, we all agree. The line started to pull as we were sailing and all of a sudden our captain Turo and my husband Andy are right there, reeling in the gigantic fish. We can’t believe our luck! Turo tells us a fish this size would cost $70 or more in the local market.

Read More Another perfect sailing day and did we mention we caught a Mahi Mahi?
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A tour of the Coral Garden with Turo as the pied piper
Byuser July 8, 2009July 16, 2021

We are at a tiny motu or islet off the island of Taha’a called Tau Tau, in a famous snorkeling spot called The Coral Garden that is nothing like I’ve ever seen before, teeming with striped banner fish and Sergeant Majors, long skinny trumpet fish, iridescent parrotfish, triggerfish and more.

Read More A tour of the Coral Garden with Turo as the pied piper
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Vanilla beans and black pearl farming on Taha’a
Byuser July 7, 2009July 16, 2021

Hioe, an American educated nurse, now runs The Vanilla Valley (email: [email protected]) on the Tahitian Island of Taha’a. It was a plantation her grandfather first started, she explained, that had gotten neglected in her father’s day. “I took over eight years ago,” she says.

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We are underway! Sails billowing! Big sea swells! Big sea sickness
Byuser July 6, 2009July 16, 2021

DAY 2 — The first morning we wake up on our boat! We eat some of the food we’d provisioned ahead- awesome croissants (this is…

Read More We are underway! Sails billowing! Big sea swells! Big sea sickness
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Day One of a 12-day idyll through French Polynesia
Byuser July 5, 2009July 16, 2021

DAY ONE (June 25, 2009) — Our captain is straight out of central casting — or a Gaugin painting. He’s tall with a big smile,…

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A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE AT DISNEYLAND
Byuser July 4, 2009July 9, 2021

The kids, three-D glasses on, are laughing at the Muppets very funny antics and all of the 3-D Special effects at the Muppet Show at Disney’s California Adventure. But these two kids aren’t four. They’re 18 — newly minted high school graduates. Yet they are having as much fun at California Adventure and later at the iconic Disneyland (which opened in 1955) as any kid.

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A SNORKLERS AND STINGRAY-LOVERS PARADISE
Byuser June 14, 2009July 7, 2021

DAY FOUR (June 14, 2009) — Ready to kiss a Stingray? Eight year old Timmy and 13 year old Miles Singer are game but 12…

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SKATEBOARDING WITH A CHAMPION
Byuser June 13, 2009June 28, 2023

Douglas Cameron, the Canadian who manages the park and oversees the camp — just in its second year — says it’s as much for local kids as visitors. It has 64,000 square feet of ledges, boxes, v-hips, banks and stairs and half pipes, which to the uninitiated look like a lot of hills built into the cement.

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