This peninsula community of less than 5,000 people is over a three-hour plane ride going north from Sydney via Cairns. June and July are winter months. Like Florida, though, the winter months are mild in Queensland drawing people from down south. Why visit Port Douglas? As we think back to our only visit in 2005, there is a certain exotic…
In the 2005 movie, “War of the Worlds,” Dakota Fanning ask Tom Cruise this question, “What is the Capital of Australia?” Tom’s brother apparently knew the answer. I have asked plenty of students that question too. The response is always the same: “Sydney!” It is not. Ironically, the Steven Spielberg movie, “War of the Worlds” came out in 2005. We…
A good time to visit a host Nation of the Olympics is the year before or the year after the event. We decided to incorporate New Zealand in our trip to “Down Under”—Australia—in 2005. The 2004 Sydney Olympics was a great success and we had to make a trip to see these wonderful countries. We flew 13 hours from Los…
Cruising Alaska would be a comfortable way to see areas of Alaska. You will never see it all the first trip around. Our first cruise was in 2004 leaving out of Seward on Celebrity’s ship called the Summit. We believe any ship you take would be fine. In 2010, we took a Holland American ship, the Zuiderdam, out of Vancouver,…
John Muir, the famous naturalist, once said “Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.” He also wrote in his journal that “you should never go to Alaska as a young man because you never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live.” I don’t know about that idea as Switzerland, Norway, Greece and…
We love visiting places that have elaborate Christmas decorations. Two places come to mind is St. Augustine and Disney World. By accident, we have discovered our third favorite place, San Antonio. Named for a Portuguese priest, San Antonio is the second largest populated city in Texas and is in the top ten in the United States. It is the city…
We flew into Minneapolis in August of 2017 from Vancouver, BC. Our first intention was to fly back to West Palm Beach, FL. As there are rarely direct flights to West Palm, we had to make a few hours of a layover in Minneapolis, a major hub for Delta Airlines. Why not make a stop in Minneapolis for a few…
Life Magazine once proclaimed Sioux Falls, South Dakota as the “healthiest city in the United States.” A spread-out community of 200,000 people, it lies midway between Minneapolis, MN and Rapid City, S.D. We stopped there for a day in August of 2017 on our way to Mount Rushmore. Sioux Falls lies between two Interstates: I-90 and I-29. One can…
Reachable in a few hours from Mount Rushmore is Devil’s Tower located in eastern Wyoming. It is truly one of the most unique geological formations in the United States. Along the way, we came across true “bumpkin” travelers. The 1,267 foot Tower can be seen from miles out on the road. The summit is actually over 5,000 feet high in…
The “Shrine of Democracy” is a must see while visiting the western part of the Midwest. Rapid City is the major city in the area with a regional airport. We flew into Minneapolis in 2017 and did drive a 10-day circle tour using I-90 and I-94. The Great Plains looked absolutely beautiful. We picked a jeep over a small four-door…