Category Archives: THE SOUTHWEST and MISC

September 29, 2011 · 1:10 am

Hints for Hawaii

Time to start gathering string for our trip to Hawaii in January. YES!

A friend emailed from there the other day with these suggestions: this is my fifth time here. I love it. Oahu, Maui and the Big Island are my favorites. Lots to see on Oahu: Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, North Shore where the waves are much bigger, Dole plantation. You will have a blast. Stay as long as you can because it’s a long flight. We are on Kauai, Maui and Oahu on this 10-day trip. Aloha!

Also read in AAA magazine that it’s possible to find low key interesting b&Bs on the Big Island for about $150 a night. I’d love to find something akin to Panama’s laid-back hippish Bocas Del Toro in Hawaii.

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June 2, 2011 · 10:42 pm

Cheap airfare to Hawaii

If I buy a plane ticket now for our January trip to Hawaii, I probably will save a bundle since I just found tickets from Des Moines to Honolulu for about $550. But I can’t quite bring myself to buy them yet – since lots of things could change between now and then. So I’m posting this now – as a reminder in November when I’m searching for reasonable fares, of what might have been….Granted the $525 fare is a three-flight trip (DM to Minneapolis to Seattle to Hawaii). The $700 or so ticket is a two-flight trip.  And it’s important to look at where the flights connect. Some of the three flight trips take you all the way to Georgia and then back to Des Moines. Not good. The best options appear to be two-flight trips from DM to Denver to Hawaii….

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May 30, 2011 · 10:57 pm

Oahu here we come

I haven’t gotten the geography of Hawaii in my head yet – but there’s time. we don’t go there until next January. The NYTimes did have some recommendations for Oahu in yesterday’s paper so here they are:

– For hiking, Waimea Valley on Oahu’s North show – includes guided hikes. The less strenuous Ala Ki Hike takes you to the top of Kalahee Ridge, on a switchback trail through mixed forest of exotic and native plants. More challenging is Diamond Head Crater with stunning views of Oahu’s southern shoreline.

There’s a farmers market (Kapiolani Community College farmer market across from the crater on Saturdays – with Oahu fruit/veg, handmade past, goof breakfast.

Other dining options: Orchids at the Halekulani Hotel in Honolulu (seafood, local produce and banana macadamia pancakes and pork omelets with Lomilomi toatos; or for dinner Kahuku shrimp ravioli, or kona lobster.

More casual dining like Chai’s Island Bistro in neighborhoods like Kapahulu or Haleiwa neighborhoods.

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April 29, 2011 · 2:50 pm

Mount Vernon, Ia. – one of 10 cool small towns

I didn’t know until I heard a plug on Iowa Public Radio this morning that the small northeast Iowa town of Mount Vernon was named one of then “cool small towns” by Budget Travel Magazine. Turns out this was back in 2009. But I’d have to agree. It’s the home of Cornell College and the wonderful restaurant the Lincoln Cafe and is smack in the middle of some bucolic farm country and about a half hour south is the booming artsy college town of Iowa City.  One place I don’t know that was mentioned in the Mount Vernon blurb: Fuel, a coffee shop/antique store.

The 2009 cool town list also includes Jacksonville, Oregon, which my husband and I visited in 2010 during a visit to my sister-in-law’s house in nearby Medford, and Tubac, Arizona which we visited many times during visits to see my dad in Tucson. (In Tubac, the mag recommends the interior design story Pancho’s, Tubac Center of the Arts, and Tubac Country Inn. Good to know since I’m sure we’ll be back there.)

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February 20, 2011 · 5:18 pm

Tucson – for future reference

For the second year in a row, we haven’t taken our annual trip to Tucson to see my dad – just got pulled in different directions. But my brother and his wife are there and report that they’ve found a good new cheap Mexican restaurant – BK’s – downtown – which specializes on Sonora Hot Dogs and Carne Asada (neither of which sound great right now as I’m still recovering from dining in Panama). They also were looking for a hike we did together four years ago and report that the trail head is – as we thought – just north of AJ’s fancy food market on Campbell and East Skyline Drive.

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January 25, 2011 · 12:29 am

Dreaming of…Oahu

We’re hoping to go to Hawaii a year from now – when my husband has a conference in Oahu. So time to start gathering some string on Oahu and beyond starting with this mention in the NYT’s recent list of 41 places to go in 2011. (Hope that still holds true for 2012.).

Disney is opening a resort in Oahu called Aulani – part of the Kolina Resort and Marina – that will emphasize Hawaiian culture rather than Mickey Mouse and Co.  This culture apparently includes hula lessons and lei making. Not sure this will be my thing….

But…there’s also a new boutique hotel opening – the Waikiki Edition, a Marriott concocted by Ian Schrager. IT’s not on the each but five minutes a way and includes a restaurant by Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoro; yoga; and a surf-and-bikini bootcamp (whatever the heck that is.)

Perhaps my best bet is the new visitors center and museum at Pearl harbor – with interactive exhibits about the famous attack told from both the American and Japanese perspective.

And then maybe I need to hightail it to Maui and rural Kauai…

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January 9, 2011 · 5:26 pm

Struggling to get my bearings in the wake of the Tucson shootings

The horrific shootings in Tucson yesterday hit close to home for several reasons including that the Safeway where they occurred is very close to where my father lives in Oro Valley/northwest Tucson. I don’t think I’ve been to that Safeway but I’ve driven by it dozens of times and been to stores and restaurants nearby.

There are so many businesses on that suburban strip that it’s hard to place the exact location of the Safeway, in my mind.  One of the many news reports I’ve watched showed a  sign for “Beyond Bread” – which confused me since last I knew,  Beyond Bread (a favorite restaurant)  is on Campbell – not Oracle where the Safeway is located.  A minor point, obviously, given the overall tragedy. But maybe my determined effort, in the wake of the shootings,  to get my physical bearings is also, deep-down, an attempt to get my psychological bearings, to figure out how close we are, as we go about our everyday lives,  to danger.

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September 20, 2010 · 7:46 pm

Other state park options around Tucson/southern Arizona

I’ve apparently dissuaded at least one reader from visiting Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, after he read my blog post yesterday that it was listed in the book “101 Places Not to Visit.”  But there are plenty of other options for great hiking and beautiful desert landscapes in Tucson and Southern Arizona. Here are a few:

Saguaro National Park – This huge park west of Tucson looks like the set of an old western – and in fact an old movie lot there has been turned into a tourist attraction (which I’ve avoided.) You expect to see cowboys and Indians (okay, Native Americans) racing down the mountains when you drive through. Lots of good hiking trails and the wonderful Desert Museum.

Chiricahua National Monument – this is about two hours, as I recall, east of Tucson and it’s full of bizarre rock formations that you can hike right through, up and around. Well worth a visit. This from the monument’s websites:  “The Apaches called this place ‘The Land of Standing-Up Rocks’, a fitting name for an extraordinary rock wonderland. Early pioneers in the late 1800s sensed the unique beauty and singularity of the rock formations in the area. They were instrumental in persuading Congress to protect this ‘Wonderland of Rocks’…
There are approximately twelve thousand acres of wild, rugged terrain within which the rock formations and a great ecological diversity are protected.”

Pichacho Peak State Park – never been but heard it’s nice, especially during wildflower blooming months

Catalina State Park – this is a sentimental favorite right near my father’s house, some nice easy trails and a trail I’ve always wanted to take to Mount Lemmon. Speaking of which, that’s another place to visit, weather permitting.

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May 22, 2010 · 4:26 pm

Cave Creek Arizona?

We’re always looking for new places to visit in Arizona since we visit my dad in Tucson almost every year – and the NYTimes came up with one yesterday – Cave Creek, about an hour north of Phoenix (I was hoping it was south of Phoenix and closer to Tucson). Looks like it has held onto some of its original character – especially like the idea of shopping at the Town Dump, which apparently is the name of a store, not the town’s real dump. For more details see:  http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/travel/escapes/21cavecreek.html

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April 10, 2010 · 7:25 pm

Hawaii – things to remember

D.  may have a biz trip to Hawaii in two years and I hope to tag along.    From a recent NYT article comes these suggestions (the more economical, interesting ones) when visiting the Big Island:

– Kaawa Loa Plantation guest house – kaawaloaplantation.com – doubles from $125.

– Shipman House B&B – with weekly hula lessons. (can’t miss that.)

Coffee trail stops: Bong Brothers Coffee; Hilo Coffee Mill, Kona Blue Sky Coffee, Mountain Thunder Kona Coffee

Beaches – Hapuna Beach (sunbathing); Kaunaoa Beach (hotel resort beach but all these are open to the public, surprisingly) Kealakekua Bay (snorkeling) Papkolea Beach (green sand? green sand.)

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