Blogs from North America - page 8015

Hello everybody! Welcome to my first travel blog entry on the road, coming to you from a sweltering Las Vegas. Yesterday, the temperature was 33 degrees - at midnight. During the day it is in excess of 40 degrees. The heat here is very dry, so you don't sweat much, but the wind is hot and outside, it feels like you're in an oven. Well, this is Las Vegas, a city that never sleeps - and neither do you ;-) Having had about 4 hours sleep on a 13 hour flight with a 6 hour stopover in LA, myself and my friend Davies finally arrived in Las Vegas. The first thing to greet passengers as they come through the gate is the tune of about 50 slot machines - only in Vegas ;-) The first hotel ... read more

Today we head North West on I 90 for Red Lodge by crossing the Bighorn Mountains. We’re just a little sad that we could not fit in a visit to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. It was just too much, distance wise. We turn off at Ranchester, fuel up at Dayton then over the Big Horn Mountains on Scenic Road US 14. The views are tremendous. We’re quickly on to broad sweeping hairpins (switchbacks) as the road rises quickly. To our surprise there are some fantastically rich alpine meadows up here with many different species of flower, lupine being prominent. It’s quite a wide plateau and the road is nearly empty. Near Burgess Junction, where we stop for a walk, the road splits into US 14 and US 14a. Both roads are said to be ... read more

Grayson’s birthday is July 11th, but we decided to have Grayson’s birthday party on June 23rd. We explained why we were having his party early but not sure he understood. He kept telling everyone he was just “having a celebration” and “I’m not 4 yet”. Grayson wanted a dinosaur party theme. It was great…. Grayson and I were able to shop together for the party supplies! Grayson’s imagination about his birthday party theme had me in stitches. He was able to clearly communicate his birthday cake design at the bakery. This was a new experience for me. I remember the years past trying to work a full day, zooming out on my lunch hour to pick up supplies and then squeezing in another shopping run before picking Grayson up at daycare. The working mom does what ... read more

Doing Cape Cod cheaply means finding the right accommodations. I have rented vacation homes/villas before; once in Orlando and once in the Hamptons. Having had great luck with them, I decided to give it a go again. The websites I poured over were www.vrbo.com, www.cyberrentals.com and www.weneedavacation.com. These all have homes, villas, or condos for rent by owner which is sometimes much cheaper than going with a rental agency which tacks on a fee. The vacation home owner usually holds a security deposit which is refunded after your stay. Sometimes you will be required to sign a rental agreement. One thing I noticed about Cape Cod while searching for homes is there are a few weeks during the summer season that you might find cheaper than others. Many homeowners had the last week in June discounted ... read more

Acapulco!! Yesterday we docked at 8 am. I was awake, so I was lucky enough to see the city as we pulled into the bay. It was so pretty. I had always pictures Acapulco as a small resort town, like you might find on an island. I was so wrong. Acapulco is a city, and a big one at that. After the city briefing a group of us decided to explore. As we left the dock we were all bombarded with taxi drivers. It was a bit overwhelming. One guy approached us, and after some discussion he agreed to take us to the market for $1 per person. Thinking that was a great price we all jumped into the van, and pulled into traffic. All I have to say is that I am so thankful ... read more