No more sleeps!

 We have spent the past few days in San Francisco and Sacramento (with our daughter, Kathy, and son-in-law, Ken) just being tourists.

San Francisco was wonderful! The weather was fantastic and all the places we remembered were just as delightful as we remembered: the BV (Buena Vista to those new to San Francisco) for Irish coffee; the Top of the Mark (the Mark Hopkins Hotel) for a martini and the view; the cable cars; the trolleys. The trolleys were especially fun as they really weren’t there—or we don’t remember them—when we lived in the area. Each trolley car is different and began its trolley life in a different city. We rode on one from Philadelphia; one from somewhere in Italy (the signs were all in Italian); one from Denver, I think; and another from yet another city. Fun! Lunch was outside on Maiden Lane at Bistro69; really nice!

The Top of the Mark has a weird idea of what constitutes a martini! Jack and Kahlua is a martini (!). So is “3Gs”: vodka, lemon juice, orange juice, ginger beer, ginger ale, and fresh ginger. How about the “Sunset Martini”: Prairie organic (!) vodka, crème de cassis, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, and a squeeze of lemon juice. What part of “martini” do they not understand? Randy and I are purists, James Bond notwithstanding: Bombay gin, VERY dry—just whisper “vermouth” over the glass—one olive, stirred not shaken as shaking bruises the gin. Or so my father taught me!

We watched the Kentucky Derby from the bar in the Hyatt Regency. We used to bring visitors to the Hyatt just to see the awe on their faces when they came up on the escalator into the HUGE atrium that soars about 20 stories above you. Now it’s commonplace to see such an atrium lobby, but 25 years ago it was an astonishing sight. Boy, am I showing my age!

And we almost rented a GoCar, the same cute little vehicle we are planning on renting in, I think, Barcelona (I have to practice pronouncing it “BARTH-a-lona” since they use Castillian pronunciation). We have one other couple going to do it with us; I hope we can get one or two more. Anyway, it looks like a ton of fun!

Kathy is driving us to the airport for our 2235 departure. We’ll have dinner with her after we drop off our six, yes SIX, pieces of luggage and check in for the flight. I know I could have printed a boarding pass, but since we have to check six bags and we’re going first class, I thought we might as well just do it at the gate.

It’s been a wonderful start to our Grand Adventure. Now, onward and upward to Sydney!

Quirky—OK, OK, weird—travel stuff

Most travel items fall in the category of need or gee, that looks like it’s useful. Boring things like adapters and converters for international travel and alarm clocks and travel purses/wallets. Or packing aids like compression bags and packing cubes. But there is another whole category I am discovering: weird things that sound useful but just a bit whacky.

For instance, I’ve discovered a quirky website, the place to buy a Buff. What is a Buff? It’s a odd scarf/beanie/face covering/whatever-you-want for your head. Check it out here, it’s a hoot. I might even get one.

Then there is Scottevest (pronounced Scott-y-vest), the company whose ad Delta Airlines refused to run. If jacket meets carry-on bag is your thing, this is the company to go to! And there is shirt meets bug spray, the Bugsaway Halo shirt, sold by www.magellans.com or www.amazon.com. Also at Magellan's is the luggage scale meets flashlight. I read on one blog that it was appointment only for cruisers who were worried about overweight luggage to use their scale on the last full day of the cruise. Oh, shopping travel is so much fun!

I’m discovering all these interesting places by reading the Independent Traveler, which has tons—probably literally, were I to print out all the fascinating content!—of travel-related information. Like "35 Travel Tips Revealed: Top Secrets of Travel Writers." One of those tips is to bring a travel scarf that doubles as a purse. Seems like a great idea, but there isn’t a store closer than Albuquerque and there is no online way to buy. Too bad!

Speaking of purses, Epiphanie is a wonderful site for camera bags for women. I am getting very tired of plain old black bags to carry my camera equipment in (Note to my old English teacher: I KNOW I shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition but it just seems so awkward to say "...in which to carry..."). Some of these bags seem so lovely and I am sorely tempted to get lyric or lola or maybe stella. There are other places for beautiful—if not quirky—camera bags. For example: here and here and here.

And, of course, the ever popular Rum Runner, or how to smuggle any liquid on board your cruise ship because the cocktails on board cost more than dinner out back home.

I can’t believe I am now starting to think about our vacation in 2013, a river cruise in Europe. Might even take the kids (don’t listen, Kathy, Ken, Greg, Yolanda; we haven’t really decided yet) if the stock market doesn’t completely tank. I’d like to do a 30 day river cruise (I think such a thing exists) from somewhere in eastern Europe to Amsterdam with options for shorter segments for our kids who are still working. I need to spend more time looking at which companies are best for our purposes and then which boats. Are they boats? Or are they ships? Our old and—sadly—deceased friend, Captain Paul, said a boat could be carried on a ship but not vice-versa. So, by that standard, they are river “boats.”