My Travel Project: 2012

FEBRUARY

CALIFORNIA

I went to the 2011 ITMI Symposium in Sacramento; one of the highlights of the symposium besides seeing distant friends I have met as a tour director, is participating on their free FAM tours. We had a day at the start for a tour of Sacramento and a day at the end where we went to Yosemite National Park!

SACRAMENTO

Our tour included a stop at the California Museum of History, Women, and the Arts, a fabulous museum; here I am with Mickey! We also had a wonderful evening at the California State Railroad Museum.

YOSEMITE

This is Deby Dahlgren and me in Yosemite. Deby was my travel companion on my training tour with Globus/Cosmos, and we have become good friends since then.

Travel Companions: Anita Ehler, Deby Dalhgren, Bob Young, Derek Lundgren, Anne O'Dea, Missy Siskind, Diane Chase, Lynn Wolak, Rhonda Briel,

AUGUST

My best travel buddy is Susan Lazerus Cohen, introduced to me by a mutual friend, Anita Dienstfrey. Anita thought we would have a lot in common, especially as single women who love to travel. We have been traveling together for about 6 years, usually one bus tour and, sometimes, on our own. Susan is originally from Western Mass, and there were a few places on her "travel" list, so we put our heads together and took a New England road trip from Boston to Maine. I must admit, after looking at my photos to choose pictures for my blog, the cities started to look alike! I wish I had kept a journal and labeled my photos, so that is a good lesson for future trips! This has been the most difficult blog to write; I cannot match all the photos to the places!

MASSACHUSETTS

BOSTON

We arrived at Logan Airport, picked up our rental car and drove directly to Salem. Susan had lived in Boston for a couple of years, and Boston is on my Cosmos tour, so we basically made this our arrival and departure city. On the way back we stopped at friends' of Susan's before heading to the airport.

SALEM

Since I worked on The Crucible in high school and directed it at the beginning of my teaching career, I have wanted to visit Salem, Massachusetts. Names like Abigail and John and Elizabeth Proctor might be a part of the theater world, but they are real people. I wanted to search them out and see places I have only read about. Unfortunately, the tourist trade has overtaken Salem, and the emphasis on witches goes way beyond the historical witch trials, but seeing the memorial to the victims was worth the trip. Unfortunately, I lost George on this trip! Here he is with the stone honoring Giles Corey who was pressed to death!

However, the highlight was a visit to the home of Nathaniel Hawthorne, a relation to Judge Hathorne of the witch trials. Hawthorne was so horrified for his family to be associated with the dark history that he added a "w" to his name! Seeing his name etched in a glass window was very emotional!

ROCKPORT

We made a stop in the afternoon in the small town of Rockport, Massachusetts. It was a quaint village with lots of shops along the water. Great ice cream store, as well!

MAINE

PORTLAND

Portland was wonderful, but the food was fabulous! Of course, we had to have a lobster roll!We stayed in the Hampton Inn Portland Downtown. Dinner was at DiMillo's on the waterfront, where we ate on the porch and made friends with another couple and had a great night!

BOOTHBAY HARBOR

We stayed in the Spruceworld Lodge in Boothbay Harbor, a rustic but peaceful place. We took a ride on a lobster boat and learned all about trapping lobsters!

BAR HARBOR

After a day in Boothbay Harbor, we made our way to Bar Harbor where we stayed at the Blue Nose Inn. We took a boat ride where we saw some great lighthouses. The following morning we took a ride to Acadia National Park, which was stunning. I was lucky to realize I left my cell phone on top of the mountain, so even though I wasn't a registered driver on the rental van, I drove back to the park after leaving Susan in the hotel. It was nice and relaxing driving back, especially since I knew they were holding my phone in the gift shop! The second night we did a tourist thing -- we went to the Lumberjack Show. It was silly, but you always have to do the one tourist show!

ROCKLAND

One of the reasons we stayed in Rockland is that my friend and fellow tour guide, Rhonda Briel, has friends who run a bed and breakfast there -- the Lime Rock Inn. I loved it, although Susan took a pretty bad fall in the shower! We didn't want to take a chance, so we went to the local hospital where they said she was fine, and we came back to a lovely, special breakfast cooked for us by Frank and PJ.

CAMDEN

David Bruner, who is the director of Camp Medomak in Maine, told me that I had to stop in Camden to have dinner at Conte's, a seafood restaurant. Susan had also heard about this place where there is no menu (there is a chalkboard with a list of choices for the day), and, basically, the cook makes what he wants for the day. It was an experience!

KENNEBUNKPORT

NoNantum resort seems to be the place to stay in Kennebunkport. A number of my tour guide friends -- Deby, Rhonda, Anita, and Lynne -- have all stayed there. I can't find a photo of NoNantum or one of us in Kennebunkport, but I borrowed this one which shows where we were staying.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

PORTSMOUTH

We stopped in Portsmouth on our way back to Boston where we met up with some friends of Susan's. I liked Portsmouth; the contrast between the wooden clapboard houses of Maine and the bricks of New Hampshire was evident. We were in Portsmouth on the 4th of July and found several people (an animals) getting into the spirit!

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

EASTERN UNITED STATES AND CANADA

I wasn't originally planning on including my tours each fall, but since my travels take me to Boston, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Thousand Islands, Kingston, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Lancaster, DC, and Philadelphia each year with a different group of people, I decided to highlight two or three things from each tour, including something new that I had not previously experienced on tour! I also want to remember my coach drivers; in 2012 I was lucky to have Henry Horton on my first tour and a gentleman by the name of Herman Sinclair on the second. Herman and I didn't "gel" like Henry and I, but at least he could get us from point A to point B! It was wonderful celebrating Herman's birthday on tour!

BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS

Our hotel in Brookline, the Holiday Inn, is in walking distance to John F. Kennedy's home, but I never had the chance to visit since time is so limited. I was delighted that our Boston city guide decided to add a visit to the home for photos.

BATH, NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the past we stopped for lunch in Newport, Vermont for lunch at the East Side Restaurant. The food is mediocre and doesn't offer much in terms of sightseeing, especially since we do not have access to the patio on the lake. Our itinerary this year suggested an alternative stop in Bath, New Hampshire, and it was wonderful! Guests had the opportunity to walk over the covered (or kissing) bridge and enjoy the oldest continuously running general store in the United States!

NOVEMBER

PERU

Susan and I went on a Gate 1 tour of Peru (11-day affordable Peru with Nazca Lines); this was our second Gate 1 tour. They offer great tours for affordable prices. Our journey in Peru was fascinating, but the altitude sickness, and Susan's stomach thing, put a bit of a damper on the trip. I loved our tour, but it is definitely not a destination I would want to repeat! Again, as I attempt to put this blog together, I wish I had kept a journal.

We flew Copa Airlines with a stop in Panama where we had enough time for lunch and a little shopping. I so wish I had bought a Panama hat even though every time I buy a hat, I never wear it!

LIMA

Susan and I arrived in Lima a day early and were able to take our obligatory cooking class. It was definitely one of the best on our travels. The class was offered by two gay men who met in Germany (one German and one Peruvian) and moved back to Lima to run the cooking school out of their apartment. Not only was the cooking fun and the food delicious, but we were with a very nice group of people.

Here is one of the many dishes we made: causa, a cold potato that is assembled in layers. This one is layered with shrimp and avocado.

PARACAS

A small group of us had added the Nazca Lines which included a flight in a small plane over the mysterious Nazca lines as well as a visit to the Paracas Natural Reserve. It was difficult to photograph the remarkable pictures in the desert crated sometime between 400 and 650 by the Nazca culture. We saw a hummingbird, monkey, spider, and more! The Nazca Lines were designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.

BALLASTAS ISLANDS

An optional excursion from Lima took us to the Ballastas Islands the next morning. Although it was cloudy with a light rain, we had a great view of the seals, Humboldt penguins, Peruvian pelicans, and thousands of birds! We also saw El Candelabro, another mysterious geoglyph like the ones we saw from the plane. We were told we had to wear a hat, not for the rain, but for all the bird poop!

URURAMBA (SACRED VALLEY)

We flew into Cuzco and drove to Ollantaytambo, the site of the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti, an Inca Emperor. I love discovering places I have never even heard of! This is a photo of our tour guide, . It was funny because although we had another "Fae" on the tour and he could pronounce her name she fine, I was Fay "e"!

MORAS and MORAY

There was a full day optional tour of Moras and Moray, but Susan and I decided to go out on our own and signed up for a half-day horseback riding tour leading up to the Salineras salt mine. When they said "steep" path on their website, we should have been forewarned! It was so steep that both Susan and I chickened out on the ride back, and they had to send a car up to get us! But we did it, and it was an amazing experience.Yup, that's me on the horse!

That night we had dinner in a Peruvian home, surrounded by one of their delicacies -- guinea pigs! I don't mean on the table -- they did serve guinea pig -- but also running around the table and under our feet. I did not try the guinea pig, but most of the others did! Susan wasn't feeling very well (she went downhill from there) so she stayed back at the hotel.

CUZCO and MACHU PICCHU

Machu Picchu is the one site that everyone comes to Peru to visit. The anticipation was high. We took a train up the mountain to the town of Machu Picchu and from there we had to take a local bus to the entrance of the ruins. Sometimes I wish I was in better shape; I did well walking around, but I couldn't make it up more than ten or twelve steps on the steep inclines. The views were breath-taking! My good photos are on Flickr, and the main purpose of my travel project is to keep a record of my tours, so here I am!

Susan was very sick our second day in Cuzco, so I took the half day Cuzco behind the scenes tour on my own. We were a small group, and our tour included a blessing by a healer, a visit to a Peruvian cemetery, another cooking class, and a visit to a colonial Cathedral.

This is one of my favorite photos; the young boy worked with his mother keeping up the cemetery, and he was training his little sister.

PUNO

We traveled through the Andes Mountain Range. When we got out of the bus to shop and view the mountains, we were at one of the highest points in Peru at 12,421 feet above sea level, and my head felt it!

LAKE TITICACA and the UROS FLOATING ISLANDS

The last part of our journey took us to the Uros Islands on Like Titicaca. The islands are completely man-made and date back to Pre-Columbian times. Now many of the residents depend upon tourists for their livelihood. I could post do many photos here because it was an amazingly unique experience, including a visit to a school on one of the islands. About 4 families live on each island, forming a community of their own. Here is just one of my favorites; for more photos see my set on Flickr.