Just as the holiday travel season begins to heat up, Mother Nature is throwing a nasty, frozen curveball at much of the U.S. and Eastern Canada. Vancouver International Airport is beginning to recover from a freak (well, maybe not anymore) snowstorm, but it’s still frigid in Alberta. And now a big storm with rain, flash freezes, high winds and sizable snow accumulations is headed to Ontario and Quebec. The forecast calls for rain in Toronto and Southern Ontario today, but the temperature is set to plummet on Friday and the rain should turn to snow. Road conditions are expected to Read more
driving.
With Tahiti reopening for tourism today, here’s a post from a wondrous visit to Tahiti Iti in February. There’s no sign that says “Welcome to Another World” when you turn onto the section of Tahiti island called Tahiti Iti. I’m thinking there should be. A driver who makes the turn south on Tahiti’s main, road (there doesn’t appear to be a name or a number for this two-lane stretch of asphalt; the map I grabbed at the airport in Papeete didn’t provide a number, and the woman at the rental car counter merely called it “the road”) won’t notice an Read more
ANTIGUA – I was clearly out of my league. It was my second day in Antigua, and I was on a driving tour of the south side of the island. I’d heard something about a yacht show in Falmouth harbour, but wasn’t quite prepared for what I found. I pulled my Toyota SUV into a parking area and walked towards a gate leading to the main harbour, where I was confronted by around 100 gleaming, white, monstrous (mostly) charter yachts. I had stumbled on the annual Antigua charter yacht show, held here in part because of the incredibly zig-zaggy protected Read more
ANTIGUA – I can’t verify that there are 365 beaches on this island, one for every day of the year. The tourist board says it’s true, and tourist boards never inflate their numbers. Right? All I know is I took a five-hour drive around the south part of the island the other day and spotted a dozen or so of the spiffiest, most alluring stretches of sand I’ve seen in a long time. I had plans to see a good half or two-thirds of the island. But a worker at the lovely Sugar Ridge resort I’m staying at convinced me Read more
SONOMA, CALIFORNIA – It started out weak, but ended strong. I was in Sonoma County, California the other day for a far-too-brief visit to the town of Sonoma and then to check out a couple wineries. After a short stop for lunch at a bakery/sandwich place in the pretty town of Sonoma, with its old-time square and sturdy City Hall, we headed up the road to check out the Eric Ross Winery. Of course, I was driving my Dad’s new Hyundai and the GPS took us on the most circuitous route imaginable; up and over steep hills and through canyons Read more
