Take a Vacation

[PaloAltoCougar]

Agreed--well, except for the part about never wanting to retire. Yeah, I'm jealous as well. Very cool!

Also, I like the idea of the coffee table book. PAC, is this something Mrs PAC gets printed somewhere? Seems like a picture/journal combo would work well.

She used to have her books printed by My Publisher, but the company was acquired by Shutterfly so she uses them now. When we're home next week, I'll post a sample of the books she's done. Love 'em.

As Wuap notes, Dubrovnik is truly amazing and should be on everyone's travel bucket list.

And yes, BP, paragliding. It was truly one of the best moments of our travels thus far.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I would love to travel like that in retirement. But he have a son who requires fairly constant attention, so our trips are going to be more limited.

He is a BYU fanatic though, so I hope to catch a lot of BYU road games.

[clackamascoug]

I would love to travel like that in retirement. But he have a son who requires fairly constant attention, so our trips are going to be more limited.

He is a BYU fanatic though, so I hope to catch a lot of BYU road games.

As our DS daughter has gotten older - she has grown an immense fear of the dark in unfamiliar places - so much so that she cried/sobs uncontrollably at night. Leaving the light on doesn't help as she won't sleep anyway. What's funny is that the only place in Utah County that she likes to sleep is in the upper bedroom of our daughter in-laws parents house in Orem. When we travel to Utah - my wife and daughter will stay at their house while I stay with my family in PG or Orem. The in-law parents are the nicest people in the world and understand completely - but still it feels funny making arrangements to visit. We were told (by our son) they wanted to update/redecorate the room with the rest of a recent update of kitchen and bedrooms - but decided to leave the room "as-is" for our daughter - even though our son and his family now live in Draper.

Thus - if we go to the beach - it's a day trip only. Can't really go many places.

[Jeff Lebowski]

As our DS daughter has gotten older - she has grown an immense fear of the dark in unfamiliar places - so much so that she cried/sobs uncontrollably at night. Leaving the light on doesn't help as she won't sleep anyway. What's funny is that the only place in Utah County that she likes to sleep is in the upper bedroom of our daughter in-laws parents house in Orem. When we travel to Utah - my wife and daughter will stay at their house while I stay with my family in PG or Orem. The in-law parents are the nicest people in the world and understand completely - but still it feels funny making arrangements to visit. We were told (by our son) they wanted to update/redecorate the room with the rest of a recent update of kitchen and bedrooms - but decided to leave the room "as-is" for our daughter - even though our son and his family now live in Draper.

Thus - if we go to the beach - it's a day trip only. Can't really go many places.

Bless you, Clack.

[Bo Diddley]

Bless you, Clack.

God bless you both. I'm inspired by parents who take care of their children like this.

[Joe Public]

I would love to travel like that in retirement. But he have a son who requires fairly constant attention, so our trips are going to be more limited.

He is a BYU fanatic though, so I hope to catch a lot of BYU road games.

It sounds like you and I may be in similar situations, including the affinity for BYU sports. See you at the games!

[Northwestcoug]

So Ireland was pretty awesome.

We started the trip off in style. A week before Mrs. NWC got an email from Air Lingus asking if we wanted to bid on an upgrade to business class. Minimum bid was 700. HL and S. We got the upgrade, and it was glorious. You are literally wined and dined the whole trip. We had seats that reclined fully to beds. It helped get about 3 hours of sleep from Seattle to Dublin, so not a super restful flight, but so much more comfortable.

Our itinerary started on the west coast, so we drove 3 hours to Galway right after landing in Dublin. Galway is a really nice small city with a bustling downtown. We spent three nights there and used it as home base for some small day trips. Day 2 was a tour of the Burren and included the cliffs of Moher. Super interesting geology and human history. There are never ending stone fences as you drive, which have likely been used for generations. I really enjoyed just contemplating how much human history those stones have seen. The Cliffs of Moher are as advertised and spectacular. We planned our trip a la PAC's advice to hit it at the golden hour. I did decide on bringing my camera gear. Mrs. NWC had the great idea of asking the security guard where his favorite photo op was. We hiked another mile down the coast and he was right. The sky, unfortunately, didn't cooperate:

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I would have loved to have a little clear sky to catch those rays, but oh well. Please see the photography thread for better pics!

Day 3 was Inis Mor. We took the ferry from Doolin. The island is touristy but beautiful. We rented electric bikes and did a longer circuit than most, and that got us away from most of the crowds. More rocks and much green, and beautiful vistas.

Day 4 we drove down towards Dingle. We stopped in Adare as per Rick Steve's recommendation. It is admittedly a tourist trap but very recommended. Plenty of medieval history and just a quaint little town. Would have loved to stop in Limerick, but just not enough time.

Day 5 was Dingle Peninsula and Slea Head Drive, which was the most beautiful part of our trip. Stunning sea vistas and so much green. Before we arrived we pivoted from the Ring of Kerry to Slea Head Drive, and I'm glad we did. Many pics were taken.

Day 6 was Killarney National Park and environs. Muckross House is another tourist trap but still interesting. My vast 8 day experience with the Irish has led me to believe they are practical people and eschew the excesses of British nobility, and my visit to the house only strengthened my bias. I mean it's still excessive, but just not on a British level. Hiked around the lake and Torc Waterfall, wonderful afternoon. And we almost didn't do the drive where I took about 300 pics, up towards Moll's Pass. Every pull out on the road just had spectacular views of lakes in the valley. That day we were lucky. We chased the golden hour for a while and had wonderful light.

Day 7 we drove towards Dublin and stopped at Rock of Cashel. I liked this more than Mrs. NWC, but I found the history fascinating. Pretty town also. We arrived in Dublin and returned our rental car, white knuckled and frazzled, but thankfully no accidents. I am also glad we heeded PAC's advice on Dublin by concentrating our time in the west, and giving Dublin just a short time. I mean it's a bustling cosmopolitan city with interesting architecture and history, but I feel the same way about it as I do London; glad I visited it, but I don't need to do it again. We did the requisite Trinity College and Temple Bar visits, and sucked up the youthful vigor everywhere. But still, sort of meh after all the beauty we had seen the previous few days.

So a quick trip but super happy about it. Quick thoughts, I liked the traditional food better than British food. I mean, there's a reason why there are so many lambs in the countryside. The braised shanks, they are delicious. It wasn't until the last part of our trip that we realized we should have been telling our servers to add a tip to the bill. There's no space on the receipt to add one, and we just thought it was like Italy . Guiness beer is not great. I gave it a shot, but it's not worth the hype. People all over were super nice. In Galway at least there seemed to be a lot of American ex pats. If I ever did it, I'd live near Dingle. Would I go again? Yes, absolutely. And you should too.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Glad the trip went well, NWC. We loved Ireland and look forward to returning. And flying business is great, esp. during night flights when you can sleep or at least stretch our and relax better.Unfortunately, doing it once makes future economy trips seem even worse.

[Northwestcoug]

Glad the trip went well, NWC. We loved Ireland and look forward to returning. And flying business is great, esp. during night flights when you can sleep or at least stretch our and relax better.Unfortunately, doing it once makes future economy trips seem even worse.

Yeah, they didn't offer bidding on the return trip home. We had to subsist on crackers and drinks with the rest of the plebs

[Bo Diddley]

Anyone spend time at Hotel Del Coronado? I've stayed up the road on North Island off Breaker Beach, but this will be my first time at this hotel. Have to burn some Hilton free night certificates, so we've got four nights between us.

We had a good time this past week. This was a stay on the beach and chill vacation. Mrs Diddley thinks I plan too much in our vacations, so this was for her. Everything is overpriced but with the $30/day food credit and the $250 resort credit/AMEX card, we had $620 to help defray much--not all--of what we spent.

The only thing we did outside the resort was head over to Seaworld. I get free tickets and our youngest's best friend growing up is a whale trainer there. So we got a one on one behind the scenes experience with one of the Orcas. That was cool but we left right after that. Seaworld isn't as cool without kids.

We flew into San Jose in time to watch the first half of the football game in the hotel. I had to watch the second half on my phone while we headed to Levi Stadium to see Elton John on his farewell tour. After a disappointing loss, that was a fun show!

EJ.jpg

[Bo Diddley]

We're planning a trip to Germany next fall. We'll probably use Munich as a base for part of the trip and take day trips around Bavaria. We're talking about adding Salzburg and Innsbruck to the itinerary, both about 1:45 away by car. A day trip adds at least 3.5 hours of driving to the day, but transferring hotels is always a PITB as well. What approach would you take?

[Copelius]

We're planning a trip to Germany next fall. We'll probably use Munich as a base for part of the trip and take day trips around Bavaria. We're talking about adding Salzburg and Innsbruck to the itinerary, both about 1:45 away by car. A day trip adds at least 3.5 hours of driving to the day, but transferring hotels is always a PITB as well. What approach would you take?

Depending on how much luggage you take the hotel change shouldn't be that big of a deal. That said. Munich is a great place to use as a base. The choir did it in 2016 for a third of our tour. No actual concerts in Munich but we went to Vienna, Nuerenberg, and somewhere in Switerland from there. Vienna was a very long day but the others were bearable. One of the nice things about that area is the ability to use the travel time as part of the experience, stopping in small out of the way places on your way to the main destination and taking different routes there and back.

[Bo Diddley]

Depending on how much luggage you take the hotel change shouldn't be that big of a deal. That said. Munich is a great place to use as a base. The choir did it in 2016 for a third of our tour. No actual concerts in Munich but we went to Vienna, Nuerenberg, and somewhere in Switerland from there. Vienna was a very long day but the others were bearable. One of the nice things about that area is the ability to use the travel time as part of the experience, stopping in small out of the way places on your way to the main destination and taking different routes there and back.

We're going to go all the way to Vienna and spend a few nights there. Anyone been there recently? We're taking my BIL's father who served a mission back in the 60's, so his knowledge is dated. I imagine this to be a city we could spend the whole two weeks on.

[Moliere]

We're planning a trip to Germany next fall. We'll probably use Munich as a base for part of the trip and take day trips around Bavaria. We're talking about adding Salzburg and Innsbruck to the itinerary, both about 1:45 away by car. A day trip adds at least 3.5 hours of driving to the day, but transferring hotels is always a PITB as well. What approach would you take?

I usually try to change locations as little as possible but if I’m spending 3+ hours going out and back to someplace then I’d consider just moving locations. That can be different if the Tavel is more of the trip, meaning there’s stuff to see on the way or you can come back thru a different route.

I’ve started to rent a station wagon that has enough room for multiple bags and allows for them to be placed out of view so I’m not as worried when we pack up and stop places before checking in to a hotel later that evening. I’m also more inclined to use hotels if I’m staying 1 or 2 nights. Longer than that I’ll usually look at an Airbnb.

[Bo Diddley]

I usually try to change locations as little as possible but if I’m spending 3+ hours going out and back to someplace then I’d consider just moving locations. That can be different if the Tavel is more of the trip, meaning there’s stuff to see on the way or you can come back thru a different route.

I’ve started to rent a station wagon that has enough room for multiple bags and allows for them to be placed out of view so I’m not as worried when we pack up and stop places before checking in to a hotel later that evening. I’m also more inclined to use hotels if I’m staying 1 or 2 nights. Longer than that I’ll usually look at an Airbnb.

Agreed. Changing hotels is painful. The Airbnb angle is interesting. We're taking six people, so that might actually work out best for us. I think I still want breakfast included, so not sure how that might limit my options. I'm a little nervous about my Airbnb reservation getting cancelled.