Tagged With "Viejo San Juan"
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Re: Hawaii: Coping with Hurricane Ana
Some of the best long haul flights stop off in interesting places. That's why I love taking a few days in San Francisco. And Hawaii. Mainly because I can walk for miles. So many US cities are not "Pedestrian friendly" I'm off to search the internet for Kona Coffee ! I have noticed that the Islands have the most memorable Flag of all the US States ! Thanks DrF !
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Re: Old Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey, California. Where Gumbo Was, #74
Looks a bit like the San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf. Lots of tourist attractions to help part you from your savings. But the Sea Lions waving their fins to catch some sunlight make it all worthwhile. Yes - I know - the kids love it - but watching who gets pushed off the floating boards to make room for the big fella is absolute poetry. Then he in turn pushes another Sea Lion off. Fine explanation of the "pecking order" Looks like a great location to spend the day - and pedestrian friendly...
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Re: Old Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey, California. Where Gumbo Was, #74
It's a much smaller Fisherman's Wharf than San Franciscos, and one I like a lot better. Also, crowds are much lighter and the atmosphere a little more relaxed.
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Re: Coastal California: A Village, a Hamlet, and a Wide Spot in the Road
Great pictures, great vegetables, great kids... The San Gregorio Stage Stop...would I be right in guessing that it also served as a gas station at some point? The architecture suggests so...
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Re: Coastal California: A Village, a Hamlet, and a Wide Spot in the Road
The Stage Stop is one of those buildings that's become invisible, even while being half the commercial district of San Gregorio. Maybe this illustrates the fact that we see things differently when we're in the picture zone, that it was the first time I really looked at it. I assume it was a gas station, looks like a pump rusting there on the left. But even I'm not old enough to have seen it in action.
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Re: Coastal California: Pigeon Point Lighthouse
No, really, we know the difference. And we saw the avocados and ate them. I haven't found production figures yet for San Mateo County yet, but it is significant.
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Re: Banff National Park: Hiking in the Subalpine Splendor of Sunshine Meadows
Hi, Yes, that is exactly the route we planned to get there, though the trip will actually begin in San Diego this time and be preceded by a trip up the U.S. west coast. But coming back, we are thinking of going to Calgary then dropping all the way down to Montana and Wyoming, and heading back to San Diego via Las Vegas, where we have family. We spent a nice little time thinking about it and planning, even though it won't be until next summer, all because of your post! So thanks for giving us...
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Re: Banff National Park: Hiking in the Subalpine Splendor of Sunshine Meadows
MsNomadica, I'd love to read more about your road trip from San Diego to Key West! I've been thinking about a similar road trip the last few years.
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Re: Banff National Park: Hiking in the Subalpine Splendor of Sunshine Meadows
Travel Rob, You can read about the San Diego to Key West road trip on www.msnomadica.com . It's on the posts from last July & August. They weren't really meant as a travel blog so much as a record of my sister and I trying to decide where we were going to live once we leave New Orleans. In any case, I can tell you that we basically loved San Diego, Disney and Key West, while Austin and Fort Lauderdale were both a bit of a let down. We've loved living in New Orleans, but it's been just...
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Re: A Day at the Zoo: San Diego, California
A well written and informative blog piece Dr F...I agree with you that zoos should not be abandoned. There is a place for them especially when it comes to protecting endangered species. The San Diego Zoo certainly looks like a great place to visit and the variety of animals there is a regular Noah's Ark (good to see a few Aussie Koalas). You've captured some amazing shots in the gallery too.
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Re: A Day at the Zoo: San Diego, California
Thanks IslandMan! Probably the rarest animal at the zoo is the California Condor. Only the San Diego and Los Angeles zoos exhibit these birds and were instrumental in saving them from extinction. With only a few dozen birds left in the wild, a controversial decision was made several decades ago to capture them all and place the remaining birds in these two zoos for a captive breeding program. They now number several hundred and are slowly being re-introduced into the wild, with limited...
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Re: A Day at the Zoo: San Diego, California
Great photos and glad to hear the Condor is making a comeback.i still visit zoos all over and both the San Diego and LA Zoos are two of my favorites.The old advertising for the San Diego Zoo was <You belong in the Zoo and the Zoo belongs to you.
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Re: Don't Expect Things to Work Like Home
It's been long enough since my residence in PR that I seem to be craving a trip back. Having lived in Isla Verde & Santurce, I've wanted to return for a stay in Old San Juan. You've just added fuel to that desire, JL.
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Re: Don't Expect Things to Work Like Home
Old San Juan is my February destination for next year, so thanks for the preview! I hope you'll be writing more about it in coming months...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, December 6, 2014: Late November, Pescadero
Sunny late November on the rural coastside of the San Francisco Peninsula. Normally too expensive for me, but it was off-season and I made a deal with the proprietor of a B&B near Pescadero for several nights while I visited my family nearby - midweek, cash, how could she refuse. A tiny cabin set in a garden, complete with kitchen and a deep bathtub, simply perfect. For more of PortMoresbys contributions, click here . ...
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Travel Deals for Black Friday & Cyber Monday
In recent years, the travel industry has picked up on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and started expanding their offering of sales on those days. Conde Nast published a list of some of the top deals. For Hotels- One of the most...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, July 18, 2015: The Winged Lion of Venice
The winged lion is a symbol you see everywhere in Venice -- palaces, flags, statues -- everywhere. It seemed a somewhat unusual mascot for a seafaring power and made me wonder what the origin to the symbol was. Turns out the...
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Michelin's new maps focus on food
Michelin, the French company that makes tires, maps and food ratings has now leveraged the maps and food into a new product—quick reference maps of where to eat. The first in the series, the "New York City Map of Great Places to Eat 2015" went...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, Dec. 25, 2014: Macy's Christmas Tree, Union Square, San Francisco
A few years ago I had the pleasure of visiting San Francisco. I had visited this city a few times before, but this was the first time I was there at Christmas time. San Francisco is a beautiful city throughout the year, but...
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Changing Trains in La Serenissima
My English friend and I left the beautiful apartment on the Anfiteatro in Lucca , she home to Bromsgrove in the West Midlands, and I toward Budapest and my old friends with a guesthouse near the famous synagogue. I was treating myself to...
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Venice to reduce cruise ship traffic
Because it is believed the ships are threatening the sinking city, the Italian Government will reduce by 20% the number of cruise ships allowed into the lagoon starting in January. Here's that link if you're interested in reading...
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Washington State’s Long Beach Peninsula
For most travelers, the southwestern corner of Washington state is easy to bypass. It lies well over an hour’s drive from the busy I-5 Interstate Freeway. The broad mouth of the Columbia River limits access from the Oregon...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, February 25, 2015. St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is celebrating its 450 th birthday in 2015 and everyone’s invited! It was in 1565 that Pedro Menendez of Aviles proclaimed the land for Spain. The first Catholic mass was held at what is now the Mission de Nombre de Dios by...
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Left Bank of the Tiber
I’d looked online for an apartment for my week in Rome, until I was sick of the thought of going. At some point I came across a recommendation for a women’s hostel in Trastevere (Tras TAY veree), on what I came to think of as...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, February 8, 2015: Toledo and Madrid
My first solo trip was to Madrid and Toledo in Spain. I had been travelling for years, but always in a group. This time I was on my own, and a little petrified. I shouldn't have been as Madrid is easy to get around and the...
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Tahquitz Canyon, Palm Springs
It's a great time of year to be visiting the desert regions of the Southwestern USA. The weather is warm and pleasant, the wildflowers are starting to bloom, and the oppressive heat of summer is a distant...
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A Home for Caribbean Artists: The Puerto Rico Museum of Art, San Juan
Sometimes, at home or traveling, you miss an obvious place to visit, just because it’s nearby and you can fit it in “any time.” On our last day in Puerto Rico, we finally got to visit the museum around the corner and a few blocks...
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San Juan's El Morro: Layers of Stone, Layers of History (Where Gumbo Was, #84)
El Morro, the giant fortification that's guarded San Juan Harbor for nearly 500 years, is the sight we saw before we saw it. Its image is everywhere when you do online research for a trip to Puerto Rico; its "garitas"—small domed...
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El Yunque: A visit to the rain forest
When we began planning a trip to Puerto Rico, and planning to include our 14-year-old granddaughter, we sent her some of the material we were gathering and asked her what her priorities were. She, and we, both had El Yunque right near the top of the...
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Six Reasons Why Lisbon Made Me Nostalgic for San Francisco
A feeling of déjà vu washed over me when we landed in Lisbon and set out on foot to explore the city for the first time. As the days passed, I finally figured out what it was. Lisbon totally reminded me of San Francisco...
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San Juan: Two Markets, Old and New
As Gumbo readers know by now, a lot of us who write these pieces are suckers for markets, large and small, wherever we go. If an army travels on its stomach, an army of bloggers stocks up at the public market. So, on our recent trip to Puerto...
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'New' Alitalia sees new routes, livery and profits by 2017
Italy's Alitalia, long among the weakest of the European "flag" airlines (it's been within days of shutdown repeatedly) has announced a "reboot" that will mix some cost-cutting with some major change and expansion fueled by funds from Abu Dhabi-based...
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San Juan, Puerto Rico: Outside the Walls
Because Puerto Rico was the first freshwater island for 16th-century travelers from Spain, and because it guards the entrance to the Caribbean, its Spanish masters went out of their way to defend it, not only with the huge fortifications at the...
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NYC-LAX for $32—-is it possible?
Jet Blue is doing some amazing promotions these days, including limited numbers of seats at ridiculous prices if you can grab them. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays through Feb. 21; other destinations include San Francisco, Austin TX, Fort...
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Old San Juan: Beautiful...and not all old
San Juan, Puerto Rico is a city of contrasts, of modern skyscrapers, crowded residential areas of different eras, resort hotels and casinos along Condado, and much more...but the image that usually comes to mind is really that of Old San Juan, the...
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Delta upgrades West Coast shuttle with more seats, amenities
Delta's West Coast shuttle that links Los Angeles to San Francisco—Silicon Beach to Silicon Valley—is getting an upgrade with larger planes on most of its flights. Eight of the daily 15 flights will now be on Boeing 717s, with more seats,...
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Road Trip, Day 1: City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and The Skunk
Gateway to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas March 9, 2015 In the late ‘80s, I lived in L.A. for a couple of years. My S.O. knew lots of cool L.A. stuff. One of those was something he’d read that...
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World's best airport? You have to leave home to find it!
Skytrax has released its ratings of the world's top airports, and the line-up at the very top has no representatives from North or South America. Six of the top 10 were in Asia, and the rest in Europe. Topping the list again is Singapore's Changi...
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PortMoresby's Birthday Road Trip
March 25, '15: Day 1: City of 10,000 Buddhas and The Skunk April 1, '15: Day 2: Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden April 4, '15: Sea Gull Inn April 8, '15: More Day 2: Point...
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A Road Trip Gallery: Fort Mason Community Garden & the Man in Pink
March 12, 2015 I discovered the community garden on this visit to Fort Mason, having missed it the first time I stayed at the hostel. I walked in, looking around for possible subjects, and didn’t notice the thin man in a...
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Road Trip, Day 4: Fort Mason, San Francisco
March 12, 2015 I drove south through Sonoma and Marin Counties, past the houseboats on the bay at Sausalito, across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, and arrived earlier than the hostel’s official 3:00 check-in...
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Who Is Puerto Rico's Artisanal Ice Cream King?
That's a tough question...and can only really be decided by tasting and tasting and tasting and...well, we couldn't spend all our time at it, could we? So, intrigued in advance by tales of great ice cream and unusual flavors, we identified...
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Road Trip, Day 5: My Birthday in Chinatown
March 13, 2015 I was born in San Francisco and it was the only place I wanted to be on this ending-in-zero birthday. More specifically, in Chinatown, like China, but better in some ways. I’ve loved it for as long...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 9, 2015: All-You-Can-Eat Dim Sum
March 13, 2015 Dim sum is one of the all-time fun and delicious meals, in principle, and, one would think, just about anywhere in San Francisco’s Chinatown that offers it would be good enough for the average gweilo woman. ...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 16, 2015: Coffee & Dessert in North Beach
March 13, 2015 Getting organized to spend the day in San Francisco, I skipped coffee in the morning in favor of a mug of tea I made for myself in the kitchen of the hostel at Fort Mason . I spent much of the day with my pal, Deb,...
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Enjoying the Wonderful Sites in Zacatecas, Mexico
Millions of tourists visit Mexico every year, mostly in the winter as people like to get away from the freezing temperatures and snow in the north. Almost all of these people visit the tourist cities of Cancun, Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas,...
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Road Trip, Day 3: A Sunny Day in Sonoma
March 11, 2015 The drive down California Highway 1, along the Mendocino and Sonoma County coast, was a bit of a bust. It started to rain as I arrived at Point Arena and Fort Ross was closed, it turned out, on weekdays, so I...
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Coast-to-coast road trip...without a driver
Well, sort of without a driver. Delphi Automotive had a driver on board its highly-automated Audi S5, but only to a) satisfy local laws, and b) help out a bit less than 1% of the time as the Audi SQ5 which was chosen for its looks. Delphi added the...
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National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta (Where Gumbo Was #109)
Exterior Albert Vecerka-Esto & The Freelon Group-HOK We had some good guesses for this week's Where in the World is TravelGumbo, but believe it or not, no one offered the correct guess. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights opened on Monday, June 23rd 2014 in Pemberton Place, adjacent to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. This area is in Downtown Atlanta, just north of Centennial Olympic Park. The Center links the American Civil Rights...
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Florida warned: take action against future flooding
17th c. Castillo de San Marcos, guarding America's oldest city, may be endangered by rising waters. With all the jokes about earthquakes in California creating ocean-front lots in Nevada, it's easy to forget that things are changing in numbers...