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Dec

2019

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park

One of our favorite spots in the U.S., or even the world for that matter, is Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming and Montana. We travel there as often as we can and try to make it when we have the best chances of seeing animals.

While in Yellowstone, we have several spots we like to visit, but one of our favorite spots is the Lamar Valley, located in the northeastern part of the park. We almost always encounter animals along the road from Tower Junction and east until the highway starts its climb up and out of the valley. We usually encounter bears, pronghorn, many bison, and an occasional wolf (in the distance) or coyote.

This past summer’s trip was especially good for us so we put together a quick video of some of the animals and sights we found while driving the road in the Lamar Valley. Take a look:

The Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park is one of our favorite places for spotting wildlife. This picturesque highway between Tower Junction and the Park exit is home to a large variety of critters and with ample places to pull off the road for observing, it’s a great place to spend some time. Photos and videos by Don and Bonnie Fink.

Jun

2015

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg over the Tauber is a medieval city in Germany, southeast of Frankfurt, and west of Nuremberg. At one time, it was the third largest city in Germany and the largest completely walled city. It dates back over 1,000 years and today is one of Germany’s treasures. The name Rothenburg ob der Tauber means “Red fortress over the Tauber”. Rot is the German word for red, referring to the red tiles on the roofs while burg refers to a fortification. Ob der means “over the”, and of course Tauber is the name of the river that runs by. Continue reading →

Jun

2015

Hohenschwangau

Hohen schwan gau – in german means high (hohen) schwan (swan) gau (country, district). The community of Schwangau was originally nothing more than a couple of farm houses until King Maximilian II of Bavaria discovered the ruins of an old castle in the early 19th century. The castle, called fortress Schwangau was thought to have been originally built in the 12th century, and was the fortress of a group of knights. Continue reading →

Apr

2015

Mono Lake: A Soup of History

One of the disadvantages of traveling the eastern Sierras is that it’s a long way from most people’s homes. Most northern Californians have to come all the way over the mountain passes to get there, and southern Californians have to drive several hundred miles along Highway 395, through some of California’s most inhospitable terrain before arriving at their destination. Of course, it could be argued that one of the best reasons for going to the eastern Sierras is because it’s hard to get there, and therefore doesn’t receive the tourist pressure of other parts of the state. Continue reading →

May

2014

Is the Food Quality aboard Cruise Ships Changing?

When you read the cruise and travel blogs, it seems that a lot of folks believe that the quality of the food aboard cruise ships has declined over the past few years. Many people complain about the overall quality, but when you really drill down to the specifics, it’s not clear what they mean.

During this cruise we’ve had a lot of time to give this some thought and have made a couple of observations. And of course, we’ve formed a couple of opinions about the quality of the food that we would like to share here.

First, we should make some qualifying statements so you can better understand why we have the opinions we have about cruise ship food. Not long ago, we entered into a weight loss program. More of an overall fitness and wellness program really, but part of the philosophy in our weight loss program was that, since we were going to significantly restrict the quantity of our food intake, we would concentrate on overall food quality to help make up for the lack of volume. It’s been working for us, but we’ve made some changes to our diets as a result and certain kinds of foods are not part of our normal routine anymore. Continue reading →

May

2014

Free Style Dining NCL Style

Free Style means, well, free style. You show up for dinner whenever you want just like you would at any other restaurant. For at least Norwegian Cruise Lines, the days of assigned seating times for dinner is over. You will normally be asked if you want to share a table which is probably because some people prefer to share a table. It’s a good way to meet others. Some folks, of course, prefer not to share. In either case, our experience has been that seating is done almost instantly, depending on the time of your arrival. As with any restaurant, you can expect a wait time if you show up during peak times. Continue reading →

May

2014

Cruise Pricing – What are the Extra Costs of a Cruise?

For many people, a cruise is a trip of a lifetime. It’s something folks dream about for years. For a large number of people taking cruises, it’s not something they do on a casual basis. They plan and save until they have enough to make the trip. Continue reading →

May

2014

Journey Across the Atlantic, An Introduction

As an introduction to this week’s series of blog entries, we thought we would start by explaining what’s to come. We’re on a cruise ship that left Miami Florida yesterday evening. We were scheduled to leave at around 5:00 PM, but the ship actually left the dock at around 7:15PM. We were loading supplies until that time. Not to worry though. We’re crossing the Atlantic and there’s plenty of time to make up our lost couple of hours before our first stop in Ponta Delgada, the Azores. Continue reading →

Featured

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Hohenschwangau

Mono Lake: A Soup of History

Is the Food Quality aboard Cruise Ships Changing?

Free Style Dining NCL Style

Cruise Pricing – What are the Extra Costs of a Cruise?

Journey Across the Atlantic, An Introduction

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