A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....09-26-06 .... Finest Tours and Travels

9-26-06 | JustAmy; & MamaBear

[JustAmy]

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in need; and congratulate those deserving. We strive to keep our threads entertaining, fun, and pleasing to look at, and often have guest writers contribute an essay, or a profile of another FReeper.

On Mondays please visit us to see photos of A FEW OF FR'S VETERANS AND ACTIVE MILITARY

If you have a suggestion, or an idea, or if there's a FReeper you would like to see featured, please drop one of us a note in FR mail.

We're having fun and hope you are!
~ Billie, Dutchess, DollyCali, GodBlessUSA, JustAmy ~

~ My Cruise Vacation to Alaska ~
or,
How I Gained a Pound a Day,
The Princess Way...
by Mama_Bear

Jkphoto and I decided for our vacation this year we would escape the 110 degree heat of Central California and sail roundtrip from San Francisco to Alaska on a ten day Princess cruise. Our Inside Passage itinerary aboard the cruise ship "Regal Princess" included Victoria, British Columbia, and Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway, Alaska. To our delight, the average daytime temperatures were in the 60's and mostly cloudy, just exactly what we were hoping for after the long hot summer of non-stop sunshine and sizzling heat back home.

More photos of
Humpback Whales HERE.

There is a saying among those of us who like to spend our vacations cruising the high seas...."You board as "passengers", you leave as "cargo". And that's the truth! The cuisine is five star and available 'round the clock.

I highly recommend a cruise vacation to Alaska or anywhere you've been wanting to go. If you'd enjoy a little TLC, impeccable service, wonderful food expertly prepared, interesting ports of call and lazy days sailing the seas, a cruise has all of this and more. In the evening there is gaming in the ship's casino, a different floor show in the showroom each night, and dancing until the wee hours. After dinner, you can relax and unwind in a cozy piano bar or spend the evening sipping champagne cocktails on the Promenade Deck. The great thing about a cruise is, you can be as active or as lazy as you like. (No, really......I DON'T work for the cruise lines....but I probably should!)

Bon Voyage!










Travel Broadens

Travel broadens. I concur.
My backside will too aver.
As the miles to you bequeath,
A very broadened underneath.

You can beat this. Get a bike!
There may be aspects you won't like.
The downhills are a wonderment;
The price for them will leave you spent.

And so we ride, through chemistry,
We seek to find diversity,
Our journey of a thousand mile,
Ends at a distant mall for a while.

For when you get there, you will see,
It's like the place you used to be.
If you want travel, take a look,
Inside the pages of a book.

NicknamedBob . . . . . August 20, 2006

After several trips on Amtrak, it was with great anticipation that we planned this year's vacation.

We would take Amtrak from Fresno to Eugene, OR, rent a car and visit relatives in Redmond, OR and then Boise, ID before returning the car to a Fresno location.

The trip from Fresno to Martinez was uneventful, but the nightmare began after arriving in Martinez at approx 9:30pm. Scheduled departure was 11:00 with arrival in Eugene at 12:44. It had been a long day and Prissy Missy was tired (as were we all). The train arrived at 12:30. Prissy Missy had been begging for a bed for at least an hour.

We awoke to find that we were not only 1 ½ hours behind schedule but were running about 4 hours late. After calling the car rental agency to alert them to the delay in picking up the car, we sat back to enjoy the scenery.

After many stops for freight trains and track repairs, we realized we would not get into Eugene until 6:30 or later. More phone calls were made. A call to the car rental agency and were told they would be open until midnight. No problem. ;) Then a call to my aunt to let her know we would not see them until the next day. Several more calls looking for a place to spend the night. Sorry, no vacancy, sorry no vacancy; we finally quit calling out of frustration.

We arrived in Eugene at 10:50pm exhausted. The attendant at the Eugene station said there were no rooms available due to a concert being in town. She did find us a hostel with one bed. Needless to say, we passed.

When we arrived at the airport to pick up our car the only SUV available was a Mercury Mariner. We had asked for a full size SUV (gas hog though it might be.) The agents at three car rental agencies gave us several phone numbers to check for available rooms. We even made calls to Albany and Salem, all to no avail.

We drove to three different motel rows and all we saw were no vacancy signs.

Finally about 1:00am we found a super Wal-Mart where we bought four small pillows and four throws. About 1:30am, we made the best of it and slept in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

After exchanging the small SUV for a minivan, the nightmare finally ended. ~JustAmy~

Laughter is an instant vacation.
~Milton Berle~

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.
I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
~Robert Louis

Stevenson~

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System,
it is now possible to travel across the country
from coast to coast without seeing anything.
~Charles Kuralt, On the Road With Charles Kuralt~

Travelers never think that they are the foreigners.
~Mason Cooley~

Gracie1's 1000+ Miles
on the Back of a Harley

FReeper Gracie1 and her husband had been to a few motorcycle runs at Hollister, CA. Early in the year, they decided this was the year to make the pilgrimage to Sturgis, South Dakota for the "granddaddy" of all bike rallies.

Never being on a car vacation of more than 12 hours, Gracie1 was concerned about the 18 to 24 hour drive to Bozeman, MT and then 8 hours on a bike to Sturgis. They took turns driving to Bozeman and made several stops for stretching and picture taking to make that part of their vacation enjoyable.

After driving through the starkness of northern Nevada and the vast salt flats of Utah, they were pleasantly surprised with Salt Lake City. “I’m used to big cities being dirty, mean and nasty, not clean, tidy, with nice polite people”. They found the SLC area very pretty.

They rented a Harley in Montana and rode about 450 miles to Sturgis. They rode through Indian reservations, past the Little Big Horn battlefield and saw herds of antelope. By the time they found the campground, they had missed the Gretchen Wilson concert, but did see Lynyrd Skynyrd.

They stayed at the Buffalo Chip Campground. The first morning Gracie1 poked her head out of the tent and thought, dang, this looks just like Woodstock! According to Gracie1, it was definitely an R rated campground. Her husband had heard about this and bought a digital camera with a zoom “so I can zoom in on the nekkid women”. Since Gracie1 was in possession of the camera, he only took one picture of a half nekkid woman. :)

They spent three nights at the campground but spent the days sightseeing. They went to Deadwood, saw Wild Bill Hickock’s and Calamity Jane’s graves and the saloon where he was killed. They saw Mt Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial and drove all through the Black Hills.

When they got back to Fresno they heard that the Outlaws had a shootout with the Hells Angels at Custer State park. There were a lot of Outlaws in Deadwood. Lots of colors from the Nomads, Banditos, and other clubs they hadn't heard of.

After the three days at the Bike Rally, they took an extra day and went to Yellowstone. They saw Old Faithful, elk, buffalo, Yellowstone Falls and canyon, and the lodge. The lodge was old and absolutely beautiful!

Click HERE for photos
and the unabridged version....

07-01-06 ~ Hall of Fame #16

THIS WEEK'S THREADS 09-25-06 Military Monday

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' Every Thursday at the Finest The guy's good, folks!

[Billie]

Hey, that looks like a pretty BAD white pony - I hope you didn't get bucked off. :)

[Billie]

WOW! When you travel, you REALLLLLLLLY TRAVEL!!! :) Hope you have a splendorific time!

[Mama_Bear]

Hi sistah dutchess! BTW, before I forget, thanks for the freepmail update. It's always nice to hear from you.

This is a cruise we most definately have to take some day!!!!

You will really love it. It's hard not to have a good time on a cruise, no matter where you go.

I can't tell you how much time I spent on FR from the ships internet library. That byfar was our largest on ship expense :o)

I hear you! On our Mexico cruise I racked up about $150 in internet charges, but fortunately this cruise we had finally obtained "Platinum" status on Princess (Sail with Princess five times and you get all kinds of perks - like free internet and express check in), so all of my internet time was comp-ed (amounted to about $200 between jk and me). We stay with Princess because of the upgrades and "free" stuff we get now. There are some other cruise lines that might be a little better, but we're easy to please and have never really had any complaints about Princess.

Hugs to you and "Dad" and the "kids".

[Mama_Bear]

Hi Billie. It sure is a slow day at the Finest.

I have never really spent much time on the back of a bike. I think Gracie's vacation sounds like such an interesting adventure, but I don't know if I could handle riding a motorcycle to get there.

Yes, the cruise was nice....they all are. It is the perfect relaxing vacation for us. We love to see new places but have gotten to where we just don't want to drive hours and hours to get there. So, a cruise works out good for us. :-)

[Mama_Bear]

So, a cruise works out good for us. :-)

Hmmmmmm......that sure sounded better when I was typing it than it does reading it. Note to self.....'work on grammar'. LOL

Long time, no hug! :-) ((((((((((Billie))))))))))

[luvie]

I named them in the ping. :D There were two there that weren't FReepers. The first lady with the maroon/purple top on and the lady with short hair and a white blouse on.

[ST.LOUIE1]

WOWZER!!! Lots of work went into this thread!

My girls make a great team! ((((Sis))) & ((((freeperbeargirl))))

Wolfie doesn't have any vacation adventures for you......that he can tell in public.

Besides, wolves are very secretive. : )

[ST.LOUIE1]

Hey, thought you weren't gonna post our vacation pics. SNORF!

You have BeachBoy fever. LOL

[Majie Purple]

I didn't go on vacation this Summer.

But last Summer I went to see my Brother & Fam for 2 weeks including 4th of July!

It was so fun & relaxing but still jam packed with activity.

The relaxation portion... was from a stressful time I had gone through prior to the vacation.

Some activities: 2 plays(including one a Nephew was in.); shopping;sightseeing;talking;laughing;catching up on Fam news;a parade;fireworks;a craft fair; a tour of where my Bro works;movies;eating well both at there home and out & about. It is There/then that I first tasted and liked buffalo burger. Attended base ball games etc...

I really love my Bro and Fam! Can't tell by looking or hearing us that He is 10 years my senior! Yes, You read right, 10 years!!!!!!!!!!

As for this past Spring , I had a Dear Friend from College Here to visit.

And this Summer, a Dear H.S. Friend.

I live 1/2 hour from a major metropolitan city...Tourist attraction so even when I don't get to travel vacation type stuff is just a stones throw away!

I have traveled a lot though...By Plane;train;car;bus;ferry boat to 38 of 50 States and also Canada & Mexico thus far.

[JustAmy]

THAT sounds wonderful!

My hubby's family were from southern Italy. I would love to go there someday.

Looking forward to hearing your vacation story after the 15th. :)

[JustAmy]

Glad to hear that Chachi is okay.

He probably likes the attention that he gets when he screams. :)

[Mama_Bear]

WOWZER!!! Lots of work went into this thread! My girls make a great team! ((((Sis))) & ((((freeperbeargirl))))

Awwww.........thank you. Well, to be honest, Amy does all the "brain work", I do the easy part. :-)

Wolfie doesn't have any vacation adventures for you......that he can tell in public. Besides, wolves are very secretive. : )

Hmmmmmmm........that must have been one heck of a vacation if you can't tell about it in public. ;-)

[JustAmy]

Good afternoon, Dutchess. Thank you.

We have taken a few trips on Amtrak, both one way and round trip. Amtrak has always left fairly favorable impressions.

We have met many interesting people and have not minded an hour or two delay. BUT, this experience was dreadful. Maybe, it would not have been so bad if we hadn't had PrissyMissy with us.

Hope you have a nice evening. Give your Dad a huge hug.

((((( Dutchess )))))

[JustAmy]

Good evening, Billie.

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed the thread. It was a fun thread to put together after it started coming together.

If you travel via Amtrak, you need to not be in a hurry and just sit back and enjoy the scenery.

Other trips, we have gone to the lounge car and enjoyed a drink while either visiting with other passengers or listening to a tour guide.

With PrissyMissy being tired and bored this time, it was not easy just to sit back and do nothing. :)

[Mama_Bear]

Hey, thought you weren't gonna post our vacation pics. SNORF!

I'm sorry, I lost my fuzzy head. Don't know what I was thinkin'. LOL!

But I do love that Beach Boys song "Kokomo". Puts me in a sand and surf and Piña Colada sorta mood, you know what I mean?

[Mama_Bear]

Hi Maj. That bunny and flamingo graphic is funny. Who would have thought to put a bunny together with a flamingo? This must be a bunny on a seaside vacation. LOL

Sounds like your vacation at your brother's was lots of fun.

[JustAmy]

Hey ((((( Bro )))))

Thank you. I was looking forward to your vacation story with pictures. :)

Did you hear about the tourist in South America?


A tourist is traveling with a guide through one of the thickest jungles in South America, when he comes across an ancient Mayan temple. The tourist is entranced by the temple, and asks the guide for details. To this, the guide states that archaeologists are carrying out excavations, and still finding great treasures. The tourist then queries how old the temple is.

"This temple is 1503 years old", replies the guide.

Impressed at this accurate dating, he inquires as to how he gave this precise figure.

"Easy", replies the guide, "the archaeologists said the temple was 1500 years old, and that was three years ago"

[JustAmy]

It sounds like you are well traveled, Maj.

I'm still working on seeing all the states.

I knew I should have gone with MamaBear; could have made another notch on my belt.

Hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday evening.

[Majie Purple]

Yeah! Tis a funny combo huh? I found it on a Google search. keyword: vacation! Saw the bunny & vacation theme & just had to post it! I also have a rubber ink stamp of that same bunny that 2 of my H.S. Buddies found & gave me... Along with a purple ink pad!! So nice!! My love of rabbits & purple goes wwwwwwaaaaaaayyyyy back! Since early childhood those have been faves of mine.

Yes indeed that vacation was a blessing and a blast! I'm going back next Summer! Every 2 years is the mutually agreed upon plan!!

[Majie Purple]

Thanks Amy! & yes; I love to travel; sight see!!!

Yes, I agee You should have taken M B & J K up on that Alaska travel offer! But there will be other trips I'm sure...Take up every offer!!! Fun! Fun!Fun!