Category: Uncategorized

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Travel Insurance


According to Time Magazine, travel insurance is worth purchasing for big-ticket trips that are largely non-refundable. The typical plan will cover emergency medical expenses and baggage loss and delay, and recover at least some of the cost of your trip if your vacation has to be canceled or cut short (the amount is partially determined by which state you live in), including if the travel operator goes belly up.

Note: Most insurers consider a layoff to be a valid reason to cancel a trip.

Always buy from a third-party insurer, not the company selling your cruise or tour. And considering the fragile state of the insurance industry these days, you’d be wise to choose a large, established company that’s less likely to go under, such as American Express, instead of one you’ve never heard of. Other reputable travel insurers include Travel Guard, Medex and Travelex.

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User Reviews


Ever wonder about those reviews you read for hotels and B & B’s? User-review sites have changed the way some people plan their travel. This can be an enormously useful tool for evaluating hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and the like.


TripAdvisor.com is the big kahuna, with more than 20 million reviews, mostly of hotels, but also less traditional lodging like B&Bs, villas and private homes, as well as restaurants and attractions.

TravelPost.com is another, owned byKayak.com. TravelPost.com collects reviews from various websites, such as Citysearch.com, Yahoo! Travel and IgoUgo.com. Check outYelp.com for locals’ takes on restaurants, shops and other businesses, or OpenTable.com, which guarantees that reviewers have actually eaten at the restaurants they rate.

User reviews are helpful but not foolproof, so keep in mind the following tips:

• Read between the lines, asking yourself if the writer shares your mind-set, or if a negative review is the result of a persnickety traveler or a singular bad experience. As a rule of thumb, the more people have contributed, the more valuable overall ratings become.


• Always see how recent the post was. Establishments are quick to change, move or close.


• Always look at photos posted by users; you may find them more telling than words could ever hope to be.

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Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Lighthouses along northern California’s coast warned mariners of the dangers lurking in the rock laden waters. When you drive along the coast, take some time to stop and look at them. All are slightly different and all are impressive in their own way.

Perched on a cliff on the central California coast, 50 miles south of San Francisco, the 115-foot Pigeon Point Lighthouse, one of the tallest lighthouses in America, has been guiding mariners since 1872. Its five-wick lard oil lamp, and first-order Fresnel lens, comprised of 1,008 prisms, was first lit at sunset, November 15, 1872. The lens stands 16 feet tall, 6 feet in diameter, and weighs 8,000 pounds. It sits in a lantern room that had been constructed at the Lighthouse Service’s general depot in New York before being shipped around the Horn. Although the original Fresnel lens is no longer in use, the lighthouse is still an active U.S. Coast Guard aid to navigation using a 24 inch Aero Beacon.


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Surf’s Up

Those are not seals nor are they California Sea Lions…those are surfers at Santa Cruz.

Waiting for the next perfect wave…

And they didn’t have to wait long…

Wave after big wave kept on coming…

The good ones rode for a long time…

Some stood up…some crouched low…but all enjoyed the big waves…
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California Coast

There is just something magical about driving along California Highway 1.

What’s not to like about beautiful sky blue water, crashing waves, and endless sky? Throw in some gigantic rocks…and it’s California Dreamin

Rocky shores are why lighthouses were created.

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Items to Pack

Think about packing these items next time you get ready to travel somewhere:
Mesh laundry bags: They come in handy in your suitcase for keeping smaller items, like socks all together. Plus it’s easy to see what’s in them. You don’t need to spend a fortune on them, either. Go to a dollar store where they often come in packs of three sizes.
Calculators: While you’re at the dollar store, pick up a couple of cheap calculators. Use them to figure everything from your tips to the exchange rate.
Plastic table cloth: These inexpensive items are great with kids. Use them on the beach when you’re having lunch and really don’t want sand in your food. Or cover a not-so-clean picnic table or use one on a bedspread to keep it clean.
Glow in the dark key chains: Again, these work for kids as well as adults. They give off just enough light to find your way to the bathroom.
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Cowgirl Creamery


If you are visiting Point Reyes, CA…you are in for a treat when you stop by the Cowgirl Creamery.


Not only will you get to see cheese being made…they give samples.




Like the sign says…today it is Red Hawk. This interesting cheese tastes similar to an intense tangy Brie.


What kind are you looking for? I’ m sure it’s there somewhere.
In 1997, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith opened Cowgirl Creamery in Pt. Reyes Station, a picturesque postage-stamp-of-a-town on the coast about an hour north of San Francisco. They started with an old barn, made it beautiful, put in a small plant for making hand-crafted cheese, bought organic milk from the neighbor, Straus Family Creamery… and before long the world found them! From the beginning, they wanted to make delicious, artisan cheese, to be environmentally responsible, and they also wanted to support their cheesemaking friends in being sustainable land stewards. Today, Cowgirl Creamery continues to make just a small collection of cheese — four, soft aged and three fresh, totaling about 3,000 pounds per week. However, their circle of cheesemaking friends has grown like wildfire and they now distribute extraordinary artisan cheeses from over 200 of America’s and Europe’s most prized producers.
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Point Reyes Lighthouse

In 1595 the Spanish galleon San Agustin ran aground at Point Reyes. They thought this was an island, not a dangerous point amid stormy seas and numerous rocks. Seeking shelter from a storm this was the first recorded shipwreck on the west coast.
Point Reyes was named by Sebastian Vizcaino. He sailed along the California coast in December 1603 and called it Punto de los Reyes or Feast of Three Kings.
A lighthouse was assigned to Point Reyes in 1855 but construction was delayed for fifteen years. Fourteen more shipwrecks occurred during that delay.

The lighthouse is a 16 sided, 37 foot tower anchored to the carved solid rock terraces with large bolts. The lens, 24 bulls eye panels, produced a white flash for mariners once every five seconds.

Point Reyes was not an envied lightkeeper assignment as regular winds of 40 mph, gusts of up to 133 mph, and as much as 2,100 hours of fog annually are common here. Point Reyes is now maintained by the National Park Service and is part of the Point Reyes National Seashore.

Yes, you can climb ALL the way to the lighthouse…all 308 steps with several sloped concrete areas mixed in. A sign at the top reminds you of these 308 steps and equates it to climbing a 30 story building. Okay…that puts it in perspective.
And yes, it is worth the effort.