See?
Ah yes, the intersection of Geary and Mason, where unsuspecting tourists occasionally get shot and killed:
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Archive for the ‘travel’ Category
If Snooki and JWOW ever Visited Union Square, It Would Look a Little Something Like This
Monday, May 14th, 2012808 State: Presenting the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the “Pink Palace” What Used to be the Tallest Hotel in Waikiki
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012I don’t know what it costs to stay here, maybe $500 per night? But no matter, you can always just pass through the lobby to check it out the next time you visit the 808 State.
See? It looks different, huh?
Click to expand (Taken with my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM zoom lens at 400mm before the time it suffered a barrel-bending calamity on Market Street. RIP 1-4.)
So, it’s less pink than before, but still pretty pink. Here’s your view from the tower you can see on the right.
Oh, and then continue your tour by getting some umbrella drinks at the Halekulani Hotel‘s House Without a Key.
Then you’ll truly be kicking it old-school, Hawaiian-style.
808 State: Hawaii’s Kaena Point is Where the North Shore Ends – Circumnavigating Oahu is Only Possible on Foot
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012Well here you go, you’ve already passed through the famous parts of the North Shore of Oahu, but you keep heading west until the semi-paved road turns to this, in Kaena Point State Park:
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Here’s the birds-eye view, with the North Shore on the left side of the photo.
Alls that’s left to do is to hop out of your rental and then walk a few miles to go ’round the point by foot, why not?
After all, “Kaʻena Point is the “jumping-off” point for souls leaving this world.”
Put this one on your bucket list:
Kaʻena or Kaena Point is the westernmost tip of land on the island of Oʻahu. The point can be reached by foot from both the West (Waiʻanae Coast) and the East (Mokulēʻia) coastlines; walking in from the north side is recommended. An unimproved track extends some 3 miles (4.8 km) along the coast from the end of the paved road on the north side, where a gate prevents entry of all except authorized vehicles.
On the south side, at Kaʻena State Park, a paved road passes a beach before terminating into an unpaved road. It continues for a few miles, after which the road is washed out, and further travel must be on foot. It is not possible to travel around the point in a vehicle as the route is better described as a “path” in most places, and is lined on one side with a cliff and on the other with basalt rocks which are quite capable of damaging vehicles. The path is completely washed out in one place on the South side of the point and a rope helps hikers traverse the gap.
Aloha!
808 State: Oahu’s “Hitachi Tree” Certainly is Worth a Look the Next Time You Visit Hawaii
Monday, February 13th, 2012This monkeypod in Honolulu’s five-star Yelp-rated Moanalua Gardens is quite an “exceptional tree,” don’t you think?
As it looked when I was there, on a slow day:
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Check it out, next time you visit The Islands:
“The Hitachi tree, a large monkeypod tree with a distinctive umbrella-shaped canopy, grows in the middle of a grassy area in the middle of the park. The tree is registered as an exceptional tree by the City and County of Honolulu and cannot be removed or destroyed without city council approval.Japanese electronics manufacturer Hitachi, Ltd. has used the tree as a corporate symbol since 1973. An agreement between the Damon Estate and Hitachi gave Hitachi exclusive worldwide rights to use the tree’s image for promotional purposes in exchange for annual payments of US$20,000.”
Official CA Bed & Breakfast Myth Debunking Makes Me Want to Never Ever Visit a B&B
Monday, April 12th, 2010Now I know what the California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns (CABBI) is trying to do here today, but, man, I don’t know, some of the myths listed below are news to me. So the net effect is that I’m less likely to ever set foot in a B&B.
Think I’d rather sleep in my aging Land Cruiser (diagonally, as it’s shorter than some Camry Solara two-doors) after flopping the rear seats and popping the minivan-style rear side windows than deal with any of the B&Bs that got these myths going.
(Also, I’d like to note that not having a shared bathroom, in and of itself, does not “ensure” your safety.)
OTOH, put a kayak-in B&B on Red Rock Island, San Francisco’s northernmost piece of real estate, and I’d be up for an overnight. Red Rock is on the left and Danielle Steel’s least favoritest Bed and Breakfast is on the right behind the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, on noisy East Brother Island in neighboring CoCo County.
(San Francisco County extends to places it really shouldn’t, don’t you know.)
Anyway, have at it.
Debunking the Top Five Myths of Bed & Breakfasts: California’s B&B Association Sets the Record Straight
SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 12 — The California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns (CABBI) recently asked travelers if they’ve ever stayed at a bed and breakfast, and if not, why? The answers made us smile. Below is a list of the top five misconceptions we heard. For more debunked myths about B&Bs, visit: http://www.cabbi.com/res/docs/BB_Myths_PressRelease_April2010.pdf
1) B&B decor is limited to lace doilies, paisley wallpaper, antiques, and patchwork quilts
The decor of some CABBI-member inns recall earlier eras, but increasingly more inns, such as San Francisco’s Laurel Inn in or San Diego’s Hotel Parisi are trending toward clean, sophisticated decor with modern furnishings and amenities. Even many Victorians, like the Honor Mansion in Healdsburg, feature individually decorated rooms to appeal to a variety of tastes.
2) You have to share a bathroom with other guests
The majority of CABBI-member inns offer private bathrooms. For those that don’t, most–like the Hotel Charlotte near Yosemite National Park–have policies of only renting rooms with shared bathrooms to families and couples traveling together to ensure the safety and comfort of guests.
3) You have to eat breakfast with total strangers and eat whatever the innkeeper prepares that morning
The Elk Cove Inn & Spa in Elk offers guests many choices for breakfast. Guests can choose to sit at the large table if they wish to socialize, or dine at a more intimate, two-person table. The inn’s champagne brunch features 20-30 items, allowing guests to select what they want to eat. Many inns also pride themselves on accommodating guests with special diets or food allergies.
4) You have to abide by a curfew set by the innkeeper
Curfews are one of the most common myths. At the McCaffrey House Bed & Breakfast in Twain Harte, guests have keys to the main house and guest room doors, providing guests with the flexibility to come and go as they please.
5) B&Bs are only for couples and strictly prohibit children and pets
CABBI has over 180 family-friendly inns and more than 70 pet-friendly inns in California. The Dolphin Inn in Carmel offers a family unit with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a heated swimming pool, and breakfast delivered to your door. The Beazley House Bed & Breakfast Inn in Napa offers 11 pet-friendly rooms. Four-legged guests receive a water bowl, a treat bag, and a list of dog-friendly wineries and restaurants. To search for more family-friendly or pet-friendly inns, visit http://www.cabbi.com/search/advanced/.
Established in 1991, The California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns (CABBI) is the largest tourism organization of its kind in California. We are a non-profit, statewide organization that is wholly dedicated to ensuring the highest quality standards in bed and breakfast accommodations. Currently, CABBI has nearly 300 members. Source: The California Association of Bed & Breakfast Inns
FlavorPill.com Needs an American Editor in Australia – A $400 per Week Working Holiday
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010Let’s review here - Tourism Queenland’s recent Best Job in the World promotion had some bloke getting paid $100k to be a caretaker on an Australian island. The whole thing was quite popular worldwide and some people figure that it got the Australian tourism industry eight figures worth of free advertising all told. (Or course, if you wanted to be considered seriously, it really helped to be young and cute, just like in the real world.)
All right. Today, comes now FlavorPill.com to offer you another job down under. They want you to apply by February 15th, 2010 to be their new part-time online editor in Melbourne (it’s near Cindy, I think) starting September 1, 2010. They’ll pick up your airfare and they’ll put you up for 12 days but it’ll be up to you to live on $400 a week for a year or whatever.
And, oh yes, you’ll need to qualify for a Working Holidays in Australia visa and that means you’ll need to be between 18 and 30 years old. So you have to be kind of young, but nobody will care what you look like. Bonus.
Just think, this could be you with a cute attentive beach kangaroo:
And this is how you’ll look surfing down under with your cute, attentive boyfriend:
This is something betwixt the best and worst jobs in the world. Keep that in mind as before you become one of the world’s highest-paid part-time bloggers (as you struggle to afford a daily cup of coffee.)
Its you:
Come Out and Live, Play and Work in Australia as the New Flavorpill Melbourne Editor! Flavorpill Announces Job Opportunity for a Young American; Visa Program and Travel Deals Available for Others Wanting to Work and Play in Australia
Los Angeles, CA – (February 9, 2010) Thanks to a visa program and some great travel deals available on Australia.com/workandplay, Flavorpill, an online source for culture, events and current news in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and London, is getting ready to launch Flavorpill Melbourne! There’s just one thing missing: an editor.
Americans ages 18-30 can apply for the Managing Editor position at http://flavorpill.com/australia/submit.html. Just tell why you deserve the position and what experience you have with writing, editing and social media. The deadline for entries is February 15, 2010.
“The ability to go to Australia for up to 12 months, get a job and experience our unique and diverse adventures through the Work and Holiday Visa program makes the opportunity with Flavorpill’s new Melbourne newsletter a dream job. This is a great way to add to one’s resume by joining the locals and getting off the beaten path,” said Tourism Australia Vice President Americas Daryl Hudson.
More deets, after the jump.
Cruise with Gorby and Condi: Sail the Black Sea with Gorbachev and Condoleezza Rice, $24K
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010How would you like to spend a couple of weeks on and around the Black Sea with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev?
Well, you’re in luck, ’cause San Francisco-based World Leaders Travel on 500 Third Street is asking just $23,990 per person (double occupancy) to attend Global Challenges in a Post-Perestroika World: A World Leaders Symposium in Russia and the Black Sea this summer, August 30 through September 15th 2010.
No, Silly Billy, you won’t sail on the Chevron Condoleezza Rice - they renamed that vessel years ago.
You’ll be on the Silver Wind, whatever that is.
(America, what a country. In your country you have movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. In Soviet Union, KGB knows what you did last summer! In America, you sail boat. In Soviet Union, boat sail you!)
They’re calling it “educational travel” so maybe it’s deductible or something…
Bon voyage!
All the deets, after the jump
Quentin Kopp’s Beale Street Alternative for High Speed Rail Attacked by SoMA Residents
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009Via Jamie Whitaker’s Rincon Hill blog comes news of a fight against consideration of the so-called “Beale Street Alternative“ for the San Francsico terminus of California’s nascent High Speed Rail line.
I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but you, well take a gander if you’d like:
“Save High Speed Rail in San Francisco
Targeting: Supervisor Chris Daly (District 6, City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisor), Medhi Morshed (Executive Director, CA High Speed Rail Authority) and Curt Pringle (Chair of the Board, CA High Speed Rail Authority)
Started by: April Veneracion
Demand the California High Speed Rail Authority stop its consideration of the infeasible Beale Street Alternative that is…
· Risking over $400 million in federal funding to the Transbay Transit Center
· Harming property values in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco
· Wasting millions of Prop 1A dollars on study of infeasible alternatives that should be spent on construction”
So that’s the issue. All the deets, below.
Quentin Kopp with youthful HSR supporters at San Francisco City Hall during happier times last year:
The whole magilla:
“As a strong supporter of building High Speed Rail throughout the state and into San Francisco’s downtown Transbay Transit Center, I am appalled at your consideration of the Beale Street Alternative. This study is not only wasteful, it risks over $400 million in federal funding for the Transbay Transit Center and is harming property values in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.
Your study of the Beale Street Alternative was proposed to you by a lobbying and law firm on behalf of an unidentified special interest. This location has already been rejected as a technically and economically infeasible terminus for High Speed Rail in San Francisco. San Franciscans overwhelmingly voted for Proposition 1A to bring high speed rail to our Transit Center. Your study of the Beale Street Alternative, widely thought to be pushed by Board Member Quentin Kopp, is a wasteful expenditure of limited Proposition 1A money that should be applied to construction of the project.
With the passage of Proposition 1A, we believe that your study of the Beale Street Alternative is illegal. The voter approved mandate codifies in State law that the northern terminus for high speed rail will be the Transbay Transit Center.
The Transbay Transit Center is a federally approved project currently in construction in downtown San Francisco that has received the support of the San Francisco electorate on multiple occasions. Over $2 billion in funds have already been secured, independent of Proposition 1A. This Center is designed to accommodate high speed rail to downtown San Francisco.
The existence of this project is reason enough to drop your study of the Beale Street Alternative. Additionally, the Beale Street Alternative would likely result in the taking of more than 1,800 current and future residential units in the South of Market area. Your study alone has made many of our homes unmarketable by the required disclosure of your irresponsible study into any potential home sale. In contrast, the approved downtown extension to Transbay will take only 2 dozen residences. Given San Francisco’s housing crisis, this is a far more reasonable approach.
Meanwhile, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority has applied for $400 million in ARRA funds to build the rail box in the Transit Center. While this application has the support of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, we understand that the Federal Rail Authority has expressed concern about your Beale Street Alternative. We are worried that the Beale Street Alternative is not about adequately addressing environmental issues, it’s about political brinkmanship.
It’s time to put high speed rail to San Francisco back on track.
As a supporter of high speed rail and Proposition 1A, I demand you halt your irresponsible study of the infeasible Beale Street Alternatives. I also ask that you hold a formal meeting of the California High Speed Rail Authority in San Francisco, to hold yourselves accountable to the people whose properties and projects you are jeopardizing.”
To Be Continued…
Another Weekend N Judah Bus Substitution Has Been Scheduled – December 4-7, 2009
Monday, November 23rd, 2009When the workhorse N Judah streetcar line is out of service, MUNI tends to throw whatever rolling stock it has onto the route and just hopes for the best. The resulting parade of packed buses of all types going up Cole Street attests to the strain on the system.
As here, last weekend, when things were a bit messy at Church and Duboce. All aboard for Carl and Cole and points Beyond. Stabbing westward::
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This could be the issue – the SFPUC is digging up famous Duboce and Steiner, where New York Times reporters conduct traffic studies and, shortly after, luxo SUV drivers get tickets.
“Rebuilding Today for a Better Tomorrow.” Srsly? Noe Valley Transmission Main – Phase II was s’posed to finish up by November 9th, 2009:
Or maybe a little bit beyond that:
Or maybe a little bit beyond that:
Anyway, that’s the best I can figure.
Oh well. It could be woise.
Grapes of Wrath Redux – Hard Times in Napa Valley Wine Country
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009Napa’s in the Bay Area, right? It’s super close to San Francisco. So let’s take a look and see how the Great Recession of 2007-???? (aka the “late-2000s recession“) is affecting our Neighbor to the North.
Let’s start with the view from the St. Helena Highway, aka Route 29, aka Main Street. (It’s the main drag for the whole entire valley, you know.) Here’s the old Radio Flyer on the train tracks motif:
What happens if you can’t afford the rent and a car? What happens if you, as many in Napa and Sonoma counties have done before you, get a DUI or two and you lose your license to drive? How do you get to work or the store without a car? Let’s take a look:
Napa can’t afford sidewalks? Apparently. Of course, if you’re on a bicycle (not recommended) you would pedal along on the shoulder/breakdown lane, but if you’re on your feet, well, remember all the drunk drivers? I mean, DWI is a Way of Life up there.
I mean, bacon-rich Cincinnati has its local Hog Report so shouldn’t lush-rich Napa have a local DUI Report? Oh wait, it does!
By the way, be sure to “Avoid the 9″ policing agencies that will bust you:
“Napa County Sheriff’s Office, the Napa Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, St. Helena Police Department, Calistoga Police Department, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Napa Valley College, American Canyon Police Department and Napa County Probation.”
OMG, can you believe that bucolic Napa has (or had) 2400(!!!!) outstanding DUI arrest warrants? Mercy!
Anywho, walking in Napa is no picnic. Perhaps it makes the most sense to just amble on the old train tracks (which, of course, are the newish home of the despised (and beloved) Napa Valley Wine Train.)
But what about the wineries, how are they doing? Well, the Disneyesque Robert Mondavi Winery had no waiting for their famous 75-minute Signature Tour and Tasting on a recent balmy October Sunday. (Of course, back in the day, the place was packed to the gills, reservations required.)
And how about Francis Ford Coppola’s Rubicon Estate, where they have mandatory valet service and a red carpet and where they don’t let you in without a $25 cover?
Well here it is, during Sunday primetime, it was totally wide open. A handful of cars in the lot, no valets, no $25 charge, it’s just y’all come down.
Now let’s head up to St. Helena proper, where the millionaires live and you can buy Rolexeses and high end choco all you want? Let’s check out David’s Jewelers, Since 1976:
Dave has sweet window displays (man, that Rolex fish, that’s art ready to hang, baby)…
…but no goods to sell. Uh oh.
There are Halloween decorations but that’s it. It’s closed down, apparently. Oh well.
And let’s not even think about heading Further North to the St. Helena Premium Outlets place. Cue tumbleweeds.
So, what’s worse:
Busy, crowded Napa Valley; or
Ghost town* Napa Valley?
That’s a tough choice for some people. Oh well.
But now’s your chance to get on up there and see what it was like back in the day, before Napa became a major tourist destination. COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts isn’t around anymore, but all the other places will be staffed with folks happy to see you, I’m sure.
I almost wanted to buy something, but then I remembered about the Buy Local Movement. I’m not a local, really, so I probably shouldn’t spend my hard-earned up there.
But you, you’re welcome to visit, especially before things pick up again in the Spring of 2010.
See you there!
*Be aware that the Great Recession has seemed to pass by the popular eateries, such as Mustards Grill (man, it’s tough to get in there), Taylor’s Automatic Refresher (busy, busy, but the wait isn’t too long) and Yountville’s bestarred (c’mon, it’s a word) The French Laundry (forget about it).
