Phoenix, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Route 66, Palm Springs - Travel Review

I've been asked about the Phoenix area trip that we took and this has spurred me to post this trip.
Looking back to:
Weds., Feb. 5, 2009  We flew to Palm Springs - a short flight and a small airport!  The next morning we took off to drive across to Phoenix, AZ.  It's a nice drive of only 3.5hrs, with some interesting landscape.  

Driving to Phoenix, AZ

My sister and her husband have rented a house, barns and riding pens for themselves, their six horses and two dogs for the six months of winter.  We will be staying with them for a few days.
Their location is in Buckeye, which is on the out-skirts of Phoenix.  Nice place!  Good visit!

"Around Buckeye"

We have driven around the outer areas of Phoenix looking at real estate with my sister and her husband.  The markets have bottomed out and prices are good for the buyer.  We drove to Verrado, a new golf course community north of the free-way  and looked at a really nice condo house.

NOTE:  Todays Stock Market  on Feb. 6, 2009
S&P/TSX is at 7,859.33
TSX Ventrure is at 853.59
Dow Jones is at 7,350.94
Nasdaq is at 1,441.8
Gold is at $969.10 US/oz
Oil is at $$39.96
Bank of Canada Interest rate is .5% Record Low
Major Corp Banks Prime lending rate 2.5%

Sat. Feb. 7, 2009  We went to Scottsdale to the big "Arizona Fine Art Expo."  This is a very interesting art show and well worth seeing.  There are also a lot of interesting art galleries in Scottsdale.

Later we drove to Cave Creek and Carefree which were very interesting areas to see.

"North-east side of Phoenix"

Mon., Feb 9, 2009  Off to Sedona.  The scenery is beautiful, but it is rainy and cold out. 

We are staying at the "Premierre Vacation Club" (a time share condo) for the next two nights.  It is a very nice suite with a fireplace and little kitchen area. 

Tues., Feb 10, 2009  Snowed over night. 

So we are going out to drive around the countryside.  Lots to see.  There would be lots of good walking areas here if the weather would have been nicer.

"Snow and cactus??"

Weds., Feb. 11, 2009  We drove north thru some winding steep roads with a foot of snow on the roadside on the way to Flagstaff.  We are staying at the "Holiday Inn Express" on the South rim.

Thurs., Feb. 12, 2009  Grand Canyon  - Only 10 degrees F this morning.  It is just a short drive to reach the South rim of the canyon.   The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long and the average width is 10 miles across rim to rim.  The North rim is 1,200ft higher then the South rim and the canyon bottom is 5,700ft below the North rim.  There is a path along the top of the canyon which we walked along for along ways as the views were great.

"Grand Canyon from South Rim"

Thurs., Feb. 12, 2009  We traveled Route 66 from Seligman to Kingman.  Everything is really run down  and old now.  It must have been more interesting back 30-40 years ago and perhaps it is different in the summer months if there are more people around and old car rallies going on. 

We drove on to Lake Havasu.  Both of us were surprised that the city is actually fairly large and has the "London Bridge" going from the mainland to an island.  This might be a good place to come back to with our 5th wheel trailer as there are lots of camp spots around.   Going south of Lake Havasu, there are all kinds of trailer parks along the river and out into the desert.  Lots of people camping and quading here. 

Fri., Feb 14, 2009  Drive back to Palm Springs is interesting. 

This is the whitest that I have seen the mountains by Palm Springs.  We are staying at the "Doral Princess Resort"  and then at the "Palm Canyon Resort" for the last 4 nights of our stay.  Both are nice hotels.

The next days are spent walking around Palm Springs, going to art shows, coffees, pool-side, golfing for the guys, and of course eating.  There is a real good buffet at the Casino down town Palm Springs.

All in all, it was a good trip - we seen lots and enjoyed ourselves.  The weather could have been nicer - but it was still way better than the freezing cold at home.

Ixtapa, Mexico Travel Review

We are sitting in a freezing cold spell right now with wind chills at -30.  Dreaming of warmer places.

Winter Wonderland - wonder why you stay in the cold??



"Jake"

Dreaming of warmer places and looking back on winter holidays.  Where will we go and when???

Ixtapa, Mexico,  Looking Back

March 20, 2010  Last winter we waited until the first day of spring to leave for Ixtapa.  We booked a last minute all inclusive package from http://www.selloffvacations.com/ for a good price.    Ixtapa is located in the municipality of Jose Azueta in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico about 240km NW of Acapulco.  You land in the Zihuatanejo International Airport which is about 30 minutes away from Ixtapa.  The flight is only about 4.5hrs.  I can handle that. 

Our hotel is "The Fontan" which is about 30 years old, but it has an excellent beach location.  It looks like nothing has been done to our room since it was built, but it is very clean and the price was right.  (Note:  some of the other hotels do not have direct access to the beach because of steep rocks.)  The traveller's comments said that the food was good - so we will see.

"View from our room, Ixtapa"

Beach at our Hotel

Mon. March 22, 2010  We met Miguel at 9:30am and along with two other couples we left to tour the area.  He drove us into Zihuatanejo, thru the different housing areas,

thru the local food market,

town centre, by the schools, and to the museum.  They are very proud of their little museum.  To us it seemed fairly empty  but was interesting as they had a local artist group displaying their paintings.  We then walked around "Playa la Madera Beach", which is the beach in the town by the pier.  It is not very big and was empty.  The bay is beautiful with boats moored out in it.

Bahia Du Zihuatanejo



The next stop is a coconut harvesting place.  Coconuts are split and left to dry all over the ground.  The juice is just drained on the ground.  An old Mexican cowboy-type of guy gave us demonstrations on the whole process using just a big machete to chop them in half and then another hand-made tool to scrape out the coconut.  He then shredded some for us to sample.  Next, he gave us coconut with a hot sauce on it, which tasted like a pickle and was different but good.  He also gave us a coconut with juice in it to drink.

We then drove down a dusty back trail to the yard where they make tiles by hand.  Here we had another older leathery Mexican man show us how he makes roof tiles and pavers by hand.  He was very dramatic and interesting.  They stack the tiles to dry in such a manner that it forms a kiln.  After the clay is dry they just light a fire below the stack to fire them. 

It was actually nice and cool under these big trees.  We are not sure if the guy in the hammock is on coffee break, siesta or is the boss.

From here we drove south to Petatlan to see the city, the gold markets, and the local market where the locals shop.

We are glad that we are driving in a newer air conditioned SUV as the temperature away from the trees is very hot.  Our next stop is down another 6km of curvy road out to a secluded beach for lunch.  There are a few big houses and a couple of smaller hotels along the way.  We arrive at an out door restaurant right on the beach for a delicious lunch of grilled fish.  It was excellent. 

We both enjoyed this excursion and would recommend it as you get away from the hotel into the towns and the countryside.  Then back to our hotel for siesta on the beach.

"Our beach at hotel Fontan"

Tues. March 23, 2010

Lazy day on the beach.  Surf is high and beach is fairly empty.  Temperature is perfect.

Tonight, at 6:00pm we are meeting our friends Gary and Beline at their hotel Las Brisas to go back to Zihuatanejo and up onto the hillside over-looking the bay at the Kau-Kan Restaurant.  There is a beautiful view from the patio where we will be eating.  We have a grilled platter with lobster, steak, fish and veg.  We didn't know that Gary and Beline had booked their holiday in Ixtapa until we met them at the Calgary airport waiting to depart which was a nice surprise.  Good visit!

Note:  This restaurant is nice to go to if you want a special place, good food, and an excellent view.  The bill was 1412. peso or $142.00 for the two of us for appetizers, supper, desert and drinks. 

Kau-Kan Restaurant, Zihuatanejo

Weds., March 24, 2010

Quiet day at the beach.  Sunny - just right.

Thurs., March 25, 2010

The guys have decided to go out deep-sea fishing for sailfish and marlin on a 35ft boat with two guides.  They are the only fishermen going and have the whole boat to themselves.  Geo and Gary fish from 7:00am on with 7 lines in the water.  At 1:30 they catch a 80-90lb sailfish. 

I am spending the day at the pool -La piscina and the beach -La playa.

Dejeme solo por favor - Leave me alone.

Estoy cansa do - I'm tired.

The rest of our our holiday is spent on the beach taking in our much needed vitamin D and walking around the town of Ixtapa.  Then back home to winter.