Our travel year started off with a road trip up to Morro Bay for Tim's birthday ( he turned 30 this year) and our anniversary. It's always a fun place to go, one that everyone in the family can agree on and have a good time. A four hour drive to another world.
We decided this year, we would also spend more time out and about in our local area, starting with a visit to the Huell Howser Archives down in Orange County. It's no secret that he was a big inspiration for what we do on this blog.
Other days out had us on a fruitless search for last spring's "superbloom" of wildflowers; the Commemorative Air Force museum in Camarillo; and a light rail dining tour here in Los Angeles.
Our first extended trip of the year had us looking for an unusual hybrid of Texas baseball and Caribbean tropics. That ended up starting us in Dallas for a visit with the Rangers as they took on our home team of the Angels...who lost. After seeing JFK history and having one of the best cheap steaks we've ever had in Fort Worth, we got to go to Houston to see the eventual World Champions make up for the Halos loss in Dallas by beating cross-state rivals, the Rangers, at Minute Maid Park.
A pre-hurricane Houston also treated us with some very good food like the crawfish boil we had and the southern specialties at Natachee's. A visit to Johnson Space Center wrapped up our time in the Lone Star state.
Before Hurricane Maria devastated the Caribbean and the Florida Keys, we got to spend a short week there, based in Key Largo and visiting Key West and an offshore reef. An afternoon in South Beach wrapped up our Florida adventure.
The summer had us back up to the Central Coast of California for a few days of wine tasting, music, and great food in Atascadero...just a few miles south of the wine Mecca of Paso Robles.
We also snuck in another visit to Morro Bay while we were there...anything to take our mind off of the very disappointing hotel room we had.
The fates and finances looked very good as the summer was winding down so we scheduled another major trip, this time up north to Alberta, Canada.
This was two destinations, starting with another short week in Jasper National Park where we saw the beautiful turquoise colored waters of the lakes and streams, great cataracts of water, the Northern Lights, and even a trip up to a mountain top.
Followed by another week in Calgary where we were delighted with the fall colors, hockey, and some history.
That was the conclusion to this year's travels but we do want to mention some highlights and lowlights...
Hilton Hotels were still mostly top notch, especially the Homewood Suites in downtown Houston, Fort Lauderdale, and Calgary airport. Still nice but just a shade under those were the Homewood Suites in downtown Calgary and Dallas. Of all the Hilton properties we stayed at this year, only the Hampton Inn in the keys was a bit of a letdown.
Becker's Chalets, a cabin resort along the Athabasca River in Jasper, was very nice and super relaxing. The accessible cabin with roll in shower suited our needs very well.
Holiday Inn Express in Atascadero was a major disappointment with the accessible room having a view of a wall and no one at all understanding why having the only wheelchair room robbed of the view all the other have is a big deal.
While we had fun everywhere we went in Texas, we have to give the nod to Houston as our favorite city visited there. A knock on the traffic in both Houston and Dallas, which was very bad and construction going on everywhere.
The Florida Keys were outstanding as a destination. The weather is very unpredictable and did have some impact on us but it was well worth the visit. We didn't spend enough time in Miami to really form an opinion but we already have plans in place to go back and rectify that. Seems like a great place for a visit.
Morro Bay, what more can I say? We absolutely love this funky, little beach town and would put in in our road trip hall of fame destinations.
Other than the hotel, Atascadero and Paso Robles came through as they always do, a great place to visit.
Jasper National Park is, in a word, gorgeous. We liken it to a super-sized Yosemite...our favorite U.S. national park...with giant glacier-carved valleys, turquoise lakes and rivers, and some very fun activities. Access could be a little improved here and there but we were able to improvise our way around the obstacles encountered.
Calgary is a great city with a fun-loving population and attitude. We'd love to come back and explore more some day.
...and, while Canada is just a tad behind the U.S. in accessibility, we'd love to do a lot more exploring of our neighbor to the north. It's easy and cheap to book a short, three-hour flight from our town.
Speaking of flights, Southwest Airlines was again superb in getting us to our destinations in Texas and Florida. They really know how to work with special needs passengers and each flight was efficient and enjoyable.
The Canadian airline of Westjet flew us up to Calgary and they were another great way to fly. Comfortable seats on modern and clean jets, plus a very friendly and helpful crew and airport staff. We recommend them for any flights up north and would probably look for us to fly us to the Caribbean someday as that's another major part of their network.
And that's a wrap for the year of 2017...look for more adventures, soon, in the new year.
Darryl Musick
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