Then in April I got laid off from the former employer who shall not be named and a good friend of mine suggested that there could be no better time for travel. I scoffed at first. How irresponsible would I be if I just took off traveling without a job???!?!?!? Then I mentioned it to my Dad and he said, "why not"? My friend had suggested a transatlantic cruise. Dad thinks on a smaller scale so I wound up planning a 4 night road trip to Arkansas of all places. I had never been to Arkansas, it was drivable, the trip wouldn't be expensive, I read that there are several wineries there (don't believe everything you read on the internet) and Mom and Dad wanted to go too so I thought it would be nice to travel with them again since I hadn't done it in a long time. So, off we went in May on a hillbilly road trip. (If you are from Arkansas, I apologize for the hillbilly reference.... but I'm a Texan, it's what we do...)
Our first stop in Arkansas was for lunch at a Wendy's/Conoco station in Hope. We tried to find a Dairy Queen in Hope, but it apparently went under. I've never heard of a Dairy Queen closing down before, so I suppose times must really be hard in Hope. After lunch, we made our way on up to Hot Springs where we were spending our first two nights. We stayed at a Hampton on the lake. It was nice. There I got my own room. The balconies overlooked the lake and we had dinner that first night at an amazing taqueria that I had found on Trip Adviser. You are not often steered wrong when eating at a well reviewed place on TA, even if it is a hole in the wall taqueria in Hot Springs. In case you are planning to be in Hot Springs soon and want to give it a try, it is called Taqueria El Amigo. It is scary looking from the outside, but don't let it fool you. It is amazing.
The next day we did a lot of the touristy things in Hot Springs. We finished our sightseeing day by hitting a little wine tasting place in town. The "wine" was horrible and yet I talked myself into buying two bottles. For some reason, when I go to a place like that, I think I will offend the proprietor if I don't purchase any of their wine. Dad and I talked about that before we even went in and still we both bought wine that we didn't like. I think I finally threw away the last of it last week as I was cleaning and preparing for Christmas.
When we left Hot Springs, we went to The Lodge at Mount Magazine stopping at three "wineries" along the way. I understand that we all have different tastes, but I'm really having difficulty believing that anyone out there is sitting at home right now thinking.... "Crap! I'm all out of Arkansas wine! Guess, I'll be making a trip to Altus, this weekend!!!!" We were supposed to have stopped at a 4th winery that day and none of us could make ourselves do it. Sadly, I purchased wine in two of them. It has all been disposed of now.
Moving along I must say that in looking back several months removed, I still feel that the Lodge at Mount Magazine really was a wonderful place as long as you don't eat. I would like to return. I think Mom and Dad are planning to spend their anniversary there this year. I just went back and reread my review on Trip Adviser to refresh my memory. I think I might have been overly generous when I suggested that "perhaps we just hit the restaurant on a bad night" in the review. If so, there have apparently been a lot of other bad nights since then according to other reviewers. But I think most travelers agree that the views and the lodge itself are spectacular. Just bring along peanut butter, jelly and bread to make sandwiches in your room.
Our final stop on this journey was in Eureka Springs. I'll simply say, it has been marked off my list. I know that a lot of people really like Eureka Springs so I don't want to be too negative. It's a cute little town and if you are into that Ozark-y kind of thing, you would probably love it. I'm not much into the Ozark way of life. Oh and if you looooooove BBQ, don't go to Bubba's. In fact, if you love BBQ, just stay in Texas.
A month or so later, my travel buddy, Jenny and I "headed out to San Francisco" as you may have heard Jimmy Buffett say from time to time. Only we weren't there for a "Labor Day weekend show". Jenny had never been and I found a really great deal that we couldn't pass up on direct flights. We stayed at the Hotel Carlton which is a small boutique hotel on Sutter St. with a free 30 minute wine happy hour each evening that we only made it to once because we were so busy.
While in San Francisco, we did all of the normal tourist stuff including riding a cable car, visiting Lombard St. (which incidentally we arrived at from the wrong direction, make sure you arrive at the top of the hill and NOT the bottom like we did), we spent several hours walking through Chinatown and even found the fortune cookie factory before making our way back to the hotel for happy hour.
Our second day was spent on a preplanned trip to Muir Woods and the wine country. It was a full day on a 25 passenger bus that included a two hour "breakdown" of sorts in the parking lot at Muir Woods (there was no extra charge for the breakdown). Even with the bus trouble it was still a terrific day and I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Our driver treated us to an extra stop on the way back into the city at an overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge for some amazing shots of the fog rolling in. We finished this day having dinner at the hotel restaurant which is called Saha. Who knew Yemenese food could be so good?!?!?!
We purchased tickets for the HOHO (that's Hop On Hop Off bus for those of you not in the know) on our third day and hit a lot of locations using it as our mode of transportation. We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge which, I must say ticked an item off of my bucket list. We had lunch in Sausalito. Back in San Francisco later in the day we made our way to Fisherman's Wharf and also went to Pier 39 to see the sea lions sunning themselves before ending the day at Scoma's which was recommended by a friend and couldn't have been better.
On our final full day in San Francisco, we got to go to a baseball game at AT&T Park and see the Giants vs. Rangers in a Saturday afternoon game. I have to say, it was a real highlight for me as a baseball fan even though the Rangers lost. And as it turned out at the end of October, we had seen a home game by the 2012 World Series Champs, not too shabby. We finished up by heading back to Fisherman's Wharf and having dinner at Bistro Boudin at the Wharf. The clam chowder in a sourdough bowl was to die for.
Amazingly, that is all of the traveling I did in 2012 unless you count the roadtrip to Lubbock two weeks ago for my nephew's graduation from Texas Tech, I don't count it. If you have to drive through a dust storm, even if it is a minor one, it doesn't count. Also, if your cute little Kia Soul is attacked by a tumbleweed or if the door is nearly blown off when caught in the wind, you are not on a vacation. I feel a little sad that I never left the country in 2012 but it was a year of changes and I suppose it was smart of me to remain close to home throughout. In a few short weeks, I will be making up for staying close to home in 2012 with a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean. We won't be visiting any new places. But it will be warm, we will go to one place where English is not the native language and in each place we visit, life is like a Jimmy Buffett song. That, my friends, is a vacation.
I hope you had a great 2012 and got to visit all of the places you wanted to during the year. Have a terrific 2013 and don't forget you have a friend in the travel business if you want to book that dream trip or even if you just want information about a future dream trip!
Oh! The Places You'll Go!!!!!
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