Courtyard By Marriott Oakland Airport

... home, go to someone else's and stay for a while?<br>Especially when you come from the most beautiful place on earth, the state of California. Many folks want to go to a warm and lovely place, sit on a beach and read for a week. This is the winter vacation of my best friend and her husband and Ixtapa is their place of choice. They also love to camp. I have camped very happily in years past and the Owens Valley, with its ...

... to walk it, check out the people and what kinds of food stuffs they were selling.<br><br>We hit the road and finally hit our home base for the next three days, Fairfield Inn &amp; Suites Sebastopol, CA around midnight body time. Sleep was elusive as our body clocks are all screwed up even though we stayed up as late as we could stay we were both awake by 3:30 PST. But you know what? It is OK because we are on VACATION! Stay tuned for more MarSher adventures!

Wow, so last year about this time, my hubby and I should have been basking in the sun along the Yucatan peninsula. But that was not the case. Instead, we found ourselves unable to travel due to some unexpected changes. That being, we were going to welcome a new member of our traveling family in November of 2008. So, travel plans were on hold for a bit. We did however ...

... nature,.the sun, the sea and the sky but inesacably trapped. Obviously I also took the obligatory tourist photo of me behind bars - they finally caught up with me! My real trouble those first few days was being with another person ALL the time. Particualarly someone who wants to see everything in the 3 days they are there. I'm much more of a "gentle sightseeing - break for coffee - more wandering around - break for lunch" type of traveller. No point in ...

... we should start. After a few minutes of our bus not going past we began to wonder what was happening - the transport is rather regular in the city and if you cant catch your chosen transport quickly you are prob in the wrong spot. We decided to have a look at the underground and "capow" - there it is. On we jumped for the trip to the Zoo. The interesting part of this trip is that half of it was ...

... to ask if this was the same for the death row inmates but somehow my logic says not likely. So, finishing up there at at about 1045, we hit the road and put pedal to the metal. After all, we had big miles to cover today and wanted to try and put as much behind us as possible. We have to get to Seattle for our next appointment on Thursday so we decided to go up the Interstate rather than follow the coast. Well, two reasons for that - speed and as well, last ...

... to the cousins' this time!), watching the fog roll in from the Bay (both beautiful and creepy). We had delightful conversations with Amy, Ravi, and Evelyn until after 1 this morning, enjoying the fruits of "wine country," slept some, and bid the fam farewell this morning, as they left to set sail on their maiden voyage aboard their new ship christened "Mercy"- a very cool name, I thought! I'm sure I've forgotten some important details, but hopefully Steve ...

Frequently Asked Questions What was your favorite country? Why? Mongolia. Outside the capital city of Ulan Batar you are in a country bigger than Texas with just a couple million nomads roaming through vast tracks of rolling green hills, mountains, canyons and lakes. It's a lot like British Columbia, Alberta, Wyoming, Idaho, or Montana. The scenery's incredible and the people are unbelievably friendly and good-natured. Except for the capital city ...

... 1 sleeping bag liner / travel sheets Hard core mosquito repellant combination luggage locks sunglasses Waterproof watch Money belt Waterproof bag for my electronics gear Passport + color copies Multiple credit cards and cash phone numbers of insurance, credit card companies, American embassies, family and friends, etc. Lonely Planet guide book to Thailand Moleskin notebook & a pen All together, I expect this to weigh around 15 pounds. Maybe I'm a ...

... so we met a lot of their friends and ate fantastically well. They live in Haight Ashbury, which used to be the hippy district of San Fran. It is a great area, and much like the rest of San Fran has oodles of character. Bruce also took us out on the razz for one night in the mission district. To recover we had an afternoon in golden gate park ...