The Travel Thread

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The Travel Thread

Post by east hockey » Thu Dec 04, 2008 1:36 pm

When not tied down to work concerns, etc., where does everybody like to spend their vacation time? Stay in Minnesota? Travel abroad? Any exotic locations?

Those who've been here longer than a few months know my wife and I tend towards Hawai`i, but I'm interested in what other locations attract other people.

Also, how do you arrange your traveling experiences? Package deals? Travel agent? Do-it-yourself via the internet?

What favorite travel experiences can you share? You know, those "oh WOW" moments.

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Vacations

Post by hockey_is_a_choice » Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:04 pm

Lee,

My family prefers active vacations, e.g., biking, hiking and rafting. We use an outfitter by the name of Backroads, based in San Francisco, www.backroads.com. We have taken Backroads vacations in Austria, the Canadian Rockies, and Northern California. Although Backroads' trips are not inexpensive, the experience, lodging and food are first rate. The Backroads guides take care of transporting your gear and setting up nice food spreads for you while you are on the road or trail. We have had plenty of "wow" moments on our Backroads vacations.

Sadly, Backroads doesn't offer active hockey trips.

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Post by hockeyhair15 » Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:19 pm

i visited B.C. this year and i gotta say the canadian rockies were pretty sick, especially now that the canadian dollar is weaker than ours again 1us = about 1.20 can right now, so that should make it a little cheaper. also if you are looking to enjoy some hockey theres plenty of jr teams around, if your not so much into the outdoorsy stuff, you can head out to vancouver island and hang out in the city for a bit. i'm not sure how the trip was aranged but im sure you could use expedia, orbitz, travelocity or any one of those sites to plan it yourself
enjoy this post while it lasts....

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Post by Goldy Gopher » Thu Dec 04, 2008 7:46 pm

Hawai`i is always a good choice. For living or vacationing. Mexico is another favorite of Goldy's. Gotta love that drinking age.
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Post by east hockey » Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:24 pm

Goldy Gopher wrote:Hawai`i is always a good choice. For living or vacationing. Mexico is another favorite of Goldy's. Gotta love that drinking age.
Hawai`i. (I see I forgot the okina in my original post)...living. Man, that would be something but at my age, it'd be retiring.

Only downside is, I'd have to give up my hockey pages and doing all this message board stuff. Tough to do in a constant 70-85 degree environment several thousand miles from Duluth.

What was the downside again? Image

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Post by EREmpireStrikesBack » Thu Dec 04, 2008 9:19 pm

east hockey wrote:several thousand miles from Duluth.
That'd be enough reason for me.

:idea:
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Post by karl(east) » Fri Dec 05, 2008 3:48 pm

Ooh, fun topic.

I haven't had much choice over mode of travel, since I'm usually not the one paying (when your relatives take you on European cruises, you tend not to complain about it much). That's not really my style though; my favorite thing to do is go to a new city (absolutely anywhere, I'm not picky, and you can find something interesting anywhere if you look hard enough. Except maybe in Iowa.) is to get dropped somewhere in the middle with a map, then just wander for a while and drink in the atmosphere. Each city has its own unique feel and something unique to offer.

Being a Minnesotan, I enjoy getting outdoors too, and I love visiting National Parks and such. They're a great escape from the craziness of everyday life.

If I have to get somewhere, I like to be able to see the scenery as I go by, so I prefer car or train. If you have some time on your hands, Amtrak can be a fun way to see the country (as long as you don't get stuck sitting in Donner Pass in California for 5 hours due to freight trains...not fun).

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Post by EREmpireStrikesBack » Fri Dec 05, 2008 4:14 pm

Personally New York City was an absolute blast and I can't wait to go back there. We did as much as we possibly could for the week we were there and still didn't touch on a ton of things. They have so much to do there, it's insane.

Also liked Puerto Vallarta when I was there. Sunny everyday, can't complain.

:idea:
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Post by Mr. McTabish » Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:48 pm

I'm not even going to read where you geeks have gone, but I found it ironic that this is the topic on the top of the cafe. I'm down in Sarasota, Florida, have been for 3 weeks, and will be here until hopefully April.

I decided to not even concern myself with the economic woes and problems with today, and instead have retired at the age of 27. (Me and a friend are down here, renting out a twin home for $200 a week, and living as cheap as possible) Best decision I've made in a while. I fish for sharks and play at a beach with white sand as fine as flour. That's it.

See you suckers when I'm broke and asking my mom if I can sleep on her couch. hahahahaaaaaaa!

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Post by goldy313 » Fri Dec 05, 2008 11:08 pm

Every year when the high school football season is over for me I take the wife to Las Vegas for a few days. We're not big gamblers, other than a few college or pro games I won't spend $50 on gambling, I don't drink either so it's not a big party place for me, the wife will drink it up on occasion though. We do like to take in a show or two, the wife likes to spend all the money I made officiating shopping, and we'll eat a couple of really good meals while we're there too. Most years we take a side trip, Death Valley is beautiful in the fall, so is Zion National Park, and the North Rim. All are easy day trips from Las Vegas. It's too hot there for me much of the year but November is perfect, highs in the upper 60's to low 70's, the crowds are less than just about any other time of year and deals are easy to be had. We flew from Minneapolis to Las Vegas and stayed 4 nights at Bally's for $310 a person, that included a coupon book good for about $300 worth of food, drinks, and shows at Harrah's family of casinos. Las vegas isn't for everyone and we'e been there probably the last 10 years and it's really comfortable for us now. US Air vacations usually has the best deals I can find that aren't charters. You do get a corner room or one near the elevator sometimes, but usually at check in I just ask where the room in and if there's another one better and they give it to you.

In the summer I'm a big camping guy, one of my son's is into to it as well and we'll go to Isle Royale, the BWCA, 2 summers ago we went to Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked for a week. My wifes not a camper so Vegas is her vacation. She really wants to go to Hawaii but I spent some time there in the Army and not real big on the long trip, I tell if she pays I'll go.

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Post by Lily Braden » Sat Dec 06, 2008 11:31 am

California is a great trip if you don't want to fly to Hawaii.

We spend a lot of time in Orange County in a town called San Clemente. It's a pretty sleepy surfer town, not blinged-out and "fabulous" like other towns along the coast. You can rent a condo reasonably, roll out of bed, get breakfast across from the beach and spend all day boogie-boarding. It's a great place to launch from if you want to go to the San Diego Zoo, Sea World or Disney.

Santa Monica is cool, but spendy. It's great people watching and you always see three or four celebs (you may even run into Chris Chelios).

Tahoe...great...summer or winter.

Northern California, Big Sur...unbelievably beautiful

San Francisco...one of the coolest towns around. Not cheap, but so much to do...inside and out.

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Post by hockeyhair15 » Mon Dec 08, 2008 4:57 pm

Mr. McTabish wrote:I'm not even going to read where you geeks have gone, but I found it ironic that this is the topic on the top of the cafe. I'm down in Sarasota, Florida, have been for 3 weeks, and will be here until hopefully April.

I decided to not even concern myself with the economic woes and problems with today, and instead have retired at the age of 27. (Me and a friend are down here, renting out a twin home for $200 a week, and living as cheap as possible) Best decision I've made in a while. I fish for sharks and play at a beach with white sand as fine as flour. That's it.

See you suckers when I'm broke and asking my mom if I can sleep on her couch. hahahahaaaaaaa!
that place is sick, great italian food at Obama's i think it is, or something like that, no relation to the future president, that is if its still there i havent made it down there for years
enjoy this post while it lasts....

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Post by hockey_is_a_choice » Mon Dec 08, 2008 5:54 pm

A few years ago, my spouse and I traveled to Montreal for a long weekend. Although we didn't plan to take in a Montreal Canadiens game, we lucked out. We saw the Habs play the Toronto Maple Leafs on a Saturday night--hockey night in Canada! To top it off, that night the Canadiens honored Jean Beliveau on the 50th anniversary of Mr. Beliveau signing a contract to play for the Habs. Although he was in his early seventies at the time, Mr. Beliveau looked like he could lace up his skates and play a few periods of hockey.

The atmosphere in the arena was amazing that night. It was definitely a "wow" moment. Oh, the Habs beat the Maple Leafs.

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Post by Mr. McTabish » Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:20 am

Well I tried to do a search for Obama's so I could check it out, but didn't find any search results. I'll be keeping my eye open though, I loves me some good Italian.

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Post by hockeyhair15 » Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:33 pm

Mr. McTabish wrote:Well I tried to do a search for Obama's so I could check it out, but didn't find any search results. I'll be keeping my eye open though, I loves me some good Italian.


yea like i said its been awile it was right across from the beach, how bout that amish ice cream joint they still in buisness?
enjoy this post while it lasts....

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Post by Mr. McTabish » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:07 pm

Haven't seen any amish ice cream parlor, but we did see some amish folk at the beach the other day which was very strange. I'll keep my eyes open.

When you were here, did you check out the beaches off of Siesta Key? With the sand so fine it's like flour and stays cool even on the hottest of days. That's where we spend the majority of our time.

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Post by hockeyhair15 » Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:34 pm

Mr. McTabish wrote:Haven't seen any amish ice cream parlor, but we did see some amish folk at the beach the other day which was very strange. I'll keep my eyes open.

When you were here, did you check out the beaches off of Siesta Key? With the sand so fine it's like flour and stays cool even on the hottest of days. That's where we spend the majority of our time.
i was there about 5-6 years ago, and sorry but i was confused, turns out we stayed in anna maria island, which is close to you? it was great out there, the name of the pizza place is Oma not Obama, and its in bradenton, sorry about the mix up. And if there still open the ice cream parlours on anna maria are top notch, and the beaches are pretty damn good too.
enjoy this post while it lasts....

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Post by PaulRyan » Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:48 am

I went with my girl friend to California, Yosemite National Park and went camping there. That was pretty cool, I would recommend it. Just make sure you take enough anti-bug spray, cause they are everywhere. Ended up looking like I had measles. Haha. No, but it was great. I highly recommend that park, it's great.

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Post by east hockey » Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:22 am

Time to bring this topic back up...

Caribbean trip coming up later this year. Made our reservations before we bought our house, so we decided, what the heck, and decided to still go. Money isn't tight with us and we need that annual two week or so escape from Duluth.

There are tons of places I'd like to see, nearly all of them tropical; Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Rio. Places like those.

Vacation plans for others this year?

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Post by PuckU126 » Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:44 am

east hockey wrote:Time to bring this topic back up...

Caribbean trip coming up later this year. Made our reservations before we bought our house, so we decided, what the heck, and decided to still go. Money isn't tight with us and we need that annual two week or so escape from Duluth.

There are tons of places I'd like to see, nearly all of them tropical; Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Rio. Places like those.

Vacation plans for others this year?

Lee
Ireland and Scotland.

Golf anybody?

8)
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Post by karl(east) » Sun Mar 06, 2011 9:59 am

Minnesota for the state hockey tournament. :)

After spending last fall south of the border and New Years' in the Virgin Islands, I don't think I'll be going anywhere else too exciting this year.

Rio is very high on my list. All of Brazil, really.

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Post by east hockey » Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:58 am

karl(east) wrote:Minnesota for the state hockey tournament. :)

After spending last fall south of the border and New Years' in the Virgin Islands, I don't think I'll be going anywhere else too exciting this year.

Rio is very high on my list. All of Brazil, really.
Turning me loose with my camera on Copacabana? Yeah, that'd work until the better half saw where I was. :mrgreen:

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Post by EREmpireStrikesBack » Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:22 am

east hockey wrote: Turning me loose with my camera on Copacabana? Yeah, that'd work until the better half saw where I was. :mrgreen:

Lee
Didn't know you were a big fan of the promenade. Shoulda known I guess.

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Post by east hockey » Mon May 14, 2012 12:19 am

Maui is still the same amazing Maui. Only wish was that our 18 day trip there wasn't 18 years. I'd have to dump the hockey website and start one devoted to surfing, but still....

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Post by elliott70 » Wed Sep 05, 2012 12:30 pm

NYC - Manhattan

Mexico - Cancun area

North Shore...



3 places I will go back to...
perhaps Mexico will change to Caribbean

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