Travel tidbits from my life
I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this song. Please take a listen and let me know what you think. It’s not just that the tune is so happy, if you listen to the lyrics, Chronixx tells a beautiful story. I would love to see this song go beyond Jamaica and become an international hit!
You can buy and download the song by clicking the pic below:
If you’re exhausted about reading my posts about Seattle, then you almost know how we felt by Day 3! After walking around the city and putting so many miles on our feet, we decided to have a mellow day on our last day there.
We hung out at the Warwick during the morning, having breakfast in their restaurant, Margaux. After wandering one last time around Pike Place Market, where we mostly people watched, we had a great lunch at El Borracho.
We ended up back at the hotel for the rest of the afternoon, hanging out in our room and napping. Have I mentioned how much my feet hurt by then?
We did venture back out later, walking down to Pier 70 to have dinner at Aqua, by El Gaucho. Because the weather had been so beautiful, we decided to dine on their expansive outdoor deck. Talk about another incredible meal!
Since my favorite seafood is sea scallops, I had the sea scallops in lemon beurre blanc over risotto. UNBELIEVABLE! Then, since I LOVE crème brulee–I mean the classic kind, not any novel flavor–I also had the crème brulee for dessert.
Lucky for me we still had a trek back to our hotel since I was completely stuffed after this dinner and needed the exercise. Walking back to the Warwick, we could see the Space Needle.
A perfectly beautiful ending to a perfectly beautiful trip. I can’t wait to visit Seattle again!
Up early and back at ’em! We still had so much left to see and do in Seattle, WA. We started the morning off by cutting through Pike Place and grabbing a watermelon juice from The Juice Emporium. If you’ve not tried it, watermelon juice is pure goodness–nothing but the juice of a watermelon. There is no added sugar, flavoring, etc.
We got down to the waterfront and headed over to the Seattle Aquarium which was included on our CityPASS. I guess I expected more from the aquarium since Seattle is located right on the ocean. It felt geared towards young children, but the otters were pretty cute to see!
From there we ventured over to the Argosy Harbor Tour which was also included on our CityPASS. This was a nice one-hour tour of Seattle from Elliot Bay and Seattle Harbor, not to mention a great opportunity to sit down and take a break. Cocktails and snacks were available for purchase.
We then headed towards Pioneer Square, where there was an underground tour I had heard of and was eager to check out. We had our choice between Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour and Underground Paranormal Experience. We went with the Underground Tour because the Paranormal Experience wouldn’t start until after dark. What a fascinating story! Before the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, the streets of this part of town actually used to be a full story lower than they are now so there’s a whole underground part of Seattle down below. You can read about in Seattle Underground
Seattle Underground: In which the Truth, the whole Truth, and a lot More than the truth is told about the Forgotton City which Lies Beneath Seattle’s Modern Streets.
It was getting late in the day and we knew that the walk back was probably going to seem even longer, so we decided to make stops along the way. We stopped in at the Klondike Gold Rush Museum which was quite interactive and more detailed than what we ever learned in history class.
We bought truffles from Fran’s Chocolate (which we learned was a favorite stop of Michelle Obama’s). We had some killer oysters at The Brooklyn Seafood, then stopped in at Suite 410 for a cocktail.
Next, we checked out the Tap House Grill where I was finally able to find a Bud Light beer and then on to The Palace Kitchen for dinner. (You know how Texas Roadhouse brings peanuts to each table? The Palace brings out pistachios!)
After dinner, I did try a Montucky cold snack which was pretty good. We wrapped up the evening by walking around the block, stopping in at Assiaggio Ristorante, and making new friends who walked the rest of the way around the block with us back to The Palace Kitchen.
Luckily, we were only a block away from our hotel by then. Our wonderful waitress bid us goodnight by sending us back to our hotel with a HUGE bag of pistachios!
Until the 1980s, Huatulco, (Oaxaca) Mexico was little more than a small coffee-growing area. In 1984, the National Fund of Tourism decided to begin development of the area to develop a tourist development similar to Cancun, but on the Pacific coast of Mexico. So far, I would have to say they are succeeding. Thankfully, Huatulco is a bit more spread out than Cancun giving the resorts a more secluded, laid back feel than in Cancun.
We found a bargain on FunJet–non-stop from St. Louis to Huatulco for an entire week. Having never heard of Huatulco, we did minimal research on the place and decided the price was right for a week. What a great decision!
We stayed at Secrets, which is considered an Unlimited Luxury All Inclusive Resort and was adult-only. At first I was a little bummed–we were planning to book a swim out suite–and I literally watched the last one sell out on FunJet. We ended up in a regular room that was beautifully decorated and overlooked the pool and beach, but my next trip to Secrets will be in a swim out. They looked incredibly fun and the pool waiters served drinks to the private pools which were connected to each room.
This resort is more compact because it’s set into the hills, so it’s more up and down than sprawled out. We loved riding the glass elevator up to the sky bar each evening and hanging out there until we decided where to go for dinner.
Usually at an AI resort, hubby and I go to the spa at least once for a couples massage. Secrets had a Pevonia spa that had a hydrotherapy circuit–which we had never experienced before. If you ever get the chance for a hydrotherapy massage, go for it. This was one of the best massages we had ever had and we now search out resort spas that have hydrotherapy.
There were lots of very reasonably priced excursions to take in Huatulco as well. Because it’s a relatively “young” tourist area, the tour companies basically give the excursions away. We took a mountain excursion that lasted all day, took us up in the mountains, hiking to the Llano Grande waterfall, providing a wonderful lunch, and stopping at local shops on our way back to the resort.
Another excursion we went on was a boat tour/snorkeling excursion of five local bays and coastline of Huatulco. The snorkeling was decent even though the currents were pretty strong and we got to see some neat rock formations and smaller towns along the coast.
Luckily we were there during the “dry” season. Apparently, during the rainy season, which is June through September, it rains non-stop for most of every day. The locals we talked with in the mountains were telling us about how during the last rainy season, which had just ended, they had been trapped in the mountains for days because most of the roads were too waterlogged or completely washed out and they couldn’t drive them. It’s a little more rustic way of life than I’m accustomed to.
Back at the resort, we had some incredibly good restaurants. We found a seafood restaurant that was so good, we went to it twice. I enjoyed some delicious salmon one night, after some seafood soup. Thank goodness there was a little walk back to the resort from the seafood restaurant because I definitely ate too much.
We also enjoyed that we had a Japanese/Sushi restaurant at the resort. My favorite part of that dinner was that they served sake. (I know most people don’t like the stuff, but for some reason, I love it.) I liked it so much, our waiter gave me a small carafe to take with me back to the lobby.
The best thing of all about this particular trip was that we met some really awesome people, Meg and Jason were a lot of fun, and Jacki and Josh were like our oldest besties straight out of the gate. We hung out with them for a lot of the trip, relaxing at the pool bar and going to dinner together a couple of evenings. I sure hope we get to see them soon on another fun vacation!
