by Jim Bellomo | Jan 3, 2019 | Uncategorized
So yesterday my number one reader sent me an e-mail and said I was being verbose. Of course I have heard the word used to describe me many times.
If you were like me and didn’t know the exact meaning, here you go.
ver·bose
/v?r?b?s/
adjective
-
using or expressed in more words than are needed.
He is right. I can be verbose. Yesterday I was. I should have just written about the 15 best small cities, why we liked the ones we have visited and asking which ones you have visited and why you liked them. Instead I kept going back and adding stuff and writing asides. Sorry about that.
I tend to write the way I talk. It’s conversational. And those of you know who me, know I talk a lot.? And what makes things worse is that I type about 100 words per minute. When I get going—I get going. Ask Kathleen. She always looks over and asks, “What are you typing about now?”
So I will do my best to be a better editor. I promise. Less is always more. See you tomorrow. Have a super day!
by Jim Bellomo | Jan 2, 2019 | Uncategorized
Savannah, Georgia (Number 3)
I subscribe to a ton of daily travel e-mails. So many that I can barely keep up with them. Today in my inbox was a cool list from a reader’s poll on Condé Nast Traveler website that inspired me to toss it out to you with some notes of my own. You can see the original article with all their comments by clicking here but this is the list of the best small cities to visit in the USA (under one million people).
Best small cities in the USA
15. Santa Barbara, California
14. Newport, Rhode Island
13. Palm Springs, California
12. Napa, California
11. Portland, Maine
10. Key West, Florida
9. Greenville, South Carolina
8. Asheville, North Carolina
7. Monterey, California
6. Sedona, Arizona
5. Sarasota, Florida
4. Alexandria, Virginia
3. Savannah, Georgia
2. Sante Fe, New Mexico
1. Charleston, South Carolina
I see a lot of these lists. I don’t think I have ever seen one I agree with as much as this one. We have been to a number of these small cities and loved them all. I will make some notes about those. In the meantime I need to add the ones we haven’t been to yet, to our list of future places to go. So far we have not visited Alexandria, VA (other than a quick stop on the outskirts while visiting Washington, DC), Asheville, NC, Greenville, SC and Newport, RI. I have been to Sarasota (and loved it) but Kathleen hasn’t so I never count a place as visited unless we both go.
Some thoughts on the other small cities:
Number 15–Santa Barbara, CA and Number 7–Monterey, CA. We haven’t been to either of these places in years. They were both part of our Mom-to-Mom tour we took years ago. We flew into Oakland and visited Kathleen’s mom in San Leandro (near Oakland) and then drove all the way down the coast (staying in both these towns) to visit my Mom in Number 13–Palm Springs, CA. We loved them all but we haven’t been back to Monterey or Santa Barbara in years. Maybe it’s time.
Palm Springs, CA (Number 13)
Number 13–Palm Springs, CA. If you know me, you know this is where I grew up. Lived here from the time I was four years old until I graduated from high school (Palm Springs High class of 1971) and went off to college and then moved back for a couple of years after college. My parents lived there until they passed away a few years ago so we have spent a LOT of time there over the last 20 years since I met Kathleen visiting them. I suppose I see Palm Springs from an entirely different point of view than I would as just a place to visit. We were last there in March of last year when our Toronto buddies, Tim and Perry were visiting for some sunshine so we went to meet them.
It has also been awhile since we visited Napa, CA (Number 12) and Key West, Florida (Number 10) but when we did we had a super time. If I had to choose which one to go back to first, I would pick Key West. Our visit was only three days/two nights but we really had a great time. But then we were visiting with our buddies Bob and Jude so that may have been it.
Meow Wolf in Sante Fe, New Mexico (Number 2)
Lastly in the last two years we have done some major touring in all of the top three. We did a week long trip to New Mexico which included Santa Fe (Number 2) and also got to see Albuquerque as well…during the Balloon Festival…which was incredible and if you ever get a chance to attend—do it! Plus we have friends in New Mexico (Hi Mary and John) who took us so many places and made so many great recommendations. If you ever go to Sante Fe, make sure you go to Meow Wolf. I wish I could describe it but the morning we spent there was nothing less than surreal…and fun. Check out their website with that link.
Lastly, just a few short months ago (it seems like a few but it was May 2017) we spent a week touring the Low Country and visiting Savannah, GA (Number 3) and Charlestown (Number 1) and would go back in a minute. Loved both places a bunch. Click the Low Country link and see what we did while there. We can highly recommend just about every single place we went while we were there and we loved the food.
I just realized that I skipped Portland, ME (Number 11). I think that because we were really only there for about half a day on our New England cruise last October and it was hot, humid and horrid. Kathleen almost wound up with heat stroke. Who would have guessed that it would be almost 90 degrees in Portland, Maine in October? We need to give the place another chance. Just not sure when.
So, what small cities have you been to that you loved? What would you go back to? What would you have skipped? Where is the next small city you wan to visit? Let me know in the comments.
When you look at a city, you know, it looks so unique. You feel this kind of uniqueness, you know, and especially if you go from a big city to a small city or if you go from one country to another. Cities look very different, often. They even feel very different. You know, and they are, of course. They certainly are.—Geoffrey West
by Jim Bellomo | Jan 1, 2019 | Uncategorized
Happy New Year!
Saw this online this morning and loved it. We don’t do it often and I think we should. always seem to know where we are going because I love to plan vacations.
I have had this post in my head all day long and finally have time to get it up and online. It’s kind of a combo post. A chance to share where we are going this year and a chance to ask you where you are going.
Last night we had dinner next door with our wonderful neighbors Jayesh and Lisa as well as Lisa’s sister Leanne and her husband Derrick. Most of the night was spent talking about travel. One of the things that came up was all the places we would all be going in the coming year and I told our friends that it just drives me CRAZY when I don’t have something planned. Either a cruise or a road trip or a visit to someplace we haven’t been. There was a point a few years ago where we didn’t have any trips planned anywhere and it drove me nuts until we got something reserved.
Last year we did not sleep in our bed (because we were traveling) for a total of 70 nights. That’s more than two months. We are pretty sure that this is the most we have ever been gone in a calendar year. We did three cruises, one preceded by a very long road trip as well as going on a number of short trips within the western US not to mention numerous 100+ mile road trips to see the grandkids in Wenatchee.
This coming year we already have 40+ nights that we know we are going to be on the road. Between those short trips to the kids in Wenatchee, a March trip to Arizona, our big European trip in May and June and our Alaskan cruise with the grandkids in July we will be getting close to that two month number again. I know we will add something in the fall or we just wouldn’t be us.
We try to take one BIG trip each year and a lot of smaller ones. Last year we were in Southern California three times (January, March and November). Those were our small trips. Our New England trip was the big one that found us out of the house for almost a month. And we also had two other short cruises, a FAM to Alaska with HAL and Seth’s birthday cruise around Puget Sound.
This coming year the big trip is May/June Europe trip. We will spend four nights in Edinburgh, six nights with our Mates Paul and Gail in Leeds, UK, then three nights in Dublin followed by a 10 night cruise from Dublin to Iceland and back. We will be gone almost a month on that one.
So that’s our plans right now. What are yours? Where are you going this year? Some of my readers (who comment a lot) are coming with us on some of this but we would love to know where else you already have plans to visit in 2019. So let us know in the comments below or on our FB page or by e-mail or Twitter. We would love to hear from you.
by Jim Bellomo | Dec 31, 2018 | Uncategorized
Just a quick post on New Year’s Eve (or New Year’s Day depending on where you are). Which brings me to the subject of this post. Kathleen pointed out on Twitter this morning that we must be travelers because so many of our friends that are travelers. As I write this we have a bunch of our closest friends (who we met while traveling) who are celebrating the New Year in Ushuaia, Argentina (Hi Tim and Perry), Sydney, Australia (Hi Seth and Jason) and Agra, India (Hi Bob and Holly). We are here at home…having dinner with our next door neighbors who are also world travelers and will be off to Italy for the umpteenth time in just a few months.
If you travel, I guess your friends are travelers too. I like that. Our best wishes for a wonderful 2019 to all our traveling friends even if you are home and safe tonight. And for those of you who don’t travel—you should!
“To Travel is to Live” – Hans Christian Andersen
by Jim Bellomo | Dec 30, 2018 | Uncategorized
On Christmas Eve I wrote about how we got into the travel business so quickly because of a guy named Seth Wayne. I mentioned that Seth is the morning meteorologist on KOMO-TV here in Seattle. But he has another job. He hosts a weekly radio show all about travel. He has become the go-to guy for travel and cruising here in Seattle. His show, Adventures Await, is on KOMO radio every Sunday at 2:00 pm PST. If you aren’t here in Seattle to listen to it over the air, it is available online through TuneIn by clicking here. every Sunday. Even if I’m not on the show, it’s great with lots of super travel tips, interviews and facts.
Earlier this month Seth and I taped a show that was broadcast for the first time two weeks ago and because of the holidays, it was repeated again today. On the show he and I discussed the upcoming 2019 Alaska cruise season. I thought the show went really great and I tried to tape it to put in on my website so that everyone could listen but due to technical difficulties it wasn’t on the web and the only radio we have in the house sounds like garbage. But it was rerun today and I grabbed it. You can listen to it on my JKBellomo site by clicking here. Please keep in mind that due to legal restrictions I have to leave the show as it is on the radio with all ads and news/weather/traffic but you can fast forward through those if you want to. Hope you like it if you get a chance to listen.
One last thing. You can also get the show as a podcast on iTunes. Just search iTunes on a computer or in the Podcast app on an iOS device for Adventures Await. But keep in mind that they are about three months behind in posting the episodes so my first show that was taped back in July just got posted recently.
