Holiday Help

by **Duncan** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:56 am

This is a genuine request for some help, suggestions and advice.

The context is this. I get 4 weeks holiday (vacation) a year. I like to save it up and blow it all in one go. My wife is a teacher and gets 6 weeks off from end of July to early September.

We both love the States. My wife's sister, although originally a Brit, is now an American national living in San Rafael in Northern California. My wife was Nanny in Mill Valley for 2 years. I have been to the USA something like 20 times. I have done the Orlando thing, I have also done the Gulf coast of Florida a number of times. I have been up and down California many times. I have done Seattle and Portland. I have done Vegas, Reno and Palm Springs.

I need to book a holiday. 4 weeks. The criteria is this. Good weather, safe, not the toutrist trap and most of all a place to have a great time.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

D

by **Behshad** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:14 am

Duncan wrote:This is a genuine request for some help, suggestions and advice.

The context is this. I get 4 weeks holiday (vacation) a year. I like to save it up and blow it all in one go. My wife is a teacher and gets 6 weeks off from end of July to early September.

We both love the States. My wife's sister, although originally a Brit, is now an American national living in San Rafael in Northern California. My wife was Nanny in Mill Valley for 2 years. I have been to the USA something like 20 times. I have done the Orlando thing, I have also done the Gulf coast of Florida a number of times. I have been up and down California many times. I have done Seattle and Portland. I have done Vegas, Reno and Palm Springs.

I need to book a holiday. 4 weeks. The criteria is this. Good weather, safe, not the toutrist trap and most of all a place to have a great time.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

D

If you want to spend few weeks in middle of boonies in Ohio, let me know,

by **Don** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:17 am

Duncan wrote:This is a genuine request for some help, suggestions and advice.

The context is this. I get 4 weeks holiday (vacation) a year. I like to save it up and blow it all in one go. My wife is a teacher and gets 6 weeks off from end of July to early September.

We both love the States. My wife's sister, although originally a Brit, is now an American national living in San Rafael in Northern California. My wife was Nanny in Mill Valley for 2 years. I have been to the USA something like 20 times. I have done the Orlando thing, I have also done the Gulf coast of Florida a number of times. I have been up and down California many times. I have done Seattle and Portland. I have done Vegas, Reno and Palm Springs.

I need to book a holiday. 4 weeks. The criteria is this. Good weather, safe, not the toutrist trap and most of all a place to have a great time.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

D

What about Colorado? Are rafting and Water activities anything you are interested in?

by **Saint John** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:28 am

Just a stunning and beautiful place:

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en ... nal%20park

by **Duncan** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:43 am

Don wrote:
Duncan wrote:This is a genuine request for some help, suggestions and advice.

The context is this. I get 4 weeks holiday (vacation) a year. I like to save it up and blow it all in one go. My wife is a teacher and gets 6 weeks off from end of July to early September.

We both love the States. My wife's sister, although originally a Brit, is now an American national living in San Rafael in Northern California. My wife was Nanny in Mill Valley for 2 years. I have been to the USA something like 20 times. I have done the Orlando thing, I have also done the Gulf coast of Florida a number of times. I have been up and down California many times. I have done Seattle and Portland. I have done Vegas, Reno and Palm Springs.

I need to book a holiday. 4 weeks. The criteria is this. Good weather, safe, not the toutrist trap and most of all a place to have a great time.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

D

What about Colorado? Are rafting and Water activities anything you are interested in?

I would love to, but my wife is not good on water. To put that in context, a couple of years ago we went on a a chamagne "cruise" on a boat from South Lake tahoe around Emearld Bay and back. The lake was like a mill pond, but Annie was ill for 24 hours afterwards and she wasn't drinking. I like the sound of Colarado though, might be because I like John Denver - Rocky Mountain High and all that.

by **Duncan** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:51 am

Saint John wrote:Just a stunning and beautiful place:

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en ... nal%20park

Thanks for that. Looks like you could build a few days around visiting Zion and the Grand Canyon. Anyone know anywhere to Stay. I don't do camping. A bar is essential.

by **Don** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:57 am

Duncan wrote:
Saint John wrote:Just a stunning and beautiful place:

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en ... nal%20park

Thanks for that. Looks like you could build a few days around visiting Zion and the Grand Canyon. Anyone know anywhere to Stay. I don't do camping. A bar is essential.

I take it you don't want to stay at a B&B then. :lol:

The Town of Springdale (which I think is right outside the park) has a dozen or more hotels to choose from so you should be able to find something.

by **Duncan** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:29 am

Fact Finder wrote:4 weeks eh...how much can you spend?

Fly into NYC for 2/3 nights and see a show on B-way, Shopping, Central Park picnic and Statue of Liberty...Amtrak down to DC and see the National Mall, Monuments and (free)Museums maybe go down to Mt. Vernon...take Amtrak from DC and head west to Chicago but before you get there, stop off for a night or 2 at Greenbrier Resort in White Sulfer Springs, West by God Virginia , back on the train west then off again in Cincinnati for a night or 2 and catch a Reds baseball game (as fucking Americana as it gets) eat Cincy Chili and Montgomery Inn Ribs, back on the train to Chicago where Dan will pick you guys up and God only knows what might happen. Then fly or take the train out to Utah like Dan said and see that Zion place and maybe the Grand Canyon. That's about 2 weeks right there. Then rent a place on Lake Havasu, invite Deano out for a few days and by then you'll be dying to go home.

Job done right there. Dan/Dean please post availabilty to host 1 eurofag and his good lady.

by **Duncan** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:37 am

I just had to explain to my wife who Dan and Deano are. Looks like we are doing Italy this year.

Keep the suggestions coming. I like that train trip that FF suggested.

by **Don** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:39 am

Duncan wrote:I just had to explain to my wife who Dan and Deano are. Looks like we are doing Italy this year.

Keep the suggestions coming. I like that train trip that FF suggested.

Italy? Tell Amanda we said hi.

by **Peartree12249** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:42 am

Utah is amazing lots of great parks to go see beside Zion there is Bryce Canyon, Arches, & Canyonlands National Park. I also love western South Dakota: Badlands, Black Hills , Mt Rushmore, & Eastern Wyoming: Devils Tower Big Horn Mountains, & Western Wyoming: Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Jackson Hole. The nice thing about this trip is if you're short on cash, you could always rent a camper and stay in a hotel during bad weather or in a fun place like Jackson Hole.

You can't go wrong with Colorado either for that matter, we've got the Rockies, Pike's Peak, Colorado Springs & the Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge, Durango and Mesa Verde (a must see). It's only about a days drive from Colorado Springs down to Santa Fe New Mexico and Taos. The red rock country down there is beautiful and the food is great too!

Anywhere you go, you can see and do a lot in 4 weeks. I hope you have a great time!

by **Duncan** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:48 am

Peartree12249 wrote:Utah is amazing lots of great parks to go see beside Zion there is Bryce Canyon, Arches, & Canyonlands National Park. I also love western South Dakota: Badlands, Black Hills , Mt Rushmore, & Eastern Wyoming: Devils Tower Big Horn Mountains, & Western Wyoming: Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Jackson Hole. The nice thing about this trip is if you're short on cash, you could always rent a camper and stay in a hotel during bad weather or in a fun place like Jackson Hole.

You can't go wrong with Colorado either for that matter, we've got the Rockies, Pike's Peak, Colorado Springs & the Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge, Durango and Mesa Verde (a must see). It's only about a days drive from Colorado Springs down to Santa Fe New Mexico and Taos. The red rock country down there is beautiful and the food is great too!

Anywhere you go, you can see and do a lot in 4 weeks. I hope you have a great time!

Sounds amazing. What is the average weather like in the places you mention in August. Getting some rays is a must.

by **Saint John** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 9:55 am

Don wrote:
Duncan wrote:I just had to explain to my wife who Dan and Deano are. Looks like we are doing Italy this year.

Keep the suggestions coming. I like that train trip that FF suggested.

Italy? Tell Amanda we said hi.

She'll be out soon.

A former FBI agent who once believed Amanda Knox was guilty of murder now says he has no doubt that she is innocent.

"When Amanda Knox gets out, if she needs a roommate, I'll send my daughter over," retired FBI Special Agent Steve Moore told "Good Morning America." "The evidence is completely conclusive."

Moore, a 25-year FBI veteran who investigated murders around the world before retiring two years ago, has independently researched and analyzed her case for the past year while Knox waited for her appeal.

Knox, 22, has spent nearly three years in an Italian prison since her November 2007 arrest for the murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. Kercher was found sexually assaulted and her throat slashed, her half naked body under a duvet in her bedroom.

Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of murder last December after a nearly a year long trial. A third person, Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, whose DNA was found at the crime scene ,was convicted of taking part in the homicide in an earlier trial.

At first, Moore said, he firmly believed Knox was guilty as charged.

"The police said she is. She was arrested," he said. "It just seemed that's the way it was."

Moore, who has never spoken to Knox's family or lawyers, said it was his wife who urged him to look into Knox's case, convinced she was innocent. In November, Moore obtained the crime scene video, autopsy photos and legal documents. He spent weeks poring through them.

His opinion, he said, quickly changed.

"I couldn't figure out why Amanda and Raffaele weren't eliminated on day one as suspects," he said. "I kept thinking the smoking gun would pop up -- and it didn't come. I didn't know why they were in jail."

Initially, Knox said she was at her boyfriend's house the night of the murder. She was arrested days later after an overnight interrogation in which she said she had a vision she was in the kitchen of the cottage she shared with Kercher the night of the murder and heard screams. She has claimed that she became confused and scared because she was bullied, even struck by her interrogators, and recanted the remarks soon after.

The investigation found none of Knox's DNA -- no hair, blood or fingerprints -- in the bedroom where Kercher was murdered.

Prosecutors allege that the murder weapon is a knife found at Sollecito's apartment with Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's on the blade.

Moore dismissed the knife evidence, pointing out that Knox often used it to cook. He also said Italian prosecutors were grasping at straws by pointing to what they say is evidence that Knox tried to wash off Kercher's blood in her own bathroom.

"There is no DNA evidence. What they're saying is that whoever killed Meredith cleaned up in Amanda's bathroom. That's all they say," Moore said. "They found Amanda's DNA in her own bathroom? Astounding."

by **Peartree12249** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:01 am

Duncan wrote:
Peartree12249 wrote:Utah is amazing lots of great parks to go see beside Zion there is Bryce Canyon, Arches, & Canyonlands National Park. I also love western South Dakota: Badlands, Black Hills , Mt Rushmore, & Eastern Wyoming: Devils Tower Big Horn Mountains, & Western Wyoming: Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Jackson Hole. The nice thing about this trip is if you're short on cash, you could always rent a camper and stay in a hotel during bad weather or in a fun place like Jackson Hole.

You can't go wrong with Colorado either for that matter, we've got the Rockies, Pike's Peak, Colorado Springs & the Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge, Durango and Mesa Verde (a must see). It's only about a days drive from Colorado Springs down to Santa Fe New Mexico and Taos. The red rock country down there is beautiful and the food is great too!

Anywhere you go, you can see and do a lot in 4 weeks. I hope you have a great time!

Sounds amazing. What is the average weather like in the places you mention in August. Getting some rays is a must.

Depends on where you go, and how high up. It could be in the upper 90's F or down to the 40's F at night depending on the altitude. I have no idea what that converts to in celsius. :lol:

by **StevePerryHair** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:04 am

Where are Journey/survivor and JFB with their suggestions?

by **Duncan** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:23 am

Peartree12249 wrote:
Duncan wrote:
Peartree12249 wrote:Utah is amazing lots of great parks to go see beside Zion there is Bryce Canyon, Arches, & Canyonlands National Park. I also love western South Dakota: Badlands, Black Hills , Mt Rushmore, & Eastern Wyoming: Devils Tower Big Horn Mountains, & Western Wyoming: Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Jackson Hole. The nice thing about this trip is if you're short on cash, you could always rent a camper and stay in a hotel during bad weather or in a fun place like Jackson Hole.

You can't go wrong with Colorado either for that matter, we've got the Rockies, Pike's Peak, Colorado Springs & the Garden of the Gods, Royal Gorge, Durango and Mesa Verde (a must see). It's only about a days drive from Colorado Springs down to Santa Fe New Mexico and Taos. The red rock country down there is beautiful and the food is great too!

Anywhere you go, you can see and do a lot in 4 weeks. I hope you have a great time!

Sounds amazing. What is the average weather like in the places you mention in August. Getting some rays is a must.

Depends on where you go, and how high up. It could be in the upper 90's F or down to the 40's F at night depending on the altitude. I have no idea what that converts to in celsius.

That's ok. I'm a Brit. We deal in F, but the rest of Euro want us to deal in C. We are stubborn fuckers over here. We drive on the other side of the road for the sole reason that it pisses foreigners off.

by **Rockindeano** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:43 am

Duncan, want the best advice? Go to Canada instead. More beautiful, less money and plenty to see/do.

by **DrFU** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:01 pm

That timeline will probably coincide w/ Journey's US tour; you could follow them around and see the country at the same time.

Failing that: Glacier National Park; Black Hills, South Dakota; Yellowstone National Park; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Salt Lake City, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; Grand Canyon (roughly north to south); weather should be warm/hot during day and cool at night.

by **Saint John** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:45 pm

I'm probably going to be doing Zion National Park this summer with my girlfriend. So, if that's your choice, let me know and we can try and coordinate our trips together.

Website · by **steveo777** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 2:02 pm

Duncan wrote:I just had to explain to my wife who Dan and Deano are. Looks like we are doing Italy this year.

Keep the suggestions coming. I like that train trip that FF suggested.

If my wife knew who Dan and Deano were, we'd be going to a different continent too. :shock:

by **Rockindeano** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 2:15 pm

DrFU wrote:That timeline will probably coincide w/ Journey's US tour; you could follow them around and see the country at the same time.

Oh there's a highlight. :roll:

It's rare, if ever I ever fuck with you...I know where my bread is buttered but Journey? Come on Fu.....he has the dirty dozen memorized!

by **DrFU** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 2:54 pm

Rockindeano wrote:
DrFU wrote:That timeline will probably coincide w/ Journey's US tour; you could follow them around and see the country at the same time.

Oh there's a highlight. It's rare, if ever I ever fuck with you...I know where my bread is buttered but Journey? Come on Fu.....he has the dirty dozen memorized!

Mimi and I, Mel & Lynn, Gayle & Jen, KtD and others have had some crazy good times on Journey road trips.

The DD doesn't define the experience ... well- timed bathroom breaks and beer runs take care of most of them anyway.

And here I thought I'd catch shit for the crunchy- granola suggested itinerary ... :lol:

by **Melissa** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:48 pm

DrFU wrote:
Rockindeano wrote:
DrFU wrote:That timeline will probably coincide w/ Journey's US tour; you could follow them around and see the country at the same time.

Oh there's a highlight. It's rare, if ever I ever fuck with you...I know where my bread is buttered but Journey? Come on Fu.....he has the dirty dozen memorized!

Mimi and I, Mel & Lynn, Gayle & Jen, KtD and others have had some crazy good times on Journey road trips.

The DD doesn't define the experience ... well- timed bathroom breaks and beer runs take care of most of them anyway.

And here I thought I'd catch shit for the crunchy- granola suggested itinerary ...

Exactly Linda! It's all about the road trips! :mrgreen:

by **txfirefighter** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:18 am

Melissa wrote:
DrFU wrote:
Rockindeano wrote:
DrFU wrote:That timeline will probably coincide w/ Journey's US tour; you could follow them around and see the country at the same time.

Oh there's a highlight. It's rare, if ever I ever fuck with you...I know where my bread is buttered but Journey? Come on Fu.....he has the dirty dozen memorized!

Mimi and I, Mel & Lynn, Gayle & Jen, KtD and others have had some crazy good times on Journey road trips.

The DD doesn't define the experience ... well- timed bathroom breaks and beer runs take care of most of them anyway.

And here I thought I'd catch shit for the crunchy- granola suggested itinerary ...

Exactly Linda! It's all about the road trips!

No doubt! The concert is an excuse to travel, get together with great friends, and forget about real life for a while. I love a good concert, whether it is the first time or the 50th time that I have seen a band, but it does not define the entire experience. I will often go with friends to see bands that I am indifferent about, just to hang out and have fun. To me, the friendships are more important than what band I am going to see anyway.