Miami Beach

Just wanted to talk about my recent trip to Miami beach, I was not impressed, that is why I have neglected to write about it. But here goes nothing. Most things were highly over priced, from old Art Deco hotels to very expensive restaurants. After leaving we concluded that we could have spent our 10 days at another location and got more bang for our buck, which is what we all want. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott and was so disappointed from the get go. Our room that was given to us was over looking the busy street and the hotels master air conditioning unit, what an ugly sight. I would never settle for such an unsightly view on my vacation (and neither should you), so down to the front desk I go. I will have to say that they were very unhelpful, and somewhat rude. They magically found me an ocean view room when I pulled out my phone and said that I would just find a different hotel. The hotel staff would then stare at me when ever I passed by the front desk after that, very uncomfortable so needless to say I will never stay there again and would never recommend it to anyone. I would give this hotel a rating of 3 out of 10, it would get a three only because of it's central location and tiki bar. The name of this hotel is the Courtyard by Marriott Miami beach Oceanfront, Address is 3925 Collins Avenue, avoid it if you can. This hotel is not nice like other Marriott's, it was purchased by Marriott and has not been brought to Marriott's standards that I know and love. Save yourself the 199.00 a night and sleep elsewhere If you can.

One thing I did love on this trip to Miami beach was the beach, it is beautiful. I love collecting sea shell and this stretch of beach did not disappoint.

While in Miami we decided to have dinner at the very famous Joe's Stone crab, can you say rip off? I don't know about you but if I am going to give a restaurant a good rating I should not feel like I got fleeced when I left out the door. Joe's is a nice place to say the least, with tuxedo clad waiters who wait in the corners for you to look their way needing something, we liked that part. The part we didn't care for was the price tag of our fairly simple meal a whopping 180.00 plus tip, ouch.The crab was good but not 180 dollars good if you know what I mean. Where I'm from I can get two pounds of Alaskan king crab for 24.99 and no tip necessary.

One of the only highlights of our Miami trip was a city tour that we took. I highly recommend taking a tour like this. Miami is a big place and to see points of interest you do need a guide. Our tour was a land and water. We were able to see where little Havana is, and went to domino park there. This is the park where you have to be 65 years old or older even play. We also visited a cigar factory there and they had any kind if cigar you could imagine. On the boat portion of this tour we were taken to see houses of famous people, dead and alive. All in all our Miami trip was ok but I don't see a need to go back anytime soon.

Treker Camping (Say What)

Yes it is true, travel treker is an avid camper also. Yes we love travel and staying in nice hotels and eating at fabulous restaurants but we realize that in this day and age this is not an option for all people. There for we will include camping under our Travel Treker umbrella because some of our very best travel times have been out camping in front of a lake with friends and family. This photo was taken this past weekend at a spot called Kingsley reservoir in hood river county Oregon. Kingsley Reservoir is a pristine beautiful lake in the shadow of Mt Hood. For a fisherman or a camping enthusiast this is a great. We tried our luck at fishing and caught just a few fish, how ever people all around us were reeling them in left and right. We were told by fellow fishermen that the lake is stocked with 10,000 trout twice a year. I guess the picky fish didn't like our choice of bait, oh well hope to have better luck next time. The beauty of this area and the views are unmatched as you can tell by this breathtaking photo that we snapped. All and all we thought our camping spot was nice, we were camped a few feet from the lake. We loved this places but there were a few drawbacks that will make us think twice before we would ever camp here again. Here are the drawback in no particular order. First there is two pit toilets for the whole camp ground, our guess is that most people that come to this camp ground are in a camper or trailer so the have their restroom with them. If you ate staying in a tent just be prepared to walk a ways to reach the restrooms. The second drawback for us was that this is a off road vehicle area. What this means is that this area is an area for 4x4, dirt bikes and quads, this means that there is alot of noise at all times of the day, morning, noon and night. If you are OK with this sort of noise or like to ride yourself you will love this place. My third drawback for Kingsley Reservoir is that there is no camp host. I know that most would think this is a great thing but when you have noisy campers playing very loud music all day long and late into the night, (unedited rap music) you long for a camp host to take care of these types of problems so you don't have to.

I think on my rating scale for camp grounds I would give this one a 3 out of 10.

News Media Ruined My Trip

Has this ever happened to you?
This is how the story goes. My 1 year wedding anniversary was fast approaching and we wanted to go back to Mexico near to where we had our honeymoon a year earlier. We proceeded to make all of our happy vacation plans for Cancun, oh we were giddy with excitement we had briefly visited there when we went to Cozumel last year and was looking forward to actually spending some time there on this trip. I am sure you can tell where this sad little story is headed by the title. We changed our plans due to all the swine flu doom and gloom we were hearing on every news channel know to man. What really put the breaks on this trip is when we heard several news anchors declare that the united states was considering closing it's borders. Oh now this really was getting interesting at this point. What if we went ahead and took our trip to Cancun would we be able to get back in our own country? That was the straw that broke the camels back for us. We agreed that our beautiful Cancun would have to wait for another time. We then decided to stay in the U.S.A. and go to South Beach Miami. We thought we made the right choice at the time, but since have come to realize we should have gone to Mexico. The morrow of this story is don't believe the media hype when you are planning a trip out of the country, go to the state department's website and get your information there and enjoy your trip where ever you end up.

What Now

Does coming home from vacation feel like a let down to you? that's kind of how I feel when I get back home and get back into the daily grind of every day life. I don't know about you but I usually start planning my next trip right away, I just feel better doing that. When you love to travel like I do being at home can feel like a waste of time. I just can't stop thinking I should be on the road, traveling. I think my love of travel came from when I was a little girl laying in my back yard with my sisters and watching all the airplanes fly overhead and wondering where are they going, and how come I can't go with them. The travel bug bit me hard right then and there. This bug bite made me travel sick, at least that's what I call it. This sickness is very similar to being love sick, you can't eat or sleep because it is all you can think about, day and night, night and day. That scenario led me to choose the travel industry as my career path. I have been very happy with my choice and never looked back, or down.