Fast & Flexible San Francisco Bay Boat Tours
If the Navy SEALS had any reason to invade San Francisco, they’d be using large RIBs (rigid inflatable boats). Bay Voyager is San Francisco Bay’s only sightseeing tour using this type of craft and therefore enabling visitors to experience it from a whole different perspective — fast-paced, close to the water, personal and customizable. From a new permanent home port [...]
Best Hotels in (Part of) the West
California-centric Sunset magazine shortchanges the rest of the West Sunset magazine’s slogan is “Living in the West,”but the publication might consider changing it to “Living in California and Sometimes in Other More Trivial States.” The new October 2011 issue includes a list of what it deems the 25 best hotels in the West, 13 of which are in [...]
2010-11 Ski Season Winding Down Slo-o-o-wly
A handful of ski areas are still running their lifts Most North American ski areas have rung down the curtain on the 2010-11 ski season — one of the best on record on many parts of the continent. In the US, a handful of areas are still operating, at least on weekends. Buy a season [...]
Images of My Last Trip to California — but Not the Tour of California Route
For television viewers, long cycling races are a telecast travelogue that happens to follow the route pedaled by some of the best bike racers on the planet. The Tour de France is a favorite, and the Tour of California, which is now referred to as the Amgen Tour of California every single time it is [...]
Classic Gloucester Schooner at Home in West Coast Harbor
Down to the seas in a self-made ship: Leland Parsons’s magnificent accomplishment I spent a couple of days last week with my friends John and Marcia Sullivan, also East Coast transplants now living in Marin County, north of San Francisco. One sunny day last week, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, through the city [...]
Free Zip Line in San Francisco
My ailing, ancient laptop and I are in the Bay Area right now, so my posts are sparse and image-free. Yesterday, I enjoyed a single-line ZipLine ride over Justin Herman Square on the Embarcadero, courtesy of Tourism British Columbia, which brought the setup that you might have seen during the Olympics from Vancouver to San [...]
Great Barrier Reef Ship Grounding, Update
Efforts underway to contain reef damage Travel Babel seems to have been the first travel blog to report on the Chinese-flagged coal carrier “Shen Neng 1″ that went 9 miles off-course and plowed into the coral reefs of Keppler Island, part of the Great Barrier Reef. The resultant oil spill continues to threaten marine life in [...]
The Joy of Kirkwood
Lake Tahoe ski area’s dynamite terrain and distinctive flavor Kirkwood, the southernmost ski area in the Lake Tahoe orbit, is neither the largest nor the most famous resort in the region. Then again, it is not the smallest or most obscure either. Like Baby Bear’s Porridge, it is just right. While it participates in the Ski [...]
Lake Tahoe: Ski Areas by the Dozen (Plus)
Magnificent alpine lake with concentration of ski areas unsurpassed in North America Here’s the census of ski areas in an arc on the north end of Lake Tahoe and also along Interstate 70: Alpine Meadows, Boreal, Diamond Peak, Donner Ski Ranch, Granlibakken, Homewood, Mt. Rose (within sight of Reno), Northstar-at-Tahoe, Royal Gorge (cross-country), Sugar Bowl and Squaw Valley (host of [...]
