Continuing on my May blog theme (my pocket of heaven on the Northern California Coast) here is an ’UpTake’ from the Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel. I may be over 7,500 miles from Cairo and over 6,200 miles from Rome, but when I am visiting this hostel there is no place I would rather be then right there listening to the waves crash on the rocks and the salty air filling my nostrils.
With three feet of fresh snow in the last week of March and more in the first week of April, it’s not too late to do one more (or even a first of the season) family ski trip. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are lots of options including some hidden gems that you can reach faster than Lake Tahoe and without the pain, misery and unpredictability of driving on Interstate 80.
The chart below shows the costs and distance to the best family ski options. Tahoe Donner is the most affordable and Dodge Ridge is the closest from mid-peninsula.
San Francisco Bay Area Family Ski Options
Saving Some Money
Note the rental costs listed above are for renting on site, but you’d often do better to rent nearer to home like Helms of Sun Valley in San Mateo. Note also that discount lift tickets for each ski destination can be found somewhere, often at a local rental shop, or sometimes at a super market along the drive to the hill. See SlidingOnTheCheap as a good starting point or just Google “discount lift tickets at _(ski hill of choice)_”. If both parents don’t want to ski all day or at the same time the parent interchangeable tickets are a good option, and more convenient than trying to share the one jacket with a lift ticket stuck to it. Read More »
Yes folks, people still do this. Toady we hear from freelance travel writer and Uptake blogger, Zach Everson (link), who spent three months backpacking his way around Europe. Above you see Zach standing in cold water in Olympos, Turkey. Why he’s smiling is anyone’s guess.
Zach explains that there are obvious things to watch out for, but that it’s safe and cost effective. There are so many young people doing this, it really is quite normal.
Starting at 9pm Pacific Time on December 31, no fare will be charged for any service on Metro bus and rail lines. The rail lines and the Orange bus line will operate all night every 2o minutes. Regular fares start up again at 2AM on New Year’s Day (so get your drunk ass home before then or it’ll cost you $1.25 for travel in one direction).
Additionally, Metro urges you to use the Gold Line on Friday for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game. Special shuttles will travel from the Sierra Madre Villa station to the viewing grounds where you can see the Rose Parade floats after the parade is over (12:30 to 2:30PM).
If you are not in Los Angeles, you can watch the parade on ABC, Hallmark Channel, HGTV, KTLA (Tribune), NBC, RFD-TV, Travel Channel, and Univision.
