This is what you won't see at airports this holiday season.

The good folks at Orbitz were nice enough to send along a list of the U.S. airports with the heaviest amount of holiday travel. They also offered up some words of wisdom.

Their travel advice falls along the lines of flexibility, utilizing technology and staying in the know. It’s fairly straightforward common sense, but you know what a lot of people forget to pack for when traveling? Common sense. It’s true.

The list and links are provided below. Read More »

The city and the Golden Gate.

Early last year my wife and I took a trip to Larkspur, CA.

Now I will admit, Larkspur was not necessarily top on our list of “Places We’d Like to Visit Before We Die,” but at the time we were in possession of a $150 Marriott Hotels gift card and were in search of a local destination at which to cash it in. Much to my surprise, Marriott doesn’t have much to offer that’s off the beaten path, so in our quest for “exotic locales,” Larkspur won out over Walnut Creek and San Jose.

That being said, Larkspur is a very quaint little town, close to Mt. Tamalpais and only a stone’s throw from Sausalito, just over the Golden Gate Bridge as you leave San Francisco. The Larkspur Marriott, located at 2500 Larkspur Landing Circle, is but a short walk from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. The hotel itself is your standard Marriott fare; far from horrible but certainly nothing special either. What did we care, we were only planning to sleep there.

Most of our day was spent testing out my wife’s new Digital Rebel.  And what better place to snap some beautiful test photos than the Marin Headlands.

Situated just North of San Francisco, high above the Golden Gate, the Headlands offer some of the most spectacular views of the world’s most famous suspension bridge, and the jewel that is San Francisco nestled below.  We spent several hours in the Headlands and watched the skies change from the crystal blue you see above, to the foggy white for which San Francisco is famous. It’s amazing how quickly the fog rolls in when you’re on the ocean, high above the city; how it spills over the hillsides, filling the valleys like mustard gas, only without all the uncomfortable blistering and accompanying screams of agony.

With the fog came the cold, the temperatures dropping from a comfortable 70 to somewhere closer to 55. At that point we decided to drive down to Sausalito, where we enjoyed some hot clam chowder and a cocktail at the now defunct Cat ‘n Fiddle Public House. Believe me, if you’ve never been you aren’t missing a thing. Seriously, where else can you pay nearly $30 for soup and a cocktail?

In search of a restaurant where our money would stretch a little further, we ended up at the Marin Brewing Company. This was much more our style; reasonably priced pub grub and beer, or at least what passes for reasonable in Marin County.

We spent the latter part of the evening enjoying the Marriott’s  hot tub, that is until the chiropractor from Nevada, his wife and three kids showed up. If I may interject a slight pet peeve here, I’m of the opinion that hot tubs are for the relaxation of slightly inebriated adults, not lap pools for youngsters.

In any event, after a good night’s sleep it was once again time to eat. We queued up for the Marriott’s plentiful breakfast buffet. As we ate, I watched an elderly gentleman rise from his chair to muck around with his wallet or handkerchief or some such thing that elderly folks are forever mucking with, and I noticed that his chair was in danger of tipping backwards. Timing my rescue with my third trip through the buffet line, I caught his chair just as balance lost its battle with gravity, righted it and moved on, all in one fluid movement. Batman could have done no better.

My wife nixed my suggestion to swing by San Quentin Village on our way home. Perhaps an adventure for another day.

Marin Headlands

Hawk Hill Tunnel

The author and the photographer

Marin Headlands

Photos: Lisa Romano

Winchester Mystery House

The story goes that when a grieving Sarah L. Winchester, widow to legendary rifle industrialist, William Winchester, met with a medium in 1884 she was told the following:

• Thousands of people have died as a result of her husband’s creations.
• Their spirits are angry and seeking vengeance
• To appease them she must build a home for herself and the spirits, however there was one catch: she could never stop building the house or she would die.

Hence began what would eventually become a $5.5 million dollar (nearly $70 million by today’s standards) construction project that went on for 38 years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until Sarah’s death on September 5, 1922 at the age of 82.

But Sarah was not only trying to appease the spirits, she was also bent on confusing them. Under her orders, carpenters built stairways that led nowhere, doors that open into solid walls or in one case a 10-foot drop to the ground below. She slept in a different room every night and spent her time spying on servants from various hidey-holes around the mansion.

Today the Winchester Mystery House offers three different tours as well as The Winchester Firearms Museum. The Mansion Tour offers up 110 of the 160-room architectural behemoth for viewing.  Also available is The Garden Tour; magnificent Victorian gardens restored to the days when Sarah Winchester’s full time staff of eight gardeners tended its beauty.

For those who like to dig a little deeper, The Winchester Mystery House offers a special Behind-the-Scenes, hard hats only tour, which takes guests “into areas which had been unexplored for over 75 years.” For safety reasons these tours are limited to guests ten years of age and older.

Be sure to check out the famous Winchester Firearms Museum, home to one of the largest collections of  Winchester Rifles on the West Coast, the “Gun that Won the West,” as well as many rare antiques manufactured by Winchester Products Company, a subsidiary to the legendary arms manufacturer.

For tour hours, pricing and special packages, visit their website at: http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Photo: Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, CA.