Mountain get a way

Sometimes you need a weekend of fresh mountain air, beautiful scenery and the great outdoors. We found a perfect spot.  Just 45 minutes - 1 hour from the Oregon border is Mt. Shasta, California.  

The lodging accommodations are more rustic, but you'll be spending most of your time hiking, swimming in the lake or several rivers, site seeing amongst the gorgeous pine trees, or just relaxing and taking it all in. In Winter, skiing is available.

We've been traveling to Mt Shasta for the last few years.  Everytime we go, it's just as beautiful as the first time we saw it.  If you need a weekend away and you enjoy the outdoors, try this area of California.  It's not crowded, mainly locals and a much slower way of life.  Our suggestion is to look on line and rent either a cabin or house.  It's more affordable than hotels and gives you the option of a kitchen.

You simply cannot beat the views of Mt. Shasta!

Sunny Southern California

Need a nice easy weekend away? Try the Newport beach area.  My suggestion would be to fly into Orange County John Wayne's airport versus LAX.  Prices are about the same, but John Wayne is easier to get around and get out of so you can start enjoying your weekend quicker!

You can have a GREAT and relaxing weekend in this area.  I suggest having breakfast on the beach, after all, that's why you're there.  Along the Pacific Coast Highway there are LOTS of terrific choices, but two that stand out for breakfast are:  Las Brisas and Beachcombers.

View at the Beachcombers Restaurant

Las Brisas Restaurant - Laguna Beach

The weather is perfect pretty much year round, but I especially like this area in September.  Bring comfy walking shoes so you can walk, hike or just be outdoors.  If you're feeling really adventurous try the stairs along the beach cliffs.  It will help you burn off that yummy breakfast.  Enjoy sunny Southern California!!

Try it, you'll like it!

We recently took our 1st river cruise in Europe.  Since our last cruise of any kind, was over 20 years ago, we really didn't have a comparison on what to expect regarding the cuisine.  Since the cost of these cruises are pretty pricey, you hope for the best, not sure what you will actually get as a consumer.

We were pleasantly surprised by the experience.  Here's a couple pictures of one of our meals.  You can see that the presentation of the food is very similar to a fine restaurant.  They have a full staff of professionally trained waiters and an executive chef preparing the meals.  The quality was excellent and the staff went out of their way to make sure we were happy with the results.

We will add more information about the river cruise in our next few blogs....please stay tuned.