Trips posted in
Alfred O’Neill
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Egnazia, the lost town: The Museum of the ancients outside of Monopli, Puglia
In Puglia, in southern Italy, near the vacation town of Monopoli, was the oddest, almost ignored and yet gem of a museum and ancient town site called Engazia, dating back to pre-Roman Bronze Age period when the Greeks colonized the Eastern coast of Italy. We love ancient places, they teach so much, give away so…
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Can You Miss Bryce Canyon, Utah, in Your Lifetime? It’s just like Mars.
Bruce Canyon, Utah, Alien to the eye; avoid the crowds. This may be the shortest post we ever post. Why? Well, if you know anything about Bryce Canyon, or have been there, you know that no matter how loquacious the writing, or mastery of adjectives, it is a story of visual awe. But before sharing…
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The Mighty and Mystical Redwoods of Big Sur, California
For all the panoramas, beaches, cliffs, parks, Big Sur is inseparable from the majesty of the Redwoods,. Redwoods are the mightiest trees on earth. And exist, for the most part, only in California. They can range from 200 to over 400 feet, and can be thousands of years old. The oldest can have a base…
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Big Sur, California: the divine and the redwoods
Big Sur, California Five days at the Ventana Inn For those that have been to Big Sur, perhaps we share the same same sense that as you pass the Molera State Park and start the climb up the mountain road of highway 1, it is always the first time you have seen it. For those…
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Thasos of Ft Lauderdale: good Greek food confounded by service so bad they knew it was bad!
We love Greek food. And Thasos of Ft Lauderdale, Florida has good food, but the service was so appallingly bad we would not recommend anyone going. What was most egregious, was the entire staff seemed to know they had lousy service and just accepted it. We visit Ft Lauderdale more than any other place in…
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Exploring New Mexico: A Journey Through Taos and Its Pueblo
While Santa Fe gets all the focus, touring New Mexico is a trip you need to make time for. It embraces and unifies all the elements of any great tour of America’s grand Southwest– nature’s glory, amazing Indian cultural highlights and their conqueror’s history. This trip was to Santa Fe but we decided to take…
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Forget the cities! Two weeks in Abruzzo and Puglia, Italy.
In this post, we will cover the start of a June journey to Italy. Not Florence, or Venice or the lake region, or other famous areas. But some lesser, and perhaps completely unknown to most, even the most experienced traveler. A week in Abruzzo.A week in Puglia. Drove back and two days in Rome.Over 2400…
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UNESCO site: the magnificent ruins of Castel Del Monte, Grand Sasso mountains, Italy.
Another UNESCO site — magnificent, haunting and mighty in its ruin On of our travel goals is to see as many UNESCO sites as possible. Why? Simply because they are a guaranteed unique and magnificent experience — whether Angkor Watt in Cambodia, or Glendalough, Ireland, these sites are all so different, and all a tribute…
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Sage, French restaurant in Ft Lauderdale and the #1 duck…really.
Sage of Ft. Lauderdale: they say they have the #1 best selling duck. There’s good reason. We had gone to Sage, a French restaurant on route 1 near the Whole Foods. We recall that the Coq Au Vin and the bouillabaisse was quite good, but the latter had too much saffron in it which overwhelmed…
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Best Thai in any city: Lemongrass! (In Ft Lauderdale for sure!)
Thai food may be our favorite Asian cuisine. Yes, we love sushi…but that is in a different class of Asian food. The menu, with its almost confusing mix of seafood, sushi, Thai food and an odd eclectic assortment of dishes, can be a bit daunting. The usual reaction is to ask why such a broad…
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Amazing history, hiking and the inspiring though sad tale of Jack London Park
Jack London was the original American outdoors writer…”Call of The Wild” and numerous other nature/adventure novels and short stories made him famous and rich. But his real love was this enormous farm which is now a state park. It is a stunning and complex place and far more than a park — it is testament…
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“Girl and half-a-fig…what happened?”
It had been 10 years since last I ate at this restaurant. It really was an amazing meal with great atmosphere. This past New Year’s we went to Sonoma to celebrate. I wanted to check out the Girl & The Fig, so we did. What a disappointment! The scene was a madhouse, the hostesses were…
Outspoken Traveler 