Gloria's Travel Blog

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In 1870 the “Boardwalk” of Atlantic City was built with the idea of keeping the sand away from the hotels lobbies, who would have thought that the 6 miles long “Boardwalk” will remain one of the most popular attractions today.

Atlantic City keeps getting better every day, its new hotels are incredible, such  as the Borgata which competes with the best hotels in Las Vegas, the Harrar’s new tower and the pool area are excellent. Tropicana also has two new towers and remodeled the entire hotel, added a mall that has everything, great restaurants, shops of all kinds and of course a formidable casino.  The Trump Taj Mahal, which originally cost one billion dollars  is spectacular, although I would say needs to be remodeled;  and many more casinos that I can’t name because the list would be endless.  I suggest you look for the internet specials since they often offers “upgrades” to the new towers, but don’t forget to mentioned at arrival or better yet take a copy of the reservation with the upgrades.  Find out if parking is included with the hotel room, since most of the times is not.  Gambling is not the only thing to do in  in Atlantic City, if you go in summer you can enjoy the beautiful beach or pools, and at the end of the Boarwalk is an amusement park, also you may visit The Lighthouse at Pacific and Rhode Island Ave. It was restored, but it was built originally in 1857, it has 228 steps, and from the top you can see a beautiful view of its surroundings.  Admission is $ 7.00.

ATLANTIC CITY ART CENTER  in New Jersey Ave and Garden Pier  has exhibitions of different artists, Tel (609) 347-5837. It’s free.  ATLANTIC CITY HISTORICAL MUSEUM is near by and also is free.  Ripley’s belive IT OR NOT  is at New York  Avenue and Boardwalk and they always have a lot of  unusual things.  Admission is $ 14.99 Tel: (609) 347-2001.

HARRAH’S  Hotel

Going down South on Atlantic Avenue at 9200 Atlantic Ave. make sure to see the 90 tons “Lucy The Elephant”  that was built in 1881 by a Realtor to attract customers.   Nearby is  CAPE MAY  which has a zoo of over 200 species. If you need to continie south on your trip, you may want to you may want to take an alternative route tp I-95.  There is  a ferry ride (80 minutes) that crosses the Delaware to Cape May which is 17 miles from Atlantic City.  Your car is parked on the  Ferry’s 1st deck and you climb the stairs or take the elevator to a very pleasant second level where you may seat and have coffee or lunch etc.;  the ferry holds 100 cars. We recommed making reservations. For more information on fares and hours of operation go to:  www.capemaylewesferry.com  or  call 1-800-643-3779.  In my  next blog I will continue this trip through the East coast to Florida.

Photos by: Gloria & Vily

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Do you live or are vacationing in Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Phoenix, Flagstaff, or Los Angeles?  A few hours away is  one of the most mystical cities of US.  Sedona is full of positive vibrations, and rocks with  vortex energy.

Bell Rock, Table Top Mountain, Cathedral Rock and Bounton Canyon are good examples of such energy.  When I read about  these energies, I learned that a good relaxation and then rubbing my hands and placing them near the rock , my  hands should move up or sideways.  When my husband and I got to Bell Rock, I went up the rock and he stayed down filming me without my knowledge.   I did a little meditation and did not feel anything, but to our astonishment when we saw the movie at home, my hands had moved sideways during my meditation without me noticing anything.  I feel that we had a very successful trip and we enjoyed it very much.

Among the activities you can do in Sedona are  Jeep Tours , take a train ride (Green Canyon Wilderness Train) or a safari in a 4X4 truck.    We stayed in Sedona at the Best Western.  Other area activities includes  helicopter tours and many more.

For those who love  gulf or horse riding tours check Krazy Kyoto tours.  If you have a car try going to a chapel that was built between two rocks, the Chapel of the Holy Cross,  and if you want to buy souvenirs visit “Tlaquepaque”, a small village with shops, restaurants, and galleries.  336 Hwy 179 at the Bridge.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

If you have time take  89-A south and look for a town called Jerome where their houses seems to be hanging from the edge of the mountain.  We had lunch there and watch a very nice free street party with Mariachis.

If you have a couple of extra days, don’t miss going to Page AZ.   Take the 89-A  North which becomes 89 North  to Page, Az . which  is about 3 hours from Sedona.  From there you can visit the Glen Dam and Lake Powell.   In  summer you can take a boat cruise of several hours, seeing natural beauty in red rock formations. You also will see “Rainbow bridge arch”, the world largest natural arch.   Next day you may want to go to “Antelope  CANYON” or “ SLOT CANYON”.   This beauty belongs to the Navajo Indians and is a “must see” attraction.  They sell the tours in town, we took one aboard a SUB 4×4  www.antilopecanyon.com  or Tel: 928-645-9102.  See pictures and we hope you enjoy this adventure.

Antelope Canyon entrance

Antelope Canyon (the kiss).  Look at the picture sideways to see the kiss.

Photos by: Gloria & Vily

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Ingonish Beach, is at the entrance to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  The entrance fee to the park is $ 24.00 for 4 days.  It  has 25 trails  of approximately 20 minutes walking through moutains with beautiful views. Very suitable for the entire family. This whole region relies mainly on tourism and fishing  and is 60 kilometers from Baddeck. Ingonish has four communities: Ingonisk Ferry, Ingonish Harbor, Ingonish Beach, and Ingonish Center.  This area was one of the first communities of Cape Breton Island, we stayed there one night.    Most hotels are closed from October to May, for the winter, so check first.

You can also call the visitor centers which opens from May to October at 1-800-565-0000.

To go to Baddeck, we decided to go north via the Cabot Trail, we passed by Aspy Bay, its founders were Scots and Irish who settled there around  1833.  It seems like a quiet fishing village and it was there where we saw whales quite closely.  There was a sign announcement a tour boat to see whales, but we were very lucky to see them from shore.

We took the alternative route of Cabot Trail, named after the explorer John Cabot, and went  to the north of Cape Breton, where you will find viewpoints with wonderful views.  You will see  Aspy Bay, White Point and  the Gulf of St Lawrence.  CABOT TRAIL runs through 185 miles (300 km) in between beautiful mountains and wonderful views.

BADDECK  is a Canadian village in Victoria County, Nova Scotia, north of the Bras d”Or Lake (Salt Lake).   Became famous in 1930 when they opened the Cabot Trail, and also  in 1956 when the Alexander Graham Bell Museum was open, attracting more tourists.

There are several hotels, motels, and restaurants, as well as  gulf courses. We stayed at the Inverary Resort, renovated in 2005 and overlooking the lake.

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone among other things, falls in love with this region and the city of  Baddeck where they can see the lighthouse from his museum.  He built his mansion “Beinn Bhreagh” here at the edge of Salt Lake, and lived there for the rest of his life. At present, their descendants still live at this mansion.  You can find more information about this great inventor at his museum in Baddeck.

From there we went to see the Mary Ann Falls, the area was very pretty, but  lonely, so beware of wild animals.

In my next blog I will continue our trip to Halifax. We stayed 15 days throughout Nova Scotia. so I always say “Plan well your vacations, since they will bring you unforgetable memories”

Photos by Gloria & Vily

See more photos at:  http://gloria305vacaciones.com/ingonish-beach-cape-breton-island-nova-scotia-canada/

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If you are dreaming to visit Alaska, don’t hesitate and do it now. You’ll never forget such trip and the experiences acquired on this trip. My husband and I went last year and we chose the southbound route from Anchorage to Vancouver. The voyage was fantastic and we only wish to do it all over again in order to visit those places that we missed on our first trip. We went aboard the Carnival Spirit.    This ship has 1062 cabins and capacity of 2124 passengers and a crew of 930. The ship is rated at 88,500 tons and is register in Panama. The captain is Italian and this year (2009) will depart on July 1st, 15th, 29th and Aug. 12th, 26th.  If you can get a balcony, it is worth it for this trip. Seldom we do that, but Alaska deserves this upgrade. We flew to Anchorage and then Carnival drove us to the port of Whittier. To get to the port we went through the Anton Anderson tunnel which is the longest in North America. We started to see glaciers from the bus on our way to the port, so have your camera ready since there are a lot of opportunities to take good pictures alone this trip.

Once we sailed we went in route to Prince William Sound and College Fjord, then it enters Blackstone Bay and stop for a while to view all the glaciers, which are named after different colleges such as Harvard, etc. and then it turned slowly 180 degrees to exit. The beauty of the College Fjord is indescribable, there are blue ice floating everywhere and it is like seeing giant art sculptures in front of your eyes. A heavy coat is recommended since this is the coldest part of the trip and is usually very windy.

The temperature there was in the low 40 F and this was the beginning of August which is the hottest time there. College Fjord glacier photos:

Next stop was SITKA, which is the fourth biggest city in Alaska with a population of 8,835. It was habited by Russians and is only accessible by plane or ship. There is an old Russian church that is now call St. Michael’s Cathedral.

We saw a show at the local theater, went to Sitka National Historical Park, where we saw an eagle and saw theTotem poles. The Totem poles were made to tell the stories of their families, ancestors, and sometime politicians, etc.

Our next stop was the Capital of Alaska, JUNEAU, surrounded by the beautiful Gastineau Channel. When Joe Juneau y Richard Harris found gold in 1880, Alaska’s capital encounter a rush of American settling there. At that time up to 20,000 tons of gold were process. Not until 1944, when the gold dropped in price, that the gold mines were abandon.

Thirteen (13) miles from the center of Juneau, you can found the Mendenhall glacier, which is the beginning of Glacier Bay National Park & Tracy Arm Fjord. The tour to Mendenhall glacier is a must. A photo of this glacier is attached.

Mendenhall glacier in Juneau

We departed Juneau via the Cruise Lynn Canal to Skagway. From 1897-98 Skagway had a population of more than 20,000 people due to the gold rush of that era, but when the mines were abandon the people left town. The town is now small, but it preserves the wooden sidewalks and the building from the gold rush era. Most of these building are now souvenir stores for tourists.

We went to downtown looking for bargains, but returned soon in order to grab our train tour to White Pass in Yucon territory, Canada. The roundtrip took 4 hours and they explained the history of the train construction in 1898 during the “Klondike Gold Rush” and the stampede of new settlers from the mainland to Alaska and Canada. We were very pleased with this tour, and again, a jacket is recommended since the weather and the wind changes quickly in this part of the country. For more information see www.skagway.com.

KETCHIKAN is the most southern city in Alaska and is known as the Salmon capital. It’s a colorful small town and conserve many of the original building of the gold rush era. Creek street is one of the most famous part of town and it is within walking distance of the port. There you can walk through the old town and take a funicular to a town museum and also to some totem poles.

We took a tour “Totem Bight State Historic Park”, where they show us how they make totem poles and also talked about the life of the natives Tlingit.

From there the ship takes the Inside Passage to Vancouver Canada.

We booked all our tours through the ship office, which are more expensive than if you do it ashore, but you are assured  that the ship won’t leave without you.  That is something you have to keep in mind when you bargain for a tour ashore.

PHOTOS by Gloria & Vily

See more pictures at http://gloria305vacaciones.com/alaskafrontera-de-las-tierras-virgenes/

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