Travel

CAROL PUCCI/The Seattle Times
A scenic drive around the top of the West Maui Mountains leads to the Nakalele Blowhole.

Offbeat -- and off the beaten path

MAUI, Hawaii -- Sample the cream puffs at a historic Japanese bakery.

Test your driving skills on a one-lane stretch of mountain road that weaves along coastal cliffs.

Buy a pineapple at a roadside stand. Watch the owner slice it with his machete. Then eat it as the juice drips down your chin.

If you're a first-timer on Maui, the guidebooks can help with the official checklist: sunrise at the Haleakala volcano. Snorkeling at Black Rock. Paddle-boarding off the coast in Lahaina.

Been there, done that, or just looking for something new? Pry yourself out of the lounge chair and put together your own mini-adventure. Here are some ideas for exploring off-the-beaten path.

BRIAN J. CANTWELL/Seattle Times
The Chief Factor's house at Fort Vancouver, Wash., includes replicas of cannons that the Hudson's Bay Co. placed there to give the fort an air of authority in the wild Northwest of the early 19th century.

Fort Vancouver a start for future settlements

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- It was a December night, around the mid-1800s from the look of it, in a cozy candlelit parlor. I was eavesdropping on a teatime conversation between James Douglas, Fort Vancouver's chief trader, and Narcissa Whitman, another famed pioneer of the era. The topic: "country marriages."

That was the euphemism of the day for pairings between local Native American women and the fort's male employees, brought to the edge of a wild continent on contract with the fur-trading Hudson's Bay Co.

JIM BUCHTA/Minneapolis Star Tribune
Horses and riders make their way up a trail at Tanque Verde, a working ranch that sidles up to Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Ariz, where guests get to live a "Gunsmoke"-style life.

'Gunsmoke' comes to life

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Gene Autry I wasn't. Barely an hour ino an all-day trail ride, my hiking boots felt like ovens and my baseball cap barely shaded my face.

It was no better for my horse, Cutter. The low Arizona sun lit his red mane like flames. We were climbing, and Cutter struggled to get his footing on the rocky, steep trail. Sweat trickled down his shoulders as a dozen wannabe cowboys plodded along nose-to-tail behind a real cowboy named Joe.

BILL HAGEMAN/Chicago Tribune
This is one of hundreds of staircases in hilly parts of Los Angeles.

Stairways to the stars?

LOS ANGELES -- Every tourist destination has its so-called hidden attractions: off-the-beaten-path sites that visitors have to put some effort into finding. Several such locations are in Los Angeles, but it's impossible not to stumble across them.

They're the staircases woven through the hilly areas adjacent to downtown Los Angeles. Some are only a few steps, some are hundreds, and there may be upward of 400 staircases.

Jewel

CALL IT A DOOMCATION: Celebrities relate where they want to be at world's end

The Mayan calendar ends a 5,126-year cycle on Dec. 21, 2012. That might not mean a thing. Or it could signal the end of the world. There's a lot of leeway here.

For the sake of this story, let's assume that this is it. Those know-it-all Mayans had it figured out, and humanity will reach its expiration date this coming Dec. 21.

What is a person to do?

KERRI WESTENBERG/Minneapolis Star Tribune
A replica Mayan temple rises over the water park at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

The continent of Atlantis no longer a myth: Paradise Island in the Bahamas the home of a huge water park

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- My daughter circled the sun, bobbing around the yellow mosaic tile work at the bottom of the pool. Everywhere in the Royal Baths, the water was no deeper than 3 feet, which meant that my 9-year-old could touch the bottom wherever she happened to float.

I felt no need to play lifeguard. My iced coffee was within arm's reach. A newspaper, unopened, lay at the foot of the lounge chair. I closed my eyes, preparing to take my own dive, not into water but deep relaxation, the tropical kind that leaves you sweating, listless and absolutely blissful.

That's when I heard the shriek.

ABEL URIBE/Chicago Tribune
In this Nov. 13, 2002, file photograph, David Davila (right), of Le Meridien hotel's front deck, checks in a customer. User-generated reviews of hotels can be helpful for travelers.

Travel sites can be indispensable ... but can they be trusted?

Nowhere is the Internet's democratic nature clearer than in the user-generated reviews on such websites as Yelp and TripAdvisor. All it takes to weigh in on a restaurant, hotel, spa, bar, bowling alley -- anything, really -- is a username and password.

While they're a boon for consumers sharing unfiltered ideas and opinions, there are obvious hazards: What can be trusted? How do we know a hotel owner hasn't put family members up to clogging sites with positive reviews of his property and negative reviews of his competition?

Some travel websites to surf

A few cool travel websites:

www.drive-alive.co.uk/fuel_prices_europe.html

Before you plan a driving trip in Europe, get a feel for how much fuel will cost. This site posts regular updates on prices for gasoline and diesel in European countries and the United Kingdom.

www.cruisetimetables.com

Check which ports are visited by which ships, and on what dates. You can search by port of call or departure port. If you really want to stop at a certain spot, this tells you which cruise

Weber-Morgan Health Department offers immunizations

Weber-Morgan Health Department offers childhood and adult immunizations Monday through Friday by appointment.

Staying fit in Sin City easy: Las Vegas casinos and restaurants going healthier

For folks who vow that the New Year will include more exercise and fewer calories, Las Vegas can be a place where good intentions disappear like a $20 bill into a slot machine.

However, for those determined to keep those resolutions, a few resorts and restaurants have come up with ways to make it more fun and tasty to honor those earnest pledges of better fitness and nutrition.

Downward dolphin

PATRICIA SHERIDAN/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On display in the Buckhorn Saloon in San Antonio is one of the longest longhorns ever recorded.

REMEMBER THE ALAMO ... and the many other great places in San Antonio, Texas

"You can go to hell ... I'm going to Texas," Davy Crockett said.

It's a sentiment shared by anyone fleeing rut and routine for the romance and myth of the Lone Star State. The legendary frontiersman made that statement after he decided to give up politics and its problems.

For him, that decision meant going from the frying pan into the fire. He ended up losing his life while defending the Alamo, a former Catholic mission built to convert local American Indians in the 1700s, in what is now San Antonio.

Still, Utahns planning to hit the road or fly for holiday weekend

SALT LAKE CITY -- Over the river and through the woods, Utahns are planning to hit the road for Thanksgiving.

Holiday travel for Utahns on the rise

Over the river and through the woods, Utahns are planning to hit the road for Thanksgiving.

According to a travel survey conducted by AAA, more than 3.1 million Mountain West residents plan to travel 50 miles or more during the extended, four-day holiday weekend.

Yosemite seeks a more diverse visitor base

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- Their Yosemite Valley tour was nearing its end, and the church ladies and gents from South Los Angeles had heard enough. Almost.

"He's been telling us stories he thinks we want to hear for two hours," said Ann Hale, 70, heaving a sigh of frustration from the back of the tram.

In fact, guide William Fontana had been regaling his listeners -- most of them white -- with stories about John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt, about fur trappers and rock climbers.

"We're still waiting for at least a few words about Yosemite's African-American Buffalo Soldiers," Hale grumbled to a fellow passenger.

After filing off the tram, some women from Grace United Methodist Church surrounded Fontana on the sidewalk outside the Yosemite Lodge.

"Questions, ladies?" he asked.

Oregon’s Cannon Beach is about 200 miles south of Seattle on the Oregon Coast. Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach is a monolithic rock adjacent to the beach. TIde pools around the rock are home to many intertidal animals, including starfish and sea anemones. The rock is also a nesting site for many sea birds.

MIKE SIEGEL/Seattle Times

A high time at low tide

CANNON BEACH, Ore. -- If someone were to write a book about the weather in Cannon Beach, it would be part mystery, part thriller, part summer romance.

A fleece vest and scarf were all I needed on a recent brisk afternoon as I sat on the Oregon beach, snacking on fresh crab and white wine.

Twelve hours later, the rain was coming down in slanted sheets. I took cover inside Sleepy Monk Coffee Roasters, where a sign on the door warned against high winds. No one bothered taking off their hats and parkas.

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