Women Travel Blog

Chicago - what a great city… stay at the Gold Coast B&B

A short taxi ride took me to the Gold Coast B&B where I met innkeeper Sally. The house is beautifully set up for a B&B, with a gorgeous sheltered garden. I had heard of this B&B, and it was great to meet Sally who had bought this house 15 years ago, especially to set up a B&B. Sally pointed me in good directions for food and the architecture tours I was interested in. Sally’s place is much in demand, and due to overbooking I was relocated to a nearby apartment which was also great.

A tour of the Charnley-Persky house was first on my agenda – just a short walk away. This house was designed by Louis Sullivan in 1891, with Frank Lloyd Wright was his junior draftperson at the time. Sullivan rejected the historical details common to Victorian Architecture in favour of abstract forms that later became the hallmarks of modern architecture. The house and the details in it are exquisite, helped by the fact that Charnley who commissioned the house, was a lumberman.

In the afternoon I joined the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s First Lady Architectural tour of the river. From the first skyscapers in the 1920s with gothic forms, to the modern and postmodern – this is a fabulous city – with river walks, and the marinas on Lake Michigan. I could not resist a bike ride along the lakeshore, and found a bicycle hire place near the Millennium Park. The city has done a lot to open up the lakeshore to bikes and walkers, and it is a joy to ride around, keepiing to the right of course!

Seattle to Chicago by train .. on time

They seemed to be have the airconditioning on freezing, but the conductor was very happy to provide an extra blanket. Once again I slept to the gentle rocking motion and occasional whistles. I even slept through the adding of new carriages. I awoke to the absolutely amazing beauty of the Montana Glacier National Park – mountains, gorges, rivers – and even a commentary along the way.

The sleeper car had a shower – so I enjoyed that start to the day, and got in late to breakfast, which mean there was not too much pressure to move on. After this the flatlands of Montana – crops for hundreds of miles.

This two day trip was great and only took 2 days – we arrived less than an hour late, crossing two times zones.

The Oregon Coast… beaches but no swimming…

My friend Dolores luckily had a lot to do in Portland as she waited for the train, and we still had 1.5 hour drive to the Gearhart on the Oregon Coast before we were home, after enjoying dinner at Yummy - an excellent wine bar at Seaside.. The next day we hit some of the local beaches – Cannon Beach and Mansanita – both lovely seaside towns with boutique shops and lots of people on the beaches – but NONE in the water – the locals obviously feel it is too cold – with only small children trying the waves. There were signs that it was a good surfing spot, but I did not see anyone except paddlers like me on the edge of the waves.

That night it was back to Portland – Dolores had got front row seats to a Melissa Etheridge concert – we were in spitting distance – right in front of a speaker, so it was something you definitely felt as well as heard. I enjoyed it, I am not that familiar with her music – but she is a great performer and her lead guitarist was AMAZING.

This is her Revival Tour and she essentially sang her way through her life – leaving Kansas and heading for California, a failed relationships, the search for love, breast cancer, and more recently her political activism with Al Gore (she did the soundtrack for Incovenient Truth) and the Democrats (she is singing at their convention next week). A great night out in a fabulous older concert hall (the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall) filled with Portland lesbians and a few staunch men. I think I will get some of the tracks off itunes when I get home.

Sunday – a visit to Astoria Sunday markets was in store – unfortunately it rained, so browsing was not too much fun, though I did manage to buy some fruit for the train journey. We were a bit late leaving and got caught in some traffic heading back to Portland - nearly had an Amtrak moment ourselves, as I was close to missing the train – but got there with 10 mins to spare.

Amtrak story 2 Seattle to Portland…

This was only a 3 hour trip, so I travelled coach – they say there are two reasons people go by train – one because its cheaper (coach class) and the other is because its a relaxing and fun way to travel (Sleeper class). Both classes have twice as much leg room as a plane. And you can even get a sleeper with its own bathroom if you pay a bit more.

The only down side is that you can not count on them being in time, so don’t plan an urgent appointment at the destination. I suppose you can sense a story coming here….

My friends Sandy and Melissa delivered me to the Seattle amtrak station, and we boarded on time.

Problem one – someone had thrown a rock at the engine and it had to be replaced. So we were one hour leaving the station.

Problem two – an hour and a half into our trip and an announcement said there had been ‘an incident on the tracks’ involving a freight train ahead of us. Half an hour later, an announcement that someone had walked into the train, the federal police were involved and it would be sometime before we moved. It was about 2 hours before a cheer went up as the train began to move. Thank God for mobile phones - everyone was texting friends to let them know of the delay.

Problem three – a bucks party got out of control – nothing to do but drink I guess, and we stopped again to clear them off the train.

All in all the three hour journey took 8 hours – the toilets stopped working when they ran out of water and the complimentary snacks disappeared before we got anywhere near them. I was looking forward to watching Prince Caspian on the screen, and paid $4 for some earphones, but it appeared that the sound was not working anywhere in the train, so it was a silent movie.

The one nice thing was the comraderie that developed in the coach as train jokes and stories emerged – as one of the young men I was sitting with said “We got to know each other four hours better than we needed to”. A big cheer went up when we arrived in Portland – one thing I got a very good value journey for $28US!

Salt Spring Island British Columbia – another world..

Two ferries and a bus ride took me from downtown Seattle to the other world of Salt Sping Island, in British Columbia  (why do they call it that?) This is one of the ‘Gulf Islands’ , it is a world away from Seattle, or even the lovely Canadian town of Victoria, where the Victoria Clipper Ferry delivered me onto Canadian soil for the first time in my life.

A bus (no. 70) to the end of Vancouver Island, and a car ferry ride to Fulford Harbour had me at Salt Spring, where my host Claire McDuff picked me up. Clare runs Island Farmhouse B&B and health studio – yes you can have a therapeutic massage, reiki or hot tub treatment on site.

I had contacted Clare because she was on my WTW site as a women owned accommodation business - Find it here. When she picked me up, she asked me if she knew Judith Pringle, a Nzer she knew. Amazing (or maybe not?!), here I am meeting someone who lives on this small island with 11,000 other people, and I am half way around the world from home, and we know the same person, and more enquiries found others that we knew in common from when Clare had taught architecture in Auckland.

This lovely island seems full of B&Bs and artists, with a landscape of trees and water – most people seem to have brought over their cars, there a few on bikes, and others hitchhike around. A few local buses traverse the island, especially meeting ferries, and they even take bikes on the front! I was without transport, and Clare kindly helped me out taking me out when there were chores to be done. Island Farmhouse B&B is a lovely collection of buildings and gardens set on 10 acres. Clare has horses and chickens, a dog and cat and her kids have rabbits – one of them is being trained to jump! I can see that families would love this place.

I rode a bike down to explore the village of Ganges, which was fine – downhill all the way – though I dreaded the ride home, but I was saved when Clare decided to meet me there, and join me for a kayak for a couple of hours with Island Escapades. Dai, our young guide said we were the best paddlers she had had all year – which was not bad considering that Clare and I were in a double kayak for the first time and the wind was against us.

We did well, got into a rhythm, and were soon across the channel to Goat Island. Here we found a —- starfiish – 250 cms across – 20 legs and bright orange – it was beautiful. Further on we saw a sea lion 30 m away, and eagle nests perched in the top of dead trees. The wind dropped for our paddle home, and just before the marina, 2 m in front of me a seal popped its head up to say hi – it was the perfect end to the trip, made even more perfect by Claire’s offer to take me and the bike back uphill in her truck.

Adventure Associates in Washington

For 2o years Sandy of Adventure Associates in Washington has been designing and running tours for women, so it was great to hunt her down in my recent trip to Seattle - luckily she was home, as she was having a yard sale.  So on this extremely hot day, we headed out to West Seattle to see her.  The yard sale was going well - lots of buyers and bargains to be had.

Sandy and her partner Vanessa both work out of home - with two separate businesses - so no commute for them.  Established in 1987, Adventure Associates is an ecologically sensitive adventure-based travel company specializing in small-group, international and domestic active travel programs - they do a lot of local programmes - including kayaking and camping tours in the nearby San Juan Islands, but they also lead tours further afield  to Peru, Nepal, Africa, and of course New Zealand.

Sandy has not been to NZ yet, but is planning a trip herself soon.  Roz and Cynthia of Bushwise women used to guide their NZ trips, and more recently Lyn of Driftwood Dreamers has been the guide.

It is always great to meet people you have been emailing, and see them in the flesh and find out more about their work - so this trip is a great opportunity to do this.  They are now on the Women Travel the World website - find them here

Live simply in Nairobi Kenya

I have just been in touch with Caren Akinyi Orao, who is a widow aged 40years living in kenya.  She has set up  a home where she can assist women who are lees fortunate in the society in Nairobi. She runs  a project of weaving baskets and accomodating visitors who are willing to stay with families and enjoy the real african culture, within the house everything is provided accomodation, food from breakfast to supper at acost of 10 dollars/day. this money is then used by the women to buy more materials to weave the basket.

What a great opportunity to meet and stay with local women in Kenya…  See more about Caren’s garden 

Prize Winning NZ Walking Tour is back…

Due to Popular demand Bushwise Women have the BANKS PENINSULA TRACK back on their Programme of tours for women.  This trip is just out of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand.  See details of this tour and other tours in New Zealand HereDates: Sunday 01 March 2009 to Thursday 05 March 2009 

This World renowned, 4 day tramp, which begins above the historic town of Akaroa, crosses private farmland and Hinewai Reserve. The track covers 35 kilometres often skirting the rugged volcanic coastline which plunges dramatically to a foaming sea and fringes a marine mammal sanctuary. The South East Bays of Banks Peninsula were not previously accessible to the public and the farmers have welcomed trampers by creating attractive accommodation. 

Enjoy the wide open spaces, the waterfalls, rocky cliffs, beech forests, seals and penguins, going at our own pace. 

This trip is suitable for those new to tramping. You will be walking up hill and down dale from 3 to 5 hours each day.  

Depart: Sunday, 1st March 2009 Meet at 5.45pm at the P.O./Info Centre in Akaroa for pick up and orientation. Finish date: 5th March 2009  

Cost: $ 465  

Contact yvonne@bushwise.co.nz to book.

Go to http://www.bushwise.co.nz” to find out more about Bushwise Women activities.

Lake Washington

We drove over to where Melissa and Sandy keep their double rowing skul (?sp) at the University of Washington water sports area - we hired a canoe and had a great couple of hours paddling amongst water lillies - there were turtles sun basking on the logs, some beautiful grey herons - twice as big as in NZ, and we saw a beautiful kingfisher too. Yesterday we went on a 2 hour hike, tomorrow it is a bike ride - Sandy and Melissa are super fit and I am doing my best to keep up - though they are lowering their expectations a little to include me, which is nice!

I can’t believe how good it is to be on this trip - I am sleeping, relaxing and enjoying the ride.   Such a contrast to packing up and leaving my life in NZ for a while - its like a page has been turned.

Food is great in Seattle - we ate Ethiopian last night, had great gumbo at a pub tonight, and have found several places for good coffee. It feels like a great city - Puget Sound on one side, lakes on the other, distant mountains and volcanic peaks, lots of Vote for OBAMA posters in the front lawn.

Arriving in Seattle…

Well the Amtrak was only 2 hours late - not bad for a 24 hour trip, and it was a great trip - through the dry country of Northern California, then the wooded mountains of Oregan and through to Washington State.My friends sandy and Melissa (and their cute dog Junior) met me at the station and after talking for ages, finally crashed in a lovely cool basement room - it is very hot here - 80/90 deg.The next day I rode a bus to Lake Washington and cooled off with a swim there - very warm water.  On the way home we bought some fresh salmon and veges at the farmers market - there are farmers markets everywhere here it seems.  They are fabulous, and clearly a regular part of many people’s shopping routines.�