Walnut Grove Cruise & Ltd Travel Blog

What a great city! Beautiful, serene and full of life. The temperature is always pleasant and in the rainy season (April/May) there's a little precipitation during the night or late afternoon. The days are always the same length being on the equator. It's almost like standing in time. Being a Central American city there the typical many small shops, churches... read more

Culture shock!After a 7-8 hour bus ride, we arrived in Montanita, a beachside town on the coast of Ecuador. Long white beaches, ocean waves suitable for a large number of surfers and a playground for locals and tourists alike. When I thought of Ecuador I envisioned simple towns, quiet life and sparse landscape. While true of some of Ecuador, this... read more

A early start from Santa Cruz and a two hour speedboat ride and we arrived at the harbour of San Cristobal Island. Not a large town but alive with activity, shops, tours (sightseeing, scuba and fishing) and restaurants (Ecuadorian and American cuisine).Our hotel was one of the best in town complete with very comfortable beds, showers, pool and wifi. The... read more

Today we ventured over to Isabela Island. The only town here is small (about 2500 people live on the entire island). There are however some excellent restaurants and services (laundry) and tour companies. The locals seem very friendly. Life seems very laid back. Our hotel here is one of the best on the island. Right on the waterfront and with... read more

Returning to from Isabel Island by speed boat to Santa Cruz was for just one night. That afternoon in Santa Cruz we had a tour by boat to a nearby dock where we walked for about 100 yards past salt ponds where we could see how they still make salt in the traditional way. At the end of this path we... read more

Portraying Theon Greyjoy, actor Alfie Allen endures great agony. Yet he can never get enough of the filming. read more

Things retirees look for in a vacation  1. Service: Retirees are obsessed with the quality of service they receive. From booking to the actual travel experience itself, retirees demand that travel providers bring their " A " Game.  2. Value: Retirees are less concerned with cost, and more concerned with getting value for their retirement dollars.  3. City slickers: Retiree's love to experience... read more

Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica as well as a component of the dish – ackee and codfish. read more

Our journey began with a little road trip from Paris to the Normandy coast in northern France.Eight women, 2 mini-vans, and tons of luggage headed from Charles De Gaule airport through the busy streets of Paris.....ignorance is bliss!! Marcia at the helm of the VW soon lost her way but through the generosity and understanding of many Parisiens, she was... read more

Having grown up in Wisconsin, my husband and his entire family are HUGE Green Bay Packers fans (complete with Cheeseheads)! Since basically all of the football tickets are passed down from generation to generation, we felt privileged to be invited to join his family when they went to the opening weekend game. Since Green Bay is only four hours from... read more

My husband had a one-day business conference in Roanoke, Virginia, and I wanted to tag-along so we could also visit Cascade Falls, which wasn’t very far away. He works for Microsoft and often goes out of town for business meetings.After his conference was finished, we had a nice dinner. I had explored the town while he was busy with his... read more

Lower Bond Falls Since I had to travel to Minneapolis for business meetings, I decided to stay a bit longer and drive over to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see Bond Falls. I’d wanted to see it since I saw it listed on CNN’s Top Ten Waterfalls in the US. I persuaded a colleague to join me, so the... read more

As my girlfriend and I pulled out of her driveway in Seattle, we said goodbye to our guys and set out to see the world. Actually we just set out to drive to Western Oregon and Idaho because we wanted to visit friends and see Triple Falls in the Columbia River Gorge and the Shoshone Falls in Idaho. We’d gone... read more

The holiday season seems to bring two things: heartfelt contributions to help those in need… and shopping. In a way it’s a funny combination, but when shopping for the perfect gift for a loved one also benefits a charity, it’s a wonderful way to do your holiday shopping. For the second year in a row, Walnut Grove Travel will be... read more

My husband and children were excited about our vacation to visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona and the surrounding areas. All I could think about was why are we visiting a desert (hot) instead of a gorgeous tropical island destination, but my husband had seen that you could walk on top of a glass lookout and see the valley and... read more

We flew out of Vancouver International Airport to San Francisco, California, picked up our rental car and drove to Yosemite National Park. I’ve always wanted to visit this park, hike the trails, climb the mountains and explore this ancient valley.I still remember the first time I saw Ansel Adams’ photos of Yosemite Valley’s majestic mountains, verdant valleys and cascading waterfalls.... read more

Handsome guy :-) There must be a thousand on this island.Today we landed on the first Galápagos Island, Santa Cruz, and immediately went to see a lava tunnel situated on a private estate. No bats or other wild animals but deep and over 400 meters long. The effects of the lava flow can be seen along the walls. Much cooler... read more

After a long day flying, we arrived at our adorable hotel in Quito, Ecuador. Cathy really scored with this one. We're right in town and the rooms and staff are welcoming.Our first tour included a drive through Quito. Quito is nestled in the mountains of Ecuador, is only about 5 Kim's wide and 36 km long. Being at over 9000... read more

Misao & family moving to Japan Here are a couple of gems that I found when going through my trip photos. In the last blog post I wrote about one of our ladies that was on the trip with us, Misao. Along with many people of Japanese heritage, Misao and her family were displaced to Japan during the Japanese internment. At... read more

Getting married is an exciting life step. It marks the shift from ‘I’ to ‘we’ and planning your dream wedding is exciting. It can also be a lot of work. A friend of mine recently told me about how stressful she was finding wedding planning to be and that she couldn’t wait for it to be over. Definitely not what... read more