31 - Sunday, March 18, 1990 ~ North Shore News Fort Huachuca the focus of Sierra Vista PLANNING TO spend the winter in Arizona? You might do well to check out the little city of Sierra Vista. It’s a short driving distance to two of my favorite small towns, Bisbee and Tombstone. and has the advantage of more space. That means more RV _ pads, more available rental suites and more motels. It also has more shops where you can buy a pound travel wise Barbara McCreadie of coffee or a set of shoelaces. History and atmosphere are wonderful, but when it comes to a long visit I tend to get practical. Speaking of practical, 1 found the grocery prices in Arizona — the entire state — quite high com- pared to both the North Shore and Bellingham. Being 4 confirmed grocery-price-snooper, I bought the daily papers everywhere we stopped and dragged Brian through half a dozen super- markets. In general, meats were priced as high or higher than here. Produce surprised me. I’d have expected reduced prices considering the distance is shorter from Mexico to Arizona. Not so. The locals in Arizona have much the same gripes that we have about our ap- ples — the best are exported. In their case, it's oranges. Brian pointed out that the saving on liquor might balance some budgets. We laughed at Canadian Black Velvet rye, those huge crocks with the handles, probably 50 ounces, on sale for $10.99. A Canadian mushroom farmer might do well to open a branch operation in Arizona. I don’t know who grows their mushrooms, but they didn’t impress me. Nei- ther did the prices. Back to Sierra Vista. The city grew up around historic Fort Huachuca, the oldest continually active military fort in the U.S. Visitors are welcome. We visited, but at seven o’clock in the morning not a lot is going on. The museum doesn’t open un- til later in the day so we spent most of our time in the cemetery. Perhaps | should explain why we chose that early an heur to visit the fort. Our schedule called for us to be in Yuma that afternoon, and we had decided that we'd have to miss visiting the fort — just not enough time. However, Bill and Gabe Brett wouldn’t hear of it. They drove over from Tombstone to give us 2 guided tour. We could hardly have found a better guide as Bill is retired from the U.S. Army. When we first met him he was Colonel Brett, in charge of Military In- telligence at Fort Huachuca. But even Bill can’t get into the museum at the crack of dawn. I doubt if anyone could imagine a better way of life than that pro- vided by Fort Huachuca. The homes are modern and immaculate and everything is available in the way of recreation, even if the bowling alley is labelled ‘‘Bowling Facility.’” No one needs to lock a door or to worry about kids com- ing home after dark. One treat we had that isn’t available to the average visitor was breakfast at the Officers’ Club. Excellent. Speaking of breakfast, the previous morning we ate at the coffee shop a1 the Thunder Moun- tain Inn where we were staying. The walls are decorated with a series of excellent watercolors, done by local artist Dale Boatman. By coincidence, he just hap—- pened to be having breakfast there at the same time and the waitress introduced us. Mr. Boat- man has a gallery in town that you might like to visit — 999 E. Fry Blvd., Suite 222. week On previous trips to Arizona we bypassed Yuma, but this time we were determined to pay a visit. This has got to be the RV capital of the world! Yuma is a small city — probably about the same size as Kelowna. However, during the winter, every one of their 22,000 RV pads is fill- ed. Can you imagine the impact of that number of visitors on local businesses? Probably the biggest traffic jam is in the grocery stores and locals tell me that they often end up shopping at midnight to beat the crowds. RV tourists are different from other tourists in that they don't eat in restaurants very often. This is unfortunate because the residents would love to have a wider choice. We did manage to find two super spots. The first was the Mandarin Pal- ace at 350 E. 32nd St. This was handy for us as we stayed right next door at the Best Western. You hardly expect to find one of the nation’s finest Chinese restaurants in a town like Yuma, but there it is. Given the number of Chinese restaurants in Vancouver, we're fairly critical when it comes to Chinese cuisine, but ! must admit that I’ve never had anything better than the dinner there. The selec- 2383 Marine Drive, West Vancouver B.C. V7N 1K9 cs ROYAL VIKING LINE Registry: Bahamas The moment you board a ROYAL VIKING LINE ship you have a sense of entering another world, a haven into which the stresses of late twentieth cen- tury life have not permitted to intrude, and where your comfort and your pleasure and the smooth flow of your vacation are the sole concerns of a large, ever attentive staff! THE ROYAL VIKING SKY COME IN AND COMPARE OUR PRICES!! May 23, 1990 June 2, 1990 Nov. 8, 1990 10 Days 10 Days 11/26 Days Rome to Lisbon Lisbon to Copenhagen San Francisco to Papeete/return WE SELL ONLY CRUISES TO ALL DESTINATIONS CALL TODAY! 926-7245 (sal) WA Ve tion is wide and every item we tried was uot only delicious but beautifully presenied. The prices were about on par with what you'd pay in any fine Chinese restaurant here. The second was the Garden Cafe and Spice Co. at 250 Madison Ave. (right downtown, next to the Historical Museum). Wow! This is a ‘‘don't miss.”” We had funch there in a neat [it- tle garden, although you can also dine inside. I’m a sucker for taco salad and they make a dandy — huge, though. Instead of the usual ground beef filling, they use thin stices of lean roast pork. I try to limit the amount of cof- fee I drink but theirs was irresisti- We>RLD Adventure. Tours- Presents HAWAII TRAVELOGUE FILM NARRATED LIVE IN PERSON BY SHERILYN MENTES VAN. ORPHEUM Mar. 20 - 6:00 p.m. $14.75, 10.50, 9.50 Stu. $7.75 NORTH VAN. CENTENNIAL THEATRE Mar, 21 - 6:004+8:30 p.m. $11.25 Stu. $7.25 TERR PasreR py, infor and Chargeline 280-4444 (Ticket prices subject to service charge} ble - three big cups worth. Inside there’s a kitchen shop and, of course, spices and fancy coffees for sale. It’s open for breakfast and lunch only. If you’re in Yuma on a Sunday, plan to have brunch — served from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., $7.95. I've got a copy of the menu and it sounds great. 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