Friday Travel Ticker: More snow on the way in Tahoe

Looking for a viewing spot for San Diego’s annual Parade of Lights? Check out the historic ferryboat Berkeley at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, the same spot parade judges will work from during the two parades, Dec. 9 and 16. Tickets, which include a buffet dinner, are $50 for adults and $25 for children ages 6-12 and can be purchased through the museum’s website at www.sdmaritime.org or at (619) 234-9153 ext 101. Children under 5 are free . . . . New Orleans topped a Travel + Leisure reader survey of the top cities for 2012. Miami was selected as the city with the most attractive people. L.A. was voted second most-stylish. For complete results, click here . . . . California resorts are looking hopefully at a series of three storms hitting the ski hills today and through the next week. Tahoe forecasters are calling for up to 20 inches of snow by Saturday morning at higher elevations. This will be followed by another chance for snow Tuesday or Wednesday. An even bigger storm may be headed that way next weekend, just before Thanksgiving. Tentative opening dates in coming weeks: Heavenly and Northstar, Nov. 16; Squaw Valley and Kirkwood, Nov. 21 . . . . Homewood Mountain Resort in Lake Tahoe is offering beginners a guarantee: If you sign up for the three-pack of “Learn to Ski/Ride” beginner lessons, they guarantee that you’ll be skiing or snowboarding down the resort’s signature beginner run by the end of your third lesson, or the fourth lesson is free . . . . Red Lion Hotels is offering a free night stay on Veterans Day to veterans and military personnel at its Anaheim location. Book at www.redlion.com/military. The offer is based on availability . . . . Skiers heading to Utah should take note of recent transportation developments. Public bus service now offers service from Salt Lake City to Park City, and test trains are now running on a new light-rail extension from the airport to downtown (set to open in April). Info: www.skiutah.com . . . . The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island remain closed indefinitely to visitors in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy . . . . Spirit Airlines has started daily nonstop service from San Diego to two new markets: Portland and Los Cabos, Mexico . . . Yxta Cocina Mexicana, 601 S. Central Ave. in Los Angeles, is pumping up the Thanksgiving season with pumpkin flan ($8) and a turkey tamale plate ($14), available through Dec. 1. The turkey tamales will be served only at lunch; (213) 596-5579, www.yxta.net . . . . Travel quote of the day: “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – (Rudyard Kipling)

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chris.erskine@latimes.com