Thursday Travel Ticker: Try to keep your eyes on the road

The ninth annual “Tour de Tahoe - Bike Big Blue” (a fun ride, not a race) might be America’s most scenic fundraising event. Click here for details of the Sept. 11 ride, with options for expert and recreational cyclists . . . . San Diego’s new “Christmas Tabernacle,” a family friendly event with food, concerts, a living nativity scene and a fun zone with real snow, will be held Dec. 16-18. Daily admission $12–$18 . . . . The Hofsas House in Carmel-by-the-Sea offers a $200 beach fire and smores package for up to 10 guests – in addition to a room, that is . . . . Qantas is downplaying talk of a takeover bid, though execs admit that private equity firms are circling the airline . . . . FYI, a special TSA program has bred more than 500 puppies to be trained in explosives detection . . . . San Francisco’s EPIC Roasthouse is holding its third annual High on the Hog pig roast and Pinot Noir tasting Sept. 10. Tickets for unlimited food and wine, $75 . . . . Wanderlust Tours’ last series of Moonlight Canoe Tours of the season, Sept. 9-13, will make the most of the Cascade Mountains’ full moon; $65 per person . . . . Travel quote of the day: “Just get on any major highway, and eventually it will dead-end in a Disney parking area large enough to have its own climate, populated by large nomadic families who have been trying to find their cars since the Carter administration.” (Dave Barry)