Japan Again

This year has been kind of slow in terms of my travel. I have been doing having a fair amount of adventures still, but I think the only place that I really traveled to was Japan.  This trip was similar to the first time in that I was there for the family.  My oldest niece graduated from high school, which is still a crazy thought.  She is currently four months in to her freshmen year of college and my youngest niece, my baby, is a sophomore in high school right now.  Time seems to be flying by and dragging on at the same time.

But you guys do not read this to hear me rant about things like that, so let’s talk travel shall we!  First, C did not come with me on this trip, but she got to spend part of her summer on a Mediterranean cruise so she wasn’t too upset about it.  More so we are both bummed that as of right now it will be yet another year in which we did not travel together.  We are not really making great progress on our 50 X 50 goal, but we are both travelling and exploring, so I am not too upset about it.  Second, the exploration that I was able to get to while I was there this time was limited by the crazy amount of rain they had.  There were giant storms for most of the trip, we all look like drowned rats in the pictures at my niece’s graduation because we got soaked through before we even got there.

I did get to see Fuji on this trip, although we attempted to see FujiQ which was closed the day we went. So instead we went and walked around a garden near the base of it.  It actually turned out to be a really good day.  We got some sushi and then spent time together as a family.  I know this is not the typical travel post that you want, but here are some pictures that I hope you guys enjoy.

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C and I might be planning a trip for the end of the year/beginning of 2020, but if not I will DEFINITELY being doing some more on my own.  Ireland is happening and so is Texas, so prepare yourselves for those fun adventures!

 

Thanks for reading and hopefully I will be better about writing in here in 2020! I am really going to try harder!

Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana?

If you have read my other posts at this point you are probably thinking, “Didn’t you and C agree to NEVER try and do 4 big states ever again?”, and you should be thinking that because yes we did! We did not really do four states this trip though, we were only in Montana for a little bit, and our time in Utah was minimal as well.  Really, this trip was to explore The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone parks! The other stuff was just a happy addition.

We started off in Salt Lake City, having only done a few things in southern Utah we felt that we owed the state a bit more exploration.  We got up early and went to see the Great Salt Lake, I have to say it did not smell anywhere near as badly as I thought it would and C stuck it out like a trooper (she hates eggs and the smell of sulfur was something I was worried about with her).  After that we went to the capital building and took a tour.  Our tour guide was so sweet and we learned a lot (fine seagulls, I guess you are not the most horrible things in the world, but you are still not very high on my list!).  Even though Mormonism is very strong in Utah the state is much more liberal than I thought it would be, which I think is AMAZING!  The day was still somewhat young so we walked down to the Mormon Temple and explored around the outside.  The building is beautiful, but I was expecting something a bit more spectacular considering that the one in San Diego looks like it could be a Disney castle!  We made our way back to the hotel for a fairly early night because we were making our drive from Salt Lake to Jackson Hole.

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We left Utah at like 2 in the morning to begin our drive to the Grand Tetons, unfortunately this meant that when we crossed the state line it was still very dark, so our state line picture is very dark.

It is also very blurry, but whatever we crossed over and made our way to the camp ground.  This would be my second time camping ever, and I was very confused the entire time leading up to the trip as to how we were going to get our camp gear with us. I know that checking bags is a thing, but it all seemed very impractical in my opinion, but it was important to C, so camping we went.  When we arrived there though it was not quite checkout for everyone else, so we decided to go and do our first hike!  The views were amazing and Wyoming definitely delivered with their weather because we had mostly clear skies the entire time we were there.  The only downside was we were expecting cold, so neither of us were prepared for the warmth, but we made due!

After hiking a bit and setting up our campsite we decided to just hang out and chill for the evening, after driving for most of the morning I was in need of a break and neither of us really slept the night before.  We got up early the next morning and spent all day hiking and exploring the area.  Words can not express how amazing it was, so I am just going to upload a bunch of pictures so you guys can somewhat experience it!

C took a lot of pictures that I was not aware of, hence me not looking, but they are some pretty great shots in my opinion.  The antlers are arches that sit on each corner of the town square in Jackson Hole where we went to have dinner one night.  It is entirely possible that one of us who is not accustomed to camping was a bit cranky that she did not have a way to make coffee and was expected to eat nothing but peanut butter sandwiches for like 5 days…. it is also possible that she was even more cranky because she had no pillow to sleep on. (C deserves some major brownie points for putting up with me and my lack of camping understanding on this trip!)  We went to Pinky G’s Pizzeria and I highly recommend it.  I saw it on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and it just so happened that they were shooting another one when we walked up.  Guy’s car is AMAZING!!  We were getting settled back at the campsite when the rangers came around to tell us that a bear had made its way into the grounds.  C and I were excited, but it managed to make its way back out before we saw it.  This was probably a good thing because we needed to get to sleep since we had another early morning to start our drive to Yellowstone.

We were both a little underwhelmed with Yellowstone, BUT some amazing things did happen while we were there.  First, there are only so many hot springs and geysers that a person can look at before they start to get a little bored with them.  Second, the day that we had planned to go see Old Faithful was a bit cloudy and overcast so the blast was not as spectacular as it could have been.  Although we did get a pretty good blast apparently, which is cool, and it was not terribly crowded while we were there.  What really made this part of the trip for us was seeing all the wildlife.  We saw multiple bears, including a mom and her cub!  I wanted to jump up and down and shout, but I knew better, and  when we had to have bear repellent for one of our hikes and they were basically like if you see a grizzly you’re dead it really hit home for me. BUT STILL BEARS!!!

The only downside was that I did not get to see “many much moosen”.  I did touch one of the hot springs… it was too close and I couldn’t resist, and as you can probably tell from our attire and the clouds it was very cold and very wet during our time in Yellowstone.

On our way out of Yellowstone and back down towards Idaho we had a stop to make at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, which is where Montana comes in to this trip.  The place was amazing and watching their bears and wolves was awe inspiring.  The pack does not always howl and when they do it is usually only once or twice.  They howled off and on for a good 5 minutes for us.  The focus of the center is to educate people about the impact that they have on bears, and quite a few of their environmental enrichment devices are things that can commonly be found in campgrounds.  They even had a few of the “bear safe” trash bins to prove that if a bear wants to get into it they WILL!  Their bears are all rescued animals and a few were brought in as cubs because mom had to be euthanized due to harming humans (I am not making a comment about this law, but if you are reading this and want to help these animals out educate yourself by visiting facilities like this one and inform you elected officials about wanting a change!)  Now back to the happy stuff, the bears and gorgeous and I have never seen a grizzly bear that close, but after doing so I can tell why we got the bear spray warning that we did.

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We left and made our way in to Idaho where we saw the spot that Evil Kenevil jumped his bike over the river.  The waterfalls there were very pretty and the sunset gave us more great shots.  After a night in a hotel we made our way back into Utah and decided to drive down to Arches since we really did not get to see them when we initially tried to during our “Four Corners” trip.  C and I had a great time, but it was ridiculously hot and similar to Yellowstone you can only see so many arches before it’s just another arch.  Although I am sure if we got to see it at sunset it would have been different.  We could not stay though because our flight left very early the next morning and it was still a long drive back to Salt Lake City from Arches.

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We made it back home safely and started talking about where we wanted to go next!  There is a possibility that we will try to take a weekend trip somewhere this year, but it is looking like a mostly individual travel year again.  Although, we are looking into possibly doing London (and maybe throwing Paris in there as well) during this coming Christmas/New Year’s break.

For those of you keeping track our count is 11/50 that C and I have either both done or we accomplished together, that puts us at 22% complete!

Sorry for the hiatus

2018 was an interesting travel year for C and I. We both did a decent amount of traveling, but a lot of it was done without the other. Neither of us were brave enough to do completely solo travel, I admire those who can do it SO much!

I made my way to Tennessee for my nephew’s graduation from college and commissioning into the United States Air Force, and then made another trip out there for his wedding (it was a big year for him and I could not be more proud!) but since it was family time I was busy and did not really do much exploring. My Mom and I hopped over to Arizona for a weekend, and I also took a small trip up to Los Angeles to spend the day exploring the city. This particular post is going to show off some of the pictures from those experiences as well as the trip that C and I took to Universal Studios Hollywood yesterday, not every adventure has to take us far from home!

Seville before our Flight

We spent our last day in the south of Spain exploring a little bit of what Seville had to offer.  The city was pretty quiet because the only people crazy enough to be there in the 100+ degree heat were other tourist like us.  Apparently during the summer everyone heads down to the Rota area to stay nice and cool.  We walked passed a bull fighting ring on our way to yet another cathedral!  This one was a bit unique though, because there is some piece of Christopher Columbus there.  The inside was beautiful and reminded us that Europeans know what it means to truly honor their religions and their people.

We stopped by a small cafe and ate some paella before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Madrid.

It only took about an hour to get there and we went from the airport to our hotel, then straight to the center of Madrid.  We went and saw the cathedral that sits right across from the palace.  We made our way to the Mercado and got a churro with chocolate to enjoy as we walked around the town square.  Even at 11 pm the city is alive with music and people.  It was our last night before we left Europe and made our way back to the United States and we were happy to head home, but words can not express how sad we were to leave Europe.

It has been nearly six months since our trip and we will still look at each other to reminisce about how amazing this trip was. Our next trip will be back in the United States to knock off a few more states, but those trips will not happen until May and June, so enjoy the next few months guys!

Oh! We are considering creating an Instagram account to share more pictures from our adventures.  If this is something you would be interested in, comment to let me know!

 

Well Gibraltar is Right There…

Why wouldn’t we add yet another country to this trip? Unfortunately, we didn’t get stamps for this one either.  Clearly we need to fly in to both Portugal and Gibraltar so we get those stamps in the book!  We parked the car and made our way to the town center where we got into our tour van to get up the rock.  On our way up we stopped at the Cave of St. Michael, which is sometimes used as a concert hall.  The cave is amazing is covered in stalactites and stalagmites.  In the middle of the cave is a formation that looks like the archangel St. Michael making its landing on to the Earth.

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From here we went to the top of the rock where a bunch of monkeys live.  Now a little history on the monkeys; similar to the idea of the crows in the Tower of London, it is said that when the monkeys leave Gibraltar it will no longer being part of the United Kingdom and instead will return to the Spanish.  Because of this, the British government makes sure to vaccinate, microchip, and keep track of the breeding habits of the monkeys that live on the rock.  So much so that when the population gets too high, or a monkey gets older they are sent to zoos to live out the rest of their days.  Now the monkeys themselves are CRAZY!  They will steal just about anything out of your hands, they will climb all over you, and if they feel that one is getting more attention they will fight with the other monkey… even if that monkey is currently on your head.  You are not allowed to touch the monkeys, but they can jump all over you and some of them are HUGE! The views of the Mediterranean were breathtaking, and we got to stand where the Queen stood!

We made our way back down the rock, walked around and shopped a bit, went to have some fish and chips back in the town, and then headed back to Spain!

Roman Ruins in Spain!

If C and I had to pick one country that we are both dying to go to it would have to be Italy.  We both love the history and culture of Italy and C is part Italian.  So when we were told that there are Roman ruins in Spain we had to go and check it out.  Walking around them were so cool, being able to walk where legions likely walked, touching places that ancient Romans touched. We were both so excited and it was an amazing day for it.

When we got back home we decided to have a nice night out in Sanlucar which is a beautiful little town, in San Diego terms it is kind of like La Jolla.  We walked around and just enjoyed the night, until we made our way to Toni’s.  Toni’s is an ice cream shop that has been open in that location since 1896.  The ice cream was super yummy and was a nice treat on the warm summer night.

Wanna go to Africa?

Being so close to Africa, of course we had to take the opportunity to not only visit another country, but another continent as well. So we woke up early one morning, drove down to Tarifa then took a ferry across to Tangier, Morocco!  We had a private tour guide that first drove us around to see many of the palaces in the area.  Finally we arrived at a beautiful lighthouse where you can see both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.  We were sat at a restaurant where we ate a delicious pancake type thing and drank delicious Moroccan mint tea.

From there we were taken to ride camels near the beach, explore a cave with a hole in the shape of Africa that was created naturally.  We walked the streets listening to the chatter happening throughout and admiring the array of colors that are present throughout the city. Jimi Hendrix had a house in Tangier and we got to stop by and see it, which was very cool.  Our dinner was delicious, and although I can not remember what I ate was called, I know that it is a very traditional Moroccan chicken dish and it was incredibly flavorful!  Shopping was mandatory while here and we picked up a couple of beautiful scarves.

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The ferry ride back was nice and smooth and our adventure for the day was done.  The next day we just kind of hung around the house and did some swimming and relaxing, which was nice because the next couple of days were going to be very busy as we finished our trip off.

To Portugal We Go!

We lucked out and managed to find a cheap hotel that could sleep all of us, and was still available on short notice. So we piled in the car and began our drive over to Portugal where we would spend that next day and a half.  We started by exploring the sand castles that are built each year. We were in awe of what these people were able to do with the sand, but we did not spend long there. It was like 100 degrees, and I am not being sarcastic that was the ACTUAL temperature, and we were standing in what was essentially an art filled desert!

 We arrived at our hotel, dropped our stuff off, and surprise surprise headed towards the beach. Anyone sensing a theme yet? The water in Portugal is super clear, but oh gosh was it cold! I don’t know if it is because we were just in Spain where the water was gorgeous or if because it was so hot the water felt even colder, but it was the kind of cold where you get in and it almost starts to burn! There was no getting warm or use to the temperature, but we played in it anyway!

The next morning we got up and took a boat tour of the cliffs. If you go to Lagos I definitely recommend taking a boat tour. It was a great way to see this little town. If the water was not so cold we probably would have taken the entire day tour that brings kayaks and SUPs. I think there was also a snorkeling option that I was interested in.

It was another beautiful day and we still had some time before we needed to make our drive back to Spain, so we walked around some of the street markets. Almost all of the worlds cork comes from Portugal and it was interesting seeing all the cork products.

All in all Portugal was great, they make REALLY good M&Ms although their Dr. Pepper is not as good. C and I were sad that our passports did not get stamped here, but we plan to go back so we will get that stamp eventually!

The South of Spain

Our flight go in pretty late at night, so our first day was mostly spent just walking around Rota, which may sound like it is nothing special, but even the city streets are beautiful in Europe. Being a San Diego kid, the best way I can explain being in Europe to some one who has never been it is like walking around a country sized Balboa Park. We walked on the beach and it felt good to have sand between my toes again.

After a day of walking around we decided to head down to another beach, with the accompanying beach side bar. It was here that both C and I discovered our love of Tintos! Now any wine lovers out there try to keep an open mind, it is essentially a wine cocktail.  Spanish red wine is mixed with a lemon lime soda and a couple ice cubes are thrown in. It may sound crazy but it is delicious, light, and refreshing (especially enjoyed on the beach after a nice warm swim!) The water felt amazing, and had to be at least 75 degrees. It made me long for my days living on a tropical island! The sun began to sink, giving us our first look at a Spanish sunset, this was at like 9:45 pm! That was one of the most difficult things to get use to. In France we were up early to get out and explore, and we did stay up fairly late, but in Spain we were up much later! Earlier in the day we had planned out the last leg of our trip and were super excited because in the morning we were making our way over to Portugal!

We LOVE TINTOS!!!

 

Au revoir France, Hola Espana!

We woke up on our final day in France a bit sad, but also very excited because we had a nice breakfast planned and a full day of amazing artwork to see. We went to the Angelina tea room, which is considered to have the best hot chocolate in all of Paris. I am not a big chocolate person, but this was exciting for C because she loves chocolate and if you’ve been following along on our adventures you know that by this point we had both sampled a few different varieties. For me eating here was exciting because it was where Audrey Hepburn would have brunch when she was in Paris! C order a bowl of fruit and I got toast. I know that does not sound like much, but with the hot chocolate and the coffee it was more than enough for the both of us. The toast came with some of their signature chestnut spread as well as raspberry jam, both of which were delicious. In fact, they were both so good that I may be ordering some online to have shipped to me!

After breakfast we had a little bit of time to kill before the Musee D’Orsay opened, so we walked through the Tuileries Garden. Much like the rest of our trip Paris provided us with perfect weather. The dark and light green of the gardens mixed with the greys of the buildings and statues combined perfectly with the light blue and white of the sky.  It was decently cool because it was still early in the morning and there were not a lot of people out so it was easy to enjoy the garden.

We exited the garden and made our way towards that museum. Orsay is an old train station that has been turned into a museum and there was so much to see. The natural light that comes in from the windows gives the statues you see upon entrance an amazing glow. From the center hall there are side rooms filled with amazing works of art. Because C teaches it, I think the pointillism was her favorite section. For me, it was the Van Gogh section (I should point out here that my brother, C, and I are really big Doctor Who fans and my brother made me watch “Vincent and The Doctor” before I left). Thankfully, Starry Night and Sunflowers were not here  because I was already on the verge of tears seeing all the amazing artwork. If I had seen them as well I would have completely lost it. Although we had seen it for four days, it was still odd to C and I that all of this work was within reach and there was very little obvious security around. It is very different than being in a museum in America, but it really made you feel like that art was made FOR you. You spent less time worrying that someone thought you were too close to it and more time talking about and experiencing it, at least C and I did.

From here we went to the Pantheon. It was yet another huge building that hold the graves of many of the famous French. This kind of freaked me out, especially when C walked us down to the crypt that is under the building. She walked in all the rooms and I waited outside. It smelled kind of like mildew and was just creepy to me. The view as you exited the building was stunning though.

We still had some extra time before we needed to leave for the airport, so we made our way back over towards our hotel. They were holding our luggage for us even after checkout so we could explore more, again I highly recommend Hotel Muguet. We went into the Rodin Museum, which is a garden with his different works spread out throughout the grounds. We saw The Thinker, The Kiss, and The Gates of Hell, just to name a few.

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We went back to Angelina to purchase some pastries, we did not get them earlier because we were very full but also did not want them to melt. From there, we walked back to the Eiffel Tower to give it one final goodbye. It also felt like the appropriate place to enjoy our eclair and macaroons.

We walked back to the hotel to grab our stuff and make our way to the airport for our next adventure. Still thinking about how surreal the past four days had been. I did not understand why people were so in love with Paris. To me, it was just another city until this trip. I get it now! In my travels I have found nothing like Paris yet. It is old and new, small and big, happy and sad, all at the same time. While I feel like I can check France off my list, having seen and done so much in the short time that we were there, I will definitely return if given the chance. I love Paris and saying goodbye was sad. We were able to make ourselves laugh though, because while everything else was so grand the airport we were flying out of was small and we walked on the tarmac to get to the tiny plane taking us to the south of Spain.

 

*I did not post pictures from inside the Musee D’Orsay because while I did take many, they are to remind me of what we experienced, and I do not feel like the pictures do the amazing works of art justice!