#room4two

[mistyandmatt]

Cruisin’ for a snack!! #alligator #everglades #evergladesnationalpark #room4two #travel #travelphotography (at Everglades National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsXDj32B7P9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=z9tklud4ow74

[mistyandmatt]

The street art in Medellin was incredible. More to follow! #medellin #colombia #room4two #mandmgortw🌎 #graffiti #graffitiart #streetart #streetartist #antioquia #travelphotography #travelblogger #instatravel #travelgram (at Medellín, Antioquia)

[mistyandmatt]

Goodbye America, Hello Japan!

Things are about to get real for me. We’re leaving the comforts and securities of the motherland to venture out to a place of complete vulnerability on our part. We don’t speak Japanese and we can’t read Japanese (despite Matt being half Japanese),so we are really starting out far behind the curve here folks. As we got on the plane in Hawaii, I loaded my newly purchased Catnapple bag with as many diet cokes as I could possibly carry on because Japan is Diet Coke free. You heard me right, it’s a real bad deal. These folks have a thing against aspartame for some reason. I mean, don’t mind the fact that it’s probably terrible for you, so they just aren’t having any of it here. Smuggling in as much as I could to get me through as much of this leg of the trip as I could is my plan. Once I run out, I’m going straight to beer, as that seems like the next safest option. Don’t be fooled, the Japanese do not judge day drinking, in fact, they seem to support it. It’s 8:20 am and we are currently boarding the bullet train to go to Kyoto for a few days and I noticed many people packing in beers for breakfast. Now that’s a new take on “eating your wheaties” if you ask me.

Quickly, it became clear that I was definitely the minority on the plane as we took our seats. My fair skin and blonde hair aren’t a discrete feature on an Asian airliner. I knew then, that everywhere in Japan was going to be just like this experience. I suppose the positive is that with my bright purple coat and my very distinguishable blonde hair, I won’t get lost in the crowds of people. Matt was right, the seats and entertainment on the plane were stellar, the service top notch, and the food, well a bit odd, but I committed to trying everything once (who knew that concept from childhood would re-emerge again) on this trip. I’ll either come out of Japan loving the food or I will have lost 10 pounds (either wouldn’t be a bad thing). We’ll see what happens. If the rest of Japan is going to be like our experience on the plane, then I’ll take it, otherwise, I’m just going to stay right here on the plane.

After just over eight hours on the flight, we arrived in the airport where Matt’s aunt and uncle picked us up. Matt’s mom and her sister immediately started talking in Japanese and it hasn’t stopped since! One 70 year old Asian lady is hard enough to wrangle, so you can only imagine two of them! I think they were super excited to see each other since it’s been around 15 years since Matt’s mom has been back to Japan. I mean, you’d think with FaceTime and Skype these ladies would “see” each other regularly, but no, the only thing Matt’s mom has learned to use the internet for is shopping on Amazon and binge watching Turkish soap operas on YouTube. While they were immediately starting to catch up, Matt secured us a pocket WiFi for the days we will be here, because I’m willing to take daily shots of my smuggled Diet Coke to make it last, I just can’t make it without the internet, it’s like the one last thing keeping me connected to the inside and outside world.

The thing I am most excited about throughout this entire journey is for Matt to be able to meet his extended family (his aunts/uncles and cousins) and to be able to see where his mom and her family grew up, as the family still owns and maintains their childhood home. About two years ago, Matt and I had discussed how we would like to get to Japan with his mom before she is unable to travel comfortably (it’s a 14 hour flight from OKC). Six months ago Matt’s mom found out that his cousin was going to be getting married in January and the entire family was coming. So, just like that, we started planning this adventure with our resident interpreter, Kinuko Jorgensen in tow.

Matt filled you in on all the fun things we have explored the last few days, which has been a unique experience to say the least. I’ll be honest, Japan is one of the cleanest, safest, most advanced places we’ve ever been (these toilets guys, I’m ordering one the minute we get home), but it’s been somewhat hard for us as Americans, as there is just not a lot of things in English anywhere and the public transportation, although abundant, is extremely confusing to navigate, even more so with such a significant language barrier between us and them. Thank goodness for the itranslate app on the IPhone, as we’ve been able to navigate our way around (if that’s what you want to call it, more like barely making it, but it’s worked) when Matt’s mom isn’t with us. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling where interpretation services will be needed. You just speak slowly into it in English and it gives both a written and spoken response translated in to whatever language you need it in. So, you can show it to someone or they can listen and usually between those two things, you can get what you want or need from the conversation.

As mentioned before, the whole reason we came to Japan now is because Matt’s cousin is getting married. We’ve been to a lot of weddings, but this was a real fancy wedding that clearly did not include a rehearsal because everyone (in the wedding party) has a personal escort who tells them what to do when, on que. This is a western style wedding (this seems to be popular here) that is held in a real elaborate hotel. What was different was that since there is not a rehearsal, the customary approach is that the bride and grooms families get together about 30 minutes before the wedding and introduce each person one by one to the other’s family. Once again, we can’t understand a thing going on, but we follow along and attempt to do what the others are doing. The wedding and reception last from 1:30 p.m. to about 8:30 p.m. and included two formal wear changes for the bride and groom, a six-course dinner (with different drinks at each course), and lots of meeting people from both sides many times throughout the night. I can now see why everyone needs a personal escort, it’s really a lot to keep straight. Not much is different in the wedding ceremony, nor all the other hub-hub that goes on with weddings, but thankfully we’ve attended a few in our time to know at least what is approximately going on since again all of this is in Japanese. So, as you will see from some of the photos, these additional people are Matt’s aunts, uncles (their spouses) and one set of his cousins. Matt’s mom is one of 6 kids. Her oldest brother is deceased, the next big brother unfortunately couldn’t make the wedding because he is in the hospital (he’s 77 and just had surgery), and then you see her next biggest brother (gray/white hair-he’s 73). I can’t pronounce or even try to type his name, but I can totally see where Matt gets his happy personality from, as this guy is a hoot! Matt’s mom is child number 4 and then her younger brother (dark hair) who she reports is very serious and her younger sister (in the kimono-her son is the one getting married) is the one that tries to keep everyone in the family in line. It’s been great getting to see all of them together. There are more family events scheduled for later in the week, but for now we’ll leave it at that. The wedding was beautiful and we all had a great time.

On Monday we went out and explored the Ginza area of Tokyo. This area is made up of high-end designer shops all put into these large multi-level malls. So imagine a Dillards store, but instead of different departments in one store (the different areas, men’s, women’s, etc. are all on different floors), it’s different designers in little booth spaces on each floor of the store, so more like a trade show set up if you will. We did some shopping and then headed over to the Canon store, so that Matt could get all of his camera equipment cleaned and serviced (as it is about half price to do it here then at home). Matt’s mom went along with us (you all should know she likes real fancy things-must be where Matt gets it from), as her interpretation skills were likely going to be needed at the camera store. We had a fabulous day, walked about 10 miles total, so I’m hoping that off sets all the sweet treats we keep picking up on every corner from these great little vendors.

Since we’ve been here, we’ve eaten just about every type of Japanese food. We’ve had sushi, ramen, soba, tonkatsu, yakatori, etc. We really wanted to go to one of the authentic yakiniku restaurants where you grill the beef there at your table over hot coals. About 8:00 pm we ventured out to find this place we found on the internet (mind you we can’t read any of it, but we were just taking a gamble hoping it was good), as it was about a mile walk from the house. We show up, they are very confused as to our lack of Japanese skills, but don’t fret the itranslate app came to the rescue once again! This place (which is down a dark alley with nothing else around it with nothing in English anywhere in sight, so we knew this place was going to be good) is apparently famous for feeding sumo wrestlers, so yes, we are definitely in the right place! We made it through this amazing meal with lots of patience from the owner and wait staff who were just so very accommodating to us. They sent us home with some little gifts from the restaurant and I think thoroughly enjoyed the experience with us just as much as we did. We even got them to take a picture with us! Follow up to this experience with Matt’s mom translating: we found out this place truly is one of the best places to go, so despite the little language barrier, Matt and I still were able to navigate our way to great food! Who knew?

Just a few photos for you all to enjoy from the past few days. Off to Kyoto and Nara for our next Japanese experience!

[mistyandmatt]

We left Hawaii on a new airline, Japan Airlines (JAL), and after never flying on a non-US airline we were unsure of what to expect. Japan Airlines did not disappoint. JAL operates a 777 from Honolulu to Tokyo. The plane is massive, I believe the larger “Economy Plus” seats we had were still 2 x 5 x 2 seating arrangement, meaning, the planes is 9 big seats and 2 aisles wide. The cleanliness and service on this flight is something I don’t think I can go without mentioning. The plane was extremely clean and although it looked like it was put in service somewhat recently, it was not new at all, just very well maintained. The service was also something that was very good, even for us English speaking travelers. Most of the flight attendants spoke English well enough to take care of anything you asked them for and were able to take care of us just fine. We flew into Narita Airport, one of the major airports for the Tokyo area. We managed to locate my mom (Kinuko or Kim, as we will refer to her in the rest of the posts) wandering around the baggage claim area soon after we arrived. We directed her through the baggage claim and customs process on our way to the main lobby to meet up with my aunt and uncle. They were able to spot the three of us and graciously welcomed us to Tokyo. They had transportation already arranged to get us to the center of Tokyo where they live.

The drive back from Narita to Tokyo was similar to what you’d expect coming into most large cities, lots of tolls and traffic. Most of the transportation is similar to ours in the US, but not the same, and of course, everyone drives on the wrong side of the road here. They all have vehicles where the driver sits on the right hand side as well. We’re currently staying in an extra home my aunt owns just a couple miles from the middle of Tokyo. The homes are nice, but everything is a bit miniature compared to American standards. The rooms are a bit smaller, the doors are much shorter, and just everything is about 4/5th’s the size. It all works quite well until you hit your head on a door frame. My mom decided to come back over for my cousin’s wedding, so we decided this would be a great time for us to come as well, mainly so I could meet my extended family here in Tokyo. The wedding is a few days off, so we’ve got a couple of days to be the non-Asian tourists, as the rest of the family is busy getting ready for the wedding. On Friday we we headed out with my mom (Kinuko) and her sister to the “Skytree Tower,” which is the largest tower in Tokyo, quite a bit larger than the original Tokyo Tower. Crazy thing is my aunt lives here and had never been. I guess the notion of being a tourist in your own city is a concept understood worldwide. After a trip to the top for some 360 degree breathtaking views of Tokyo, we ate lunch in one of the restaurants in the lower levels before heading over to see the Senso-ji temple. My aunt drove us to the Skytree Tower and then dropped us off in front of the temple because she needed to head back to get a few things done in preparation for the wedding. We’d need to navigate public transportation back to her home, this ought to be a fun…with Misty being a terrible navigator and, well my mom not being here in at least 15 years, we hoped this process went well. Glad I marked a pin to the place we are staying, just in case we needed to find another way back home. We had a great visit to the shrine and the shopping area directly in front of it. It’s filled with shops selling everything from incense to put at the shrine to foods and random waving cat souvenirs. The shrine itself stands at the end of the long shopping area and stands prominently over the surrounding area. People were making offerings in the form of coins thrown into this box that looked like it had an odd corrugated thing on top where the coins would fall into the collection area. Basically, you would wait in line, throw your offering into the box, say a prayer, and exit to the side so that the next person could do the same. The more formal area behind the glass (inside the actual temple) was also available and there were several people inside as well saying prayers at the shrine. We left the temple and sampled several things, such as Mochi, rice crackers, and other great Japanese treats from the vendors on our way back.

After making it back, we met up my aunt and uncle for our first trip to one of the conveyer belt sushi restaurants. Now there are many ways to get sushi here in Tokyo, but the place we had dinner was probably the most fun. I’ve gathered this is not the fanciest way to have sushi, but probably the equivalent to a casual family restaurant, maybe like a Cheddar’s sushi restaurant if that makes sense. The reason this one is the most fun, is because the chefs stand in the middle of the restaurant and put sushi on a little conveyer belt that moves around their area. As the sushi (and other goodies) come by and you see something you like, you just pull it off the conveyer belt and eat it! It might sound a bit mundane, but it’s pretty entertaining, at least for me. Ha!

The next day, my mom informed us that she had gotten pretty worn out on day one and would rather rest and help her sister with things around the house for the day. So, Misty and I headed to Shibuya on our own. We figured most of the areas had enough things in English that we would be able to get by pretty easily. This was true for the most part except for one little hiccup in the beginning where we had to transfer from the bus down to the subway station and must have been looking quite lost. A rather quirky man (carrying a mini-poodle) approached us asking us if we needed assistance and proceeded to help us understand what we were doing wrong in the best broken English he could muster. As we were following this guy around the subway station, he escorted us all the way down to the turnstile where we had to put our tickets in and made it into the fare payer only area. He gets an A for effort and an A+ for helping two wandering souls.

We made it to Shibuya without much issue after this and proceeded to explore the Shibuya Crossing, also known as the busiest intersection in the world. We had to take a moment and go up to the Starbucks that overlooks the intersection (as it gives you a birds-eye view of the crossing all happening at once. We made our way out and about through the shops and Misty just had to go check out the pachinko parlors from there. We didn’t play any pachinko, but these places make our casinos at home look pretty docile. These are some of the loudest games I’ve ever heard. You can hardly even hear each other yell in these buildings, but the nice thing is, much like our casinos at home, they always have trash cans, fresh drinks, and bathrooms. Well, the trash can thing is kind of odd, but in the 90’s or sometime around then in Tokyo there were terrorist groups blowing up trash cans, so they just removed them all. So when you have any refuse with you, you just have to carry it until you’re back in a business that has one which is pretty few and far between. We went down the to Tokyu Food Show for lunch to sample several different things and see the fancy produce areas, home to the $150.00 cantaloupe. Admittedly, it was probably the most perfect cantaloupe I’d ever seen, but it was a bit pricey, I thought. The pastries, baked goods, produce, local cuisine looked absolutely perfect, almost like art. It’s almost too pretty to eat. At this point we have had ramen, sushi, fried rice, etc. since we had been here, but we hadn’t had any yakatori yet, so Misty dug up a favorite spot by the locals, where we ate some of the best yakatori, washed down by a Sapporo of course. We managed to find our way back to my aunts house, where after just two days in the city, we ordered in yakiniku and gyoza for delivery so that we could just rest and relax before the wedding festivities the next day. Looking forward to meeting the rest of my family tomorrow.

[mistyandmatt]

My Valentine!!!#mandmgortw🌎 #room4two #iceland #rekjavic (at Reykjavík, Iceland)

[mistyandmatt]

More Alien circles in England.... #mbworld #mercedes #brooklandsmuseum #mandmgortw🌎 #room4two #skidpad #dorifto (at Brooklands Museum)

[mistyandmatt]

Authentic English weather at Stonehenge today! #stonehenge #uk #england #mandmgortw🌎 #room4two #rtw (at English Heritage Stonehenge)

[mistyandmatt]

Things are weird here... #london #britian #vw #wrongside #righthanddrive #mandmgortw🌎 #room4two (at Heathrow Airport)

[mistyandmatt]

It’s winter and it’s hot here…Dubai travels

In preparation for this ‘round the world journey, I spent a great deal of time researching and preparing for this leg of the trip. I say that because 1. I’ve never been to the Middle East and 2. There are a lot of social and religious rules that have to be followed when visiting the area. You see, being a caucasian, American woman most certainly has it’s advantages on any given day, but when traveling to a middle eastern country, the situation is just not the same. I did a lot of internet searching, watched a lot of You Tube videos on how to correctly tie a headscarf, and ensuring my clothing (which you know I had to be highly selective of on the trip due to the totally different climates we are going to) was socially and religiously appropriate. I told Matt we would just see what it was like when we got there and then I would adjust as needed.

Leaving Tokyo on one hand was a bit sad, as we were just getting to know Matt’s family and somewhat adjusting to the ways around town, but on the other hand, I was starting to get antsy and was ready to move on towards Dubai. Maybe it was the weather (it was cold, and mainly cloudy while we were there-that’s depressing for me), maybe it was all the strange food I’d been challenged to consume over the past 10 days, or maybe I was just seeking some bit of normalcy somewhere since I clearly was the outsider on this leg of the trip. Want a slice of humble pie? Go to a country like Japan with 127 million people where you are one of only a few who can’t read or speak the language. You’ll realize your place in the world real quick. I guess I don’t know why I thought I would get normalcy in Dubai, but my instincts (and research) implied Dubai was supposed to be like the “Las Vegas” of the Middle East (more on this in a bit), that seemed like something I knew and could understand.

We switched over to Emirates Airline for this trip, as I wanted to see how the service and quality were compared to other airlines we had taken. I know, I know, my instinctual quality assurance/continuous quality improvement personality is on all the time, even on vacation. The airline was nice, but Japan Airlines still seems to rank higher on my “best airline to fly.” What’s comical about that though is that when we were talking with the Emirates Flight Attendants, they report that the girls who work for JAL have a lot of “work drama between each other.” Workplace environments around the world seem to be the same everywhere, always some kind of drama going on. I was hopeful that was just an American thing, nope, totally universal. Our twelve hour flight seemed quite quick as we slept most of the time, so we were ready to go when we arrived in Dubai at 5:00 am local time.

We only planned four days in Dubai, as we had just a handful of things we wanted to see and do before moving on to our next destination. The weather was 75 degrees and sunny when we got there(hallelujah), so we were looking forward to a brief warmup before we head back into the cold again. Since we were only staying a few days, we decided to splurge a bit and stay at a fancier hotel. You all know that we never do that, in fact, it’s really against our vacation morals and values to do so, but knowingly and willingly(and maybe telling Matt I got a good deal on it), I booked us a few days at the Waldorf Astoria out on the Palm (palm tree shaped man-made island outside of Dubai proper). Between the nice hotel and the warm weather, my normalcy meter finally shot up. We then found a place for breakfast that served actual eggs and other breakfast foods, we had a another win!

Our first stop for the day was to the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding” for a tour of the remaining “old town Dubai,” and for our first visit to a real operating mosque. I loved this as our first experience here, as no question was off limits and the center prides themselves on being an open space for people to come learn and understand the culture and religion in a safe space. I got the chance to not only learn more about the Islamic religion, but also the social, family, and religious norms that go along with it. Our tour guide was fabulous and did a great job explaining everything to our eclectic group. I now understand the prayer schedule and commend all the Muslim men (and women) who are fully committed to their religion because they (the men) literally have to go into a mosque building 5 or 6 times a day to pray and be present with God. I mean, I can’t find the time to go to the bathroom that many times a day, therefore, I could never make it as a Muslim on that principle alone. I realize the societal norms here are arranged on this schedule, but that just seems extremely excessive (not to mention time consuming). I found fewer differences and more similarities in their religion and lifestyle of those practiced at home. In the end, everyone seems to be seeking the same things, its all just interpreted and practiced a bit differently. We had the chance to drink coffee (which has a process and is different than American coffee, as is the art of drinking it-anyone have a “silent server” at home?), as well as had the chance to eat dates and luqaimat(donuts), just as you would if you were a visitor in a Muslim home. So much about the home structure, the male and female role in the household, and the openness to welcome visitors was rather intriguing. We would highly recommend doing this experience if you have the chance to go to Dubai. It was a great way for us to start off our trip here.

We then moved on to see what the Dubai Mall was all about. This place is known for all the high end shopping, vending machines that sell gold, and a place to find just about every super car you could imagine, but also includes an ice skating rink, a huge aquarium, and these choreographed fountains (similar to the Bellagio Fountains in Vegas) that put on quite the show. This was a chance for us to get in some walking after being cooped up in the plane so long. We finished the day by having dinner poolside at our hotel, where I could soon slip away for some good sleep in a super comfortable bed (remember, we’ve been sleeping on a small mattress on a tatami floor for the past 10 days, so this was going to be like sleeping on the clouds).

The next day we got up and headed to the traditional spice, textile, and gold souks to see what kind of interesting finds we could muster up. I tell Matt, just keep walking, these people will haggle you, so you just have to keep going. Why are we not even three stores in and Matt starts “making friends.” Dammit Matt. So Matt’s new friend wants me to buy gold from him and proceeds to personally escort us around the souks. That was very nice of him (he had alternate plans), but unfortunately what he didn’t realize is that he hooked up with a real nice guy an and then me, whose middle name is “likes to mosey.” Hours later we’d visited all the souks (still with this personal escort) and I spent way too much money on tea, silks, gold, and saffron (even with haggling with them) then I want to admit. It’s fine, I hope people are up for a tea party when we get home, because I have several years supply now. Needless to say, Matt (who really doesn’t even want to be at the souks) ends up back behind one of the souks (we all know you aren’t supposed to go back there-hasn’t he seen any movies at all?), as they are trying to sell him fake watches. Again, Mr. Naivety isn’t clueing into my “we have to go because we have a tour we have to get to,” and proceeds to continue talking with these guys. I laid down the law, said we were leaving and escaped yet another crazy situation Matt got us into. Thanks Matt, thanks a lot.

We really did have a tour to get to, as the most exciting part of the trip for me was just about to happen. Since we decided to come to Dubai, I wanted to ride camels in the desert. I mean, when else am I going to get to ride a massive animal through the Arabian desert? So, I booked us this camel riding tour that also included a night of activities in a Bedouin camp. These are the traditional camps that desert travelers would set up when searching for water in the desert. Our tour guide from Viator tours picked us up at our hotel and drove us an hour and half into the middle of the Arabian desert. During the ride, he gave us all the inside details about Dubai (including things they probably don’t want others to know, but oh well). Once there we got loaded up onto our camels (my camels name was Simone, and Matt’s camel’s name was Goad. He was making groaning sounds, which I later found out that meant he was grumpy. Go figure, Matt is used to me, so working with a grumpy camel-he should be a pro! Our camel guide was from Pakistan and laughed at my off the cuff, socially and politically incorrect jokes, so I think he had a good time with us. Don’t mind these pictures of us on camels, my legs looks like the size of Texas (who would have thought on an animal so large I would look so big as well) and well Matt’s shorts now have a bit of a racy look to them-looking good Matt, nice legs there. After the camel ride (which is way harder than it looks, and definitely harder than riding a horse), we arrive at our Bedouin camp to watch some falconry and settle in for an evening of traditional Arabian music and cuisine (yes, this includes eating camel, but not the one’s we rode out on and al harees, which are foods traditionally served at weddings). Matt smoked shisha and I got henna done, all while we made new friends from France and South Africa. Again, we would highly recommend this tour above all others if you want a real authentic experience in the desert. Seven hours later, we returned to the hotel totally exhausted, but had a wonderful experience.

After sleeping in a bit, we spent the next morning and early afternoon exploring Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi was about an hour and half drive from Dubai, and is one of the more conservative emirates of the UAE. We went to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (which is absolutely beautiful by the way), as well as had a chance to see the Emirates Palace Hotel (also very beautiful) and Etihad Towers. We finished the day having afternoon tea and pastries at the Desert Palms Polo Club of Dubai. I know this is a bit out of the norm for desert life, but it was recommended so we went. I’m glad we did because the pastries were phenomenal, the polo fun to watch as well.

Dubai was a great place to stop for a few days, rest a bit and see some of the massive structures, unique modern architecture and historical character this place has created. Dubai has many characteristics that resemble that of Las Vegas (big structures and buildings, fancy fountains, big, flashy everything-it’s their goal to have the biggest of everything in the world), yet there is virtually no crime, everything is automated (the police don’t even pull you over, they just ticket you from cameras everywhere), and there is minimal debauchery anywhere. I think they said that Dubai is the third safest city in the world. Who knew? And definitely not what I expected. So, imagine a very conservative Vegas, without gambling and drinking, then you have Dubai.

In many ways we came here seeking a variety of different cultural and lifestyle experiences that would push us completely out of our comfort zone and with some things it did. I mean, before I struggled to understand why women would want to wear the full abaya, but after doing it a few times during this trip, I can totally get behind wearing it with the headscarf on any given day. It’s really like a comfortable nightgown, and that headscarf did wonders to conceal my double chin-#Winning The women do it both out of respect, but also because they want to bring back tradition to their culture, similar to what women are now doing in Japan by wearing kimonos, and not just for wedding or special occasions. I mean, you never have to do your hair, figure out what you are going to wear, and you can go “full ninja” as they refer to it (full face covered except your eyes), say at the grocery store, when you don’t want to be recognized). Overall, all the people we interacted with were extremely friendly and very helpful. Although 80% of the people that live here are from other countries, we still found that we got an authentic experience none the less.

Overall, we found that Dubai is in more ways than just one, a lot like Oklahoma. A country, rather than just a state, dependent on the “black gold” of the earth to fund their sheer existence. If they haven’t seen how well that’s worked out for us, they should probably check that out. The one thing I can say is they at least they continue to build their infrastructure and economy on tourism as their “Plan B” because when the well becomes dry, as it inevitably will, they might actually be able to make it as a civilized place of existence. Come see the place if you haven’t been, it’s worth three or four days as a stopover city. We don’t recommend coming in the summertime, as apparently you can fry eggs and bake cookies on the concrete, as it gets so hot (we heard close to 120 degrees during the day). It’s wintertime and we saw 75-80 degree days.

As we continue our journey west, we are excited to explore the U.K. for the next several days. I’ve finally found a destination I might actually not stick out like a sore thumb. I’m also secretly hoping for a spotting of the Royal Family, let’s hope my years of stalking them on the internet will provide me some insight on the best location to do so!

See you all in London!

[mistyandmatt]

Misty’s first time for a while fish I think!! Not sure of the formal name, but mine was very tasty!!! Ha!! #room4two #mandmgortw🌎 #Nara #japan #wholefish #sushi #anchovy (at Asukasou)

[mistyandmatt]

Good morning from #Dubai ! #mandmgortw🌎 #Room4two (at Eggspectation-Citywalk)

[mistyandmatt]

Friends (Insert the Friends theme song here)

We’ve shared a lot of our specific activities we have done while on this trip, as well as all the lovely landscape we’ve got to experience, but I want to take a quick minute to talk about a few things that have really made this trip much more meaningful for me. See, one of the many reasons I found a love in traveling (and let’s be honest entertaining strangers in my home who are also travelers) is because I’m really an introverted social person. I love knowing who people are, where they came from, the things that bring them happiness and joy, what their life experiences have been, and what truly makes them the individuals they are. It’s the innate social worker in me, I suppose. I can’t help it, nor would I change it, because it’s given me the chance to create amazing friendships and truly notable acquaintances over the years. This trip has given us the opportunity to not only meet new people everywhere we go, but for us to reconnect with our friends, many of which Matt or I have had the chance to spend time with in at least two to five years. I introduced you all to my friend Josh, the heavy-pour bartender who enabled us to miss our first flight to Hawaii, I’d now like you all to get aquatinted with Rene. Rene and I had the opportunity to work together in the Oklahoma County juvenile court system since 2008. We first bonded over our crazy work experiences, but second was our love for animals. Rene’s spirit and energy is contagious, her laugh so very lovable, and her feistiness is like none other. A few years ago she decided to move back to Kauai (she’s from here) to lead a more simpler, present-moment life. So, as Matt and I were coming into town, we contacted her to meet up and catch up on her life happenings. On Sunday, Rene gladly served as our local tour guide taking us from the Lihue/Kapaa area all the way west to the Waimea Canyon. We stopped to see several waterfalls, we did a rum tasting at the Koloa rum shop, we toured the coffee plantation at the Kauai Coffee Company, and hiked up to see the best views of the Waimea Canyon (noted as the Grand Canyon of the pacific). We got to see all the great spots, including lunch at a fantastic little side-of-the-road shrimp stand that was absolutely phenomenal. She was able to give us all the history of the area and all the fun insider details of truly being a local. A huge thank you to her for taking her day to do this for and with us, we had a great time and loved getting to catch up with one another. This was our last day in Kauai and quite frankly I was terribly sad to leave. I fell in love with this island and can see us coming back here many times in the future.

The next day we headed to the airport for our last Hawaiian island flight to make the quick trip over to Oahu for the next two days. We managed to get to the airport, get our boarding passes, and then headed towards security. Well, this is where things once again at an airport went south. Matt always tells me I’m not friendly enough with the airline people and that he is just going to “handle” the check in processes since he thinks he can use his brilliant personality to get what he wants (read: Matt thinks he is awesome and he has endless skills…) just wait. So, I took him up on the offer. He was handling check in this time. Matt always carries this specific knife with him everywhere, and he’s usually really good about remembering to take it out and put it in his checked luggage. Well, since you know we can’t get anywhere on time with him, we are cutting it close to boarding time as we are going through security. Well, “Brilliant Personality” forgot to put his knife in his checked luggage (probably because I wasn’t asking him 800 questions about do you have this, have you done that, etc.) and TSA obviously wouldn’t let him take it through. He decided to go over to the baggage check area to see if they would pull his bag and put it in there, but it had already gone out to get on the plane. At this point, they are calling our names on the intercom that they were going to shut the doors to the plane in two minutes and here he is, still not back through security for the second time. I literally ran to the gate (I’m too fat and out of shape for that kind of activity) and begged the ladies to wait so that he could get on the plane (I shouldn’t have, maybe he would have learned his lesson). Luckily, they did for his sake. Matt had to end his 12 year relationship with this specific knife at the baggage counter of Hawaiian Airlines because of his poor planning and “handling the check in process.” I’ll bet he’ll relinquish that decision back over to me again fairly quickly, since episode one of his new approach didn’t work so well. Twenty years later, some things just never change.

We were only going to be in Oahu for two days before catching our flight for the next leg of the journey, so we tried to hit a few highlights while we were there. We went to the USS Arizona (Pearl Harbor) memorial and museum as soon as we left the airport. The government was still technically shut down at that point and it was going to be the last day they were going to be open for visitors if a resolution had not been established. We stayed in Waikiki Beach that night and found ourselves making new friends in the hotel bar. At this point, we were about 11 days into this trip (which around 10 days historically is when I start to get cranky, want to sleep in my own bed, and become terribly impatient and intolerant of just about anything), we decide to go down for one drink and then we will go watch the sunset and go to bed early. Well, one drink turned into several, new friends were made, no sunset was seen, and no dinner was had. Four hours later we finally got to bed, so much for resting I suppose.

I’m pretty sure we wear ourselves totally out on these trips because we just have this drive to see and do as much as we can on our time off. With high expectations from both Matt and I, and a bucket list that seems endless, some days I just really want to rest and do absolutely nothing. No rest for the weary here, by 9:00 am the next day we were headed to the North Shore of Oahu to catch the locals surfing on what we were told were some pretty spectacular waves. January-March is the season for the 20-30 foot waves in this area that the crazy locals seem to love. After a few hours of watching the surfers (see attached photos), we also got to see a full on, out-of-the-water breaching humpback whale. Unfortunately, since nature isn’t “on demand” Matt wasn’t ready with the camera for it, but the image is permanently burned into my memory and I’ll take that, it was spectacular. We then spent the afternoon at the Dole Plantation learning all about the history of pineapples in Hawaii and of course, trying the famous Dole Whip. The tour around the gardens was interesting, as was the beautiful landscape they keep absolutely pristine. Who knew it takes 2 full years to grow a single pineapple? You learn something new everyday! The real highlight of the day was finding the mecca of all Target stores in the U.S. I needed to get a few things before we start the next phase of this trip (and lets be honest, I just really needed to get away from Matt for like one hour and mosey around looking at all the things I don’t need). With some hawaiian potato chips (they didn’t have any popcorn at this Target) and a fresh Diet Coke in hand, the three story Target store was just what I needed at that time. Next adventure: Dinner with Matt’s longtime friend, Philip and his wife, Andrea.

Back to the earlier conversation about meeting up with long-time friends, Matt and Philip have been friends since 2001. They were students at OU at the time and also worked together. Matt also became good friends with Philips brother, Ed, who served many years as our resident guinea pig on trying Matt’s random BBQ/cooking creations while he was in medical school. It’s been about 2-3 years since we’ve last seen each other, so getting together for dinner was on the agenda. We ate dinner at the Side Street Inn restaurant, which is known as a place for “local comfort food.” We followed up with hours of conversation at their house after their two sweet kiddos went to bed. As I’ve been missing sweet JuJu cat, I was able to get my kitty fix here, as the Nguyen’s recently became a kitten nursery, as their human kids let in a stray momma cat who was pregnant. Those little kitties were just so sweet and cuddly, exactly what I needed. At about 2:00 am we finally returned to our hotel to catch about three to four hours of sleep before we had to pack and be back at the airport to begin the international leg of this trip. It’s going to be a long day…..

Hawaii has been a wonderful experience and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Can’t wait to come back! Up next: Tokyo, Japan, off to meet all of Matt’s extended relatives for the first time ever. I can’t wait to see how this goes…..

[mistyandmatt]

Kauai Arrival to the not so big island of Kauai!!!! What this island lacks in size, it definitely makes up in character! We arrived to gusty winds and cloudy skies. I say this as to preface the next thing that’s coming. Unfortunately, although our big jet from the Big Island made it in fine, it was decided that our little plane tour/lesson was probably best left for another day lest we get bounced around and stare into the clouds for two hours. We rescheduled for two days later which turned out to be a much better idea, so we then had two days to explore the island before our sightseeing adventure from the sky. We promptly picked up our little convertible from Enterprise and then went back to the airport to retrieve our bags (in reverse order you see, due to the quick switch over to our next flight, our bags ended up on the next flight over. Since we knew we may be touring the west side of the island with friends in the coming days, we decided to knock out the north/northeast side of the island from Lihue until the road ends at the Na Pali coast. In case this is your first introduction to the Na Pali coast, this is an area that does not have passable roads through it, much like the Darien Gap in Columbia. It is possible to cross on foot, but not by car, the terrain has provided a formidable opponent to the earthmover. We ventured to the last beach at the end of the road (see attached photos) and got a couple of great shots of this amazing topography. As we made our way back towards Lihue, we stopped at a couple of dry caves along the way. We ventured in for a few photos and continued on to Hanalei Bay. We walked out on the lone fishing pier and saw several people learning to surf on the smaller waves that had been subdued by the shelter from the open ocean. Our next stop was the Kilauea lighthouse where the price of admission was covered by our national park pass. It would have been worth double just to see the waves break on the large pockets they had scooped out of the cliff sides over the previous millennia. This is a great point to bird watch and whale watch. We saw several species of birds there which seemed quite different from anything I’ve seen in Oklahoma. Although I must admit I’m not much of an aviary connoisseur, this was pretty impressive. We also saw whales playing a ways off shore, but no breaches this time. As we continued around the island, we passed many awesome beaches and resorts including Princeville, which we understand is the more “uppity” part of the island (read: golf courses & private runways, which is a bit odd since I don’t know of anything that will land on that small of a runway that will make the pacific crossing, but who knows??). As we rounded the east side we stopped by our hotel, dropped off our bags and made our way to the Gaylord Plantation to take part in the ultimate Hawaiian touristy party, the luau. We attended the Luau Kalamaku, which we were told is the best luau on the island to go to. The luau takes place in a large open tent like structure and given the rainy weather, it kept everyone dry. I was pretty impressed with the whole show as it seemed as though everyone was genuinely having a good time, including the performers. I always hate going to events where I feel like it’s a bit of a sideshow/exploitation of cultures, but this seemed more like a big party that was enjoyed by all. I can’t say I learned a ton about Hawaiian culture there, but in hindsight, I don’t think this was the point. The luau is really just a big dinner party with a cultural show that contains a bit of Hawaiian history and context. Misty even got up on stage and tried to learn how to do a hula dance of some sort. Saturday started with our rescheduled plane ride around the island, as we arrived at the airport, we met our pilot, Doug McDuff. Low and behold, Doug was a 1970 graduate of Putnam City High School and entertained us with stories of his football glory days. Real nice guy, good tour guide as well. The skies were still a bit cloudy, but looked reasonable on the northeast side of the island (around the Na Pali coast) where our goal was to be able to see the shoreline of the impassable parts of the island by air. After going through the clouds on the southwest coast of Kauai, we made our way slightly into the Waimea Canyon. We weren’t able to fly too close to the waterfall that is known for it’s appearance in the movie, Jurassic Park, solely because the clouds kept us as bay. Around the west side of the island we passed the Kauai Coffee Plantation (FYI-this plantation grows almost 60% of all coffee sold in the US, who knew?) and continued up the west coast until the Na Pali coast was visible. This was the view we were waiting for and it did not disappoint. Seeing the serrated mountains from the top of the island through the clouds and all the way into the ocean, all untouched by most of civilization was pretty breathtaking. Our journey in the small plane ended as we rounded the last point and made our landing around 2 p.m. local time. We highly recommend anyone who visits Kauai to take a plane ride (not a helicopter tour) to see the entire island. We used Wings over Kauai (I had researched these folks for months before we decided to go with them) and the experience was top notch. Bruce, one of the flight instructors at the school isn’t a big fan of Facebook (self disclosed), so he likely won’t see this, but we wanted others to know the experience was excellent, definitely 5 stars! Around the south end of the island we decided to make a stop at a couple places to sample the local cuisine for lunch before we went to a few landmarks on that side of the island. We stopped at the Koloa Fish Market for the Hawaii staple, Poke. Let me tell you....this stuff is awesome. It’s basically a sashimi salad. I tried two different varieties, a spicy Poke and a Korean style Poke. The spicy definitely won that battle, but both were amazing. I only wish it were available back at home. Misty wanted to go and try Puka Dog, a strange hot dog place she had scoped out on Facebook. It’s basically a hot dog sized pig in a blanket with special local sweet and savory mustards and sauces. It’s definitely worth the stop as it’s another must eat, but it’s not quite to the level as “I NEED THIS AT HOME” as the Poke is. We forged ahead to Poipu and Shipwreck beaches where there were some spectacular views, partnered with sea turtles and monk seals. The local wildlife conservation groups stand guard for the napping seals on the beach and tether off small sleeping areas so gawkers don’t get too close and bother them. Unbeknownst to me, the specific seals on the Hawaiian islands are a species specific to the island and are endangered. After the wildlife viewing and a bit of hiking to get to the great views, we ventured up to Spouting Horn, and areas where the waves have carved out a small cave with a hole in the top. When the waves crash into the shoreline this unique formation creates what looks like a geyser coming out of the rock. It’s a pretty neat thing to see, I’ll add a few photos here so you can see it as well. As Misty has noted, she’s been in recovery mode of this crazy sickness she had for several weeks now. Unfortunately, when we visited Mauna Kea on the Big Island, she started to have some sharp back pain (like you get with pneumonia) when we went to higher elevations, likely culprit, pleurisy. So for four days she pushed through the pain and carried on, but no trip would be complete with one last trip to the urgent care to make sure all was well (and to verify I didn’t need to quickly trade her in for a different model to make the rest of this international trip with). She survived, no trade in needed. While she was in the urgent care, I made a short run around town to find a Hawaiian shirt, I noticed that the little convertible we were in may also be in need to some “urgent care” as it was starting to smell a bit like syrup, and I didn’t have any pancakes on hand at the time. I proceeded back to the Enterprise by the airport, also not far away at this point, and dropped the car back off for repairs. Seemed as though a water pump seal had seen better days, but not to worry, they had a little Jeep to give us in exchange. on us so that we could continue our journey the next day. As the evening set in, we had the chance to meet up with a previous co-worker of MIsty’s at a restaurant in town. Huge shout out to The Oasis on the Beach restaurant, let me tell you, this place has ridiculously tasty food and drinks. First we sampled their house made Mai Tai, which was the best we’ve had yet! We then moved on to a main course of local, freshly caught fish and island-raised steak, both were just amazing. Between the Poke at the fish market and the fish and steak at this upscale eatery, we have definitely been culinarily spoiled by the island of Kauai!!!! We will be coming back to this island, guaranteed! As we settled in for the night, Misty’s friend offered to give us a personal tour (by car) around the west side of the island the next day, taking us to all the greatest spots only known by locals. On that note, off to bed in preparation for another day filled with new sights to see and great experiences to be had!

[mistyandmatt]

When you’re on the fairway @hiltonwaikoloavillage wishing the clouds would clear and the sprinklers come on.... ha!!!! Made a run for it, managed to stay dry though!!! #hawaii #kona #nightphotography #stargazing #longexposure #golfhawaii #mandmgortw🌎 #room4two .com (at Hilton Waikoloa Village)

[mistyandmatt]

Good morning from Hilo! #mandmgortw🌎 #room4two #hawaii

[mistyandmatt]

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Shafer Switchbacks Time-lapse. #moab #shafertrail #jeep #utah #islandinthesky #canyonlands #wrangler #room4two #whiterimtrail (at White Rim Trail, Utah)