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apinklion01 · 3 years

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Going Angst

Day Five: Death

Trevor wasn’t sure how much luck he had.

Some adults thought it was very concerning he was found right on January 1st, 2000. A day that brought upon the paranoia that such a year would cause the end of the world.

Yet for Trevor, he knew it was lucky someone found him. Only covered in a few blankets, he would’ve died from the cold and the lack of any food. Instead he only lost his left leg and left hand to frostbite.

However this also caused some problems, such as convincing adults that he was alright, and that they should adopt him. He was able to do most things that other kids in the orphanage did, like talk, walk, watch tv. What about him made him different?

Most of the other kids in the orphanage were around six years old. A few older kids hung around upstairs, not wanting to deal with the noise downstairs. Trevor however liked spending his time in a small corner he found by himself. It was his space, just for him and his ghost parrot Skully.

Unlike other people, Trevor was captivated by the talking ghost bird. Skully was the one responsible for defining words he didn’t know, like radiant, horrendous, homophones, synonyms. He was really smart, and Trevor liked to think spending time with the bird made him smart.

“Hey Skully, guess what,” he spoke as he snuck into his corner.

Skully woke up from his nap with a snort, glancing around the room sleepily. “Oh, it’s you,” He spoke in a dull manner. “What sort of news do you bring, young Trevor?”

“One of the kids, JT, said we’re going to the pool tomorrow for a trip!” Trevor spoke excitedly. “I’ve never been to one before. I don’t think I even know what swimming is. Do you?”

“I’m afraid I wasn’t born a waterfowl, so no, I don’t,” Skully answered, stretching his bony wings.

“A waterfowl?” Trevor questioned.

The bird sighed. “Any species of bird that’s capable of swimming, complete with feathers that are waterproof and webbed feet. As you can see, my feet are far from webbed,” He added, holding up one for proof.

“Ohh, that makes sense,” Trevor spoke, searching the room for the stash of race cars he hid inside one of the room’s walls that he and his friend played. “Heh, you look like you know everything, Skully. I hope I get as smart as you.”

The bird took a moment to puff his chest out. “I don’t know if you’ll learn as much as myself, but who knows,” He replied, preening himself.

Trevor finally found one of the race cars, the blue one he gave Skully since he knew the bird had a fondness for the color. He set it aside as he searched for the other.

“Hey Skully, do you think that there might be someone looking for a kid when we get to the pool?”

The bird flapped down from his perch onto the floor. “Possibly.”

“Do you think they might choose me?”

“I don’t see why not,” Skully answered, placing a foot on the race car and driving it around. “You seem in good health, and I’m sure they wouldn’t say no to someone as chipper as you.”

“You really think so?” Trevor responded.

The bird looked up to view the human.

He held his race car in his hook hand. It resembled a pirate ship, cobwebs covering it. A spider crawled onto Trevor’s hair. Yet there was no doubt in his mind that some human would be able to see the true kindness the kid had.

“Absolutely. But you better move the spider back to its corner before you scare someone.”

“Oh, sorry,” Trevor apologized to the tiny creature, gingerly placing it back into a crevice.

“Can we race now?” He asked Skully, cleaning off the spider webs from his hook.

“Of course, you better start us off. I’ve been practicing.”

“I bet I’ll still win!”

“We’ll see about that, young Trevor!”

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Skully was napping again when he felt something stirr his core. He nearly crashed onto the floor from the shaking.

He knew only one reason why his core trembled like that.

Someone, or something, had died. And rather close by it seemed.

Skully wasn’t one to see the newly departed, but it had grown rather lonely inside the orphanage whenever Trevor went on a test trial with any human couple seeking a child.

The bird sighed as he took flight. It wasn’t Trevor’s fault that he had been found abandoned and his body already experienced his first touch of death. He didn’t like those humans who casted glances that the boy looked right through. All he asked from the world was a home. Why were humans so stupid in bot being able to answer such a simple wish?

He flew over the city to the place where his core trembled. There. A pool. Outside an ambulance was parked, it’s lights flashing. Two police cars were already driving down the street just a short distance away.

Skully panicked. Young Trevor mentioned that he and the other children were going to the pool earlier today. Had one of them died?

The bird turned intangible and surveyed the crowd. Some of the kids from the orphanage were standing outside, crying. Most were being comforted by the adults that often volunteered at the orphanage and were wrapped up in blankets.

He spotted JT, one of Young Trevor’s friends, among them, and gave a brief sigh. That boy was alive. But what of his friend?

Skully flew to the ambulance. Inside some adults were assessing a body. He recognized the bit of hair on top of the small head. His core stood still as he looked at the monitor.

There was no pulse.

He had to find Young Trevor.

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It was some short while after the sun dipped over the horizon, the sky getting darker tones of blue. Skully had searched most of the city area of Amity Park with no luck of spotting Young Trevor.

He went to fly over Amity Park and spotted a small ghostly figure resting on a bench. A small gasp escaped his beak as he swooped down.

He landed on the bench quietly. The boy didn’t seem to notice, as he was busy crying, hiding his head in his hands.

The bird cleared his throat. “Young Trevor?”

No answer.

Skully gave a sigh. “I know it’s a lot to take in, believe me. But I’m here for you if you need anything-”

“Why didn’t they notice me?”

The parrot looked up. “Come again?”

“I was right there, I wasn’t able to swim. I didn’t see how far I floated out into the deep end until…” The boy’s words were lost to his sobs.

“I thought adults were all supposed to care for kids. I wasn’t able to swim, someone, anyone should’ve seen me!” Trevor’s face peered over his hands as he looked out into the distance, tears dripping from his nostrils and his eyes. “It was so cold, Skully. The water was so cold.”

“...Trevor-”

“I hate them.”

“Young Trevor?”

“I hate them!” The young ghost yelled, sniffed his nose. “I should’ve seen it all along. Why else didn’t anyone want me when I was alive? I didn’t matter to them cause of how I looked. And now they want me while I’m dead.” The boy paused, once again processing what had happened. “And now I’m dead,” He whispered quietly.

Skully climbed up Young Trevor’s shirt till he was perched on his shoulder before nestling next to his neck.

“There there my boy,” He muttered. “It’s alright. You’re just scared of what occurred today. It wasn’t no place for you to die. But I promise you’ll be missed.”

“Who’s going to remember me?” Young Trevor asked.

“JT for one. I spotted him crying a river of tears while I went looking for you.”

“Oh gosh, JT,” Young Trevor choked, his eyes watering up. “I didn’t mean for him- I didn’t want this- I tried so hard to get someone to notice me-”

“It’s not your fault, nor should JT feel it’s his fault either,” Skully comforted the child. “Things like these just happen. We have to move on, even if it hurts now, or hurts for a long time.”

The pair were silent, the first few stars in the sky showing up.

“Skully?”

“Yes Young Trevor?”

“I want to change my name.”

The bird glanced at his face. The boy’s eyes looked irritated from crying. “Why do you want to do that?”

“I don’t want anyone to call me Trevor. That’s what all the adults called me. Everyone else like JT called me One Leg Trev. They always came up with cool nicknames cause I reminded them of a pirate.”

His eyes lit up. “I’m going to call myself Youngblood. That sounds like a pirate name. Only kids get to call me that. If any living adult tries doing that, I’ll haunt them until they leave their home.”

“Young Trevor-”

“It’s Youngblood.”

The parrot held back his words. “Youngblood, are you certain about this?”

“I’m done listening to adults. I’ll haunt the adults inside that orphanage until every kid inside gets a new home. I’ll get a crew, and we’ll all make sure that no adult who does any rotten stuff to kids gets away with it.”

Youngblood casted a look at Skully. “You’ll stay and be my first mate, right?”

Skully’s throat choked up. The boy was still grieving. He hadn’t the slightest idea of how permanent choices like these lasted in the afterlife.

But he knew he couldn’t say no. It was dangerous to leave a young ghost like him alone with no one to guide him through the Ghost Zone.

“Yes, I will.”

#danny phantom #going angst week 2021 #death tw #neglect mention #youngblood #[[ I wasn't sure what to call the bird so I named him Skully ]]#pink lion dabbles

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skvaderarts · 4 years

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Hello and Welcome to Apocrypha!

Chapter One: Contemplation

The Masterlist will be listed when I publish chapter 2 on Wednesday because there is nothing to list yet lol! It’s on my AO3 and my FF.N though.

Chapter One: Contemplation

Notes: Hello everyone! Notes are at the end today! It's great to have you back for book two! Let me know what you think and thanks for coming back!

"Love seeketh only self to please,

To bind another to its delight,

Joys in another's loss of ease,

And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."

-William Blake

Chapter One:

One week later…

Rays of golden light traced a path between the leaves and branches of a great oak tree and showered comforting warmth down upon the pavement below as large puffy white clouds attempted to interrupt them. After a long and arduous week of storms and overcast skies, the warm embrace of the sun was akin to a well stoked fire in the middle of a cold blizzard: comfortable and reaffirming. For it to be the middle of August, it was uncharacteristically cool today, although that could be attributed to the fact that Fortuna was an island and as such it benefited from a constant coastal breeze. That was fortunate considering the manner in which at least half of the island's occupant's still dressed. It seemed that despite their recent reservations about the Order and their illicit activities, some of them still couldn't shake the habit and it was a constant point of conflict within the community. But regardless, the weather was positively idyllic.

It was almost enough to lule someone right off to sleep. Thankfully, V had not given into temptation just yet, as doing so while he was supposed to be watching the children at a public park would be dreadfully irresponsible. He was many things, but he liked to think that "negligent" wasn't one of them. That wasn't to say that the thought hadn't crossed his midday weary mind, however. He had been awake since the crack of dawn, awoken by accident by the sound of Nero and Nico preparing to leave for an impromptu trip to what remained of Redgrave City. The local military had made the decision to quarden off the area and allow several different groups ranging from scientists to government agencies to come study it. But they were still in the beginning phases of building a containment zone around the city. Considering the fact that it was near several other population centers, the prospect of keeping the general public out was basically impossible. This was a project that was going to be months, if not years, in the making, and there would be a reckoning at the end of it. Somehow he could just feel it.

V tilted his head slightly as he forced himself to sit up right and stop slouching over so far on the park bench, his hair practically blinding him. He had to at least pretend that he wasn't on the verge of passing over the border into dreamland. He had volunteered to take the children to the park so that Kyrie could have some much needed "me time" since every other adult had left for the day. She hadn't asked, but he could tell she needed it. Nero generally helped keep them busy when he was home, but that wasn't going to be the case today. They didn't exactly have a school to be at with everything in the city under repairs, so occupying the time of three young boys who seemed to be practically overflowing with energy was difficult to say the least. Kyle, Carlo, and Julio were a stark contrast to him at the moment. It had been just over a week since he had returned to the mortal realm, and although he felt much less weak than he once had and his injuries had long since healed (at an uncharacteristically accelerated pace, at that), he still found himself limited by a staggering lack of energy. It was as if no matter how much he slept, he never stopped being drowsy. Or was that an unintended consequence of his constant napping? Perhaps his newfound accelerated healing abilities had sapped him of his remaining strength? It was relatively hard to say, and he wasn't going to expend valuable mental energy dwelling on it. He had to make it home, after all.

Home…

What a strange concept.

For most of his life he'd be transient to no fault of his own, constantly moving from place to place, so the idea of having a permanent dwelling was almost totally foreign. He wasn't entirely sure he even wanted that. It wasn't something he'd put much thought into, to be honest. For the most part, he just took things one day at a time, especially right now. There was no undue pressure to do anything besides exist here and he liked that, but the absence of a set goal made him admittedly anxious for no particular reason. V exhaled slowly and shook his head at himself. He was one of those people who was incapable of relaxing, wasn't he? The young summoner took a moment to stretch, contemplating the possibility of standing up. Should he go back to the house? There wasn't anything pressing to do there except ruin Kyrie's otherwise serene quiet time with the abrupt and all to familiar sound of excited children. He could spare a few more minutes for her sake before he went back and did the same thing he was doing now but in a different spot: a whole lot of nothing. It was strange how finding out he was part demon killed the excitement of almost everything else around him. Things weren't going to get too much more impressive outside of that. V smirked, starting to understand why seemingly everyone else in his family had a predilection for combat, one that he was easing himself into in his own way. While he was no stranger to a battle himself, he was most certainly much pickier than the rest of his kindred. But, then again, he had good reason to be, all things considered.

As if possessed by a need to spread his wings to keep himself awake, Griffon suddenly materialized and fluttered around the space between him and the sparse playground equipment, unintentionally highlighting the stark contrast between himself and the brightly colored children's attractions. Although a mostly nature oriented space, there were still swings, slides, and climbing equipment to occupy the time of younger visitors. A recent edition as the city attempted to add more outside influences in a bid to reinvent itself, even if only a little. V shot his avian companion a slightly irked look as he flew over to him and perched on the back of the wrought iron park bench he currently occupied, his arms spread out along the back of it leaving only a small space for the demonic bird to claim for himself.

"Pipe down, hot stuff. We're in a park! No one can even see us down here!" Griffon said, flapping both his wings and his beak. He already knew that V was going to object.

V schoffed. Now that they were in a populated city that wasn't composed of demons and the husks of what used to be it's unlucky residents, he was more careful about when and where he allowed his familiars to roam free. Even if Griffon didn't speak, he wasn't the most inconspicuous bird in existence and Shadow was a dead giveaway more likely to send people feeling for their lives than anything else even if they didn't realize she was a demon. While he had no choice but to acknowledge that they were sentient beings with their own wants and desires, they all had to admit that much like discretion was the better part of valor, not drawing the attention of literally everyone on the island was the better part of not causing issues for everyone they lived with. He was privy to the fact that Nero had only recently gained the trust and cooperation of the locals after a lifetime of being ostracized. V himself turned curious and cautious heads alike when he ventured outside of the confines of their cozy home. While no one had said anything to him (at all, really), he was sure that allowing people to see that he possessed demonic helpers in a city that had been terrorized by demons for generations wasn't the greatest way to gain the trust of the locals. That being said, he couldn't say that he was particularly intimidated by the people who lived here, either. They seemed more afraid of him than anything else, and that wasn't too much better if he was being honest. He didn't really enjoy being feared unless it was by his enemies. V possessed enough unsure feelings about himself as it was. He didn't need total strangers to add to it.

"Still though," V said as he threw a cautionary but unconcerned glance in either direction," my previous point still stands. We're not in Redgrave City anymore. I'm asking you to try and be discrete. Nothing more."

"Sure thing, Dorthy. I'll keep it in mind." Griffon said sarcastically as he preened himself.

V closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. At the end of the day, he knew that Griffon wasn't going to be uncooperative. But, at the same time, he understood where his companions were coming from. While they had more or less free roam of the house, there was significantly more room out here for his airally inclined pet to really stretch out and get comfortable. It was a difficult temptation to refuse. And they could almost instantaneously convert back into tattoos. Was he being too stern about this? If there was no one around to see it, what harm could it do? Did they all just need a good flight?

He opened his eyes again, content to put the matter aside for now. There was no harm in it and no rush to come to a decision, but there was definite harm in indecision and stress. Why was coming to a park so stressful to him? Why did he have to overthink everything? Or was he even overthinking in the first place. Ah, there he went again, overthinking things. He needed a distraction…

The white haired man spared a glance at the children. They were as they had been moments ago, playing happily and running amok, causing a ruckus. In a way, he envied them. He'd never really been interested in the concept of physical activity as a child, his attention firmly rooted in literature even then. And he'd never really had the energy… or any friends to play with to speak of…

This was a terrible distraction. Revisiting his childhood was never a healthy idea.

Why did every thought process in his infinitely expanding mind lead down some unwanted or unfortunate path? What he wouldn't give to be able to space out and think nothing at all like a normal person. Was that some facet of his demonic blood; that he should always be on high alert even when at rest? Perhaps he just needed a hobby or some sort of task to complete so that his mind didn't have time to dwell on these types of things. While running from his problems had never been advisable (or worked very well) he needed to set them aside for another time and focus on something more engaging. Or maybe he needed professional help. Who knew?

V uncrossed his legs and leaned forward, propping his elbows up on his knees and resting his face in the palms of his hands. There honestly wasn't much to do on this island, but if he left town and went to the mainland that was a different story. He hadn't done that in the entire time he'd been living with Nero, and he'd never visited the town that the other half of his immediate family lived in. Capulet, was it? Wasn't that next to Enamel, the city that Magnolia dwelled in? And then there was that matter as well. He hadn't visited her yet like she'd asked of him before she'd departed after she'd left the hospital a week earlier. Perhaps he could visit her and browse the local vacancies while he was at it? After all, even though there was no urgent need to leave, looking never hurt. It was something to do at the very least. That had to count for something. And following up with Vergil about the cult was still on the table even if he wasn't entirely sure what to do about that situation just yet. Or if it was preferable. But it had never been about that in the first place. At some point he would have to talk to his father...

Yes, he would start with Magnolia. That seemed to be a favorable course of action given the circumstances. Griffon shook his head, repressing the urge to laugh at how indecisive V was being. While he didn't have a play for play book on what he was thinking since V wasn't talking to him specifically, it didn't take a mental giant to figure out that he was going back and forth over something. And he wasn't getting anywhere from what he could tell.

"I think we should head back now," V said as he stood up. He stretched as much as his eager to protest body would allow him to and gestured towards the children. They pouted as expected, but didn't protest. Throwing a fit wasn't going to earn them a return trip and they knew it. That wasn't a hypothesis they needed to test out. Griffon did a second lap around the playground while V waited for the children to join him before flying back over to dematerialize and rejoin with his master. The group then turned their attention to the path that led out of the park. Home wasn't more than three blocks from here, a fact that V was grateful for considering his continued lack of a cane and his current energy reserves. They would be there in no time at all and it was just past noon. They all had the whole day ahead of them.

-~-

Welcome back everyone! Just a few quick points! As always, I am happy to hear your comments and feedback! I decided to not stress myself out with an arbitrary work count minimum so the chapters will be a bit more organic this time around. That doesn't necessarily mean they will be longer or shorter, just that they will be however long they need to be to tell the story correctly. That being said, chapter two is longer than this one, so that's fun! I also want to give a special thank you to everyone who filled out the questionnaire for me at the end of the last book! At this time, it's closed, but it made a huge impact on how I arranged things in this book. The way this is going, I may very well just keep writing for this AU for the foreseeable future as we all seem to enjoy it. I even went out and purchased a new laptop just for this (I'm not rich, it's just a nice chromebook since I use Google Doc and my table is having a hard time) Wednesday and Friday between Noon and six pm CDT is still the publishing time. And thank you all very much for reading chapter one! See you back here on the 22nd of July! I hope my spelling was better this time around!

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runswith · 4 years

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Travel diary: Pamplona. Entry 8 – March 26, 2002

With Curtis having done el Camino de Santiago so many times, he’s fairly knowledgeable about it -- extremely, even excessively knowledgeable compared to someone like me.

As we stood in Sunday morning sunshine, Curtis talking about el Camino, two people hiking the trail toiled up the grade in our direction. Across the small road, off in the other direction, the land spilled down and away. Nesting birds appeared from hillside bushes, making short, swift flights to nearby points, producing sharp bursts of song. Though the sun shone strong and warm, a cool breeze blew -- Curtis had encouraged me to leave my jacket in the car, I found myself glad I had it on and pulled it tightly around me as I peered off across the countryside.

Back in the car, we drove further west of Pamplona. Several miles along, Javier hung a left and sped down another two-lane, flanked by fields and the occasional spread of vineyard, until we approached a turnoff for a small church that sat amid acres of fields, la iglesia de Santa Maria de Eunate. Javier turned in, guiding the car to a small parking area, pulling in by a pair of porta-potties, them looking a bit out of context there in the middle of nowhere but logical considering the number of visitors the place received.

The church: a lovely stone structure, small in diameter with a high domed roof that gives it a sense of great space. Built in the second half of the twelfth century, appearing at once austere and complex in structure. The small windows had no glass, no surprise given where and when the church was constructed -- instead, they’re covered with slabs of marble cut thinly enough that light passes through. The church is surrounded by a portico, nearby sits another building constructed of stone, a refuge for hikers making the pilgrimage, where they can find a shower, get some sleep.

On our arrival, the only other people about were three young women who seemed to carefully avoid us. As we walked back to the car, other vehicles pulled in, discharging people, changing the atmosphere drastically with noise and motion. I was glad we were leaving.

Javier drove back out to the original two-lane, heading further west to the town of Puente la Reina, a pueblo with at least three churches -- all Catholic, natch. I was taken into two, both several centuries old -- one austere, the other extravagantly elaborate -- both on a long street that ran from the east end of town to the river at the town’s west side and the bridge that gives the town its name. Built in, I think, the 15th century. Old, beautiful, nice to walk across, providing nice views of the old town on one side, green hills and flowering almond trees on the other.

The morning sunlight had strengthened, the temperature edged upward to jacket-divesting levels as the day tilted toward noon. We walked back toward the car along a different street -- wider, relatively busy -- passing the third church as we left the river behind, I mulled over how it felt to be among so much Catholicism, past and present, from the perspective of having grown up in it and ditched it the day I turned 18.

From there we traveled west to a stretch of el Camino that ran along the course of an old Roman road, cobbled and crossing an original Roman bridge, out in the middle of countryside, in a ravine off the two-lane where trees were showing green and birds called. As I moved ahead of Curtis and Javier, two hikers passed -- young women, both sporting huge packs, one of which had two or three pieces of washed clothing spread across it to dry in the sun as they walked. Curtis began chatting with them, when I returned from enjoying the near-total quiet off across the bridge it turned out they were college-age American women -- one from Tennessee, one from Illinois -- doing the pilgrimage and experiencing the contrast between what they’d imagined when they dreamed about it and the rigorous, sometimes disheartening reality of traversing mountainous, rural terrain with a full pack. Curtis gave them encouragement, some tips on stops they’d be making in the coming days, and they headed off.

Next: the town of Estella, the day’s final stop. A medieval pueblo, with old, narrow streets, large plazas, and a pretty, shallow river that wends through the heart of the town. Javier parked the car, we made our way up a long series of stairs to yet another church perched in the, by then, early afternoon sunlight. We passed through to the cloister, a sizable area of flowers, grass, flowers and a tree or two, sheltered by walls, surrounded and bisected by walkways. Quiet, with lots of old stonework. I would have been happy to remain there a while, as lack of sleep was becoming an increasingly major factor in my day. Curtis had also been up late -- later than me, I think, having far more fun -- also looked to be at less than optimum. Javier was fine, and when I got too quiet he made a point of chatting me up, explaining things or asking about my experience in Spain. Between that and the fact that he had volunteered to do the driving for the day, he went far beyond what would be expected of someone who had never met me before. An extremely considerate person with a generous, gentlemanly nature.

A mass had begun while we were outside, we couldn’t pass back through the church and so took a different stairway down to the street -- old, narrow, with vistas of sky and neighborhoods. We found our way to the center of the town, crowds of chatting, well-dressed locals milling in and out of restaurants/tabernas. We made our way into one, found a space at the bar, got something to drink, then went somewhere else to eat, a place off another narrow, quiet street. A long meal, punctuated by stretches of silence between which Curtis and Javier conversed, Javier now and then addressing some conversation in my direction, which I did my best to engage with. Afterward, we found our way through more narrow streets toward an old medieval footbridge we’d spotted earlier. The street that led us there -- old and, of course, narrow -- only permitted resident traffic, and at the end of a block that fed out onto a larger busier street, passage was blocked by a thick, squat metal column, maybe two feet high, planted in the pavement directly in the middle of the street. A car approached from the outside road, stopping by a box at the roadside where the driver produced a card and swiped it through a slot. A pause, then the column slowly sank into the pavement so the car could pass, after which it reappeared, regaining full height. Freudian traffic control.

We made our way across the bridge, trees and large sprawling expanses of bushes on either side of the river a bright, vibrant green in the early spring sun. Willow trees rose three or four stories into the air, trailing long branches thick with new leaves. Javier and Curtis had yet another ancient church or two in their sights, we made our way toward them though not into them (for which I gave silent thanks), settling down instead on some stone structures by the river to flop and get some sun. It was late afternoon by then, the town had the feel of a place slowly dealing with the coming reality of returning to the workweek. Couples were out, two groups of people came together not far from us, talking, then headed off in the opposite direction from which we’d come and disappeared. We eventually pulled ourselves together and returned to the car, walking along a stretch of el Camino which included an old, well-kept building that functioned as the town’s sanctuary for pilgrims.

As we neared the car, the snug street opened out into a small plaza that fronted a park and two old buildings, one of which apparently housed the local equivalent of a circuit court. Paint had been hurled against the door and the facade of the building, leaving splashes of red, yellow and green, the colors of the crest of Euskadi, the Basque Country. As we stepped out into the plaza, I glanced into the windows of the other building we passed, into a room filled with old, old furniture, including what appeared to be an ancient canopy bed, draped with mosquito netting.

At that moment, we became aware of a car coming in reverse along the narrow street that faced us, coming fast, the gearbox whining loudly, the rear end jerking back and forth as it approached, tires squealing. It skidded into the plaza where the driver hit the brakes, spraying gravel before changing gears then gunning his way through a loud, aggressive three-point turn, almost hitting me at one point, the afternoon air suddenly thick with the odor of testosterone. The driver: a truculent, macho 20-something whose behavior had Curtis hooting and mocking him in English. My last image of Estella.

An hour and a half later I found myself gazing out a window of an Iberia airliner. My final view of Pamplona, from a plane angling up away from the ground: a line of wind turbines ranged along a ridge of hills to the north of the airport, extending off toward the Pyrenees and the border with France, white rotor blades turning lazily in afternoon sunlight.

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goodlawdmaude · 3 years

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Colombia and Peru 2019

3/7 SAN FRANCISCO --> BOGOTA

3/7-3/8

J and I ubered from ASF to airport, got through security, grabbed a drink at the terminal, then waited at our gate to board. Alarmingly, we heard our names over the intercom, but we just had to show our passports at the desk - no problem. A flight attendant on our flight got sick, so the flight needed 9 volunteers to get off the plane. This delayed us, but we eventually got off the ground. Slept some on the flight, had to go through customs in Mexico City, then through security to our gate. It was around 6am and light outside. Jarod resolved to start the day, but I wanted to sleep more. I slept for 30 great minutes on the flight, then watched Bohemian Rhapsody. The third person in our aisle was sketchy: late, on the phone (free WhatsApp), and importing a lot (per his customs form). We got through customs pretty quickly, then grabbed a taxi and made it to our hostel around 3pm. We rested briefly, then went out for lunch—arepas, chaufa arroz con pollo, and a special combo with seafood and rice in a divine yellow sauce. Jarod was starting to feel the full effect of his cold, but we went for a brief walk anyway through the center of town and the Museo de Botero. Lots of street vendors with various crafts and snacks, some alpacas, police with dogs with muzzles, cobblestone roads, sanitation workers in blue jumpsuits, green mountains in the background. While driving, we saw stark constrasts between shoddy roadside structures and the grand skyscrapers just behind them. Roads were paved and nice. We walked back, buying water at a nearby market, then took naps, showered, and went to sleep very early (8pm). On two instances, we were awoken by rowdiness in the hostel. Overall, slept 11(!!) hours.

3/9 BOGOTA-->MEDELLIN

3/9 Bogota-->Medellin

After our long sleep, we ate breakfast (eggs, fruit, bread, homemade jam, pancakes, lots of fruit) at the hostel, then asked reception to call a taxi for us. We made it to the airport and ultimately made it to the gate smoothly (despite one snafu: struggling to follow arrows to find el bano). Flight was super quick, it was hot when we landed, and we grabbed a taxi from a line outside. The ride to El Poblado was pretty green and undeveloped. It reminded me of driving in Costa Rica (narrow, windy roads), but the roads were paved and in better shape. We tried to drop our bags at the airbnb but couldn’t. We grabbed lunch at El Florez a couple doors down—very yummy healthy food. We tried the airbnb again to no avail. We walked around to take in the town. It was very green, hot and trendy - peppered with new-looking bars, restaurants, and shops. Dying of heat, we stopped for lemonades at a restaurant by the airbnb then went to get our key. We got in and hung for a bit--the airbnb was plenty spacious but nothing super fancy. We grabbed a drink at El Jenun(??)--J built his own gin and tonic while i had a fancy cocktail. We walked for a while--through some slightly seedier roads--to a gypsy/fox-themed pizza place for dinner. Grabbed a beer at Medellin beer company and J accidentally ordered a pitcher. Waitresses were scantily clad and hot; there was an old weird white dude who knew them all far too well. We came home, showered, and went to bed around 11pm.

3/10

After sleeping in until 9am, I straightened my hair (big deal) and then we went to El Pergamino for coffee and breakfast. I had a milky delicious chai latte and eggs with tomato and pesto roasted in a little crepe brûlée pan. The coffee shop was super trendy and cute. From there we walked to the Poblado Metro station and found our way onto the metro. It was very hot and pretty crowded but a really nice system. We got off to transfer to a gondola which took us over a poorer area--tin roofs, lots of graffiti, kids and dogs running everywhere. Then we got on a second gondola which took us over a final stretch of town and over a few miles of forest. The view was unbelievable. We were squished in with a Spanish family of 6 who were talking about how hot it was here and elsewhere. We got off and started exploring El Parque Arvi. It took us a while to realize we couldn’t hike the trails without a guide, and we couldn’t get a guide without booking online. We walked around and down the road where there were lots of street vendors and a couple restaurants. We got overpriced mangos. We headed back and went to grab lunch before seeing the botanical garden. There was mostly fast food. We got two empanadas to go and sat by the main area of vendors and performers in front of the garden. We went in, admires the flora, saw some iguanas, then headed out. We intended to walk to Cerro el Volador, but then the area we were walking through got a little sketchy and we turned around. We went to Explora Park--walked through the aquarium, reptile exhibits, and a room dedicated to the mind. By the time we were ready to leave, it was pouring. We ran to a taxi, had some confusion with the address, but made it back. We rebounded out for dinner (kebab house - mediocre) nearby, then got dessert across the street and wine and waters at exxito

3/11

Woke up *early* 720 to get ready for our free walking tour through Real City Tours. Jarod made breakfast (scrambled eggs and an arepa) while I got dressed. We left a few minutes later than hoped, but hustled down Calle 10 to the poblado metro station and made it with time to spare to meet our guide. He wore a hat and a red shirt and directed our flock of 23 gringo ducklings onto the metro (which Jarod and I had already mastered the previous day), and we took it three stops north to Alpujarra. We got off, regrouped, and headed off to start the tour. It began with a roughly 20min history of Medellin. Julio told us how a big alcohol tax led the entrepreneurial locals to find smuggling routes to bring it into Colombia and how coffee grew well in its fertile soil and was a major export that bolstered the economy. He talked about the rise of cocaine and Pablo Escobar--how he and those over 30 remembered the terror and the violence and danger, but that younger people thought he was good because he “gave houses to poor people.” He talked about how the metro system showed the people that things could be better, and Medellin started its resurrection. We saw the old train station, the main government offices, the plaza of light (which used to be a crime hotspot but is now beautiful, adjacent to a library and the center of education). We walked through El Hueco, taking in the vendors and street scene to a church, empanada (with orange juice), and the Botero museum and plaza. We learned of the Belgian architect who had left his project because of all the shit-talking of the local people; the Paisas said they would finish it themselves... and did so very abruptly without following his complex blueprints. At this point, 4 members of our tour got lost. We walked to the metro stop from whose stairway a grenade had been tossed into a crowd; Julio explained Colombians’ short term memory as a necessity of resilience--and that one grenade wasn’t so bad compared to the volcano that killed 20k the next day. We walked down Junin street (a popular date night spot) and to a plaza where Botero has two bird statues- one that was partially destroyed by dynamite detonated during a concert; the other new to represent triumphing over that evil. There were cool murals of African American faces--allegedly the first freed slave in Colombia who ran away and beat up everyone that came to catch him. This plaza--especially the birds--was really powerful. A strong symbol of all that Medellin went through and rose above. After the tour, we grabbed lunch in the palace in El Hueco (creamed corn soup, salad, pork, rice and juice for roughly $5). We took the metro home and did a Nike workout and I thought I would die. We showered, hung out, then went to El Chagra for a 6-course tasting menu (we actually went for a drink, but were surprised by and obligated to do the tasting). All the dishes were focused on Amazon themes and resources- specifically the giant fish, Arapaima. The first course was a smoking drink that tasted spicy and cinnamony--a bit like fireball. The second was a delicious soup that was creamy and cheesy with yucca crumbs. The third was a potato/fish ball eaten with our hands and dipped in a spicy fruit sauce. The fourth was fish and chaufa rice. The fifth was sausage with fruit preserves and cherry tomato. The sixth was dessert--a brownie-like thing and a fruity ice cream. The whole meal ran 300COP (with cocktails which had a dazzling presentation of liquid smoke and a sandbox.. and tip). Before the final course, a man dressed as an indigenous Amazonian came to our table chanting and we didn’t know what to do. He spoke some dialect and then Spanish and offered us to use his pastes to paint on ourselves. We respectfully declined and he moved on. We went to a restaurant down the street for a drink. Jarod got a shot of gin *sin huelo* loll. The restaurant was upscale with several birthdays happening. They gave us hand towels which they made expand amazingly by pouring hot water on them. We went home to bed.

3/12 MEDELLIN-->LIMA

3/12

We woke up around 730 and did a Nike work out at home. Jarod made breakfast of eggs and arepas, then our taxi came and took us to the airport. When we got there, we couldn’t check in at the kiosk--it said we were on standby. We waited in line and the woman seemed to have some issues, but eventually gave us our boarding passes. We got through security, grabbed El Pergamino coffee/chai, and waited at the gate. Jarod got us sandwiches, fruit, and a chocolate donut thing to eat. We were sitting apart during the 3h flight :(. I read the whole time. We were fed on the airplane and I ate the meal despite being full. We got through customs easily and got a taxi to our airbnb in Miraflores (45min away... And during rush hr). We got keys from our concierge and went out for dinner. We had to wait a bit, but the food was delicious. Jarod are a risotto in squids ink with seafood. I had a pumpkin soup with shrimp, corn, and yucca. I was so full afterward and felt kinda sick but not too bad. Being in Miraflores felt like being in Santa Monica--it was an upscale beachside community with a nice mall. We went to bed HOT and I woke up once with an upset stomach, though it wasn’t too bad.

3/13

7 YEARS!! We set alarms around 730am but didn’t get out of bed until 830 or so. We headed out for a work out- running through several beautiful green parks on the coastline, then plopping in the shade for a circuit. After the workout, we went to a beachside cafe and ordered a coffee and a nutella/banana crepe to share. We stopped at home, rinsed my sunscreeny body, then headed to the mall, Larcomar. We popped into a cafe for parfaits and quiche, then went to the bike rental stand upstairs and got two bikes for one hour. After we paid but before we left, the bike attendant crashed/fell off his bike nearby. The irony was overwhelming. We biked along the beautiful coast, to the Bridge of Sighs, then back up a city street of Barranco. The Barranco main square was beautiful, with statues and beautiful plants peppered throughout the plaza. We rode back, returned our bikes to the attendant who was squirting Purell on his scraped knee, and went home. We did laundry, showered, and got ready for our walking food tour. (Snacked on plaintain chips and beers from the market downstairs while we waited.) A driver with an unexplained passenger picked us up around 520pm. He was very kind and gave us two (hot) bottles of water. We drove through traffic into the historical center, where we met our guide Ximena. We walked to a churro place that had a long line, Ximena scurried to the front, then returned with two churros--one with caramel (apparently an ancient sweet in Lima) or a sweet cream. They were scalding hot. We took them to a nearby monastery, with a gated plaza full of pigeons. Ximena told us that the plaza used to be a common place to sell goods that the pigeons and vultures were brought by the Spanish, and that it was still an important place of worship although only 20ish ppl were a part of the monastery (friars?). We went inside and saw into catacombs full of skulls and big bones. There were no cemeteries, so if one had the money, one would pay to be buried in that sacred space. From there, we went to the center of literature (which used to be a big train station, but now only one train goes and it runs maybe 2x/month). Across the street was the oldest bar in Lima. We went in and ate ham sandwiches with onion (pan con chicharron con sarza) and purple juice (chicha morrada - corn juice with cloves and cinnamon). From there we walked to the main plaza. Xime told us about the history of the buildings--the bell towers of the old church had been destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt... the (some politician’s) mansion had been burned down (by ppl who wanted to scare him, but accidentally destroyed it) and rebuilt. It was a beautiful square full of light and life. From there, we walked to a nearby coffee shop where we talked with the brewer of Peru Uno, Oliver. He let us taste two of his beers--a Belgian trippel and an homage to Peru with chamomile and other local herbs/spices. With the beer we had fried bites called tequenos. Oliver was half Peruvian and have Belgian and very focused on sustainable business practices. He was super friendly and cool. From there, we walked a way to find a stop full of people--vendors with their carts as well as big mats on the ground for gambling and big circles around storytellers or dancers. We are mazamorra morada with rice pudding and another sweet rice that was brown from the sweetener. We then had the healing herbal drink emoliente and anticuchos. At each vendor, xime explained the prep in depth, asking the vendor details in Spanish then relaying the answers to us in English. From there we walked to an old bar for “supte artists” where we had papas a la huancaina, yucca rellena (my fave), and chilcano de pisco. People around us were getting TURNT--an old asian man could barely walk, a guy and girl had 8 beers (large) between them, 3 men had 14, and a table of three had a whole fifth of pisco (45% alcohol). Quite full, we struggled through our food. I finished my share, but J did not finish his! We then met our ride (after Xima first approached the wrong car), dropped Xime off, and made it home. During the tour, Xime said the most protested issue in Peru was gender ideology. We went to bed around 11.

3/14

We woke up around 730. I was feeling sicker than I had, but we set off for a workout anyway. We ran for 20min and did a 30min Nike training. We were dripping with sweat. We then headed down our street for breakfast. Jarod’s came with papaya juice and coffee and he got a water--so much liquid to go with his double decker grilled cheese (basically lol). We walked to Kennedy Park which was beautiful with lots of flowers and cats. We went to a supermarket nearby and bought waters, nuts, plaintain chips, and yogurt. We walked back to our place and chilled for a while. We snacked on yogurt and plantain chips during the afternoon, showered, took a nap, and enjoyed the beautiful patio of our airbnb. We watched a little bit of Coach Carter hehe. Then around 6 we set off for dinner at the ancient ruins Huelca Pucllana. It was a long walk during rush hour, but we made it (slightly sweaty) and were seated immediately (in the room not immediately adjacent to the ruins). We got Topeka? Appetizer—4 from the menu for two people--some delicious bread, and our meals (salmon and risotto for me; tuna and veggies and rice for J). We had pisco sours which were strong and delicious. We admired the ruins for a few minutes before walking back down a central strip of park-like walkway. We made it to park Kennedy and stopped for picarones-fried pumpkin and sweet potato dough. I thought we would get one donut, but we got 6, drizzled in syrup. We carried these home, smacked on a few, and packed up. We went to bed by 10pm in prep for our early travel day the next morning.

3/15 LIMA-->CUSCO

3/15

We woke up around 430 and started getting ready. We snacked on leftover picarone and banana, then went to head downstairs at 515. We were stopped by the man next door (Gerard?) who said he owned the building and worked at Cheesecake Factory in gheridelli square in SF and owned a house in Oakland. We talked for a few minutes and gave him the key (a relief to me; I was worried the doorman might not be there for a hand off). The doorman was there and called a taxi for us--though it took a while, our driver spoke some English and warned us (in spanish) about being robbed at gunpoint in Cusco. I slept during some of the ride and was very groggy when we arrived. We got through security and onto our plane smoothly. I slept against the window the entire flight, but felt super weird--and anxious about altitude sickness--when we arrived. We got off and found our way to a crowd of desperate taxi drivers, all in our face asking if we wanted to ride with them. We said no gracias to them all, then realized we did need one. Jarod was haggling with one guy for a 15s ride but he wouldn’t budge; another driver jumped in and said he would take us for 15s. We rode through more modern Cusco into the more ancient part where we were staying. We arrived at our hostel around 10 and sipped coca tea in the lobby while they prepared our room for us. (Very early but convenient!) our room was beautiful and spacious Jarod lay on the alpaca blanket at the foot of our king bed so as not to get it dirty. We hung for a bit, then went down the street for lunch, back home for the bathroom, then out again to the main plaza. A very friendly man outside a different restaurant said “ah hello guys, we have been waiting for you come on in.” We told him we had already eaten and pressed onward, making our way through people pushing massages, trinkets, and art prints at us. The main plaza was beautiful. Green and surrounded by old churches and hills. We went around the shops at the edge--with lots of aggressive vendors and high end alpaca clothing shops. We stopped to buy sunglasses, then went to the Inka museum. We learned about the pre-inkan people who used basic tools and made basic ceramics and relied heavily on llamas and alpacas. The Incas themselves didn’t develop until ~1100 AD (news to me). They too made lots of ceramics and basic tools as well as little sculptures of animals and foods to sacrifice to the gods. The section on Spanish conquest was unclear because all the signs were in Spanish. It seems they put into power lots of Incan leaders who were pro-Spain and then screwed them over. When we were finishing up, it started pouring rain. We waited briefly for it to let up, then hurried home in the rain. We were struggling to breathe pretty often (>11k feet). At home, we got snuggly and took a nap. We found a dinner spot and went there around 5pm lol. Jarod ate alpaca for the first time. The place was empty and the chef was very sweet and cute and fed us aguaymanto which were delicious. The food was really excellent. We did have some comedy with the light above us--she turned it off to set the mood, then a young girl Came in later and turned it on above us without saying anything... we turned it back off, then the chef asked if we wanted it or not. On the way out, she asked for a tripadvisor review which i will happily write. We went to scope out prices of (fake) alpaca products and desserts. We went to a few stores and saw small “alpaca” blankets ranging from 40s--35s. We will go back to buy one or two before we leave. We bought a brownie and slice of chocolate cake nearby, then took it back to our room to feast on in our king bed. We watched some Simpsons in spanish, then read for a while. We went to go to sleep around 10, but I couldn’t sleep. Felt like I didn’t sleep all night--was up thinking. Maybe too much coca tea (inulin is stimulatory).

3/16

We woke to our alarms around 630, but didn’t get out of bed cuz I felt like I hadn’t slept. Finally got up around 9 and got breakfast at our hotel, which was delicious-especially the cornbread. We chilled in our room and prepped for the day, then ventured out. First, we went to San Pedro market. The streets outside were overflowing with vendors selling hard boiled quail eggs and slices of various fruits. Inside the main market place was literally everything. There was a hot food area, a line of juice vendors, butchers bakers, herb-sellers, woven goods vendors, and more. On the far side, we walked down a street lined with shops selling whole chickens (their naked bodies and weird feet displayed prominently). We then found a second, less touristy market place with more hot food, some dye stands, and even a haircut shop. We walked back and stopped for tamales, but didn’t have small enough bills so the woman sent us away. We found our way back to the plaza des armes and sat down for lunch--Jarod got pizza and I got chicken. From there, we started walking (steeply up) to Sacsayhuaman. We found a nice church with a fabulous viewpoint, then continued along the road to the main gate. There was a guard who said the ticket office was closed and we had to buy tickets in the plaza des armes. We were not motivated enough to walk there and back (still constantly out of breath from the altitude), and it was starting to sprinkle, so we headed home. We hung around home until we had to go to our pre-trek meeting. There were two people missing at the start--who came in 20minutes late absolutely breathless. The guide went over the plan for the next couple days. Everyone was young and seemed outdoorsy and ready. This trio of Australians had bought a lot of the recommended items on the packing list. I felt anxious and a little intimidated. We went to inkazuela for dinner, where we are delicious stews and fresh baked bread. A group of maybe 20 annoying Americans came and sat down and were so loud as we were paying. Embarrassing. We went home and packed and tried to go to bed early because we were waking up at 330 for a 4am pick up to start the drive to start the hike for Salkantay!!

3/17 BEGIN SALKANTAY

3/17 - Day 1 Salkantay

We woke up at 330, finalized our packing, and waited in the lobby briefly before our guide, Erick, arrived to pick us up on foot. He lived nearby our hotel in San Blas. We waited with him for the van, which didn’t seem to be where it was supposed to be. We got everyone picked up (including 3 bonus ppl who were doing a separate one-day trip. They were Thai but our guide Erick had told us they were Chinese lol.) We drove for about 2h on a windy bumpy road, I tried to sleep, but it was fitfull. When we stopped for breakfast I felt like actual shit and was worried I was getting altitude sickness. Jarod didn’t feel well either. I looked at the trekking route and realized we wouldn’t be much higher than Cusco, and this relieved me. We had a big breakfast (eggs, bread, fruit and yogurt, juice, coca tea), and sat by ourselves while the rest of the group bonded. We both started to feel better with the food and fresh air. We got back in the vans and drove another hour before getting off, sunscreening up, officially doing intros with our hiking group, and hitting the trail. Jarod and I were at the front with the other Americans, Chris and Alex from Buffalo, New York. The Australians, Emma, Ben, and Nick, were in the middle, with the Austrians, Anna and Patrick at the end. The start of the hike required some elevation climb, but then it evened out and we walked along an aqueduct in the mountainside for the majority of the trek. I accidentally called Emma Anna when asking her to take a photo. We made it to camp around 12? We were assigned Sky camps, which were tiny but beautiful glass comes with little twin beds in them after a 3-4ft doorway. I read and fell asleep for 7min before it was time for lunch). Lunch was a huge feast--the food was good but a bit cold. We then rested for half an hour and then hiked up to the lake. It was a relatively short hike, but quite steep. I was very out of breath, but led the charge alongside Chris. Anna and Patrick were lagging so far behind, Erick told us to go ahead and then wait at the half way point. Chris and Jarod and I led, waited for the group, then went on some more. The field we were walking through was full of cows and horses grazing, flanked by giant hills on either side. We walked up and over the top and found ourselves at a stunning blue lake. It was breathtaking, with streams from a snowy mountain running into an aquamarine reservoir. We took some photos, then climbed up a ridge along the side, from which we could see the lake as well as the grassy valley we came up through. It started to rain and we saw a beautiful rainbow in the valley but also needed to hurry back down. Everyone put on our ponchos and took a picture. I got my walking sticks for the way down, and they helped on the muddy parts but made me very slow. Jarod and I lagged behind the group as we all charged down the hill. We made it back, met as a team for tea time at 530, then dinner at 630. They had given us snacks, but we didn’t really need them because we were fed so often and so well. (I still ate my cookies earlier.. because they were delicious hehe). We got ready for bed after dinner around 8. I had a swig if Nick’s pisco before bed, then crawled into my sleeping bag and tried (but struggled) to sleep. I got up at 1am because Jarod was getting up. I hissed after him that I wanted to come to the bathroom, but he didn’t hear me. When I stepped outside, he was standing there. (He has walked toward the bathroom and been startled by a cow and come back loll). After that, I had a very hard time sleeping.

3/18 - Day 2 Salkantay

Started to climb, through some grassy fields, up the “Gringo killer” and to Salkantay summit, where it started raining. Emma had to breathe from an oxygen tank at the top (she had had severe altitude sickness in previous visits), and the Austrian couple took horses to the top to save their legs. On the far side of the summit, our trek got truly miserable. Steep decline. Soaked head to toe. I remember thinking, “Wow, we paid to do this.” We got to our midway lunch spot, where I tried to dry my socks, and we commiserated with our group. Thankfully, the rain let up, and the rest of the hike descended into warmer, more tropical forests. For tea time, they made us a freaking cake. We paid to use a shower and went into our little thatched-roof huts, a tiny space with one large bed. I had a dream that I had no feet (likely brought on by the extreme pain I felt in all of my joints!).

3/19 - Day 3 Salkantay

Started the trek with Erick painting our faces with berries. By this time, felt VERY bonded with the group. The hiking this day was much tamer, flatter roads, less extreme climbs/drops, and a fun little cart that we rode across a river. We stopped by a coffee plantation and had lunch there. We took a van some stretch of the drive to end up at the trailhead to Machu Picchu. We went out with our group for dinner, and I felt excited but also sad to be so close to the end of our time with them.

3/20 - Day 4 Salkantay (Machu Picchu!!)

Got up to start the trek to Machu Picchu around 5am(?). It was pitch black, and we CHARGED up the mountain, often annoyed that the people in front of us were not immediately letting us pass them. By the time we arrived at the gate, there were maybe 20 people in line, and we were drenched in sweat but also STOKED to be there. It was pretty chilly and very misty, so we had a few minutes of great visibility, but lots of fog other than that. Erick gave us a tour and some history, then (VERY SADLY) left us. Our group was a little devastated. We explored on our own a little, then headed back down as droves and droves of tourists poured in. We took a bus back and ate lunch (and many beers/pisco sours) at a small cafe while waiting for our train back. We eventually got on a train, which took us to a bus, which took us back to Cusco. We had booked a nicer room so that we could soak up the luxury after some very tough days on the trail. We met the Australians and the Austrians for drinks, and ended up staying up pretty late playing games and chatting with them in a Cusco bar.

3/21 CUSCO-->BOGOTA

3/21

We were awoken at 8 by a mysterious knock. I had some stomach trouble, then came back to bed. We got up at 845 to get breakfast. We ate the hotel breakfast, then went to our room to pack. I was feeling very sad to be leaving, nostalgic for our time on the trail. We packed, left our bags at the front, and went to go buy some “alpaca” blankets. We got two bracelets for J, three small paintings, and two alpaca blankets. The lady told us they were 50s even though we had been to the store before and been told 40, and had seen them elsewhere for 35. Jarod got her down to 40 and we left with them. By now I was hungry and emotional and tired, so I started to tear up over indecision with where to eat. We sat at a cafe and had 11s sandwiches. We went back to the hotel and had them call a cab. We arrived at the airport and checked in, then strangely waited in a room before being allowed through security (not many intl flights out of cusco... seems to require its own protocol). We made it to our gate and onto the plane. I was happy to be sitting next to Jarod (he was K and I was E... but for whatever reason those two are adjacent...) we had steak and vino tinto on the flight ;). We took a taxi home - a man lifted our bags into the trunk then asked for a tip. When we got there, our hosts were nowhere to be found and it was pouring rain. A property manager came out and started talking at us in Spanish very quickly--I think saying that our hosts hadn’t told her anything. She somewhat angrily escorted us outside, and I thought we were going to have to wait there. She then showed us how to work all the locks on the door, then let us inside. We got wine and cheese at the grocery store and snacked on those for dinner

3/22

We woke up around 8 with plans to eat breakfast at home then head to la candelaria for a bike tour at 1030. All appliances rebelled against us. The eggs stuck to the bottom of the pan, and the eggs that didn’t stick barely cooked. I tried to put laundry in but the timer never went down; it just perpetually washed. The toaster oven was a mystery of its own. Regardless, we eventually dined on eggs and arepas, and Jarod got the washer to switch to rinse then dry. We called an uber and got dropped off by the bike shop. We waited in a plaza and chatted with some other travelers. We embarked as a large group and found our way to a plaza with a statue of Simon Bolivar... talked about journalism... then split into two groups and departed. We biked to “the time square of Bogota” and talked about Germans convincing Colombians to drink beer instead of chicha... saw street art and discussed the battle between more/less formal forms... we biked through a neighborhood of mixed architecture and talked about the identity crisis in bogota... we rode to a park and snacked on fruits, then admired a giant map of bogota before riding past more street art (Jarod got a flat as usual), and to a big memorial for those killed in the civil war- tears streaming down the side of a building into a pool of water. We went to a coffee shop and talked some with our guide, Mateo. He talked about working in social services in London and suggested those services weren’t helpful. He showed impatience with others’ inability to learn english. We talked about the education system a bit then started our coffee tour. We biked down a more colorful street--with gov-commissioned art on all the walls. We rode through the red light district to a market for fruit tasting. We then ran across the street and learned how to play Tejo. It was really absurd and fun even though I was bad at it. Then we went back to the bike shop and paid. We got what was supposed to be a light lunch of ajiaco and a tamale to share - it was heavy. We walked to the main plaza and Gabriel Garcia Marques cultural center. We tried to stand outside our lunch spot to get WiFi to order an uber. Instead we went to a cafe and bought banana bread to get their code. We went home, hung out, then headed to el chato for dinner. The host asked if we had a reservation, which we had a hard time understanding. Eventually we were sat at the bar. We got cocktails, the best order of chips and guacamole ever, lamb (Jarod), and fish with mushrooms (me). When we finished dinner, we went to the grocery store to buy more coconut cookies and then we headed home. We went to bed around 11.

3/23

We were slow to start in the morning. We made breakfast and did some research on Monserrate before calling an uber to go there. The uber got lost in a nearby national park and asked several ppl for directions but apparently few of them were helpful. We finally made it to the trail head and hiked the (very tough) ascent of 2000m. It took us about 50min; we arrived around 12. The view was beautiful but there were lots of ppl- even a mass going on. There were lots of stands for foods and trinkets. On the way down we got queso fresco con fruta. We then walked all the way home, zagging through la candelaria, stopping for bunuelos and empanadas, and then by the park for fruit and carrot cake. There were countless street vendors with hot dogs, coconuts, fruits, cell phone minutes, dried food, etc. We got home, napped and snacked, then showered. We went to Bogota Brewing Company around the corner. The waitress talked to us a lot very quickly and we were totally lost. She then brought us four drinks to try -- we were worried we needed to say something about them but didn’t even really know what they were. We ordered beers and a pizza and reflected on the trip and plans for going home. We went to the store for more coconut cookies, then home. We sat and ate for a little, then packed up and went to bed around 10.

3/24 BOGOTA-->SAN FRANCISCO

3/24

345am wake up - was awoken a little early by drunks in the street. Got ready and Jarod called an uber. Rode to the airport, got through immigration and security, wanted crepes and waffles but couldn’t find them. Had to go to the desk to check in (after hearing our names over the speaker). Alarms were going off while we waited... no one seemed to care.

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travelingtheusa · 4 years

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NORTH CAROLINA

5 Dec 2019 (Thu) – We drove into Wilmington today. It was about an hour away. First stop was at the Bellamy Mansion. A doctor lived there with his wife and nine children. It was a beautiful building. An unusual aspect was that the dining room was in the basement. The main floor had four parlor rooms. Upstairs had many rooms; presumably bedrooms for all the kids and their nine slaves. The mansion had four floors. The docent who took us on a tour was very chatty and he knew so much about the family and the time period. It was a very interesting visit.

Next stop was at Front Street Brewery. We enjoyed a nice meal and Paul had a flight of six beers to sample. We walked around the neighborhood for a bit. There were many antebellum homes. The area was very beautiful. The main road had dozens of houses lining the roadway; each with a plaque describing its date of construction and who lived there.

After lunch and the local tour, we drove to the Railroad Museum. It was mostly a model train center. After admiring all the little trains and towns, we climbed up onto a caboose, a train engine, and a box car decorated with hobos.

When we got back, we gathered up information about the SMART club and went over to talk with another camper. He and his wife were interested in hearing about the club. Another woman was visiting and joined in the conversation, too. A man came running over, grabbed a brochure, thanked us, and ran back to his rig. That was very funny.

4 Dec 2019 (Wed) – We drove to the North Carolina Aquarium this morning. Their roof was undergoing repair from the recent hurricane. When we first arrived, we saw a lone construction guy up on the very high peak. Not only did it look lonely, it looked very dangerous. He was on a glass roof that was over the reptile area that included a 15 foot albino alligator. Talk about dangerous jobs!!!

We spent about an hour in the aquarium. It was small and half of it wasn’t accessible because of the roof damage. There was nothing we hadn’t seen somewhere else.

Lunch was at Jack Makerel’s Restaurant. It was a pub located in a lovely old building. The food was good and they had a flight of beers that Paul thoroughly enjoyed.

After lunch, we went to Fort Fisher Historical Site. There was a battle there during the Civil War. It was gruesome! The battle lasted more than two days. There were 1,400 North Carolinians and 300 south Carolinans who held off 10,000 northern forces for 58 hours. The battle raged on and at the end, everyone was reduced to clubbing each other in hand-to-hand combat. When Fort Fisher finally fell to overwhelming forces in January 1865, it marked the beginning of the end. Robert E. Lee surrendered in April 1865. Today, many of the redans are still in place. A replica of a large canon sits inside a small fenced area. Across the street stands a tall monument in tribute to the men who died during the battle.

3 Dec 2019 (Tue) – The weather cleared up and while it is still cool in the low 50s, at least the rain stopped. We pulled up stakes and headed out to Fort Fisher Air Force Recreation Area Campground at 9:30 am. It is a National Guard Training Base with a campground. There is no gate and no base facilities. They do have a swimming pool that is closed for the season. The area suffered damage from Hurricane Dorian in September and there is a lot of repair work in progress. There was a crew putting a new roof on the registration office.

This is a very nice beach town. There are rows of pastel colored three-story homes, many with signs offering the house for rent. Most of the buildings are empty as this is not the popular season. We are on a narrow island with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and a bay on the other. We walked out onto the Kure Beach Pier. There were dozens of birds looking for goodies from the many fishermen on the pier. One guy had just caught a blowfish and was throwing it back in. He said he was trying to catch trout or whiting. The stretch of beach on either side of the pier reminded me of California.

We went to dinner at Fred’s Italian Restaurant. It was a cute little place and was about half full. Paul had pork chops, baked potato, and applesauce. I had shrimp scampi. While Paul was happy with his meal, I didn’t like mine. The appetizer (crab dip) had too much parmesan in it. The bread dip was more vinegar than oil. My shrimp was tough and chewy. The angel hair pasta was bland. My sangria was too dry. All in all, I did not enjoy the meal. Except for the company. He was perfect! And the ambiance was nice, too. :-)

2 Dec 2019 (Mon) – We went for a walk down by the water yesterday. The marina was very quiet – no cars, no planes, no people. It was very peaceful. While we were looking out over the water, a fish broke out of the water. It turned out to be two dolphins swimming by. One was larger than the other so we thought it was a mother and child making their way up the river. The sighting was a delightful treat!

While I did some baking this morning, Paul did the laundry. They have a small set up here in the campground with two washers and three dryers.

1 Dec 2019 (Sun) – It rained all night. At least it wasn’t noisy like our popup used to be. When it rained in that one, it sounded like popcorn popping. It was raining when we got up and rained on and off all day today.

We left at 11:30 a.m. and drove around the base, exploring the area. This is a very large base with lots of amenities. They have a golf course, a yacht club, two marinas, a couple of recreation areas, lounges, a movie theater, and a large housing complex. They rent out campers and boats to the marines on base.

After checking out the base, we drove toward Beaufort. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Smithfield’s Chicken BBQ. It was kind of like a McDonald’s. You walked up to a counter with the menu overhead behind the counter. You gave your order and got a number then took a seat. When your food was ready, a waitress brought it out to your table. While we were eating, wait staff came by offering to clear away garbage and offering refills on our drinks (very UNLIKE McDonald’s). The food was pretty good.

When done, we continued on to Beaufort to the North Carolina Maritime Museum. A great deal of the museum was dedicated to the story of pirates in general, and Blackbeard in particular. Queen Ann’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s flagship, was found sunk a half mile off the coast here in North Carolina. They had artifacts from the ship and detailed stories of the ship’s plunder. After going through the museum, we went across the street to the Watercraft Center where a lone volunteer was working on a project. We got to talking to him and he regaled us with details of the boats they make there. It was very interesting.

On the way back to the base, we stopped at a Food Lion to pick up groceries and Pet Smart to get food for Bonnie and Sheba.

30 Nov 2019 (Sat) – We went to the Galley for breakfast again today. We were the only people in there for about 20 minutes then four Coast Guardsmen came in. The cafeteria has never been very full each time we have been in there.

After breakfast, we finished packing up and left the base. It rained most of the drive to the Cherry Point MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) in Havelock. The office was closed but a packet was sitting outside with paperwork for us. After we set up, we settled in and just watched TV for the afternoon. I just couldn’t get warm.

After feeding the animals, we went out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant. The food was very good. The margaritas were listed on the menu as small, large, monster, and pitcher. Paul got the monster and I got the large. They were VERY filling!

When finished, we drove back on the base to the shopping complex looking for the package store. While there were several stores in the complex, there was no liquor shop. We drove a block down the road to the gas station figuring that they might have wine and liquor in there like they do on other bases. Sure enough, they did and we picked up some drinks.

During the drive from Elizabeth City to Havelock, we passed many small and run down homes. There were also lots of trailers along the way, too. Based on all those homes, we think this is a pretty poor state.

29 Nov 2019 (Fri) – We got up early and went to the Galley for breakfast. The choices were pretty good: scrambled or hard boiled eggs, sausage (it was cold), ham, diced potatoes, and pancakes. There was a waffle maker on the counter but no batter. You could toast bread or bagels. The coffee was like flavored dishwater. Ugh. The cost was even better: $7.50 for both of us! This is pretty good cost-wise.

After breakfast, we drove to the Outer Banks. First stop was at the visitor’s center to get another map. They also had a centennial memorial to flight next to the center. Starting with the first flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903, there were several columns in an oval, each listing several aviation firsts, and ending with 2003. It was interesting to see how far we have come in one hundred years.

We drove more than two hours to the end of Pea Island to Hatteras. There was a great looking museum – “Graveyard of the Atlantic” – that was closed. That was very disappointing. We parked and walked out to the seashore. There were many vehicles parked on the beach and it seemed like there was a fishing competition going on. People were standing on the beach casting lines into the crashing waves. There were several commercial boats fishing out in the ocean. One particular boat had hundreds of birds flying around it. We figured they were probably fileting their catch and the birds were looking for scraps. Paul got pictures of pelicans flying by. We stood on the beach and watched everything for a while then left.

We then stopped at the Cape Hatteras Light Station. The museum was also closed (bummer). You could buy a ticket to climb the 210 foot tall lighthouse but we did not. It looked like it was the same height as the Fire Island Lighthouse but when we checked it online, it turned out it was only 167 feet. Significantly smaller than the Cape Hatteras station.

Lunch was at the Buxton Munch. It was a very small restaurant but very busy. It was rated number one of 48 in Buxton. We both had crab cake sandwiches which were OK but not as good as the crab cakes we had the other day.

After we got back, fed the animals, and walked Bonnie, we went to dinner at the Galley. They had the typical choices: two proteins (hot dogs or chicken breast), one starch (rice), two vegetables (peas or collards), and hush puppies (I’m not sure what they are). The mess hall closed at 5:45 p.m. and although we were still eating, they shut all the TVs off promptly at 5:45. They were in a hurry to get home! It was clear that it was time to leave.

28 Nov 2019 (Thu – Thanksgiving Day) – Since it was a holiday, we assumed everything was closed and just stayed around the campground today. At 5 p.m., we went to the Coast Guard Galley (cafeteria) for dinner. They had turkey and ham, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, corn bread, salad fixings, soup, and various cakes and pies for dessert. Most of it was canned; not fresh made. Oh well. It was holiday meal. And it only cost us $7.70 each ($15.40). What a deal!!

27 Nov 2019 (Wed) –We were planning on leaving Friday, November 29, for southern North Carolina. Unfortunately, the camp host said they did not have anything on that day but the next day was open. So we changed our departure date to the 30th, meaning we could go back to Cape Hatteras the day after Thanksgiving.

We went to the Museum of the Albemarle this morning. It was a nice museum but all reading. They divided the history of the area by eras – the Railroad Era, the Automotive Era, etc. It was a little confusing.

We went to the movies tonight and saw “Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” It was not what I expected. Rather than being a movie about the life of Mr. Rogers, it told the story of a conflicted news reporter who was affected by Mr. Rogers. Tom Hanks was good, as always, but I don’t think I really cared for the movie.

26 Nov 2019 (Tue) – What a great day we had today. First, we drove to the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk. There was a visitor’s center with a small display area telling the basic story of the Wright Brothers’ lives and accomplishments. Out in the open field, there was a stone marker commemorating the 25th anniversary of the first manned flight. There were also four markers, each for their successive flights on December 17, 1903. The first attempt failed. The second try lasted 12 seconds. The third was also 12 seconds long; the fourth was 15 seconds; and the last, and most famous, lasted 59 seconds. There was a young boy at the field on that day. He was 8 years old and had skipped school to watch the planned flight. He lived to see man land on the moon 66 years later. Wasn’t that amazing?!?!? It is so incredible how far we went from those early flight experiments.

There was a large monument up on a hill. That was where the brothers flew their gliders from. They set many records for gliding. Down on the walk was a picture commemorating the 25th anniversary celebration. In it were Orville Wright and Amelia Earhart. It gave me chills.

When we left the Wright Brothers memorial, we drove down the main road on the Outer Banks until we came to a local brewery where we stopped for lunch. Paul did a beer flight and I had a glass of wine. The food was pub fare – good but nothing to write home about.

After lunch, we continued down the main drag to the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. This was the site of the Lost Colony. In 1581, explorers from England arrived on Roanoke Island. They befriended the natives and explored the area then returned to England. They came back the following year and left again. In 1984, a group of 115 people arrived from England planning to colonize the area. When winter came, they were starving and in need of many things. Captain John Raleigh was convinced to return to England to get supplies for the colony. When he got home, he found England at war with France. He was not able to get a boat or provisions to take back to the colony for three years. When he was able to return to the colony in 1987, there was no sign of the colony. Everyone was gone. No one has ever been able to figure out what happened to the colonists.

25 Nov 2019 (Mon) – We left Fort Belvoir, VA at a little after 9 a.m. It was a 3 hour drive to Coast Guard Base Elizabeth. Signage on base was poor and the camp area was hard to find. We only have 30 amp hookup. The camp area is in a small circle on a corner. The other, 50 amp, area is nicer. Maybe next time.

We explored the base. It is a small training base. There is a Galley (dining hall) that we can eat at because I am retired. We walked over and looked over the menu. I think we will probably eat Thanksgiving dinner there.

The Base Exchange was nice and we picked up a couple of bottles of wine.

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naturecoaster · 5 years

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Daytona, Daytona Beach & West Volusia Outdoor & History Tour

As a Nature Coaster, I love the outdoors and history, so a visit to the amazing beaches of Daytona, coupled with the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, an airboat ride on the St. John's River, the DeLeon Springs State Park and a fun experience cooking our own pancakes at the Sugarmill Restaurant is how I roll in this well-known area. This long weekend started with meeting my friend, Sally White, a fellow award-winning member of the Florida Outdoor Writers Association and publisher of FloridaforFamilies.com and AdventuresofMom.com at her home in Dunellon and driving across Florida to our beachfront resort. The first stop was Blue Springs State Park to kayak up the river to the springhead and tube a bit. I highly recommend stopping at a Florida State Park when driving distances - to get wet and to enjoy the wildlife. This is part of what makes travel fun and educational. Blue Springs did not disappoint. Blue Spring is the largest spring on the St. Johns River, and a designated Manatee Refuge. We were greeted by a red-shouldered hawk posing on the swing set in the Park’s small playground. As we took pictures without scaring it away, the time was getting away from us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PknEY12M-jE&feature=youtu.be Red Shouldered hawk flight in Blue Spring Park. Video by Diane Bedard We walked over to the onsite kayak outfitter and scored an hour-long rental because the run to the springhead would be off-limits to kayakers in 45 minutes. Paddling upriver afforded a view of a lovely manatee and her calf lazing in the river being guarded by a volunteer in a kayak. The volunteer protects the manatees from being harassed by humans… and was entertaining the calf, who kept poking its nose above water and swimming near the volunteer, rolling and returning to its momma.

The Blue Spring Manatee Watch volunteer was pushed in her kayak by the momma manatee when we visited the park. Image by Diane Bedard, Later we witnessed the volunteer being pushed in her kayak by the manatee mom. It is heartwarming to witness the playfulness of these wonderful marine mammals. The spring head has a public dock, with two stair entries for swimmers and tubers. The tubes can be rented onsite for only $5 an hour so we donned our swim clothes and ventured into the 72-degree water with many others. Blue Spring gets crowded, so it is a good idea to get there early. We rented our tubes from an onsite outfitter who had the cutest store and sundries shop.

The Thurby House was built in 1876 for Louis Thurby, who purchased Blue Spring in 1856. Image by Diane Bedard A short visit to the historic Thursby House, built in 1872 for Louis Thurby, who purchased Blue Spring in 1856 and ran the large home as Thursby’s Blue Spring Landing, shipping goods and tourists to Jacksonville and beyond by steamboat. Mrs. Thursby was Orange City’s first Postmistress. Great Cuban Food in Daytona? We found it at Chica's Cuban Cafe

We ate too much but it was so worth it to enjoy the Flan cheesecake at the end. We got to Daytona Beach, and before checking into El Caribe Resort, we needed sustenance, so we found a real gem in Chica’s Cuban Café. Café con Leche, a half Cuban sandwich and some amazing black beans with white rice filled us up, but we had to test the Flan Cheesecake – and it was worth the expansion of stomach – well worth it. Wilbur by the Sea

Wilbur by the Sea features this beautiful historic boathouse, where we enjoyed a buffet, calypso music and the magnificence of the sunset over the Halifax river on which it sits. Image by Diane Bedard We visited the Wilbur by the Sea Boathouse, a beautiful structure on the banks of the Halifax river that was part of an historic community started in 1912 by Jacob Wilbur, a Massachusetts real estate dealer. Wilbur by the Sea is adjacent to a national bird sanctuary, offering lovely sunsets with flocks of egrets and herons gliding by. You can read the story of Wilbur by the Sea’s community here. Airboat Adventure with Captain Joshua

Captain Joshua took us on a fantastic airboat ride on the St. John's river from De Leon Springs State Park. He knows his Florida wildlife and offers gator tours and bow fishing. Image by Diane Bedard Arising early the next morning, we journeyed to DeLeon Springs State Park for an exciting airboat ride up the Saint John’s River with Captain Joshua of Airboat & Gator Charters. Eagles soared overhead, the weather started cloudy and cleared up during our tour, affording us a sighting of a pale rainbow over miles of Florida’s aquatic wilderness. The boat was much quieter than other airboats I have toured on and Captain Joshua was a real sportsman who hunts gator and bowfishes!

De Leon Springs State Park Back to the DeLeon State Park, whose sign reads, “Make a Date with History: Ponce de Leon Springs: Nature’s Cameraland.” The headspring is cemented in like a public swimming pool with ladders to get in and out easily, but the water is 72-degrees year-round and crystal clear like other Florida first-magnitude springs. Got to try the Pancakes - Just sayin' The Old Spanish Sugar Mill Grill and Griddle House is our next experience – and one of my favorites from the trip! This historic sugar mill building, with ruins out back from plantation and slavery days when sugar cane was grown and processed using mills to squeeze the juice from the cane plants. Each table inside has a griddle or two in the center and we order all-you-can-eat pancakes for each of us. Pitchers of homemade pancake batters (both a stone-ground mixture of five different flours and an unbleached white flour) are brought to us and we pour them on and flip them over right at our table.

Sally White adds the toppings to our freshly poured pancake creations! Image by Diane Bedard. Then we order separate toppings – everything from pecans to berries to chocolate chips – and we begin cooking our own breakfast. What fun! The restaurant has a history to it also, being owned by the Schwarze family since 1961. Every one of us ate too much and had a blast doing it! The restaurant has a warm, homey feel about it and some nice souvenirs, books, handcrafted artwork, and jewelry available for purchase. Ponce Inlet Lighthouse: 175-feet of Brick Awesome The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse was next on the agenda. This National Historic Landmark came alive through the guide, Dave, who I understood to be the head of the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association. What a knowledge powerhouse! I highly recommend scheduling the time for a guided tour, based on this one. The impressive ingenuity of the rolling bench on the porch where we assimilated for our tour caught my eye. We learned that over 1,600,000 bricks were brought to the Ponce Inlet by boat in the 1880s to construct the lighthouse, the two lighthouse keeper homes and assorted buildings for housing supplies. They were brought by boat because 1887 was before railroad service was locally available to this remote location. “The lighthouse is one of the brick giants of the era, and the tallest lighthouse in Florida at 175 feet above sea level. The first 25 feet of the tower were built of brick from New York because southern brick holds too much moisture,” Dave explained.

It's quite a climb to the top of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, but we just stopped as needed on the way up the tallest lighthouse in Florida. Image by Diane Bedard “Ships delivering the bricks often ran aground on the sandbars common to the inlet. This caused the first contractor to go broke, with thousands of bricks strewn throughout the inlet. Construction was taken over by a Maryland firm, so the bricks above 25 feet are Maryland brick,” he continued.

One of the magnificent view from atop the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. Image by Diane Bedard The stories are many and I found them fascinating. Climbing to the top of this engineering marvel allowed us to enjoy some gorgeous views. Next was the Lighthouse Museum which houses Fresnel Lenses of many sizes. These simple glass lenses magnify and direct light beams, so they are seen for long distances. I find Fresnel lenses to be beautiful and was impressed to learn that the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association assists other lighthouses in restoring their Fresnel lenses. There is quite a collection here.

Fresnel lenses of many sizes and configurations are housed in the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Museum. Image by Diane Bedard For more information on the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, click here.

Nothing like a Daytona Beach sunrise. Image by Diane Bedard. We returned to our beachfront hotel, which had lovely views of the sunrise and majestic waves rolling in. It wasn’t the fanciest hotel in the area, but the staff was really nice and accommodating and the rates were far better than some. The whole area of Ponce Inlet begs to be explored more, with a Marine Science Center I have yet to explore. Read the full article

#daytonabeach #featured

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thegrassisaalwaysgreener · 5 years

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Bienvenidos A Miami

Will Smith’s “Miami”, was forever in my head for this 5 night, 6 day trip to Miami, Florida. My friend Lafonda, who I had met at my previous Crossfit gym, had mentioned she was probably going to Wodapalooza (more details on the event coming up) in January and asked if I was interested. At this time, it was November and we had already had a huge snowstorm and I was on my first of 2 weeks up north and itching for a vacation. She was planning on going with a few others from the gym to hang out and support one of their coaches. I was all on board and booked my flights almost immediately (thanks Aeroplan☺). We were heading out two days before the actual event started and staying an extra day to see what the city had to offer. While I was a bit nervous, as I had just had knee surgery in the beginning of December, I had applied to volunteer to save on admission costs but was wait listed. Lafonda and I lucked out and scored a pair of free tickets for the weekend (which saved a few bucks). We were set to fly with Air Canada to Miami to stay in a sweet Airbnb on the water on the 16th, returning home to the cold winter late on the 21st.

Wednesday January 16, 2019 (Woah! Haven’t typed 2019 much and it looks funny) Lafonda and I had booked early morning flights so that we could have a full day to enjoy Miami. Our flight was just after 0700 so we left bright and early to drop off the car and have plenty of time at security. We ended up meeting up with Andrea, Craig and Des who also go to the gym and would be some of our roomies for the weekend. They seemed super lovely and we chatted until it was time to board. The flight from Toronto to Miami is about 3.5 hours and was relatively smooth. We all grabbed our bags and hopped in a cab just after 11 to our Air bnb- which cost about $30 American. We were staying on Brickell in the residences attached to the W hotel. Thankfully, the hotel was able to store our luggage so that we could explore sans suitcases. We headed out and wandered around the downtown core. Since most of us had never been to Miami, it was fun to just mosey around – once we had coffee of course. We made our way to the Bayside Marketplace on the water that was filled with shops, restaurants and bars. It was really neat to look around and enjoy the nice weather. We grabbed some lunch at various restaurants in the food court (which made me feel like I was in a foreign country or somewhere, where everyone was trying to get us to buy their food). Other than the birds that flocked us, we enjoyed our lunches before making our way back towards Brickell to check into our Airbnb. The airbnb was part of a larger organization who rented out “residences” attached the W hotel. We called our contact for the Airbnb and she let us into a beautiful apartment overlooking the water with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. There was plenty of room for everyone and there were even extra couches we could have slept on which was great. We started to get all settled when we realized that the wifi password and room number did not match up with what we had in our confirmation emails. After some back and forth with our contact, we realized we were actually in the wrong apartment! We gathered up all our stuff and headed down the hall to our actual apartment. Our apartment was just as nice, however a bit smaller. There were two bedrooms with a futon couch that doubled as Lafonda and mine’s bed. We rested and hung out while waiting for Nancy and Nikki to arrive. Once they arrived, we all decided on heading out for a yummy dinner down the street in the Brickell City Centre. It was an outdoor-esque mall with some very high-end stores, boutiques and restaurants. We settled on Tacology, which was a great choice! The menu was on the ipad (similar to AYCE Sushi restaurants) and took us a while to figure out. The open-air feeling of the mall and restaurant was really fun. The ambience, decorations and general atmosphere were great. We mixed and matched tacos, salsas and guacamole until we were all full. My favourite part of the meal was definitely the ceviche that Lafonda ordered. It was spicy, fresh and delicious. After paying the bill and getting our geographical bearings, we headed up the street to Publix to grab groceries. The Airbnb only provided a limited amount of toilet paper and paper towels so we grabbed the essentials, along with breakfast foods and snacks of course. By the time we made it home, we were all pretty tired so we figured we would start setting up for bed including inflating the air mattress for Andrea to sleep on. Sadly, both of the mattresses that were brought seemed to have holes in them. The girls headed out to Target to grab a new one while Craig and I watched videos on weightlifters and the copious amounts of calories they eat in one day. Once the girls returned, we all headed to bed after a very long, but fun and exciting day.

Thursday January 17, 2019 It was a bright, sunny, gorgeous day in Miami! We were all really excited about today as we were heading to Bayfront Park for Nikki to check in and then wander vendor village before heading to South Beach. We also had to keep our eyes peeled for all of the Crossfit “celebs” we would be seeing. It was really neat to just roam around and see so many fit people (including many we follow on social media haha). The highlight of the morning was meeting the beautiful and kind Sara Sigmunsdottir. She is smaller but somehow more jacked in person than she appears on social media and was more than happy to pose for a photo with us. We hopped in an Uber to take the 15 or so minute ride from Downtown Miami into South Beach. South beach is known for its beaches, nightlife, celebrity chef eateries and of course the shopping. Our first stop was… Duh, the beach! Since it was pretty cold at home, we were all excited to enjoy the sand and water. After making a pit stop at the art deco clock on Ocean Drive (mostly to use the washroom), we checked out the workout areas and beach for a bit. Some of the exercises people were doing were really funny to watch but it was nice to see people out and enjoying the nice weather. The water was definitely chillier than I had anticipated… I was decked out in my bather and was hoping to go in the water. It was a hard pass for me but I did enjoy the sand and water on my feet. After countless selfies, we walked along the path in between the water and Ocean Drive before realizing we were pretty hungry. After wandering up and down Ocean Dr., enjoying the cool art deco facades of the hotels and shops, we settled on one of the standard restaurants for lunch. Our meal at Majestic was less than stellar but it did the trick and we continued on our wander of South Beach. As a group, we had decided on a few places that we had wanted to check out (the gelato store from Jersey Shore, the Tattoo Parlour from Miami ink and the Lincoln Road Mall). En route, to these places (sadly the gelato store is now a really neat looking hostel), we went into an innumerable amount of Surf Shops to check out all of the fun 80s gear they had. It seemed as though the theme for WZA (and all of South Beach) was bright neon pinks and blues. Our “tour” of South Beach continued down to the “Love Hate Tattoo Studio” and then down towards the Lincoln Road Mall. Since we missed out on the gelato at the Jersey Shore Gelato place, we grabbed some on our tour of Espanola Way. This street was probably my second favourite part of the day (second to being on the beach of course) as it had a great vibe filled with lots of cute shops and restaurants. The gelato we grabbed at Gelato-Go was delicious and satisfied my sweet tooth. We wandered around towards Lincoln Road and enjoyed the shops and a coffee while catching up on our social media and checking for any WZA updates for Nikki’s exciting first day. Since Nikki had to be back for athlete briefing, we ordered an Uber to head back towards downtown and our Airbnb. Our Uber arrived and it was hands down, the best one I had ever been in. Neyla, or Rose as she preferred to be called drove a Chevrolet Suburban that was decked out with a disco ball, mardi gras beads and fun party headbands. She had little signs that said things like “need a charger?” or “let me know what kind of music you like”. Rose was the best and even played my request of “Miami” as we rolled into our Airbnb. We grabbed her number so that we could utilize her awesome ride throughout the trip. After relaxing and putting on an extra layer, we headed back over to Bayfront Park to get some shopping done before the briefing. We wandered around the vendor village and met some of my fave athletes including David Hippensteel and got a signed copy of Jason Khalipa’s book AMRAP mentality (and a cheeky photo). While we were there, Nancy had received a message from a friend who was volunteering on the medical team stating that they needed additional volunteers. I, was of course, totally down to volunteer and headed over to meet the gentleman that was heading up the team. After asking me a few questions (like what my credentials were and if I could start in the am), I was in and was to be there bright and early. Once the briefing was over (and so many amazing athletes had walked past us including Jess Griffith, Alec Smith and the buff BKG), we headed to the Whole Foods down the street to grab dinner and some snacks. Whole Foods was SO busy and was filled with so many fit people. It was actually funny until we noticed there was barely any food to chose from. In any case, we grabbed food and enjoyed our dinner at home while planning for an exciting day of competition (for Nikki), volunteering for me and spectating for the rest of the crew.

Friday January 18, 2019 Day 1 and go! The majority of the crew was up and out early to watch Nikki and the rest of the athletes do a Run, Swim, Run over at Crandon Park. Lafonda was a bit under the weather so she headed to a walk in clinic and I headed over to the park to meet the rest of the medical crew. I should probably give a bit of an explanation of what WZA (or Wodapalooza) is. WZA is one of the biggest fitness festivals in the world. It started in 2012 with only 145 athletes and 500 spectators for the one day event. Since then, it has been become the premier Functional Fitness Festival (it could not call itself a Crossfit event until this year when it became a Crossfit Sanctioned event). Now it is a 4-day event involving over 1500 athletes, 30,000 spectators and 500 volunteers. It started off with the Gauntlet this year, that allowed anyone and everyone to throw down on the same courts as the best of the best followed by a Weightlifting Faceoff and then the 3 day Crossfit competition. This event is not just for the Elite athletes but hosts over 30 divisions including Scaled, RX, Intermediate, Teams, Masters and Adaptive athletes. Its vendor village is second to none with tons of big names in the Crossfit world including RomWod, RPM, Reebok, Zevia, CBD Medic, Born Primitive and so many more. One of the best parts about volunteering/competing is all of the free swag you get at many of the vendors. Ok, back to the fun! While Nikki and the crew enjoyed the morning at Crandon Park, I was getting to know my medical team. I met Josh (the Medical Lead) and he showed me to the volunteer tent where I could check in and received my swag (which included new black Nano 8.0s). I grabbed my breakfast (individually packaged meals by Fia’s Fresh Meals, that had to be put in the microwave and were made up of eggs, a form of breakfast meat and sweet potatoes). Once I was fed and all set, I met up with the rest of my team to figure out where and when we were starting. The medical team at previous WZA events has not always been the best and didn’t have much in terms of policies. Since the Crossfit Games format has changed, so have the legal implications of volunteering as a medical staff. From what I was told, many people were skeptical about volunteering as a medical staff due to these issues. Our main role was decontamination (decon for short) and handing out band-aids. As a Canadian RN, I was only to assist in life threatening times (e.g CPR) and encourage any other injuries to be seen either in clinic or by the EMTs that were on standby. Not that this was much different from my previous Regional experience, but not having the coverage in terms of liability and insurance was definitely something to consider. The athlete medical tent was located in the middle of Athlete village on the other side of the security fence that was manned by a guard. It was much quieter (for the most part) in athlete village as the only people back there were the athletes, their coaches, volunteers and those working in the CBD Medical Tent. Of course, there were washrooms (that were pretty digusting by noon each day), hammocks, seating areas and volunteer services that housed our check in stuff, shirts and food. After we finished our tour of the area and had our roles, our team headed out to Flagler, which was the largest and main stage. Our head, Slab was still away at the Run, Swim, Run event so he would meet up with us soon. We grabbed our gear buckets (filled with disinfectant spray, towels, gloves and band-aids) and took our spots. For the most part, we would just stand, watch and wait. If there was an issue on the field, the plan was that the primary judge would flag down the head judge who would then flag us down. In between heats, we would check the equipment for blood or bodily fluids and give them a clean. During the heats, we would hang out and enjoy the amazing show of athletics. During the day, we would spell each other off for breaks. Unlike Regionals, there wasn’t a specific rotation or anything, which made things easier in some ways and trickier in others. I was able to get out a few times during the day to get some shopping done and hang out with the crew. Since meals were provided for us (the pulled pork and yuka fries were definitely my fave meal of the weekend), we would have to wait in the huge line to warm them up (3 microwaves for hundreds of people) before heading out to enjoy the time with friends or the action. Each team (Flagler, The Deck and Bayside) stayed at their location for the whole day despite talk of rotating the groups throughout the day. Flagler field was probably one of the most fun places to be as you got to see a bit of everything from the scaled athletes to elite and teams. The crew had decided to go to Wolfgang’s Steakhouse for dinner which I sadly missed since I didn’t finished “work” until just after 2000. I grabbed dinner at the park and headed over to pick up the key from everyone at dinner. One of the downsides of the Airbnb was that we only had 1 key fob for all of us, so we had to keep in touch and figure out who needed the key and when. I was exhausted, sweaty and wanted to shower so I started heading back to the Airbnb for the night. We enjoyed a chill evening, catching up on our days before bed (Lafonda sleeping on the air mattress to spare me from getting her gross cold- thanks;)

Saturday January 19th, 2019 Day two of competition was on! I had to be at the park bright and early (7am) so I tried my best to be a quiet mouse and head out without waking anyone else. I was scheduled to be at the Deck (smallest stage, newest and in the middle of the park) with my team however, the first event wasn’t until later in the morning so I headed to Bayside to help out. The first event of the morning was another swim event (apparently the run, swim, run was more of a wade and this swim was going to be a lot more challenging than the day before). After the swim, athletes ran back onto the “field” and took on the ski erg and heavy double unders. The amount of swimmers that needed help was scary. There were 4 fire/rescue staff out on the water for the dozens of swimmers that were out each heat, which made me, as a former lifeguard very uncomfortable. Despite my discomfort and concern for the swimmers, we had a good crew (the Scaled Canadian Broads/Baysite B*tches) and the sun was shining. It was going to be a glorious day and I even had a few moments to relax, bayside in the hammocks. Once more staff arrived and the events started on the Deck, I was back over there to help out and ensure safety there. Our team was a bit short staffed as two members of the team were dealing with a medical issue. I was sad that I was going to be missing out on the Christmas Abbott meet and greet (Christmas is a Crossfit athlete and author of the Bad Ass Body Diet as well as Big Brother Contestant). Thank goodness for Lafonda who was able to stand in line and meet her and even get an autographed poster! After watching some amazing scaled athletes and teens, it was time for me to grab some lunch (C4 Xtend BCAAs are not considered meals despite drinking 20 a day it seemed). I grabbed my lunch and caught up with the group, who had just finished watching Nikki’s morning event and were wandering around. Funny enough, we ended up running into Christmas Abbott! She is just the sweetest! I was so happy that we met her and were even able to sneak in a photo and a selfie that she posted to her insta(twice;)). After my break, I headed back to the Deck to watch some amazing intermediate/RX athletes and some masters compete. The Deck events were finished around 6 pm and so I joined the rest of the crew at Flagler to cheer Nikki on in her last event of the day. It felt good to be up in the stands, cheering others on (and resting my very sore feet and legs). After Nikki’s event, I went to Bayside to help out with the final events. The last heat of the final event of the day was the first of the Adaptive competitors that I had seen and was in awe. They divided the athletes into groups of standing and wheelchair along with scaled and RXed. Each Athlete had an “aid” of some sort to help them either hold their wheelchair so they could lean forward to pick things up or just for support. This event involved the ski erg and skipping which was amazing to watch. To me, this is what the whole event is really about, being inclusive of all ages, stages and abilities. I was really inspired after an amazing 2nd day and was reflecting on my own abilities post knee surgery (which pales in comparison to having lifelong limitations in many ways). Once I was finally done for the day (around 2000), I headed over to meet the group at Farfalle for an Italian dinner. I had anticipated that they would be inside, seated already, however we ended up waiting 30 mins after our reservation This was not ideal for a large group of hungry people. The service was subpar and the food was average but it was nice to be all together to catch up on the day’s activities. Niki (1K as opposed to 2 Ks;)) had flown in earlier in the morning and I hadn’t spent much time with her, so it was very nice to catch up. After figuring out how to split the bill (or attempting to do so), we grabbed our take out cannoli and walked the 10 mins back to the Airbnb. Once again, we had a bit of a hang out before heading to bed for a final day of competition, volunteering and spectating.

Sunday January 20, 2019 Today was the last day of competition- So bittersweet! The forecast had called for some rain this morning so I was anxious to get over to Bayfront before the torrential downpours started. And boy did it ever! It poured rain for quite some time and bouts of lightening were seen and thunder was heard all throughout the park. We had to go into the Emergency Action Plan and anyone that was at the park had to head across the street to the Intercontinental Hotel. Luckily, it was still early, so most of the athletes and spectators weren’t there yet. After sweeping the park and telling people that they had to leave, we made our way across the street for some shelter and coffee. It was quite the sight to see- so many people just sprawled out on the floor of the lobby with huge lines for the Starbucks (of course) and the restaurants. We waited in the 30 min or so line at Starbucks for treats and coffee before sitting down to wait out the storm. The time for us to return kept changing but we had planned to be back for about 10am. The hope was that the rain would stop and we could get everything cleaned up and ready for the 11 am start. I had told the crew at the Frat House that the morning event was cancelled (which meant so was Nikki’s first event) so they headed to do some shopping in South Beach before coming back for the final event. One of the head Medical team members and I walked back around 10 am and were almost told we couldn’t go back in. He smoothed talked his way in and we hung out in the medical tent, reorganizing and cleaning up while enjoying Lesser Evils Paleo Puffs (The non cheese, cheesy ones are bomb if you haven’t tried them). Around 1045, everyone else was allowed back in, which meant the events would not realistically start by 11. Not that I am an event planner, but I thought it was interesting the events they decided to run and which ones they cancelled. To me, it would’ve made the most sense to cancel the whole first event and continue on with the 2nd event and ensure the Elite, Masters and Teens got to compete as they were the ones who were competing for Games spots. In any case, the event restarted around 1145 and I was stationed Bayside. Once the rain clouds left, it ended up being a lovely day and I was glad to be near the water. I caught up with the group for a quick photo by the spectator workout area and Reebok sign before grabbing a sushi burrito from Wasabi Juan’s (which was underwhelming but still better than eating the provided food I had eaten for 3 days). I headed back to Bayside to enjoy the rest of the afternoon watching some amazing athletes. The final group to take the Bayside court were the adaptive individuals who again, were amazing. Once the final heat was done, there were group photos and even an emotional proposal in front of everyone that made us all tear up. While we were gathering up our stuff, I noticed that Ben Bergeron was on the court with one of his younger adaptive athletes (who kicked butt). I was so excited to meet him as I listen to his podcasts and have read his book and think the way he trains his athletes, is a family man and maintains a well-established box is amazing. Of course, I could barely speak while we were chatting but it was awesome to meet him and take a selfie with him and his daughter Harley. After kicking myself for not saying more to Ben, I wandered around picking up a few more things (mostly things from Reebok that went on sale) before heading to Flagler to watch the Elite teams. I found the Elite Teams amazing to watch, especially because a lot of my faves were on the field kicking butt. I ended up at the end of the field watching from the sidelines, nice and close to Crossfit Mayhem Independence and the 4 time Fittest Man on Earth, Rich Froning. It was incredible to watch them all in the final event that involved the assault bike, muscle ups, the barbell and of course, the worm. Once the teams were finished, it seemed as though tons of spectators left so I managed to cut through and join my friends in the stands (after stepping in a huge mud puddle). It was super fun and exciting to watch the final event for both the elite male and females. Obviously, we were super stoked to watch Pat Vellner kill it but also excited to see some of the other athletes hyped up for the last event. The ladies race was also super exciting as Sara and Tia were both doing super well and were almost tied until Sara was no repped on a clean which opened the margin for Tia to take the event and then take the ticket to Madison (which was already hers due to a 90 some-odd point lead). I really enjoyed the final events and all of the energy at Flagler but was super disappointed in a lot of the fans that didn’t stay to finish watching the event. There were still plenty of great athletes (even some games athletes), on the field competing and tons of people were leaving. Not only were they leaving, but they were blocking the way for those that wanted to watch. I sat and stayed until the timer went off out of respect and interest to see who would come in under the time cap. I ended up getting lost from the group but managed to find Lafonda and grab all my stuff from the medical tent and say my goodbyes. We caught up with the rest of the crew at the Intercontinental and ended up having dinner there at Toro Toro. There were tons of people watching the football game and cheering on the Pats (cough Ben Bergeron). We had a lovely final dinner together of burgers and beers (for some) before heading back to the Airbnb for our last night. Lafonda and I spent a while organizing all my sweet swag (including a workhorse and media WZA shirt) and attempting to make it all fit into our bags (thank goodness her’s had tons of room in it). We started to clean up and organize the main areas as Lafonda and I would be leaving early in the morning for a tour of the Everglades and Nikki and Nancy had a mid morning flight. We finished our packing and organizing before enjoying our last night with the beautiful views from our Airbnb.

Monday January 21st, 2019 Sadly, it was our last day in beautiful Miami. Thank goodness it was a picture perfect morning! We were up and ready for our exciting day around 8 ish. We had some breakfast before cleaning up and finalizing the packing. We said our goodbyes and made our way down to the W to give them our suitcases for our day trip. As a confession- I LOVE CSI Miami and in particular, Horatio Caine (which Craig did a great job of mimicking for my benefit). I had always wanted to check out the Everglades, especially on one of the airboats featured in the opening credits of CSI. I had gotten us a Groupon (tour with 305 Miami) so we had cheap tours of the Everglades including a gator show that I was looking forward to. Lafonda was a good sport and came with me. We made our way back to Bayside, where we were being picked up and checked in. Since we were a bit early, Starbucks was a must visit (until I was told I couldn’t bring my coffee onto the bus). The drive was about an hour towards the Everglade National park. During the drive, we learned random facts like the Miami International airport sees 1000 flights a day and there is an estimated 2 million gators in the area. Apparently, more people die of vending machine accidents than gator accidents per year (Not sure what that says about ‘Muricans, but I digress). Once we arrived, we went to watch the Gator show with Chris (Who was super cute, smart and I think single;)). We learned many fun facts about the gators like that they can hold their breath for 6 hours but don’t breathe under water, that in Florida there are both crocs and gators but that gators are different in their shape, snout and often colouring. Gators have 80 teeth at one time and go through many hundreds throughout their lifetime. They can bite down with the force of about 2 tones, which is pretty crazy. During the show, Chris spent time up close and personal with the gators and showed us their teeth, how hard they can chomp (the sound is scary) and some other neat physical characteristics of the gator. After the show, we wandered around and checked out the other small animals in the area (including some raccoons, a pig and a goat), before getting in line to hop on our airboat. If you don’t know what an airboat is, it is basically a flat-bottomed watercraft that is propelled by an aircraft-type propeller. It is powered by either an aircraft or car engine and is typically made out of aluminum. They are WAY louder than I had thought but also smoother than anticipated and can go about 60 mph. Our tour guide for the boat tour was Dylan and he was super funny with a quirky personality. He made some really great dad jokes and was very knowledgeable about the Everglades. The Everglades are roughly 4000 square miles of a large ecosystem with many smaller interdependent ecosystems. Most people think the Everglades are just a big swamp when it is actually a slow moving river. It is an endless river of grass, mainly Cattail grass that helps with filtration by absorbing the impurities from the water, which is pretty cool. We saw many different types of wildlife including American black vultures, turkey vultures, a few other birds and of course the gators! We learned a bit more about the gators including the fact that they have lateral vision, eat most fish and small animals. Dylan also taught us about the spatterdock, heart shaped lily pad looking plants that can grow up to 6 feet tall and are a good indicator of how deep the water is. We learned how to tell if there was a caterpillar living in the plant (called a bonnet worm which Dylan pretended he was going to eat). Dylan also showed us how to make a gauze type band-aid from the cattail grass , which was super neat and helpful. The 2nd grass that is found in the Everglades and is called saw grass which can be very sharp if you rub down the grass. If you take a closer look, you can see the saws that can cut you. If you rub up the grass, it feels like a normal piece of grass. The whole boat tour was about and hour in total before we made our way back to the meeting spot. We hopped back on the bus for the 45 min drive back into the city. Unfortunately, about 10 minutes into the drive, there was an issue with the bus’ engine. There was a bit of delayed communication from the driver so we ended up sitting around waiting to find out what was wrong for a good 15 minutes. Apparently a belt had come loose and we were unable to continue the drive in our bus. I decided to take a snooze for a bit, since we were told it was going to be a 20-30 min wait for another bus to get to us. I managed to nap while Lafonda chatted with the lovely mother-son duo from New Zealand on our tour. Once I woke up, I joined them and got to know that he had actually come in 7th in the Teen division at Wodapalooza. It was nice to hear about his experiences in not only the comp but also in the states. We discussed some spots in NZ that I had been to and a bit about their hometown of Christchurch. They were super lovely and made the long wait for a new bus more bearable. Finally, after about an hour and a half of waiting, a new bus arrived to take us back into Downtown. We managed to make it back downtown before rush hour to meet up with Craig and Des who were chilling near Bayfront after a few delicious mojitos. We made a few last minute stops before heading towards the Brickell Centre. We grabbed coffee and enjoyed some chill time before grabbing our stuff at the hotel. Of course, Neyla was our driver to the airport and we enjoyed some great tunes and an updated decor (she had swapped the pink decorations for blue). We were a bit worried about the airport due to the TSA agents being on strike, so we went to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Somehow, we were through security in less than 15 minutes- even quicker than Lafonda and her VIP line. We had known that our flight was delayed so we found a nice spot near our gate to hang out and drop our stuff. Unfortunately, most of the vendors and restaurants closed around 9 so we had less of variety to choose from for dinner. I had a delicious Cuban sandwich from Earl of Sandwiches that was way better than expected. We boarded our flight around 10pm or so. I napped and listened to a podcast for the 3ish hour flight back home. We were all super tired and very glad to make it home just before 1 am. Security was a breeze as was grabbing out bags. Lafonda and I waited a few minutes for my car to be dropped off before heading home on the sketchy roads (thanks to the huge snow storm the GTHA got). While I didn’t have the typical “Miami” experience, I had a great trip. I always like a trip that involves fitness, good food, weather and some learning. I would definitely go back to Miami for a more relaxing vacay and to spend a bit more time chilling on the beach. Until next time Miami!

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kyreniacommentator · 5 years

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By Chris Elliott….

Visitors to Taşkent Nature Park when approaching it from the village will be greeted by the sight of a very impressive group of buildings in a compound just in front of the amazing huge TRNC mountainside flag. This is the Taşkent Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre.

Each year, hundreds of wild animals are treated and rehabilitated by the Taşkent Nature Park and released back into the wild. It conducts environmental and wildlife awareness workshops and projects. These projects are funded by income generated from the Taskent Picnic Area, Selvi Restaurant, the Activity Site and from donations.

CYPRUS WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Founded in 2016, the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (WRRC), the Cyprus Marinelife Centre (CMC), and the Wildlife Hospital and Research Laboratory (WHRL) came together under the Cyprus Wildlife Research Institute (CWRI) in 2018. The CWRI carries out research projects and fieldwork regarding wildlife conservation and habitat protection.

Group visits to the Taşkent Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre can be made by prior arrangement and a donation is requested to help support the amazing amount of work being carried out there but it should be noted that photography is not permissible as often the taking of photos of animals and wildlife can disturb them and this is not helpful to their treatment and rehabilitation.

To arrange a visit please contact Martin Marancos 0548 811 1186 for English speaking visitors Ulaş Şeherlioğlu 0548 811 1150 for Turkish speaking visitors

Whilst writing it was interesting to note a group visit was made this week by the Royal British Legion, Kyrenia Branch (RBL) and they will have come away spellbound by what they saw.

For those visiting the Taşkent Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, they will drive down an unmade road crossing over an old stone quarry which it is planned at some time in the future to be turned into a giant aviary in which birds are able to fly. This building will be approached through an entrance tunnel under the approach road.

Now we can see clearly the various buildings within the compound and without doubt, the Donkey Sanctuary on the right just outside will be a firm favourite including the first donkey brought there whose name I understand, is “Donkey”

As you drive in through the high fences being erected you will see a huge building on the right which is under construction and this will be used for storage, breeding quarters (quails/mice/rats) and climate-controlled rooms for proper reptile care.

Just behind this on the right is a car parking area plus the Cyprus Marinelife Centre (CMC) with its huge green tanks in which rescued sea turtles are being treated and recuperating before being released back into the sea.

In the centre there is a group of buildings accessed through a double door and into a courtyard and on the left is a large building currently being used as a free flight room for recuperating birds.

The centre building is most fascinating as on entering the first thing you see a number of cages or containers containing rescued mammals, birds or reptiles.

Nearby is a clinic where animals, birds and reptiles are treated and there are a number of isolation rooms where many birds and animals are being treated and rehabilitated in an area where they will not be disturbed.

Finally, there is the administration room where so much work is carried out to keep this amazing place functioning.

Stepping outside now we see on the right a large new building which is being fitted out with equipment to very high standards and will house the animal hospital and research centre and to the rear of this is a large aviary housing birds of prey that due to their injuries can no longer live in the wild so have become permanent residents..

One of the services offered by the centre is the 1190 Wildlife Support LIne and I have seen many people commenting on social media that following a call to this number volunteers have collected and removed wildlife which is in an unwelcome situation.

This helpline is only for wild animals in danger, not street animals which can be helped by contacting other NGOs.

Just looking around there is so much to do with more features to be created in this amazing place but it will take time and money and this is where we can all help by making a donation to help conserve and protect our wildlife and we can also spend many a happy day enjoying the following :

SELVI RESTAURANT

The unique views of nature and its panoramic views of Nicosia, seems to enhance the flavour of the food. Located within the picnic area, the Selvi Restaurant offers a variety of choices such as breakfasts, shared platters, kebabs, vegetarian options and children’s menus to choose from.

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Selvi Restaurant

Wonderful views

ACTIVITY SITE

With the Besparmak mountains on one side and the Mesaoria plain on the other, you are invited to spend time in nature on the terrace and balcony. Also located on site is a conference room with a seating capacity of 100 people where events such as seminars, workshops, conferences and educational activities can be held.

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Small lake and amphiteatre

Conference centre

TAŞKENT PICNIC AREA

With a capacity of 3000 people and wheelchair friendly parking, paths, toilets and playground with a further 2 playgrounds, shop and buffet, it is the exemplary picnic area on our island.

PANAGIA APSINTHIOTISSA MONASTERY

The Panagia Apsinthiotissa Monastery is the first thing that comes to mind when speaking about Taskent. It lies to the east of the Taskent Picnic Area. The original structure is thought to have been built as a chapel in the 11th Century by the Byzantines and was added to in the 14th Century by the Lusignans.

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Apsinthiotissa is derived from the Artemisia absinthium (wormwood) plant and traces of frescos can be seen on the inner walls.

TRNC FLAG

Located on the Kyrenia Mountain Range (Besparmak Mountains) equivalent to the size of 12 football fields, the TRNC flag has its own breathtaking illumination and can be seen from many locations around the island.

TRNC Flag

Teams of volunteers cleaning and repainting the flag

A visit to Taşkent Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre By Chris Elliott.... Visitors to Taşkent Nature Park when approaching it from the village will be greeted by the sight of a very impressive group of buildings in a compound just in front of the amazing huge TRNC mountainside flag.

#1190 wildlife support line #Animals #Birds and reptiles #SELVI RESTAURANT #Taşkent Nature Park #Taşkent Research and Rehabilitation Center

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stiles-wtf · 6 years

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Take a Dog-Friendly Vacation to the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba

Looking for the ultimate luxury vacation where you can actually take your dog? I’d suggest the Ritz-Carlton on Aruba. I was lucky enough to personally check out this dog-loving island and stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, a pet-friendly luxury property. Luxury properties don’t always allow pets, but certain Ritz-Carltons do and, of course, it does it in style.

I traveled to Aruba and spent several days there along with Instagram dog celebrities and their humans: Yorkie mix Ella Bean, her human, Hilary Sloan, plus husband Noah Shulman, creative director of video content (@ellabeanthedog); Maltipoo Mochi and her human, Elle Drouin (@mochiandthecity); and Brussels Griffon Sprout and his human, Sigrid Neilson (@brussels.sprout).

No surprise, the Ritz-Carlton rolled out the welcome wagon. That’s what they do. Aruba’s weather was perfect. That’s what it is. However, the first, middle and last thing I noticed was that Arubans are passionate about dogs. Everyone who worked at the Ritz-Carlton, from the managers to the restaurant hostess, the housekeepers and food and drink service team were crazy about dogs. I was shown photo after photo of their own dogs. The guests seemed to love dogs, too. The little dog trio was treated like celebrities.

Gourmet dog food at the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba

Mochi lounges on the beach in her very own cabana, where she got to eat, drink and bark at lizards. Photography courtesy Elle Drouin, @mochiandthecity.

They ate fresh prepared meals from their own doggie menus, lounged around on their own dog-sized cabanas on the beach and enjoyed doggie massages as part of the spa treatment. What dog could ask for more?

Hilary tells me that Ella’s favorite part was “hands down” the chef-prepared food. “She realllly loved the salmon dish in particular,” Hilary says. “She turned up her nose at her regular food for a few days when we got home.” Hilary and Noah’s favorite part was when they got to swim with Ella in the warm sea. “Where else can you get clear, calm and warm water to enjoy and bask in and — even better — splash with your pup? It was a one-of-a-kind experience.”

Elle and Mochi agree that the gourmet food was definitely a highlight. “The Ritz-Carlton has a special dog-friendly menu featuring a “woof woof” cocktail of light chicken consommé, chicken breast and diced vegetables (so delicious!) as well as other gourmet options like salmon tataki, flank steak and duck liver pate.” She adds, “Mochi also enjoyed watermelon ‘ice cubes’ on the beach, plenty of fresh fruit and a special salmon sushi dinner our last night at the hotel!”

The Ritz-Carlton resort

The rooms come with private balconies to enjoy the view. Photography courtesy The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba.

There were guests I met who come back to the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba, every year. I can’t blame them. The resort has beautiful, large rooms with private ocean-view balconies. There are four different places to eat, two swimming pools and several shops, where you can buy anything from bathing suits to cute dog products. You can bring your dog with you to these areas, plus the expansive beachfront where there are water activities you have access to like stand-up paddleboarding, which not only did the dogs try but some of the local Aruba dogs as well. There we met Aruba’s own Instagram celeb and dog rescue supporter Yoga Girl Rachel Brathen (@yoga_girl) and her paddleboarding dog Ringo (@ringo_thegringo).

You can also kayak, snorkel, scuba dive and sail. The Ritz-Carlton is the last hotel at the end of the island, and you can easily take your dog out walking around on the beach away from other tourists. (Keep your dog on a leash since Aruba does have a leashed dog law.) Several areas you’ll want to check out, but get a dogsitter since these are human only, are the resort’s casino (slot machines, table games, bingo), the Fitness Center gym (two thumbs up from me!) and the luxury spa (facial and massage, anyone?). However, your dog can get a doggie massage if he so desires.

Like many luxury hotels, there is a $250 non-refundable pet fee. Although there isn’t a specific dog potty area on the resort grounds, there are plenty of spots your dog can use — just make sure to pick up after. The sun and ocean breeze are wonderful, but you’ll need to keep your dog hydrated, in the shade when possible (like the cabanas!), use dog sunscreen and perhaps protective doggie sunglasses, as the sand does blow around with the winds. (Follow on Facebook @RitzCarltonAruba.)

Getting to Aruba with your dog

Getting to Aruba with your dog is simple. Photography courtesy The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba.

There are always things you must do when traveling with your dog. For Aruba, your pup must weigh less than 20 pounds to stay at the Ritz-Carlton and to travel in the passenger compartment of the airplane. For American pups, you need a valid International Veterinary Health Certificate issued within 14 days prior to arrival in Aruba endorsed by the USDA, a valid rabies shot and inoculation certificate, and your dog must be microchipped. (See visitaruba.com for more information.)

My dogs were a little too big to come with me, so I asked Hilary and Elle about their experience. “It was actually so easy!” Hilary says. “We were nervous, because part of the process requires scanning and emailing the Aruba customs agency, but they responded within the same day to give their approvals. I simply printed the attachment they sent, brought the papers from the USDA via my vet’s office and showed them when we landed.”

Elle’s experience was also easy. “Since Mochi was already microchipped and up-to-date on her rabies vaccinations,” she explains, “after getting the signed health certificate from her vet, we just had to overnight it to the USDA office in Albany, New York, with a $38 endorsement fee along with an overnight return envelope. Once we got that back, we emailed all of the signed paperwork to the Veterinary Service of Aruba for approval.”

What to do around Aruba

Sigrid and Sprout try their hand/paw at paddleboarding, one of the many outdoor activities available. Photography by Melissa L. Kauffman.

Aruba is known for its white-sand beaches, consistent warm, sunny days (around 80 degrees), warm ocean waters and cool ocean breezes, which is why this 19.6-mile long and 6-mile across island off of Venezuela is so popular. It’s part of the Netherlands, and you can find the Dutch influence everywhere. In fact, many of the Arubans I spoke to at the Ritz-Carlton attended college in the Netherlands before coming back to the island. There are two official languages, both Dutch and Papiamento (Bon Bini means welcome in Papiamento).

If you can tear yourself away from the Ritz-Carlton, there are many places to explore. If you love shopping, you’ll find many stores downtown in the capital city of Oranjestad. There are also several museums, the Arikok National Park and the Bubali Bird Sanctuary. We took a short ride out to the beautifully restored old stone California Lighthouse, which gives you an amazing view of the island. There are as many land activities (ATVs, horseback riding, etc.) as water activities, so you’ll never be bored.

Aruba’s rescue efforts — and its very own name for mixed-breed dogs

I was lucky enough to stay at The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba, along with Instagram faves (left to right) Hilary Sloan & Ella Bean, Elle Drouin & Mochi plus Sigrid Neilson & Sprout. Photography by Melissa L. Kauffman.

Dogs are well-loved on the island, but, just like in the United States, there is a homeless pet population. I got to meet some dedicated dog welfare devotees at the resort. Aruba Ritz-Carlton’s own hotel manager, Louella Brezovar, introduced us to members of Sgt Pepper’s Friends (sgtpeppersfriends.com), a nonprofit that she and others at the Ritz-Carlton volunteer for. Louella had personally flown adopted pets to the United States, delivering them to Americans who had adopted the Aruban dogs.

Aruba dogs are all mixed breeds called Aruba Cunucu dogs and weigh between 35 to 55 pounds. You can follow these rescue dogs along with the group on its website or social media pages @sgtpeppersfriends.

Tips on traveling with your dog

just living my best bean life ???? #tbt to aruba ???? @ritzcarlton ???? up!

A post shared by ella & coconut bean (@ellabeanthedog) on Nov 30, 2017 at 5:43am PST

When you are an Instagram celebrity, you’re in much demand and get to travel all over. Hilary and Elle gave us some of their hard-learned tips for flying with dogs.

“Listen to your dog,” Hilary says. “Ella Bean is an extremely confident flyer and naps the entire time. She prefers to stay in her bag and feels most secure there but enjoys checking in, and we always give her special treats during the trip. Our other pup, Louis does NOT enjoy flying and feels it’s scary and stressful. We don’t travel with him because we respect his boundaries.”

Elle’s advice: “Make sure your dog is comfortable. If they’re not used to traveling in a carrier, give them a chance to spend time in it while you’re at home. Mochi loves being in her carrier, so she usually naps the entire flight!”

Thumbnail: Ella Bean keeps cool in the sun on Aruba’s famed white sands. Courtesy Hilary Sloan @ellabeanthedog.

Tell us: Are you planning any vacations with your dog? Have you ever thought about traveling to Aruba?

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Dogster magazine. Have you seen the new Dogster print magazine in stores? Or in the waiting room of your vet’s office? Subscribe now to get Dogster magazine delivered straight to you!

Read more about traveling with dogs on Dogster.com:

Top Dog-Friendly Spots in Virginia

International Dogsitting: What It’s Like to Dogsit Abroad in Exchange for Free Accommodations

Visit Dog-Friendly Omaha!

The post Take a Dog-Friendly Vacation to the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba appeared first on Dogster.

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jeffreyrwelch · 6 years

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Take a Dog-Friendly Vacation to the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba

Gourmet dog food at the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba

Mochi lounges on the beach in her very own cabana, where she got to eat, drink and bark at lizards. Photography courtesy Elle Drouin, @mochiandthecity.

The Ritz-Carlton resort

The rooms come with private balconies to enjoy the view. Photography courtesy The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba.

Getting to Aruba with your dog

Getting to Aruba with your dog is simple. Photography courtesy The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba.

What to do around Aruba

Sigrid and Sprout try their hand/paw at paddleboarding, one of the many outdoor activities available. Photography by Melissa L. Kauffman.

Aruba’s rescue efforts — and its very own name for mixed-breed dogs

Tips on traveling with your dog

just living my best bean life ???? #tbt to aruba ???? @ritzcarlton ???? up!

A post shared by ella & coconut bean (@ellabeanthedog) on Nov 30, 2017 at 5:43am PST

When you are an Instagram celebrity, you’re in much demand and get to travel all over. Hilary and Elle gave us some of their hard-learned tips for flying with dogs.

Thumbnail: Ella Bean keeps cool in the sun on Aruba’s famed white sands. Courtesy Hilary Sloan @ellabeanthedog.

Tell us: Are you planning any vacations with your dog? Have you ever thought about traveling to Aruba?

Read more about traveling with dogs on Dogster.com:

Top Dog-Friendly Spots in Virginia

International Dogsitting: What It’s Like to Dogsit Abroad in Exchange for Free Accommodations

Visit Dog-Friendly Omaha!

The post Take a Dog-Friendly Vacation to the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba appeared first on Dogster.

0 notes

buynewsoul · 6 years

Text

Take a Dog-Friendly Vacation to the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba

Gourmet dog food at the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba

Mochi lounges on the beach in her very own cabana, where she got to eat, drink and bark at lizards. Photography courtesy Elle Drouin, @mochiandthecity.

The Ritz-Carlton resort

The rooms come with private balconies to enjoy the view. Photography courtesy The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba.

Getting to Aruba with your dog

Getting to Aruba with your dog is simple. Photography courtesy The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba.

What to do around Aruba

Sigrid and Sprout try their hand/paw at paddleboarding, one of the many outdoor activities available. Photography by Melissa L. Kauffman.

Aruba’s rescue efforts — and its very own name for mixed-breed dogs

Tips on traveling with your dog

just living my best bean life ???? #tbt to aruba ???? @ritzcarlton ???? up!

A post shared by ella & coconut bean (@ellabeanthedog) on Nov 30, 2017 at 5:43am PST

When you are an Instagram celebrity, you’re in much demand and get to travel all over. Hilary and Elle gave us some of their hard-learned tips for flying with dogs.

Thumbnail: Ella Bean keeps cool in the sun on Aruba’s famed white sands. Courtesy Hilary Sloan @ellabeanthedog.

Tell us: Are you planning any vacations with your dog? Have you ever thought about traveling to Aruba?

Read more about traveling with dogs on Dogster.com:

Top Dog-Friendly Spots in Virginia

International Dogsitting: What It’s Like to Dogsit Abroad in Exchange for Free Accommodations

Visit Dog-Friendly Omaha!

The post Take a Dog-Friendly Vacation to the Ritz-Carlton, Aruba appeared first on Dogster.

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2traveldads-blog · 7 years

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Until a few months ago Wisconsin wasn’t on our radar as a family travel destination, but we were like “Sure, let’s go and see what we can see.” So we went; we saw; we had a blast! We based our recent Wisconsin trip out of Madison, the capitol. From getting out on the water to heading underground, our Wisconsin family trip was constant fun for both the dads and the kids.

So, what do you know about Wisconsin? Before we started planning our trip all we knew was cheese, beer, and the Green Bay Packers. We had a goal to find our what else was awesome and were totally successful in doing so. Check it out!

Getting to Wisconsin

Until this adventure Wisconsin had always been a fly-over state, meaning that we only just flew over it. It turns out that it’s actually really easy to get to with plenty of flight options into Madison or Milwaukee, typically with connections. Also, southern Wisconsin, which is where we focused, is really close to Chicago, so a Wisconsin family trip could be an easy add-on to a trip to the Windy City.

Driving, I-90 and I-94 are the two biggest interstates to get you into the southern parts, so if you’re coming from the Pacific Northwest and really want to create an epic Midwestern road trip, you’re set! If you’re an east coaster, plot out some cool adventures heading out of Boston, also driving I-90. Wisconsin is your reward for such a road trip.

Madison, Wisconsin family fun

We don’t do a ton of city travel with the kids because we know how much fun we have out in nature, but we really enjoyed staying in Madison. There were ample opportunities for both indoor and outdoor exploring. Madison for a home base made our Wisconsin family trip really simple and fun.

HotelRED: our Madison, Wisconsin accommodations

We spent our week popping in and out of the coolest hotel, HotelRED. Located right next to Camp Randall Stadium, where the University of Wisconsin Badgers play, it was centrally located for kayaking, finding the best Wisconsin grub and branching out beyond Madison. We had tons of space for the kids (and dads) to relax, a kitchenette and an awesome balcony overlooking the city. It was great to have a home away from home to return to each day.

Tip: HotelRED has some great setups in place with local vendors from bike rentals or kayaks to grocery delivery. Check with the hotel concierge for current guest benefits.

Olbrich Botanical Gardens

We love visiting gardens and conservatories locally or when we’re traveling. At home we have the Bloedel Reseve and Volunteer Park Conservatory which we frequently visit, so adding Olbrich Botanitcal Gardens to our Wisconsin family trip was a no-brainer. Located at the east end of the Madison isthmus (awesome high school vocab), Olbrich is easy to get to via car or public transportation, or even bike!

Olbrich is free to the public with sprawling gardens of every style to explore. The kids loved the winding pathways and variety of water features all through the gardens. The highlight though was the conservatory. Complete with a waterfall, stream and beautiful birds, the conservatory was truly impressive. We’ve been to Butchart Gardens in Victoria BC and the Balboa Park Conservatory in San Diego, which are both amazing collections, but just the conservatory alone at Olbrich Botanical Gardens is worth the visit. The smells of all the blooming tropical flowers was a bit overwhelming at first, but it was incredible. The kids really were wowed by the bananas. Growing inside. They were speechless.

Note: while the Olbrich Botanical Gardens are free to the public (by donation) the Conservatory does have it’s own fee per person, but it’s only a few dollars. Totally worth it.

Madison Childrens Museum

We’ve been to our share of children’s museums and some are really fun, others crazy and wild. The Madison Childrens Museum was really ideal for both older and younger kids. There was a great balance of tactile exhibits as well and crazy energy spenders, like the wild Hodge Podge Mahal climber.

Highlights were definitely the water flow greenhouse-style exhibit and the Frank Lloyd Wright building center. Yes! Madison is a hot spot of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture and the Children’s Museum has done a great job explaining the artistic inspiration and mathematics of his work. Really well executed.

Don’t miss: be sure to go all the way to the roof of the Madison Childrens Museum, as it’s a beautiful urban garden complete with a stream. They’ve got chickens, animal exhibits and a stunning view of the Capitol Building. It’s a must-visit on a Wisconsin family trip.

Wisconsin State Capitol Building

This is a stop more for the adults than the kids, but everybody enjoyed touring the Wisconsin State Capitol Building. The kids tackled the steps heading inside like they were hiking at Mt Rainier, hitting the top and surveying Capitol Square around them. Once inside there was a big “woahhhhhh” in unison at they looked up at the ceiling of the rotunda. Yeah, we also gasped it was so beautiful.

Tours of the Capitol Building run several times throughout the day, but you can also do a self guided tour anytime. We opted to explore on our own, spotting badgers around every corner. It was like a scavenger hunt for the kids.

Set in the middle of downtown Madison, we kept joking that all roads lead to the Capitol Building… but then upon climbing up to the observation desk outside the rotunda we found that it’s true. The view from the top was awesome, looking over Lake Mendota to the north and south across Frank Lloyd Wright’s Monona Terrace to Lake Monona. Aside from the architecture and grandeur of the building, the setting of the Capitol Building makes for a cool stop on a Wisconsin family trip.

Note: being a really progressive city, we experienced quite a few protesters inside the Capitol Building. It was perfect to be there on Independence Day watching Freedom of Speech at work as the people spoke out about their elected Rep, Paul Ryan. Explaining to the kids what was going on was simple and it seemed like our oldest understood it, at least a little.

Experience Wisconsin nature

We’d heard from friends that are familiar with Wisconsin that it’s a very outdoorsy place. Madison for sure was with its never-ending bike paths and ample public parks. We made sure to take advantage.

Getting out on the water

Kayaking is something we love to do, whether at home in the Pacific Northwest or off in Florida doing ecotours and spotting dolphins. In Wisconsin kayaking is a must, for visitors and residents alike. Our awesome hotel, Hotel RED, had a partnership with the primary local boating vendor and got us set up for three different expeditions.

Kayaking on Lake Wingra

If you’ve not tried kayaking before, just do it on your next trip wherever that may be. Our Wisconsin family trip was made complete by getting out on the water with the kids and spotting turtles and ducks. Quietly paddling through water lilies and up cool, spring-fed streams was just what we needed to really fall in love with Wisconsin’s nature. The lake was calm, the wildlife abundant and the kids totally at ease.

Tip: even if the law doesn’t require it, be a good example and wear a life jacket when kayaking with kids. You’ll probably never need it, but wear it to show them how important water safety is.

Rental info: Wingra Boats is located near Vilas Park on Lake Wingra.

Stand Up Paddle boarding (SUP) on Lake Mendota

Even though me (Rob) on a paddle board is a hilarious sight and not something you’ll likely see often, I’m still going to say that you need to try stand up paddle boarding (SUP) sometime. Lake Mendota is on the north side of Madison and is the water playground of the city. With a lot of speed boats on the water on a beautiful day, you’re looking at some choppy surf to cross, but the challenge is half the fun.

Tip: do your SUP in Madison on either Wingra or Monona Lakes, as they’re more calm with fewer private docks to paddle past.

Rental info: Marshall Boats is located in Marshall Park on the west end of Lake Mendota. They have kayaks, SUP, canoes, pontoon boats…

Paddle boating on Lake Monona

Paddle boating: the best workout you never knew you always needed. Actually, this is a great way to get kids out on the water if they don’t spend a lot of time on boats. Paddle boating is very stable and chill for the passengers, which is why it’s a great family activity, but it really is a workout for the ones peddling and moving the boat. Lake Monona is split up by some different roadways and train tracks, but this makes for smaller, more calm and quiet areas to explore.

Tip: go with another adult to share the work, otherwise you’ll tire yourself plenty far from the dock. Also, be aware of paddle boating on windy days as you’ll have to fight against the breeze at some point.

Rental info: Brittingham Boats is located on Lake Monona near Lake Wingra and the Henry Vilas Zoo.

Spelunking in Cave of the Mounds

Our kids love caves, both on television shows and in real life. When we discovered that there was a cavern system close to Madison we put it on our itinerary immediately. It was a good move. On two previous trips we’ve had to cancel caving plans due to height/age restrictions within the caves. Our youngest had to miss out on Oregon Caves National Monument and others, but not here! Cave of the Mounds is open to anybody who’s able to walk through the paths and stairways themselves.

Cave of the Mounds gave our Wisconsin family trip an adventurous side that we don’t often get traveling with a toddler. Besides the well run and informative tour below ground, there is a visitors center, turn-of-the-century farm, butterfly gardens, and a mining operation for kids. Yes, this cave site is more touristy and commercial than Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana or Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park, but it’s for sure worth the half hour drive out of Madison.

Tour info: check the website for current ticket rates. Tours go every 30 minutes.

Milwaukee day trip

How can you do a Wisconsin family trip and NOT visit the shores of Lake Michigan? This was actually our first time at any of the Great Lakes with the kids and it rocked. We visited during Summerfest, which is one of the largest and longest running music festivals in the USA, so it was a bit crazy, but we still had a blast. Since we were based in Madison for this trip, we made sure to do the hour and a half drive to Milwaukee just in case we weren’t back anytime soon.

Discovery World

Unlike any other children’s museum we’ve visited, Discovery World on the shore of Lake Michigan is great for adults too. We began our visit in the Aquatarium where the history, current state and future of the Great Lakes is laid out in some really involved exhibits. We learned about the water cycle, maritime history, simple machines and visited an aquarium all in this portion of Discovery World.

Heading into the Technology Building the kids were lost in mechanics and learning about automation and the principles of physics. Seriously, we could’ve spent all day here and the kids would’ve been fine with it.

Tip: allotting three hours for Discovery World is a good idea if you can. We felt bad making the kids leave before they were ready.

Historic Third Ward

Seattle has Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market, San Francisco has SOMA and Jackson Square… Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward is really different. Being comprised of mostly old factory buildings from the late 1800s it’s got a strongly industrial feel with gritty brickwork everywhere. The cool thing though is the little shops, bars and restaurants you’ll find at street level. The district is located along the banks of the Milwaukee River, so it also kind of feels like the industrial version of Venice.

The Public Market in the Historic Third Ward is fun for the gourmet shopper. We arrived thinking it would be like Pike Place Market in Seattle and were wrong. The stalls and counters are fairly permanent with really great confections and wine options as you stroll through. It’s got the fun stuff too of some outside dining and tables for relaxing, but it’s more of a place to find some delicious, fine Milwaukee snacks.

Beerline B District for beer culture

Can you mention Milwaukee without talking about beer? Not really. For our beer experience in the land of the Brewers we headed for the Lakefront Brewery… located on the Milwaukee River. We had lunch in the grand beer hall and ate German inspired dishes, from pretzels to pulled ham Rubens, it was a welcome change to the standard brewery foods we’re used to.

The Lakefront Brewery tour itself was pretty good too. FYI, it’s not for conservative beer drinkers or kids that understand inappropriate jokes. Our kids came along because they dig the science and appreciate a good performance.

Following the tour and lunch we hung out in the sunshine strolling along the river and enjoying a different view of Milwaukee. It was the perfect and a great way for the kids to expel some energy.

Small town Wisconsin

We didn’t just stick to the big cities during our Wisconsin family trip. We sought out some smaller communities to get a feel for the rest of the state too. We weren’t disappointed!

Mount Horeb for trolls

Only a half hour from Madison, Mt Horeb has the perfect main street… and it’s lined with trolls. Mt Horeb is the troll capitol of the USA and if you’re visiting with kids you’ll love it. The Trollway, also known as Main Street, has over 50 troll carvings and troll themed businesses.

And of course there is a troll themed craft brewery. We had lunch at the Grumpy Troll Brew Pub and enjoyed beers named for trolls and other Scandinavian elements. We always love to find craft breweries outside of the Pacific Northwest that offer IPAs and other non-lagers. Their brews were legit and diverse.

Note: if you’re new to exploring craft beers you’ll find a love of bold beers, like IPAs on the west coast, and more traditional styles in the Midwest and eastern seaboard. In talking with a brewmaster on a recent trip to Mobile, Alabama he told me that brewers across the country are making an effort to put a local twist on the craft brew tastes of the West Coast. Success so far!

Monona for the ultimate community festival

If you’re unsure of when to plan your Wisconsin family trip do it over the 4th of July. Independence Day is always a fun experience, but the town of Monona really does it up big time. With a full carnival, music, booths, and the honest to goodness best fireworks display we’ve ever seen outside of Disneyland, it’s a must-visit.

Tip: like with any public festival, plan your day to arrive while things are still hoppin’ but also so that you can aquire a smart parking spot. With the Monona Community Festival, when the fireworks finished thousands of people were on foot and no cars could move. Park smart, have fun!

Waunakee for a last beer experience

We love to make travel itineraries and plotting out how we could maximize our Wisconsin experience up until the last moment was fun. We found a small town about fifteen minutes north of the Madison airport for our final stop. Waunakee is small but a perfect snapshot of main street America. Our goal was to have a relaxing, family friendly lunch in a cute town and we totally scored.

Across from the old train depot and close to the vintage ice cream parlor we found Lone Girl Brewing Co. A fairly new establishment, they’ve also mastered the art of interesting, complex beers in a totally family oriented environment. A hall of cisterns, modern-rustic (totally Wisconsin) design, and butcher paper for lunch time art made for a great afternoon. Must try: Harry’s Coconut IPA. It’s genius.

Can you tell that we loved our Wisconsin family trip? We went in with no expectations and left ready to return ASAP. Southern Wisconsin was loaded with great outdoor experiences and some of the coolest cities we’ve visited. Hopefully we’ll be back soon to explore more of the Lake Michigan shores and dig into northern Wisconsin. We can only imagine it’s just as awesome. We’ll have to see…

Want to pin this for planning your own Wisconsin family trip? Go for it!!!

Our first Wisconsin family trip… and now let’s get back there! Until a few months ago Wisconsin wasn’t on our radar as a family travel destination, but we were like “Sure, let’s go and see what we can see.” So we went; we saw; we had a blast!

#beer #brewery #family travel #Madison #Milwaukee #Wisconsin

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fadingfartconnoisseur · 7 years

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The Ultimate Seychelles Islands Travel Guide

I’ve been to a lot of beaches, and I’ve loved them all; but there’s something absolutely magical about the endless coasts of the Seychelles. There’s a reason they call the Seychelles “paradise on earth,” and you’ll see as soon as you arrive.

Ready to discover it for yourself? Here’s my ultimate Seychelles Islands travel guide.

What to Expect

Getting Around

The Islands

What to Do

What to Expect

What to Expect in the Seychelles

Language: The Seychelles actually has three official languages: French, English, and Seselwa. When you overhear locals chatting, it’ll usually be in their French-based creole language, Seselwa. Most people are actually trilingual(!), and you’ll rarely have trouble finding people who speak English.

Currency: Seychelles rupees (SCR). $1 USD will give you 13.50 SCR.

Credit Cards and Banks: It’s good to have a mix of currencies. Many tourist spots prefer dollars and euros, so keep some of your own cash and exchange some for Seychelles rupees. Depending on your bank, you’ll likely get the best rate withdrawing rupees from an ATM, but you’ll also find banks and official exchange offices all over.

Voltage: The Seychelles uses three-pin UK plugs.

Climate: The Seychelles has a dream climate. The temperature rarely goes below seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit (twenty-four degrees Celsius) or above eighty-nine degrees Fahrenheit (thirty-two degrees Celsius).

Conditions for swimming, snorkeling and diving are best during March through May, October, and November, plus those are off-peak months.

Food: All over the Seychelles, you’ll find creole food made from Asian staples with European flair. Think rice, veggies, and tons of fresh fish. As you’re making plans to eat your way across the islands, keep in mind that a lot of places are closed on Sundays, so come prepared.

Water: Tap water in the Seychelles is safe to drink, but it’s pretty heavy on the chlorine, so many people opt to drink bottled water. If you are there during the summer, you might also find that the water gets turned off for a few hours a day in an effort to conserve.

Getting Around

Getting Around the Seychelles

Getting to Seychelles: When you arrive, you’ll fly into Seychelles International Airport in Mahé. This is the main airport and the hub for Air Seychelles, which is the local airline.

Getting between Islands: You can opt to island hop by ferry or airplane. Depending on the time of year, you’ll find two to three ferries between Mahé and Praslin. In the morning, there’s also a direct ferry from Mahé to La Digue.

In the evening, the ferry goes from Mahé to Praslin to La Digue. If you prefer to fly, Air Seychelles operates regular flights and has prices comparable to the ferry.

Getting around on the Islands: In Praslin and Mahé, it’s handy to rent a car, or grab a taxi, but you can also get around by bike. In La Digue, your easiest option is to travel by bike (although I’ve heard there are a few taxis on the island). You will find buses all over the islands, and they can be a fun experience. They aren’t a quick way to get around, however, and you can’t bring luggage on board.

The Islands

The Main Islands

The Seychelles Islands are an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa. The islands are heavily-traveled during peak season, and I can see why! I was so excited to explore the picture perfect islands and dive below the crystal-clear, turquoise waters.

Mahé Island

This is the main island and home to the capital city, Victoria. You’ll fly into this island and it’s definitely a place worth spending some time. There are stunning beaches and lush rainforests alongside the country’s top accommodations, shops, restaurants.

Where to Stay: Eden Bleu Hotel ($$), AVANI Seychelles Barbarons Resort ($$), Hilton Seychelles Northolme Hotel ($$$)

Where to Eat: Marie Antoinette ($$$), Del Place Bar and Restaurant ($$), La Perle Noire ($$), La Pause ($)