Water activities

I've officially been back on US soil for about 24 hours now, but because my last few days in Panama were spent on a sailboat I didn't have tons of internet connectivity to let you all know of my comings and goings. Here's how it played out...

Last Friday I met up with a couchsurfer who'd invited me to stay on his boat that he had docked at the Isla Carrenero marina in Bocas del Toro. There were three beautiful, lovely days of hanging out in the cockpit, taking the dinghy to go snorkeling, diving, and spearfishing for lobsters, with liberal amounts of Panama beer and rum cocktails taking up the time in between. I even went wakesurfing for the first time! The guys had much better runs than me, but they surf and I've never even come close to standing on a surf board before, so I consider it a success. :)

I had the opportunity to meet friends and be introduced to people I never would have met otherwise. We were all invited to dinner one night - the house was gorgeous and right on the water. The food was simple but very delicious (I was considering my third plate when I decided that might be a bit much!), and the company was great.

(My home was the boat second from the right)

It's strange because for at least a week I'd been really ready to head home. But here I was, days away from being back in the US for the first time in months, days away from seeing friends and family...and yet I was wishing I had another week to spend with my new found friends. Just such a good vibe, ya know?

I have a sister sitting here anxious to pull me away from the computer so we can go hang out and do sisterly things, so that's all for now. But I'll have a bigger update/change of plans in a few days, once I've worked out the details...

Isla del Tigre and travel to Nica

It's kind of hard to know where to start with relaying the events of the last few days. On the one hand, I'd like everyone to keep feeling envious of my travels and all the wonderful people I'm meeting along the way; on the other hand, sometimes there are just hard days and hard situations. For the sake of fair and objective reporting (you mean I'm NOT a journalist? Oh. Oh well.) and the hopes that maybe the full telling of the story will be therapeutic, I'm gonna share all of it...

Wednesday started with a bright and early 6am bus. By about 10:30am I'd arrived at Comayagüela, just outside the capital of Tegucigalpa...and was thoroughly disgusted in relatively short order. I'd been warned that a taxi here from where the bus dropped off was absolutely necessary because of the danger. I don't know about danger, but I was completely gouged by the taxi driver (who charged me almost the same amount for a five minute drive as what I paid for a four hour bus ride AND laughed in my face when I called him out on it) and then practically attacked by touts who were grabbing at me to go with their bus company and not the other guy's. I was then routed onto one particular bus where I got to wait for the next hour until we actually left. That wasn't so bad, kinda comes with the territory in these parts. What WAS bad was that during that hour I got to basically see the worst of humanity. Touts harassing anyone in their grabbing vicinity, blatant littering of the worst sort (trash cans were *right* there), lots of nose picking, junk grabbing, and spitting. Plus, it was hot and dusty.

Multiple bus changes later and I was in the town of San Lorenzo which I knew to be the closest place to Isla del Tigre to get money from an ATM. I haven't had any problems at ATMs thus far, but of course this was the one ATM that wouldn't work for me. (Did you know that MasterCard isn't as widely accepted in Central America as Visa? Guess which one I have...) I was still an hour away from the island by this point and I was quickly convincing myself that if I could find a hotel that accepts credit cards (did you know that's not particularly common here, either?), I was going to suck it up and pay a lot of money for a private room with a/c. It took multiple attempts, but I did eventually end up in an overpriced, somewhat run-down room in a currently-being-renovated-hotel. But at least it was icy cold, was right on the water, and had sunsets that looked like this:

(When the tide was in, that little spit of land in the foreground completely disappeared.)

For my two days or so on the island, I was indeed the only foreigner visiting. Actually, during some parts of my wanderings, it felt like I was the only person on the island, foreigner or otherwise. It was almost creepy how few people were out and about. Aside from the roads in the main town of Amapala, the island just has one road that goes all the way around it, about 18km distance. After spending some time at the pool (too icky to go in, so I just sat next to it) trying to wrap my head around what the next five weeks will look like planning-wise, I took a tuk-tuk almost halfway around the island to Playa Negra - my first black sand beach, as far as I can remember. It was nice enough, but nothing too special if I'm being perfectly honest, and not much to it. The people there mostly just gathered around me and gawked, staring, not trying to make conversation even if I initiated. And the quietness was shattered when a boy who was old enough to know better tossed a glass bottle into the air and let it smash into a million pieces on the sand, right where people were walking and playing. I know it's kind of mean, but I almost wished that he'd cut himself. He would've deserved it. Lucky for him, my wishing had no impact.

(Playa Negra, pre-broken glass)

Friday came and it was to be another long travel day. The guys at the hotel front desk told me I could pretty much get a lancha any time, but that on the hour would be my best bet. Unfortunately, they hadn't told me that the boats are colectivos which means they don't leave until there are enough people to fill them. After waiting for about a half hour, one of the drivers offered to take just me for 50Lps instead of the usual 15Lps (more than triple the price, yes, but still only about $2.50 and I figured it was worth it since I had such a long travel day ahead of me).

That was actually the most waiting I had to do for the rest of the day because I was pretty much shuffled along without incident from there. In fact, in Guasaule I was shuffled so quickly onto a minibus that I barely had time to realize there wasn't really a seat available for me. I was essentially sitting between a guy's knees, facing him like we were in a marriage counseling therapy session, except it would've made the weirdest session ever since we'd never even seen each other before. There were about 20 people on that 12 seat bus and I had a cramped knee and an asleep leg about 10 minutes into the 45 minute trip. At one point there was a security checkpoint - fairly common, but it was my first where we all had to pile out so the bus could be searched. I still don't know what exactly happened, but one less person got back on the bus than got off.

Next came la frontera and it was probably one of the more maddening border crossings I've ever experienced, if not the most. A guy in a pedi-cab snagged me as I got off the bus and was cycling me from point to point, telling me what to expect next. By the time he told me about the fee to cross into Nicaragua, I'd already exchanged my Honduran lempiras for Nicaraguan córdobas and was beginning to feel panicky that I wouldn't have enough ($12). (Not that I wouldn't have enough, exactly, but I also needed money for my bus into León, etc. and didn't want to have NO money.) The ATM at the border also wasn't working for me, but I managed to piece together enough dollars, lempiras, and córdobas to pay the fee AND have some left over. As my pedi-cab driver and I were officially driving over the bridge into Nica, we were stopped by some soldiers. I'm not really sure what the point was - were they trying to bribe me? search my bag? something else entirely? - but I didn't even have to play dumb because I really didn't know what they were trying to say to me. It was mildly intimidating because the one soldier had this baton that he kept tapping against my leg, but the whole situation was over in probably less than a minute and a half. I finally got to where the buses into Nica were parked and this tout tried to gouge me, too. He was suddenly insisting on 200Lps, more than ALL of my travel up until that point had cost, combined. I gave him the rest of my lempira, about 80Lps I think, still too much, but I'd had enough and wanted to get away from him. As I thanked him and walked away, he was still calling after me that I owed him more money, but he did eventually give up and bike back the direction we'd just come.

My arrival and first 18 hours in León have presented their own challenges, but that will have to wait for another day because this has already gotten long enough. Suffice it to say that I have cash now and can eat something substantial for the first time in a couple of days, so things can only go up from here, right?

Sorry if this was a bit of a downer of a post, but I had to get it all out. Here, about a cheerier picture to wrap things up?

(Because how can you not smile with this guy staring down at you like that?)

Santa Cruz in pictures

I just spent what was supposed to be two days but what turned into four days at Santa Cruz La Laguna on Lake Atitlan. Santa Cruz is very small, but there's all kinds of things you can do there: diving, kayaking, swimming, yoga, Spanish classes, spa treatments, weaving, hiking. And, from the pictures below and here, you'll see that it's pretty damn scenic, so photo opps abound. I, however, didn't do any of that (aside from take photos, of course). No, I pretty much did the opposite of "activities" which is to say that I was lazy for a few days. I finished a book, walked along the shore, alternated between laying in the sun and laying in the shade, then just switched to hammocks altogether. I also met a couple of really amazing people and we spent hours stargazing, watching lightning flicker off in the distance, and having conversations that lasted into the early morning hours.

I think it was Aldous Huxley who called Lake Atitlan, with its three flanking volcanoes, the most beautiful place on the planet and I'd be inclined to agree. If you've had a chance to take a look at some of the other pictures, too, what do you think?

Extremes

The eight hour bus ride to Lanquin ended up taking closer to nine hours, not counting the half-hour late departure time. It was a pretty good ride, though, I have to say. For the first six hours or so, it was just me and an Irish guy and we happily chatted for that entire time. At about the six hour mark, we picked up some people, dropped them off, picked up some others, and then dropped them off. Even when the bus was full, it wasn't chicken bus full so you didn't hear any complaints from us.

When we finally arrived at Zephyr Lodge, we couldn't've been happier. Check out some pics here because I didn't get very many good ones, myself. We were surrounded by completely stunning scenery and all of the other guests were very chill and friendly. (I wasn't super thrilled with the attitude of one of the staff when I asked about a covering for an opening in the thatch roof that allowed my bed to get rained on, though. She said, "We're in the jungle, that's just the way it is." It stopped raining and wasn't ultimately a problem, but still.) The lodge is very isolated, so everyone hangs out together. All around, very good vibe, if maybe a bit too party-ish for my tastes.

ANYWAY. In making my way toward Lanquin, I thought that a visit to nearby Semuc Champey National Park would be a great way to spend my 4th of July. I know I said not that long ago that I don't really "do" tours, but...I did another tour. You kind of have to for this one, too, because transportation is pretty infrequent and guides are necessary for the cave portion of the trip anyway, so it just makes sense.

The park and caves are only about 10km away from the lodge, but it took nearly 45 minutes to get there. The roads are pretty rough and occasionally a truck will break down, blocking the entire road, which means you have to get out of your truck and walk up the hill to another one, one that we apparently...took? borrowed? I'm not sure exactly, but yes, that happened. Twelve of us stood in the back of a truck for this journey and I'm pretty sure it counts as part of the tour!

The Kan'Ba Caves were our first stop. There aren't too many pictures from the day because there was so much water involved, but here's a pretty waterfall that was just outside the entrance to the caves:

Unlike the cave at ATM that came with helmets and headlamps, this cave came with no helmets and stubby candles. And at the beginning of the cave, you have to swim one-handed as you hold your candle aloft with the other hand. It was quite the way to begin the day! We were in the cave for about two hours. Besides swimming, we did a lot of slippery climbing and maneuvering, we got to jump from a cave ledge into a pool, and (very, very) cool was when we got to walk behind a waterfall and then float through a cave river to get back to where everyone else was waiting.

The adventure didn't stop when we emerged out of the cave. There was a massive rope swing to jump off of into the river and a 21m bridge to jump off of into the same river. I didn't do either of these things because the river current was a bit strong for my liking as a not-so-good swimmer, so instead I just cheered on those who were jumping.

(Crazy German Robert, holding onto our guide's head for balance before he takes the leap)

We had a lunch of carne, rice, refried beans, salad, and tortillas prepared for us by a local lady who'd cooked everything and set up shop near the bridge. The rest of the day was spent at Semuc Champey. Semuc has a naturally created limestone bridge and the top of the bridge has a series of pools. First, you hike for about a half-hour, practically straight up to an area known as Mirador where you have a view of those pools. Thank god it wasn't a hot day because by the time we got to the top, my legs were jelly and I was dripping sweat. Pictures can't possibly capture what the eye does, but I gave it a shot:

When our guide said, "let's go swimming!" we really couldn't have been happier. After the cold cave water, then the hot climb, we were looking forward to the other end of the extreme again. The pools meant more opportunity for jumping from high heights. As I was scrambling up to the ledge, I couldn't help ask myself what the hell I was doing, considering I'm a bit afraid of heights and all. I was the next to last person to go and I was finding it hard to work up the courage when, out of nowhere, the last guy gave me a countdown. It worked! So I returned the favor for him when it was his turn. ;-)

There were also naturally formed slides (you can see them at the bottom, towards the right of the above picture) that weren't very long, but they were kind of exhilarating because they were so fast. Another very cool thing was this cave that only had enough room for your head (the rest of you was underwater). You entered the cave in one spot and came out in another. The light was shimmery and ethereal because it was reflected off the water. One of the pools had those dead skin eating fishes - at least that's what I hope it was, as the water was too deep for me to actually see, but that's what it felt like. By the time we got to the last pool with one last rope swing, I think most of our group was cold, tired, and seriously ready to be out of the water.

We got back to the truck and climbed aboard. We were all grinning like idiots, but completely exhausted. So, of course, it totally makes sense that it started raining about halfway back to the lodge. :-/ I was really looking forward to a cup of coffee, a hot shower (which is semi-open and overlooks the jungle, by the way), and dry clothes at that point.

Since it was the 4th of July, the lodge had prepared a "Happy Birthday, 'Merica" menu for dinner that night consisting of slow roasted pork shoulder, corn on the cob, potato salad, grilled veggie skewers, cole slaw, baked beans, and a couple of other things I'm forgetting. I'm pretty sure that, aside from one of the staff members, I was the only American there so it might've been a bit over the top, but it was fun and convivial all the same.

How was your 4th of July?

Ruins and caves

Hey, so, now that I'm in Guatemala it probably wouldn't be such a bad idea to tell about my last few days in Belize, huh?

When I last left off, I had crossed the country to San Ignacio where I had a couchsurfing host lined up, courtesy of my last host in San Pedro. I didn't know it at the time, but my new host Marcus actually runs a little place called Parrot Nest Lodge. It's about three miles outside of town and guests there have their choice of a treehouse or a cabana. Since I was surfing, I stayed in the main house. But here, take a look at Parrot Nest:

(Common area near the outdoor dining area. You can't see it too well, but there's a treehouse just beyond.)

(One of the cute cabins)

Pretty great, right? Breakfast was made to order in the morning and there was a group meal in the evening. A lot of the guests were doing "activities" every day - riving tubing, horseback riding, ruins exploration. All of these were guided tours and you probably know I'm not much of a guided tour kind of gal. Plus, they were pretty pricey which is fine when you're going all out for a week long vacation, a bit harder to swallow when you're budgeting for three months. In any case, I had some things I wanted to do on my own anyway.

On Friday I took a colectivo (shared taxi) into town to the visitor's center to find out how to get to Cahal Pech, a Maya site discovered in the 1950s, but formerly in use as far back as 1200 BCE. I'd heard that it was only a 20 minute walk from town, so once I got directions I set out. It was only 20 minutes, but damn - that was an UPHILL walk in hot, humid temps!

There was a small, but informative museum as you entered that helped you get acquainted with the grounds and background history. But then it was on to the main event - my first (I believe) Mayan ruins!

(Pretty much the first thing you see from the main plaza)

Probably the most interesting thing about Cahal Pech is that excavation is still happening today, some 60+ years after it began. At one point I just sat and listened to the grad students doing their excavation thang. Seeing the ruins was pretty exciting, although it wasn't nearly on the same scale as the Great Pyramids or Angkor Wat. When I see Tikal tomorrow, I think that will change.

(You get a whole other view from up above)

On Saturday I went into town with Marcus and his friend Carl for the weekly Saturday market. I'd heard that everything was sold at the market, from clothing to wine, pupusas to produce, jewelry to puppies (not so happy about that last one, actually, considering that all of Belize has a major problem with stray dogs). I didn't buy anything, but I sampled some of the local fruit wines (grapefruit, raspberry, blueberry, papaya) and some of the Mennonite made cheeses, and had a really yummy pork, cheese, and bean pupusa (sort of like a stuffed tortilla).

(Don't let the shade fool you - it was a HOT day!)

Later on, Marcus's neighbor invited us to a bbq to celebrate one of their kids graduating. (Side note: Marcus and his family employee a staff to help around the lodge. Over the course of working with these people for the last 10+ years, they've all become really close. In fact, Marcus even puts all the staff's kids through school because it costs money to attend even the public schools.) I ended up talking to a Belizean who is also in HR and it was pretty interesting to find out more about differences in employment laws and how wages are paid (hourly now, but up until very recently it was a day rate). Maybe it sounds boring to non-HR peeps, but I didn't think so.

Yesterday was my "activity" day. I hadn't even planned to go to San Ignacio, but before I left San Diego a friend told me that I absolutely had to go there so I could go to Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM). ATM is a nearby cave filled with archaeological artifacts ranging from ceramics, stoneware, even human remains, and it was in use as far back as 250 AD. This was a guided tour and a guide was very much needed. Our guide, Luis, took five of us through the cave in about four hours. This was quite long compared to the time some of the other groups were taking, but it just meant that we got LOTS of information. 

(Since pictures weren't allowed *at* ATM, here's what the road looked like on the way there.)

As you make your way through the cave, you occasionally have to swim or climb, being sure the whole time not to step or touch where you shouldn't. The cave has only been open to the public since 1998 and already you can see signs of wear - waxy areas of oil build up from hands and feet, fungus growing, human remains broken because of a dropped camera. (That last example is actually why cameras are now banned. There's some pretty good info and pics here, although the site is a bit outdated now.) Luis did a really good job of explaining some of the rituals that took place at ATM and pointing out some specifics that I noticed not all of the other guides shared. For example, there were a number of silhouettes that were either natural or modified formations. One in particular looked like a talking head which had to be rather terrifying to ancient Maya who were there to appease the gods or cleanse themselves of sin. The other crazy thing that Luis did was have us turn off our headlamps. A few times he did this while we were sitting or standing still, to give us an idea of just how dark the caves really were (and maybe also to force us to listen to him instead of looking around, haha). But then. He lined us up, single-file, had us put our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us, and then we turned off our lamps and walked like that through the darkness for about five minutes. Holy moly, was that some scary stuff! Water and darkness don't really work for me, but damn if I didn't hang in there - go me! Funny thing is that after we left the cave and hiked out of the jungle, one of the guys in our group said that at any time any one of us could've turned our lamps back on. I swear, that never even occurred to me!

That brings me to today and my first border crossing of this trip. From Parrot Nest Lodge, I took a colectivo into town where I got on a bus to Benque Viejo. From Benque I got a taxi to the border, from the border I got a micro bus to Flores, and from Flores I took a tuk-tuk to my hostel. It sounds a lot more complicated than it actually was (aside from the tuk-tuk drivers who tried to gouge me by charging double).

(Sneak peek of Flores)

Flores is adorable, but there's really not much to do here. I'm here as a jumping off point for Tikal and will be leaving again the day after tomorrow. 

**Btw, after the first few pictures loaded for this post, my internet connection refused to do any more. I'll try to add them later if I can, but they're on Flickr in the meantime. Problem solved!

Edinburgh the Second

I've been home for five days now and I still haven't even finished telling about our last few days in Scotland (but to be fair, the first two days back I didn't leave the house and didn't get dressed. What? I was tired!). Wow, so much to catch up on!

So, we had to be in Edinburgh by noon on 29 September (last Wednesday) in order to drop off the rental car which meant that we got a pretty early start leaving Perth (not a whole lot to say about Perth, btw; I don't think I even took a single picture there). It stormed hard the entire way to Edinburgh, but by the time we got there it had slowed down to just a drizzle. I thought it might be the perfect day for a pub crawl or maybe a visit to a museum, but DSH had other ideas. We ended up walking in the West End and Leith neighborhoods and by the time we ended up back in Old Town (where we stayed the first time around), we knew exactly where we were. By early evening, the sky was clearing up and our last full day in Scotland (uh, what we thought was going to be our last full day before all of the delays) was shaping up to be really pretty.

Thursday was an absolutely beautiful day. The day started crisp and cool, but the sun was shining brightly and the skies were blue as could be. Definitely not a day to be stuck inside pubs or museums. :-) I love the look of British pubs, though, so I took lots of pictures of them and did pop into one for a beer later in the day. So how was the day spent then? Well, souvenir shopping, of course! And by "of course" I mean that DSH did lots of shopping, I just helped, lol.

I guess that about covers it, so let's get to the numbers:
* 664 miles driven on "the other side" of the road
* 8 distilleries visited on three islands (Islay, Skye, and the mainland)
* Stayed in 2 hostels, 4 bed and breakfasts, and 1 hotel
* 0 couchsurfing hosts or events, but we did meet a friend of a couchsurfing friend
* countless full Scottish breakfasts - I'm done with bacon and eggs for a while!
* 1.5 days of rain (3 half days over the course of two weeks)
* Only one picture of a statue with a cone on its head (the cone was missing by the time we were back in Edinburgh)
* Serenaded by bagpipers, oh, at least a dozen times
* Ate black pudding three times before it was forever ruined for me
* LOTS of castles and ancient ruins

All in all, a good trip. Also, not all of the Scotland pics have been uploaded to Flickr yet, so be sure to check in about a week, they should be up by then.

Narrow

I mentioned that the trip from Islay to Skye was pretty harrowing, but you may be wondering what exactly I meant by that. Well, we narrowly avoided being killed with boredom as we waited for more than two hours for our ferry in Port Askaig. The ferry trip was mostly uneventful, although it was delayed in leaving, so we didn't get to the mainland until later than we expected. I thought our drive up the west coast to Skye would then take about 4-5 hours, depending on how many stops we made.

What I didn't know is that the A85 and the A87, two (supposedly) major roads in Scotland are n.a.r.r.o.w. Like, narrower than the word I just stretched out using periods. I'm talking country lane narrow. Add in the fact that they were also crazy curvy, ess curve after ess curve, pretty much non-stop. So top speed was, what? Maybe 40 mph? Then it started getting dark. Then random animals kept jumping out at us - a HUGE buck scared the living daylights out of me, but luckily stayed on the shoulder, and an owl or some other fairly large bird that actually flew into the car as we were driving. And I had decided to take a turn at the wheel, so I was the one driving (shhh. . .don't tell DSH, but I'm *much* better at it than him!). The driving portion of the trip ended up taking nearly seven hours (including our pit stop for dinner) and by the time we got to the b&b (at 1am, our poor, poor host!), my neck and shoulder muscles were in a gross, twisted bundle.


Skye was pretty and we had good weather again. Go check out the pictures for some amazing scenery (oh, and maybe another distillery shot or two, also).

For the two days between Skye and our return to Edinburgh, we didn't have an itinerary. We figured we'd kind of wing that part and see where it took us. Fortunately for us, we narrowly missed staying in Inverness (gateway to Loch Ness) which would have been a mistake. It's not a particularly good looking part of Scotland, or maybe we're just spoiled by the loveliness of Islay and Skye, and it didn't seem like there was a whole lot to do there. So we kept going until we got to Pitlochry. 


Pitlochry had more charm in half a block than Inverness had in its entirety. Plus, it had the added bonus of being less than three miles from the smallest distillery in Scotland, Edradour. :-) We checked in to a b&b - our biggest, nicest room yet - and then headed out for some walking, exploring, and the hunt for dinner.


Which (finally) brings us to today. We're in Perth until tomorrow when we head back to Edinburgh for the last days in Scotland.


* * * * *


Completely unrelated to anything, but funny enough (I thought) to warrant a mention: Breakfasts with DSH have been, let's say, interesting. The traditional Scottish breakfast consists of all or a combination of the following - a fried egg, black pudding (made from blood, oats, and seasonings, it actually tastes a lot better than it sounds), sausage and/or bacon (it's more like Canadian bacon), grilled tomatoes, grilled mushrooms, and a potato scone. What makes it interesting is that DSH hates fried eggs and grilled tomatoes, but he always at least attempts to eat them because he doesn't want to be rude to the b&b host. This means that he fast chews his way through it and you can tell he's trying really hard not to taste anything. Because I wouldn't be me if I just let this go, I of course teased him about it. It was all well and good until he made a comment about the black pudding being like a scab. Ewwwwww. He got his revenge, but I really haven't been able to eat black pudding since then.

Whisky

The Isle of Islay was all about whisky. (And no, "whisky" isn't spelled incorrectly, even though Blogger is underlining it with a red line for me. Whisky is spelled without an 'e' when it comes from Scotland and with an 'e' when it comes from Ireland or the US.) It just so happens that Islay produces DSH's favorite kind of whisky and there are eight different distilleries on the island (an island, btw, so small that only about 3,500 people live there). Although I like whisky, Islay whiskies are too peaty and/or smoky and/or medicinal for me, so I was glad to play DD and just take pictures everywhere we went.


Actually, my first shot of the day made me very happy. Why? Well, only because I got a picture of something I really, really wanted to get a picture of while in Scotland.

It's a Highland cow! And they're not at all like the shy sheep that run away from you. This guy and about five of his friends came right over to the fence we were standing at to say hi. I think they probably thought we had food for them (we didn't), but at least we got some pictures out of it.


So of those eight distilleries, we went to six of them over two days, some of them twice. They all have a very distinct look about them and it's one that I happen to find very photograph-able (uh, easy to photograph may be a better word choice? lol). The walls of the buildings are whitewashed and the distillery is always on water. We got a great weather day, too, so I ended up with lots of shots with bold color - whitewashed buildings, lush green grass, and crystal blue water. Here's just a taste of what I mean:

Being on Islay was fun, but we were really looking forward to seeing Skye - we'd heard it was one of the most beautiful places on the planet. If only we'd known how intense the trip would've been, we could have prepared a bit better...

American As, Part Two

I already talked about my time in California, but should I back up a bit and explain how I got to SF to begin with? Yes, I suppose I should. 


I actually decided towards the end of June that I'd come home early. The idea was born with the homesickness that sank in deep after Will left Sydney. I'd been road weary for awhile before then, but with homesickness and seriously dwindled funds added in to the equation, coming home early really wasn't a hard decision to make. ToadMama asked me once when I'd know it was time to come home. I told her that I wasn't sure because I hadn't felt that way yet. But by the end of June, it definitely felt like it was time.


Researching flights is always a good first step to getting home, so I started doing that right away. And remember when I accidentally bought two tickets for the exact same flight, same day and everything? That actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Originally I thought I'd fly back to the US from Auckland, but in a conversation with the Melbourne hostel owner about the ticket snafu, he mentioned that flights to the US were usually cheaper out of Sydney so maybe I could use the Jetstar credit for a flight back to Sydney. I ended up getting a refund and didn't need to do that, but the flight really was cheaper out of Sydney (by about $600), so I decided to go that route anyway.


So, on 29 July I boarded a flight from Auckland to Sydney (leg #1). I left Auckland at 3:30pm and, after a four hour flight, I arrived in Sydney at 5pm where I had a three hour layover. The next flight (leg #2) was 14 hours long and left at 8:30pm meaning I arrived in LA at. . .5:10pm? Yup, 5:10pm and it's still the same day. Another two hour layover (plus a little bit of a delay) and an hour and a half long flight, and I was in San Francisco (leg #3). If you're keeping track, I got to SF less than six hours after I left NZ, but it actually amounted to 24 1/2 hours of travel time. It's good that I'd planned to be in California for a few days because when it came time for my fourth and final leg from SF to BWI, I don't think I could've handled another nine hours of travel time (two hour flight to Phoenix, layover, nearly five hour flight).


Will told me it took about a week for his sleep schedule to be back to normal when he flew back from Sydney, but I must be much more awesome than him because surprisingly enough, I haven't really been experiencing any sort of jet lag. I didn't sleep at all on the first leg and decided to delay sleep as long as possible on the second leg, so I watched two movies and about five episodes of Glee. (Btw, if you have to do a long haul flight and have the chance to fly V Australia, a subsidiary of Virgin, I highly recommend it. The in-flight entertainment is great, the staff were awesome, and the food and snacks were good and plentiful.) I slept for about six hours, but it felt like much less because of the three rows of children sitting opposite me who somehow felt it necessary to be awake and yelling at each other in the middle of the night. Then I woke up, watched five more episodes of Glee, and had breakfast before it was finally time to land in LA. No sleeping on the third leg and I was up for about four hours before going to bed in San Francisco. Do you have any idea how surreal it is to essentially gain an extra day? Sooo surreal.


Anyway, now that I'm back on the east coast, I think jet lag has been a little worse flying from CA to MD than it was NZ to CA. I'm not sleeping at super odd times or anything, but I am going to bed later than I probably should and am feeling sluggish mid-afternoon, early evening. Ah, but that could have more to do with all of the excitement of surprising my friends and family with the news of my early return.

Surprises

Aren't surprises just the best? I knew ages ago that I wanted to keep my return date a secret so that I could surprise my friends and family, but when two different people told me they'd had dreams that I showed up unannounced on their doorstep, it was basically a done deal.


My parents live pretty close to the airport, so I knew it would be easy enough to get a taxi there. Of course, my biggest worry was that I'd get there and they would have picked this week as one of the ones to work remotely from their other house. And, in fact, that's exactly what happened. Luckily, I had a backup plan. Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself. . .


I got to my parents' house and it looked awfully dark. I took a shot at ringing the doorbell anyway, but when the dogs didn't start barking, I knew for sure that they weren't home. I went to let myself in through the garage and, oops!, they'd gotten a new garage door opener AND a new code for it while I was gone. So it was 9:30pm on a Tuesday night, the taxi had just left, I didn't have a cellphone, OR keys. What the heck was I gonna do? I saw that the neighbor's light was on, so I headed over there to ask if he happened to have a spare key. The poor guy had been watching television in his underwear and wasn't exactly expecting the daughter of his neighbors (who he's never officially met) to show up on his doorstep. :-) Once inside, I was fortunate to find that my parents have been keeping my car keys in a logical place, so I grabbed them and headed straight back out to go to my sister's house.


I knew that with three kids and a deployed husband, there was no possible place my sister could be at 10:30 on a Tuesday night other than at home. But as I got closer and closer, a fear crept in that maybe she and the kids were in West Virginia with my parents. What would I do then?! She was home, though, so I didn't really have anything to worry about. Her dog started to bark as soon as he heard me at the door, Amy looked through the peephole, and slooowly opened the door. She told me later that she knew there was a person on the porch, but it wasn't registering who it was. Once the door was open, she started squealing (couldn't wake the kids or neighborhood by yelling!) and asking what I was doing there. She was very surprised and I'm pretty sure I saw her eyes welling up. ;-) We spent a few hours catching up and I went to bed knowing that I'd get to surprise my niece and nephews the next morning.


The kids were sleepy for their surprise. They kind of looked at me and blinked a few times like, "Huh? What's Aunt Shannon doing here?" But in no time at all they were climbing all over me and asking questions and telling stories. It was like I hadn't even left at all. The best, though, was when it was time for them to go to daycare and my three year old nephew, with all seriousness said to me, "Aunt Shannon, you STAY here, ok? Stay here." It was as if he thought I was going to disappear again and he wouldn't see me for a long time. So sweet.


Next up on my surprise list was my grandmother. She wasn't at home when I got to her house and that was when I seriously started to reconsider the whole concept of showing up unannounced. Good for me, though, she showed up literally just a minute later. As she was backing into her parking space, she glanced over and saw my car. I drive a Smart car and they're not very common, so I know she was thinking hey, I know that car. She kept staring at the car and at me as she continued to park until finally I saw the lightbulb go off in her head as she realized it was me in the car. No sooner had she put the car in park, Grandma was all but out of the car and running my way. She was asking me when did I get home and what I was doing home so soon and did my father know? I spent a few hours with Grandma catching up and gabbing before I had to head to my second surprise spot of the day.


I've known my best friend Laura for almost ten years and I knew I could expect a good reaction out of her. She didn't disappoint. :-) Her husband answered the door because she was in the other room with the baby. We were chatting as we walked in, but Laura didn't hear a thing. He asked her to come into the kitchen because he wanted to show her something and she answered him in an exasperated kind of way as she came into the room with one-year-old Ruby. Ruby was walking in front of her and Laura was looking down. When she looked up and saw I was standing there, she literally jumped over her baby and came running over to me, screaming. Many hours later, we were somewhat caught up, but still have heaps to talk about, as it usually is with old friends.


Finally, the big surprise. My sister had found out that my parents were intending on returning home on Saturday night or Sunday morning, so I figured I'd stay at their house Saturday night and just wait for them. I wanted to get their reaction on video and was keeping an ear out to hear the garage door open. But. . .I didn't hear it, it's SO quiet! So they ended up surprising me almost as much as I surprised them. :-) Kathy came in first, wondering why Eric (my brother who doesn't live at home anymore) would be there watching tv. She looked pretty surprised and wanted to make sure that Dad was just as surprised so she may have spoken to him a bit gruffly, lol, as he was unpacking the truck in the garage. Dad was so shocked that his eyes may have started to leak a little. I had started to worry that maybe they were picking up on my clues, but they really had no idea. They really thought I was still in New Zealand! We spent the next four hours or so talking. I told them all about how I'd planned to trick them and they told me what a brat I was. :-D Our first night all together and we were already hanging out around the kitchen island!


The surprises are all done now, now it's more about catching up with people and letting them know that I'm back. That will be just as much fun, though. 

American As, Part One

Did you pick up on the clues and vagueness? Most people who need to know already know by now that I am back in the States since I surprised them with the news in person. I arrived in Maryland on the evening of 3 August, but I got to the States on 29 July and spent a few days in San Francisco before heading east.


I couldn't tell anyone that I was going to be in San Fran because I knew they'd rightly assume that I'd be home sooner rather than later. So only two people knew anything ahead of time: V (because she lives in upstate NY and I knew I wouldn't be able to just pop in on her as a surprise) and Will (because he lives there and kind of needed the heads up). Although Will's only been there for about a month, I left the planning up to him because I was a ball of stress (and excitement!) like you wouldn't believe. He'd email me every now and then asking how I felt about a particular sight or activity, but that's about it.

So Will picked me up from the airport and proceeded to tell me that he'd planned an all-American Welcome-Home-to-the-US weekend. Awesome! On Friday we headed to Great America in Santa Clara for some amusement and water park fun. (The first picture I posted the other day was of the oddly Australian themed water park, Boomerang Bay. Sneaky, eh?) That night we drove to Santa Cruz and hit the boardwalk. It was a typical, mid-size city's boardwalk complete with carnival style rides, corn dogs, popcorn, and arcade games. Originally Will wanted us to go to the beach in Santa Cruz on Saturday, but we both ended up getting more sun at the amusement park than we'd bargained for. Instead we opted for a movie and hours at a bookstore, plus just some general laying around laziness.


By Sunday we finally made it to San Fran. The American-ness of the weekend continued with a baseball game at AT&T Park, SF Giants vs. LA Dodgers. We had excellent seats 11 rows back from the field. But guess what? It's pretty chilly in San Francisco, even on the first day of August! We were wearing jeans and hoodies and it still wasn't enough. The Giants ended up beating LA which also meant that they swept them in the series, so the fans were in good moods despite the weather (although, I'm sure they're used to it and it was just us having a hard time grasping that we were watching baseball in August and were cold doing it).

(Before we had to put on the hoodies)

Will had to go back to work on Monday, so I was on my own for the day. I went to Chinatown and Union Square, and got photos of cable cars and crazy steep San Fran streets, but I was feeling particularly low energy and only spent a couple of hours out and about before deciding to head back to the hostel to take it easy while I waited for Will to get out of work. He returned around 3:30pm and the plan was to hit a bunch of tourist spots since it was my last night in town. First up was pictures of Alcatraz from the top of one of those crazy steep streets. Then it was Fisherman's Wharf and the resident seals. We wandered into an old timey arcade and then went to Joe's Crab Shack for beers and crab nachos (which were actually a lot better than I expected). After stopping to take a picture that ToadMama would love (and a few others, too, for good measure), we headed to Lombard St., the world's crookedest street, having eight switchback turns in a single block. To round out and wrap up the day, we planned to park the car nearby and walk over the Golden Gate Bridge. And here's the big secret that you may or may not know about San Francisco and it's most famous bridge: it's usually completely covered in fog. It's true, it is. We actually got to a spot where Will pointed and said "there's the bridge" and I literally couldn't see even an outline of what might be a bridge. I figured it was getting late, we'd seen enough for the day, and I could always return to Cali to see the GGB another time.


That's pretty much my time in California in a nutshell and I think Will did a good job of making it "all-American." I told him jokingly that the only thing missing was apple pie. :-)

If you happen to be wondering about the logistics of the travel and how I managed to keep it all a secret, well, stay tuned for American As, Part Two.