Author Archives: lisablackwell

Final Thoughts on our Trip to the Arctic

Posted on June 16, 2024 by lisablackwell

I love warm weather and sunshine.  I don’t like going into a pool or a lake or an ocean unless it’s around 85 degrees.  You can imagine Brad’s surprise when I said one morning, “I think we should go on an expedition to the Arctic!!”  Once I put it out there, the whole idea of the trip began to intrigue both of us.  We signed up to go on a National Geographic ship that went around Svalbard, far north of the Arctic Circle. Brad loved the idea because the trip had a focus on photography and it gave him a chance/excuse to upgrade his camera so he could learn with the best.  I threw in a few days of travel to Copenhagen and Oslo so we could see some new Scandinavian countries and experience new cultures.

After a long shopping trip to REI where we bought a pile of base layers and waterproof everything, we were ready to head to the Arctic.  We really didn’t quite know what to expect but went with eager anticipation and a willingness to learn about Svalbard!

Here are a few of our reflections on the voyage:

Experiencing the Wonder of the National Geographic Resolution:  We were on the Nat. Geo.  Resolution with about 130 of our fellow expedition travelers for seven days.    The vessel was a next-generation expedition ship designed for polar ice exploration and it was beautiful.  We were NOT on a cruise ship with a set schedule of events.   We went exploring looking for wildlife and ice and what we did each day depended on the weather, the wind, the ice, and the conditions on land.  The Captain changed his navigation frequently due to weather conditions.  We were the only ship in the areas we explored for virtually the entire trip.  

Our ship mates on the Resolution
Resolution on Ice

A Typical Day on the ship — there were no Typical Days on the ship: 

An example of a typical day started with a 7:00 am cheery wake-up call letting us know what “operation” we were trying to do that morning.  An “operation” could be a zodiac trip, a hike, or kayaking.  Our leader would then give us an approximate time that we might get to go ashore.  The reason that it was approximate was because the staff had to go on shore first-equipped with guns and search for polar bears before they would take 130 people to shore (Despite their cute appearance, polar bears are quite dangerous). They also made sure the conditions weren’t too icy or muddy.  We did have a few episodes with people getting stuck in the mud up to their thighs  (the mud was like quick -sand) and they were hoping to avoid any future mud-sucking events.  Of course, there was always a wonderful breakfast waiting for us as we waited to hear about our morning.  Some days things went as planned and other days we made other arrangements.  We all had to be flexible because as soon as we found out an operation was going to happen, we had to put on all of our layers  (I wore a LOT of layers as I was channeling my inner Mary Frandsen on a chilly day playing golf), our binoculars, our life jackets, and head to Base Camp to go out on a Zodiac.  We did a lot of clothes-changing in the week on the trip but we got good at it by the end.

A guide keeping a lookout for Polar Bears
Getting ready to go out onto a zodiac in Base Camp

After our morning “operation”, we would have a delicious lunch.  One day we even had a barbecue and people could sit outside on the deck of the ship!  Post-lunch, we would find about a new operation in a new location.  Again, flexibility was the key.  Sometimes the excursions happened  as planned and sometimes they didn’t.

Inside the ship in one of the dining areas

In the evenings, we had cocktail hours, a recap of the day, some great photographs of the day by the Nat Geo Photographers, trivia night, or a Polar Bear Party.  They even had a seven course meal with wine pairings that we attended with a small group.  The ship food and service were beyond our expectations!  We enjoyed our fellow travelers immensely who all had a sense of adventure and openness to learning.  

Fancy food at our seven course meal
Don’t think I’ll be making this back home!
Fun at the Polar Bear Party

Excitement on the Bridge: When we weren’t dressing or undressing to go outside, Brad and I loved to hang out at the bridge.  The bridge was where the action happened and the Captain navigated the ship.  The fun days, of course, were when we spotted polar bears or were going through ice.  It was a fascinating place to experience ship life.  We traveled 1200 miles on our voyage and even made it to 80 degrees north.  Look it up. That’s very, very far north.

Our Captain showing us where we were when we hit 80 degrees North

Yes, A Bird Lecture can be Funny:   We loved the lectures and went to them all.  The naturalists on birds made every topic interesting and entertaining.  Who knew you could laugh so much at a bird lecture by Javier or learn all of the secrets of the iPhone camera with Bryan or see amazing underwater sea life by Annie?  Nat Geo. Ships use their platform to educate the public about all things wildlife but also on the serious issue of global warming.  Those lectures were very enlightening and sobering.

Our very intelligent, impassioned naturalists, guides, and photographers

Polar Bears are getting more and more rare to find:  Polar Bears are not as easy to spot as we thought when we signed up for the trip.  Their numbers are decreasing annually due to melting icescapes and the ships are not allowed to get close to the fast ice.  We were very lucky to see that mama and her cubs. It doesn’t happen on every expedition.  Normally, they see a lot of “pixel” bears that you can only see through a strong binocular or very large camera lens.

Polar Bears have now become a vulnerable species due to melting sea ice

Polar Plunge:  One afternoon the brave and hearty in the group were invited to do a Polar Plunge in the frigid waters of the Arctic.  I think the water was about 31 degrees Fahrenheit.  Brad joyfully went down to take his turn while I happily went to the fifth deck to photograph him and cheer him on with the other sane people.  (Reference the part about 85 degree water in the first paragraph.)  There was lots of cheering and whooping-it-up and shot-taking with the Polar Plunge Party.  The patch Brad received was certainly warranted.

Brad jumping in to 31 degree weather
Brad celebrating with a fellow polar plunger!

Life Without a Sunrise or Sunset:  Never seeing a sunset or  sunrise really messes with your biorhythms.  The sun has not been setting since April 19 and will not set again until August 21.  Being out at 11:00 pm in a zodiac with bright light is something that is hard to get used to.  On the flip side, the  2700 residents who live  in Longyearbyen  year-round have complete darkness (and frigid temps) from Oct.19-to mid-February.  No sunlight  at all ever during that time.  Not sure how they do it but we met many young people who love living there and studying at the University Centre of Svalbard.

Land of the Midnight Sun

Go Now:  An Arctic Expedition may not be for everyone but if you are considering it, plan your trip now in 2024.  New regulations will take effect in 2025 that will make it even harder to get close to the polar bears.  The regulations will also only allow about 40 people on shore per operation to do hikes.  That regulation would have greatly impacted our ability to all get out on the islands as well as would have slowed down the trip dramatically.  Nat Geo ships are stewards of the environment but sadly not all ships are so careful and have been disturbing the polar bears and getting too close to them hence the new regulations.

Nat Geo Ships:  I can’t say enough good things about  Nat Geo Ships and am already looking at where we can go in a couple of years.  Their mission is to teach their passengers about the environment, wildlife, geology, photography, and, of course, global warming.  We came home a lot more educated and aware of the Arctic landscape.  The ship was luxurious in a very under-stated way.  There are no kaoroke bars or all-night buffets or limbo dancing!  There is simply fantastic service and really, really smart people on board.  (Big thanks to smiling Adrian, who always greeted me at cocktail hour with my glass of chardonnay!  It’s the little things).  There was no need for the Dramamine we brought or any of the motion sickness pills or patches.  The ride was smooth (except for the ice-breaking earthquakes) and we slept like babies every night as we were gently rocked to sleep.

Our Seven Day Voyage

Home:  As the saying goes there is no place like home. We are looking forward to getting home to see the dogs and the grandkids and family but also I can’t wait to see a sunset and a sunrise again and feel the warmth of a summer day!  Life in the Far North was fascinating  and we will miss our fun, adventurous traveling companions but it’s time to celebrate summer back home!

Made it home in time for Father’s Day!!
Categories: Arctic, Norway, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Copenhagen: The Land of Almost Nearly Perfect People

Posted on June 5, 2024 by lisablackwell

We have never been to any of the Scandinavian countries. We decided, by seeing other people’s photos, watching the show the “Bear” that featured Copenhagen, and knowing that we enjoy good food and wine, that Copenhagen was top on our list.  My friend, Joan Stucka, sent me a book by Michael Booth about Scandinavia entitled “The Almost Nearly Perfect People” and it certainly had us intrigued.  Denmark has been named the Happiest Place in the World. Oprah even came to visit and agreed that the Danes were surely the world’s happiest. We were ready to go to Copenhagen and share in some of this happiness for 72 hours.

Although the weighty job of judging world-beating happiness in just three days is impossible, I will say the city is extremely vibrant, young, clean, and just plain contagious.  We arrived on a beautiful, warm sunny Sunday afternoon and the place was bursting with people enjoying the sunshine.  The famous canals and waterways were packed full of boats. People were swimming and sunning themselves.  Every café was filled to the brim along Nyhavn, a popular street full of colorful buildings and a variety of restaurants.  Jet lag was no longer a possibility with all of this energy around us.  We walked the famous shopping area, The Stroget and began to enjoy the vibrancy of Copenhagen.

Nyhaven Street. A historic area full of open air restaurants, colorful buildings, and old sailing vessels.
A beautiful day on the canals — pleasure craft on the water, cyclists on the bridge, and sunbathers on the shore.

In the following three days, we learned a lot about Copenhagen’s history through a wonderful Old Town city and food tour and a boat trip out on the canals and waterways.  We took to the streets on our bikes and worked our way to the famed Little Mermaid statue (Copenhagen was the home of Hans Christian Anderson), and saw the current palace of the monarchy.  We figured out the subway and train system and went out to the Lousiana Art Museum in Humlebaek (Thanks to our friend Shelley Freeman who gave us the recommendation). We ate lots of open-faced sandwiches (smorrebrod) and dined on outstanding Danish-inspired French Cuisine.

The famous Little Mermaid statue. Hans Cristian Andersen, who wrote the fairy tale, was from Copenhagen.
A sculpture from the Louisiana Art Museum about 30 miles north of Copenhagen. We could see Sweden across the strait.
An upscale, modern take on smorrebrod, the traditional open-faced sandwiches of Denmark. These featured herring, beets, and cheese foam. All were delicious.
A more traditional display of smorrebrod.

After pondering the question of happiness, talking to as many people as we could and reading Michael Booth’s book, here is what we came up with:

— The Danish people seem to be a very content group.  The live in a society that values income equality.  There are very few people at the top or at the bottom of the income spectrum.  They have free quality education and health care and take good care of their senior citizens and their pre-schoolers.

— The Danes trust each other and their politicians.  We were there during a run-up to an election and there must have been about ten different political groups represented.  Apparently, they get together as a coalition and represent the wills of the people so there is little divisiveness between parties.  They certainly are not envious of America’s current situation.

There were posters all over the city for the upcoming election to represent Denmark in the European Parliament.

— The Danes love their Royal Family.  They feel that they are one of them and they are often seen in public (The King even sponsors – and runs in – a half marathon).  Their children even go to public schools. The Danish Queen, Queen Margrethe abdicated her throne in January of 2024 to let her son Frederik become King; an act that astonished the people because she was so beloved.  King Frederik is known to be a man of the people and even met his wife Mary at a bar in Australia rather than some arranged affair.

The Amalienborg Palace, the royal residence.
We rode our bikes over to the palace.

— The Danes pay a lot of money in taxes — up to 72%.  That means they work until Thursday before they earn their own money.  Amazingly, they seem to do it without complaining because it helps give them all a high standard of living.  90% of Danes can be considered middle class.  And, no one can cheat and pay less on their taxes like in other countries.

— The Danes love their bicycles. The streets are full of hundreds of bikes at all times!  60% of Copenhagen people ride their bikes to and from work.  There are a couple of reasons for that statistic.  There are bike lanes everywhere so it makes cyclists safer on the roads.  But most likely the main reason is that cars are taxed at 100% so owning a car is a very expensive proposition.

There are more bikes than cars on the road.
There are many of these contraptions out and about. Moms and Dads taking their kids along.
Entire parking lots of bikes were everywhere.

— Danes are very social and love being involved in clubs and groups of all kinds.  We saw many running clubs while we were walking around the city.  Apparently there are clubs for everyone and every interest.  The saying is that a Dane will go to a party and within eight minutes figure out three degrees of separation with everyone at the gathering.  Forget Kevin Bacon’s six degrees of separation.  They only need three!  Our boat tour was called a social sailing trip with the main objective of getting to know each other and share in experiences rather than simply hearing a lecture about history.

I think the answer is B but our captain says it’s C.
Our captain showing us the ski slope built into the recycling plant seen in the background.

— Recycling, electric cars, and environmental measures are very important to the Danes.  We saw nearly as many electric cars as gas-powered ones and the government is very proactive when it comes to the environment.  Their trains and subways are clean and efficient and a very popular way to commute.

— Sadly, they smoke a lot and they smoke at restaurants outdoors.  Our one big complaint. Apparently the Danish tobacco industry has a grip on its population.

— Their language is impossible to translate for Americans but everyone speaks English so it is easy to get information.  They have added three extra letters to their alphabet to make it even more confusing.

OK, we know what you’re thinking. But, this translates to “Your Speed.”

— If you are into Legos, the company started in Denmark in 1932. The word lego means, play well. They have the original Legoland about three hours out of the city! Our hotel had a replica in their lobby made completely out of Legos.

Our hotel, the Hotel D’Angleterre
It’s Lego replica in the lobby.

Copenhagen ended up on the very top of our list of favorite places to visit.  The city is walkable and bikeable, the people are vibrant, and there are no safety concerns, and it is a culinary paradise. We loved our 72 hours in this beautiful country.

Chocolate is readily available.
Another source of happiness in Denmark — the danish.
Lisa getting ready to enjoy our giant grilled artichoke.
The Danes love licorice. Here is a whole wall full of various licorice candies.
No place is Denmark is more than 32 miles from the coast. So fish is a staple of the Danish diet. This monkfish is ugly, but tastes delicious.
And, it’s pretty easy to find herring. This sign reminded me of the Forrest Gump scene about shrimp.
Categories: Denmark, Scandinavia, Travel | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lisa’s Light-Hearted Lasting Impressions of Japan

Posted on September 18, 2023 by lisablackwell
  1. The polite people. The people of Japan are lovely and extremely polite. Every good-bye, whether in a store or a hotel, involves many thank yous and much bowing and waving. Purchasing an item at a retail store feels like a privilege and a bit of a ritual. There is no rushing through the transaction. Every item is inspected and wrapped. Your credit card is taken and returned with two hands and a bow. The shopkeeper will walk you to the door and bow and wave until you are no longer in view. The same thing happens when you leave a hotel or simply ask where the bathroom is. There is no pointing. You will be escorted and they will watch you go in to the facilities with a wave and a bow!
This lovely owner of a Sushi restaurant followed us out to our taxi with bows and thank you’s and gifts!
  • The cleanliness. We never saw trash on the city streets of Tokyo or the village of Hakone. We also saw very few trash receptacles. People are expected to bring a bag and take their trash back home with them. There is an elaborate recycling schedule. Here is a picture of what to separate and when each item is picked up. I am not sure how they sort each item and where they keep it in their apartments and small houses but I understand that everyone follows the recycling rules. Also, there are many signs asking you not to eat and drink while walking. It would be very bad form if you do!
  • The bathrooms.  Speaking of cleanliness, the bathrooms are unbelievable.  Even the public bathrooms have fancy ToTo washlets.  We haven’t flushed a toilet in two weeks!  The washlets do it for us.  Also, there are again very many rules on how to use the toilets and what to do while in the bathroom in case you are new to the washlet situation.
One of the many signs to show us how to use a toilet
All bathrooms public and private had fancy ToTo Washlets (I even think I heard birds chirping with one!)
  • The heat and humidity. We now understand why the Japanese use fans so much. It was HOT and HUMID the whole time we were in Japan. It’s not a lot of fun but the fans do make it more pleasant. I still don’t understand how the women of Kyoto wear the multi-layered Kimonos with all that heat!
So Many Layers in 90 Degree Heat!
  • Lost in Translation Moments. Although Japan is an easy country to travel to and there is a lot of English on signs and in restaurants (and also there is Google Translate), we still had a few moments where we fumbled our understanding. One instance was our last night in Tokyo when Brad and Elizabeth ordered a very nice glass of red wine only to find out that they only got 2 ounces. Elizabeth thought it was just for tasting the wine and was a little surprised to find out that was her entire and quite expensive pour!
That’s a very big glass for such a small pour!

One of the members of our group was being fitted for his kimono in his room and had on gym shorts. The seamstress asked him to take off his shorts because she didn’t want the extra material to show. He asked several times if she wanted him to take them off right there in the room. She said yes. He obliged. Upon doing so, the seamstress let out a surprised shreak! I guess he should have changed in the bathroom after all!

  • Japanese Children. Japanese children are quite an independent lot. They walk themselves to and from school beginning in Kindergarten without their parents. If they need to take a bus or a train, they do that by themselves as well. Our guide said it is safe because all of the adults on the train look after the children. Japanese children also spend a lot of their time at school. They typically go six or seven days a week. They take classes from about 8:30-3:30, take their chosen club (baseball, science, music) from 3:30-5:30 and then have homework from 5:30-7:30. Rinse and repeat at least six days a week. The process for getting into pre-schools, day cares, and regular public school is also an intense one with a rating system and only one time per year to apply. Sounds worse than college applications in the U.S.!
Some Japanese boys hamming it up on a school field trip.
Japanese girls were dressed in kimonos on their field trip.
  • Karaoke is really a hoot especially with a king-sized beer and a private room.  The private room was key with my brother joining us!
“Sing Us A Song, You’re the Piano Man!” Karaoke in Tokyo was a blast.
  • Everything else is so quiet. We never heard a horn honk in Tokyo. In most restaurants there was barely a hush and many people are very soft talkers. Apparently, it is ill-mannered to talk on the subway. We only got in trouble once as a group for talking too loud and we didn’t even think we were loud at all. Americans as a culture are much louder and messier. (See Point #2)
  • Less than 1% of Japanese people own a gun.  Those who own a gun use it for shooting wild boar.  In the entire country of Japan with a population of 126 million, there were only 10 shootings last year.  Most of those were hunting accidents.  I’m just going to leave that right there.
  • The time change is confusing. We were sixteen hours ahead of our home in Danville. One of us watched sports at 1:00 am to see his beloved Buffs. Sunday Football is on Monday morning. We were finishing our last glass of wine when most of our friends and family were enjoying their morning coffee. We were always a day ahead of Brenda and Chris Dittmore in Wordle! If only we could also see into the future with the stock market, too. We lost a day coming here and currently our Monday is going to last 40 hours. We leave at 5:00 PM Monday, the 18th in Tokyo and arrive at 10:25 AM Monday, the 18th in San Francisco. Back to the Future or something like that!
  • Watch Your Head. If you are over about 5’8″, you might come back with some bumps and bruises on your head. Ryokans — Japanese Inns are especially problematic for tall people. I could make it through the doors, Brad could not. Learning to sit on the floor to eat is also a bit of a challenge. Practice before you arrive by doing some stretching and yoga.

And one final thing, by all means travel to Asia if you get a chance! Don’t put off the opportunity if you are given it. If you do come to Japan, remember to pack a lot of black clothes (the standard color in Tokyo) , don’t eat or drink on the streets, speak softly, learn how to use your chop sticks, eat all the food even if you don’t know what you are eating, sing your heart out in Karoake, bring a fan, never litter, embrace Eastern culture and temples and shrines, and leave with a new way of seeing the World!

Categories: Asia, Japan, Travel | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

We Left Our Hearts in Kyoto, Japan

Posted on September 12, 2023 by lisablackwell

Although we were only in Kyoto for three days, the city captured our hearts and spirit. With hundreds of temples and shrines located in the city, sometimes with retail shops or condos built up around them, it is hard not to feel a little spiritual as you walk around the quaint, picturesque streets.

A quaint little street in the Gion District of Kyoto.

Before we talk about our last day of adventures, let’s talk about Japanese Cuisine. We have had it all and probably way too much of it. Each meal is multiple courses served on exquisite ceramic plates and bowls…so many small bowls! So far, we have had sushi, ramen, robotayaki, tempura, yakitori, teppanyaki, and most recently kaiseki. Our Kaiseki meal in Kyoto was like nothing we have ever had before. It was about ten courses but we lost count after course number seven or so. Kaiseki is a type of art form that balances the taste, texture, appearance, and colors of food. We had our own chef who artfully arranged and garnished each dish with leaves and flowers and interesting sauces. We had an animated conversation with a cute Italian couple next to us which made the two hours of dining fly by!

The first course in our Kaiseki meal.
The Kaiseki version of fried fish.

On our last day, we visited a magnificent Buddhist temple and gardens at the Tenryuji Temple in Arashiyama. The gardens, constructed by hand 800 years ago, are beautiful and apparently breath-taking (and crowded) when the maple trees turn in the Fall.

The Sogen Pond in the Tenryuji Garden.
Mugging in front of the Sogen Pond.

We did a little shopping and found some Washi-traditional Japanese paper-for our good friend Dana. She put in a little special request as she makes her own note cards and prints. We hope we got the right kind but it was a fascinating shopping experience looking at all the different kind of paper.

After shopping, we headed to our rickshaw (as one does) and headed into the Bamboo Forest. Our guide had been doing his job for 26 years and said he goes last because he is now the slowest. We did not find him slow at all and felt quite guilty about eating all that extra Japanese food as he had to pull us up hills into a spectacular bamboo forest. He was very proud of his city and he pointed out interesting landmarks and encouraged us to come back to visit and see some lesser-known temples and gardens.

Lisa and our rickshaw driver. We loved him.
Two of our tour companions in their rickshaw.
Riding through the bamboo forest.
Us with our driver at the end of the ride.

The big event of the day was getting fit into and dressed into our own kimonos. Oh my! What a process. There are at least four layers of clothing for the women and each layer is pulled very tightly. I now know what corsets used to feel like in the Victorian era. Brad also had about three layers in his kimono so he also got dressed and tugged and tightened and layered. We now have appreciation for all of the people we have seen wearing kimonos in Kyoto. It must take them at least an hour to get ready every day and I have no idea how you would get into one if you were by yourself.

Putting on the base layers of the kimono.
Putting on the outside layer.
Adding one of four belts. Why four? Who knows.
Putting on the finishing touches.
Brad’s was simpler to put on but still required many layers.
The finished product.

Walking is an adventure unto itself. Because the skirt is so tight and the shoes are small, you have to take very small baby steps and be careful going up and down stairs.

Dressed in our Kimonos, we headed to the Gesshi-in Temple for a Zen Meditation session. We learned that some of the monks actually meditate for 18 hours per day in a nearby temple. We were only doing a ten-minute session—the American version I suspect. He instructed us not to slouch and to breathe deeply for our meditation. Believe me, it is not possible to slouch in a kimono. Breathing deeply is another story and forget about eating. No wonder the Japanese women are so small.

Our Zen Master.

After we had our moment of Zen, we participated in and learned about a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. Tea is very closely tied to Zen as the man who brought Zen to Japan hundreds of years ago also brought green tea. The macha tea was delicious and we enjoyed the serenity of it all.

Our host for a traditional tea ceremony.

Off to dinner where we walked slowly taking baby steps along the path. We were treated to a special ceremony by two geikos (which is geisha in Kyoto dialect) and a maiko (a young apprentice). In the 1920’s there were over 80,000 geisha. Now there are a little over 200 women. A girl can choose to enter an Okiya — a school to develop Geisha — as soon as she graduates middle school. She makes the decision herself but must get her parents’ permission. The Okiya is a boarding school that teaches these girls everything the need to know about being a Geisha — music, dance, puppetry, the art of conversation, etc. The maiko are not allowed to have any social media, cell phones or internet connectivity while they are learning the trade. They go each morning to a chalkboard where they find out their schedule for the day. They then go to those classes. Imagine your 15-year-old daughter doing this. While it is their own choice and they must have their parents’ permission, it is still a daunting challenge for a young girl.

The chalkboard showing the Maiko what classes they have that day.

A typical day involves classes from 9:00 am- 2:00 pm, followed by makeup, dressing into beautiful kimonos, and hair prep for the evening, and then going out every night to entertain groups from about 6:00 until Midnight. Geisha work almost exclusively at traditional inns, teahouses, and restaurants. Contrary to common perceptions about Geisha, they only engage in proper activities. The fee for the Geisha’s time is sent at the end of each month (apparently they never charge the same amount) in the form of a “Love Letter.” I am not sure I consider our PG&E invoices love letters but maybe it’s a new way of thinking about monthly bills. One more thing, the Geiko and Maiko only get two days off per month. They are hard working women!

A young Maiko (apprentice) dancing for us.
A Geiko (full geisha) dancing for us.

We loved Kyoto and would highly recommend spending time here if you are ever traveling to Japan. It is the center of Japanese culture and a necessary stop to fully gain an appreciation for the rich history of this country. We are currently back on our very efficient, comfortable bullet train to the mountain town of Hakone where we will be staying in a ryokan — a traditional Japanese inn — and we might even get a little time to relax in an onsen hot spring.

Our bullet train arriving to take us to Hakone.
Categories: Asia, Japan, Travel | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

KYOTO: Land of Shrines, Temples, Kimonos, and Geisha

Posted on September 10, 2023 by lisablackwell

On Saturday (Sept 9th), we took the Bullet Train to Kyoto. What an efficient, clean way to travel! The Bullet Train or Shinkansen has a speed of approximately 200 MPH and got us to Kyoto in 2 ½ hours. In the 50-plus-year history of the Bullet Train, there has not been a single passenger fatality or injury due to derailments or collisions. Equally impressive, the Bullet Train has carried over 10 Billion Passengers and in the most recent reporting the average delay from the schedule per train was only 24 seconds. I think BART could learn a thing or two about how the Bullet Town operates!

Tokyo’s Toikaido Station is bustling. Think Grand Central in New York.
Getting ready to board our Bullet Train to Kyoto.

A little bit about Kyoto before we talk about our first day. Kyoto is a metropolis of approximately two million people and is considered the cultural capital of Japan. It has over 2000 religious places-1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto Shrines, many of them dating back to the 700 and 800’s. An interesting fact about Kyoto was that it was originally on the list to be targeted for the atomic bomb in 1945 but at the insistence of the Secretary of War Henry Stinson, Kyoto was removed from the list. Henry had honeymooned in Kyoto and loved the place for its history and charm and saved it from the Atomic Bomb. It is the reason that, unlike Tokyo that suffered severe bombing in the war, Kyoto still has many ancient cultural landmarks.

Kyoto seems very rich in culture and heritage.  We walked around the narrow streets and saw many women and men exquisitely dressed in kimonos even in the 90 degree temperatures!  According to our guide Bret, the people of Kyoto also have an air about them.  He told us that in Japanese culture, the hosts will serve green tea at the end of a party or gathering to signify that the evening is over and it’s time for the guests to go home.  In Kyoto, the hosts serve green tea when their guests first walk through the door!

A woman in a kimono on a street in the Gion District.
Homes on a creek running through the Gion District.
A girl in a kimono walking with her friend in modern clothing.

This morning we got up bright and early at 6:00 am to see the Torii Gates at Fushimi Inari-taisha. (Brad didn’t get much sleep last night because, of course, he watched his beloved Colorado Buffaloes beat Nebraska at 1:00 am in the morning here. Did you expect anything differently from him?) The 10,000 Torii Gates and the shrine(s) are one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of Japan. Hence our guide insisted that we get there to enjoy the area before all of the thousands of tourists descended upon it. The shrine was founded in the year 711 and the temple gates are the oldest in Japan. Their Vermilion color wards off evil spirits and represents the sun. The gates were truly a sight to be seen and we climbed up through about 2000 of them feeling like our sins had been absolved and our dreams and wishes might someday come true. Truly it was a spiritual place made even lovelier at dawn.

The entrance to the shrine.
The Torii gates.
The writing signifies the person or company that sponsors that gate.
A row of lanterns on the grounds of the shrine.
This fox guards the entrance to the shrine. The fox is holding a key — the key to success.
Front view of the shrine.

The rest of our day was spent at SanJusangendo (a Zen Buddhist Temple) and walking around a beautiful Zen Garden at Totofukuji temple. The SanJusangendo temple is famous for its 1001 Thousand-Armed Kannon Statues (Yes, they are supposed to have 1000 arms each but, I think they only depicted about 20 or so on the statues.) We weren’t allowed to take pictures in the Temple so this stock photo will have to do so you get an idea of how amazing this Temple was. The Zen Garden was just that…very Zen-like. It was built in the 1300’s and is a typical rock and sand garden. The monks at the temple groom the garden every seven-ten days and it takes about seven or eight hours. I am still very curious as to how they keep the circles and lines so perfect without a single footprint or line out of place. Can someone explain that to me?

The 1001 statues in the Buddhist Temple. This is a photo from our brochure. It is prohibited and very bad luck to take photos inside the temple.
The Zen garden.

We met together for lunch at an amazing Ramen restaurant in downtown Kyoto and then got very creative at a Roketsu dyeing studio. We learned the ancient art of wax-resistant art at a hands-on studio. The whole process can take up to 20 steps for completion although I think our group might have skipped a few steps in order to make it home in time for “happy hour.” We all picked out different stencils and then painted/traced our stencil onto fabric with wax. It was very important to put a LOT of wax on your fabric so we kept having to brush our paintings over and over. We were worried that our prints would look like one big blob but the helpful people in the studio coached us along the way. (Although the older grandmother giggled and laughed a lot at us and probably made a few disparaging remarks in Japanese about our lack of talent!) After we painted the wax on our fabrics, they were all placed in a large tub of indigo dye and soaked and poked a lot. Lots of rinses and different things happened next but we were all left with beautiful pieces of art and we ooohed and ahhhhed a lot about what amazing artists we were. (Although I am sure the Grandmother didn’t really think so!)

The stencil for Brad’s tapestry.
Painting the wax onto my art piece.
All dressed up to help with the dyeing process.
Brad’s finished product.
Proudly showing off our new tapestries. We’ll hang them in Boulder.

So…that’s it for our first 24 hours in Kyoto.  Tomorrow we’ll spend some time learning more about the geishas and the geisha culture here in Kyoto.  I thought I knew a little bit about the culture after reading “Memoirs of a Geisha” a while back but have found out that only about 80% of what was in that book was accurate.  And to make things worse, the Japanese hate that novel for its inaccurate depiction of a Geisha!  I hope to be enlightened tomorrow

Categories: Japan, Travel | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments

This Time It Was All About the Destination and Not the Journey

Posted on June 24, 2023 by lisablackwell

We Made it!

Most of our trips in the Winona Rider involve an amount of adventure and seeing new things while we take our time along the road.  This was not that kind of trip (See our previous blog).  Due to an inconsistent sensor in the van that kept us guessing, we just kept driving and focusing on the destination of Winona Lake.  I guess the Winona Rider really wanted to get back to the lake.

 After leaving the comfort of our condo in Boulder, we headed out to Ogallala, Nebraska.  We stayed at a cute brewery called Second Chapter.  The brewery is located in a 1927 building that had previously been the Goodall City Library.  The people at the brewery were very friendly and we enjoyed a Beer Sampler with creative names like the Witty Librarian, Trashy Romance, Czeched Out, Overdue Oatmeal Porter.  The book geek in me loved the names as much as the beer.  We walked the small town, enjoyed a local coffee shop in the morning, and felt pretty good about our chances of making it to Winona.  The starts warning had actually stopped beeping at us that day and we were feeling good!

Brewing beer inside an historic library.
Fun Beer Tasting at the Brewery
Faux Ogallala Sunset with the Dogs

We left the next morning and, no sooner than we had settled in, our Starts Warning began counting down and beeping at us again.  We went to nine and then, after a lunch and gas stop, to eight. Uh oh.  Time to regroup once more , reschedule our plans and get to Winona as soon as we could.  We added three extra hours to our day and camped out in a nice RV Park in Des Moines Iowa.  We have a lot of friends in Des Moines and would have liked to see them.  But, this was no time for using up our starts. The RV park was in the country so no trucks whizzing by this time.  Our minds were just on driving and getting to our destination at this point.

Des Moines Sunset

We had an eight-hour drive from Des Moines to Winona with the addition of Chicago traffic but we listened to a fun audio book called “Guncle” and kept focused on the destination.  On the way to Winona, the sensor messed with us again and went back up to 10 and then 16.  Whew. Clearly, this device does not know that I like to plan things years in advance and am very tried by not knowing what the next two hours will look like.  Definitely a lesson of living in the moment!

We arrived in Winona at 7:00 PM, high-fived and let out a big sigh of relief!  My poor husband also had to suffer with having a very challenging, nasty virus called the Adenovirus during our week.  The grandkids all had it before we left and as fate would have it, Brad got it half-way through the trip.  His throat was so swollen by the last day, he couldn’t talk.  I have never spent a day with Brad in my whole married life where he didn’t talk and tell me “interesting” facts and make his infamous eye-rolling puns (Editor’s note: They’re very funny).  It was eerily quiet.

Our First Winona Sunset

We are at Winona now where we can take it easy for a few days and not drive!  (except for our boats and sailboat).  The Winona Rider goes into the shop in Ft. Wayne on Monday and Brad is on his way to improving with a bag full of meds and time to take it easy.  Let’s hope both the Rider and Brad find a way to heal together quickly!

On the Pontoon: The dogs take their positions

We were both proud of how we handled this very mini crisis.  We worked together, considered our options, and reshuffled our plans based on what we knew at the time.  As we discussed in one of our blog posts last year, It Takes Two.  While our trip has gotten a bit upended, we still found a way to enjoy the journey – even though it really was about the destination this time!

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Startus Interruptus (Or how we ended up in Rawlins, Wyoming instead of Yellowstone National Park)

Posted on June 19, 2023 by lisablackwell

Brad and I weren’t going to blog our 2023 trip in the Winona Rider.  This would be our fourth year of traveling in the Rider.  We have put on over 30,000 miles.  Everyone has heard all of our stories. Most of our humorous mistakes in the Sprinter Van involved  our own “User Error”.  We are pros now.  What can go wrong?  Plus, we were going to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and everyone besides me, it seems, has already been there.  We were just going to post cute pictures of Moose (Meese?), maybe a Buffalo jam or two, and some pretty views and sunsets with the dogs.

Happy Dogs at Sunset

Then Saturday happened. 

After our lovely camping spot in Coalville, Utah, we filled up with diesel and headed up to Yellowstone National Park.  About sixty miles into our trip, the Check Engine light came on.  Not very comforting.  I started googling all the reasons that a Check Engine light might come on.  There are, of course, hundreds of reasons.  Brad said the engine seemed to be running well so we kept going.  After another 50 miles an unusual warning sign came on that said we had 10 Starts Remaining.  That quickly got our attention.  

Well, that’s alarming.

Out came Google again and the “10 Starts Remaining” warning seemed like a reason to stop. We were going to have lunch in Malad City, Idaho shortly so we figured that would be a good place to figure out our options.  We looked up Mercedes dealers near Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.  There were exactly none. We called a service agent in Salt Lake City who laughed a little when we asked if we could bring in the van and then she told us they were booked until mid-July.  Uh-oh.  That’s not going to work.

Brad suggested that we go to our condo in Boulder.  If we were going to get stuck somewhere Boulder would be better than Malad City, Idaho.  And we calculated that we could get to Boulder in less than ten stops.  (Well, nine stops now since we just stopped for lunch)

So…we turned around and backtracked about 100 miles and headed to Boulder.  After filling up with gas we had eight starts left. Since it was getting late and we couldn’t make it all the way to Boulder, we booked an RV Park in Rawlins, Wyoming for Saturday night.  That’s one more stop down. We figured if we accounted for gas and our stop for the night, we should have six stops left before the Winona Rider shut down for good.  We hoped we were counting right. 

Brad needed that “We’ve Arrived” beer!

The KOA RV park had a beautiful view of the freeway.  And, being a last minute booking, our camp spot was right next to that freeway.  Didn’t matter.  We were so happy we’d made it this far that it looked great to us.  We took the dogs for their customary sunset photo with a nice billboard in the background.  They were less than enthusiastic.  Now, if we can just make it the 211 miles back to Boulder we’ll be home free.  

Sophie and Ralphie clearly didn’t love our campsite!

A funny thing began to happen as we drove back to Boulder. The warning sign went back and forth between 10 and 16 stops. Was the Winona Rider fixing itself?  Nice!  It was as if the doctor told us he was wrong and we had more than 24 hours to live.  The countdown was no longer counting down. We started to think that we were experiencing less of a mechanical error and more of a possible sensor issue or maybe even bad diesel fuel from Coalville.  We still didn’t want to mess around though because Google also told us that if we get down to 0 starts, it really means 0 starts and we would need to be towed.  

We arrived in Boulder on Sunday and we have never been so happy to see our beloved town!  Our great friends, Joan and Steve, kindly let us park the Winona Rider at their place.  We completely unpacked it and borrowed one of their cars to get back to the condo.  We waited until Monday to talk to our service agent to find out our fate.

After consulting with our service agent twice on Monday, he gave us the green light to go ahead and continue our journey (of course with the caveat that if we break down it isn’t his fault).  The good news is for the moment the Starts Warning Sign is no longer on.  We just have to contend with the pesky Check Engine light.

So, I guess we will blog a little on this trip since we have had more adventure than we were counting on. 

Will the Winona Rider make it to Winona Lake?  

Will we end up stuck in Omaha or Ogalalla, Nebraska?  

Will the 10 Starts Warning sign come on again?  

So many questions and we will fill you in on the answers as we travel Eastward to Nebraska on Tuesday!

Boulder Sunset
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It Takes Two

Posted on July 2, 2022 by lisablackwell

There is a song in the musical “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim called “It Takes Two”. It’s a song sung between the baker and his wife when they go out for an adventure in the woods and realize that facing their challenges together would be more successful than doing so individually. Its main refrain goes like this, “It takes two, I thought one was enough but it takes two of us.” The married couple realize how much they have changed in their adventure. Instead of always doing things independently they learn to team up as they face life in the woods.

That song kept playing in my head while we were on our 18-day adventure “Into the Woods” up to Canada. Brad and I are both fiercely independent and some might stay a little stubborn. Just ask our friends and family. At home, we have our individual lives and tasks and to-do lists (Well, I make the to-do lists for Brad). We have also been happily married for 37 years on July 6th so we do know a little about working together and getting along as well, but, a small Sprinter van can test that togetherness very quickly.

We do almost everything together in the Winona Rider. We planned the trip together, we did the menu planning, we organized the van, and we packed our things together. Each day on the trip we have to make the bed, do the dishes, make the meals, do the grocery shopping, and do the laundry together. I think you get my point. We each have our own jobs even in the Rider but we have to work together and do a dance at times around each other to make it all work in such a small space. We even write the blog together. I often sit down and just put down all of my ideas with very little attention to grammar or facts in the evening. I am a bit of a night owl so that works best for me. Brad, on the other hand, likes to get up earlier than me so he looks at my draft and “cleans it up” as we like to call it. It’s a team effort and it works!

That being said, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that Brad does the lion’s share of the hard work. He is the man who does all of the hook-ups at our various destinations (including manning the dump station) and also the man who does a combo of gymnastics and yoga trying to make our bed every night. He is also the man who deals with the dogs when they need to get up early and go out! He, of course, does all of the driving while I entertain him with my intellectual chatter about the news of the day or my research about what we should do that day or where we should go to lunch. And, most importantly, he is the man who makes the coffee in the morning and pours the wine in the evenings and I am forever grateful to him for that.

Brad’s Nightly Bed Making Skills…A little bit yoga, a little bit gymnastics
Doing the Laundry…Travel is not alway glamorous

Before we sign off for another year, I thought I would leave you all with a few lists of what we learned and discovered on our trip. We went almost 4000 miles, spending time in five states, two provinces, and one new country over 18 days. It was the trip of a lifetime and possibly our favorite Winona Rider trip to date.

Places to put on your Bucket List

Banff, Banff, Banff! And then really all of the other places we visited. We didn’t have a dud. I would consider going in September next time because we did have cold temps sometimes and had to forego a couple of hikes because they still had ice and snow.

Lake Louise at Banff National Park

Places/Things that Surprised Us

Blind Bay in Canada. One of the most serene lakes we have ever visited. Such a lovely evening and it beat our expectations!

Low Tides, ferries and the Winona Rider don’t mix well.

The overflowing waters in the rivers and lake in the Pacific Northwest and Canada

The genuine kindness of the Canadian people, including drivers on the highway.

Blind Bay Sunset. Ahhhh!

Places that Disappointed Us

Nothing really disappointed us but it was a bummer to have needed reservations to get into Glacier and to be turned away. It was also disappointing that the parking lot was full at Lake Louise the first time. Our advice — plan ahead and do your research when visiting US national parks. Their rules change frequently. It is also sad that we can’t hike with our dogs in the United States national parks. Canadian national parks let you hike with your dogs on leash. Oh, but don’t forget to bring bear spray!

The dogs in the morning

Things that Bug Us

Lack of recycle bins in RV parks. What is with that? It’s really hard to be eco-conscious at places without recycling.

Loud trucks and people who run their generators at night.

Bad Wifi/Cell Reception. We have a blog to write and Wordle to play. We need our internet. (Although I felt a little silly complaining about that fact when one of our RV neighbors was chatting with us and told us he hasn’t watched anything live on a screen in 24 years because his house in Washington has no cable or internet. I stopped whining after that.)

Things in our Van that we still don’t understand:

How our power system works. Seems to be no rhyme nor reason.

How we sleep so amazingly well every night in such a small space!

The day we lost our power and waited 2 1/2 hours for the solar to kick in.

Things to do to be happy for 18 days in a Sprinter Van:

Book a hotel for a few nights at the middle and end of the trip.

Take showers in the camp sites if they have a good one

Laugh at each other’s jokes (sometimes that requires effort)

Play Farkle

Stay off Twitter

Drink good wine nightly

Don’t look in any mirrors

Spend time with friends that you normally wouldn’t get to see and have friends you see often meet you somewhere. We are forever grateful that our friends met us and opened up their homes to us along the way.

The Cohens in Portland
The Hoffbergs in Vashon Island
The Frandsens in Bend

And, lastly, Things we Can’t Travel Without in the Winona Rider:

French Press Coffee Maker

Our dogs

A Sense of Humor

Good Wine

And, most importantly, each other

Our 2022 blogging days have come to an end and we’ll see you all next year! We are always ready to take suggestions of where we should go and what we should see. Thanks for all of your feedback these last three weeks. We have enjoyed staying in touch with you, our friends.

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Redding, CA: Last Stop Down by the River

Posted on July 1, 2022 by lisablackwell

When we published our itinerary for this trip, our good friend Lorri Wilke saw that we were spending our last night in Redding. Her daughter Leah lives in Redding with her husband Cody and their two adorable daughters, Pippa and May. In about a year or so Lorri and Bruce are going to make a big life change. They bought property with Leah and Cody and will be moving to Redding from Danville. Both families will live on a 1 1/2 acre property in two separate newly-built houses so they can be right next door to each other. We thought living five minutes away from our grandkids was pretty darn good but Lorri and Bruce will be steps from theirs. What a treat!

We met Leah, Pippa and May at their new property. It is empty except for a pool right now. The original house on the property was burned to the ground in the fires of 2018 but the pool remained. We had a great time reminiscing and catching up with Leah. She was a good friend of our daughter Katie in school and they use to play together on the infamous “Speedsters” soccer team that Brad coached.

Selfie with Leah at her soon-to-be new home.

Their new location in Redding is beautiful and peaceful. The two homes will overlook the Sacramento river and will have plenty of hiking and biking trails nearby. This is good as the Wilke family is one of the most active families we know!! We had a great time envisioning the two homes while we visited with Leah and her two girls. Ralphie and Sophie loved playing in the river and I think they were sad to get in the van.

The Sacramento River. Their property is overlooking this view!
Pippa and May with Leah. We couldn’t get them to sit still much so this was the best we got!

We were going to have our last night at the new homestead but the temperature was 95 degrees and we needed air-conditioning to be able to sleep. So, we headed over to an RV park in Redding. It was an uneventful stay although Brad and I spent our last dinner reminiscing about the great trip we had just experienced. More on that to come in our final blog!

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Our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day — Glacier National Park

Posted on June 26, 2022 by lisablackwell

We woke up on Thursday morning at the West Glacier KOA RV Park. The thermometer read 37 degrees. Lisa hates the cold.

Every trip has a day that just doesn’t go as planned or doesn’t come easy. We’ve all experienced it. Sometimes it’s a major medical issue like the time Lisa broke her wrist on a remote doctor-less island in the British Virgin Islands. Sometimes it’s a major inconvenience like Brad being detained by Chilean Security for having an apple in his backpack and being interrogated so long that we missed our flight to the Atacama Desert. Other times it’s nothing major. You just have a day where nothing seems to go right.

Our first day in Glacier National Park was the latter.

The entry sign looked so inviting.

It all started early in the morning with a text and a photo of a Covid test. Our youngest daughter, Stephanie, had just tested positive for Covid. She took a few more tests and indeed, she had the dreaded virus. She wasn’t feeling too badly but, nonetheless, we were concerned.

While Lisa was texting with Steph, we got the early morning breaking news alerts informing us that the Supreme Court had reversed Roe v Wade. We felt punched in the gut and the news immediately put us in foul moods and we went on a few expletive-laden rants. Lisa suggested we turn the RV around and head back to Canada, find a nice place to live and send for the kids and grandkids. We pondered that idea as we headed off to Glacier National Park.

We arrived at the West Entrance of Glacier and were confronted with electronic signs that told us to have our vehicle passes and ID ready. We had no idea what that meant. As we pulled up to the nice but official looking park official, Brad asked, “We don’t know what a vehicle reservation is.” She smiled and succinctly ushered us off to an area for cars without park reservations. There, a lovely woman explained to us that we could not go into the west entrance of the park without a reservation. That reservation needed to be made months ago. She did say we could see the park from the East side without a reservation and enthusiastically explained some of the sights we could see along the way. She also gave us hope by saying that we could come back at 4:00 and enter the west side without a reservation, This woman has a hard job telling people who didn’t do their research (like us) that they can’t visit the park yet she handled it with a lovely attitude.

A few other things she mentioned ever so nicely were: 1) Our dogs weren’t allowed on any of the trails in the park except one short paved one. 2) We couldn’t’ take our RV on the infamous Going-to-the-Sun-Road because it was too long. 3) It didn’t matter anyway because most of the road was closed because of ice and snow. 4) Have a Great Day! Things she forgot to mention: 1) The two east entrances to the park are an hour-and-a-half away.

As we turned around, Lisa mentioned that there is an old wives tale that bad things happen in threes so we had just had our three bad things for the day. Again, off we went with hope of seeing the sights the park ranger had suggested. As we drove along, we watched the temperature drop to 45 degrees and it started to rain. It had warmed to 60 degrees on the west side. OK, well, maybe four things and then we were good to go.

The day continued to confound us. We did see the cool sight at Goat Lick Overlook. — a family of mountain goats rock-climbing and yes, licking rocks. That was cool. We think our luck is changing.

Goats licking rocks, of course.
Goats on rocks.

We got to the Glacier’s Two Medicine Lake entrance at noon. Great! We can have a nice lunch at the lake. We pulled up to the gate and the ranger said sternly, “This entrance is closed. Come back at 2:30” Really?!?

Ugh. This is becoming a very bad day.

As we drove away we found a pullout and stopped to have lunch. As we pulled in a guy had stopped to pee. I’m sure we embarrassed him. He was also having a bad day. There was, however, a nice little waterfall and the view of the mountains was pretty good. So we stayed and ate lunch.

The view at lunch

The drive to the other east entrance — St. Mary — was a slow winding road. It took us a while to get there.

The high and winding road . Don’t look down or take your eyes off the road.

We got to the St. Mary entrance and were allowed into the park. Yes! But, we only got six miles in before a sign informed us that only vehicles under 21 feet could continue. The Winona Rider is 24 feet long. We stopped to walk along the lake a bit but because it was 45 and raining we didn’t stay long. We took a few pictures, saw some bear poop, we think, and figured we could at least check off Glacier National Park on our map at home.

St. Mary Lake
The view from our long and winding road.
Our short walk in the rain even had grizzlies.
A cold Lisa walking our bear attractant.
Maybe we’d better get back in the van.

The St. Mary entrance was about a hundred miles from our campsite and it was now 4:30. We decided it had been a long day and we should head home. There was a lot of road construction on the way up so we decided to go home on a different route. About 20 miles in, we came upon a very serious accident that blocked both lanes of the road. We sat for a while but realized it could be closed for a long time so we turned around and back tracked to the winding road with the heavy construction. It took us another two hours to get home. We were tired and in bad moods. Even the gnocchi dinner we made was mushy and not too good.

Yeah. It was raining.

We went to bed vowing that our second day would be a better day.

Day 2: Our Wonderful, Beautiful, Not Bad, Very Good Day

We woke up on Day 2 and the sun was shining with a forecast of 73 degrees. It was already a better morning than the day before. Daughter Stephanie, although having Covid was feeling reasonably fine and was mostly just bored. The Supreme Court decisions of the week still infuriated us but we resolved that we would get more politically involved when we get home and start doing what we could to take action (instead of moving to Canada), and lastly we had a plan to get into West Glacier at 4:00 pm.

With such a beautiful day at our beckoning, we had to take the dogs on a hike. We found an area that accepted dogs near Kalispell and drove 30 minutes to the West. It was a beautiful hike with lots of wild flowers and good views. Sophie and Ralphie were quite happy, maybe even giddy, because they could be off-leash for much of this hike.

We’re hiking and it’s sunny!
Beautiful views along the trail.
Lots of wildflowers

We went to the quaint town of Whitefish for lunch where we indulged in a post-hike beer and some pizza at a local pizzeria. It was some of the best beer we have had in a long while! While at lunch we talked about the day before. Those goats on the rocks were pretty cool. Remember when we were on that winding drive? Wasn’t the view amazing? Oh, and lunch by the waterfall. How often does that happen?That lady that told us we couldn’t come in was so sweet. It was interesting how we remembered the highlights. Maybe yesterday wasn’t such a bad day after all. Then Lisa noticed a sign on the street at our pizza place.

Wisdom and perspective from Jersey Boys Pizza. Oh, and their beer is really good.

On the way back to West Glacier, we just had to stop at the Huckleberry Land and buy ourselves some huckleberry pies for dinner. I’m not sure we’ve ever had a huckleberry before. It’s a bit like a blueberry but tases more like a blackberry. They grow them here. Huckleberries are everywhere.

I’m sure this place is for locals.

The 4:00 hour arrived and we got in line, holding our breath that we would be let in to the park. They waved us through and we were in, just like that! We took a scenic drive along Lake McDonald and stopped whenever we could to take pictures. We did have to turn around about 14 miles in because of the size of our RV but we were thrilled with what we got to see.

The mountains overlooking Lake McDonald.
Beautiful mountains
Avalanche Creek was flowing and had many waterfalls.
Parking to see the waterfalls.

We spent our last evening at our RV Park by getting a delicious meal of huckleberry chicken and huckleberry ribs all served with some delicious homemade mac and cheese and cornbread. We even shared some huckleberry pie for dessert. Our RV Park was a KOA near the entrance of West Glacier. At first, Lisa thought it was a bit too crowded and busy (she hates crowds of all kinds) but we both grew to love it. The spa-like showers won us over at the beginning of the stay but the homemade meals, the attention to every detail, the kids who were having the times of their lives riding bikes and making tie-dye shirts made this place unique and special.

The dogs enjoying our campsite.

Our stay in Glacier was a tale of two very different days and attitudes and experiences. But that’s the magic of travel; every day tells a different story and no day is like the other. Perhaps our first day wasn’t really a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day after all. And, really, a bad day traveling is better than a good day anywhere else, right?

Next we’re off to Blackwell Island Idaho.

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