On Tuesday morning we started our JR passes and took the express to Kyoto. On the express, the ride is only about twenty minutes, surprisingly quick. After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we walked to Nishiki Market for lunch. We were a little bit frustrated because we were refused seats at a few […]
Hakone
Saturday we took a Shinkansen to Odawara. I can’t stress enough how wonderful the Shinkansen experience is. It’s insane that we do not have this option for travel in America. I travel to Oakland for work often and I’d much prefer to take a high-speed train than take a southwest flight. Remove the time of checking […]
Osaka Aquabus
Yes, I did see the actual aquabus. It is a real thing. 16-year-old me would be so proud. Now the lyrics make a little more sense. Before I could see the bus, we had to get to Japan. Our flight on JAL was nice. (international flights always tend to be “easier” than long-haul domestic) the large […]
La Jolla weekend 2018
On Friday, August 24th, we set sail south on the Pacific Coast Highway for La Jolla, our friends just behind us. As usual (now) the cove was jam-packed with people. Even worse than last year. So bad, in fact, that we didn’t stay long. There were so many feet thrashing in the water that it […]
Parents visit 2018
My parents arrived at LAX around 7pm on Thursday, July 12th. Because of the time difference the only place I took them to was our home so they could go to sleep. On Friday morning we drove out to Adamson House in Malibu. They didn’t have any parking left by the time we arrived so […]
Jasper
Friday night we flew into Calgary around 9. We made it to our hotel around 10pm as the sun was setting. The next morning we went back to the airport to pick up our rental car. The thrifty agent let us know they had a “special” on 4x4s and he recommended it if we were driving […]
Back to Banff
On Wednesday, we returned to Johnston Canyon, which we’d visited on our last trip when the waterfalls were frozen. During the last visit, our GoPro and DSLR both failed when we came to the upper falls viewpoint. In a stirring coincidence that might convince a less-skeptical person of hauntings, ghosts, or astral energy vortexes, the […]
Loreto Snorkeling Trip 2018
Last year Sam and I stayed in Loreto on our way to and from the San Ignacio Lagoon. We snorkeled on Coronado island and at Playa Santispac and enjoyed such a diversity of underwater life that I vowed to come back. As luck would have it, six of my snorkeling friends (though, sadly, sans Sam) […]
Joshua Tree
On Thursday morning I drove east on the 10 past the stretch of Los Angeles suburban sprawl until the malls faded into gas stations and the houses thinned to shacks and sheds. Once in the open desert on the other side of Riverside county I realized I forgot the annual national parks pass we’d purchased […]
La Jolla Weekend 2017
This year we thought we’d be clever and use the long labor day weekend for our annual trip to La Jolla. Our cleverness rewarded us with a drive of over four hours to get down there and a less than favorable parking situation, not hitting the water till after 2pm. Our friends that followed us […]