Portland > San Francisco > Tokyo > Kyoto

With a 3am wake up, brief stop in San Fran (chilling in the lounge like adults — ordering hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies obviously) and then to the second longest flight we’ve taken coming in at 11 hours, we finally made it to Japan. It’s cooler than expected — only 89 degrees. The language […]

Looking for Moose in the Gold Mine

Started our day with a mini stop at Thunder Bird Falls for our warm up two mile hike… Next is Independence Mine which is a defunct gold mine. You learn about the gold rush but to see the operation was pretty interesting. Most of the buildings were wood, so they are all falling down but […]

Day Cruise along the Fjord

So Kevin and I have stayed away from cruises in all our adventures so far. Other than a 45 min boat ride in Wales that turned into three hours (thanks Todd), we’ve pretty much intentionally said no to any others. But this feels like the boat to try, so we booked a six hour dinner […]

Exit Glacier & Russian River

Next was a stop at the Russian River. The goal was to see a bear fishing for salmon, but we only saw humans fishing for salmon. Crazy how red the sockeye salmon are, definitely not camouflaged swimming in the glacier clear water. We’ve also turned into bit of birders (guess we hit the age). I […]

Arriving in Alaska

We’ve been talking about visiting Alaska for years – Kevin last visited 18 years ago (another story for later in the trip). Welp, we finally made it.. after a four am wake up that is, and a plane full of older fisherman (literally Kevin was probably the second youngest on the flight).  No time was […]

West End Theatre Week

It’s actually impossible for me to be anywhere near London and not head to the West End. This time we had back to back shows — Mean Girls and SIX. My friends joined us for the first show. #wewearpink I can’t say Mean Girls was my favorite show we’ve ever seen, but it had some […]

Wales: Road Trip

Coincidentally my friend was visiting her brother in England with her two young boys at the same time we planned our trip, so we have been waiting for the day to show them around our old stomping grounds and share the history we absolutely love. At the same time, we added a Roman Bath and […]

Did someone say Alpacas?

Early morning to drive to grab our friends at the train station and head to the Welsh border to play with some alpacas. About five weeks ago, the mama alpacas had two babies, so we get to hang out with them too. A couple months ago I found a mom and pop shop that has […]

English and Welsh Castle Day

Yesterday was all about the Abbey’s and today is Castle day! Whittington Castle was built in 1220, though this spot has been used for over 1000 years before as a hill fort. Interesting tidbit about is that this was one of the only flower and herb garden in England during this time. Friends of the […]