Long Layovers (New Zealand and Venice Beach)

My father's 60th birthday was just on November 15, so Isa and I flew back to the states to celebrate it with him (along with the entire family) in Disney World. We spent a week in Orlando. It was fast-paced, hectic at times, but totally worth it and super fun. But that's not what this post is about.

On the way to Orlando, we stopped in Auckland, New Zealand (for those of you that just got REALLY confused, Isa and I are currently living in Australia). It was way fun! We slept in the airport, which has an upstairs skydeck that is really quiet and peaceful and as far as we're concerned, made for sleepovers.

We started out on the floor by our bags there, and then took over the benches when they left for their flights. We had about 18 hours in New Zealand, and this was about 2am. So the next morning, we woke up and took a bus into town. We walked around Queen Street, which is their main street, but it wasn't all that interesting (although possibly because we were there on a Sunday, so maybe it's better on weekdays).

Isa had a great idea to take a ferry over to one of the neighboring suburbs - Devonport. It's such a cute little town with great views of the City.

We explored the fort on the hill and ran through the tunnels. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad Isa saw the deal to get us out there. There are a bunch more pictures up on Facebook, so you should check those out too. After hiking around and lazing in the sun for a while, we headed back to the ferry and back into town.

And then we took the bus back to the airport and embarked on the rest of our 46-hour journey.

Less than one week later, and probably only a day or two after we fully got over our jet-lag, we headed back to Australia. This time, we had a 10 hour layover in Los Angeles. I got a message saying the newest Del Sol store had opened a few hours earlier in Venice Beach. So we found a bus and headed to the beach. Venice Beach is hippie-ghetto. It's a little crazy, to say the least. But the sand was nice and it was a beautiful day.

After a bit of wandering, we found our destination:

The store is in a great location. It's right on the beach, right in front of the skate park and where everybody hangs out. We hung out with them for a little bit, checked out the new fixtures and merchandise (we love new designs and stuff) and then headed to the beach/skate park to watch the sunset.

I love that picture, and then Isa pointed me over to a lifeguard station to get this picture:

After the sunset, we grabbed a bite to eat at a local cafe and then headed back to the airport. We had no time for another excursion in Auckland on the way back (they actually held the plane for us because our flight was a little late getting in - we were picked up by Air NZ staff and walked VIP style right to the gate and right onto the plane).

So hooray for long layovers!

Longest Flight Ever

Not to spoil the ending, but WE'RE IN AUSTRALIA!!!

Getting here took a lot longer than anticipated though. So here's the full story:

We started off in New York, with a direct flight from JFK to LAX. Not bad, but it's so sad that they don't serve meals on flights any more. And we got on at 5pm, so they definitely should have fed us dinner.

It was at LAX when the flight started getting interesting. First, we thought LAX would have everything JFK does. Like lots of food. We were wrong. In our terminal, there was one option - some sort of bar/cafe thing - and our slice of pizza and lettuce wrap totaled up at $13. How ridiculous is that? We couldn't wait to get on the plane to get some real food.

We boarded the plane and found our seats in front of some rather rowdy kids. I hoped they would fall asleep soon, as it was nearing 11pm, otherwise this would surely be the longest flight ever. But instead the pilot told us something fell off a luggage cart, and they're checking the damage or something, and we need to just stay put for a bit. Thirty minutes later, they told us to get off the plane and wait in the terminal for further information. Still no food. Still starving. While waiting, we discovered a window so we could see what happened:

Somebody drove the luggage cart into the engine of the plane and they PUT A HOLE IN IT! So they cancelled the flight (after another half hour of waiting). They told us they'd provide hotel vouchers and to come back in the morning. We waited a few minutes because we knew there'd be a line at the counter, but we were not prepared for what we saw when we came around the corner. I didn't realize how many people could fit on a 747 until I saw them all in line in front of us. Isa and I, still starving, decided to play cards (BullS***) to pass the time. Two hours later, completely delirious (because we hadn't slept in about 24 hours) and weak (because we hadn't eaten in 14 hours) we got in the now dwindling line to get our vouchers. Happy to be on the way to a bed, we stepped outside the terminal into another mob of people - waiting for the shuttle bus from the hotel.

We decided to sit on a ledge to wait it out, and we managed to work our way to the front of the mob to get on the second bus (no doubt thanks to the skills we've picked up getting on the bus at 161st Street - people in the Bronx do not believe in lining up for the buses). This dropped us off at La Hacienda, into another line (but this time of only about 150 people or so) waiting to get rooms. Another 45 minutes or so passed until we finally got a room around 3am. Around 3:15 came a knock on our door - the hotel given our room to another family - but we invoked the "first come, first served" rule and sent them back to the front desk.

Four hours later, I woke up for breakfast - the best part of my journey so far (we never did get to eat anything else the night before) - and it was wonderful. Eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast, jams, orange juice, everything. I ate. And then ate again. And then I made a plate and brought it back to Isa so she could have breakfast in bed.

We went back to sleep for a few more hours and then woke for lunch (the airline had called the hotel and told us to be back by 2pm for a 4pm departure). Still groggy, a little stinky (they kept our luggage - and even though we had planned to carry everything on, they wouldn't let us take on anything over 6 kilos - that's about 13 lbs - so we couldn't brush our teeth or change our clothes) and completely out of it, we went back to the airport, through security, and found our flight was delayed again.

By this time, we're starting to recognize other people on our flight so we pass the time learning other people's stories - some on honeymoons, some going home, others on ridiculously cool vacations - and playing cards until we finally board again around 5pm.

I thought the flight went pretty fast. I watched three movies and Isa read the Hunger Games (I've since read it too. IT'S AWESOME!!) and before long, we were crossing into a part of the world I've never been:

The Southern Hemisphere!!

That's right, on all my travels, I've never been over the Equator. So I was pretty dang excited about that. And then just a few hours later, we crossed the international date line, and Sunday night turned into Monday night, just like that. We arrived in Fiji around 11pm, but all connecting flights had already left by then, so the airline had to put us up in another hotel (as much as we were excited to stay the night in Fiji, we were not excited about another line for another hotel voucher and then another line through customs). At least we got our bags so we could shower and change and brush our teeth. We woke up in the morning to find this our our balcony:

Not bad, Fiji. Not bad. Isa and I woke up early and went for a walk to see the beautiful countryside. The airline told us to be back at the airport by 7am for an 8am flight, so we couldn't go too far. But we saw enough to know that we definitely want to go back. :)

So 7am came around and the lady at the ticket counter told us that our flight to Brisbane was way overbooked and she asked if we would like to stay in Fiji another night (or maybe even two nights) all expenses paid until we could get on a flight. Oh decisions, decisions. Ultimately we decided that we were already a day late for work in Australia and we shouldn't make them wait any longer. So they put us on a different flight through Sydney, and then continuing on to Brisbane via Qantas Airlines.

But they didn't tell Qantas. So when we got to Sydney, Qantas said they had no record of us, and they wouldn't allow us to fly until they had signed paperwork from Air Pacific. Which we didn't have. They put up enough of a fuss that we missed our flight to Brisbane. Eventually they found us and put us on a later flight.

We finally made it to Brisbane around 5pm and ran onto the train to the Gold Coast. We had no phone, and we hadn't had internet since La Hacienda, so nobody in Australia knew where we were or when we would arrive. So when we finally got to our train stop over an hour later, not only was nobody there to get us, but nobody was even in Surfers Paradise. They were all in Brisbane, and could have easily picked us up from the airport, but we had no way to contact them. :(

So we got on a bus which promised to take us to Surfers. In deed it did, but we didn't know where to get off, so we went straight through Surfers and continued on to the next town down the coast. Our bus driver laughed at us when we told him where we were headed, "You should have gotten off 20 miles ago" but he let us stay on the bus until it made its return trip.

We hopped off and wandered the streets of Surfers Paradise for a little bit until we found our store. One of the employees showed us the way to our apartment. And we made it. 62 hours after getting on the subway to the airport in New York, we arrived at our little apartment in Surfers Paradise, Australia.

Here's a pic of Isa on the beach the next morning:

If you want to see more of that trip (as if reading that ginormous account wasn't enough), feel free to watch it on my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i9LCxYHUIE

Temple Square to Las Vegas ROAD TRIP!!

After Spokane, Isa and I flew down to Salt Lake City to see friends and stuff. Isa had never been to Utah (or Vegas) so we wanted to do and see as much as possible. So we started out at Temple Square. If you haven't been there, you should go. It's really pretty and not just for mormons. We were there on a Friday so we played "spot the bride" most of the time. There were plenty of newlyweds around and it's always fun to see (and judge) the wedding gowns they chose.

I had never been up to the top of the church office building, so we did that. It's really cool and offers fantastic views of the capital building, the temple, the grounds, and the conference center.


The guides up top are also full of cool little insights too, so I highly recommend you talk to them. For example, did you know the capital building is built on a foundation of rubber pillars, allowing it to sway up to 2 feet in any direction in case of an earthquake (which is apparently long overdue).

After a day in SLC, we took off down toward Vegas. We made a stop in St. George to go on a little hike. We went up to Snow Canyon and hiked the sand dunes (which are super cool and really fun to see the wind whipping across them - and then pelting you which is not as fun) and then we went over to Jenny's Canyon. It's a really small canyon, but it gives you a good example (albeit on a MUCH smaller scale) of what Zion's canyons look like.


After our hike, we went on to Vegas, which is always farther than I think. If you've ever driven to Vegas, you know what I mean. I always think, "This is it... Just up and around this bend and you'll see Vegas." And then it's still not there for another 50 miles. Boo. But we finally made it and visited with my little brother Jason and his family (wife Christy, 3-year-old Ty, and baby Madison Jayne). We went to dinner and to see their new house (a ridiculous 5-bedroom house that they can actually afford because of the housing crisis in Vegas) and then we headed in to play on the strip.


We saw the volcano explode at the Mirage, we walked through the Venetian through the Grand Canal, and of course we saw the water show at the Bellagio.


Vegas has also changed a lot since I was last there. The whole new Aria and City Center right in the middle of the Strip was new to me. And I don't remember the Encore next to the Wynn either. But of all the new things that I noticed, probably the most surprising was a wonderful little restaurant out front of Caesar's Palace. (Go ahead and click on the picture to enlarge it.)


Yeah! Serendipity 3 is there now, complete with $10 Frrrozen Hot Chocolates. MMMmmm. Vegas baby, YEAH!!

Culebra

Culebra is a little island about halfway to St. Thomas. When we bought our tickets in the morning, they told us that the return ferry was "conditional." Basically, if the weather turned any worse they would cancel the ferry and we'd be stuck on the island for the night, and Isa would miss her flight back to New York the next morning.

We figured it was worth the risk. :)

The ferry ride over was crazy. The people on the top deck were screaming like they were on a roller-coaster. I thought the boat would flip a few times. Way fun.

The island was gorgeous. We went straight to Flamenco Beach, which apparently is rated as one of the best beaches in the world. I beg to differ, but whatever. What do I know about tropical beaches, right? It was pretty, but one of the best, I don't know.



The coolest part of the beach were the abandoned tanks out on the LEFT side of the beach (not the right, as Isa and I found out when we hiked all the way out past the rocks into the bees nests and found no tanks).



At the end of the day, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the water was calmer than a lake, so we had no problem going home:

El Yunque

Yay. Isa came down to visit me. :)

We went out to El Yunque. This is the only tropical rain forest in the US. It was amazing. I've never driven though anything like it before. My favorite part was all the bamboo. I don't think I've ever seen bamboo growing in the wild. It was pretty exciting for me. You know, I'm pretty simple to amuse. :)

We went out and hiked to a waterfall and then continued up (off the trail) along the river. It was fun.


You should watch the video: I swung from a vine over a river just like Tarzan. It was awesome.

Puerto Rico

Woohoo! I love this island! I've only been here a week but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite islands. The people here are great, the energy level is high, and the island is beautiful.

I've been working a lot, but I just went and explored Old San Juan yesterday. I'll post a video on YouTube shortly, but here are some pics to start out with.





This is El Castillo San Felipe del Morro (watch my video about it):







And this is my apartment. Pretty sweet, huh? :)

Road Trip for Selena

Florida is LONG!!

So my friend Selena dances (well, danced) at Disney World in the Animal Kingdom. This weekend was her last performance. She sent out a blog and invited anybody in the area to come see her dance and also go to her house afterward for a party. And I thought, 'Hey, I'm in Florida. I'm 'in the area.' I should go!' So I committed. It wasn't until I was planning out the hours that I realized just how far that was. It took me about 8 hours to drive it. Eight hours!! Going up wasn't that bad since I was excited to see her and her show. I really didn't want to leave though.

It's funny to think about that if I were in New York, and she was performing in DC, I never would have driven down because DC is SO far away from New York. But in actuality it's only about 4 hours. Half the trip! But because we were in the same state, my mind just assumed it was in "the same area." haha

Well I'm so glad I went. The show was absolutely incredible. Selena was amazing. She got us backstage to meet the cast:

They actually brought me out on stage for part of the show. I loved it!! The party was super fun too and their house was unbelievable.

I borrowed Adam's camera and I also used some footage from Selena's dad's camera to make a video:

Happy New Year

I'm in Key West, which is apparently the third largest gathering for New Year's in the US (behind NYC and Vegas). I don't doubt it. There were a ton of people on Duval St. last night. It was insane. Instead of a ball that drops, they lower a drag queen in a ruby slipper at midnight. Unfortunately, I am sans camera. I broke it in St. Thomas. :*(

I'm using my new Blackberry (I got the Storm just before I left for St. Thomas - it's touchscreen and very cool) to take pictures and video, but it doesn't hook up to my Mac (seriously Blackberry, what's up with that?) so I can't get them to you very easily. If I figure it out later, maybe I'll come back here and put up some pics or something, but honestly, I doubt it.

So if you want to see the craziness, just google Duval St and look at pictures. Know that the pictures will probably not be safe for children.

Oh, funny story. So the other day I was at the grocery store and the checkout person was a drag queen. So he/she checks me through, and as I get my bags I notice that none other than Elvis was behind me. So I stopped and stared for a minute as Elvis bought his groceries from a drag queen - Only in Key West.

St. Thomas!!!

I've been offered a lot of positions here, but I turned them all down. I've always wanted to come here, but none of the jobs ever felt right. So finally, thanks to Sky and Steph (remember them from Juneau?) I'm here.

And it feels so good. The second I climbed out of the airplane and the humidity enveloped me I remembered how wonderful it feels to be warm. And sitting here on this balcony looking out over Yacht Haven makes me seriously wonder why I ever left the Caribbean. I do miss New York when I'm gone, but man, I love the Caribbean.

St. Thomas is a crazy little island that is so third-world that I can't believe it's technically a U.S. territory. They have a lot of work to do: no clean water and massive crime being the two most glaring issues.

But overall, I'm loving it. I'm glad I'm just visiting because I don't think I'd like to live here. I'll still take Aruba any day. But St. Thomas is definitely a fun place to be for a while. You can see some of my adventures here: WATCH THIS VIDEO.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Although it's just another normal day up here in CANADA!! Yeah, I'm in Edmonton. Well, West Edmonton actually. I opened a new store here in the largest mall in North America. It's actually pretty cool. The store is located right next to the largest indoor waterpark in North America (Dubai beat them on both records - I can't wait to go there).

I never left the mall (I'm leaving to go back home in about 30 minutes). Ok, I left once. To IKEA. Don't you just love IKEA? Mmmm. But as far as adventures go, not here. I finally went exploring yesterday. I went to the amusement park and rode the roller coasters and elevator ride from hell thingy (you know the one that shoots you straight up 150 feet and then you drop down and then back up most of the way and down again).

I didn't really take any pictures because Edmonton is pretty flat. Just plains. Calgary looked pretty cool (we flew through there) and I hope I can go back there some time (update! I did). I took a bunch of video in the mall, and maybe some time I'll put it together and put it up on YouTube, but for now you just have this blog saying, "I was there."

:)

New Job, New Trips

So I just got a new job with the same company that I've been working with for the last few years (Del Sol). I'm opening new stores for them. Whenever a new store opens, they'll send me out and I make sure the store and computer systems are set up properly, I train the staff, managers, and owners, and then I work with them for a few days until they're all comfortable.

I just got back from Sedona, AZ and I'm going to Edmonton, Canada next month.

Sedona was cool. I've been there before (that's where my coyote story comes from) so I was excited to go back. Unfortunately, I was working the entire time and I was unable to take time to go on a hike. Here are a few pictures I took while I was there though:

Mt. Jumbo

Can you tell that the season is winding down? What is this, my fifth post this month? It's exciting when I have time to explore and go on more adventures. Sky, Steph, and I took off early today to hike Mt. Jumbo. This is the tallest mountain on Douglas Island (across from Juneau) and actually a fairly difficult hike. We had to do it fast to beat the sunset, but we made it (of course). Here's a picture of Juneau from the top, and I'll put up the video as soon as I make it.

Swimming with Icebergs

Some day I'll look back on this and laugh. No wait. I'm already laughing about this.

Skyler and I decided that we would not leave Alaska until we had swum out and touched an iceberg. I'm not completely sure what we were thinking, but there's no stopping us once we had decided.

Isa made me do a lot of research last night on hypothermia and how long it takes for body parts to start shutting down in cold water. It's really interesting, and EXTREMELY IMPORTANT if there is anybody in my audience that plans on doing this in the future. Keep in mind here that in water that cold, your body starts to shut down after about 2 minutes and you DIE at 30 minutes, so 15 seconds is LONG ENOUGH, thank you.

We got warm clothes on and jumped into a heated car immediately after this. Our legs were still tingly for about 45 minutes after that.

We did this as a joke, but seriously, that water is nothing to be trifled with. Sky and I are both excellent swimmers in really good condition. If you plan on doing this, make sure you'll survive before you get in the water!!

Do your research: Click Here to Learn More about Hypothermia

Ok, now you can watch the video:

Ice Caves

First, just check out this picture:

Ok, now we can proceed. So remember that time that I hiked up the west glacier trail in sandals? Well we passed a local that told me that I need to stick to the trail and not venture out onto the glacier. She said that, "Anyone who hikes on the glacier in sandals will die." So I heeded the warning and when we set out this morning to hike on the glacier, I intended on wearing sneakers. But I'm not a morning person and we got up so early (around 9am!) and I brought socks but forgot my sneakers. Oh well, I tried.

And then I got tired of wearing sandals and eventually went barefoot:

Overall, it was a fantastically fun hike. You can watch the video to find out if everyone who hikes on the glacier in sandals will, in fact, actually die:

Holy Crap!

I just saw a bear! He looked kinda playful and I toyed with the idea of petting him, but ultimately decided against it. I would have, but people talk about how dangerous bears are here as much as they talk about how bad the water is in Mexico. So I didn't touch him, but I did take a picture with him. :)

**Update**
This is Friday night, now. I just ran into a mama bear and her two cubs. Now that one scared me. A lot! So I made a video about it:

Tracy Arm

Now this was cool. If you have the time (it's pretty much an all day excursion) I highly recommend going to Tracy Arm. Here are some pictures, and I'll embed the video later (see sad update below):




**Sad Update**
My computer crashed and I lost all the video footage from the Tracy Arm trip. I had my film camera and used that a lot, so I didn't lose the entire trip. However, it takes me FOREVER to develop pictures, so you may not see those shots until some time in 2009 (2011 update: still not developed).

I Saw A Glacier!

I've been insanely busy. Sorry about not posting for a few weeks here. And now I come in with a weak one. But whatever. We went over to Mendenhall Glacier and we hiked up the west glacier trail (in my sandals) and I took one of my favorite pictures to date:


Hope you're all doing well and for those of you getting ready to go back to school, I'm sorry. But good luck.

Juneau and then some

So remember back in April, I made a list of things that I was planning on? They all came true. I went to Utah, I had dinner with my aunt, I went to Sitka and made it ridiculously successful. Just thought I'd update you on that.

I'm probably not going to run the marathon though.

Last week they moved me up to Juneau to help run the store there. It's bigger and faster paced, with anywhere up to 6 big cruise ships in at any given time. I love it! The added ships, coupled with my trying to catch up on two months of sales, means I'm working about 14 to 18 hours a day. So if you're coming from YouTube and you're wondering why I haven't uploaded a video until now, there you go.

I still go back to Sitka every few weeks to check in and to see friends. Sitka still feels like home, much more than Juneau does, at least.

The season ends here at the end of September. I'll probably be back in Utah for a day or two, and then fly back to NYC. I plan to be in the City before October 5th.

Plans are in the works for Turkey and Greece in March/April next year. I'm stoked. :) That'll give me about 4 months (minus the christmas season) to get my book published (it's all done, I just have to mail it to my friend Savannah out in London for her review).

Life is very good. I'm extremely happy with how everything is playing out.

Leave a comment if you have any questions that weren't answered.

Heart Lake

I bought a bike.

When I was younger, I rode my bike over 75 miles across the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. I swore I would never get back on a bike again. And I've done pretty well with that promise since then. But it just seemed like the right thing to do up here: you know, being all "back to nature conservative-y" and stuff.

So my friend and I decided to test it out. We took them out to Heart Lake. It was a fun bike ride even though it was pouring like nobody's business. When we finally got to the lake, we were completely drenched.

So we decided to jump in. I know. I know. What were we thinking, right? I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It was FREEZING!!! But definitely worth the experience. :) Here's a video so you can experience it too:

Happy 4th!!

Happy Birthday America from Sitka, AK!