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

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? :)

NYC Update!

Hey Everybody,

I'm just sitting here in my apartment trying to stay out of the slush and it occurred to me that I never told you about the final decisions regarding our Greece/Turkey trip in March. Well, you know how the news does the New York Minute? Well here's a New York Update in under a minute (as long as you can read faster than me).

We couldn't make Turkey and Greece work. Sad, huh? :*(

So we're going to Italy instead. :) I'm so excited. It will be 7 of us all together. Five from the original Europe trip (five years ago - oh my gosh has it really been that long?) and then two husbands. They're cool too, and we're all really tight, so it'll be a great trip. We'll be spending two weeks there, starting March 15 and going through to the 31st. We start in Milan and go up to Lake Como, then down through Cinque Terre to the Amalfi Coast (Positano, yay!) all the way down to Sicily and back up to Rome. I am so excited to get back to Italy I can't even tell you.

Also, there are several store openings in the works. I'll let you know about them as soon as I know for sure.

And that's all the time we have for today folks, tune in next week for more exciting adventures! :P

Top of the Rock

I don't care if you're a tourist or a local, you need to go to the observation deck at Rockefeller Center. It's called the Top of the Rock and it's amazing. This was my second time up, Isa's first. We went up for sunset tonight. No lines. No waiting. I love New York in January. :)





They also added a very cool room with lights that can sense where you are and they follow you around. Here's a little clip so you get the idea, but you seriously just need to go see it for yourself.

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:

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.

Merry Christmas

I probably won't have internet tomorrow because I'm not home and I can't tell you where I am yet because I haven't held the contest yet for my youtube subscribers. So I'm wishing you a Merry Christmas today, even though it's only Christmas Eve.

And I wanted to show you this. For all of you that live in or around NYC, you'll really appreciate this:



Hope your holidays are as fun as mine. :)

New England Fall Foliage Road Trip

Whew. That's a long title.

Isa had a performance (she plays the violin) up at her old school in Massachusetts. So I rented a car and we road tripped up there. Her school's campus is beautiful:


And the road there and back was pretty too. We had a good time.

**Update**
I made the video. It's a little different than my normal style. But I still think it's ok. I'll let you judge for yourself:
Click here to watch the video.
Also, if you'd like to see Isa's full performance, click here.
She's amazing. :)

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:

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:

Indian River Falls

My roommate Bryan and I (Matt wouldn't go after last time) hiked Indian River Falls. Don't let the guidebooks fool you. It's a LOT longer than they say. But we were determined, so we made it all the way (I've already been beaten by one hike this year, I wasn't about to lose again - btw, I haven't forgotten about Verstovia, I'm still planning on beating it some time). Go ahead and watch the video and then I put some pictures below too.

Still Alive...

Before my mom died, I used to call her after all my big adventures and tell her all about them. I would always start with the same line: Mom, before I get into this story, I just want you to remember that I'm talking to you right now. I'm alive and well with no serious injuries. Everything is ok. I thought it would help her keep things in perspective.

I've gotten myself into some serious situations before, but I always knew I would survive. Maybe not come out unscathed, but survive, yes.

Not so today.

We hiked Harbor Mountain today and things turned bad surprisingly quickly. We (my roommate Matt, who will never hike with me again, and I) hitchhiked out to the trailhead. The trail goes up and over the far side of the mountain, and then it comes down the near side into town and it's just a short walk to our apartment from there. As usual, no map, no water, no anything. At least I wore shoes. :) Well, we lost the trail at the top, and then found it. We went down this trail for about a mile or so and then it dead ends. So instead of hiking back up to the top and searching for another trail, we decided (rather foolishly, in hindsight) to just cut diagonally down the mountain towards town. We almost fell off cliffs, we both got cut up pretty badly, and there were several times when I wasn't real sure we were going to make it off alive. The one good thing is that we're in Alaska, so at least I knew we would never run out of sunlight. :)

But I'm alive and well. And I'm talking to you right now, so everything is ok. :)

**Update**
Here's the short video:


**Update again**
My Mac crashed so I lost all the footage I had on this and so I won't be able to post the longer version like I had intended. Sad, huh? But at least this one was already up.

Starfish? In Alaska?

Yeah, they're everywhere. I don't know why but I always associate starfish with warm waters. Perhaps it's because I never saw them in New England, but I'm more familiar with them in the Caribbean. But yeah, they're here:



And if you have a minute, you have to go check this video out. My friend Elaina and I were walking around and saw a Limousine for sale, so we took it for a test drive. :)

Verstovia Beat Me

Happy Tax Day!

So yesterday, my friend and I attempted to hike Mt. Verstovia. It's a beautiful mountain just next to Sitka. The base of the mountain (like all of Sitka) is a rain forest. So it's muggy and it gets rather warm when you hike. But then it cools off as you ascend the hill, and then it starts to snow, and then you're up to your waste in snow and it's an all-out blizzard. My friend stripped down to his shorts at the base and he was too stubborn to put his pants back on when it got COLD. I was in jeans and sneakers, so although I was not completely prepared, I was in better shape than he was. :)

I've never been on a hike where the weather and hiking conditions changed so dramatically in such a short amount of time (our entire time on the mountain from base to "top" back down to the base was about 3 hours). This is also the first hike EVER in my life that I have not completed. We couldn't make it to the top because of the weather conditions, although we came dang close. You can watch the video and decide for yourself if you think we should have proceeded.

My personal favorite part of the hike, aside from the rapid descent in the snow, was my hat. :)

Enjoy:

The Pacific Ocean is COLD in December

So I went exploring today and ended up at Asilomar Beach at the tip of Monterey Peninsula watching the surfers and enjoying the sunset. I had no intention of getting in the water because the sand alone was ridiculously cold, I couldn't even imagine how cold the water would be. But it's been almost 6 years since the last time I'd touched the Pacific, so I figured I'd just put my feet in.

You know the rest of the story, don't you? I got my feet wet and it was FREEZING!! But I saw the surfers and I got a picture in my head and I ended up going pretty far out into the water to get the picture. You can watch the video here:



Don't you love the music?

I also put two videos up on my PerfectLittleLife channel. One is from my day at FDNY's Fire Academy with Chris (my brother). It was so much fun. Click here to watch "FDNY Fire Academy" video.

This last video is one that I am extremely proud of. It's a compilation of clips from 30 locations in 8 different countries. I've been putting it together for over 3 months. It's a response to a questionnaire posted by Michael Buckley, one of the channels I subscribe to on YouTube. I made it into a game so you can watch the video and try to guess what city or even country I'm in, and you can learn a little about me as I answer the questions. Click here to watch this video.

Let me know what you think.