Tag: rrainedrops

I Like Long Walks in the Park with my Suitcase….

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

Today was a travel day.  In Japan you can have your luggage shipped from one hotel to the next.  I asked my hotel about this.  They looked up the address of where I was going and said they could not do same day shipping.  It would get there the next day.  My smaller bag was not big enough for a change of clothes, all my chargers, my toiletries, etc.  I decided to travel with my suitcase. 

In the morning I walked around the area of my hotel so I could explore without my  suitcase as long as possible.  I found a shrine near the hotel and a park which were both peaceful and beautiful. 

An area near the hotel was a well guarded secret.  Every entrance had guards in front of it.  After walking by dozens of entrances all blocked off and guarded, I started to guess it was an area of government buildings.  Eventually, I learned it was the National Diet Building.  It is the center of political activity in Japan.  It is where their House of Representatives and House of Councilors meet.

I also noticed many small buses and vans just parked on the streets nearby.  They were all the same colors, white with a bright aqua blue.  They all looked like they came out of the 1950’s.  The windows in the back were covered with a heavy steel aqua colored mesh.  Was this to keep prisoners in or to keep politicians safe from attacks from the outside?  Upon doing some on-line searching, I found out they are police busses.  They can be used for transporting prisoners or transporting police to an event where many police are needed.  They can be used as mobile command centers as well. 

So I still don’t know why there were so many in this area, but I was pretty sure something important was going on.

I had to check out at 10:00 and my shinkensen train (fast train) wasn’t until a little after 1:00.  In theory, it would take a half hour to get to the station the shinkensen left from.  What should I do for 2.5 hours?  There was a big park next to the station.  What could be more fun than taking your suitcase for a romantic stroll through the park on a lovely Saturday morning?

It took a few tries to figure out the best way to navigate the escalators with the suitcase.  Too far in one direction and it might fall off the step when the step appears.  Too far in the other direction and you’ll get squished by it when the step appears.  Then when the ride comes to an end, you better be ready to give a good shove or it gets stuck on the transition and the person behind you runs into you.  There were plenty of escalators to practice my technique on the way to the park.

There was also one giant staircase leaving the station just to make sure I got a good arm workout for the day.  Then all the different sidewalk paver textures, street crosswalks and the park trail rounded out the workout as I use various muscles to push, pull, drag, lift, and skitter my suitcase along.  I hoped the wheels would survive Japan.  I need an adult sized version of the suitcase some kids have that they can sit or ride on.  Why aren’t there more ride-on suitcases?  So, of course, I got on line and looked up ride-on suitcases.  There are quite a few options.  One was a scooter suitcase.  That’s what I need.

I felt silly taking my suitcase through the park, but I wasn’t the only one.  I saw quite a few other people enjoying the day with their luggage.  I sat on a bench by the lake and watched people in pink and white paddle boats paddle slowly by.  You could hear children’s laughter echoing from all parts of the park.  The sound of footsteps all around as some people wandered and some were out for their mid-morning jog.  And the sounds of conversations filled the air as well.

I couldn’t fathom taking my suitcase out to lunch so I reached to the bottom of my purse and pulled out the emergencheese – individually packaged cheese I had shoved in there in case of a food emergency.  What if the plane only had fish?  I’d have emergencheese.  What if my hotel restaurant wasn’t open and I couldn’t find another place to eat?  Emergencheese.  What if you were in a park and didn’t want to look for a restaurant and then shove your suitcase into that restaurant?  You guessed it – Emergencheese.  It did the trick but was completely unexciting.

I gave myself plenty of time to find my train.  My train name was the Asama, but of course none of the signs said Asama.  I followed the signs to the shinkansen assuming all the fast trains were in the same location.  There was a big sign above the gate to the shinkansen that had a lot of the train names, departure times and platform numbers on it.  There were no trains past 12:30 shown yet, but I felt I was headed in the right direction.  I went in the ticket office and asked what platform mine would leave from – platform 19. 

I got to the gate, put my ticket in.  The machine sucked my ticket in and spit it out farther ahead, but the gate didn’t open.  A train employee nearby instructed me about what I did wrong in Japanese.  I scooted backwards until I was out the gate and got in line to see her since I had no idea what she said or what to do.  Each shinkensen ticket comes with a local ticket as well.  I needed to put both in at the same time.  It would have taken me a half hour of trying other wrong ways before I would have thought of trying that…..

I put both in.  They both got sucked up and spit out.  The gate opened and I was free to go find Platform 19.

I got to Ueda and found my hotel with no problem.  Again, the hotel had an automated machine with a guy standing behind it helping me push all the correct buttons.  He took my key out of the machine and proudly exclaimed “one smoking room”.  No, I didn’t book a smoking room.  I asked if there were any non-smoking rooms I could switch too. He told me they were fully booked.  I looked at my email booking confirmation.  Oh, right there – smoking.  I can’t believe I did that.  I can’t argue with it now.  I checked online for quite a while.  I used Agoda, Google Maps, Hotels.com and Airbnb.  Not only was this hotel fully booked, every hotel in the entire town was fully booked. 

I opened the window in my room and sprayed the room/fabric spray they gave me.  The spray did nothing.  I did some laundry, shoved my clean clothes in my suitcase and vowed to not open it again until I had to.  I doubt the room would have ruined my clothes since no one was actively smoking in my room, but better safe than sorry.

I found a delightful place for dinner that had a caprese salad.  It was really good.  The woman that made the salad was excited to tell me she made the mozzarella that day and showed me pictures of the process.  I find most people I have come into contact with want to welcome me and have an interaction with me even if small.  People are quite friendly here, especially outside the big city. 

I decided to keep my window open all night.   There didn’t seem to be too many bugs to make this a problem.  When the train went by, it sounded like a jet plane was landing in my room.  Either I was too tired to care or the trains stopped running at night, because they didn’t keep me awake.

Rain Day

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Rain was predicted for today.  In fact it was raining when I went down from my room to breakfast.  I debated if I should bring the umbrella and rain jacket or just the rain jacket.  The umbrella is just another thing to carry and the rain was light.  I chose just the rain jacket.  I should have taken both.

Today, I had scheduled a tour through the streets of Tokyo on go-karts.  I was quite excited.  I hoped the rain didn’t ruin the activity.  I headed over to the kart shop.  There were four others signed up to go with me.

It was no longer raining, but the cart guy said it was expected to start back up in the middle of the 2 hour tour.  I could get a refund or if I decided to go, they would lend me a rain coat, rain pants, gloves, goggles AND a rain poncho.  Under all that, how would I even know if it was raining.  I should have taken the refund. 

The group of 4 came in after me and didn’t know you needed to have an international driver’s license to go on the tour.  So they couldn’t go.  It was just me.  I expected it would be me and a guide in karts zipping around.  That didn’t sound as fun as a big group, but it sounded fun enough so I suited up in all the anti rain stuff and watched the safety video. 

There would be a lead car and a follow car so I just had to follow the lead car and not run any red lights.  After a hands-on tutorial of the kart, I was ready to go.  Wait, there was no guide in a kart going with me.  This suddenly went down on the fun scale to fun adjacent.  

It started off ok.  I was a little slow at first.  I didn’t want to gun it and run into the lead car.  I would start up slow and then speed up just in time to have to break at a stop light.  Apparently I was driving around with my hazards on because the guy in the follow car ran up to me at a stop light and asked if I was ok and then turned them off.  Ooops. 

The turn signal was trying to get the better of me.  I couldn’t see the toggle switch under the wheel.  I missed it quite a few times and I bet I was driving around with it on when I wasn’t turning from time to time.  I don’t even know why I cared.  The follow car had a clear view of the lead car over my head and knew when we were turning.

It rained a little harder.  The break and gas pedals were slippery.  My goggles were streaked with rain.  The rain jacket hood slowly slipped farther back exposing more of my face and allowing water to drip into the jacket.  I couldn’t tell if I was mildly wet or completely soaked.

I basically was flying slowly (felt fast to me, but probably was annoyingly slow to everyone else) in a bubble between the lead and follow cars so I felt safe-ish.  But I was sitting on the ground by myself completely exposed to the elements in a vehicle that is squirrely.  Water was everywhere.  It rained harder and harder and became more difficult to see or push the pedals.  I had dropped solidly into the category of pure un-fun – no fun anywhere to be found.

I raised my hand at the next light which was the signal to abort. Someone from the lead car ran out and asked if I wanted to abort.  Yes, very much so.  The lead car found a safe place to pull over and I was shuttled into the lead car.  I have no idea what became of the kart.  We drove around a bit.  Then we stopped for a photo at Tokyo Station, then went back.

I have a coupon for another time.  I still think it would be a lot of fun not by myself.  

I asked if there was anything they recommended I could do that was fun and not in the rain.  My plan was to go to a park after, but  that was solidly in the non-fun category now.  My feet and pants were dry, but my top was not.  Both TeamLabs and the Harry Potter Tour were recommended.  Everyone kept asking if I was cold – not in the slightest.  I had my rain jacket, but they gave me a poncho to add to the mix. 

I looked up TeamLabs – no tickets available.  I looked up the HP tour.  There were tickets, but it seemed far away.  To HP or not to HP?  I didn’t have the energy to come up with another idea.  I ordered a cab to the HP tour which cost the same as the HP tickets. 

They gave me a plastic bag to put my wet poncho in.  That was nice.  The tour covered a lot about how the movies were made.  It also had a bunch of sets that looked like the movie sets so you could walk through them.  Most of the instructions by staff were in Japanese, but it wasn’t hard to get the gist.  There were places where you could act out scenes or get your picture taken.  I tried them all, but, wow, I’m horrible.  Not that anyone around me was great, but each time I watched the video I just made, I cringed.  It wasn’t even funny bad acting.

The best part of the whole thing was that about 90% of the people, including the adults went into the gift shop ahead of the tour and bought a cape, scarf and wand.  The place was completely covered in giddy, excited people running around pretending they were wizards.  They were posing for pictures, waving their wands to do spells, and having the best time ever.

Halfway through the tour was a cafe and a bar where you could get butter beer.  I was quite ready to try butter beer.  I love everything butter.  I got the butter beer and popcorn combo.  The butter beer smelled like butterscotch, but didn’t quite taste like it.  It just tasted sweet.  It was fun to sit at the pub and have a butter beer.  It also came in a souvenir cup.  My poor husband is going to get a bunch of souvenir cups when I get home and not a single cat hat.

After taking way too many pictures it was time to figure out how to get back to the hotel.  The trains would take over an hour and would involve walking in the pouring rain.  I was in a zone Go Taxis were not allowed because there was a formal taxi stand nearby.  Go is like Uber.  There was no taxi stand anywhere in sight.  There was nothing.  I thought if I headed out to the street, I might get out of the no Go zone.  I got out of the zone, but no Go’s were available in the area.  I was  completely soaked now anyway despite the gift poncho.  I ask maps to find the train station.  I hoped my phone continued to work even though it was also soaked.  Wandering through train stations and riding trains for an hour and my clothes were dry again. Yay for quick drying clothes. 

This was going to be a good night to eat at the hotel.  No, it was closed for a private party just like every other night.  Back out into the rain.  I went back to the place I went the first night for more meat on a stick.

Planets and Towers

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The last time I was in Tokyo, I went to a light exhibit by TeamLabs.  I don’t even know how to describe it, but it blew my mind.  Digital light effects, computer generated, interactive, magical,…..  Since then I have gone to everything like it including one in Singapore by TeamLabs.  None came close to comparing.  So first order of business for the day was to go to their second installation in Tokyo, Planets.

Planets did not disappoint.  There were three exhibits that included water.  One was wading in a koi pond.  The water was up to my mid calf.  The koi were digital light images on the water.  They interacted with you as you walked through the pond.  Some swam around you, others skittered off when you approached.  When they ran into each other, they turned into flowers that floated off.  Pure magic.

I could explain more of the exhibits, but I couldn’t do them justice.  The pictures and videos below are just an approximation also, but enjoy.

After, I went to the small cafe outside.  They had a “bar” where you could sit with the orchids from one of the exhibits and get a sake or a tea.  I got a tea.  I sat in a dark room with a couple while the vases the orchids were in lit up on a slow neon fade. My tea cup also lit up. It was an odd, not quite satisfying experience.  It also came with a free orchid (no flower, just the plant).  More odd.  Now I’m toting a rather large green thing around that I can’t take home with me.  I hope my friend that I will see later in the trip or the retreat center I am going to will like it.

After stashing my orchid in my hotel room, I decided to head off to a park near the Tokyo tower. I walked from the train station toward the tower and saw a shrine along the way. I stopped in a cafe for lunch. The tower was close so I decided to take some pictures around there before heading to the park. I went in and saw that tickets to the observation deck were not very expensive. I bought a ticket for entry to the top observation deck. I had an hour to kill before my ticket entry time. So, I went up to the mid observation deck and walked around about ten times. I got a coffee, snapped some pictures and watched a movie about the war and the building of the tower. The park I was aiming to go to didn’t look too impressive from way up high. In every direction I looked, there was just city as far as the eye could see. No end to Tokyo in any direction. Then I went up to the top deck in a very crowded elevator. The views from the top deck looked a lot like the views from the mid deck so I did a couple laps around and headed back down.

All of this took the better part of a day. It was so nice to have a planned activity followed by wandering. I decided to wander to a different part of the city in search of ramen for dinner.

Help Needed

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

This blog post is for, you, my OG Subscribers. 

I am in the process of writing a book.  The book will be about what it was like to join a search and rescue team as a middle aged woman.  Also, about the beautiful and wonderful moments found in nature and the diverse people I have met along the way.

Unfortunately, writing a book in 2025 also involves having a marketing plan and having an on-line presence.  I’d like to bump up the number of people subscribing to my blog to help show publishers that people like my writing.

I decided to make some rain drop themed metal charm pieces as an incentive/thank you for any of you that are willing to share my blog with others so that I can increase my number of subscribers.  I have sample photos below.  Most can be used as a necklace pendant or other decoration.  I can also do key rings or a fidget spinner (also pictured below). 

If you can help me gain 5 – 10 new subscribers I will send you a charm.  10 – 15 new subscribers I will let you choose the style and metal (copper, brass, bronze, jewelry nickel) you want and make it specifically for you.  If you can help me gain 15 – 20 new subscribers, I will add a stone to the piece and/or make it in silver.  20+ subscribers, we can discuss another design, earrings, or whatever you may want that is in my jewelry skill set.

Once new subscribers sign up, I will email them to find out who recommended them and keep track.

Other ways you can help.  If you want to write a short testimonial about why you like my writing, I can gather those to give to publishers.  It would also help me for future blogs.  You could post a comment here or email me.  rrainefiore@gmail.com.

Upcoming:  1.  I am currently in Japan and will be sharing stories of my travels with you.  2.  Later, I will be posting a survey to help determine what I should put in the blog after Japan.  What do you want to read about?  3.  I will post some chapters from my book.

Offensive Snowflake

On By rrainefioreIn TravelLeave a comment

I’ve been planning this trip to Japan for about a month now. I’ve been to Japan twice before so this should be easy. I feel like the world is getting more crowded and reservations for things are more necessary than they use to be. Gone are the days where you just show up, find a hotel, wander, find dinner and then decide last minute to do that tour or see that thing. In some places, it could still work out that way, but I might be too old to just show up and find a hotel when I arrive, especially when travelling alone. I booked all my hotels ahead of time for this trip. That was pretty easy. I booked some activities that I was pretty excited about. Then I started to book all the high speed trains (and one normal speed bus) I would need. I had it all mapped out only to find out you couldn’t order tickets more than a month in advance. It was quite a bit of work to figure out times and routes to get where I wanted to go as there were so many options. Which options would involve the least amount of walking with my suitcase? I found out that you could ship your suitcase in most situations, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I could check in at each hotel. So, I had to assume worst case, I would be dragging a suitcase with me. It took me the better part of a day to figure out which trains I wanted tickets for so I recorded the various websites to buy tickets from later and the times and routes I wanted. I just wanted to buy the tickets then and be done with this part of the planning, but I would have to wait.

After I bought the first tickets, I expected a ticket I could print or a QR code I could download. Instead, I found pages of information on how to “receive” my tickets in Japan. I looked up a large list of stations where I could receive tickets and the one I would be departing from was not on that list. I looked it up twice – not sure why I thought it would change – it didn’t. So I switched gears and looked at the pages of instructions on how to receive tickets from a machine. It felt like the worst easter egg hunt ever – find a machine (somewhere in Tokyo?) that had this symbol or this symbol and then go through these 10 steps to receive your ticket. You will need the credit card you bought the ticket with and a four digit pin you chose. At this point I started to regret deciding to do this trip and seriously wondered if I was getting too old to travel, too old to learn new things. My house and life in Colorado were starting to feel all too comfortable. In small print I saw that tickets could be received at select ticket counters in Tokyo. It didn’t say which ticket counters, but at least I could formulate a plan now. I would try to find a ticket counter at the airport when I landed. I remember getting train tickets there in the past. If that didn’t work, I would go to the main train station in Tokyo one day and find a ticket counter.

Over time I bought four more train tickets and a bus ticket. Four of the five train tickets had the same “receive” instructions. The other and the bus ticket came with QR codes. One train ticket required that I set up a membership before I could purchase. I have no idea what I am a member of. Of course, this is the one that my credit card company denied. I had to enter my membership information at least fifteen times due to the website timing out, the website verifying my membership, the website going under maintenance, and the transaction not going through because of the credit card denial. I spent over a half hour on the phone with the credit card company trying to resolve the issue. Again, I almost threw in the towel on the whole trip. I will still have to pay as I go for all the local trains and one bus ride that are not reservable.

By the time it was time to leave, I felt beat up and incapable. Add that to some health issues and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to go. I checked in for my flight the day before and got to the page where it asked if I wanted to change my seats. There were plenty of first class seats still available and I was feeling sorry for myself so I clicked on a first class seat and put my credit card in. I felt a mix of better and worse at the same time. It felt like this would be my last trip ever so I might as well have a lie down seat for it. Who am I right now and where are these doomsday thoughts coming from? Is this just because the train scheduling got the better of me or because I’m not as healthy as I used to be or do I just need a snack?

I woke up early for travel day – earlier than I would normally so that put me in a bad mood. I immediately regretted buying the first class seat. I was going to really miss my husband. I was hoping I would say healthy. I had a weird thought that I was afraid my government wouldn’t let me back in the country when I came home – some crazy things are happening in our government right now. As with a lot of things lately, I blame menopause. After I checked in and went through security I found some breakfast and immediately started crying. I hadn’t told my husband that I upgraded my seat. Ultimately, he was the person working and paying for it. It felt like a huge weight. It felt like I was lying to him even though I was technically withholding information, information he probably would never know. I called him sobbing and apologizing. He was fine with it. I realized that part of why I feel so horrible is that I’m leaving him behind. Even though he chose not to come, it still feels weird to not take my partner in crime with me.

The flight was ok. I had trouble sleeping partly because there were two women that talked the whole flight and partly because there was an infant babbling most of the flight. First class does not buy quiet. I did get two blankets, two pillows, slippers and a kit with ear plugs, eye mask, tooth brush, etc. I watched a few movies and got a little sleep. I woke up mid flight, hungry and was able to get a grilled cheese and some tomato soup. That was the best timed grilled cheese ever. I guess I’m off the keto now.

After landing, I was able to find a JR East ticket counter. Even though all my tickets were on JR West, the lady at the counter knew exactly what I needed and easily printed all my tickets for me. It took less time to print all my tickets than it took to read about how to receive them. All that stress for nothing. She also helped me with a local train card that I could reload with money later if I needed. Then I took a taxi to my hotel. I should have taken a couple of trains instead. More money down the drain and no grilled cheese to go with it.

My hotel had check in agents with an automated check in screen in front of them. You were supposed to enter all your information and it would spit out your breakfast coupons and room key. So basically, the lady behind the desk pushed all the buttons for me when I got confused on how to do the automated check in steps by myself. Again, am I too old to be travelling? My room is tiny. The window looks out at the side of another building. The bathroom is slightly bigger than the bathroom in our camper van. But the TV is giant. The hotel reminds me that some people in the world live in spaces this size. I am filled with gratitude for all that I have.

I picked a hotel with a restaurant so that if I was too tired to go out on the first night I wouldn’t have to. The restaurant was closed for a private party. So, out I will go. Google maps found a few restaurants with in a ten minute walk. I picked one with a medium price. I was in an area that seemed to be more business offices so it was very quiet out. Maps took me down some quiet streets to a closed restaurant. The second restaurant I chose was also closed. I should have clicked the “open now” filter. The third one was open and not at all crowded. They specialized in yakitori and I happen to like meat on a stick so it was a win. They brought me a small dish that looked like a salad before my chicken trio. Aw, how nice. I looked in the bowl and saw something silvery under the beautiful micro greens. I don’t eat fish and I’m sure that is raw fish hiding under the microgreens. I felt bad for not eating my free treat. But the chicken was excellent. The walk back to the hotel was cool and peaceful. It took this long, but I finally felt my nervous system start to relax. Maybe I wasn’t too old to travel after all.

The tv in my room told me that this hotel has a public bath. The tv comes on automatically every time I come in the room. It comes on to a hotel information page with lots of helpful and not so helpful little videos that tell me about Japan and the hotel. There is a little sign that tells you if the public bath is busy or not. Tonight, it wasn’t. The tv told me the correct way to put on my bathrobe (yukata) and that I could wear it from my room to the public bath. That seems like a simple bit of information, but I was happy to know it. It also told me that tattoos are not allowed in the public bath, but the hotel has stickers you can use to cover them. That was good to know too since I wasn’t sure which baths allow them and which do not. I will need to cover that very offensive snowflake on my foot, the terrifying bird on my shoulder, the rude turtle on my chest, and the kuma (bear in Japanese, my old dog’s name) on my leg and the dirty frog on my back. To be fair, the frog is a blue poisonous tree frog so it could be dangerous, but the rest are not. I asked for stickers at the front desk and the guy gave me two. I felt funny asking for three more. All stickered up, I looked like I had gotten in a knife fight and was all bandaged up from it. The baths and lack of good sleep put me very ready for bed by about 9:30. Finally I was looking forward to the rest of my trip.

My Tiny Room
Quiet Streets
Hidden Fish
Yay! Meat on a Stick
Temple?
Road Block for Nobody?
Free to Borrow
View from my Hotel Window

Going Home

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel2 Comments

What a wonderful trip, but I am extremely ready to go home.   I have a theory that no matter how long I travel, I am done and ready to go home 1 to 2 days before actually going home.  Once again, this theory has turned out to be true.  This is great because it also means I live in the right place, a place I look forward to going home to.  I have a husband and furry kids I look forward to going home to.  I had help packing this morning from Hannah’s furry kids, but I miss mine.  Now, I also have a new career to go home to.  I left an engineer and I go home an artist.

There is only one commercial airline that flies to and from Valdez.  Yesterday, my tour guide said there is one flight a day and a 50/50 chance it flies.  Mild panic.  I tried not to think about it.  It will fly because I’m on it.  Her comment did ruin my sleep last night.  As much as I knew I could manifest a timely flight, my dreams were frantic with me losing things or getting lost.

I learned you could buy salmon in a jar in a vending machine.

The flight took off fine.  Only one person on the incoming flight and 6 of us on the outgoing flight.  They gave us a drink and cookies.  The attendant was so cheerful and all the staff at the airport was delightful. 

I was not on the harbor side of the plane.  I would have liked to see the harbor, Prince William Sound, and whatever else could be seen in that direction.  But, I did get to see a glacier, then another and another.  Glacier after glacier and steep white capped mountains.  It was breathtaking.  I got my glacier flight after all.  The view was through the distorted tiny window while peering under the wing, but it was still amazing.  I sat for half the flight with my head pressed up against the window, crying at the wild beauty of it while shoving cookies in my mouth.  Then we flew into a cloud, and all the mountains disappeared in the blanket of white.

Got to Anchorage, had some lunch, and borded a less delightful but good enough flight to Seattle.

Froze but butt off from Anchorage to Seattle.  Got to Seattle and exhaustion set in, but multiple gate changes helped me pass the time before my next flight.

Got into Denver around midnight.  So good to see my husband!  After one more hotel room tonight, I’ll be home tomorrow.

Icebergs

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel1 Comment

Today, I was supposed to go to Columbia glacier to kayak around the icebergs. It was a 10 hour tour, but there was also the chance of seeing whales, sea lions, and seals. After the Aurora tour when I felt so exhausted, I called the company I was kayaking with and asked if I could change to the shorter kayak tour that went to a nearby lake and kayaked around the icebergs in the lake.

It would have been nice to see Columbia glacier, but it was also nice to have a shorter day.  There were no whales in the lake.  Although the lake is 600+/- feet deep.  There were only 5 of us plus the guide.  That was a nice sized group.  We paddled around the lake.  Made a shore stop for lunch and then paddled some more. 

The clouds finally lifted.  It’s nothing but steep mountains everywhere.  It’s impossible to tell that this is a port town as every finger of land has mountains on it.  It looks like you are in a mountain-locked bowl.  The mountains rise straight up from sea level – nothing gradual here.  It really is so stunning.

Our tour guide raved about some of the food trucks in town, so I had some ginger chicken from the Thai food truck after we got back.  Later, I went for a walk around the neighborhood with Hannah and Colin and the dogs.  Saw a mamma and baby moose in their backyard. 

I am so in love with ice.  I’m completely drawn in by it.  I’ve seen glaciers and ice before, and it still feels like my first encounter with it.  I love the shades of blue, black, white, and clear.  It has so many textures.  Some ice is smooth, clear, and glistening, like ice cubes in your glass.  Some of the clear ice has beautiful patterns of cracks and bubbles trapped below the smooth surface.  Other ice is dimpled, opaque, and looks fuzzy like a stuffed animal from afar.  There are black streaks where the glacier wore down rocke into a fine black dust.  Some icebergs still have rocks in them, or the ice above the rocks melted, leaving a roof of black rocks.  These icebergs look like the shoreline, but they aren’t.  There are holes, caverns, ice bridges, and mini waterfalls.  We kayaked through open water and mini canyons of ice. 

Alaska

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, TravelLeave a comment

Days 11 and 12 of my roadtrip were mostly driving. I left Whitehorse and got to drive past Kluane National Park again. It was just as beautiful. The road was quite bad most of the way. There were giant potholes and undulations in the pavement that almost threw you into the air, or maybe they did. So there was quite a bit of speeding up, cussing and slowing down.

I got to the Alaska US border. The border guy was way less enjoyable than the guy when I entered Canada. He started off with an accusatory tone like how dare I try to come into the US and just kept going.

Border Dude: “Where are you going”?

Me: “Valdez”.

BD: “Why”?

Me: “To visit my friends that just moved there and bring them their truck”. [In my head: To see Alaska, duh]

BD: “Why are you driving it”?

Me: “Because they just moved there”. [As I just told you]

BD: “Why didn’t they drive it”?

Me: “Because 2 people can’t drive 3 vehicles. [in my head: haven’t you ever moved?]

BD: “What are their names”?

Me: “Hannah and Colin” [You know them?]

BD: “How are you getting home”?

Me: “Flying” [This is not the job for you].

He did let me through, but I still don’t understand why he had such a chip on his shoulder. The rest of the drive to Tok was beautiful as was the next day to Valdez. The leaves were even more yellow than the Yukon. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see much of the mountains in Valdez because it was cloudy and raining. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. The clouds were stunning. They engulfed everything around them or they outlined other things. It was a quiet, heavy, and beautiful. Also so fun to see Hannah and Colin’s new home!

ATV Tour

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel1 Comment

I wanted to a helicopter or plane flight over the glaciers.  I called a ton of companies before I left home to see if I could join an existing tour.  None of them had existing tours.  I didn’t want to pay for the whole plane/helicopter.  So I booked an atv tour with a different company.   I won’t get to see glaciers, but it should still be fun.

I woke up feeling miserable.   I felt like I had a hangover even though I didn’t drink the night before.  I didn’t get back from the Aurora tour until 4am.  Some people on the Aurora tour bought packages of more than one night.  They are doing this every night.  That might kill me.  The tour was great, but mother nature didn’t cooperate.  They take you about 45 minutes outside of town to the “Aurora Center”.  They have a cabin, several huge yurts, and some tepees.  They had games, books, snacks and a wood stove in the cabin.  They set a fire in one of the tepees.  You could hang out outside or in while you waited. 

The tour was 15 people, but the center could handle 50+.  I mostly hung out with the three ladies from Australia.   The rest of the people were from Asia, Japan mostly.  It was cloudy and the clouds never lifted.  If you took a picture with a camera, you could see green and pink clouds.  Some cell phones took ok pictures.   Mine got nothing but a grey sky or just all black.  The lights were happening, just not for us.

I almost canceled the atv tour.  I almost called to see if I could do the half day instead of the full day.  Instead, I sucked it up and went.   I didn’t read the driving directions until I was on my way.  After reading the directions: “turn into the driveway of the blue house, drive past the blue house and we’ll be the next cabin.”, I thought this might be some dude’s house, not an ATV facility.

I got to the cabin.  It was a tiny cabin where Fabian, his wife Raphaelle and their young daughter live.  Two ATVs sat out front.  A sled dog greeted me.  It was definately a private tour.  I’m so glad I didn’t cancel.  He outfitted me with a helmet and gave me an overview of what the day would be like.

We rode to a couple different lakes.  We rode through the river.  The fresh air was exactly what I needed to feel better.  We could go as fast or slow as I wanted.  We went up to the top of one of the hills with great views over the whole area and stunning views of the mountains all around.  The hills appeared to be lit from the inside with reds, oranges, and every hue of yellow.  At the top, we had lunch, which Raphaelle had made – an omelet sandwich with cheese and kale from their garden.  There was also tea made from plants in the area.   This was the best part – the attention to detail and the personal touch.

We went back down to another lake. We accessed it from the property of a friend of his. It was another cabin. This was a whole neighborhood of small spaced out cabins. All of them were pretty simple. All of them had outhouses. I find it funny that I can’t get the idea of living with an outhouse out of my mind. If I had to go out into the Yukon cold several times a night…… brrrr…. Maybe an outhouse is easier than plumbing, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a factor of what you are used to.

As we sat by the lake, I learned more about Fabian and Raphaelle. They came out from France for dog sledding (they had 12 dogs then) and loved it so they stayed. He works as ski patrol in the winter and bike patrol in the summer. He also leads people on tours – atv, BC ski, dog sled (he has 5 dogs now), and snowmobile. He is hoping to make a good business of this so he doesn’t have to do patrol anymore. I love this and hope he does. As we sat, he pulled out berry muffins made from berries they picked. I’m very glad I found this company and didn’t cancel.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at Miles Canyon in Whitehorse for a couple of pictures.

 

Kluane

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, Travel1 Comment

Today, I did a day tour of Kluane National Park. The tour description mentioned going to the visitor’s center, a lake, and a small park. How can that take 8 hours?

There were only 5 of us on the tour. We went to the visitor’s center, two lakes, two hikes to overlooks, an old bridge, and multiple roadway overlooks. We saw dall sheep, although you needed binoculars to know they were sheep.The mountains are stunning, rugged, snow-capped, and wild. There are no roads into the park. The only way in is to hike or fly. The whole area is a UNESCO world heritage site and contains Kluane National Park, Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, Glacier Bay National Park, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

I’m glad the hikes were short. My ankle did real well for only having surgery a month ago.

We learned a little about the history of the area, the First Nation’s tribes, the gold rush and the construction of the Alaska Highway.

It was a 10 hour day. I went straight to dinner after we got back. I iced my ankle after dinner and fought hard to stay awake. Now it’s 11:30pm and I’m back on the tour bus heading out of town in hopes of seeing Aurora Boreals. There’s 15 people on this tour. We get back around 4:00am. I may have bitten off more than I can chew.