a breath of fresh air

Vancouver - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:54:00 +0000

A bright piercing light shone through the curtain windows and finally woke me up around eight. Today we were going to the BC Museum of Mining and to Grouse Mountain. Our first stop was the mining camp and to get there we drove north on the Sea to Sky highway. You could tell that this road had been spruced up for the winter Olympics last year. The mine is actually about half way between Vancouver and Whistler Mountain where the games took place. The views on this drive were just as gorgeous as the ones on Seward Highway in Alaska; mountains on one side and blue green water on the other. Again the sun was shining in the sky and we enjoyed the beautiful drive.

The mine is hard to miss as you come into the little town. The white building covers nearly the entire face of the hill it sits upon. The town is quaint and we were quite sure what to expect. As we entered the visitors’ area we watched a short video about the mine and learned that it was isolated from the time it began in the early 1900s until 1954 when the road was built. The town was a company town and the only people who lived there were miners and their families. The mine closed down in 1974 and a few years later was opened to tourists. After the video we went to the supply room and picked up our hard hats and made our way up the stairs to the train that would take us into the mine.

Our tour guide as it turned out actually worked at the mine from 1964 until it closed in 1974. He took us inside and explained where the explosives were stored. As we rode further inside the walls began to change from orange to blue. This is where the copper was changing colors. A little further along the track we stopped to get out and walk down one of the tunnels. The guide demonstrated the drills that were used and showed us the “honey truck”. One little girl asked a great question… “Do you just sit there and go in front of everyone?” What we all forgot was that the nice bright electric bulbs hanging over our head were not there when the mine was in operation. The guide went and turned out the lights and showed us just how dark it was inside the mine. He brought out a few examples of what was used for light from candles, to chemical fires, to battery operated lights. So the answer was yes. You just sat there and went in front of everyone, but really in the dark you can’t even see your hand in front of your face, let alone some one doing their business.

When we came out of the mine he showed us where all the core samples are stored. There is a still lot of copper in the mine; it just isn’t economical to get it out. Then we went inside the mill and marveled at the eight stories above us. Right inside the door were the “stairs” you climbed to get to the top floors. Basically they are wood slats that go up eight stories at a 45° angle with no hand rail. Obviously, I could never have worked in this mill. The guide also explained to us how they got the minerals out of the muck that was brought out of the mine. The primary mineral at the mine is copper, but silver and gold are byproducts produced there as well. The last stop of the tour was at the gold panning building where we learned how to pan for gold and got to keep anything we found.

I found a little gold fleck in my first pan! And then I found another one! ….and then I found out that they “stock” the water with gold flecks. But you know what? I don’t care, it is still real gold and with the price at $1,500 an ounce my flecks have got to be worth at least 1¢. SLK also found a fleck of gold, but Chatty didn’t have much luck. Or maybe it was just that she didn’t have enough patience.

We walked around and looked in all the buildings at the various displays and then took our picture with the huge dump truck onsite. By this time my stomach was growling so we headed across the street to the burger shack which was really a kitchen in a bus with a deck built on. It was just what we needed before we headed back south to Grouse Mountain.

On our way back down the highway we stopped at a little park to take some pictures and noticed that is was actually a little marina and there were several people scuba diving. The water was pretty clear, but I can’t imagine scuba diving in water that cold. Apparently, they have built several artificial reefs near the shore for the divers to look at, but I think I will stick to the warm Caribbean waters.

Grouse Mountain was pretty busy by the time we arrived, but we were lucky to find a parking spot right near the lift entrance. We stopped at guest services to register for our zip line tour and found out that the next tour didn’t start for two hours. However, we were told that there were plenty of things to do up on the mountain in the mean time. So we bought our tickets and then got in line. After standing in line for a few minutes we realized we were in the ticket line. Since we already had our tickets we didn’t need to be in line at all. Duh! When we got over to the loading area for the lift it was just leaving so we had to stand and watch it go all the way up. That was probably the worst part for me. It gives me time to think about it! When the lift finally came back down we loaded in with about fifty other people and started our ride up. My plan was to close my eyes/look down at the floor and hold on tight. It was a pretty smooth ride except for the two towers that we went over, which both rocked the car pretty good. At the top we stepped out and then made our way over to the chalet. We watched two short films, browsed the gift shop, and then headed across the snow to the zip line desk. It was pretty awkward to walk on the snow in our tennis shoes especially with all of the people skiing around us, but we finally made it.

The first thing we had to do was sign a release waiver and then we got to put on our harness. Right about that time is when I started to get nervous. The two girls that were going to be our guides were about seventeen and were cranked up on energy drinks. After the brief safety talk, a little too short for me, we headed out with our trolley. The first zip line was just outside the building. I tried to let the other people in our group in front of us so that I wouldn’t have to go first, but I didn’t have much luck. As the girl was hooking me up to the line, I had some serious second thoughts, but then she unclipped the safety and I was gone. Before I really knew it, I was already at the other end. My legs were pretty shaky, but after I relaxed a minute I thought that wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought it would be.

The next line was down a set of stairs carved in the snow. SLK was in front of me and as she stepped off the second step her leg fell through the snow all the way to her hip. It took a little while for her to get back out and I wasn’t much help! Somehow she always manages to get wet during our adventures (White water rafting in Alaska). This line was much longer than the first line, was higher, steeper, and went through the trees. After seeing the other people go I knew this one was going to be faster too. I stepped up on the platform to get hooked on and then woosh! Away I went. The cold air stung my eyes even behind my sunglasses. The trees rushed past me on my right side and I stole a quick glance and the snow far below me. They warned us that at the end of the lines was a bag with springs behind that would cushion our stop. They said it would be a pretty good hit, but seriously, it was like getting hit by a truck. Whack! Basically you go from 80 to 0 in about half a second.

After I shook the stars away, we walked down another set of snow stairs and made it to the third line. This one was lower to the ground and took you right over the lake. Again not so intimidating. When I hit the springs this time it was much softer and I even sprang back out over the lake before gliding back in to the platform. So overall, the zip line wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, but I found out the snow was 400 feet deep. So it might be a little more intimidating if it was all melted.

What they didn’t tell us was that we now had to hike back up the mountain carrying our trolley and without good shoes. It was a pretty tough climb and again SLK fell in the snow. This time it was only about knee deep, but as soon as she stood up she lost her balance and fell flat on her face. But I knew she was alright when I heard her laugh. Once we finally made it back to the desk I was pretty exhausted and ready for dinner.

Food was just about the only thing I could think of at this point so we ate at one of the restaurants at the Chalet. A nice apple cider was just what I needed. Dinner was delicious. But the sun was starting to set and it was time for us to head back to our hotel.

Sunday morning we woke up and headed back to Seattle. Again crossing the border was quick and painless. No forms, no lines, just a few simple questions and we were on our way. It started raining as we made our way south, but our only plans for today were to stop at an outlet mall just north of Seattle so it didn’t bother us at all. After several hours of shopping we got back on the road to Seattle and had just enough time to do a little sightseeing before Chatty had to go back to Alaska.

The weather was good, the food was good, and of course the company was great! I love that my friends like to travel and that they will go with me to new and exciting places. I even like that they make me do things that scare me.

Image credits: Kimberly Seidensticker and Shauna Knoernschild for this post and the last one.

Vancouver - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:52:00 +0000

Friday morning started early for us. We were not yet on Pacific Time and we didn’t have any new clothes to put on so we headed down for breakfast at six when they opened. By six-thirty we were in the car and headed to Stanley Park. The air was a little cool and the dew was still fresh, but the sun was on its way up. As we entered the park we stopped at the visitor center to grab a map. We were a little confused about the parking situation but we figured that we were pretty safe since it was only six-thirty and we were virtually the only people in the park. It really was the best time to see the park. As we made our way around the park we pulled over at every point on the map and took some pictures. We stopped at the totem poles, the lighthouse, a huge tree on the side of the road, a look out for Lion Bridge, another huge tree- this one hollow, a beach, and just at the edge of the park were some crazy statues.

Our next driving tour was through the neighborhood of Gastown, but since it was so early none of the shops were really open. We decided that maybe we should go back to the hotel and check on the bags, it was eight o’clock surely they would be there. Sadly, no they were not there. So we headed up to the room to browse the brochures and see what we could do with what we had with us. We decided on the Chinese Gardens and then some lunch and then back to the hotel to check on the bags. Although the Chinese Gardens were not at the top of our original list, they were reasonably priced and a free tour with oolong tea was offered. The tour lasted about an hour and it was totally worth it. When we first entered into the garden you could see almost the entire area from where you stood, but after walking around with the guide and having everything explained, from the type of wood used to where the plants were situated, made the whole experience feel like you were in China. We would walk to a corner of the garden and listen to the significance of everything that was there and then pause to watch the turtles in the little pools and the koi swimming around them. After our tour we had tea and tried our hand at Chinese Calligraphy. We walked through Chinatown and then back up to Gastown. The shops were open by this time and we made our way through the row of souvenir shops before we settled on a place for lunch.

Back at the hotel our luggage had finally arrived! After a quick shower and change of clothes we headed out to the Capilano suspension bridge. We missed our turn onto Lions Bridge, so we had to detour through Stanley Park. It was so crowded! We were really happy that we had gone early in the morning before the crowds of people on skates, bikes and on foot took over the sidewalks and streets. Not to mention all the cars. We would never have been able to stop and take pictures like we had done that morning. The drive through the park was definitely more crowed at this time of day, but we made it to Lion’s Bridge and headed across to North Vancouver. It didn’t take long to arrive at the Capilano suspension bridge. It is really like a little theme park, you pay one price to enter (discount if you are a AAA member) and then you can do anything inside the gates for free. The only scary thing is you have to cross this gigantic suspension bridge to do anything. The bridge is the length of two jumbo jets wing to wing and can hold something like ninety-five elephants at one time. There is a guy who sits at the edge of the bridge in a little shack with a megaphone to scold visitors who are not following the rules. At first I was thinking I needed to give myself some time to get ready to cross the bridge, but then I realized, if I let it sink in, I probably wouldn’t do it. So I just put my head down and started down the steps.

My first step on the bridge set my heart racing. I gripped both sides of the cables, which were so far apart that my arms were fully stretched. You could definitely feel the bridge moving; swaying side to side and bouncing with every step. I shuffled along and kept my eyes on the ground. Not the ground, but where I was walking. The ground was several stories below us complete with a rushing river. Okay, well maybe it was “rushing” but it was there and I am sure it was cold. Anyway, I made my way across, pausing every once in a while to let someone pass. I think I turned my head a few times to check that Chatty and SLK were still behind me. Of course they were; they were giggling and taking pictures. My mouth was getting dry and I really just wanted to be on the other side. As I got closer I noticed there was a bit of a line to exit/enter the bridge and I got even more scared that I would have to stop. I would just be out there- hanging in the wind. I finally made it up the stairs and back on the solid ground. Whew! Obstacle one down. The next obstacle was not far, in fact it was above us. In the brochure they describe the tree top village as a scene right out of Star Wars. The Ewok Village, of course all I imagined when I read this was the cute little furry Ewoks. I didn’t think about the platforms and bridges high above the ground. When I really started to think of it I imagined that we would have harnesses or something to keep us from falling.

As we entered the big hollow tree and slowly made our way to the first platform I realized, there would be no harness. You just walk out on the suspension bridges and make your way to the next platform. You slowly make your way higher and higher into the tress before you start to come back down again. I tried to stop my mind from thinking of all the things that could go wrong as I stepped out on to the first bridge. Still pretty shaky, but at least it was just the three of us on it at one time. Although the platforms were pretty sturdy they still made me nervous. I am sure to any other adult this was just like the toys we used to play on as a child at the park. But to me it was just an obstacle I had to pass to get to the end. And fast. I stopped for a few group pictures, but my main goal was getting to the end.

Safely back on the ground, we headed down a path to admire the trees. From one spot on the path we had a really good view of the big bridge so I sent Chatty and SLK back to the bridge for some pictures. After waiting for about fifteen minutes they finally showed up on the bridge, apparently we weren’t all that close to the end of the trail. We met up again and the brave ones decided to go back up in the trees one more time before we went back across. On the way back I decided no stopping this time. Anyone who stopped in front of me, I pretty much just said excuse me and pushed right past. I think I made it in record time. Last stop was at the gift shop and then we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest before dinner.

After all the excitement we had that day I was ready for bed by nine o’clock. Plus I needed my rest for the excitement that was coming tomorrow.

Tulsa to Vancouver

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Finally, a story to tell you! Let me just say that you know it will be good when you remember after 40 miles of driving that you didn’t pack your tooth brush. Lucky for me I have friends who are like me and keep new ones in the house and can give you one when you forget yours. I thought well at least now I know what I forgot! Little did I know that was only the beginning.

As I pulled into the airport and parked the car in the reserved section at the back corner of the lot I thought, “Perfect. Right on schedule.” The shuttle bus pulled around just as I pulled my luggage out of the car and I ran over and dropped the keys in the lock box. The shuttle driver was a friendly guy and we had a nice chat on the way around to the terminal. Just as we pulled up I realized I didn’t have my cell phone. I left it in the car. And the keys were already in the lock box. So I kindly asked the shuttle driver if he could take me back to the car and could he also radio the office and ask someone to meet us with the key? After a little grumbling from the office he agreed to meet us at the lock box.

Back at the terminal I was happy to find out I had been upgraded for my second flight and therefore I would be able to check three bags free. Since I had two bags I offered to check SLK’s bag too. And she happily accepted. Security was a breeze and we stopped for a beverage on the way to our gate. At boarding time we gathered our carry-on bags and made our way down the ramp to the plane. It was a surprisingly big plane for the short trip to Dallas. All of the passengers made it on board and stored their belongings, then we pulled back from the gate- only to stop about five feet back. And then we sat. And sat. And sat. When our departure time came and went I knew it wasn’t going to be good. And we sat some more. Finally, we heard from the captain. “Good morning folks, sorry for the delay we are just waiting on some thunderstorms in Dallas. Should be moving here shortly.” Eventually we took off, but by this time I knew we would not be able to make up the time and I was hoping that we would still have time to make it to our next flight. When we landed, we had exactly fifteen minutes until our next departure. By the time we taxied to the gate, we had ten. We rushed to the top of the ramp and up the escalators to the tram. We made it just before the tram left the station and rode all the way around to the last stop.

Why is it that when you are in a rush you are always on the complete opposite end of the airport from where you need to be?

As we exited the tram and made our way down the escalator we hurried through the terminal to our gate. As we approached, I noticed that there was still a line of boarding passengers so I wasn’t too worried. I was hoping this would be the case. If we were late from storms, maybe they would be late from storms too. Sadly for SLK she didn’t have time to grab lunch, but we were told food was available for purchase so we didn’t worry.

As I relaxed in to my oversized plush leather first class seat I noticed one important feature was missing…the tv’s. Really a one hour flight to Dallas has tv screens on board, but a four hour flight to Seattle has no entertainment? Not even a radio plug? Good thing I brought some magazines and a movie of my own.

Four hours later, with one unhappy baby sitting directly behind me, we landed in Seattle. Since Chatty had arrived the night before I called to let her know we had finally landed and we would pick her up downtown in about an hour. SLK and I made our way through the l-o-n-g terminal building to the baggage area and found the prime spot for grabbing our baggage. Just as we got settled the buzzer went off and the belt began to move. “Could the following passengers, please see an agent at baggage services…” at this point I knew- although we made the flight, our luggage did not. “…Sarah Kuhn, wa wa wa wah, wa wa wa wah…” Yep.

The agent was nice and agreed to send our bags to Vancouver and have them delivered the following day. She even gave us a little toiletry kit. So we got our paperwork and headed to the rental car garage. We grabbed a car from the executive aisle and headed out into the city. We found Chatty’s hotel but unfortunately we took the scenic route (aka we got lost). We decided that since it was already nearly six we should have dinner before we drove to Vancouver. So we drove around the block and tried to park in several locations before we ended up back at the hotel to park in their garage. We then walked the four blocks back to the restaurant we had decided on.

The road to Canada was lined with tall evergreen trees and vistas with lake and mountain views. As we approached the border we didn’t really know what to expect, but as it turned out it was quick and painless. (This is now my preferred way to enter Canada. Since every other time is a huge hassle; last time I even had to go through immigration!) At this point the sun was starting to go down so the rest of the drive was in the dark. We made it to the hotel in downtown Vancouver and got all checked-in. It was a little uncomfortable to sleep in the same clothes we had worn all day, knowing that we would be wearing them again the next day too, but we finally drifted off to sleep around ten.

Just Keep Asking…

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:29:00 +0000

As promised I am writing to tell you about my first dance class.

My favorite quote from the teacher was, “just keep asking your muscles to move and eventually the right ones will respond.” That pretty much sums up my experience. I was asking my muscles to move it just wasn’t the right ones that were moving.

>The videos didn't help at all!
>I only had 2 or 3 laughing spells where I had to completely stop and regroup. The rest of the time I just giggled quietly.
>There are 2 other people in the class a lady who has been in the class a while and a ten year old. Both of them know what’s going on.
>I could move about 1% of the muscles that she asked us to move. The others are buried somewhere in my body… to be found/used at a later date.
>It is a lot harder than playing Just Dance on Wii.
>Pretty much every move involes standing/moving with your knees bent. For someone with a bum knee this was quite hard.

I can only get better!

Adventures in Belly Dancing

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:30:00 +0000

After much talk and discussion and joking and ha ha yeah right- my friend T Rocker and I decided to actually do it! Take belly dancing classes that is… I rented a few videos from the library. Yes I have a library card and I know how to use it! And after performing in front of the mirror along with the dancers on TV I determined that I wouldn’t look too stupid in a class.

We decided to attend Kitty Sparkle’s class because the time was convenient and because her name is Kitty Sparkle, but that part might have been obvious. After a bit of research we determined that the only things we needed to attend class were a non-see-through sport bra or tight shirt (I chose tight shirt) and bare feet or leather soled dance shoes a.k.a ballet shoes (I chose shoes). Surprisingly you cannot go into a store anywhere in Bartlesville and buy ballet shoes even though there is more than one dance studio in town. But I recalled seeing ballet shoes at Payless so while I was in Tulsa last week I stopped in to get a pair. Now mind you I was envisioning a pair of black shoes, but alas you can only get pink ones in the stores. I am now the proud owner of a pair of pink adult size ballet shoes. Go ahead and visualize that and laugh if you want to, but I would also like to remind you my other option was black feet from grime and grit. So laugh all you want I will wear my pink shoes with pride.

After I bought the shoes I wore them around the house for two days to get used to the feeling of having something touching my toes. I had to cut my toenails like four times before I was happy with the feeling. Not that my nails were extra long, but I didn’t like the way it rubbed so I cut them back. (I am sure you really wanted to know all of that, but if not I can help with the mental image by adding that I also painted them a pretty purple color.)

Quickly the day was approaching for the first class. The day before, T Rocker and I texted each other to say how excited we were and we made a plan. On the day of the class I drove down to Tulsa and met up with T Rocker as planned and we headed over to the dance studio. As we pulled up it became quite obvious that they were closed, as we were the only cars in the parking lot. I got out of the car to investigate and sure enough there was a sign inside that said closed until January 3.

I was pretty upset for two reasons: 1) I drove all the way down to Tulsa and 2) the calendar on the webpage definitely said there was a class. The silver lining was that T Rocker and I went and ate sushi and got all caught up on gossip. I guess you will have to wait until next week to hear about the first class. Adventures in Belly Dancing to be continued…

**If you live in Tulsa and want to join us send me a note and I will give you some details.**

Wind, Water, and Light- Fairbanks and the North Pole

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:03:00 +0000

The weather here in Anchorage is starting to turn cold and the summer sun is fading fast. When we arrived just two weeks ago, we still had more than twelve hours of daylight, but now we are down to somewhere around eleven and a half. The sun is still shining but boy oh boy has the wind picked up. Friday afternoon we had 30 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. This along with the tiny turbo prop plane that I would be boarding later that afternoon put me into a bit of an anxiety attack. (As you may remember I am still recovering from my flight in Wyoming.)

We boarded our tiny plane and then drove out on to the tarmac. Swinging side to side we rolled along. Then we stopped. And we sat. And we waited. No word from the front. We just sat and listened to the propellers hum. We rocked back and forth and we waited.

Fifteen minutes later we finally started to move again, we rolled forward made a sharp turn to the right and then speed down the runway; all the way swinging from side to side. When we lifted off we immediately began to turn and dip. My knuckles were white as I gripped the arm rests and tried to focus on something other than the bumpy flight. They said the air was smooth once we got out of Anchorage, if we could only get out of Anchorage. My ray of sunlight was that we did not have to fly over the mountains. After what seemed like an eternity (it was really only about 15 minutes) we finally got up to the smooth air. Although the ride was smooth, there was still a strong head wind which further delayed our arrival into Fairbanks. We finally touched down at 7:15pm.

As we made our way through the little terminal building we caught sight of a man in black leather pants and matching leather vest holding a “Chena Hot Springs” sign.

“I think you are looking for us.”
“Am I? Are there three of ya?”
“Yes sir. We just need to get our bags and we will be ready to go.”

Did I mention that said driver also had a white beard that fell to his chest? Yep, this guy is going to be a really awesome driver.

After my excitement at meeting our driver I was almost overwhelmed to see a classic mullet just standing by the door. I tried really hard to get a picture for A but not sure it turned out so well. After my failed attempts at taking pictures of all the crazy hair in the airport, our bags finally arrived and we went out to get in the van.

As we loaded up I could tell the driver was pretty upset about our late arrival, so I made a point to let him know we were delayed because of the wind, not because we were dilly dallying. Right about here is where the story starts to get interesting because this is when our driver launched into his story that lasted for the next two hours. He said so many great things I had to get out my phone to take notes. So fresh from the horses mouth here are some great nuggets from our driver.

First off “the government is the mafia”. That is why we were late arriving to Fairbanks, lest you thought it was the wind. He has lived in Alaska for the last 13 years because he was injured on the job and didn’t want to be a burden to his family. He lived in pain for the next seven years. Pain all day every day. But you see it was his fault. He was a truck driver and drove across most of the lower 48. And one day there was a young punk who he was trying to show up so he unloaded his rig in 4 hours rather than the 8 it should have taken. So I guess he proved his point, but had to live with his choice for the next seven years. Before his stint as a truck driver he was “a bouncer at a motorcycle bar, trained by a Buddhist priest in fighting.” Now just to be clear, he is “a lover not a fighter”, but what he “shoulda done was put his knuckles on that kids’ face” rather than be so foolish and hurt himself. Our driver was born in Baltimore, which is a tough city. Although he is “a lover and not a fighter” this is where he learned to fight. (Wait, I thought he learned from a Buddhist priest?) He left town when he was 17 because of "the jerks and bullies" that were always trying to get him in trouble. I think this is when he joined the carnival. Oh yes, he was a carny! And that was a pretty good gig, because he “likes freedom. He goes where he wants to go and does what he wants to do.” That job lasted quite sometime, but then the boss stole $8,000 from him and he “don’t work for jerks, morons, or a$$holes.” So he left. Pretty much all of his jobs ended that way. If he ain’t happy he leaves. “Sometimes [bosses] aren’t as smart as you want ‘em or need ‘em to be.” On that note I will end my story about the driver. We did eventually make it to Chena Hot Springs where we checked in and signed up for the Northern Lights wake-up call.

Although it was close to 9:30 by the time we got there, we still hadn’t eaten dinner so we went to the restaurant had a bite to eat and then headed out to the hot springs. After all, that is what the resort is known for. Once you get past the slight smell of rotten eggs in the air (from the sulfur) it is a pretty relaxing rock pool. The water is cooled from 165 down to 105, but since it is in the low 30s outside, it felt great. The water was about three feet deep so we had to squat down to keep our shoulders warm. When we got too hot we would get out and go sit in the hot tub which was around 95 degrees. The pools close at midnight so we got out and headed back to our room. As we walked back we marveled at the big dipper, which is in the southern sky, and all the other thousands of stars we could see. And just over the ridge on the northern horizon we spotted a green rainbow like band. Well girls I think those are the lights. At least one form of them. It just sat there quietly in the background, if you weren’t looking, you may not have even noticed it. If it wasn’t so cold outside we probably would have stood around and kept our eyes to the sky, but since it was cold we headed back up to our room and climbed into bed.

Three girls sharing one room, means we laid in bed with the lights off talking for a while before we finally got quiet. One by one I could hear the breathing of the other two girls even out. I am not sure if I actually fell asleep or if I was still laying with my eyes closed when the phone rang.

“Hello?”
“The lights are going.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Whispered “Hey the lights are going if you want to see them.”

It was 1:00 am. I flew out of bed, pulled on my boots, looked around to see the others still hadn’t even got up and then pulled on my coat and gloves as I walked out the door and ran down the stairs. There they were faint green lights dancing in the sky. Our rainbow was still there too, but the lights now were dancing in vertical lines. They only lasted a few minutes, but it was enough for me. I saw the Aurora Borealis. As we prepared to get in out of the cold a handful of stragglers were coming out cameras in hand.

“Sorry you just missed them. But maybe they will come back.”

I know it was kind of mean, but hey you should have been ready like I was. When we got back to the room, the other two couldn’t stop laughing at how fast I got out of bed and down the stairs. I have to say it was kind of like a dream really, but hey, I knew I would have to be fast or I would have missed them like those other people. I also have to admit that I was a little happy that we seen them and they hadn't.

The next morning was activity day. We rode horses, toured the hydrothermal power plant, and toured the ice museum on the property. We also found out there was an aurora viewing room with a heater and a big glass window. Somebody should have told us about this- we would have stayed up all night watching the sky. But we made plans to watch again Saturday night.

After a long day of activities we spent some more time soaking in the hot springs before we headed over to the viewing room with a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, the clouds were starting to roll in over the ridge and we couldn’t see anything. So we called it off once our bottle was empty.

Sunday morning we woke to a white world. Those clouds from last night had brought snow. The room was filled with a Christmas morning excitement as we got dressed and headed out into the snow. It was perfect for our trip to the North Pole, which was exactly where we were headed. North Pole, Alaska home of the Santa Claus house. This time around our driver was much more normal and didn’t really say a word. We knew we had arrived as soon as we saw the candy cane light poles. It is Christmas all year long in North Pole. Our driver agreed to wait 15 minutes for us and then we had to go to the airport. Fifteen minutes isn’t very long, but I sent two post cards bought a t-shirt and took some pictures with the 40 foot Santa out front. Since our flight wasn’t for another few hours the driver dropped us off at a restaurant where we had brunch and then got a taxi to the airport. I am happy to say the flight home was uneventful and I even got some good pictures of Mt. McKinley from the plane.

The earth- Its A Shakin'

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 21:49:00 +0000

Yep we felt that one...

I honestly thought one of the girls was shaking the table, until I realized everyone else's table was shaking too.

Stories of the weekend coming soon. I will just say it involves pirates and "self balancing human transporters."

The Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:11:00 +0000

When we arrived in Anchorage, as with all audits, the entire office came by at some point during the first few days to greet us and offer advice on what we should do while we were in town. I think just about everyone on the team had been to Alaska before, but we are always up for good suggestions. During one of the “meet and greets” Dee mentioned that she hoped that there would be a small earthquake because she had never been in one before. This brought up who had and had not been in an earthquake before. So we talked about what they felt like and that most the time you couldn’t even feel them, but you might see the water in your cup move. Seeing as we were working in a small conference room with no windows on the sixteenth floor I thought it was pretty unlikely that we would feel or experience anything. Little did we know what nature had in store for us…

On Monday the following week we were all hard at work, busy with the ridiculous schedule that the lead made. As was becoming typical we were all so busy that lunch was getting later and later in the day. (But I think it also had something to do with the temperature dropping too.) Anyway around one we finally decided to go out. Two decided they were too busy/it was too cold and just went downstairs to the cafeteria. The rest of us headed out to Sacks. I am sure that if you have ever been to the Anchorage you have been to Sacks. It is just down the street a few blocks from the office kind of a sit down gourmet sandwich place, that serves fish, and fresh what-ever else they have. Anyway, we were surprised at how busy the place was since it was so late in the lunch hour. Our table was in the back so we made our way through the maze of tables and coats hanging from the chairs. The restaurant has all kinds of wonderful canvases hanging on the walls. They are all bright and cheerful, perfect for making you smile on a cold day.

We each ordered our food and chatted while we waited for it to come out. After only a short wait we began to eat. This lunch was just like every other second week of an audit lunch. Then I noticed the table was shaking and I looked under it to see whose foot was tapping. That’s when we all realized that it wasn’t just our table- it was all the tables. Now I am talking about the tables were shaking so much that we had to hold our water glasses so they didn’t tip over. The pictures all swayed back and forth. Everyone in the place got quiet. We all looked at each other silently asking “what do we do?”. We just sat there. After about a minute everything stopped and the other patrons all resumed their conversations. We still sat there shocked. But we rationalized if everyone else just ignores it, we must be okay. After the shock wore off we finished our lunch and headed back to the office to see if the other two had felt it too.

As we walked back to the office we all made our predictions about what “grade” the earthquake would be given. When we finally made it back upstairs we found out that yes they felt it too and that the lights were swinging wildly in the office. The rest of the afternoon was mostly unproductive as we all relayed our stories to our friends and family in the lower 48 and our co-workers across the globe. At least Dee got her wish. And for the record the earthquake measured 4.9 and was located 16 miles from Anchorage.

Just in case you think that was the most exciting thing that happened on the trip we also had a fire alarm a few days later. In the office in Anchorage all the doors are on magnets so when the alarm went off all the doors slammed shut. Luckily, it was a false alarm and we didn’t have to go down the stairs, we just had to wait at the stairwell for a while. The only downside was that the doors were “locked out” for another fifteen minutes.

All I can say is when working in Anchorage take an early lunch!

The Self Balancing Human Transporter

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 16:24:00 +0000

So have you figured out yet what a self balancing human transporter might be? Well if you guessed it was a segway, you were right! I have wanted to try out one of these things since I first saw them in the news a few years ago. And then when I saw Paul Blart riding one it reminded me that I really did want to try it out. Over the past few years I have seen tours offered in some of the various cities I have visited, but they always had such a high cost that I never actually went through with them. But alas, here in Anchorage the price was right and so was the timing. The past few days have been somewhat on the foggy side, but Sunday was sunny, clear, and in the upper 50s.

We met Alan at his shop for the last tour of the season. You see Alan is a local school teacher and had already gone back to school, but seeing as it was a great weekend he went ahead and let us to the tour. We thought it would just be our group of four, but it turns out there were three others already at the shop. So after we all picked out our Seg we rolled them out to the open sidewalk/courtyard to learn how to ride them. I volunteered to be the first guinea pig. Alan held the segway as I stepped on. Then as I lean forward off I went, to stop or go backward you just lean back. At first I wasn’t very steady and I kept rocking front and back, kind of like when you are learning to drive and you jerk forward instead of smoothly rolling. But after a few minutes I was doing much better. Really the only problem I had was staying still; which requires you to stand still. Obviously the Wii Balance Board was right, I do have trouble walking. After everyone in the group went through the basic training we rode a little down the street to a spot that was a covered sidewalk. This is where we learned how to get off the segway. Segways will drive them self forward if you just get off. And if you don’t get off properly they will start driving backwards. You have to lean it up against something and then push off as you step off.

When the actual tour got underway we headed down 4th avenue and saw the statue of Balto. This is the beginning of the Iditarod trail. As we headed over to the town square we noticed a bunch of people standing on the street corner staring up at one of the offices in the Key Bank Building. It turns out the John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore where in town filming a movie and John was in the office filming a scene. Next, we rode over to the town square and practiced driving around all the curves. Then we headed over to the coastal trail and the Captain Cook monument. On the way there we were lucky enough to see Mt. McKinley. In case you forgot Mt. McKinley is also known as Denali and is the largest mountain in North America. It is 150 miles from Anchorage, but on a clear day like Sunday you can see it in the distance. Just to put that in perspective that is like sitting in Tulsa and looking at something in Oklahoma City. Pretty amazing.

After we looked out into the inlet we headed the other direction to Salmon Creek. This is where we really got up to speed. Because the path opens up here and there weren’t as many people we cruised along at 16mph. That’s pretty much top speed and a long way from where we started. After a nice roll down the path we headed back to an empty parking lot to show off our new skills.

Then it was time to head back downtown to end our tour. I have to say that it was just about the perfect day to ride a segway. The sun was out and there was a light breeze. The kind that just makes your hair look good as you zoom along.

Update: I read in the news that the CEO of Segway accidently drove himself off a cliff with one of the segs, just want to be sure you knew we were never in any danger of driving off a cliff. But if you ever try riding a segway you should jump off before you go over the edge…just my opinion.

Arrr Matey’s!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 23:47:00 +0000

Saturday started as a normal day.

I met up with Chatty Cathy around lunch time and we went to the Middle Way Café. The menu is a bit overwhelming, but the food was pretty good. After lunch we drove to Earthquake Park and walked down to the water’s edge to get a view of downtown. On the way back up the hill I noticed something moving off the left side of the path. Is that? Is that what I think it is? It is! Two moose were standing just about 200 feet off the path. Close enough to see but not quite close enough for a good picture with all the trees in the way. After trying to get pictures and watching them watch us for a few minutes we headed back to the car. Our next stop was over by the airport to look over the cliffs and then drive by Lake Hood. There were more float planes here then I have ever seen in my whole life. Now granted I have only ever seen maybe ten float planes, but trust me there were like hundreds there. After watching a plane take off we headed over to Kinkaid Park. Just as we pulled in Chatty stopped and pulled off the road.

“Why are we stopping here?”
“I thought you would want to take a picture of that bull moose right there.”
Duh! How could I miss this guy? He was almost as tall as the fence!

Because Saturday was turning into a fabulously sunny Fall day we decided to stop at Tasty Freeze and have a little treat. Just about this time is when we got word of a Pirate Pub Crawl going on downtown later that evening. Next stop- thrift store/costume shop.

After combing the racks for about two hours we finally found some acceptable pirate gear and headed to the first stop on the pub crawl- McGinley’s.

This is when the day turned from normal to bizarre.

There were pirates everywhere you looked; pirates standing on the street corners, filling the bars from wall to wall, and driving down the streets in their cars. The best part was that every time we passed a pirate on the street they yelled “Arrr!” The point of the pirate event was to celebrate “talk like a pirate day” and to raise money for the blood bank. Each of the stops had a game or contest that was related to pirates. At one of the stops we had to walk the plank. Walking the plank sounded pretty easy to me, especially since I had only had one drink about an hour before we got to that bar. But I will let the video speak for itself.

Note the second video where R gives it a try after a few drinks and just dashes across.

As the night went on we saw many more pirates, played more pirate games, and walked through some of the densest fog I have ever seen. You could barely see your hand in front of your face! Which I guess looking back kind of made for a better pirate experience. In all we visited about twelve bars and I have to say it was a good way to see the local crowd in their element, but by the end of the night I was tuckered out and pushing the scallywags with the grog out of my way so that I could get home and in bed.

Next up I will tell you about the human transporters.

What’s that? My pirate name you ask?

My pirate name is:

Captain Mary Rackham

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Where has the time gone?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:10:00 +0000

One hour ago…I was having lunch at McAlister’s.
Three hours ago…I was deciding if I should take a half day of vacation.
Six hours ago…I was letting Jessie outside.
Twelve hours ago…I was somewhere in dreamland.
Twenty-four hours ago…I was meeting my new boss.
Three days ago…I was wishing I was still in Alaska.
A week ago…Was my birthday which I spent hiking a glacier in Alaska.
A month ago…I was having my teeth cleaned and trying to get back on a normal sleep schedule from China.
A year ago…I was in Peru with Kimberly seeing the ancient wonders of Macchu Picchu.
Three years ago…I was decorating my new house in Bartlesville and meeting my summer intern for the first time.
Six years ago…I had just graduated from the University of Tulsa.
Twelve years ago…I had just finished my first year as a licensed driver and was about to go to Germany for the first time.
Twenty four years ago…I was enjoying my last summer before I started kindergarten.

Pure Lotus

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:11:00 +0000

We pulled up in front of a long row of run down buildings on NongZhanguan South Road near 3rd Ring Road.

“Is this it? Are we in the right place?”
“Well this is where the email said to go…”

We opened the door of the taxi and began to file out. The one in the front seat is in charge of handing over the money. We all get out and wait while the taxi receipt is printed and the change is returned.

“He said it was through a gate behind a building and that there should be people there to meet us.”

As we start to walk between the buildings we see two men standing in the parking lot dressed in long white robes. The robes are thick, which is a good thing since spring has yet to arrive here in Beijing. Even though it is the end of April and the temperature should be somewhere near 80, it is only about 50 with the fierce Siberian wind blowing through the city. As we get closer to the men they give a short bow and welcome us. We follow them around a corner and through a gate where two more men are standing to lead us further around the alley. These men are also wearing white robes. Their robes are covered in colorful embroidery. One of the men has on a red leather jacket under his robe. As we come to the next corner we see another man lighting the lanterns in preparation for later when the sun finally sets.

Around the corner we have arrived at Pure Lotus. It is a large tent structure, or at least it looks like a tent, but I am sure there must be an actual building under the draped fabrics. Two women stand at the entrance to pull open the tent flaps and we walk up the wooden step and go inside.

It is a decent size room, with a few tables on both sides. The hostess asks if we have a reservation.

“No reservation. Table for four.”
“No reservation? You will have to wait here one moment.”

We are seated at one of the tables near the back of the room. As my eyes start to adjust to the darkness I begin to see all of the wonderful statues and fountains that fill the room. Everything centers on Buddha. I notice the music, which is reminiscent of what you might hear when you go to get a massage. Everyone is wearing robes or loose fitting shirts and slacks. We all sit down and begin to relax. The chairs are white wicker and the table is covered in a white woven muslin table cloth. After only a moment we are served hot water to enjoy while we wait.

We have been in China long enough to know that water is a good way to get sick, so we are all hesitant to have a drink. Lucky for us our table is ready after only a minute and we get up. What looked like a large wooden wall at the back of the room is actually a giant door. The hinge is off center and the whole wall turns with a push on the open hand of Buddha.

We are ushered into the inner room. This room is very similar to the first room, but is much larger. The lamps over head are oversized candelabras covered with red shades. Although the lights are still dimmed, it is a little brighter in this room. There is a large model of a Buddhist temple that runs the length of the room. It is made of wood and is very detailed. It is not a carved structure but rather has been built in miniature. There is also the sound of trickling water coming from a fountain that I cannot see. There are large swaths of fabric hung from the ceiling and pinned to the walls. The fabric makes it feel like you are still inside the tent that you entered into. Everything in this room makes you feel calm.

Here we are seated at a table towards the front. The table is very similar to the one outside, but the chairs are so comfortable. They are small armchairs covered in soft lavender fabric. Our place settings are large green banana leaves with an oyster shell as big as a dinner plate. We also have sharp wooden chopsticks and a flat wooden spoon.

Our waiter, dressed in a yellow robe with red embroidery, brings us the menus. Both are the length of the table and are held horizontally. One is for drinks and the other is food. We look through the drink menu first. It is page after page of organic fruit juices and teas. We settle on a red tea for the group and I choose a carrot, apple, honey fruit drink. Next we look through the food menu. It is served in courses; you pick dishes from each of the five sections to complete your meal.

Our waiter suggests that we start with the Happy Rolls. They are seaweed wrapped cucumber, carrots, and sauce topped off with a large pecan and strawberry. We also select a thai green papaya salad with tomatoes, lime juice, and spicy chili sauce. The happy rolls come out as individual cones wrapped with tin foil so the seaweed doesn’t stick to our fingers. The happy rolls were absolutely delicious! I think the sauce was some kind of peanut sauce, but I can’t be sure. The thai salad was also very good, but a little too spicy for me.

The second course brought the hot dishes. We had eggplant with yams in a mushroom sauce served in a little clay pot, wilted spinach served in a large red bowl with a beautiful spray of yellow flowers, fried tofu wrapped in long green grass leaves and tin foil then served in a log. We also had green beans chopped with black olives and rolled in lettuce wraps. I am really not doing justice to the flavors that were included within these wonderful dishes, but you will have to forgive me as I have no idea what spicy were used. All I can say is that my mouth is watering just remembering how good this food tasted.

Our third course included a selection of organic white rice and five grain rice along with noodle soup in clear broth.

The fourth course was cheese fondue with little croutons, cucumbers, and carrots for dipping. As we were waiting for the cheese to melt I noticed another small bowl sitting at the corner of the table.

“What is this?” I asked the waiter.
“Honey. For the fondue.”

Although it may sound strange to dip something in cheese and then into honey, let me assure you it did not taste strange at all. In fact, the honey actually went so well with the cheese I wondered why I had never heard of it before.

By the time we had all of our food we realized there was no way that we would actually be able to finish it all. So we sat and relaxed and noticed how much busier the restaurant had gotten since we arrived. Nearly every table was now full, but the calm sounds of the music and running water were still the loudest sounds in the room. It is amazing how transforming this restaurant is. Once we decided there was no way we could eat anymore we asked for the bill.

After clearing the table and paying the check our waiter brought us a large wooden stump filled with dry ice and watermelon. What a treat! Everything is just so wonderfully presented at this place.

As we made our way back to the front door every staff member gave us a short bow and wished us well. We passed back through the large wooden door and then back through the tent flaps and out into the cold Beijing night.

Adventures in Shanghai

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 07:33:00 +0000

To say that this trip was a last minute decision might be an understatement. I had no intention of visiting Shanghai when I left the states a month ago. This trip was solely decided upon from my coworker’s suggestion. And once it was on the table there was no turning back. We looked up the ticket information, which was much harder than it should have been, and determined the cheapest way to get to Shanghai was to take the night train. I can tell you that my only other experience on night trains were to Prague and to Paris. Neither was great, but both were okay. I figured that was a long time ago and maybe trains have improved since then. Anyway, we tried to buy the tickets when we were at the train station on our way to Tanggu (the second week we were in Beijing). To our surprise you can only purchase a ticket in cash. No credit cards allowed. Yes you heard me right. No credit cards. Cash Only. I would just like to say that the Post Office also only accepts cash. And just in case you think that it might be that way everywhere in China you are wrong. There are several places in Beijing that allow credit card purchases. Since none of us had that much cash on us we decided that we should just buy the tickets through an agent that could get us the seats/beds we wanted. So when we arrived in Tanggu we contacted an agent who could purchase the tickets on our behalf. Once we placed our order we found out that the agent does not take credit cards either. Good grief! So begins the journey to find an ATM.

[Note to Reader: You should get comfortable; this story is going to take a while.]

We asked one of the people in the office if there was an ATM in the building. “No, but there are many banks all around. There is one just behind this building.” In my infinite wisdom before coming to China I checked the weather. The weather for this time of year was going to be in the upper 50s and getting to the low 70s by the time we came back home. So of course I packed short sleeves and a light jacket. I think this entire month it has only been in the 50s maybe three times. All this to say it was cold and windy that day in Tanggu and I had a nice tall pair of heels on. But hey, the ATM is just around the corner; which was true, it was just around the corner. Unfortunately it did not accept my credit card. So we walked back to the office. “Oh, it didn’t take your credit card? Well there are other banks, let me come with you.” We walked about seven blocks and tried six other banks. Only one bank would allow my credit card to work and it would only allow me to take a third of the amount that I needed. It is no wonder that my credit card number was stolen during this whole debacle. I of course did not find out until a week later that it was stolen, but at least the $4,000 transaction never actually posted to my account. After all this walking I was ready to give up- we would just have to cancel the tickets. But then one of our Chinese co-workers decided that she would loan us the money to pay for the tickets and we could pay her back in a few days. So over the next two days I took out the rest of the money that I needed to pay for all of our tickets.

Over the next week, I didn’t think too much about Shanghai and you know what happened that weekend. (If you have no idea what I am talking about read my last post.) The week of the trip I finally started to try and figure out what there was to do in Shanghai. My fellow travelers were the ones who wanted to go to Shanghai, but they didn’t really have much input on what they wanted to see. “We trust your judgment. Whatever you pick will be fine.” Which is usually true. I usually am very good at planning trips, but to plan a trip on short notice and trying to do it online, was not easy. Usually I make a few trips to the library and stop by a few book stores to see what the latest travel books recommend. I also try to ask around and find out what others suggest I should see. This time I didn’t have much to go on, but I did get a few recommendations and found a couple of websites that had some pretty good options. So with our tickets bought, debt repaid, and tentative list of things to do we were ready to go.

As I mentioned before we were taking the night train so we didn’t leave the hotel until 8 pm. After a 45 minute taxi ride in traffic we made it to the Beijing South Station. The train station is a pretty awesome building. It is very futuristic looking and bigger than most athletic stadiums. It is a big silver dome with car ramps that take you up to the departure area and lead you up out of the arrivals area. Although the security line was pretty long, it didn’t take much time to be pushed through the line. We checked the board to find out which platform our train would be leaving from and we headed in that direction. Now just to be clear the train station has some English signage, but a good majority of it is in Mandarin. It is pretty easy to pick out the train number and time of departure, but figuring out the car and seat number was really only accomplished by comparing our three tickets and determining which number was different. As we approached our platform we were thrust into yet another crowd of people. The crowd was squeezing its way through two small gates with a ticket taker at each post who would punch the ticket. I don’t think they actually look at the ticket, just try to punch it before you are pushed through the gate. Then the decision is whether to descend the three flights of stairs amongst a crowd or try to push your way over to the escalator. We chose the stairs because they were slightly less crowded. Once down on the platform we walked the length of the train to the second to last car.

The trains are all white and shiny and modern looking. Hopefully our cabin is as nice on the inside as the train is on the outside. Our beds were in the first cabin of the car, which is close to the restroom, but also close to the connection between the cars. There isn’t a whole lot of room in the cabin. There are four beds each with its own tv screen, a large window with a shade, and a small table. The luggage storage is under the bottom bunks. The bunks themselves are about two feet wide and six feet long. The sheets are white and stiff as a board, which also happens to be what they are covering. Well maybe not exactly, but it is pretty close. There is a blue ruffle that decorates the edges of the beds and gives them that little touch of class. Our pillow was made of small rocks but it sure looked good sitting on the bed. I was pretty happy I had brought my own pillow when I tried to pick up the pillow and found out it was literally hard as a rock. At this point we all settled into our bunks and waited to see who the fourth bed would go to. Of course we were all hoping that it would be empty and we could lock ourselves into our cabin and not have a worry in the world. But just as the train began to move our bunk mate opened the door and stepped inside.

Our fellow cabin mate, was a young Chinese man. He was traveling to Shanghai, but that is about all we got from him because his English was not that good and we of course can’t speak any Chinese. He couldn’t have been more than 20 years old and was more likely still in his teens. He had on black skinny jeans, a t-shirt and a black and white horizontal stripped cardigan. His hair was kind of a reddish brown that was spiky on top. To complete this “nerdy” look he wore thick black rimmed glasses and had no less than five key chains attached to his belt loops. Although he was a little strange he seemed to be pretty harmless. At this point I put on my sleep mask and hoped for sleep to come.

You would think that the train would have a gentle rocking motion from side to side that would lull you into a nice peaceful sleep, but this was not the case. Sleeping on a train is really not possible. The train makes all kinds of strange squeaking noises and rocks and stops and speeds up and slows down. All of which cause you to move around. Also when you are sleeping on a board you have to move every few minutes to “keep the blood flowing”. So at most you are getting a good series of cat naps. I woke up about 6:30 and just watched the countryside slide by. Our bunk mate woke up about the same time as I did and decided to take pictures of his bed. He spent the next hour taking pictures of his bed. This is when he earned the nickname Mr. Creeper, because we can’t be sure that he didn’t take our pictures at some point during the night. As we pulled into Shanghai, it was clear to us that this was a different city than Beijing. When we got off the train, Mr. Creeper asked if he could take a picture with us. Sure, we don’t know you and we will never see you again. Cheese! Then he asked for our email address to send it to us…. Um, no thanks. Bye.

The taxi line was long, but at least it was organized and moved pretty quickly. Based on my experience in China I knew that we would need the name and address of the hotel written in Chinese characters, so I had one of the ladies in the Beijing office write it down for us prior to our departure. It is pretty amazing that even if the Chinese words are written out they still don’t know what it says unless you show them the characters. The taxi ride only took a few minutes, but wow what a difference there is between Shanghai and Beijing. Probably one of the first things I noticed was the lack of traffic, bicycles, motorbikes, and people in general. I am pretty sure there are still millions of people in Shanghai, I just didn’t see them. The next thing I noticed was that it was a clear, warm, sunny day. Hallelujah! The other major difference was the buildings. Everything is so modern looking. Which is what I thought of Beijing the first time I was there, but I mean modern, modern. It is all crazy shapes, shiny glass, and some of the tallest buildings in the world.

(You can see both the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Grand Hyatt/Jin Mao Tower in this picture. SWFC is the one that looks like a bottle opener and the GH is just to the left.)

Our hotel was no exception. The view from our hotel room looked out to The Bund (the river) and the World Financial Building. The hotel lounge also had a great view as well as the hotel pool. The pool is on the 21st floor and has an infinity edge with a 180 degree view of the city. So cool. After a quick shower and some breakfast we headed out the door. Our first stop was Nan Shi, or old city. Basically it is a tourist trap built to look old with lots of shops and restaurants. We walked around here for a while, but since we had already shopped our selves’ silly in Beijing we didn’t buy anything. We were walking in the direction of The Bund. We walked through the Yu Yuan Gardens and then came to the river. There is a very nice boardwalk of sorts along the river, we strolled along the river and looked at the people. One of the things I noticed while walking here was that first, even though it had to be close to eighty I was the only person wearing a tank top, in fact most people had on several layers and a coat, second, people sound different here. I don’t really know how to explain the difference, but there is definitely a difference in the way people sound here.

When we got to Nan Jing Road we headed away from the river. According to my online research there was a nice rooftop café that was good for sightseeing. Hmm, well there is a building that used to be a hotel, but now it looks to be completely empty and under construction. Okay, well let’s go on, there are other buildings ahead that should have good views too. Nan Jing is known to be a shopping street. The first few blocks were all under construction and I didn’t have much faith in my online information. But soon enough we came to the pedestrian area and it was full of people. The shop signs were all made out of neon. I bet this looks really cool at night. After walking several more blocks we finally found the next hotel, Le Royal Meridien, that had “amazing 360 degree views” from the bar (789 Bar and Lounge). Although it wasn’t quite noon yet, we decided we were going to go up and take a look anyway. Once we arrived at the 64th floor it was pretty clear to us that this bar was not open during the day, but hey we were here, why not take a look around. As many of you know I am afraid of heights, so it won’t surprise you that I did not get close to the windows to take my pictures, instead I held my camera out and snapped a few shots towards the windows. It was a great view of the city though. It reminded me of NYC. It is basically skyscrapers in all directions. After a short rest we headed back down to the ground level and went looking for a café with some cold drinks. While we were enjoying our drinks and snacks we decided that our sightseeing was going pretty fast and since there was a chance of rain for tomorrow we would go ahead and pack as much in to today as possible.

We had planned to see a water town while we were in Shanghai and had narrowed it down to three options. There was one town that was basically in Shanghai (Qi Bao- very touristy, but close), one that was about an hour away (Tongli- used in movie sets), and a third that was two hours away (Nanxun- very authentic). Majority vote was for the one that was in town. My choice would have been either of the other two, but I am easy so I went along with the group vote. The only problem was that we only had the name written in English letters, not in Chinese characters. One of my fellow travelers thought she could say the name to the taxi driver and that they would be able to understand and take us there. No, that didn’t happen. Okay we just need someone who speaks English to write the characters for us. (I don’t know why they don’t print the characters on the English pamphlets. It would make things so much easier.) She finally found someone to write the characters, but they told her a taxi would not take us because it was too far. We would have to take the subway and then get a taxi. I figured out the closest subway station and we headed underground.

The Shanghai subway is pretty clean as far as subways go and was pretty empty making it easy to figure out how to buy a ticket and get on the train. We only had to change trains once, but the ride was pretty long. It took us about an hour to get to our stop. When we got off the train we found someone who could write the name of the station for us so that we could get a taxi back to the station after we were finished looking around. The taxi ride was only another 15 minutes from the station.

When we pulled up we were pretty confused about where we were supposed to go, but finally saw a sign for tickets. Yes, you have to pay to see a town where people live. And I am pretty sure we are the only people who actually bought a ticket. When we bought our tickets we also got a map and the lady pointed in the direction we should walk. We headed into the ghetto… After walking a little ways into the sun, I was starting to regret not having a hat. We walked about ten minutes, crossed one bridge, and decided we must be in the wrong place. We headed back towards what looked to be a re-built touristy area. Once we got back to that area we tried to hand our tickets to the man, but he just pointed at another ticket counter. Oh. Our tickets do not include this. We were walking in the right area. A ghetto of falling down shacks with people trying to sell you crap, with a canal that stinks. Okay.

By this time we were all pretty hungry and tired so we decided we would go back over to the “town” and see if we could find a place to eat. The brochure had lots of good things to say about this “town”, maybe we just didn’t walk far enough. As we got further into the re-built city you could tell it had been rebuilt, but it was still falling apart and didn’t look like anywhere we would want to eat. We quickly ran into the crowd of tourists as we were walking through the little alleys and the tourists were all Asian. As we pushed our way through the masses we followed the signs to a toilet. Based on the outside of the building I opted to wait. I found a little store that had crackers and some semi-cold Coke and that made me happy. It was time to get the heck out of dodge and go back to the hotel and rest. But as we pushed through the crowd we happened upon the “food” street the brochure had been talking about. What it didn’t say was that it was all crazy food that Westerners are not even close to accustomed to. I am talking about baby chickens deep fried whole and stuck on a stick. The smell of the dried meat, which the Chinese apparently love, mixed with my exhaustion, and the crowds of people, just about made me lose my breakfast. Well I doubt there was anything actually in my stomach, but had there been… anyway it was a close call. We finally made it back to the main street and got a taxi back to the station. By this time I was tired, hungry, sun burnt, and I had a headache- probably from all of those things. Our route back to the hotel required us to change trains so when we got to the station to change we were really confused that we had to exit the subway. After walking for a few blocks outside to try and find our subway line we decided we couldn’t be that far away from the hotel so we just got a taxi. This way we could see a little more of the city. Although the subway is an efficient way to travel, it is a terrible way to see the city.

I thought maybe a nap and some water would make my head feel better so I went and lay down. A few hours later we all met in the lounge for appetizers before we headed to dinner. My head was feeling a little better so I was excited for dinner. We went to the Grand Hyatt to have dinner on the 54th floor. As much as I like the idea of this, that elevator ride is long and scary to me. And I cannot imagine if I was staying in this hotel; the lobby is on the 52nd floor. On the ride up I had to pop my ears several times. When we finally made it and the doors opened, a rush of air flew up between the floors and it made me want to jump across the gap to the floor. I know I am crazy, but it scares me to death. As we walked into the main reception area for the restaurants we looked up to see that the guest floors were all open to this room. Imagine an Embassy Suites hotel only this one was 30 stories high and didn’t start until floor 54. It looked sort of like what the inside of a bee hive would look like, a white cave of swirling rings around the inside. That alone was enough to make me feel dizzy.

The dinner was great. The view was nice I am sure, but I sat with my back to the window. Shanghai at night is a sight to see. All of the buildings are lit up with neon and LCD screens. Everything sparkles and flashes in different colors. Even the boats that float down the Bund have strings of lights that change colors and dance across the waters. Even though my headache was getting worse and not better, I decided to join the group for a drink in the World Financial Center. The bar is on floor 92. The elevator goes directly from 1 to 91 and then you have to change to a different elevator for floor 92. Under normal circumstances (i.e. no headache, not afraid of heights) this would be an awesome bar. The interior is decorated in a dark red color with white objects hanging from the ceiling. Upon closer inspection these were just everyday objects like teddy bears and cans of soda and other random everyday things all painted white and strung up. Maybe it is an artsy comment on zero gravity because we were up so high? I don’t know. The bar was really dark and had a DJ and a live band plays later in the evening. The tables by the window require a minimum purchase, but the bar in the middle is free. Since I had a headache we just had one drink and then headed back to Earth.

Sunday I finally got up around eight, which may seem early, but honestly I had been asleep for nearly 12 hours so it was time to get going. However, seeing as it was Sunday and we wanted to relax a little, we didn’t meet up until 10 am so I just lounged about in the room for a while. The only thing on today’s agenda was to visit the zoo, in particular the pandas.

We stopped at the concierge to make sure we could take the subway all the way from the hotel to the zoo. “Yes, appears you can.” Great! Off we go. When we got to the ticket machine and it would not let us buy a ticket to the Shanghai Zoo station we should have turned around and went back across the street to the hotel, but instead we just bought a ticket as far as we could and decided we would figure it out when we got there. My brilliant idea was to take a picture of the Shanghai Zoo station characters on the sign when we got off and we could just show that to the taxi driver. Apparently the line we were on is a new line and all the stops are not yet complete. I also thought it might be a good idea to take a picture of the sign for the station we were at so that we could get back. The picture idea worked great! The zoo wasn’t too far down the road, but totally worth it to take a taxi since we had no idea which way to go.

The pandas were fantastic. There were twelve pandas on display. At first we only saw two that just kind of laid around, but then we walked around the corner and saw a large outdoor pen with ten pandas under the age of two. They were so playful. It was great to watch them climbing all over the wooden structure and play fighting with each other. Of course they were so fat they would just roll around most of the time. The rest of the animals were pretty sad to see, mostly because the pens were small and concrete with dirty water. We spent the majority of our time watching the pandas playing and really just saw the other animals that were along the main path. After the zoo we headed back to the hotel for lunch and a lazy afternoon. I did make it up to the pool for a while, but eventually some other people came up that were loud and splashy so I left. We had to check out of the hotel at four and our train wasn’t until nine so we just hung around the lounge until it was time to go to the train station.

The train ride home was looking pretty good when we saw that we had a cabin in the middle of the car and we had semi normal pillows. Unfortunately we had another late comer who was our “fourth”. Quickly after we lay down to sleep we named him Snorey-McGee. It was not good. I think every time I actually got to sleep he would start up. AAAHHHH! It was a long night. Our train pulled into the Beijing station at 7:10, we got in the cab at 7:30 and we finally made it back to the hotel at 9:00. After a quick breakfast and a shower I made it to work at 10am. The pictures rest of the pictures are on Shutterfly.

Hope this story was all you wanted it to be. I told you I would write you a better story once I could walk again. I know it doesn’t sound like we did much in Shanghai, but trust me, we did. Just getting out of Beijing for the weekend was worth the trip. Shanghai doesn’t really have much to “see”, it is more of “being” there. Had I not had a killer headache I probably would have stayed out and had a little more fun on floor 92.

(me posing like a good chinese tourist, qi bao water town, SWFC at night)

I hate Mondays!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:28:00 +0000

Today has started out completely awful!

When my alarm went off this morning I couldn’t move. My legs are so sore from climbing up the drum tower, then climbing down the drum tower, then climbing up the bell tower, then climbing down the bell tower, walking through the Forbidden City and to the towers. And then in case that wasn’t enough for my poor legs we went to the great wall and I hiked up and down the mountains for a few hours. Then as a cool down I went to Summer Palace and climbed the Tower of Buddhist Incense. The only good news here is that since I climbed the 100 steps I will live to 100 years old.

But seriously I can’t move today, so I hit the snooze for another hour.

After I took a long hot shower hoping it would ease the pain in my legs I got dressed. Dang it! I have a run in my hose. I am wearing them anyway.

When I finally made it to breakfast I ate day old waffles; that is another story for another time.

Then as I headed outside I realized it was raining. Awesome.

Just when I think the morning is going to get better I check my email only to find that I have had fraud on my credit card. You may already know my other credit card and my wallet were stolen last weekend. So now I have about $30 cash and no credit cards.

And I still have two weeks here in China.

Oh and this weekend I am going sightseeing in Shanghai. That is going to be a fun trip! Not! But I have already bought my train tickets, which coincidentally is when my card number was stolen.

I just want to go back to bed.

My pictures from this weekend are on Shutterfly. And I have a few videos but YouTube is blocked at least for today.

I will write you a better story tomorrow or when I can get out of bed.

4 States, 4 Presidents

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:20:00 +0000

Saturday was a L-O-N-G day! My grand plan was to drive through Montana to North Dakota- hopefully see something exciting and have lunch- then head to South Dakota, drive all the way down to Rapid City go see Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, and the Badlands then turn west through Wyoming and then back up to Montana. According to Google maps this was going to take us 19 hours but seeing as our trip to Yellowstone last weekend didn’t take as long as it said I didn’t think this would either. Boy was I wrong, but we did have a few surprises along the way.

We headed out just before 7:30, stopped for a quick fill up before we got on the road and then we were off. We had only been in the car for about 15 minutes when the car BEEPED at us.

Huh?

“Check Oil Soon”

What! I can’t believe we were given a rental car that needed maintenance. If I was auditing those guys they would have a finding for sure! Good grief! We decided we would pull over at the next stop to check the oil and in the mean time we got on the phone to find out what was going on with the rental company. Their advice was we should be fine- even IF we were traveling more than 1,000 miles. Okay so we get to the town (community?) of Ballantine, mind you this is only 23 miles from where we started, and we pulled into the local gas station/motel/post office/grocery store. I checked the oil, it was an okay level, dirty, but looked good. Then I decided that maybe a crystal light and two teas what not such a good idea so I went in to use the restroom.

“Minimum purchase of $1 to use restroom.”

No problem, I grabbed a bag of chexmix and headed to the register. In my usual style I pull out the good old credit card and hand it to the cashier.

“Oh you have to spend at least $5 to use a card.”
“No problem, we will take a coffee and a banana too.”
“$4.96”

You have got to be kidding me!

“Okay we will take a pack of gum too.”
“$6.33”
“Do you have a restroom?”
“Around the corner.”

This better be a good restroom!

After that pit stop we finally got back on the road. We only got another couple hours down the road when I had to find another pit stop. All those drinks were definitely not a good idea. But I can say the Rest Stops in Montana are very nice and clean! Another hour down the road and we entered Beach, North Dakota. We made a quick stop at the visitor center and went off to find the local Dairy Queen. After a drive through town we ended up at the Post Office with no Dairy Queen in sight. So we asked a lady how to get to the local DQ. “Oh yeah, no, someone bought it and took away the franchise.” Moving on. We got back on the highway and headed down the road to the next town of Medora. We pulled into the local gas station/motel/post office/grocery store. The pumps were so ancient that it took me a minute to figure out how to work them and finally had to go in and ask for girl to turn them on. We decided we should probably just grab something to eat here because we probably wouldn’t find anything better. So we ate microwave sandwiches and then got back on the road.

We spent about 4 hours in North Dakota and let me tell you it was a bust! All we could see was snow and farmland. It was like driving through Kansas. Because of the snow we ran into a pretty thick fog. Fog on a two lane highway is not the best situation to be in. It wasn’t too bad until the first truck drove past us in the opposite direction; I thought our hood was going to fly off. Anyway, it was a long drive and wasn’t really worth the time we spent to drive through it. I am sure North Dakota has better things to offer, just not in winter. Somewhere between North Dakota and South Dakota our car BEEPED at us again.

“Change Oil”

Okay so it was no longer suggesting it, it was saying it is time. Well we have only driven 500 miles since the warning came on; I think it is just an automatic reminder. We decided that IF we saw a Jiffy Lube we would get the oil changed, otherwise we were just going to stick it out. On we drove.

South Dakota wasn’t a whole lot better until we got pretty far away from North Dakota. We stopped in Belle Fourche for more gas and picked up a few post cards and snacks. Only a little further to go. At this point I was starting to worry whether we would make it before the sun went down. The fog in ND really slowed us down. At least at this point we were starting to see the Badlands and Black Hills- well what we could see through the snow. Because of the time and the snow we decided we probably wouldn’t make it down to Badlands National Park.

Around 5pm we finally got to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. As we were driving up through the hills we caught a glimpse of the monument. Is that it? It was so small looking! But as we got closer, it got bigger. After taking all the pictures we could think of to take, we decided to go into the gift shop. Bad idea. We had to go back to the car and get our wallets. After spending all my money we decided we would go down to see the Crazy Horse monument (which is still being built) and then come back to see the presidents all lit up. The drive through the Black Hills was very pretty. However since it was dusk we had four deer come across the road in front of us. It was good that the roads were so winding because it kept us from going too fast. We made it to Crazy Horse just as it was getting dark. I am really glad we didn’t have to pay to see the monument because I would have been really disappointed if we did. 1) it was too dark to see much and 2) it is only a face. I am sure it will look great once it is finished but for now a free view from the road is all you need. Seeing as it was dark we decided we had better get back on the road.

We made a quick stop at Arby’s in Rapid City and then got going. Just outside Rapid City we ran into more fog which continued into Wyoming. But not for too long, after an hour the wind picked up and the fog cleared. Finally, we could see the stars. I wish we could have seen the scenery in Wyoming, I have a feeling it was beautiful. We got to Sheridan, WY around midnight and stopped for gas and coffee. At this point I was pretty tired and glad I wasn’t driving. We finally made it back to the hotel at 1:30 Sunday morning. I changed my clock, went to bed and didn’t get up until 1pm!

1,000 miles, 18 hours, and 4 states.

Another successful weekend and another one that I want to repeat. I want to come back in the summer to see all the area has to offer. The pictures are on Shutterfly if you want to check them out.

Yellowstone is a visual experience

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:17:00 +0000

Yellowstone is a visual experience.

I have been planning a trip to Yellowstone for several years and was spurred into action when the possibility became reality due to a work trip. I begged for the work trip so that I could visit the park. I am sad to say I even bribed one of the decision makers with a few pieces of chocolate. But I later found out that he didn’t know it was a bribe so I guess it didn’t work very well. :)

Anyway, I found out that I would be going to Montana and immediately began to plan my trip. I checked out books from the library, I watched PBS specials, and I talked to friends that had been to the park in the past. I really had no idea what to expect about the park, except that it would be fantastic.

Time is a funny thing. According to Google it would take us 4.5 hours to drive to West Yellowstone from Billings. According to everyone we spoke to it would take 3 hours. I guess it just depends on what time of day you travel. From Billings to Bozeman it was just under 2 hours. Dinner in Bozeman was about an hour. Bozeman to West Yellowstone in the dark, after a deer runs out across the road in front of you, in winter, is about 2 hours. But let me say those are some of the roughest 2 hours of driving you will ever experience. The road is curvy and dark. The only savior is the 4 foot poles that line the road to indicate the height of the snow.

After we had been driving this stretch of the road for about an hour we passed a bar out in the middle of nowhere. It was packed. We were astonished that there we so many people out in the middle of nowhere- especially at a bar. How were these people going to get home we wondered? But we pressed on through the dark. We did meet one other car on the road going slower than we were, but it turns out he only had one headlight. Not an ideal situation for such a dark road. At one point our driver Cool Hand stopped the car in the middle of the road and turned off the engine and the lights. PITCH BLACK. Needless to say I didn’t like sitting in the middle of the road in the dark. After a while we passed a sign that said Yellowstone National Park- we hit the brakes and backed up to take picture of us in front of the sign. It took forever to get the camera set up to take our picture and it started to snow. A light snow, but none the less it was cold and wet.

Finally, we came to the small town of West Yellowstone. How small is West Yellowstone you ask? The last graduating class was 13- which according to Jay is big considering the last few were only 9. Who is Jay? Read on to find out. When we arrived in town the first thing we noticed was that the roads are not plowed. I guess this a good thing since the town makes its money on snow mobile rides. The snow was piled about four feet high on both sides of the street. Of course to me this means that we should drive with caution. To Cool Hand this means “Let’s floor it and see how the 4x4 handles it!” Again not an ideal situation, but we made it safely into the parking lot of Yellowstone Park Hotel. Norma got us all checked in and broke the news to us that sadly we would not be able to snow mobile in the park due to the lack of snow. I wasn’t too disappointed by this news and gladly accepted the snow coach tour that was offered. [Side note during the winter season at Yellowstone you can only enter the park on a snow mobile, snow coach, or with a guide.]

Which brings us to “Who is Jay?” Jay was our tour guide. He has been driving the snow yachts at Snowcoach Yellowstone for 10 years. Before that he was a professional RVer for 4 years. Jay is just the kind of guy you want to lead your tour. He tells the corniest jokes and even though they are corny you laugh. Jay had some great information for us and even made jokes to help us remember what we learned. For instance did you know that the Lodgepole Pine Tree is the main species of tree that covers the park? And more interestingly it only reseeds itself during a fire!

Not long after we began our tour we came upon a trumpeter swan that for some strange reason had not flown the coop when the rest of the swans left on the migration. And just down the road was a pair of bald eagles perched next to the Madison River. After that our main attractions were elk and bison. It was somewhat similar to the Alaska white dot incident. Although there was one incident where one of the members of the group called "STOP" so we could see steam. Yes, I said steam.

At one point we stopped to view a bison that was next to the river only to find one was also sitting about 15 feet from the bus door. I was not brave enough to get out of the bus, so I just took pictures through the glass. In case you have never seen a bison it is the LARGEST land mammal in the western hemisphere. They weigh like 1,000 pounds, are 5 feet tall at the shoulder, can run 40 mph, have horns, and can jump a 5 foot fence. I stayed in the bus thank you very much. Later we stopped to see some bison standing in a geyser field and I did get out to take some pictures of them. It was very picturesque with the bison and the steam.

I guess now would be a good time to talk about some of the “thermal features” of Yellowstone. Everyone knows about the Old Faithful geyser, which was our ultimate destination that day in the park, but there are other types of thermal features. Including mudpots, hot springs, and fumaroles. I am not an expert and can only tell you in basic terms what these things are. Basically, it is hot water under the surface that boils up and either sprays (geysers), pools (hot springs), fumes steam (fumaroles), or bubbles the mud (mudpots). Another interesting fact is that boiling is 199 degrees at Yellowstone rather than 212 due to the altitude. Thanks Jay!

Old Faithful is fun to watch because you can predict when it will erupt. It explodes about every 90 minutes give or take 10 minutes. By the time we got to Old Faithful it was almost time to go off so we hurried to the benches to get our prime seat. It was a bit frustrating trying to take a video, because every time I thought it was about to start it stopped. Then finally the hot water shot up into the air. The blue sky was turned white with water and steam. Everyone hurried to get their pictures taken with Old Faithful in the background.

I will say that one of the best things about visiting the park in the winter, on a day when you can’t take a snow mobile to Old Faithful, is that the crowds are quite small. There were probably less than 100 people there to see the great geyser. After we watched the geyser and had our bag lunch we did the short hike around geyser hill. This was our first view of the hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles up close. They are so colorful and beautiful, but they smell like rotten eggs! Jay had told us that the bluer the water is the hotter its temperature. At 167 degrees all of the bacteria die and all that is left is clear water. The redder colors on the edges are where the bacteria live.

On our way back through the park we stopped to walk through the Lower Geyser Basin and we were lucky enough to see Fountain Geyser in action. It only erupts about every 6 hours and we just happened to be there when it was spouting water. I took a short video if you would like to see it.

After a long day in the snow yacht we made it back to West Yellowstone. I know I didn’t give you the best description of the park, but I just don’t have the words to describe what we saw. Sure there are trees and mountains. There is a river that never freezes. But the thermals are something out of this world. I can’t imagine what the first explorers to Yellowstone had to say about such strange sights.

On Sunday I went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center to listen to a Park Ranger give a talk about Yellowstone. She talked about the first expeditions to the park and how without pictures it never would have been made the first national park. When the first explorers went to Washington to explain what they saw, people could not understand just how magnificent the park was. Thomas Moran was given the job of painting pictures from the words that others had written about the park. On the second expedition to Yellowstone Thomas Moran raised $10,000 to join the expedition so that he could see for himself what wonders this area held. The Park Ranger really made me think about Yellowstone and how I saw the park.

If I gave you the words about my trip and only my words, if you had never watched a video or seen a picture of the park you would not be able to imagine what I was telling you because it is so different from everything you know.

I guess all I can say is Yellowstone is a visual experience. An experience that you should have. I am already planning my next trip back to Yellowstone.

Oh on our drive back to Billings we were in awe of the beautiful mountains that surrounded the canyon we drove through in the pitch black on the way to the park. We were also surprised to find out that the bar that was in the middle of nowhere was actually right smack in the middle of a town! Just goes to show you that just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean its not there. And the drive to Bozeman in the winter, during the day, is only a little over an hour.

Billings, Montana

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:32:00 +0000

To begin I would like to say how happy I am to have arrived safely to Billings. On my last trip out to these parts I almost died in the airplane so I was happy that our flight was as smooth as it could be over the mountains. You can read about Lysite, Wyoming here.

Now on to more important matters like did you know that the Billings airport is on top of a cliff? You land on this plateau of sorts and then drive down into the city. The cliff is referred to by the locals as the “Rim Rocks”. It is very pretty on top of the rocks looking out over the city and across the distance to the Bear Tooth Mountains.

I would also like to say that Montana is my 25th state to visit!! Next on the list is South Dakota and I might actually get to visit next weekend. Can you guess what I might see when I visit? Cross your fingers that it all works out.

I don’t have a whole lot left to say about Billings. It is pretty much what any town would be like if it had about 100,000 people. It did surprise me that there is a sushi restaurant in town. There are two main streets in Montana and Michigan Ave. I think Montana Ave. is by far the cuter street. It has lots of little shops, cafes, and bakeries on one side of the street and the other side of the street is the old train depot. You can check out the pics on Shutterfly.

The next post will be more exciting as it will be about my weekend in Yellowstone.

A little quiz...

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:52:00 +0000

I have decided that since I am not going to be going anywhere exciting in the foreseeable future that I would take a trip down memory lane. Here is a little quiz. Can you guess where I was when I took these pictures?

Send me an email with your answers. Include as much detail as possible.

P.S. I am taking applications for a travel partner for a short beach vacation between Christmas and New Year's and for a big trip in 2010. Let me know if you are interested in either. The big trip will be in May/June/July to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons, Egypt, or Africa.

Answers:A) Stone Haven, Scotland B) Cologne, Germany C) Hana, Hawaii (Maui) D) Pulpit Rock, Norway E) Puno, Peru F) Wilmington, Deleware USA G)Lysite, Wyoming USA H) Grand Canary, Canary Islands I) Venice, Italy.

Dunnottar Castle- Scotland

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:44:00 +0000

It has been just over a year since my last post about Scotland. I can’t believe that it has already been a year! Time seems to have sped up and yet slowed down at the same time. I feel like it has been a lifetime since I was here last, yet I can’t believe that a year has already flown past me. I have to say that everything feels exactly the same here in Scotland. The weather is still gray, with a chance of sun; the hotel beds are still a bit on the springy side; and they still speak English even if I can’t understand everything they say. But some things are different this year. For one, I found the awesome coffee/tea bar in the office. (I kind of wish I hadn’t considering how much I REALLY like the mars hot chocolate.) Two, we are walking the ¾ mile to work everyday instead of taking a taxi. And three I finally got to see a Scottish castle!

On Saturday the weather was actually slightly more sunny than cloudy. My red haired friend and I had already decided that we wanted to go and see a nearby castle, and having the gorgeous weather was just icing on the cake. We woke up bright and early at 10am and met up at 11am. Maybe now is a good time to mention that we had been out on the town the night before with one of our other friends and 10am was actually quite early for us that day. Anyway, when we got up at the crack of 11 we called a taxi to take us out to Stonehaven. Stonehaven is about 15 miles from Aberdeen and the drive from here to there was just as the train ride had been last year. I don’t think I can improve on what I wrote so I will just write it again.

There are large green fields, similar to the ones I saw in Ireland, but these have breaks of tall yellow sea grass that wave in the wind. The fields are spread out amongst the low rolling hills and up the sides of steep mountains. There are fat cows grazing in the fields and shaggy sheep wandering beside them. There are stacked, stone walls leaning but not falling as though they have stood there since the beginning of time. The rocks are gray and weathered with spots of white and bright green from whatever it is that grows on rocks when they have a constant supply of rain.

From the other side of the train you can see the water- the North Sea. The water looks gray and cold. The waves are small and the sky is cloudy; it’s raining. As the day gets later a low fog starts to settle in around the train and makes it hard to see where the water stops and the clouds begin. Really it is the same on the other side of the train too. Where do the mountains reach their peaks’? Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of the sun as it slowly slips down- even in the clouds the rays shine bright gold and pink.

Only this year of course it was still daylight and the sun was partly shining. The drive only took about twenty minutes, but our driver had never been to the castle before so he had to stop and ask directions from another cabbie. He dropped us off at the side of the road and we took the foot path to the castle. Even before you can see the castle the landscape is inspiring. On one side of the path are fields of rolling green hills as far as you can see. The air is filled with the smell of cows from those fields and is mixed with the smell of fresh cut hay from the giant rolls of it that fill the yellow field on the other side of the path. Aww, the smell of country. As we round a corner the first glimpse of the castle ruins come into view. A fortress perched on a stony sea cliff.

The waters of the North Sea look calm in the distance but are almost violent as they crash against the black stone cliff walls. This castle is exactly what a medieval castle should be.

To get to the castle you have to walk down a steep hill and then climb back up the other side. The ruins are partially restored or at least safe to walk through. There is enough still standing of the Dunnottar castle to ignite your imagination. As you wander through each of the rooms it is quite entertaining to guess what the purpose of each was and what each nook in the wall was used for. We had quite a lengthy debate about one room with one particular bowl feature in the side wall. My red haired friend thought it was a toilet while I suggested it was a sink. One thing is for sure, now days it is most exclusively used as a pigeon perch.

Some rooms had wonderful seascape views and others looked out over the surrounding hills and fields. In some rooms we stopped to take in the sea views and marvel at the tiny white sailboats floating out in the water. The water looked so blue and clear, nothing like it had last year on the train. On top of one of the nearby hills was a strange circular monument which we later found out was a war memorial. It is really quite out of place standing on a hillside with nothing around it. We climbed up spiral staircases that lead to nowhere and wandered into dark chambers that we lit with the flash of my camera. We toured the old brewery, stables, dungeon, and keep. The walls of the castle’s chapel still remain, but the roof is long gone. The chimneys stack, where the Blacksmith used to work, stands tall and proud, even with none of the other walls around.

We walked across the windy plateau on soft green grass that was so closely cropped to the ground that I wondered whether it had been cut that way or if it simply refused to grow any higher in order to stay warm from the sharp sea wind. We walked right up to the edges of the cliff, to the signs that warned of a “sudden drop”. After we had read all of the stories and made up some of our own we headed back down to the beach below. There were a few tide pools that were just begging to be explored.

The beach was sandy but quickly turned to stone. Smaller stones pushed back further from the water that gave way to larger and larger ones the closer you came to the water’s edge. The stones must have been really old, because they were all so round and smooth. And were all so beautifully colored and weathered; I wanted to take home every one I saw, but in the end left them all behind for others to enjoy. Up close the water was crystal clear, I didn’t touch it, but I imagine it was ice cold. Although we looked into several of the pools, we didn’t see much other than a few small clams. Now it was time to hike back up the giant hill we had descended upon entering the grounds. After only climbing a few stairs I knew I would feel this in the morning. (And in fact I was still feeling it two days later.) Once we got back to where the taxi had dropped us off we only stood there for a moment before we decided we would have to walk back to the town.

Off we went walking down the road. Although the sun was shining and I was warm enough to wear only my t-shirt, the wind was still quite biting and was stinging my ears. So I decided to wrap my scarf around my head like a headband to cover my ears. I guess I embarrassed my friend because he kept making fun of my “turban”. But I reassured him that we were the only people around for miles and that no one was going to see my silly head gear on our two mile walk back to Stonehaven. Thankfully the walk back was downhill and was actually a pretty enjoyable walk. When we got closer to the city, we came across a scenic lookout to view the tiny harbor. It really is a great harbor.

We ate lunch in a little pub at the harbor and then walked along the boardwalk before we got a taxi to take us back to Aberdeen. The sky was starting to turn dark gray and we were ready for an afternoon nap. Funny enough the cabbie who had given our driver directions earlier in the day is the one who took us back to the hotel. It really was a perfect Saturday and I was thrilled to have seen a real Scottish castle.

See the rest of my pics on Shutterfly.

Texas Hill Country

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:21:00 +0000

There's a yellow rose in Texas, That I am going to see,
Nobody else could miss her, Not half as much as me.
She cried so when I left her It like to broke my heart,
And if I ever find her, We nevermore will part.

I have been to Texas probably more times than I can count, but this is one of the few times it wasn’t me in the Dallas airport or in Houston for work. I actually got to visit a friend’s ranch in the Hill Country. We had been planning this trip since April, but when it finally came right down to it our plans got all messed up. Really this shouldn’t surprise you if you have read many of my stories. The original plan was to leave Thursday after work, drive to Dallas, spend the night, and then finish the drive on Friday. Well, my friend, Chatty Cathy, ended up in Houston the week we were supposed to leave, so I either had to make the drive on my own or get a one-way ticket at the last minute. Since I really hate to drive I ended up getting a ticket 4 days before I left. OUCH! Luckily American Airlines will let you use points to buy one-way tickets. So I only had to pay a fee and taxes; still it was about $150 because it was so close to the departure date. Anyway, I bought a ticket and flew down to San Antonio on Friday morning.

When I arrived I called Chatty to let her know I had arrived. She told me she was running a little late and would be there soon. I made my way through the construction and waited in the Texas heat for her to arrive. When she got close, she called to find out where I was. I could see her in the line of traffic and told her she needed to get over like 5 lanes. So when the traffic started to move she just cut right across and pulled over to pick me up. Perfect! I was so excited to finally start my vacation. She and I both had had a few stressful weeks at work and we said we weren’t even going to think about it this weekend. After I loaded my bag and climbed in the car we started to pull out.

“Shoot, I think he is pulling me over!”
“What?”

A bike cop. Not a motorcycle, a cop on a bicycle. I had not even been on vacation more than 5 minutes and we are already in trouble with the law! Good Lord! Why does this always happen to me? Anyway, he barks orders at Chatty to hand over her driver’s license. She complies. He walks back to his bike, which he had parked behind our car and says something into his walkie talkie. At this point I offer Chatty a few pointers on what she might want to say to Mr. Bike Shorts. I suggest that she play up the fact that she has an out of state license, in a rental car, at the airport. When Mr. Shorts finally returns like ten minutes later he continues to bark at Chatty, who is being as polite as she can be, and finally lets her off with a warning. Whew!

After all of the excitement we decide we better go and get some lunch. Since we are in Texas, we of course had some Tex-Mex at one of Chatty’s favorite places to eat. After lunch we headed to her home town of Comfort, Texas; population 2,300. She gave me the grand tour and then we drove out to her family’s ranch. When we pulled up to the gate I had to take a picture. I don’t think I have ever been somewhere with a gate and a mile long driveway. As we drove in she pointed out some of the buildings on the property and then we finally arrived at her home.

After we got inside we naturally stood around in the kitchen making salsa and getting some other stuff ready for dinner that evening. The first thing I noticed was the counter tops in the kitchen came all the way up to my chest. Now, my sister is married to a tall man and their counters are slightly raised, but they are nothing compared to these. I looked at Chatty and asked if her family we all giants. “Well actually I am the shortest person in my family. My grandmothers are even taller than me!” I think now would be a good time to point out my friend is like 5’8”. Then next thing I know one of Chatty’s best friends came walking in and she is even taller! “Good grief, am I going to be the shortest person here?” They assured me that there were other friends who were short (normal) like me.

That afternoon we went on a short tour of the ranch and then we had a hamburger cook-out complete with homemade ice cream! Finally around 2 am we went to bed. But since Chatty’s god children spent the night and one of them was sleeping in my room I was suddenly awakened around 5 by his cries for his Momma. We finally got him calmed down and went back to sleep about 5:30. I got out of bed later that morning just as tired as when I fell asleep. But we got up, had chocolate chip pancakes, and then went to Fredericksburg to shop for candles and visit some wineries. I bought several candles from Circle E and bought plenty of wine from the two wineries we went to visit. At the second winery we stopped to visit you could actually stomp grapes. As gross and nasty as it looked, I also knew that I just had to do it! So I convinced Chatty to do it with me. See our video below.

After that we headed back to Fredericksburg and met up with our other friend, AJones. Now it was time to head over to the Doss Fish Fry; to support the local volunteer firefighters. Everything takes at least an hour and driving to Doss was no exception. When we arrived, we were surprised to find the line was soooo loooong! We stood in line for about an hour; the only good thing was the volunteers were walking around passing out free beer while you waited. Which I guess was good for people who like beer, not so good for me, but about half way through I found some lemonade. As we were standing in line we found out they had prepared 3,400 lbs of fish! That is a lot of fish. At the end of the evening we heard someone say that they had started with 3,200 plates and they had less than 100 left. That is a lot of people! About 10 pm we headed back to the house. Some of Chatty’s friends met us there and they taught AJones and me how to play a domino game called 42. I of course was all but asleep by this time. Somehow I managed to make it to 2 am, but by that time I could hardly hold my eyes open.

The next morning we had breakfast and then decided to take a real tour of the ranch. Of course on all of our tours we had to check the heifers to make sure none of them were calving and needed help. After we had been riding around in the fields for about an hour AJones, in her classic style says,
“Hey girl, I think I lost my car key.”
“Are you serious!” Chatty and I both chimed in.

This isn’t just a normal car key it is one of those little black key chain things that you just keep in your pocket or purse. The thing is only about an inch long and ¼ inch wide. After a frantic search of the gator to make sure it hadn’t fallen somewhere in the bed with no luck, we decided we would finish our tour and then come back to this point and back track.

The ranch is so big. There are plenty of fields, trees, limestone, creeks, and cows. We also saw a family of deer and some wild turkeys. Chatty took us to a place where her ancestors had once had a rock house. There was a waterfall nearby and in the creek was a fresh water spring and a deep hole in the rock where they would take their baths. Of course this part of Texas hasn’t had much water in quite a while so everything was pretty much dry to the bone and the grass was brown, but I have a good imagination so I closed my eyes and painted a picture for myself of what it REALLY looks like. The grass is so green, it isn’t as tall as the grass in Oklahoma, but it waves in the gentle breeze just the same. The rocky creek beds are filled with crystal clear water that flows ever so slowly; it is more of a swimming hole than a running creek. There are a few small fish in the water; you could sit under one of the live oaks that line the creek and fish since that’s what you do here to pass the time. The rolling hills are green with the grass and trees that try to hide their rocky outcrops. But the Texas limestone shines bright white in the late summer sun. It is so beautiful, everything I thought it would be.

After our tour we went back to the place where we knew the key was lost. We began our slow drive back to the house. For the most part we had stayed on the roads, but we did take a few detours to see cows and their cute little babies. Seeing as we had not had a lot of sleep and it was hot, we were having a hard time concentrating on looking for the key. During our search we started to discuss what the heck we were going to have to do to get a new key. We decided the closest dealer was probably in San Antonio; hopefully they could get one over the holiday weekend. But alas, there it was, at the side of one of the white rocky roads. Thank goodness! After that we headed back to the house, got a drink, and then headed back to Fredericksburg to climb Enchanted Rock. On the way though, we stopped to see some bats. The day before, Chatty had told me about this place where bats lived in an old train tunnel and I really wanted to see it. The signs there said that the night before it took SEVEN minutes for the bats to all come out of the tunnel! I can just imagine the dark cloud of bats swirling and rising as they all come out at dusk to feed. We climbed down the side of the hill to look in the tunnel. PHEW! It STUNK! It was so bad at first I had to hold my breath, but it didn’t take long for my nose to adjust and I took a few pictures. You can’t see anything in my pictures, but we could see a few of them flying around in there.

Enchanted Rock is pink granite and from the ground looks like a gently curving dome. But not long after we began to walk up the great hill I quickly realized that without a knee brace I was not going to be able to climb up the nearly vertical hill. It wasn’t so much the going up as the coming down part that was the problem. So I decided to hike up about half way and then find a spot to sit and wait for the group to come back down. It was really a very nice view from up there. There was a tiny little tree that had managed to grow about ten feet tall even on the side of a rock so I sat in its shade and took what ever breezy wind found me. Finally after about an hour the group came back down to meet me.

That night we decided to take another tour of the ranch on the gator. This time we took a big spot light with us and left the car keys at home! Since we didn’t have any guns (and because I don’t really like guns) I pretended to shoot the deer and rabbits that we came across. I think I got like 4 deer. Anyway we drove through another part of the ranch that we hadn’t seen on any of our other visits. After a few hours I mentioned that we should probably head back so we could get some real sleep before driving back the next morning. Even after driving around the ranch for several hours we still hadn’t seen it all.

The next morning my sister called and woke me up about 2 minutes before my alarm went off at 8 am. But since everything moves pretty slowly, we didn’t actually get on the road until 10 am. Traffic was moving pretty good until we got close to Dallas and then we hit traffic that would slow but never quite stopped. By the time we got to Southern Oklahoma we stopped. Construction. After not moving for about 10 minutes and then taking about 20 minutes to get to the next exit, which was less than a mile, we decided we should take the detour for the wide loads, we figured that we would at least get to see a few small towns and maybe miss some of the traffic.

We finally made it to Tulsa around 9:30 pm but then got held up at the car rental place for an hour. I think I got in bed around 11:30 only to hear my little doggie crying because she hadn’t seen me for days. So I got up and brought her to bed. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. After about 5 minutes of this I was pretty fed up and took her back to the kitchen, only to discover that she had a flea! GREAT! Well I have to say I was so tired, I just went back to bed at that point and decided to wait until the morning to deal with it.

The next morning I gave her some flea drops and went to work. The next day she was still scratching so I gave her a bath. The next day she was still scratching so I called the vet who suggested Benadryl. Because Lil’ J is so small she can only have 4mg at a time. Now if the store actually sold children’s tablets as the vet had recommended this wouldn’t be too bad, since it would basically be ¼ of a pill, however they don’t actually sell tablets. They only sell the liquid kind, but the pharmacist was kind enough to help me convert mL to mg and gave me a syringe to measure the dosage. After two doses she is still scratching, but not nearly as bad.

I am leaving in the morning for Scotland so I should have some more stories soon. Be sure to check out the pictures from Texas on my Shutterfly. And thanks for reading if you made it all the way down to the end of this crazy story!

Perseids

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:52:00 +0000

I have been waiting all year for this spectacular show. As the weeks have grown closer I have been telling everyone I know that it is coming. I have been waiting patiently until the clouds cleared the sun set, and the night sky light up before me. This is the biggest and best meteor shower of the year.

I can remember when I was younger going out to Tallchief’s grave and lying in the tall grass listening to the bugs call across the field and watching the stars shoot across the sky. This is the first memory I have of watching a meteor shower, there are others but that was the first. It was magic and I was hooked.

Last night I made dinner for a few friends and then we went to pick up another friend before we headed out to the State Park just outside town. Before we left we packed up a few chairs, a blanket, a couple flashlights, and some bug spray. After we picked up our other friend, we stopped to get some drinks and some marshmallows.

As we drove out highway 60, I forgot how dark it gets in the “country”. The road is dark and snakes around corners through the Osage Hills; after a few minutes of driving my eyes finally began to adjust to the dark. The park is only about 20 minutes outside of town, but it is up high in the hills. We drove through the park and decided we should go to the lodge where we had attended a bonfire before. I wasn’t exactly sure where to turn so I took a left at the sign for the swimming pool. As we came around the corner there stood a raccoon. I slowed down but he just stood his ground, I intended to keep driving.
“STOP! Go back I want to see him!”
“Okay.” So I put the car in reverse and started to back up to the raccoon. He moved a little off the road and into the shadow of the dumpster that he was no doubt trying to break into. We watched him for another minute and even tried to take his picture, but since all we had was a cell phone camera, that didn’t happen.

Onward we drove before realizing that this road was not the one that would take us to where we wanted to go. We turned around and headed back to the main road. Slight detour, but we got to see a raccoon. (We city folk are easily excited.) Just a little further up the main road was the lodge. We parked at the side, gathered up all of our stuff, and headed around to the back. The fire pit already had a few big pieces of wood stacked neatly so all we had to do was use the newspaper and lighter we brought with us to get it going. After just a minute our manly friend had a nice fire for us to roast our marshmallows on.

We didn’t bring any thing to roast the marshmallows on, but there were some coat hangers still sitting by the fire side. We burned the ends until we felt like they were somewhat sanitary and then we just plopped the marshmallows on the end. After we each ate a few flamers, we settled into our chairs and looked up to the sky.

Just before 10pm we saw our first Earthgrazer. It was low in the East sky. It was so big you could almost hear it WOOSH through the sky. It had a long, thick, red tail with a blue head. I have never seen anything like it. That was enough for me, I could have left at any time after that, but of course we didn’t leave yet the night was still young.

Only a few minutes later we had our next sighting. It was long and slow in the Northeast sky right through Cassiopeia. Then another one; these were both white, but they were still quite a sight to see. We had been here for about a half an hour by this time, so it was time to have a few more marshmallows.

Once we had our fill of marshmallows, we settled back into our viewing positions. I think this is when one of our friends told us the story of Cassiopeia and the Milky Way. Not sure if I believe it, but it was definitely an interesting story and a good topic for conversation to pass the time. While we were sitting and chatting we noticed a set of headlights headed towards the lodge. We were sitting behind it, so we couldn’t really tell who was coming or if they were just driving by.

We all looked to the side of the lodge and prepared ourselves to meet whoever was coming around the corner. Suddenly a bright light pointed at us. I put my hand up to block the light. It was a man, but other than that I couldn’t really tell you anything about him. As he started to get closer to us, I finally piped up, “Hello?”
He continued to walk up to us. When he was about 10 feet away I finally realized he must be a park ranger. He had on a T-shirt with a badge printed on it and a pair of slacks.
“You all parked right in front of a No Parking sign, right behind a sign that says ‘All groups must register’,”
“Sorry we didn’t see it.”
“That’s not my problem. And you have pretty good fire going, and” he made his way over to where our drinks were sitting. “I’ll bet these are illegal. If they are higher than 3.2 they can’t be in the State Park.”
“No they’re not…”
He picked up one and started to examine it. “Okay, well I guess these are okay. But you are parked in a No Parking area.”
“Sorry we just came out to see the meteor shower. Have you seen any?”
“Well actually….” BLAH BLAH BLAH- yeah he had seen some.
“Well I guess you guys aren’t causing any trouble so as long as you are gone by midnight that would be fine. Next time go over to the Tent Camping area.”
“Okay will do.”

Whew! Who knew there were so many rules! I am still not sure if he was complimenting the fire or scolding us for having one. We talked about him pretty much for the next 15 minutes. We did see two more long meteors both streaked from the North over head to the South. The tail crossed over the whole sky above us. After having had a few drinks a couple of us needed a bathroom break. Luckily I had some tissue with me. As I walked back toward the fire I noticed something moving.

THUMP THUMP, THUMP THUMP, my heart was starting to beat a little quicker. OMG! A raccoon. I yelled at it and finally it headed away. Then I was a little freaked out when less than a minute later another one was headed toward us from the other side. They just snuck up silently in the dark and appeared before us. We yelled again. This time it was much braver and was harder to scare off. He moved off toward our car and hung out in the shadows. At this point I was too freaked out to sit back down. These raccoons were going to stop at nothing to get our bag of marshmallows.

I was ready to go. We hastily packed up our stuff and put out the fire before we headed back to the car. I was pretty scared that the raccoons were going to attack from all sides, so I couldn’t get in the car fast enough. We drove back to town with no incidents of killer raccoon attacks, but we did see something run across the road.

After we dropped off one of our friends we headed back to my house where the other car was parked. On the way an opossum ran out in front of my car and I am sad to say it hit us. THUD! Ewwwah. That sound it not something you want to hear just before you go to bed. Thankfully, there was nothing on my car when we got home and looked at it.

I finally climbed into bed around midnight, I could have stayed out to watch the meteors for at least another hour or two, but after the raccoons, I just couldn’t sit there any longer. In total we saw five meteors. The first was the best and unlike anything I have ever seen. I think I will remember that one forever.

Forbidden City

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:59:00 +0000

The Forbidden City was closed to the world for 500 years.

What lies behind the thick, high, red walls? Under the heavy, uniform, yellow tiles? What have these round, wood, blue pillars heard? What secrets does this city hold?

As our group crosses the moat and enters through the Meridian Gate we stand in awe of the doors. 20 feet wide and 40 feet tall. Our journey into the forbidden palace begins.

We enter through the imperial garden. Lush green trees, high towers of rock sculptures, painted tiles, and the entwined lovers’ tree. This is a magnificent garden. Now, I am in China. I can see the women with painted white faces, long silk robes and long black hair piled high on their heads. The men with long braids, and loose silk clothing, bowing in front of the Emperor. Everyone moving at a gentle gliding pace.

We walk through the twisted alleys and into the residence area of the concubines. I have to wonder whether these women (or girls) are here by choice or if their family brought them here. How would it feel to be a young girl, maybe fifteen, and in line to be married to the Emperor? A different time; a world away.

We enter into a good size courtyard, crooked bricks below our feet. The courtyard is surrounded on all sides by glass front buildings. The glass windows bordered by intricate wood designs. We step up on the long porch and peer through the dusty glass into the rooms these women occupied. A small square room for each woman. The rooms line the courtyard, one after the other all around. A bed occupies one wall and a single chair sits in front of the window. The bed is built into the wall and covered with thick silk blankets.

In the next courtyard we find the Emperor’s office. This is where he conducts his daily business. It is hard to believe that this very room is where an Emperor sat less than 80 years ago. That is in the same lifetime of some of the people still living today.

Once we cross into the “government” area of the city, having long ago left behind the lush green of the gardens, now we are surrounded by nothing but stone and wood. We find three large buildings sitting high above the rest of the city on top of a white stone plateau. All of the buildings contain a throne, nearly the only thing in the room. Rooms so big you could compare them to football field.

Here is where we meet the crowds. Where we meet the 50,000 visitors who have come to see the forbidden city. A place where you have to push your way through to even catch a glimpse of the throne. This is where it pays to be even just a few inches taller than the man in front of you. But alas, each building is just like the one before it, maybe a little bigger, but still just the same.
A large wooden building, grand and grandiose. Empty inside except for the lone chair. We, me and the 1,000 other people at my side, all crowd around the door to peak inside, to catch our glimpse of the past. Hot and sticky. Loud and pushy. These are the images that come to my mind as I remember this part of the city.

We pass through more gates into bigger and bigger courtyards until we come to the final gate. Outside is the last gate, the Tiananmen Gate. On the far side is Mao. The infamous portrait, the one they all love yet hate. We crossed under the street and stood in the middle of the square. This square is quite a drastic change from the colorful and decorative courtyards I have just left. It is gray and dull. It is dirty and looks old. Even though these buildings aren’t even half the age of the ones I have just seen, they look like they have been here for much longer. They are painted and styled in the drab color of communism.

The city of Beijing ever growing and expanding. From the 3rd Ring road where I am staying, to the center of the city where I am now, I feel like I am a world away. I am absolutely amazed that this forbidden city remained walled to the outside world for so long. I am really happy that I was able to visit at a time when I could walk in the emperor’s footsteps. I wish I could have seen the people when they lived in this place, but just to walk in their paths and hear their stories makes me feel like I have finally been to China.

*********************************************************

Having recently been to the lost city I can’t help but compare the two. One took 18 years to build but was hidden from the world for centuries. The other took a century to build and was lost only to be found a century later. Two great civilizations wise beyond their time.

I can’t help but think how China was moving its capital the year our country was “found”. Their history was already in its middle when ours had not yet even begun. What a mysterious place.

The Far East

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:56:00 +0000

Leaving La La Land
The engines start their low rumble and hum,
Time to start chewing my gum.
We begin our accent into the starry night sky,
I look out the window and say my goodbye.
Higher and higher away we go,
Out into the darkness with water below.
Softly we glide through the air,
Slowly I lose all of my cares.
Sleep falls on the cabin fast,
Although it lingers it does not last.
A silver mist hangs all around,
Again I hear the engines’ sound.
Down, down, slowly we glide,
Rocking gently from side to side.
With a small bump we gently land,
So far away from where I began.

Beijing.
Here I am in the Far East. The land my mother told me, when I was young, I would arrive in if I kept digging a hole in the backyard. It is nothing like what I expected it to be. I guess I have always thought of this land as one deeply rooted in the past. This is not so, not at all. Everything around me seems to be new. I wouldn’t say that it is of the best quality, but it is not what I was expecting. I keep waiting to see “China Town” in China. Although the buildings do not look as I expected them too, the food is exactly what I thought it would be.

The food is generally served family style. The tables are round with a lazy susan on top. Every person has their chopsticks and a small plate. The plate is about 3 inchs in diameter. You get one small napkin. The food plates are brought out as they are prepared and may come all together or several minutes apart. Usually there is a small flat spoon for each dish, but sometimes you just have to use your sticks. It is hard to say how many dishes should be ordered, because some have only a few pieces whereas some could feed the entire table by themselves. Yesterday at lunch we ordered: sweet & sour pork, kung pao chicken, fried rice, garlic broccoli, coke, beer, and hot tea. This was intended to feed 5 people, but really could have feed 6. The total cost for the lunch was 65 RMB or approximately 10 USD. Compare this to any western style restaurant in which you will each order your own plate and pay approximately 20 USD per person. You don’t always get what you pay for I guess…

Our hotel is a bit disappointing, I guess I thought the hotel rooms would be ultra luxurious like they were in both Jakarta and Melaka. But really this is just the spoiled American in me that thinks this, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of the room I am in. In fact I am sure that my hotel room is nicer than most of the populations’ housing.

On Saturday we took a tour of one the Ming Tombs and I had my first Chinese encounter with a squat toilet. This was not the first time I have seen this porcelain hole in the ground, only the first time in China. And since I follow the Girl Scout motto “Always be prepared.” I had my own tissue and had sanitizer. The tomb itself is really a collection of buildings and gates. The emperor is buried somewhere in a hill that is behind the last gate. We were told that beautiful mountains surround the area where we were, but we could not see them due to the “foggy” weather.

I am not sure if the people here are trying to be polite, if they refuse to believe it, don’t know the English word or if they are ignorant to the fact that it isn’t “foggy” outside. The reason you can’t see more than a few hundred feet is because of the pollution. I think it is more correct to say, it is “smoggy” weather.

Whatever the reason for the white weather, it did add a little mystery to the day. One of our next stops was at the Badaling section of the Great Wall. In some ways it made it feel more special to only be able to see this portion of the wall and just see it fade into the white. But on the other hand I wanted to be able to see how far it really went. I wanted to see it until the earth curved and I could not. I wanted to see it as it was seen hundreds of years ago. Before industrialization.

When we got to the wall I finally got an idea of how many people actually live in China. Our guide had told us that 17 million people live in Beijing and that every day 1,000 new drivers fill the roads, but I could not comprehend how many people this might actually be. I know that there were not 17 million people at the wall or even a million, but there were thousands. All of them all packed together on a wall that is only about 10 feet wide. Even though the temperature was close to 30C, I didn’t really mind standing in a crowd so thick we were all touching. It almost made it easier to keep climbing. A sea of people all pushing towards the tower at the top of the mountain. At some points it felt as though stopping was not an option, yet when you did stop you were not trampled, the flow of people just moved around you. Like a rock in the river that separates the flow. On top of the wall, or at least half way up, a cool breeze began to blow. It was refreshing to feel the rush of air, before that moment I had not realized how stagnate the air had been.

With all of the people, you would think it would be noisy, but I have not noticed the noise. Or maybe I have just tuned out the chatter, which I cannot understand. Although there is English in many places there is still a small void where communication is not possible. So far it really has not been a problem, but for some in my group it is a major problem. One person has gone so far as to hold interviews and hire a translator. No one else in the group can really understand the need for such a service, seeing as we have had no problems eventually communicating what we need. I guess if you have the money to spend, then it is your choice what to spend it on.

I personally like to spend my money on things. In one fail swoop I managed to drop 345 USD. All it took was a short demonstration aimed at showing how silk is made and the option to purchase silk bedding. Done. A comforter, 2 pillows, duvet cover, and pillow cases. Really it was just a matter of what color and size I should buy. Next we went to the market. A few strands of pearls, gadgets for dad, and 5 purses. Later we went to the tea shop. Assorted fruit tea- 2 boxes. In two days I managed to spend 450 USD. Who is this person? Everyone around me was quite surprised by my ability to spend money. I don’t do it very often, but when I decide to buy something there really isn’t any thinking, I just do it. That is why you save your money, so that when you want something you can buy it.

I know this really hasn’t been a story so much as a collection of thoughts, but it is the best I have for now. We will see what happens during the rest of my time in Beijing.

The last adventure.. in the Lost City- Part 8

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Wednesday May 30 we left Cusco drove to Ollyantaytambo and then got on a train to Aguas Caliente. That is where we spent the night.

Thursday June 1 I woke up to the sound of Kimberly getting ready. It was 4:30 am. She along with some of the others in the group decided to climb Huayna Picchu and therefore had to get there early to get a ticket. They only give out 400 tickets a day to visitors wanting to make the climb. Thankfully I went back to sleep and then got up again at 6:15 am.

This hotel actually had a “real American breakfast” according to the sign at the desk, really they had the same bread with jam, powder coffee, and tea. But they also had eggs! Of course I don’t eat eggs early in the morning, but they had them. I ate my piece of bread and some tea and then it was time to get to the bus.

We walked through the town, which is basically the side of a mountain filled with two star hotels, gift shops that all have the same stuff (only for three times the price of Cusco), and restaurants. There is one main street that runs through the middle of town down to the town square and up to the hot springs. There is also another street that runs along the river that comes from the hot springs; this is the street where the buses pick up for Machu Picchu. You can walk to Machu Picchu, but our tour included a ticket on the bus so why not. Plus why would you want to walk up the mountain to Machu Picchu and be tired before you even got to see anything?

This place looks exactly as I imagined it to be. It is the beginning of the jungle (not sure if it is actually the Amazon, but it is definitely a jungle) so everything is green and slightly overgrown. Our bus slowly made its climb up the side of the mountain out from the valley floor. We wove back and forth across the side of the mountain until finally we got our first glimpse of the Lost City. It was only a quick glimpse and made me question whether I had actually seen anything at all.

When the bus finally stopped thirty minutes after we left Aguas Caliente we were in front of modern buildings. There was a path leading further up the hill and we figured this must be where the main gate was. We were supposed to meet the rest of the group for our tour at 8 am. We actually entered and then had to come back outside to wait for the group. We didn’t realize that the main gate is really just a shack where they stamp your ticket.

Once we met up with the rest of the group they were already exhausted. They had stood in line until the gate opened at 6 am and then raced to the other side of the city to get some of the last tickets. With their entrance to Huayna Picchu secure they climbed up to the guard shack to take some early morning pictures before meeting us at the gate. We also met our tour guide, Tido. We all got our passports stamped at INS and then we went back through the main gate.

This is really where I got my first look at Machu Picchu. It was a little surreal to believe that I was finally here. It is just so pristine. It is hard to believe that it was built in 80 years and then abandoned for 400. I can’t imagine discovering a place like this. I don’t even know how it was possible. It was all covered by jungle when it was discovered in 1911, so I am sure they were amazed to find how big it actually was, it just keeps going. According to Tido about 30% of it has been reconstructed from the stones that were found on the ground near the structures. But even 70% being original is amazing! There have been at least three MAJOR earthquakes since it was built!

Our guide took us to the Temple of the Sun, the King’s Quarters, through the main square, and to some of the other temples. The buildings were made with stones and mortar with straw roofs. The important buildings were made without mortar; the stones were cut to fit. Tido told us that archaeologists say that small stones were put under the foundation walls so that the whole structure could move when the earth shakes. Now how did the Incas know to do this? The Temple of the Sun is built partially on a rock that is part of the mountain; this keeps it from moving and changing positions. The holes that were cut in the walls for the sun to come into are predicted to be accurate for the summer and winter solstice for the next 1,300 years. Again, how did the Incas know? One side of the main square was built with a slight curve in the wall. This indention allows the sound to be magnified of what ever is going on in that spot. It was probably the place where the speaker would stand to address the people of the city. Now, how did they know to do that?

The Incan people were so far ahead of the curve. It is amazing to see this city.

This is when the group split up. Some went to climb to the peak of Huayna Picchu and the Weaver’s and I decided to hike to an old Incan bridge. First we had to get to the other side of the city. This was a bit of a task considering several “roads” were dead ends and we were almost at the bottom of the city and had to get to the top. We finally made it up to the guard shack where we stopped for pictures and to catch our breath. Then we started on the trail to the bridge.

The trail was up and down, rocky and flat. We had to wait at one point for a heard of llamas to come through. The path was extremely narrow in some places and luckily was shaded by trees. If the trees had not been there I would have been able to see the sheer cliffs that dropped several hundred feet down to a rocky white water river below. In a few places you could see down and it made me dizzy just to think about looking. I had to hold the rock wall beside me just to turn my head in that direction. Can you imagine being the person who had to carve the trail out of the side of the mountain? Yikes! Glad it wasn’t me. After about thirty minutes of walking on the narrow path we finally came to the bridge. It is a group of timbers about seven or eight feet long lashed together and laid over a gap in the trail. This way it could be taken up to keep unwanted visitors out.

At first I thought 5 hours at Machu Picchu would be too long, old rocks are old rocks. Nope, I could have spent at least another 3 hours there. But we had to get back to Aguas Caliente and catch the train back to Ollyantaytambo. In the bus from Ollyantaytambo back to Cusco I decided I just couldn’t wait and asked if we could stop for a bathroom break. After driving another five minutes in agony we finally stopped at a restaurant in Chinchero. Maruja asked if I could use the restroom and once granted permission I headed in. No light, no toilet, no paper. Hmm. Oh wait a crack in the door gave a little light, there was a porcelain hole in the ground, and I had a tissue in my pocket. Fine with me! At this point I would have pulled down my pants in the middle of the restaurant and squatted over a drain in the floor if they told me it was the toilet. I consumed two and a half liters of water on the train and it was time to go!

I think it is amazing that Peru has really only been in the tourism business for a decade. It was almost crazy to see people washing their clothes in the river but then have people carrying around cell phones. I mean they are still building sidewalks, bridges, roads, etc. yet there was wireless internet at nearly every hotel we stayed. I hope that Peru is able to bring itself up into the world economy and that their new found tourism business does not destroy their culture and history.

What an amazing place.

I think this was a great place to end our vacation and I will always remember my time in Peru.

Geronimo! Paragliding in the Sacred Valley- Part 7

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah K.) — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Friday May 29 is one day that will go down in the books (the ones I keep in my head) as one of the best days of my life. OR if you ask the people who know me best it is one of the days that I acted most NOT like myself. It is of course the day I decided to jump off a cliff. Obviously I survived seeing as I am sitting here writing the story. And I am well aware that everyone has anxiously been waiting for this story, but I needed to write the stories in order. (It may not make sense to you, but this is how my mind works and it is the boss so I do what it wants.)

Okay so the morning of the big day I woke up in a freezing cold room and watched Gilmore Girls just like I had done for the few days prior. Around nine I pulled myself out of bed and got dressed. I ate a light breakfast, not that I had a choice in what to eat, and then before I knew it my ride was there to pick me up. A white van pulled up and I hoped in with Leo (the pilot), Manni (the driver), and the other guy whose name I don’t remember but should since he is the guy that carried everything and strapped me in to the harness. We will call him Buddy. Then we drove to the other end of town to pick up Leo’s friends. They were visiting from Lima and since I was the only customer they came along too. We drove about an hour to a place just on the other side of the city of Chinchero. There is a little farm there where a family sells gifts and is the place where crazies like me jump off cliffs.

Fortunately there was a Crazy that got there before us and I got to watch her take her turn. Also I got to listen to the instructions that her pilot gave her, seeing as Leo didn’t speak a whole lot and I was little unsure of the amount of English that he spoke. (On the ride there he mostly talked to his friends and of course they were speaking Spanish.) Anyway, sounded easy enough and they took off without any problems.

Next was our turn. This is when my legs started to shake a little and I thought, “Oh Nelly what am I doing?” Buddy helped me into the harness, which had a cushion attached at the back to help hold you in sitting position and helped soften the landing. While Buddy helped me Leo started laying out the chute. It is a long arc of yellow and blue material with about a thousand lines coming together into two thick ropes that hooked to Leo’s sides. He also had some handles to help steer and guide the chute. Once Leo was all hooked up we harnessed ourselves together with clips. This was bringing back memories of when I went skydiving with Jim. Only Jim had a little checklist that I read to him to make sure everything was attached. I think I liked the checklist approach a little better. But I could clearly see that I was attached to Leo so all I could do now was say a quick prayer and get ready to run.

On Leo’s signal my job was to start running towards the edge of the cliff. I was supposed to keep running even after we lifted off because we could always come back down.
“Ready?”
No time for my answer… “Go! Go! Go!”
I started running, well I started moving anyway, it is hard to run when you are tethered to another person. Buddy was pulling me forward to help keep me going. When the wind starts to catch in the chute it pulls pretty hard backwards and you have to keep going forward or you will fall backwards. Then suddenly my hips pulled back and my feet were no longer touching the ground. I kept running though until there was no ground below me any longer and Leo finally told me to sit down.

We lifted off about three feet from the edge of the cliff and never looked back. The wind was strong. Once I finally got in position I noticed that we were really soaring. We were already almost up as high as the mountain next to us. This is when I closed my eyes. It made me a little nervous when the wind pulled us up. It was very peaceful, but a very strong swift motion when we caught the updrafts. When we were floating around it felt like sitting in a swing with the wind hitting your face as you came up through the bottom arc of the swing. I had clipped the camera to my jacket zipper before we took off so I took a few pictures and a short video.

I held on tight just about the entire time mostly because you feel safer when you are holding on to something, but also to help me hold my legs tucked and together. I knew pretty quickly that my abs were going to be sore from this unexpected workout.

All too soon Leo told me that we were going to start going down and land in the valley below. The valley he was referring to was the Sacred Valley. He got on the radio and let Manni and the others know what was going on and we made our slow decent. I like the going down part better than the going up part. It is much gentler, we just drifted down in a slow smooth motion. When we got close, Leo told me to straighten my legs and hold them out in front of me. This is how we were going to land.

As we approached the ground I thought, “Ooh that grass there looks soft aim for that.” But Leo had other plans. We circled once and then landed in a field of yellow reeds. The landing wasn’t too bad, especially with the cushion. We sat there for a second and caught our breath, I took our picture and then he unhooked himself from me. He marked our spot on his GPS and then called Manni to give him the exact location.

While we waited for Manni, Leo packed up the chute and his friend jumped and made his way down to the field where we were. Unbeknownst to me Buddy was riding with him. They did not have a very good landing. They landed smack in the middle of a bunch of shrubs and trees. It was actually a little funny. Soon after someone else jumped and Leo radioed him to tell him he could land with us and get a ride. So they made their way down to us too.

Finally Manni arrived and we all made our way to the road and loaded the van and piled in. It was a pretty tight fit with three shoots and seven people. We drove through the valley and along the Urubamba River and back up the mountain. The drive took about an hour. Isn’t it funny how fast it is to get down and how long it takes to get back up?

When we arrived back to the farm it was time for lunch. We were having a special lunch of potatoes that had been cooked in the ground by the family at the farm. We also had some avocados and some cheese. The potatoes were pretty tasty. I just brushed off as much dirt as possible and chowed down. That is until I found a worm in my next bite; that was the end of my lunch. After everyone had their fill of potatoes we loaded back into the van and headed back to Cusco.

The roads are pretty narrow and curvy and our driver was going pretty fast which made me nervous, but I made it alive back to my hotel so my birthday wish came true.

…to be continued.

And the video: