Flying Pig Tales - A Travel Blog

Friday, September 11, 2015

Grand Canyon

Our drive from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon took us about an hour and a half. Once we got out of town, we drove virtually alone through miles of pine forests, changing to wide open prairie-like areas until we connected up with the 64 highway into Grand Canyon. At one point, I looked down at how fast I was going and was surprised to see Indie was up over 90 mph. She rides so smoothly it is easy to forget my lead foot. At that point, I just pushed the pedal a tiny bit more and Indie broke her first 100!

With the Labor Day crowds gone, it took no time at all for us to get through the main gates into the park, find our campsite and get the lay of the land that is the South Rim. It is not really possible to see all of the Grand Canyon in a Day, so given our overall road trip route, the South Rim offered the best vantage point for us this trip. The GC is over 700 miles long and 10 miles wide.

We couldn’t set up camp until noon, so after confirming our reservation at the campground, we went to the Visitors Center and got some information on the area, watched a short movie about the GC, purchased a National Parks Passport, and promptly stamped them with the GC park stamp and date. I felt like a kid at Epcot Center, where you get to go around the different countries and get your passport stamped! Fun!

There are about 4 different routes along the South Rim to various vista points. There are also a number of trails down into the canyon as well as along the rim, meandering through forests and along the viewpoints. While not especially hot for this time of year - it was only about 80 degrees - it was still a bit warm for biking or trail running, so we opted for the car. We walked out about a mile roundtrip on one route to Mather Point, and that was where we got our first full view of the GC.

Saying that the GC is immense would really just not do it justice. This place is simply jaw droppingly huge. And such beauty! It leaves you speechless.

We spent the majority of our day wandering from one vista to another. We did drive back to the campground around noon and set up our tent at our space, so that when we returned later it would be ready and waiting for us. It was good that we did, because we drove out to the east end of the park to watch the sunset, and didn’t get back until well after dark. Having a tent already set up and ready to step into, proved to have been a wise decision.

Above are a few pictures of the GC at sunset.

The next morning, in order to get up in time for the sunrise at Yaki Point, we had to wake up about 4:00 AM. The sun was to rise at 6:06 AM and we needed to drive to the Visitor Center in order to take the shuttle bus to Yaki point, as no cars are allowed there. The first shuttle bus leaves at 4:00 AM. I had wanted to maybe get the 4:30 shuttle so we would be there in time to watch the beginning of the sunrise, as it takes a little while for the sky to "wake up." We had set our alarms on our phones the night before, but Adrienne's phone was having trouble deciding whether or not it was still Pacific Time or Mountain Time. So,....... her phone woke us at 3:00 AM. We had some trouble falling asleep to begin with, with some noisy campers around us, so the 3:00 wake up call was not much fun. And I couldn't go back to sleep after this, so we ended up getting up early and were in the car just a few minutes past 4:00. We caught the shuttle at about 4:15 and were the ONLY ones on the bus, and the first and ONLY ones out at Yaki Point. It was a good half hour before another shuttle came, and even then, there were only 5 other people that showed up to this "really popular place to watch the sunrise" location. In the end, we had a good time and the sunrise was worth the hassle we put ourselves through.

The Grand Canyon is truly a magical place, not to be missed!

Monday, September 7, 2015

Road to Redemption - Day One - Los Angeles to Flagstaff

Well, we are officially on the road! After spending a lovely long weekend visiting with friends and family in Los Angeles, Adrienne and I got up early this morning and finished loading my car (Indie) with the rest of our stuff, and after some gasoline and a visit to the market for ice and the ATM for some cash, we were on the road by 8:15. 8 hours later we rolled into Flagstaff, having driven about 500 miles.

Leaving Los Angeles on an early Labor Day holiday, the freeways were eerily quiet - like a ghost town! It took us all of 20 minutes to go from Woodland Hills to Pasadena. Amazing. Indie drives and rides like a dream, so we were very comfortable being in the car all day. We made a couple of pit stops because SOMEONE in my car has a tiny bladder........but it was always good to step out and stretch, grab some fresh ice for my water bottle, and breath in some fresh air while admiring the surrounding scenery.

We stopped in Needles for gas and decided to have a sit-down lunch. There was a cute and well-rated (Yelp) diner called Juicy's Famous River Cafe. After lunch we headed out again, in search of the state line into Arizona, and the Colorado River. 15 minutes down the road we struck gold.

Driving on towards Flagstaff, we were pleasantly surprised to see the landscape around us change as we slowly climbed up over the mountain passes, dipping into valleys - each cycle resulted in cooler and cooler temps until we at least reached Flagstaff in rainy 65 degree weather. Ah, the air smelled so good!

When we checked into our hotel, the desk clerk told us that it is very common to get afternoon rainstorms here. We never need an excuse to be happy about rain so it was just a lovely way to end the day.

Tomorrow, we will take an hour's drive to the Grand Canyon and spend the whole day there, and then tent camp at the campground at the Grand Canyon. Good thing we figured out how to put the rainfly on our tent!!!

Friday, August 28, 2015

RETIREMENT!!!

I am retiring from my "working career" on Tuesday, September 1st. I'm not quite 60. It's been my long-term dream and plan to retire before the age of 60, so once again, I've completed my mission!

It takes a dream, careful and thoughtful planning, and continued devotion to realizing your dream to have it come true. It means, sometimes, shifting priorities. It means, sometimes, being selfish. I've worked very hard for many many years, and I am proud of my career and all that I have accomplished. I truly and completely believe that you CAN make it happen. But you can't sit back and wait for life to happen to you, you have to be a willing and present participant.

I've got a bunch of trips lined up, so this blog is going to be getting some serious action!!

2015:
9/3 - 9/26 - Road trip from Sacramento across the U.S. to Georgia and back.
10/16 - 11/5/1 - Panama Canal cruise from Boston to San Diego.

2016:
1/16- 2/27 - South America adventure - Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu; visit to Easter Island; cruise from Santiago Chile to Buenos Aires via Antarctica; visit to Brazil
4/1 - 5/7 - South Pacific cruise - from San Diego to Seattle

2017:
1/4 - 4/26 -- World Cruise. Roundtrip Ft. Lauderdale. 111 days of sea bliss!!

Come and join me in my travels!

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia

The morning we sailed into St. Anthony it was sunny and getting warm. It was clear we were out of the stormy seas and cold and damp weather we had experienced in Greenland!

We had no immediate plans for St. Anthony. The biggest draw for this port stop was a UNESCO rated Viking settlement called L'Anse aux Meadows, which is an archaeological site and discovered in 1960. Outside of Greenalnd, it is the most famous site of a Norse or Viking settlement in North America.

According to Wikipedia, L'Anse aux Meadows dates back to 1000 BC and is the only site widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. Experts believe it is very probably an attempted colonization of Vinland that was established by Leif Ericson. It was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978.

Adrienne and I decided that we would skip the trip to L'Anse aux Meadows and just enjoy a leisurely day around the little town of St. Anthony. Both of us had missed internet access, as Greenland is just too remote, so we hightailed it into town once we got off the tender and went in search of a Tim Horton's coffee place. Like Starbucks in the U.S., Tim Horton's is a terrific coffee and pastry shop and also has free wireless access!

It was a good 20 minute walk to the Tim Horton's and by the time we got up there, the place was already packed and finding a seat at a table was almost impossible. However, Adrienne had got there a few minutes before me, and snagged us 2 chairs at a small table for 4. I purchased a coffee and a donut and we sat down with our laptops and set to work trying to catch up on our emails, etc. The problem, however, is that everyone else in the shop was trying to do the same thing - we had over 100 people in there accessing Tim's wireless and guess what? Access slowed to barely a crawl. It took us over 2 hours to get through just some basic access. But, I was able to upload a group of pictures (posted here) and Adrienne was able to catch up on her emails with friends and family.

We finished up our laptop chores and headed back towards the ship - The ship was supposed to leave port at 2 PM so it was a short day anyway. Back on board, we had lunch and then spent the afternoon at the Thermal Suites.

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Prince Christian Sound

This Prins Christian Sund region is a maze of a complex network of extraordinary channels and fjords. This is truly a wonderland of steep granite mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and icebergs. It is a channel that is between the mainland of Greenland and the island called Sanmisoq. It means “the long channel.” At the southern tip of Greenland is Cape Farewell and the Greenland name means “the lands end.” Instead of sailing past Cape Farewell it is possible to make a shortcut through the channels. This is, however, only possible from midsummer until late autumn because the sea is blocked with pack ice at other times. It is truly a privilege that few people get to enjoy. The rugged landscape that we are able to see was formed by carving glaciers during the Ice Age.

The mountains on each side of this channel rise up to 5,000 feet. The channel is about 35 miles long and at is narrowest point is only 1,100 feet wide. Our ship is 930 feet long. There is but one small settlement of 130 people within this channel. It is called Aappilattoq or “the read place”. It is the most remote village in all of Greenland. We stopped there and sent out a couple of tenders to take some “fun” supplies to the villagers - we sent out coloring books and crayons for the kids, and pizza for all of the villagers - they LOVE it! Along with the pizza, we also sent other food items, things like Snickers bars and stuff. Their diet consists mostly of fish and vegetables that they grow during the summer months.

We spent the entire day cruising very slowly through this gorgeous waterway. I took a zillion photographs - everywhere you turn, there is a waterfall, or an iceberg, or towering mountain walls. Simply hard to explain. I hope my photos do it a little bit of justice. We entered the Sound at about 8 AM and exited it a little bit after 5:30 PM. It was a lovely and relaxing day. One of those days where you just want to sit out on your balcony and take it all in and not miss a thing.

Greenland - Nanortalik and Qaqortoq

Greenland is the world’s largest island with a population of just 56,000 people. The first Inuits arrived about 4,000 years ago. Their home has the largest glacier in the northern hemisphere and the world’s largest national park.

On a small island at the very southern tip of Greenland, lies Nanortalik, which means “place of polar bears.” Norsemen first settled here in the late 1700’s. The area’s main industries are crab fishing, seal hunting, fishing and gold mining. There are only 1,300 residents here so you can imagine what a ship like ours, with 2,000 passengers must do to the town on a foggy Saturday morning! Most townspeople seemed to stay in their homes, but a few ventured out to say hello as we wandered through their few streets and bombarded their one grocery store and tourist shop. The cost of food is really high - I found a bottle of Chilean wine that we enjoy at home for $8.99 a bottle, yet in Nanortalik I was surprised to find it there, and more surprised to see that it sells for $25 a bottle!

Nanortalik is picturesque, and one of their more interesting sites in town is an open air museum, with about 12 different structures all housing the town’s history - there was a medical clinic, radio house, boat house with several wonderful old kayaks and uniaks on display, an old sod house, fish house, and a whale blubber processing house. There was also a cool little lookout in the center where you could climb up a very steep set of stairs to gaze out across the little town and out into the harbor.

Our next day was spent in another small town, this one, however, twice as large as Nanortalik, with 3,200 residents: Qatortoq. This name means “the white place.”

This town is the heart of the area in Greenland where Nordic Vikings settled in the 10th century. Erik the Red set up a farm here in a fjord just north of town.

Both Nanortalik and Qaqortoq, along with all of Greenland are part of Denmark, with the Danish Kroner their main currency, although the stores accepted Kroners, British Sterling, U.S. dollars and Euros. The people are very friendly and kind, and seemed a bit overwhelmed by all of us showing up at once.

As we left Qaqortoq last night, we were warned/advised by the captain that we were going to experience some more rough seas, as there was quite a strong storm front in our way. This part of the North Atlantic is often a bit rough, and last night was no exception. We were in the dining room eating our dinner, and many people either didn’t show up or had to get up and leave, as the rocking and listing got to even the best of them. Dishes were crashing all around us, and the captain came on to let us know things were going to be rough, but not to worry, he was adjusting the ballast to help reduce the listing and improve our safety and comfort. It was also the start of a full moon, and a few hours later, close to midnight, as we came into the eye of the storm, things suddenly calmed, cleared and this gorgeous moon appeared from out of nowhere, casting a brilliant sheen across the water, straight through into our cabin windows. I hollered at Adrienne to get up and “OMG see the gorgeous moon!” and we oohed and ached and I took pictures. Then we went back to sleep after giggling for awhile. Soon enough, the ship moved back into the other side of the storm and the seas became rough again, tossing us up and down and from side to side for the rest of the night and well into today.

Today, even with the rough seas, we had a very relaxing day. We spent about 2 hours in the hydro pool and thermal suite. The hydro pool is a very large, pool-sized jacuzzi, with a powerful swirling water feature in the middle, and 2 large “shower nozzle” type streams that you can stand under and enjoy strong water massages on your head, or shoulders or back. There’s also a curved metal platform that you can lie back on and enjoy the jets and bubbles. The thermal suite is a collection of dry sauna rooms, aromatherapy steam rooms and a large room with 6 tiled cement curved beds, heated to comfort. The beds face floor to ceiling windows so you can lie there on these warm beds, covered in warm towels and just enjoy the ocean view. Sublime!

Last night, there was a reception for 3+ and higher star Mariners, and Adrienne received her 100 cruise day medallion, and enjoyed a photo with the captain and the hotel manager. That was fun! And today, we had a Mariner brunch, which we really enjoyed.

Next stop will be Newfoundland, with visits to St. Anthony and St. Johns.

Here's some pics from Prins Christian Sound and Greenland, in no particular order.