Places Far, Far Away

One of the many blessings I count in my life is the opportunity I've had to do some overseas traveling.  Today I thought I'd share some brief thoughts on the foreign countries (and one self-governing commonwealth) that I've visited:

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

Belgium-My senior English teacher docked me a point on a paper for typing the Grand Place instead of the Grand Palace. It really is Grand Place and I still want my point back.  Make sure to see the night-time laser light show!

France

Luxembourg-Teeny tiny, but beautiful.  You know the capital city and country are the same, right?  Making it officially Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

France-After two trips to Paris I can officially say I could care less about ever going back there.  The Normandy Coast and the French Riviera, however, are definitely worth repeat visits.

Netherlands-My paternal ancestry and I LOVE this country!!!  

Canada-The thoroughfare for my multiple drives to and from Alaska. I'm still grateful for kind strangers 50km north of Edmonton who helped me change my flat tire.

Mexico-Anyone who tells me they're taking a Mexican Riviera cruise will probably never have to worry about me asking them for travel advice.    

London, England

England-I haven't made it out of London, yet, but definitely on my list to go again.

Bermuda-A GREAT cruise destination because all the ports are on the same island.  Get off at the first one and rent a scooter for the rest of your stay.  You don't have to be on the ship when it moves-but know that the island is a little step back in time and all-night gas pumps may not be readily available...

Bahamas-Okay, this is a little cheating because I've only been on the beach Princess Cruises leases.

Guatemala-Does anyone have insight on how safe it is to travel independently here?  Not knowing, we were overly cautious.

Costa Rica-Definitely do the zip-lining.  I went 5 months pregnant.  My husband and I were the only English speakers and after listening to a 20-minute safety speech in Spanish we were told, "Hold here, don't touch here. Go!"  

Panama-Traveling through the canal is amazing!  Tip for my LDS readers-the Panama LDS temple is viewable as you're entering/exiting the east end of the canal. 

Puerto Rico-I mostly remember it being dirty.

Barcelona, Spain

Taiwan-This also should be considered a cheat, but a 10-hour over-night layover anywhere counts in my book.

Thailand-Go here!!  Get out of Bangkok right away.  I went north to Chiang Mai and did a jungle trek.  Next time I'll go south to Phuket and the beaches!

Malaysia-Aqua blue beaches, snake temples, and English architecture-a surprisingly interesting destination.

Singapore-As clean as the news reports lead you to believe.  

Spain-Gaudi was such a freak!  A big-dreaming freak!

Australia-Really incredible-Perth was my absolute favorite.  Great opposite-side-of-the-road driving in Tasmania.

Cinque Terre, Italy

New Zealand-The mist in the fjords is worth getting up early for, but I'd spend the rest of my vacationing days on the north end of the north island if I could.  

Tahiti-French-speaking and you'll REALLY benefit from being french-speaking, too.

Italy-Where to start?  Go here...that's all I can say.

Portugal-All the blue & white tiles in Lisbon-enchanting!

Albania-Such a sad looking country.  The fall of communism, the rise of capitalism, and now?  Deserted developments as far as the eye can see.

Croatia-Everything wonderful that, for me, Albania was not. 

The Matterhorn, Switzerland

Switzerland-Idyllic and the greatest place to have family!

Gibraltar-Okay, the Rock of Gibraltar is a real place!  And at the top is a mess of wild monkeys. Totally awesome!

Do you have a difference of opinion on any of these places?

Travel Memories Saturday (Alaska)

My first day in Alaska, 1999.
This is Auk Bay, the only suburb of Juneau, a city reachable only by airplane or boat.
In less than a week my husband will be flying there to work for the summer.
We're excited for the opportunity, but also wondering
 how it will work with the 5 others of us still down in the lower 48 wandering.
Wish us luck and stay tuned!

We all have those classic shots that capture travel memories without having to say one word. 

 Each Saturday morning, Sharon (from State by State Travel) and I post photos that express emotion, tell a story or make you wish you could be there.   Be sure to also stop by State by State Travel and see what travel memories she is sharing today!

Do you want to hop into the picture and join in the fun? 

What's your favorite travel memory photo? We'd love to see! 

If you would like to have your travel memory photo used, 

email it to alocalwander@gmail.com 

with a brief description of where it is or what is happening

 and we will schedule it

  for one of our weekly Travel Memories posts. 

If you are a blogger, 

you will get a free link back to your blog below the photo.

We Almost Died That Day

Anywhere along the Wasatch Range in Utah, you can take a few hours or days to hike parts of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail or the more expansive Great Western Trail.  Close to my house there are three very easy access points, the easiest being the Battle Creek Trail, which my kids love because it has a refreshing waterfall.

For years I've been wanting to explore more of these trail systems that pass behind "G" Mountain.  I actually started out one time with a bunch of friends, but quickly decided my sea-level midwest lungs were not ready for such an endeavor.  Since then, though, I've known a couple other people who've camped with their families up there, and I've been waiting for the day I'd be motivated to try it again. The painful and frightening journey we encountered when we finally tried it will not be something I EVER forget!

Here is a reference point to use as we move through the hike today...

What we attempted to do was hike from Grove Creek over to Battle Creek.  We left a car at the Battle Creek trailhead, and drove the mile or so to where we wanted to begin.  In my mind the hike was going to take 6-7 hours.  We would have an uphill climb, but not too bad, on the Grove Creek side, level out into a much-talked-about green meadow, have an easy walk across the back, and even though we'd be tired, the Battle Creek downhill would be a piece of cake.  

It started out okay, wide and gradually climbing...

...then narrowing...

 ...then narrower and rocky...

 ...and HARD!  Instead of the easy climb I was expecting, we quickly found ourselves in the middle of steep and dangerous switchbacks, heading in the opposite direction we wanted to be going...

View of the switchbacks about halfway through them.

It was about this point that people passing by started remarking how brave it was to be hiking with our kids. We're used to hearing that, too many people don't get out and do challenging things as a family.  We didn't realize that this time, they were mostly educated and heeding us a warning.  This is what we were about to come up on...

The already steep and narrow trail changed from packed gravel to extremely loose rock shale on either side as well as right up the middle.  We'd now gone from slightly harrowing hike to white-knuckled parents clenching onto their over-energetic little boys to keep the whole family from sliding down the mountain.

It was also at this point that we started seeing people who had passed us coming back down and passing us again.  We knew there had to be a turn-around point for people not wanting to go all the way, we just never seemed to be getting there! 

This is how we were feeling...

...until, finally, we made it to the waterfall...

...where we could see this view of the valley down below...

...and higher up, a trickling stream... 

Surely this means the trail is going to level out and be smooth sailing from here, right? Uh , NO!  All these years we have been lied to!  There's no leveling out and ease on the backside of this mountain.  What we had not taken into account after our legs were already screaming is that we now had to climb the hidden mountain on the left before eventually summiting the visible mountain on the right and then traversing the rest of the way straight back down.

We tried to keep on going.  After the waterfall, the terrain changed from brown, hot, and rocky to green, cool, and safely packed.  We even ran into a friend on the trail...

Year-old moose

Trying to decide what we should do

 In the end, we just couldn't make it.  B, P, and I collapsed to the ground in the middle of a lush green hill while my husband ran ahead to find out where the blasted meadow was.  20 minutes later he came running back down the trail with a discouraged look upon his face.  This is a man who never quits anything, and doesn't always have the best sense about how far to push the boys.  Even he knew we were beat.  The only thing we had left to do?  Turn around and creep our way back down the death-defying way we'd already come.

It was harder.  Poor P had nothing left in his legs to give.  I carried him as far as I could before my own knees threatened to give out on me, and then somehow my husband managed to get back down the rest of the way with baby on back and P on his shoulders, scrappling through the steep rock shale, heading downhill this time instead.

The last photo before we were too exhausted and frustrated
 to get the camera out anymore.
Trust me, it does NOT represent the way we were feeling by the end of the day!

After nearly 5 hours we were back in the car, all alive, barely.  The next three days were not great as exhaustion brought about weak immunity and a round of family flu.  It's the first thing we've ever done that every person agreed equally was not a good idea and has not paled to some of rose-colored glasses nostalgia.  I'm quite certain it never will.

 So, what is the take away?

•  Don't do this hike with kids.  Nobody told us beforehand, and everyone told us afterwards. 
•  Don't do this hike as your first big trip of summer after sitting around all winter.  Your legs will scream at you!
• Don't do ANY hike without first doing your research.  This was so uncharacteristic of me, but we had absolutely no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  Really simple lesson learned the really really hard way!