The Silfra Fissure is for real. Today, November 15, is the first time I snorkeled in 3 degrees Celsius. First time I swam inside a crack in the Earth. First time I put on a dry suit. I keep saying Iceland is a Land of Fire and Ice but yesterday I was in a geothermal pool of warm, milky blue, saltwater in a bathing suit and today I was in ice-cold fresh glacier melt in a dry suit. And both were natural temperatures! It sounds impossible but you can dive and snorkel in ICE-land. In fact, it’s supposed to be one of the top dive sites in the world because of the uniqueness and the incredible visibility. 100+ meters! That’s…
Northern Light Inn
My friend Tina was the first person I ever knew to go to Iceland. This was back in the late 90s or early 2000s when no one was really going to Iceland. Back then she told me it was like the surface of the moon. Which I really didn’t understand. Because a) how did she know what the surface of the moon was like and b) what in the world made the geography like something out of this Earthly world? I finally have an answer. It’s the lava landscape. Iceland was formed a long time ago from volcanos and earthquakes. And as the earth moved and erupted and land rose from the ocean and the lava came pouring out of…
Iceland’s Blue Lagoon
November 13, 2019. 8 AM. I’m on the plane on my way to Iceland. Technically I’m on my way to Portland, Oregon. I decided to fly out of John Wayne Airport, instead of having John drive me to LAX at the break of dawn. I was supposed to go non-stop SNA to Seattle, but at the last minute the flight got cancelled and I got re-routed from SNA to Portland to Seattle. When I left the house this morning I took a package of Trader Joe’s orange cranberry scones with me. My husband said, why are you taking those? I said, because food is really expensive at the airport and in Iceland. Maybe I’ll want a snack. He said, that’s…
Disney Princess
This blog post is not about Ariel, Aurora, Cinderella or Tiana. Actually, it’s about 2 cruise ships: the Disney Wonder and Royal Princess. I went on both in a short time period and so I thought I’d combine the two reflections into one post. First, the Disney half. Until recently, I’d never been on a Disney cruise ship. I happen to have a few good friends who love Disney Vacations and at least one of them has probably been on a Disney cruise a half dozen times. So when I got the chance for a tour on October 9, I had to go, if only to tell them I’d finally gotten on board. Disney Wonder was docked down in San…
Travel Glamour
Thursday, June 13, 2019 Originally, I had birthday dinner plans to celebrate a childhood friend. But when she started feeling ill we postponed till a later date and my evening opened up. Around 1pm I got a message. “I have an extra ticket for the TravelAge West Wave Awards tonight. It’s a black tie event. Do you want to go? Leaving in three hours.” Uh, yes I want to go. But could I arrange it on my end? The message was from Betsy who runs the Uniglobe Travel Center (UTC) office, my travel host agency. She and Rose, my mentor at Uniglobe, go to this event at the Ritz Carlton in Marina del Rey every year. This year they had…
Norwegian JOY ride
JOY. EnJOY. JOYful. Recently I went on a JOYride aboard the Norwegian JOY cruise ship on its inaugural US run, up and down the west coast, from Vancouver to Mexico and back again. For my part of the ride, I got to sail for a quick 24 hours from the Port of Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico and back to LA. JOY is a beautiful ship. As I’ve chronicled here in previous blog posts, until three months ago, I’d never even set foot on a big cruise ship. (I’m not counting the Nile River or Ha Long Bay which were both teeny cruise “boats.”) In just three months I’ve been on a MSC Cruise ship, a Princess Cruise ship, I’ve…
Uniglobe Travel Conference
It’s Sunday, March 31 and I am exhausted. I’ve just been to my first ever work conference and it was activity and information overload. My husband John went to conferences and conventions way back when. Lots of my friends travel around for conferences. But in my former life in the trenches in politics and press I never had a conference to go to. So it’s been an exciting last few days. I’m so lucky because this year’s conference was held at the Long Beach Hilton, only 45 minutes from my house. Woo-hoo! My travel partnership is with Uniglobe Travel Center (UTC) and first off this is not only a conference but an official family reunion. It’s the best scenario. They’re…
My First Foot on a Cruise
Not a real cruise. But a docked cruise ship. I’d actually never ever been on a big, tux and ballgowns, bells and whistles, floating city cruise ship before last Thursday, February 7. I’ve only been on small ships on the Nile River in Egypt and Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. I’ve seen the Love Boat about a thousand times so I was just sure I knew exactly what to expect. But I figured it’s high time I get out there in person and see what the cruise ship craze is all about. I really prefer cruising on a sailboat or floating on a SUP, but they are a lot more work. It’s never too late to become a convert to…
52 Places To Go from NYT
The New York Times just came out with their list of 52 places to visit for 2019. Since I’m starting a new travel business, all these travel lists that everyone loves are now catching my eye. There’s a top 5 and top 10 list for everything. I usually just ignore them because it’s all just some stranger’s ideas. But the New York Times claims to put in a lot of time and research into making their lists. So I figure what they’ve come up with is worth posting here. Of the top 10 destinations here, I haven’t been to very many. Just #3, Santa Barbara and #4 Panama. I’d better get my bags packed and get on it. My featured…
Dreaming of Northern Lights
It’s the dead of winter, the middle of the night and it’s literally freezing outside. But someone wakes you up and says, quick, get up and get outside. Is the house on fire? No, you just won the northern lights jackpot and the prize is the chance to see a colorful fire in the sky. Some people travel far and spend much for a chance to see this sight. But for all the effort, sometimes it appears and sometimes it doesn’t. One of my top bucket list items is seeing the Aurora Borealis, a.k.a. the Northern Lights. I know the best time for this phenomenon to happen is in the dead of winter, in cold climate countries, in the…