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…

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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…

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Disneyland MaxPass: Yes or No?

The first Star Wars movie (A New Hope) came out in 1976 when I was itty bitty.  I don’t remember if I saw it in its original run or not.  What I do clearly remember is watching The Empire Strikes Back on the big screen and my little brother was scared of the swamp scene with Yoda and had to leave the theater.  I don’t remember if I got to watch it to the end.  Return of the Jedi has always been my favorite of the original trilogy.  Maybe because I was finally old enough for the entire movie to sink in and I wasn’t being asked to escort my brother outside.  I will always remember the shock and thrill…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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Yale Bound

Now that we’re back in the US, it seems “my adventure abroad” is a reverse perspective.  We’re living abroad in the US and missing our life in Japan.  So for now, my adventure abroad turns out to be living and traveling in the US again.  My first adventure abroad in California is getting everything out of storage, buying 2 cars, fixing up our house, finding or buying furniture and just a general cleaning of everything inside and out repeatedly and re-connecting with friends. Next adventure is taking Kaiyo to the east coast.  Kaiyo’s team from Osaka International School (OIS) made it to the final round of the international academic competition called World Scholar’s Cup.  They call it the Tournament of Champions…

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Sayonara Japan!

The Crazy Last Day I woke up at 6am on Wednesday, August 1.  Today is departure day.  First thing is to feed the cats and hope they use the kitty litter box before we leave the house.  They get to fly in the cabin with us again so puh-leeeze kitties, no mess on the airplane!   Other last things on today’s to do list: Osaka Gas will come to shut off the gas and give us our final bill – between 9-10 am.  It’s a relief to close our account before we leave.   Our friend Chiharu will come at 9:15 am to pick up Halyard’s twin mattress so that it can be thrown away at her house – she has “big…

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