Gwilliam Gazette

AI in Puerto Vallarta

2026-08-16T14:04:33.978-07:00

Time for some more AI.

All-Inclusive that is.

We headed to Puerto Vallarta for some AI fun. We've been to Puerto Vallarta plenty of times on cruises, but never stayed there more than 1 day.

It's only a 3 1/2 hour direct flight, which is very nice. We stayed at Hyatt's Secret Vallarta Bay, a quick 15 min drive from the airport.

Our last (and first) AI stay was in Cancun at one of Hyatt's nicest AI resort, so we lowered our expectations a bit going into this one, but were excited to compare the two.

Secrets shares the resort with Dreams - another AI property, but for families. Secrets is adults only. They each shared the driveway, but then had separate hotels, pools, beaches, but shared some restaurants. We could go over to the Dreams side to try different restaurants, but Dreams people couldn't come over to the Secrets side. Needless to say, the Secrets side was much quieter and calm.

Our room was on a low floor, and we didn't get any upgrades this time, so we didn't have much of a beach view as we did the trees.

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The pool are was beautiful and inviting. The Dreams side had a similar pool, but lots of kids. Lots.

I took a photo of all the different drinks so I could try them.....but not all could be made non-alcoholic but the ones that could, I tried and they were all yummy!

The Secrets side had a place for gelato and crepes! We went there a few times.

Our first dinner was at the "French" restaurant - only Secrets people could go there. It was one of our favorite dinners we had.

This salad appetizer was amazing. So good!

This dessert was just like Carnival's chocolate melting cake

Then after dessert, a guy came around with a cheese cart. We were so full, but didn't want to turn him down. We've always seen a cheese plate offered for dessert on cruises, but always thought, who wants cheese for dessert? Well, we decided to try it....and wow, if they all are like this, we've been missing out not getting the cheese plate! The cheeses were different kinds and a few grapes, and then some homemade jams that goes on the cheese. We only asked for a tiny bit because we were so full.
We ate it all.
And wanted more.

The Secrets side is on the right and the Dreams side is on the left, with a wall divider and trees between the pool areas, so you can't see or hear the other side. Each side also had their own beach

Our hotel's lobby sitting area

The pool has a small cafe and they had chips and salsa...so we tried some...why not? They were good

The chips and salsa were so good, we had some more snacks

Returning to the crepe place......they were amazing! A lady was in there ordering and the worker asked for her room number and she told him and he said, "Oh, that's the Dreams side...you can't order anything here". She said, "not even some gelato?" He said, "no, I'm so sorry" and she cried.

We would have cried too if we missed out on this!

That night we took a tour to the "Rhythm of the night show". I'd seen this show before when were on cruises, but it's an evening show, so you can't do it on a cruise. Now was our chance. Not exactly knowing what it was, just that it had all amazing reviews, we went for it.
It's an hour boat ride, to a private island, only accessible by boat. The entire island is themed to be a jungle and you're going there for a show and dinner.
It was amazing. Highlight of the trip. It's produced by previous workers from Cirque du Soleil and it did not disappoint.

They time it so you arrive close to sunset and there are tiki torches all along the pathways

One couple was dancing on the boat ride over

After the show ended, we went to one of many different small candle lit eating areas. You couldn't see the other eating areas, so it was like you were in your own small restaurant. It was a buffet - a very fancy one, with so many options of extremely yummy food and desserts. Silly me, I didn't take any pics of it!

But I did take a pic of the bathroom! It was even lit with candles!

The paths between all the different eating areas and beaches were all candle lit too, there must have been 1000's of candles they have to light each night!

Then it was another hour long boat ride back! We didn't get back until around 11:30 but it was well worth it!

Some videos:

Our breakfast area had made to order smoothies - the Dreams side did not. These were very good!

That morning, we headed out (on another hour long boat ride - but on a fancy catamaran) to go snorkeling. There isn't really any great snorkeling areas in Puerto Vallarta, so we weren't really surprised that it was so-so. Still fun and in a beautiful area. We also stopped for about an hour at a private beach to relax, take banana boat rides and just sit under the palm trees to relax

On the hour long ride back, they served us lunch

That night we ate at the Italian restaurant

The cannelloni dessert was WAY too small and WAY too delicious!

That night on the Dreams side, was a huge buffet dinner to celebrate July 4. Was kind of funny to be celebrating July 4 in Mexico

They even had a singer, then a battle of the bands, and then fireworks! It wasn't very busy at first, but soon filled up

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The next day we started out by going on a City Tour. It was hot. HOT! VERY HOT! They were having a heat wave - about 95 degrees and 80% humidity - the "feels like" temp was about 110. And this was at 9am. It was SO HOT!

The tour ended up in the mountains where we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch

Our last night offered some good sunset photos

We did go out on this small catamaran - they offered free 30 min rides. We were the only ones on ours - it was very fun!

After 4 nights, it was time to go back. :-(

So what was the cost you ask?

Cash cost for the hotel:

My cost:

$0 cash

Cash cost for flights total round trip for both: $1,450

Total cash I paid: $16

Points used: 48,000

We had a great time! We'll be back again!

Baltic Cruise - Copenhagen, Denmark

2026-07-19T14:55:55.047-07:00

This morning found us leaving the ship early and dropping our luggage off at the hotel and we were off to explore Copenhagen. We had 2 full days here and we had to squeeze in as much as we could.

We first headed downtown to go to the Church of Our Lady. The church was first built in 1187 but burned down in 1314 and completely built which was finished in 1388. Lightning hit the church in 1573 and again in 1585 causing damage each time and resulted in the fires and the roof caving in, and rebuilt again in 1609. In 1728 the church, along with 30% of the entire city was destroyed in a 4 day long fire and rebuilt again in 1738. In 1807 the church was destroyed during the Napoleonic War where it burned completely down. Again. The church was rebuilt again and completed in 1829.

The famous sculptor artist Bertel Thorvaldsen was commissioned to decorate the interior with marble statues of Jesus Christ and the 12 Apostles, said to be the most lifelike representations.

It was an amazing experience to see the statues and in the bright and simple church, with Christ and the 12 Apostles.

We then went on a 2 hour walking tour around downtown Copenhagen

This was pretty funny - a store had backpacks, T-shirts, stickers, bags and magnets of this - because you know, Denmark owns Greenland

Carrying on with what we saw in the other places we visited, the sweet Danish shops were everywhere and they did not disappoint!

The cinnamon rolls at every city we visited, were just amazing....melted in your mouth....and I had so many of them

We passed several carts in the plazas sold the "Copenhagen Dog", which we tried...We got the loaded one with bacon, special sauce/relish, crispy onions, and some other things and some other things....they were messy, but oh so good!

Here's Mike about to dig in!!!!

Copenhagen is a beautiful place..as was every city we went to on this trip!

As in the other countries we visited, Copenhagen has a lot of bikes....and very few are locked up. There is inherent trust in all the countries we went to. People even leave their sleeping babies in car seats and strollers outside instead of bringing them into a store or restaurant where they might wake up.

Our walking tour took us to a central plaza near Amalienborg Palace where a changing of the guards takes place every day. But our guide didn't take us to the palace grounds just yet. We were in the middle of a plaza surrounded by streets. He then told us to line up along the curb. We saw nothing but traffic going all around us. He said, just wait, 3 more minutes. Suddenly, the police and guards stopped traffic and this happened

We were so close we could have fist-bumped them!

Sometimes they march with a full marching band, and other times just the guards, as it was here. If members of the Royal Family are in town, it's the full marching band.

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We went to a food market for lunch, full of fresh food and other freshly made tasty items

Again, some of the many bikes around, none with locks

Our next stop was Rosenborg Castle, right in the heart of downtown Copenhagen.
The castle was built as a summer home for royalty in 1606 by King Christian IV. It's now a museum containing some of Denmark's greatest cultural treasures.

The castle is all original interiors and contains the exact artifacts, some over 400 years old, including the King's room, Knights Hall which contains original coronation thrones and 3 silver lions guarding it

Original wine from the surrounding gardens - they still drink this wine from 1615 during special occasions

Denmark's crown jewels are here too. They have sound alarms in this room, so you have to be quiet. They have a worker that sits in the room at a control panel telling everyone to be quiet if it gets too loud

The grounds and gardens are beautiful, not a weed in sight

They have guards walking around the castle continuously, and even have a small changing of the guard that we happened to see. This place is extremely heavily guarded, you don't want to goof off here

The next day, we headed out early to go to Frederiksborg Castle, about an hour away by train. The castle was built in 1560 by King Frederik II. His son, Christian IV, who later became the King, demolished most of his fathers castle and rebuilt his own in 1600.

Like Rosenborg Castle, Frederiksborg Castle has original interiors and artifacts dating back to 1275.

The subway trains have no drivers, and you can sit in the front and see the tunnels

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'Slot' means castle in Danish

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The castle has a royal church onsite which the King had built

As we saw in Rosenborg castle, this castle had HUGE hand made tapestries depicting battles that were won by the kingdom

A still functioning astrology clock

In the afternoon, we headed back to downtown Copenhagen, specifically in Nyhavn (New Harbor) along the 17th century waterfront and took a canal boat ride

There were some pretty close bridges we went under

We passed the Royal Yacht and was built in 1931. It still is the official residence of the King and his family when they are on official visits to other places on when they go on summer cruises. Navy personnel are on it 24/7 guarding and maintaining it

The streets where packed! It was so busy!

We tried the Copenhagen Dog again, yummy!

Of course, more danish desserts...yum yum!

The next morning, it was time to go home

It was Shelley's birthday, and on both our flights, she had a special note in her seat!

Our meals were pretty substantial

Even crispy fries as a snack!! Very interesting, but they were very crispy and good!

Total steps in Copenhagen:
Day 1 - 16,242 - about 7.62 miles
Day 2 - 17,102 - about 7.69 miles

This was a fantastic trip! We loved every day and loved having some travel buddies with us so experience it with!

We really didn't know what to expect from these countries, and didn't know much about them. After learning the history and struggles they all went through, it makes us appreciate them even more...and appreciate the country that we live in and the freedoms we have.

We were extremely lucky with the weather too! Normally, one would expect rain on most days this time of year, and very cool weather. We only needed light jackets for most of the mornings, and we used an umbrella one time, for 15 minutes!

If you get the opportunity to visit any of the Baltic countries, DO IT!

Hotel and Flight costs:

Hotel: Wyndham Copenhagen

Cash price would have been $696 for two nights

I used 23,500 points and $0 cash

That's 3 cents value per point

Flight: KLM Premium Economy

Cash price would have been $1684 a person

I used 54,500 points and $296 a person

That's 3 cents value per person

Baltic Cruise - Stockholm, Sweden

2026-07-19T13:31:46.539-07:00

Our next port was Stockholm - the capital and most populous city in Sweden, with about 1.6 million in the metro area.

Stockholm is not an oceanside city, but sits 50 miles inland and is built along 14 island. The ship has to sail for about 3 hours going slowly, through an archipelago (cluster of islands), winding through 30,000 small islands, rocks and outcroppings. It made for a beautiful sight sailing in and out of the port.

The ship stayed the night in Stockholm, so we had more time here which we loved.

Every 10 minutes was a different view!

There were 2 other cruise ships following us in

We were pretty close to some of the islands!

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We spent the first day at 'Museum Island' - literally an island with over 20 different museums and historical sights. We picked two: The Vasa and Skansen.

On the way, we spotted this robot lawn mower, doing it's job.

Yes, ABBA is from Sweden and there's even a museum for them!

We went first the Vasa museum. A little history lesson first. The museum as the only almost full intact (98%) 17th century ship that was salvaged after it sank on it's maiden voyage in 1628.

The King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, ordered the ship to be built so show the power of Sweden as part of a military expansion. It was a battleship like none anyone ever saw. Built with the finest materials, imported wood, exquisite carvings, 56 huge and heavy bronze cannons, spread across 2 decks. It was way over budget and about a year delayed. It was the most powerful and dangerous warship in the world. It was the flagship of the Swedish Army.

The original plans called for less cannons, but the King wanted more. The ship builder however, made his plans for much less cannons and less weight.

You can see where this is going. The top of the ship was too heavy with the cannons and not wide enough and didn't sit low enough in the water. Some of the other ship builders said the ship wasn't built to carry that much weight...and wanted someone to tell the King, but nobody did.

The King wasn't in Stockholm at the time of the maiden voyage - he was leading an Army conquering Poland, so he was not there to see what happened, but he was tired of the delays and wanted the world to see the ship in action, so he ordered it to be launched.

The Vasa went out to see, and sailed for about 1400 yards, when a slight breeze came and hit the Vasa on the side and the ship wobbled side to side and bit, then settled down, and another breeze came and that was enough to topple the mighty ship. It was too top heavy in relation to the size of the ship.

If the ship was only three feet wider, it would have been stable enough to carry all the weight and would not have toppled over. Three feet!!

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Outside, they have the full height of the masts - way too tall to fit in the building

It was a very interesting museum and so glad we went. It's the most popular maritime museum in the world and the most visited museum in Scandinavia, with 1.5 million people visiting yearly.

You need to go.

Then we walked to another one of the museums on the island, called Skansen. Skansen is the world's oldest outdoor museum that brings together culture, history, nature and animals over 75 acres.

The area is a mixture of houses, farms, stores, animals and even the plants, trees and shrubs to showcase what living in traditional Sweden was like before the Industrial Era, so before 1850. It's the average 19th century town and organized by the different geographical regions of Sweden.

Skansen opened in 1891 after extensive work finding over 150 houses, stores, schools, farmhouses, homesteads, banks, post offices etc and each one was taken apart piece by piece, and shipped to one location - here on museum island, and then put back together again, piece by piece. These are all original buildings. Plants, trees, shrubs, even weeds and rocks and Nordic animals are all what they would have been in the different areas as well.

All the buildings are set up with almost all original furnishings

These tapestries were used on special occasions and all hand sewn. This one tell the stories of the Bible

There are a few animals.......

This house looks like you could just push it over...I think this guy is thinking about doing that

Reindeer

This is a telephone booth!

The next day we went to the city center for a guided walking tour

This is one of the narrowest alley ways

We loved spending 1 1/2 days in Stockholm and loved the city!

Steps walked :

First day - 19,336 - 9.28 miles

Second day - 12,112 - 5.81 miles (short day!)

We made it back for a yummy dinner

The show that night was interesting 'circus' acts and singing and dancing. In fact, almost every show every night was American music and songs, and red white and blue flags, pictures of Trump and very USA oriented entertainment. We were definitely the minority group on board, with about more than half of those on board were from Germany, then UK and then Spain/Portugal, and then finally Canada and USA.

Yeah, she's spinning from her hair

Yes, they are on skates, on a moving ship

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And even trampolines

It was pretty entertaining!

Baltic Cruise - Helsinki

2026-07-19T12:38:35.671-07:00

Monday we found ourselves in Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki is the capital of Finland and it's most populous city, with a metro population of about 1.4 million!

We headed into the city center for a guided walking tour.

On the way there, we walked through this indoor market - it was early in the day and nobody was here. When we walked through in the afternoon on the way back, it was packed!

Bear salami or some smoked reindeer?

Lots and lots and lots of ocean treats

Our tour started here in a huge square below this Helsinki Cathedral

We arrived early to the meeting point of our tour and the square was quiet. It didn't take long for it to become very busy and crowded

This is the government's headquarters - like our White House. There was very little security and a pretty normal looking building.

These food stands with everything reindeer where everywhere!

People in Finland love to read.....books..not audio or ebooks - real books. They built a huge library in 2018. This was a small cafe inside the library - it was huge! It's also a sit down restaurant. They wanted the library to be a place where the people could go to congregate and spend time, especially in the winter when it was cold. You can check out anything you don't have at home here in the library. Things like musical instruments, video game consoles, board games, paintings and sculptures to put in your home, sewing machines, 3d printers, laser cutters, VR goggles, tools, recreational equipment, kitchen appliances and more. There are podcast rooms, a movie theater, meeting rooms, urban workshop space, and more. They use robots to shelve and transfer books from different floors. It was extremely busy!

Finnish people also love their saunas! It's a part of life. Finland has a population of 5.5 million people and there are about 3.3 million saunas - 1 sauna for almost every 2 people. There are more saunas than there are cars. It's normal for apartments, houses and workplaces to have saunas. Even this Ferris Wheel has two cars that are saunas! They are the two brown and black cars.

We then boarded a ferry for a 15 minute ride out to the Sea Fortress of Suomenlinna, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site of 6 small islands connected together. Suomenlinna is about 4 miles total, with trails, secret tunnels, cannons, towers, walls and museums. Suomenlinna was built in 1748 to defend against Russian invasions and expansion. There were a lot of battles here with Russia taking over, and then Finnish taking over and was eventually surrendered to the Russians in 1808. Finland got it back in 1917 when Finland became an independent country.

Finland claims they are the true home to Santa Claus and the reindeer who all come from northern Finland in Lapland, near the Russian border.

Steps walked today - over 9 miles

This was the stop with the most daylight. It 18 1/2 hours of daylight. It was close to the summer solstice (June 21) which the Baltic States celebrate as "Midsummer" and it's a bigger celebration than Christmas!

I guess they get to see Santa often though since he's really from here, so he's not that big of a deal to them

Steps walked today - 21,933 - about 10.28 miles

Baltic Cruise - Tallinn, Estonia

2026-07-11T07:52:15.766-07:00

The next day found us in Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn is the captial and most populous city in Estonia, with a population of about 600,000 in the metro area. We focused on the "Old City" part of Tallinn, which is a small walkable area surrounded by walls. The Old City was built in 1050 when it became a fortress and over the years, was one of the most important trading cities in the Baltics.

We did a self guided walking tour to museums, city walls, towers and churches. It was a full day of exploring and we loved it!

This is the entrance to Tallinn Old City - the big tower on the left is "Fat Margaret" - a very wide tower that was part of the medieval gate into the city and was built around 1511. It currently is an impressive Tallinn museum. Fat Margaret was the largest part of the city's fortification system with walls 82 feet in diameter, 65 feet high and 16 feet thick.

There were lots of alleyways to explore

We saw this little train offering a tour, so we hopped on thinking it would be a tour of old town. Nope. It went outside the city walls and drove to the harbor and then back again. If you go, you don't need to spend the time or money doing the train. Skip it. You will be happy you did.

The telephone booth church

Very large and very old tombstones found in the cemetary

So many nooks and cranny's to explore and tunnels as a short cut to different parts of the city

Inside one of the many towers and walls that surround the city

The stairs in the towers were STEEP!!! and huge steps! So steep, they had to install a rope to help you get up and down the stairs

Many of the remaining walls have covered walkways that you can walk along to the next tower

So many churches! They were everywhere!

The entrance to the stairs in one of the towers - looks like you're going down into a tomb!

The Royal Toilet - this is the luxurious version

We climbed a lot of towers - these steps were so steep!!!!

Our travelmates

The walls are so big! And wide! And tall!

One of the many churches we visited - this one had huge stained glass windows that told the stories of the Bible

This is an amazing altar piece that has 6 sides - and each door that opens/closes, tells a different story

Don't fall down the stairs!! We then went deep deep underground under one of the castles to the tunnels that were used during the war as bomb shelters. They were so big! We probably walked total about 20 minutes before we were at the end and finally went back up to daylight

We had a great time in Tallinn and learned a lot about the city and history.

On the way back we passed this sign for ice cream at the local Circle K mini-mart.......they look good!

Total steps walked: 19,497 - about 8.8 miles!

Baltic Cruise - Riga, Latvia

2026-07-11T07:51:12.750-07:00

Saturday finds us in Riga, Latvia.

Riga is the capital and largest city in Latvia and the 2nd largest city in the Baltics with a population of about 850,000 in the metro area. Riga was founded in 1201 and the entire old town city center, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We started off walking to the old city center for a guided walking tour

I tried to get someone to sit on the horse, but nobody would - they were all scared

Riga was full of beautiful architecture and history

Of course we made time for some danishes and pastries......every city we went, I personally ate enough of these for 3 people every day......they were so good everywhere! Yum!

This was another shop where we just pointed and guessed and hoped we got something good. Most of the time we did.

This non-descript building aka "The Corner House" aka "KGB House" was the headquarters of the KGB from 1940-1991. It was built in 1912 as apartments and even a music school. During the Soviet Occupation, the building was converted into the KGB headquarters, jail and torture house where many innocent people were jailed, treated inhumanely, and even killed. It was not a nice place with a dark history. We took a tour and learned about the history of the building as well as what went on inside during the interrogations and imprisonment of the mostly innocent people that were brought here.

We came away with a deep respect and sadness for those that had to go through this and a deep appreciation for where we live and the freedoms our country has provided for us.

The cells in the basement are pretty much untouched and as they were when people were forced to live here. Many did nothing wrong, other than the KGB Army didn't like them, they way they looked or the way they spoke.

The cell rooms were overcrowded to the point where it was standing room only. Those who were prisoned here even had to sleep standing up, or leaning against each other. It was hot. The lights were left on all day and all night. Food and water were given very sparingly. The bathroom consisted of a bucket that everyone shared and it was emptied once a day, sometimes.

After that tour, we needed to get back out into the outdoors and take a deep breath of fresh air and realize how good we have it in our lives

Steps walked: much less today at 13, 539 - about 6.52 miles

Baltic Cruise - Klaipeda, Lithuania

2026-07-11T07:49:35.365-07:00

Friday we woke up in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Klaipeda is the 3rd largest city in Lithuania with a metro population of about 260,000 and is the country's only seaport and the largest sea port in the Baltic States. It's also one of the only ice-free sea ports in the Baltics.

Klaipeda is the oldest city in modern Lithuania and had its beginnings in the 7th century. It has been controlled by the Teutonic Knights, (1200s), Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire and the Soviet Red Army.

We walked in to town and did our own self guided walking tour.

Notice the tower.....we'll come back to that

This is the local coffee shop - I guess you know what you're really there to buy. After this city, we saw lots of coffee shops all over with the same signs

Game of chess anyone?

These were some of the roughest cobblestone streets we saw on the trip - very hard to even walk on

This is the lucky mouse - if you whisper your wish into his ears, it will come true. We'll see about that.............

Just in case you get lost, there is this huge map of downtown

Where else would you see a pickle riding a bat? Nowhere else.

Yum!

We then went to the 'Castle Museum' which is a live archeological site and museum on the site where a castle was built by the Teutonic Knights in the 1250s. The castle went through a lot of constructions and demolishments since then, and currently there are only a small amount of ruins left. They are slowing reconstructing the castle to scale, in the exact same place, and the first part - the tower you see here, is done.

The 'creepy monk exhibit'

There are these tunnels and bastions you can wander through

You can also climb the tower for some good city views

The red part is the footprint of where the castle was- it's pretty big if you notice how small the people look

As you climb or walk down the tower, it's a spiral walkway, but nothing else in the middle

This is the famous 'Black Ghost' bronze sculpture coming out of the water. The sculpture was placed in 2010 and represents a legend from 1595 when a castle guard was doing his nightly rounds and out of nowhere a hooded figure appeared and asked the guard how the city's supplies of grain and timber were. The guard said the city had sufficient supplies but the ghost told him it wouldn't be enough and then vanished.

The guard told the city's leaders this and they worked hard to increase their supplies. A few years later, times got tough and the people of Klaipeda were only able to survive because of the extra supplies the city built up.

The bridge you see in the background, is a swivel bridge that rotates to let boats through - it opens for 10 minutes about every 30 minutes. So all the boat owners in the harbor have to time their entrances and exits to the harbor. The rest of the time, it's the only way people from cruise ships or the seaport can get into town

Returning back to the ship, we got to the bridge just as it was opening, so we had to wait about 10 minutes. I decided to check for some geocaches, thinking there was one by the ghost sculpture. Well, there was one right where I was standing! And it was a good one! Not some ole easy magnet on a sign post. No!
This was an official looking electrical box, with a lock, and even a conduit line with wires inside going down into the ground.

There was a small puzzle to complete (AI helped me) to get the combo for the lock. There were LOTS of people standing around waiting for the bridge to open up, so I had to be pretty sneaky.

First I found the box, and noticed the lock, so I knew this had to be it. I just rested there with my hand on the lock for a bit to see if anyone was watching

Look how official it looks, with a danger sticker, and wires and hoses coming out of the bottom going into the ground - it was amazing!

Then I started to fiddle with the lock, trying to turn the dials to the combination. I looked around to see if anyone was watching, and noticed that Holly - one of our travel companions was sitting right there watching me!!!! I had to use both hands to open the lock and inside was a plastic container with all kinds of goodies in it. I signed the log, and packaged it all up and closed the box - all with tons of people around probably wondering what I was doing messing around with a dangerous electrical box ha ha!

The guy who looks like Larry David is looking right at me, as Holly is smiling........... Oh, the guy with the glasses on top of his head is looking at me too!

This was one of the best geocaches ever!

When we got back on to the ship, we had some special treats waiting for us in our room

The nights entertainment was a high energy singing and dancing toe tapping show

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Sunset again - around 10:30 pm. The further we go on the cruise, it stays light longer and longer, and it's close to the summer solstice, which they call 'Midsummer' here and it's a huge celebration - bigger than Christmas. On that day in June, it doesn't get completely dark until around midnight and then starts to get light again at 3am

Steps walked: 15,583 - around 7.48 miles

Baltic Cruise - Gdansk, Poland

2026-07-09T12:06:19.800-07:00

Thursday morning we arrived in Gdansk, Poland. Gdansk is Poland's 6th largest city, with about 500,000 population, and one of Poland's busiest seaport. Gdansk became a city way back in the year 997, and became part of the Prussian empire in 1793. Gdansk then became part of the German empire in 1871 and was home to one of the first events of WW2 in 1939 when it became part of Nazi Germany. After WW2, Gdansk became part of Poland.

We did a group walking tour, where we learned a lot about the history of Gdansk, architecture and the people of Poland.

Notice the turtle on top of this building

At the end of the block, you can see part of St Mary's Church. It was built in the 1350's and is the world's largest brick church

Inside the church, is a 46 foot wooden clock built in the 1460's that tracks time, lunar phases, zodiac positions and the saints' calendar. Every hour a the clock has mechanical parade, with the longest happening at noon featuring the Three Kings, 12 Apostles and Death. Our tour guide got us there a few minutes before noon so we could watch it. It was pretty impressive.

On our walking tour, we got to see some of the iconic architecture and loved every corner we turned around

The main streets around downtown were packed early afternoon!

Fun fact: Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was born and lived in this house in Gdansk! He was an inventor, scientist and physicist known for inventing the thermometer and degree scale we use today. Interestingly, Poland does not use the Fahrenheit scale - in fact, only a handful of countries still do.

After our walking tour, we stopped by a local bakery our tour guide said was one of the cities most authentic and oldest bakeries around. We went in and the ladies working, all over the age of 70, didn't know a word of English. We had a great time pointing, acting out and trying to communicate with them about which pastries we wanted to try. We were all having a great time laughing as we tried to figure out what each other was saying. The pastries were so good!!!

The nights show on the cruise was some super talented violinist who played rock music while running around the stage and through the audience - pretty entertaining

What time is it? 8pm sunset? Nope. How about 10:30pm? The further we went on the cruise, the later it was before it got dark.

We had a great day in Gdansk!

Steps walked today: 10,305 - about 5.12 miles

Baltic Cruise - Warnemunde Cruise Port

2026-07-09T11:59:03.079-07:00

Warnemunde is a very busy cruise cruise port for the Baltic Sea. It's a small seaside resort city.

We arrived before noon from Berlin, checked in to the cruise, and then went back out to explore the cute town.

We found this little train that gave an hour long tour throughout the town - it was a pretty good way to see everything

We made it back on the ship and to our room for the next 9 nights

Our first sunset.......more about that later

During this cruise, we will make 7 stops, all new places to us, so we were looking forward to this cruise for while!

Silly me, I'm not very good at geography, so I had no idea where any of these places were. Some of them, I didn't even know existed.

Steps walked - 13,599 - about 6.76 miles

Berlin - Pre-Cruise

2026-07-09T11:56:59.113-07:00

Time for another cruise! Cruise #30 to be exact. We wanted to go somewhere we'd never been before, so we opted for a Baltic Sea Cruise.

On our way to the Baltics for a cruise, we spent a few days in Berlin, the capital of Germany.

We made a quick stop in Amsterdam before the 1 hour flight to Berlin. Due to Europe's new "advanced" passport controls and required registration for visitors now, we spent 2 of the 3 hours on our layover in Amsterdam in lines. It was not very organized at all

We left from Los Angeles and flew pretty much straight across the US. When we leave from Salt Lake, the flight patterns go north and over the bottom of Greenland instead, so it was interesting that it was so different leaving from LA. We left around noon Friday, and arrived in Berlin late afternoon Saturday, due to the 8 hour time change. We spent most of the evening on Saturday relaxing, unpacking, and me going back to the airport to get my luggage that was left in Amsterdam during the layover. Luckily, there were multiple flights from Amsterdam to Berlin so I got my luggage the same day.

The next day, Sunday, we hopped on the train for a short 10 min train ride to church.

Yep, everything is in German. We had headsets to wear and one of the missionaries (who was from the US) was translating all the speakers for us

We had some travel partners for this trip - our neighbors - Mike and Holly Kidd! They'd been wanting to go to Europe so when they heard of our trip, they said, "We're in!!" and we said, "Yes please! Come with us!" They have been taking mini 'how to get and use points' lessons from us, so they wanted an opportunity to use those hard earned points!

After church, we headed to Pottsdam, about 1 hour 10 mins on a train to go to Sansoucci Palace. Sansoucci was built by Prussian King Frederick the Great as his summer palace. It rivals Versailles in France, and was built between 1745 and 1747. Prussia was a dominant German state from 1701 to 1918 and led to the unification of Germany becoming the German Empire.

VIDEOS:

It was beautiful! Not as big or as grand as Versailles, but it was impressive.

We would be staying 4 nights at the Grand Hyatt Berlin. We walked around the hotel and in the conference area, the walls had a very interesting paint job - more like little kid scribbles!

Our hotel room had fresh flower arrangements!

These are all real flowers

ROOM TOUR:

Our breakfast every morning offered just a few things to choose from 😁😁

VIDEO:

The next day we took a 4 hour guided bike tour around Berlin, visiting most of the places tourists see. Since we were on bikes, we covered a lot ground pretty quick. We also lucked out because we were the only 4 on the tour, so we got a private tour!

The poles represent where the Berlin Wall was, and how high it was. The wall was built in 1961 and enforced and guarded, preventing East Germans from fleeing to the West until 1989. We learned on the tour, that it pretty much went up overnight or in a few days. The government and army slowly moved supplies in over weeks and months so people wouldn't wonder or be concerned about what was happening. To them, it just looked like another construction project.

Then one night, it started and literally overnight, the city of Berlin was split in to. Families who lived next to each other, found themselves on opposite sides of the wall. One side pretty much freedom (West), one side Russian controlled, (East), heavily surveilled and socialist state, with economic hardships and extremely difficult place to live.

Even the subways were blocked underground at the wall, stations closed and trains couldn't pass through the two sides.

During the 28 years the wall stood, about 5000 successfully were able to escape. But, about 100,000 people tried, with about 140 officially killed trying to escape. The others who were caught, often spent several years in horrible prisons.

This is one of the few remaining guard towers, along with the "death strip" - or no-man's land, which was a wide area between the two sides of the actual wall. In the death strip, were bombs, mines, nails, tanks, barbed wire and other defenses to prevent people from crossing.

We then rode through some neighborhoods, and along the river

The Berlin Cathedral is huge and sits right in the center of the city.

We stopped at 'Checkpoint C" (Checkpoint Charlie) which was the main border crossing point between East and West Berlin. This was the only place Allied military personnel, diplomats and select others were able to cross the border.

Some of the original wall is still standing in different areas of the city. Notice the rounded corners on the top. This was to prevent people from being able to get a foothold or from gripping the top to get over.

We spent some time here at the Holocaust Memorial, called the Memorial to the Murdered Jews. It is about a 5 acre site where a part of the walls 'death strip' was. It's 2711 concrete blocks of different heights and sizes, but in straight lines, on uneven, sloping ground. As you walk through the blocks, you get a sense of confusion, uneasiness to represent the ordered system that lost touch of human reason and led to the holocaust. The blocks also represent a graveyard. The site is next to Hitler's underground bunker, and directly under the site is now a remembrance museum

Our tour ended at the Brandenburg Gate, one of the best known landmarks in Germany. The gate was ordered to be built from King Frederick II in 1788 and was the entrance to the city.

When the Berlin Wall went up, the wall was directly in front of the gate, preventing people from going through the gate.

Our hotel was at the end of this block, just 5 min walk to the subway, in a very busy and modern part of the city called Potzdamer Platz.

Tiergarten park was a short 10 min walk away. Similar to New York's Central Park, Tiergarten was quiet, green, calm and peaceful right in the middle of the busy city. Tiergarten is 520 acres and started as a hunting area for royalty back in 1527

The next day we headed to the Reichstag Building which is where the German Bundestag meets - the German Parliament (Government). You have to book the tour months ahead of time, and give them every person's name and copy of your passport, likely so they can do a background check on you. The building was built in 1884. It was very interesting to tour the building and hear all about the German Bundestag (Government) and how it works.

One of the main draws of the building, is the dome that was completed in 1999 on the top of the building. It's a large glass dome that offers a 360 degree view of the city. In inverted mirrored cone in the middle directs sunlight with electronically guided mirrors that move with the sunlight into the building, and straight down below into the main government chamber.

This is where all the government meetings happen..the dome is directly on top of this room

We then took a relaxing river cruise around the city

This is the Victory Column, right in the middle of the huge park. It was built in 1864 to celebrate the Prussian victor over Denmark. It's about 216 feet and there are 285 steps to climb to the top.

The view from the top is amazing!

And with that, our 3 1/2 days were over. On the train to the port city of Warnemunde, 2 hour train ride, to where the ship leaves from

Here's our train

This is how fast the train was going most of the time

Steps walked while in Berlin:

Day 1 - 17,896 - about 8.94 miles

Day 2 - 16,842 - about 7.74 miles

Day 3 - 16,003 - about 7.67 miles

Flight cost getting there:

Normal cash price would have been $1788 for the both of us

My cost: $412 + 22,000 points = 6.2 cents per point value

Hotel cost:

Cash price = $1056

My cost = $0 and 60,000 points

We got upgraded to a suite which normally would have been $1800 for the stay.

¡Vamos a México!

2026-03-04T10:11:00.000-08:00

Last year over President's weekend, we went to Paris, and thought about doing the same thing this year. Shelley wanted to try somewhere warmer this year though so I was on the search. I found super super super cheap flights (8,000 points per person) to Mexico City, and weather there is around 75-80 so we started to look at that possibility, even though we never thought about going to Mexico City.

Every travel group and forum I read about Mexico City was extremely positive, everyone loved it, felt safe and had a great time. The more we read about it, the more we felt good about it, so Mexico City it was and it did not disappoint!

Going there, we flew on AeroMexico first class and were served a very traditional breakfast that was tasty. We had a short layover in Guadalajara and then off to Mexico City.

Fun Fact: Mexico City is the largest city in North America with with city proper having a population of 9.2 million, and the metro area having over 22 million people. The city is huge! And extremely spread out. Traffic is one of the worst in any cities anywhere. You can spend 20-30 mins in traffic to go 5 miles.

Another fun fact: Mexico City is surrounded by volcanos - around 7-10, with only a few of those spewing ash infrequently. Mexico city sits at over 7300 feet in elevation, so it's quite high! The run off from rain in the mountains and volcanos nearby provide water for the city. And Mexico City is very prone to earthquakes with large earthquakes over 7.0 killing thousands and causing extensive damage have happened in 1985, 2017 (twice), and 2022. Mexico City is right in the "ring of fire" where 90% of the worlds earthquakes and volcanos are.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Mexico City, which was in the "Polanco" area, which is considered the Beverly Hills of Mexico City and the stores in the area were very upscale.
Our hotel had nightly "snacks" in the club lounge, that were one of the most substantial offerings we've had at any Hyatt Club.

We were on the 38th floor, but just in a "normal" room, as the hotel was sold out and there were no upgrades available.

VIDEO: Room Tour

VIDEO: The hotel breakfast was quite the spread

Not only did they have an omelette station, but also had a quesadilla station!

Daytime view from our room. We were right across the street from Chapultepec Park, which is one the largest nature areas in Mexico, and is double the size of Central Park in New York. All the trees there help clean the air and are considered the "lungs" of Mexico City. There's a zoo, several museums, a castle, different gardens, lakes, paddle boats, picnic areas, miles and miles of walking and biking paths, amusement park, and more. 15 million people visit the park each year.

We started the day by visiting the highly rated Anthropology museum. It's the largest and most visited museum in Mexico and it's impressive and huge. There are lots of original pieces of history (over 10,000) from the many Aztec and even pre-Aztec and Maya cities in Mexico. You could spend all day here. We were with a small group tour and visited the most often viewed areas in 3 hours. The tour was very helpful as most of the signs in the museum are in Spanish, so we got a lot more out of the visit.

In the courtyard is this umbrella fountain - symbolizing the Aztec God of Rain - Tlaloc and and source of life and civilization

This is the original 60 ton statue of Chalchiuhtlicue, the Aztec Goddess of water. This statue is from the ruin site of Teotihuacan, which is about an hour from Mexico City

This is what the center of Mexico City looked like back in the day. The area where this is now, is called Zocolo, and is the bustling center of town with a basilica, ruins and lots of history and lots of people! This area is where the human sacrifices were done as well as other religious rituals. Most of these ruins are still underground, but a large portion of one of the pyramids has been excavated

Way way back in the day, this part of Mexico was a huge basin filled with a large lake - part salt water, part fresh water from the mountain rainfall. When the Aztecs came, they built levees to separate the salt water from the fresh water and begin to build in the middle of the lake. Over the thousands of years, the lake is now gone, and Mexico city sits right in the middle (and on top of) the lakebed surrounded by volcanos

This is an original Aztec Sun Stone. 12 feet across and weighing 25 tons. It was created around 1502 and shows the cosmos, five sun eras and Tonatiua, the Sun God. This was used as a ceremonial sacrificial alter, so it would have been placed horizontally. It was found in Zocolo (where the city center now is) in 1790 buried and hidden

After the museum, our tour headed over to the "Chupultepec Castle" which was about a 20 minute walk away

Chapultepec Castle is an 18th Century castle (really it's a palace), built on top of a hill which was a very sacred place for the Aztecs. During the Spanish conquest of the Americas, a palace for the Kingdom of New Spain and a summer house for the "viceroy" (political ruler of the area)

Here's a pic of it:

The castle/palace had many different people who lived it, including the president of Mexico and other early leaders of Spain when they came to Mexico.

The most famous was Maximillian of Mexico (who was the brother of the Emperor of Austria). Maximillian was married to Charlotte of Belgium, daughter of King Leopold 1 of Belgium, when she was 17. She became Empress of Mexico and her and Maximillian lived here for several years.

Spain wanted to keep an eye on Mexico, which they recently conquered, so they sent Maximillian and Charlotte to live there in this palace.

This is their carriage they often would ride in

The view from the palace

VIDEO:

After spending around 6 hours in the park and museum and castle/palace, we walked back to the hotel for a nap. We needed to get our energy back for that night's activity.

Lucha Libre!!!! aka: Mexican Wrestling

Lucha Libre started in Mexico around the 20th century and has a few characteristics. First, the mask - this hides the identity of the wrestler so they can take on an alter-ego and put everything into their character. The use of masks even goes back further the Aztec time. There are very little rules in Lucha Libre. You can jump, fly, get out of the ring - for only 20 seconds - and the wrestlers are very agile and often perform ariel acrobatics.

This is POPULAR in Mexico City. The main area seats 22,000 and was built ONLY for Lucha Libre. They have shows there 4 nights a week and sell out almost every one. Some of the more popular wrestlers have had movies made about them, comic books, cartoons and it's always the "bad vs the good".

We went with a group of about 20 people which was very fun. We started out with tacos and our tour guides explained the history of Lucha Libre, and taught us all the chants and yells the audience makes when they are upset with the ref, or their favorite wrestler is winning (or losing). We were told many of the chants were ummmm....hmmm..considered swear words....but we had to memorize them so we could fit right in with the local crowd!

We were then given our own masks to become and wear.

We stopped at a local street taco taqueria, where they make the tacos right in front of you. These were very yummy and so full of flavor and meat and toppings

VIDEO:

We then walked about 15 minutes to the Arena and the closer we got, the more mech there was to buy

We made it! It was SO busy!!!!

My neighbor, who is from Mexico, saw my photo and he said I was the Blue Demon! The Blue Demon was very popular and a legend of lucha libre between 1961 and 1979. The Blue Demon had his own movie, comic book and cartoon. He was the "bad boy" often fighting against the "good guy" El Santo. But seems that the Blue Demon often won! The Blue Demon wrestled for 41 years and retired in 1989 without ever exposing his face in public. When he died in 2000, he was buried in his mask.

This one is 'Warrior Force' and definitely a force to reckon with!

This was the 'program' for the night, with the bottom being lesser known, to the top - the Main Event was Mistico vs Templario. We arrived in the middle of the match, as our tour guides explained the entire program is long and the ones at the beginning are just the 'warm up' acts. We were there about an hour or hour and half and that was perfect. It was very fun!

VIDEOS:

Miles walked today: 9

The next day we headed to Zocolo - the downtown square for a 3 hour walking tour.

We walked past this huge gathering of police, like 100 of them. Our guide told us not to worry, this was the start of their shift and they were all getting their assignments for the day.
It should be noted, there were police everywhere, our entire visit. Like LOTS! In the all the parks and all around this downtown area, there was literally one police (sometimes two) every 100 feet or so. There were so many! I can't image how much money it is to pay all of them, but we were glad they were there! We never felt unsafe anywhere we went our entire visit

We started at the downtown ruins of Templo Mayor. (Main Temple). This was the part of town we saw on the map at the museum. This was the very center of Mexico religious and economic life. This was where offerings were performed and rituals to the Gods of rain and war and was a very sacred place. The Templo Mayor stood about 140 feet high

Here's a photo of it again, with this site being the center and tallest Temple. The entire area had 78 structures all together

VIDEO:

This is the backside of the Metropolitan Cathedral, one of the largest cathedrals in Latin America. The cathedral, like all buildings in the Zocolo (downtown central square) area, are sinking and have been for many years. The wall of the cathedral is leaning out, as are many of the other historical buildings. Remember when I said Mexico city was built on the lakebed? After the Aztecs drained it? Well, it was a lakebed of clay, but under the lakebed was a huge aquifer. Guess where Mexico city gets a lot of it's water - especially when it doesn't rain a lot? Yep, the large aquifers under the lakebed.

Over the years, the aquifer has lost so much water, the clay dries up, collapses and sinks, and takes the city with it. Currently, this part of Mexico City is sinking 20 inches A YEAR! That's so much! They have spent millions and years reinforcing the basilica, along with many other buildings in the area, but the sinking continues. Engineers estimate in 10-20 years, the basilica may topple over due to the sinking.

This was once a palace where the government of Mexico is headquartered. It's like our 'White House' in Washington DC. All around the square are other government buildings as well. Another reason there are so many police here - if there is going to be a protest against the government, this is where it happens. The square is HUGE:

The front side of the Basilica

This church is massive! It reminded us of Notre Dame inside

We continued our walking tour around the downtown area, it was very busy!

VIDEO:

Ok. Look closely at these two brooms. There is a "normal" broom on the right, and then a homemade broom with sticks that looks like the broom the witch in Wizard of Oz rides. There were almost as many workers sweeping up garbage, leaves and tidying up everywhere as there were police. So many workers! None had blowers - everyone had the 'witch broom' that they used to sweep everything. Dirt, leaves, trash, everything. Very few had a typical broom. The witch broom must work because everyone had them.
We never saw trash anywhere. There was none. The city was clean. Now, we were in sort of a 'tourist bubble', but wow, it was one of the cleanest cities we've been to.

YUM

We also stopped at the main post office - Palacio de Correos (Palace of letters). What? you say? The main post office is one of the most ornate buildings in Mexico City. It was built in 1907 and was the most modern construction of the time. I didn't get many photos, so you'll have to go see it for yourself.

We intended to go back to the hotel after our walking tour, for a little rest, but our tour went over, which was fine. It was a great tour! But we had another tour starting soon, so we found a place to sit down and get some refreshment, as it was soon time for our biking food tour! This would be a 4 hour biking tour with food and market and park stops along the way. We were a little worried about riding on the downtown streets, but our tour guides were amazing! One led the group, another rode ahead to literally block traffic so we all could get through lights and intersections, and another brought up the rear of the group.

Our first stop was at a small garden cafe and we had 'chilaquiles' which were so good! Freshly made tortilla chips, with some cheese, salsa and sour cream - they were amazing. We all introduced ourselves to the group and got to know each other. I think there were 14 of us total

We stopped at a local market which was huge, with so many fresh produce, vegetables, fish, toys, anything you would want

Even cactus leaves - which we would eat later on in the tour

Our next stop was the Lady Tacos de Canasta street taco stand. They are a 3rd generation of women who sell these tacos. They were featured on Taco Chronicles, a Netflix show and became very famous after that. Yes, the tacos were delicious!

We stopped at a large park with a huge central square that was busy with kids riding bikes, playing frisbee, roller skating, flying kites, walking, sitting, reading, playing ball - everyone was having a great time

VIDEO:

There were even arts and crafts for everyone to do

Oh yeah, the entire city area has free WiFi - these signs are everywhere

There was one section of the park where people were just street dancing. This reminded us of Paris

VIDEO:

We stopped at a 'pop-up' market, which were very common, with 4-5 places to get food. This one served the normal tacos - pork, beef, beans, but also had ram tacos. The meat for these tacos were cooked underground, wrapped in leaves for a long time, so it was tender and flavorful. And, there were different salsas on the table to add to the taco, one item being sautéed cactus leaves - which were pretty tasty!

We then rode through Chapultepec park and then back to our starting point where we enjoyed freshly made churros....and wow...they were so good! Oops..we ate them too fast and I didn't get a photo. You'll have to go try them yourself.

Total miles walked today: 7

Total miles bilked today: 7

The next day we headed out early to the ruins of the city of Teotihuacan, about a 45 minute drive away. Teotihuacan was the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas and was a major influential metropolis. It was built around 100 BC and at it's heyday, had almost 200,000 people living there. The city was highly organized, laid out in a grid pattern, had complex apartments, water delivery systems, and highly intricate murals down the main roads.

The people who lived here at that time are unknown and eventually disappeared. The Aztecs then found the area abandoned centuries later and continued to live there until about 600 AD.

The currently excavated buildings were part of the religious area of the city, where rituals and human sacrifices were performed, and where the high priests and other religious leaders performed their ceremonies. Also excavated is the 1.5 mile "Avenue of the Dead" the main road leading through the center - this road is where the many colorful murals were found. The main points of interest are the three pyramid shaped buildings, the Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon and Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

Only 3% of the 8-squre mile city of Teotihuacan is excavated after working on it for over 100 years. Teotihuacan is significantly larger than Chichen Itza and has much larger structures as well.

You can only go up to the first section of the Pyramid of the Moon

The steps where STEEP and big

All of the pyramids here take on the same general shape of the mountains/volcanos off in the distance. Look how the pyramid shape mirrors the shape of the mountain in the background

This part of the 1.5 mile Avenue of the Dead - this place is huge!

There is only 1 original mural left - all the others were removed to museums. This one was so big and fragile, when they were trying to remove it, it was falling apart, so they left it

The largest pyramid here is the Pyramid of the Sun and it's HUGE! It took hundreds of thousands of people over 20 years to build

Up until 2021, you could climb up

VIDEOS:

See how they Pyramid of the Moon takes on the general shape of the mountain in the back?

There was a geocache here next to the cactus

The Temple of the Feathered Serpent is the 3rd largest pyramid here. The area surrounding this pyramid was the culture center of the area. In the 1980s, remains of hundreds of sacrificial people were found below the pyramid.

VIDEOS:

We loved visiting Teotihuacan! You need to go here.

On the way back you can see all the hillsides covered with houses. This is one of the most densely populated areas

You can see one of the many cable cars in Mexico City. The city has 5 of these around, mostly in the mountain areas. Because the traffic is so bad, these cable car lines have reduced the time the citizens take to get to and from work in half. What would take 50 minutes in bus, takes 20 minutes by cable car. One of the lines is the longest one in the world - almost 7 miles long. Three other lines are currently under construction

VIDEOS:

Later that evening, we walked around the area where we were staying (Polanco) and had dinner and walked around the local park where everyone was having a great time

Miles walked today: 8

Our last day, Monday, we had nothing really planned, and were planning on using it as a relaxing day, as we had to head to the airport around 2pm.

I knew there was a cable car line nearby, that went over Chapultepec Park, and it was about a mile away, so we walked it. We also knew all the museums in the city are closed on Monday's, so we thought walking through the park would be quiet and peaceful.

We entered the park, past a policeman, who said as I walked by, "Señor, al;j fa ;oueoiadlkn fads;ljkfa; eioda lk;jfj " (I only understood the 'senior' part. I looked at him, and kept walking in to the park...and he said it a little louder, "Señor ak weiyuh asdk.n adsk;fjloiayey akjdfsl" I looked at him, with my googly serious eyes like 'i know not that which you are saying' and he said in his broken English, "where are you going". I told him the name of the cable car station and he politely directed us OUT of the park and told us to go up the sidewalk. Well, this was longer - like 1/2 mile longer and we didn't understand why, but didn't want any trouble, so off we went.

A little ways down, we saw another entrance into the park, and some bikers entered in. Ah, we thought, here we go, we can cut through the park here. We walked past the police man and he waived us to stop and said NO - and pointed us back out of the park. But, then he said the park is closed.
Ah, now we understood. Not only are the museums in the park closed on Monday, but the park itself is closed too! Except to bikers.

Ok.....

We finally made it to the cable car station, paid the 7 pesos (40 cents) and got on. This line is the shortest of all the lines, but was just right for a little ride.

We got off at one of the last stations and walked around the forested part of the park

This cemetery was HUGE and sprawling

VIDEO:

Walking back to the hotel, we knew now that we couldn't cut through the park, so we thought we'd just go around, thinking it was closer than it really was. Well, it was far. Really far. Like 3 miles far.

We made it though pretty easily, and enjoyed walking through the city.

After a short nap, we packed up and headed to the airport.

Miles walked today: 10+

Quick but super fun trip. We LOVED every part of it. Mexico City did not disappoint at all.

Add this one to your list.

COST:

Flights: $832 per person round trip cash price

My price = $0 and 20,000 points per person = 4 cents per point value

Hotel: $375 per night cash

My price: $0 and 45,000 points = 3.3 cents per point value

Winter Cruise Time

2026-02-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

You probably know January is one of the cheapest time to go on a cruise, and you probably know we take advantage of that.

For cruise #29, we headed to Florida to go on the Carnival Vista for a pretty relaxing itinerary. The first stop was the Dominican Republic, where we went snorkeling, the 2nd stop was Carnival's private island Half Moon Cay for some beach time, and the third stop was Carnival's new $600 million debut, Celebration Key in the Bahamas for some more beach time.

Our group of 2 quickly became a group of 12, with Shauna/Don (Shelley's sister/husband), their friends (Kevin/Jennifer), our good friends Max/Stephanie of 32+ years, our newly found friends of 5 years, George/Brenda, (Stephanie's sister) and our longtime friends of 34+ years Christine/Deuce. We've not cruised with Kevin/Jennifer and Christine/Deuce before so we were excited to have them join us.

We left from Provo on Breeze for non-stop to Orlando

The sail away party was vibing!

And look who we saw!!!!!! Shauna and Don! They came to dance!

Shelley was getting started on the ice cream, trying to beat Jacob and Hannah's record for the week. (She didn't even come close)

Big screen movie time

We had 2 day at sea making our way down to the DR

VIDEO: Don played Dodgeball and was the last man standing! He did so well!

We met up with the Mardi Gras (which we've been on), - you can see the size difference!

We went snorkeling in the Dominican Republic and saw a good amount of fish

VIDEOS:

The ever famous Carnival Chocolate Melting Cake with ice cream

We all got together for dinner in the Italian restaurant

The next day we arrived at Half Moon Cay - Carnival's private island. Last time we were there, it was stormy and cold. Not this time! It was warm and beautiful

VIDEO:

We had a giant table every night for dinner that actually fit all of us!

VIDEO: Watch for Shauna - her face was the best!

The next day we arrived at Celebration Key, just over 6 months old that Carnival built from the ground up.

It was beautiful, clean and relaxing

VIDEOS: Dinner entertainment

Here's a little food for you:

And it's not a Carnival cruise unless you have the watermarked photos!

This was probably our most chill and relaxing cruise......just beach time and it was great!

Oh yeah, we went to Maui

2025-12-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

Ooops.....I forgot to post this, but yeah, we decided to go to Maui in early November for 6 nights. The price was right (more about that later), the weather was good, and due to the time change, we could still put in a full day's work and not have to take vacation time, so why not???

We got up at 5am and worked until 1pm and then enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Somewhere between Utah and Phoenix

We had a couple hour layover in Phoenix, so we tried out the brand new Sapphire Lounge

I had some pretty good legroom for the 6 hour flight from Phoenix to Maui

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Maui Kaanapali Beach which is in west Maui. Kaanapali area is a high end area with a 3 mile stretch of calm sandy beaches

Hyatt did not disappoint in this resort! It was beautiful!

We had a normal room, but were upgraded to ocean view, and we went to sleep each night with the sounds of the ocean waves

Obligatory room video:

What we fell asleep to every night:

The hotel even had penguins!

Having been to Maui before, we've done some of the "must do" hikes, so we tried the #2 hike on the island - Waihee Ridge Trail, which we have not done. It's a 5 mile round trip hike up steep mountain sides and ends along a ridge at an elevation of 2563 feet. We read warnings not to go if it had rained in the last 24 hours as the trail gets extremely muddy and the weather can change in 15 minutes. Most of the time, the mountains are covered in clouds as well. The first few days it was rainy in the mountains where the hike was, even though it was sunny where we were. So we walked along the beach, went snorkeling, took naps and sat by the pool

Conditions seemed good early Saturday morning, so we headed out. The trail started off a little muddy in the shaded areas, but soon we were in the sun and yes, there were still a few very very very very muddy and slippery steep spots. At one point, we almost went back knowing we would have to come down the slippery spots which were hard enough to go up, but we persisted and made it to the top

VIDEO:

Wow, this hike did not disappoint! The photos cannot even come close to how spectacular the views were, and we were lucky that none of the mountains were in the clouds! That changed on the way down though

VIDEO:

VIDEO FROM TOP:

This is a google earth photo of the mountains and hike in red. Looking at this, it doesn't seem so steep!

The hike was definitely not a walk! We loved it and it was totally worth it to get our shoes muddy and have a few steep slippery stops where we had to go slow. The views were breathtaking and so amazing!

We read about another hike, called 13 Crossings that was literally one mile away from this hike and we had planned on doing the 13 Crossings hike, as it was rated easy and short at about 2 miles round trip. Since we were so close, we thought sure, we can do that - it's easy right? So we drove down the road about a mile and started the hike.

It's called 13 crossings because the hike follows a creek and you cross it 13 times to finally end at a waterfall. And a great way to clean off our muddy shoes!

The trail was not very clear sometimes, so we just followed the stream. The brush and trees were so thick in some areas, there was only one way to go, so that was the trail

There was even a small bamboo forest area

This is the waterfall we were supposed to end at. But at Crossing 15, we gave up, as the trail was pretty much non-existent, our feet were hurting, we were tired and the hike wasn't as "easy" as reported. It was a lot of bouldering and uneven rocks to go over and sometimes under. We probably would have made it to the waterfall had we done this hike on another day. We were probably very very close to the waterfall!
We slept good that night!

Sunday morning we went to church and it was packed! So many visitors!

After church, we went to the 'Magical Enchanted Forest' which was about 10 minutes down the road, so nice and close. It's a small area with big trees and very quiet and tranquil to walk around and enjoy

Fifteen minutes further down the road, was the Ohai Loop Trail. This is a 1.5 mile loop walk/stroll along the rugged coastline.

The west mountains nearby, are part of the Eke Crater - 2nd wettest spot on earth!

Careful!!

VIDEO:

The next day we saw this rainbow as we were leaving the hotel to go to dinner

The hotel had a lei making class

There was a great snorkeling spot literally 6 minute walk away from the hotel. We were the only ones there - everyone goes to the other end of the beach - a mile and half away. We tried that spot too, but the one closer to us was better! We saw lots of fish and turtles and had it all to ourselves

Sitting on our balcony with our leis, hotel robes and sparkling apple cider they gave us

YUM

We ( I ) ate too many of these shave ice creations...they were heavenly. It's not shaved ice, it's shave ice. Yes, there is a difference

"Shave ice" (no 'd') is the authentic Hawaiian term for the soft, fluffy, snow-like frozen treat made by finely shaving ice from a block, while "shaved ice" (with 'd') is a more common, grammatically standard term used elsewhere, though they generally refer to the same dessert, with the Hawaiian version often being smoother and served with unique toppings like ice cream or condensed milk

On one of our drives, we stopped at a view point to watch the surfers, and saw all these turtles on the beach. Nope, these are not rocks, they are turtles

VIDEO SURFERS:

Our last night provided a great sunset

We had a great time!!! So glad we were able to do this!

What did it cost you ask?

Flights from SLC to Maui (Southwest)

Cash price: $342 per person

My price: $11 and 7000 points per person (4.8 cents per point value)

Flights from Maui to SLC: (Hawaiian Airlines)

Cash Price: $329 per person

My price: $5.60 and 15,000 points per person (2.2 cent per point value)

Rental Car for the week: $205

Hotel stay 6 nights:

Cash Price:

Plus $18 per person breakfast each day (and afternoon snacks and evening appetizers) and $40 per night for parking so that brings the total cash price to $4,628.31!

My price: $0 and 134,000 points - yep all taxes and resort fees and parking and breakfast included! (3.4 cents per point value)

Grand grand total:

Are you ready for this?

Cash Price for everything: $6,751.31

My cash price for everything: $238.20

Points used: 178,000 (3.6 cents per point value)

Sundance and Zips x2

2025-10-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

Last Fall, we rode the lifts at Sundance to see the beautiful views and changing leaves, and decided we would do it every year. Well, this year, we added zip lining to the adventure. The zip line admission includes the lift, as you have to go to the top to zip line down. The weather was still warm, but we were just a few weeks too early for the peak of the changing fall colors.

Great view of Deer Creek Reservoir

View from the other side looking into Provo

Well, instead of zipping down on lines, we zipped down the mountain in these. As soon as we got to the top, there was a 'weather delay' - lightning was spotted less than 10 miles away, so we had to wait 20 minutes. If no other lighting strikes occurred, then we could continue on the zip lines. The lift however, has a different radius for lighting - they have a 15 mile radius, so they were not letting anyone else up the mountain and getting everyone down from the top.

20 minutes passed without any lightning, so we headed down to the 'practice zip line' where you get a feel for how it all work. 2 of the 10 in our group finished the demo, and another weather delay kicked in. So we waited another 20 minutes. By this time, everyone else was off the mountain and the lift was closed. The employees were looking at the weather radar and determined the weather was going to get worse, so it was decided to cancel the zipping. We then waiting for them to ride up with the side by sides to take us all down.

VIDEO:

So we got a to ride the lift up, ride the 4-wheeler down and rescheduled for 2 weeks.

Fast forward 2 weeks, and the leaves were so vibrant now. We started up the hill on the lift.

Can you see the black dot in the middle of the clouds? Yep, that's someone zipping down

VIDEO:

Look fast on this one

VIDEO:

Here's a longer one:

VIDEO:

The sky was looking good and clear!

VIDEOS:

By the time we got to the top (3 lifts and 45 minutes later), the sky was not so clear. They closed the lift again to anyone going up for a 'weather delay' but the zippers were still going down, so we headed over to the demo zip

We did the demo and headed to the first line.

VIDEO:

So after two attempts, riding up the mountain on the lifts twice, down the mountain once in 4x4s and once on the zips, we finally got it done!

It was pretty amazing.

Lions and Elephants and Zebras, Oh My!

2025-09-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

An African Safari is one of those things you think about, but seems very out of reach for most of us. It's one of those lofty, almost impossible things you want to do, but usually never get to do - like going to the moon, swim in every ocean, bike across the USA or the "trip of a lifetime".

Before starting my travel hobby, I would have never imagined actually doing an African Safari. 3 1/2 years ago when I started my travel hobby, an African Safari quickly moved up the list as a possibility and a trip I was definitely going to make happen.

And it finally did. And it was amazing. It exceeded expectations. It is difficult to describe. It's not like going to the zoo or the wild animal safari park in San Diego. Everyone needs to experience an African Safari. It's unlike any trip you have ever taken or will take.

A Travelzoo deal popped up for a safari at an unbelievable price. So unbelievable, I thought it was an error or scam - it was 70% off the normal price. Well, you know those offers - too good to be true, that's not the normal "regular" price, there's a catch, it's at a bad hotel or location. Well, I did a lot of research to find out what the "catch" was. I looked up the lodge/reserve to see if it was real. Every review I found was 5 star. Every review was positive. No way they were all real. I did more research. Everything I found indicated this was an amazing location, great accommodations, all meals included, multiple game drives a day. I've never bought a Travelzoo deal before, so that was another concern. Was it real? What if it didn't work? The deal was only available for purchase for a week, but I could cancel and get refunded for 2 weeks. I wasn't going to pass this up if it was real. So with 2 weeks to get my money back, I bought it.

I followed the instructions and booked it. Everything was easy and as described. The true price was really 70% more than I paid! The trip was still almost 9 months away, so that gave me enough time to find good flights.

It's SO far away! As I started to plan and look at flights, it's pretty common to spend 25-30 hours from the Western US to get to South Africa and two stops:

That's way too long! I finally found one with just one stop - in Atlanta, just over an hour layover, and then direct to Cape Town. Total travel time just 20 hours.

The flight from Atlanta to Cape Town is Delta's longest non-stop flight coming in a 15 hours and 5 minutes.

This was the best and fastest way to get there from Salt Lake. As you can see though, the price is extremely expensive - $1700 per person one way! Or 160,000 Delta points! Well, you know me, I didn't pay that much cash or points! More on that later.

On our way 3 1/2 hours to Atlanta

Then a relatively straight shot to Cape Town - a mere 15 hours away!

We arrived late afternoon the next day and stayed 2 nights in Cape Town at the Hyatt Regency and found some welcome treats in our room

The expansive breakfast buffet, had a very unique item - Koesister's topped with different kinds of coconut. From google: A koeksister is a traditional South African sweet pastry, similar to a doughnut, made of plaited or braided dough that is deep-fried and then soaked in a very cold, sweet syrup, resulting in a crunchy exterior and a syrupy, gooey interior. This popular treat is an Afrikaner delicacy, often served at special occasions

This is what it looks like, then they put this into warm butter and syrup and top it with the coconut. It was pretty tasty! As we explored Cape Town the two days, we saw lots of places that advertised they served Koisters, and we were able to get them every morning!

We took a tour around the city on the "hop on-hop off" bus, which we've found to be a pretty good activity in just about every city we've been in. Cape Town is a huge city. The metro area has about 5 million people and is a coastal city - surrounded by beaches. Being in the southern hemisphere, South Africa's seasons are opposite ours. Winter was just ending and Spring was starting. Days were pleasant and nights cold.

Table Mountain is one of the main destinations in Cape Town. There is a gondola that goes to the top, but the mountain is usually in the clouds, just like this photo, and it was pretty much the entire time we were there. We decided not to go to the top as we wouldn't be able to see anything, and it was pretty cold and windy up there

The back side of Table Mountain

We took a city walking tour which was very informative and entertaining.

This is an actual piece of the Berlin wall

We learned a lot about Apartheid which was so bad...so so bad and pretty recent just ended in 1994 and still exists to some extent there

It was a Saturday and in the parks and markets, groups of school kids gathered to sing and dance and earn money for their school

VIDEO:

Cape Town is a pretty city, modern and full of life. We felt pretty safe walking around too, which is always good

We even got a photo with Nelson Mandela

This group of school kids were great!

Shelley wanted to participate, but just donated instead

VIDEO:

We also took a walking tour in 'Bo-Kaap' - a neighborhood of colorful houses built in the 1760's and home to the slaves of the time

On Sunday, we found a local ward to attend church. We were there about 10 minutes early and were just about the only ones there! It quickly filled up though

We then visited 'Kirstenbosch Gardens' - which is one of the greatest botanical gardens in the world. It's on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain and has over 7000 different plants including many rare and threatened plant types. It was beautiful and peaceful

This elevated path was in the trees and meandered through them up high

VIDEO:

Late that afternoon, we headed back to the airport for a short 1 hour flight to Port Elizabeth (8 hour car ride east of Cape Town), a port city closest to the reserve we were going to.

Along the way, we passed several areas like this where people lived. South Africa has a 50% unemployment rate, so more people than you would think live like this

We stayed the night at a very small (8 room) 'bed and breakfast' type place called Treetop Guest House that had extremely good reviews and was close to the airport.

This was part of our "suite"

Cozy but comfortable. As is normal in South Africa, the power was out when we arrived, but they had a generator going to provide lights and hot water until 9pm when the generator was shut off to let everyone sleep. Luckily, the power came back on in the middle of the night

The breakfast room was very cool and unique! We were the only ones there. They had a yummy continental breakfast and then the owner came with the 'hot' breakfast of eggs, hash browns, bacon, roasted veggies

VIDEO:

We loved it here! All the reviews were correct!

Later that morning, we met my cousin David and his wife Katherine (who I convinced to come with us) at the airport and we met our driver who would take us the rest of the way -an hour drive to Hlosi Game Lodge.

Hlosi is one of several lodges on the Amakhala Game Reserve which is a private game reserve (there are hundreds of them in Africa). Amakhala is about 19,000 acres (about 29 square miles) and is fenced to protect the animals from people and other animals on neighboring reserves.

Hlosi has 14 'luxury' tents/lodging and is all inclusive - all food is included as well as 2 game drives a day. They also offer night drives, walks, massages and time to relax.

Security was tight! We had to pass through 2 gates where employees checked our names, passports against a list of those that has reservations to help keep poachers out.

Our daily routine (we were there 5 nights) was this:

Light continental breakfast (juice and pastries, muffins) at 6am, morning game drive from 6:30-9:30. Breakfast. Rest and relax. Lunch at 1pm. Rest/relax. Afternoon game drive 3-6. Dinner.

We got there about 2:30, dropped off luggage, checked in and then whisked directly to our assigned truck for the afternoon drive. We didn't even get to see our tents or unpack. No time to waste!

We immediately started seeing animals

This reserve has both white and black rhinos. There are only about 27,000 rhinos left in the world, and quickly diminishing. The black rhino is critically endangered with only about 3,000 left in the world. We came across these two black rhinos and our driver was thrilled and excited! Interestingly enough, we saw rhinos every day we were there! Amakhala won't say how many rhinos they have as they don't want to publicize it. We did learn the rhinos have "body guards" to protect them day and night from poachers. We didn't believe that story. More about that later.

We turned a corner and saw this. It was magical.

VIDEO:

This was our driver for several of the days we were there. His name is 'Lucky' and he was fantastic. He had a knack of knowing where the animals were, their habits and asked us what we wanted to see and he found it. He was also a tracker, using poo and foot prints to find the animals. He was good!

Don't these cheetahs look so nice?

Just like a friendly kitty cat

VIDEO:

Or the lioness? She also thought the cheetahs looked good....to EAT! We learned they've had 6 cheetahs killed in the past few months by lions. The cheetahs usually stay close to the fence line at the top of a hill. There, they can overlook the valley and keep an eye out for their only predator - the lion.

Very quickly the cheetahs stood up and became alert

Then, we saw why............

A lion crossed in front of us heading towards the cheetahs

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Then two more lions came into view! The cheetahs were watching them very carefully

VIDEO:

The cheetahs quickly went the other way and escaped the lions. We saw A LOT! And it was the first drive! It was crazy. We thought we would see this many animals the entire week, not the first day!

Upon returning to the lodge, we were served hot chocolate (it was pretty cold once the sun went down) and dinner was almost ready.

I had the stuffed chicken which was very yummy

And lemon meringue for dessert. All the breads, meals and desserts were homemade on site

We were in the last tent, #14 all the way at the end of the path

VIDEO OF OUR TENT:

The next morning at 6:30 we headed out again before the sun was up. It was COLD! We were all bundled up, coat, jacket, scarf, gloves, hat and still cold. We were not expecting it to be so cold. And we were in an open truck! It was all worth it though.

White rhinos

The Lion King - Amakhala has just one. He rules the entire place

VIDEO: He knows he runs the place!

We came across this male elephant all alone. Our guide, 'Lucky', told his he was an outcast from the herd which happens when males reach their "teenage years" of 15-16. They can threaten the herd's dominant male, so they get pushed out. This one was not a happy elephant and we referred to him as the "mean one" and we sure found him often. He didn't like us there either. He blocked the road so we couldn't pass and then started walking towards us. Lucky said we better get out of there as he started to back up. The elephant kept coming towards us. Luckily, Lucky was good at backing up with speed and we were able to get out of sight of the "mean elephant". He could have easily started running and they can run pretty fast.

Everyone calls these "pumbas" and not wart hugs. They were everywhere but very shy! Every photo of them is usually of their backside as they are running away. This one stopped, looked at us, and then ran away saying "come follow me - let's play!"

VIDEO: At the fence line, we came across the lion who was trying to fight with the lion on the other side

The rides were bumpy!

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Upon arriving back at the lodge, they were there greeting us with hot towels and hot chocolate and time for breakfast. I had the French Toast with bacon. It was good!

Another morning I had the 'pancakes' - basically it was crepes

Now that is was daylight, I can show you the area. This is the path going to our tent

This was the electric fence that surrounded our lodge and tents. Not as big as you would think, but it did the job

We had a nice porch where we would sit in the afternoon and relax and read

One afternoon we saw giraffes out on the hill from our porch area.

VIDEO:

Here's our tent, #14

The view from the soaking tub

The main lodge

That afternoon's drive included some Ostrich sightings...

VIDEO:

VIDEO: Typical drive

Black rhino.....

And an elusive Aardvark! The guide was extremely surprised we saw the aardvark, as it's usually only out at night and hardly ever seen

Everything you can see is part of the reserve

Dining room

This night was a BBQ buffet
and we had some dinner entertainment

VIDEO:

VIDEO: Shelley and Katherine got pulled in to dance

When we got back to our room, it was all decorated fancy

The next morning was a little warmer. Actually, each morning was a little warmer than the previous morning.

VIDEO: Antelope chase

Yep, we found the "mean" elephant again

He was going to the water hole

And then started walking towards us. Our driver got us out of there and kept a safe distance

VIDEO:

We'd been looking for the elephant herd a few days, and never saw them. They hide in the trees and thicket most of the time. Our driver tracked their footprints and said today was the day we would see them. Suddenly, they all just came right out of the trees! It was pretty amazing!

And one rhino trotting towards the elephants like he wanted to play. Our driver was surprised he was out there by himself going to join the elephants

VIDEO:

The first few days the Zebra were few and far between. Then all the rest of the days they were everywhere. So many of them.

VIDEO:

We came across the cheetahs again hanging out by the fence where they could look down on the valley - watching for the lions

The Cape Buffalo came out of hiding as well

The next morning, it was very misty with the valleys all covered with heavy mist

It burned off pretty quick

Mr. King of the Jungle was just chillin

VIDEO: The cheetahs were up by the fence line again, but this time they were very aware of the cheetahs on the other side:

Some smaller monkeys

Termite hills are all over. Some of them are huge! Here is Katherine showing us how big they are. These termites don't eat wood though - they eat grass, dead leaves and plants and help the soil to be more fertile

VIDEO: Lion ROAR! Driver said he was calling to find the females

We came across this hyena. This animal is usually nocturnal and our driver was so excited when we spotted this

VIDEO:

At our morning "rest stop" one of the 'Rhino Monitors' stopped by and pulled out his drone. He told us one of the female rhinos had a baby that week and she's somewhere down in the valley in the trees staying out of sight. He was using the drone to track her - the larger animals are all tagged, but it's not like you would expect. They don't use gps to keep track of them - it's a high frequency ping that gives them the general location of the animal. We thought the drivers could just pull up a webpage and see where the animals were. Or that the control center could do the same thing and tell the drivers where to go. Nope. We confirmed that with the drivers too - it's not that easy. The drone is high tech with heat monitors so they can see the heat signature of the rhino and her baby. We asked him about the poachers, and he said a reserve close by had 1 rhino killed the previous week and the same night the poachers went to another reserve close by and killed another - for the horns. That's all they take. He said they haven't lost a rhino in a long time though and he and his team want to make sure it stays that way. He also wouldn't tell us how many rhinos are there, but he confirmed they have a team of 'rhino monitors' working 24x7 and he loves his job and loves keeping the animals safe. He said at night, the drones can even see a footprint in the dirt due to the heat signature it leaves for several hours. Crazy!

About 90 minutes in to every drive, we stop for about 10 minutes for a rest stop, bathroom-yep in the bushes, but only after the driver goes in to make sure there are no animals nearby, and they bring snacks and drinks for us

Our lodge has a watering hole the hippos frequent often, but they were not there during our stay. We told our driver on our last day we never saw the hippos, so we went out to find them. He said he knew where they might be. He was right. Mama and baby

No, she's not mad or growling or whatever noise hippos do, she was just yawing!! She was sitting down, and then stood up, let out a HUGE yawn, and then walked into the water

....and baby followed

VIDEO:

It was dark before we got back to the lodge, but literally 5 minutes from the lodge, our driver spotted the three female lions.....hard to see it as so dark

The next morning it was time to leave. 😞😞

We made our way to the airport for the 90 minute flight to Johannesburg

We splurged and stayed in the Park Hyatt. Park Hyatt is Hyatt's extra luxe brand, top of the line. This one is Hyatt's smallest Park Hyatt, with only 31 rooms and it just opened 2 months ago. It used to be a mansion for some richy rich dude and has been under renovation and remodeling for 2 years by Hyatt.

It definitely was beautiful!

View from our room

Instead of a breakfast buffet, they actually bring the buffet to you at your table. It was so delicious!

The next day we spent most of the day touring Johannesburg - we had heard it's not the safest city and that was confirmed by uber drivers, hotel staff, shuttle drivers and others. We opted for a city tour on the hop-off-hop-on bus again which was perfect. Our hotel was in the most exclusive and upscale area in the city, and a huge mall with expensive stores and restaurants and movie theaters was only 1/2 mile way - which is where we had to go to get on the bus. We were going to walk but the hotel staff said no, we probably shouldn't, even during the day. Most of South Africa, and especially Johannesburg, has an unemployment rate of about 50%. So for many, crime is the only way to make money to survive.

Johannesburg is a huge city - about 5 million people, with about 6.5 million including the suburbs

Johannesburg is a city of extreme wealth and extreme poverty - no in-between. These schools we passed are extremely elite schools up on the hills surrounding downtown

The downtown area is big and crowded with many buildings. But, about 600 of these buildings are empty, abandoned and have been hijacked by gangs and criminals for years. The property owners have turned off all water and electricity to the buildings and some have even bricked up all outside entrances, doors and windows 3 and 4 stories high to keep people out

The four large buildings here are all abandoned buildings

And this dark brown one

And these.....

And this one.....

And this one......

Here's the bus we took around

We even passed a big amusement park. Admission was only $15!

And a large spaceship

Our tour included a guided tour inside the Soweto suburb, which is South Africa's largest black city with a size of 77 square miles and a population estimated to be around 2 million currently, with most of them speaking the Zulu language. Nelson Mandela also lived in Soweto.

Soweto was created in the 1930s when the government forced all black people out of the city and moved them about 12 miles away from Johannesburg. The white people forced them out and took their homes, jobs, businesses and left them with nothing.

In 1976, the government said it was illegal to teach Zulu anymore in any of the schools and forced everyone to teach everything in Afrikaan and make it illegal to speak Zulu. Well, that was the turning point for those in Soweto and there was an uprising and mass protests which led to the police opening fire on 10,000 students peacefully protesting by marching in Soweto. This resulted in 23 people being killed, including many young children.

Even now, Soweto is not a safe place - you don't go in there without a guide. We actually had 4 guides and 12 of us taking the tour. We only got out of the van at carefully selected places, like places to shop, Nelson Mandela's house, but with the guides all watching out for us. Now, it's possible they were doing this to get more tips and pretend it wasn't as safe as it really is, but we didn't want to take that chance. We felt absolutely safe the entire 2 hour tour - even when we were out of the van.

Soweto is a very vibrant and busy place. Those that live there are proud of their heritage. It is disheartening to see how they live there, and many are trying to make the best of their situation. There were bars, small stores, dance lessons being advertised, even a learn to swim school. Unfortunately, some of the houses, if you can call it a house, still don't have running water or even electricity.

You know you are in Soweto when you see the two shut down nuclear towers. You can now do a bungee jump from one and walk a bridge between both towers

At one of our stops, dancers suddenly appeared

The very humble homes of some of Soweto

Late that afternoon, we headed to the airport for the long trip back.

This time we flew north to Paris and then from Paris to Salt Lake for a total of 21 hours in the sky. Good thing they have lots of movies to watch!!

Ok, how was the trip? Amazing. We didn't really know what to expect but whatever that was, this exceeded our expectations, by a lot. Words cannot express the feelings you get when you see giraffes walking by, and a herd of elephants, and lions and cheetahs stalking each other and every animal in their element.

People always ask us, 'what has been your favorite trip, favorite cruise or best place?' and that's a hard answer because every trip is different, and the answer is usually, 'well...that depends on what you're looking for' It's like asking someone what's your favorite thing to eat.... Well, that depends....do you mean main dish? dessert? what type of food? do you mean breakfast? dinner? snack?

But, this trip definitely will be one of the highlights for sure. Simply amazing. We are so blessed to have had the opportunity to take this trip.

So how did we do it?

First, the actual safari was so discounted, it seemed too good to be true. I made sure it wasn't and jumped on it, knowing it wouldn't last long and it didn't.

Here's the normal price for 5 nights for 2 people:

I paid $1200 - so $600 per person and that included all game drives and all meals.

Hyatt Regency Cape Town - 3 nights - normal price = $1606 - my price $0 and 9,000 points. The hotel was only 3,000 points per night!

Treetops B&B - normal price - no discounts or free - paid full price of $59

Park Hyatt Johannesburg - 1 night - normal price = $520.04 - my price $0 and 20,000 points

Airfare from Cape Town - Port Elizabeth - $108 pp = $216

Airfare from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg - $65 each = $130

Airfare from SLC - Cape Town - normal price - $1703 pp = $3406 (I paid $0 and 120,000 points)

Airfare from Johannesburg to SLC - normal - $1954 pp = $3908 (I paid $0 and 130,000 points)

So, normal cash price:

Safari - $4,587

Airfare - $7,660

Hotels - $2,185

Total = $14,432

My price:

Safari - $1,200

Airfare - $346

Hotels - $59

Total = $1,605

So we got over $14,000 of travel for $1,605

Points used = 279,000 (my points were worth 3.5 cents per point)

It was an amazing trip and we were so blessed to have been able to take it.

Germany - Part 3 of our adventures

2025-08-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

Our last stop on our trip was Germany, where we stayed in Munich as our base. The train from Zurich to Munich was just over 3 hours which wasn't bad and offered lots of country side to watch.

After checking in to our hotel - (Andaz by Hyatt), we headed out to the city center for a walking tour where we saw churches, city buildings, and got a historical lesson about Munich and the city.

VIDEO: It was busy

We decided to try a traditional German dinner...but no, nobody got the Grilled Knuckle of suckling pig. We tried different sausages, meatballs, and a few other things......we decided we wouldn't need to try a traditional German meal again

The next morning we enjoyed the expansive breakfast at the hotel (free of course for us, for everyone else $40 per person)

Not quiet sure what these are

VIDEO: One of the many trains we rode - they get up to speed pretty fast

We then headed to the train station to go to Salzburg, Austria. All of the old city of Salzburg is a UNESCO Heritage site and a popular tourist destination. The city and surrounding areas are famous for The Sound of Music movie which was filmed here. Mozart also was born and lived here.

We did a self guided walking tour and saw lots.

This is where Mozart was born and lived for a time

They even had "doorbells" back then

Lots of yummy things to eat

Don waited and waited and waited for this to happen....and it only happened once!

The next day, we didn't go too far. A quick 20 minute tram ride to one of Munich's most visited sites - Nymphenburg Palace right in the middle of the city.

In 1664, the King/Queen of Bavaria had their first son born, and future heir to the throne. They had this palace built for him to one day, rule here. It was built with the finest materials from all over the world and it's HUGE! We only got to go in a very small part of it, but the grounds are also expansive. The grounds has canals patterned after those in Venice, with up to 70 gondolas, and many waterfalls and water features. In 1803 a nearby river was used to make pumphouses that provided pressured water for the fountains, that would ensure the fountains had a consistent pressure to operate all the time. The same pump houses are still used today and you can go inside them.

There are many out buildings in the heavily wooded areas (that were used for hunting by the royal family and friends) that you can go inside as well.

Here is an ariel photo - this place is huge:

This was the hunting lodge for the men to go to and relax during their hunt

This out building was built just to rest after playing croquet

We took a canal ride in an original gondola from Venice. It was quiet and peaceful.

Also part of the palace complex, is a museum of royal carriages and sleighs - the largest display in the world and considered the most important display of carriages/sleighs spanning over 300 years.

Ok...time for a quick history lesson that I learned during our time in Germany and about King Ludwig II. He was born at Nymphenburg Palace in 1845. He didn't have a close relationship with his parents or brother and was often reminded by them that he will be king one day and he should act like it.

Most of his childhood was spent in another castle - Hohenschwangau castle - a several days ride in a horse drawn carriage. It was a "fantasy" castle his father had built for getting away from the city and King Ludwig loved it there.

More about this castle in a minute.

When King Ludwig II was 18, his father suddenly died after a 3 day illness and King Ludwig II was suddenly the King. He didn't want to be king, didn't like crowds, didn't want to rule. Instead, he kept to himself and had a vivid imagination and built several extremely ornate, expensive and huge castles as his hobby. He loved to travel and furnished his castles (3 main castles during his reign), with the best furnishings and artwork he could find. He was involved with every aspect of the building - he made every decision, no matter how small. He did not use the public's money, but used his family fortune to fund his castle building, to the point that his family was in debt from money he borrowed from them. He would often go out riding to the cities and talk with the "common people" and was very friendly to them, and the public loved having him as their king.

Ludwig's family however, was not so happy he spent all their money. In 1886, a coup had several "doctors" say the King was mentally unstable and was not fit to rule. These doctors never even met the King. At 4am one morning, an uprising group, with family relatives and other military people, broke in to the castle and arrested the King and relieved him of power and took him away. He was working with other doctors who would say he was fit to rule and it was all a mistake.

The next day, he was found dead in a lake. The report was that he committed suicide, but an autopsy report showed no water in his lungs, he was a good swimmer, and the water was only waist deep. To this day, it is not known how he really died, but the theory is he was murdered. He only ruled for 22 years.

Ok, back to our trip.

The next day, we headed out to one of the most famous castles in the world, in fact, you've seen a replica (kind of), of this castle many times. This is the Neuschwanstein Castle in the city of Schwangau - in southern Germany near the border of Austria. Right next to Neuschwanstein castle, is yep - Hohenschwangau castle - where King Ludwig spent most of his childhood. See, this is all connected!

This place isn't easy to get to - we almost didn't add it to our trip, because of the distance and logistics of getting there. So glad Shelley kept saying she wanted to go there and we did. This was one of the highlights of the trip.

Walt Disney visited Neuschwanstein Castle in 1955 and was the main inspiration and idea for the Disneyland castle. Can you see the resemblance?

The real one is even more magical than the Disney one.

King Ludwig wanted to build a new castle (neuschwanstein castle) to escape Munich and the daily routine of being a king. He knew just the place. Right above the Hohenschwangau castle where he grew up that his dad built.

It's one of the most extensive palace complexes in the world, and it was intended to be his private castle where he lived. It was started in 1869 just 4 years after he became king. It was the areas largest employer for 17 years - up to 300 people onsite every day, and was never finished because the king died.

The king moved into the unfinished castle, with just a few rooms completed, in 1884 and he died just 2 years later with only 14 of the planned 200. 200 rooms!!!

He never intended the public to visit the castle, but just 6 months after his death, the group that orchestrated the kings removal from the throne, opened the castle to paying visitors. This helped pay off all the debts the king incurred against his family and became the single most lucrative income source for the Bavarian Royal Family. Today, it's still owned by the Bavarian Ministry. More than 1.3 million people visit each year, with up to 6000 a day in the summer. It was busy, but very organized.

No photos are allowed inside but wow, it's a good thing because they wouldn't do justice to how ornate and intricate and detailed it is. During the walking tour, you do visit most of the finished rooms, but you can't see any of the unfinished areas.

After a train and bus ride, the castle finally came into view

Above the castle, is a bridge that offers a fantastic view of the castle, as well as Hohenschwangau Castle - where the king grew up.

This is how wooded the area is around the castle

The yellow castle is Hohenschwangau Castle

The castle is massive

VIDEO:

This is the only place they let you take a photo - at the end of the tour through a window overlooking the lake

VIDEO of the view, bridge and Hohenschwangau castle:

We then went down the mountain to visit the Hohenschwangau Castle, where King Ludwig II grew up. It's not quiet as impressive, but still pretty impressive. No pics allowed inside this one either.

The view from Hohenschwangau to Neuschwanstein

We then head back to Munich. Wow, what a day! Knowing the history of the castles and the people of the time made a huge difference in visiting what we did.

We had a great trip and loved every day!

So you're probably thinking, how much did this cost? You do need to know travelling in Switzerland is pricey. Extremely efficient and easy, but pricey. And there are so many different train and transportation passes, you do need to do your research on that one to find out the best one to get you where you want to go. This was an expensive trip - using points or cash, as it was done in peak travel and tourist dates- in the summer.

For ease, I'll give you the main travel expenses:

Flights:

Salt Lake - Amsterdam (non-stop, economy-KLM), $1313 per person

Amsterdam to Zurich (non-stop, economy-KLM), $181 per person

Munich to Salt Lake (1 stop, Comfort+, Delta), $1235 per person

Total Flights for 2 people: $4,145

You already know no way that was my cost.

My cost: $582 taxes and 186,000 points

Hotels: Again, it was 10 nights so it was expensive, and these were bougie hotels.

Amsterdam (3 nights) - $1484

Zurich - (3 nights) $2474

Munich - (4 nights) $1634

Total Hotels: $5,592

My Cost: $0 and 197,000 points.

Grand total: ~~$9,737~~ $582

Of course there was also train tickets for each day/city and food and excursions, but still.......for $582 I'll gladly pay for the train tickets and food!

This trip also took A LOT of planning since we had lots of places we wanted to go to that weren't necessarily close to where we were staying. It worked out fantastically and we loved every day!

Switzerland - the country of unreal beauty

2025-08-04T06:23:00.000-07:00

Having been to Switzerland before, we knew what to expect. The best part? The airport, train station, tram station, bus station, supermarket and stores are all at the same place! It's huge and busy. And the hotel we like to stay at, Hyatt Regency Zurich, is literally across the street. Once you've gotten your luggage from the airport, it's a 10 minute walk at most, to the hotel lobby. It's the most convenient airport/train station/hotel you will ever find.

We checked in and found out we were upgraded to a suite:

We dropped our luggage off and were headed to downtown Zurich to explore and take a walking tour.

The next day had rain all day in the forecast. That was a bummer as we were headed up to the top of a mountain. We packed our rain jackets and headed out early to take a train to Stans with our destination being the Stanserhorn mountain. Travelling to the top of Stanserhorn mountain, started in 1893 with a series of 3 different electric mountain funicular trains. These were the first electrically powered mountain trains in the world and continued to operate until 1970. In 1970, lightning hit the top section's cable that ran the train, which then started a fire and destroyed a hotel at the top as well as the powerhouse for the train. A new cable car gondola was built and opened in 1975 that replaced the middle and top trains, but the original bottom train still remained in operation, and still is in operation today.

In 2010, the cable car system was upgraded to the CabriO cableway, which is what is there now. It's the world's only double deck cable car, and the top deck is open - no roof and it opened in 2012.

From the Stans train station, it was a short 10 minute walk to the mountain train station. We were a little worried as it was cloudy and overcast and we hoped we would still get some good views at the top of Stanserhorn.........

This is the original funicular railway that's been running since 1893. A funicular railway is a cable railway that connect two cars with a continuous cable. When one car goes down, the other car goes up, powered by an electric wheel at the top that the cable goes around. This system has been used since the 15th century and mostly used on very steep mountain slopes, so gravity can help pull the car going up, while the car going down is slowed down. Switzerland and Italy have a lot of these funicular railways

When you pass the other car, you know you are at the very middle

At the top of the funicular, we got off and immediately got on the cable car to go the rest of the way up

Of course we had to ride on the top deck in the open air - nowhere else in the world could we do that. The views, even with the clouds, was magical and unlike anywhere else.....except in other places we've been to in Switzerland. Photos don't even come close to showing you how amazing and magical this country is

These are the "high mountain pastures" and they had cows, with bells on, wander all over. We could hear the bells as we were riding up

Here are some videos.....yep....everyone was taking pics:

Once off the cable car, there is a short 15 minute hike to the peak where the views are different in every direction. And with the clouds changing and the sun even coming through, the views changed every minute

VIDEOS:

The peaks sits at an elevation of 6,227 feet and the view includes 61 miles of Swiss Alps and 10 Swiss lakes

We then hiked a short loop back to the cable car station - about a mile and half and it was amazing

When we got back to the gondola station to go down, the clouds returned, but the entire time we were up there, the sun poked through and gave us magical views

We took the gondola back down, the old funicular back down and were headed to Lucerne. Instead of taking the normal train, we opted for a boat ride on Lake Lucerne.

The boat only went once every few hours so had some time to wait - about 45 minutes. I found this old small fortress just behind some trees that you could go in

Stans and Stanserhorn are in the mid-right of this drawing. Mt Rigi - directly across the lake is where we went last time we were here

After about a 45 minute boat ride, we arrived in Lucerne. Lucerne is the most populated city in central Switzerland with about 82,000 people and 220,000 in the urban areas. Lucerne is full of tourists. Packed. Most of them go to see the Chapel Bridge, a wooden covered bridge over a river, which was built in the 14th century.

It's currently the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, and the world's oldest truss bridge. The bridge contains original paintings dating back to the 17th century. They are painted inside the bridge, in triangles and depict different scenes of Lucerne's history. In 1993 however, the bridge suffered from a fire which destroyed or damaged many of the paintings. About a 1/3 of the paintings survived the fire and are still visible today.

We then went to some cathedrals which did not disappoint

The only time we needed our rain jackets was heading back to the train station in Lucerne. It started to downpour so we quickly took cover on the bridge and waited it out for about 15 minutes.

VIDEO:

We headed back to Zurich on the train after a very filled day of adventures

We wore them out 😁. That means it was a good day!
We all slept good that night!

The next day we headed back to the train station and headed to Meiringen and then to Aareschlucht or Aare Gorge.

There is a section of limestone rock where the river has cut a gorge through for the past 10,000 years when the ice age melted and the water from the melted ice carved out this gorge.

In 1889 a wooden cantilevered walkway was built along the gorge for tourists to walk on and take in this natural wonder.

This wasn't quite as spectacular as Caminito del Rey in Malaga Spain, (which was incredible), but this was still an amazing site and we loved it. The walk through the gorge takes about 45 minutes.

We had to change trains, and this indoor bike rack was at the train station - we saw similar bike "parking" at other train stations too

The train ride is part of the destination offering views like no other

The train stopped at one place and this was the view:

This one is amazing!

Waterfalls like this were everywhere - not a very good pic though taken through the train's dirty window

Once we arrived, we had to then get on a bus for about a 10 minute ride. I knew where we were supposed to get off, and pushed the button, but the driver didn't stop. Instead, he dropped us off about a mile away, down the mountain. The road back up was very curvy, and had NO walking space, no shoulder, no where we could safely walk without being in traffic. So we went off-roading and spotted some deer trails through the meadows leading right up to where we needed to be

The walk back up wasn't too bad, and offered amazing valley views

We finally made it!

It had rained earlier in the day and the day before, so the water was not blue or clear like it normally is. It didn't rain on us, but there was lots of drips of water coming out from the rocks above us so we were glad we had our rainjackets.

Here is a photo I found online the way it normally looks:

But with the recent rains, we didn't have blue water, but we had LOTS of water rushing down. It was so loud!

Here are some videos:

This part where the gorge narrowed was the loudest as all the water was being funneled into a small area - you couldn't even talk to someone else near you it was so loud

Nearby, is the Reichenbach waterfall, with a drop height of 820 feet had so much water flowing down. We knew it was close, and the employee we asked said it was just down the road. Well, we walked and walked, saw the train we should have taken, and after about 45 minutes of walking, we finally arrived. You could hike up to the falls or take the funicular - which we did.

We were glad we had our rain coats as the mist coming off the falls would have gotten us all wet. Now these falls were LOUD!

VIDEO:

Ummm.....this is a little dangerous. These stairs were very steep, and anyone could trip and fall. And if you managed to fall between the gate and the train at the bottom, you won't stop falling.. ever. bye bye.

We then took the train to Interlaken, not far away. In English, Interlaken means "between two lakes" and looking on a map, you know why the city is named Interlaken.

The town sits right between two large lakes. Around each lake are small villages you can take a train or boat to. We opted for an hour ride on a still operating steam boat built in 1914 on Lake Brienz - the lake on the left. It was relaxing and pretty chill.

VIDEO:

In this one, I was just videoing the shoreline and this giant waterfall was right there! It was roaring!

You can watch the gearbox that runs the paddlewheel

We got off the boat in Iseltwald, one of the many small villages around the lake and walked around the very small village, found some geocaches and then caught the next boat to continue our journey. Iseltwald has a huge population of 415.

This vending machine was outside a farm - you could buy eggs, sausage and cheese. AND there was a geocache here!

We made it back to Interlaken where we took the train back to Zurich and slept well again. We only needed our rain jackets for the dripping water from the rocks in the gorge.

Tomorrow will be a train ride to Germany, saying goodbye to Switzerland.

Amsterdam - the bike city

2025-08-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

For our July adventure, we made our 2nd trip this year across the big waters over to Europe, this time to the Netherlands, Amsterdam to be more precise.

Flying from SLC, the flight is about 9 1/2 hours going over Greenland and Iceland

The only 2 non-stops from SLC to Europe is Paris and Amsterdam, so we try to do those flights to save time. We left at 9pm and got there at 2:30 in the afternoon

We stayed at Hyatt Regency Amsterdam where they welcomed us with chocolates and an upgraded room

This was part of our expansive breakfast buffet every morning. Normally $40 per person each day, but of course our price was $0

VIDEO:

After checking in to the hotel, we went to the "canal district" and took a guided canal tour of the city

We came very close to some of the tunnels

We had the pleasure of Shauna & Don (Shelley's sister/husband) come with us! It was great having them along

After the canal tour, we walked around the city

Be aware of your surroundings! The trains and trams and busses come very close to the sidewalks!

We came across this very big candy store. They had everything

VIDEO:

Amsterdam is the largest city in the Netherlands, and is the capital of the Netherlands, with a population of about 1.5 million. Dutch is the official language, but most residents are pretty fluent in English. We've been to a lot of large cities and Amsterdam is extremely quiet (and clean). It's so quiet because a majority of the "traffic" is bikes! They are everywhere! Amsterdam one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. On average, each household owns 2 bikes. The bikes always have the right of way and you wait for them like you wait for normal car traffic. There is the normal road, then a bike lane painted red, and then the normal sidewalk which is the lowest priority. You do not dare walk in the bike lane either or you will get run over. Most of the cars, trains, trams and busses are electric so very little traffic noise and the trains, trams and busses are far more common than cars.

This an entrance/exit to an underground mall area and you can see along with steps, are grooves for you to push your bike up/down the steps

Shauna has the bull by it's horns! The Amsterdam stock exchange is the oldest still-functioning stock exchange in the world

The next morning we took a walking tour around downtown

Amsterdam used to be part of the ocean, but way back when (around 1275), the land was reclaimed from the ocean and marshes. Windmills were used to keep the water out of the city. All the downtown buildings and any buildings by the numerous canals, were built on large wooden poles -11 million of them, most which are still the original ones. But over time, the poles can sink and shift right/left. To minimize this, all the buildings were built connected, so they are connected to the buildings on the left/right which helped stabilize and prolong the shifting of the poles.
Now, all these hundreds of years later, you can see the shifting in many of the buildings like this one here - it's "crooked", but still safe and held in place by the buildings on either side.

Look very carefully at the tops of these buildings - you can see a hook or ring at the top. Every building has it. Back in the 1300's when these buildings were all built, they were taxed on how much land they took up, because that helped pay for all the wooden poles needed to support the building. They were also taxed on how many windows were in the building. So, to pay the least amount of taxes possible, instead of taking up a lot of land, they built up. There were no elevators however, so at the top of each building, were these hooks/rings that were used to hoist up supplies, furniture, groceries and anything those living above the ground floor needed. The stair cases inside are extremely steep and only wide enough for one person, so that wouldn't work either. They were pretty smart too - what would happen if you hoisted heavy stuff up several stories? It would sway and hit the side of the building or windows. To compensate for that, each building was built tilting out - towards the street, so when items were lifted up, they wouldn't hit the building.

This picture really shows how crooked most of the buildings are - look at the windows. Don't worry, it's safe. If the buildings lean, they just lean into the ones on the side and they are all supporting each other

See the hooks/rings on each building?

This is the narrowest building in the city - they paid the least amount of taxes

Here you can see better the hooks/rings at the top

We stopped in at the huge city museum - the Rijksmuseum

We went to the largest farmers market in the city and got some authentic stroopwafels - very different than the ones you get from Costco

It was warm, sticky, gooey and yummy

How about some regular waffles?

Or many different kinds of edibles?

Bike parking is everything, and usually completely full. Here you can see the tram/bus lane, then the reddish bike lane and next to that is the walking sidewalk

SO MANY of these kinds of bike. Used to deliver stuff, groceries, but mostly kids sit in these - sometimes 3 or 4 kids in one

You can see the bike lane is as big as the bus/tram lane!

The next day, we headed out about a 45 mins bus/train ride, to Zaanse Schans which is a super popular tourist area, so if you go, go early! It's an Amsterdam heritage site where a large collection of windmills used to be to pump water out of a large area turned into farmland. There used to be 1000 windmills in the area keeping the farmland free of water back in the 1500's, which is now the oldest industrial area in the world. Around 1920, there were only about 20 windmills left (with only 13 remaining) which have been preserved and all still work. Each windmill had a purpose - a saw mill, a flour grinder, a spice grinder, one that made colorful dyes, one that made ground mustard, another for cheese, one that made oil and others. There are also some original houses, buildings and some museums on the site. They also made lots of cheese here and wooden shoes and you can watch demos on how those were made. Of course you can buy lots and lots and lots of different flavors of cheese and buy your own real wooden shoes.

He made a wooden shoe out of a block of wood

VIDEOS making a shoe:

VIDEO:

The flour mill with HUGE granite crushing wheels. Don't put your finger in there!

Everything is wooden - the moving parts, the "nails" and all still works

In a few of the mills, you can go up top and walk around under the blades

VIDEO:

The saw mill - they still use it daily for paying customers who want original and precise cut wood for various things. The logs sit in the water floating, until they are ready to cut, when they are hoisted up the ramp by the windmill pulling it up through a series of winches and ropes

The multi bladed saws stay in the same place cutting, while the log/wood moves forward at a speed that can be adjusted

Since the wood is fresh and wet still, after it's cut, it's put outside for a few months to completely dry

VIDEOS:

We were ready to walk back after seeing all the windmills and some guy, on the bike path, rode by and immediately stopped. He asked us if we were tourists from America and we said yes. We were actually walking in the bike lane to get around some slow walking people on the sidewalk, and I thought he was going to tell us we shouldn't be walking in the bike lane. Nope. Instead he told us to go back to the main area by going on a short hike through the wetlands and farms and pointed the direction where we should go. Of course, we heeded his advice! It was beautiful!

Along the hike, we got different views of the windmills and the surrounding farm land

There were waterways all over, with small bridges to get over them.

Under this bridge we found a geo cache

In some areas, the grasses were so tall, it felt like you were in a corn field maze

We had lunch at a small cafe nearby, and I got the "no crap" lemonade....well, it wasn't like the lemonade you're used to. It tasted like water with lemon squeezed into it

We then hopped on a bus for about 20 minutes and went to a very small village called Edam. Edam was created when a dam (Edam= "the dam") was placed in a river creating a channel in the year 1230. At the dam, boats with supplies travelling to other places couldn't go any further because of the dam. So the residents of Edam, created a business of transferring the supplies from one channel to another on the other side of the dam, of course, charging a tax on the ships and boats to do so. This led to building several large harbors in the area, with Edam becoming one of the largest shipping areas in Holland and the creation of the largest cheese maker in the country in the 16th century and a very wealthy city. In 1544 however, large floods destroyed the city and they decided to build large locks to keep the water out and protect the city and harbors. Instead however, this caused the waterways to be filled with dirt and silt over the years and the shipping channels became unusable and the city went into decline. There are still many of the original houses, buildings and churches there today and the city has a population of about 7000.

We were there on a Saturday and it was very quiet. Like nobody there. There are several small canals going through the city and we knew you could take a canal tour, but we couldn't find anyone to ask. I finally found a museum and ask inside and was told they only do canal tours on Monday's (strange) but there might be an electric boat we can rent down over there (pointing somewhere around the corner). So I walked around the corner and found a sign advertising the boats to rent for an hour, but nobody was around. I went into a nearby bar that was open, nobody inside. I walked around and finally found someone and asked him and he said Yes! Let's go pick out a boat for you!

Here we are on our way around the canals of Edam

Cap'n Don was at the controls safely (mostly) guiding us around

VIDEO:

It was so peaceful and quiet and beautiful!

Our fearless captain did us well. He said he worked on tips, so we tipped well 😁

Walking back to the bus station, we didn't see anyone else in the city. It was so quiet

We found the pink chocolate store - there were lots of people in there!

And the "Instagram" pink bike

After a few short days but filled with lots of things, we boarded a plane at 7am for the short 45 minute flight to Zurich, Switzerland

Kamas - old fashioned little town

2025-07-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

We normally go to Southern Utah around this time of year for a mini-family vacation. Noah's parents bought a house in Kamas (near Park City) and fixed it all up for an Airbnb. Well, they let us "test" it out for a weekend so we went there instead.

Kamas is a small, with a grand total of about 2,100 population. It consists of about 4 streets, a huge donut store in a Chevron gas station, a pizza place and a burger place and a grocery store. It's mainly a stop for the many people that go camping or visit the high Uintah's - Utah's highest mountains. Kamas is about 30 mins from Park City, but it feels like it's hours away. It's so peaceful and quiet with easy access to Mirror Lake and beautiful hikes.

We drove up to Mirror Lake, which is about 45 minutes up in the Uintah's. Mirror Lake sits at an impressive 10,500 elevation and has snow most of year, with only July and August where you can be sure there will be little to no snow. There is an easy 1.5 mile loop hike (walk) around the lake which we did.

Bald Mountain - there is no vegetation on it

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The next day, we went on a hike about 20 mins away, in the "low" Uintah's that was spectacular - it had streams, waterfalls and dense vegetation. It's called Nobblett's Creek Trail - if you're in the area, make it one of your stops.

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There are some even smaller towns around Kamas, one being Peoa with a population of about 250. If you're an instagrammer, the super famous 'Ballarina Farm' lady and her family live there, on their huge diary farm who are multi-millionaires. Look them up on your Insta. They were at the rodeo as their kids were participating. Her husband is the son of David Neeleman who started Jet Blue.

Well, it just so happens Peoa was having their city "Ranch Rodeo" that night and it was free, so we went to check it out. If you don't know what a Ranch Rodeo is, like we didn't, it's a rodeo but the events are a little different. They are events that you would do living on a farm - chasing animals that got out of their fence, shooting coyotes away from the chicken coop, and hide racing, which was the favorite event of the night.

One event was cow herding - there were about 30 cows loose, with numbers on them, with three cows of each number 1-10. A random number was called and a team of three, each on horses, had to find the three cows with the same number and herd them into the other side of the arena, without any of the other cows going with them. It was pretty interesting to watch.

There was the "catch a chicken" event, where several chickens were let loose for the kids, and whoever caught the chicken got to keep it. (take it home and fry it up)

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Then there was the shooting competition, where while riding a horse, they had to shoot several balloons without missing any. And it was timed, so they had to balance time against accuracy. It was a fun one to see.

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But the most interesting one and fun to watch, was the hide racing. I'm not quite sure how this would help you on a ranch, but it didn't matter - it was good! Only the little kids could participate. An adult on a horse would gallop up next to the kid, who would jump on a leather hide, and then it was a race to the finish line.

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We had a great time "testing" out the soon to be Airbnb. We had family dinners, burgers, popcorn and lots of treats..watched movies, played games, hiked and had a great time! The only thing we missed was having Marissa and Matt there!

Oceanside - the name fits

2025-06-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

For May's trip, we decided to go to Oceanside, California, as we've never been there and we needed to use up some expiring free hotel nights. We chose Hyatt's Mission Pacific Resort, literally across the street from the ocean.

Our $21 flights on Allegiant were easy as they fly from Provo airport which means from check-in to gate is 5 minutes and once off the plane, it's 5 minutes to your car.

We flew in to John Wayne airport in Santa Ana which is a quick 90 minute flight. Leaving Provo at 8am got us there at 8:30am due to the time change. Oceanside was about a 45 minute drive south, but we spent some time first in Newport Beach and went on a whale watching and harbor tour.

We had to read and sign this very interesting waiver first though.

We did see a few whales but the stars of the trip were hundreds and hundreds of dolphins!

VIDEO:

We then had some lunch and headed down to Oceanside. Once we got to the hotel, we were escorted to our upgraded suite with a side view of the ocean - it wasn't a bad view at all, as we could see the pier. The little house in the middle of the hotel is referred to as the "Top Gun House" as it was used in the original Top Gun movie. Here's an interesting history of Oceanside and the house. The house now sells pies.

We checked in to our room, and headed out to walk on the pier and the ocean side.

View from our room

View from room overlooking the Top Gun house

VIDEO Room Tour:

VIDEO:

The next day we found this very yummy and extremely popular donut shop - Parlor Donuts. It was popular for a reason - wow, they were so good! Rumor has it one opened up here! I need to go find it.

We walked more around the city, along the beach, got some reflexology massages, found yummy dinner spots, and just pretty much relaxed!

You can see how far out the pier goes

One of the round-abouts on the street had lots of painted rocks people leave

Can you see the Y?

VIDEO:

This was a geocache on the pier! Like in the middle where everyone was walking. It took us three attempts, and two hints from the owner before we finally found it. See the very small brown phillips screw beneath the knot on the right? There is a small wire attached to the screw......

At the end of the wire was a small geocache. The hard part was looking and getting it with so many people walking right around and over it

Our hotel offered beach chairs, umbrellas and towels so we took advantage of that daily

The hotel also had spots all over to just sit and relax

The elevators have 3D moving pictures inside:

The hotel has a roof top bar/restaurant and each table has heaters inside the umbrella!

We visited some meditation gardens which overlooked the ocean which were beautiful and well kept.

The next day the pier was packed! And so many people fishing! It was so crazy!

Our last day we visited San Juan Capistrano Mission which we've never been to.

Before heading to the airport, we walked along the Dana Point Preserve overlooking the ocean

Monday came to an end with us leaving the ocean far behind and coming home to the mountains.

We loved the trip and the chance to just do nothing and relax most of the time. Thank you $22 flights and free hotel nights!

All Family Caribbean Cruise

2025-05-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

When mom passed away 2 years ago this month, we sold her and dad's house and us 4 siblings received some money from the sale of the house. We wanted to honor mom and dad and do something they would approve of with that money and decided to make family memories and remember them. We booked a cruise for everyone in our family - all 14 of us, and it was amazing! It was Noah's first ever cruise after hearing so many stories from each of us about cruises, so were really excited for him!

That last time we did this, was in November 2015 on the Carnival Breeze and we always remembered it fondly because we were all together as a family.

This time we chose MSC Seascape, their biggest/newest ship leaving from Miami over spring break. Well, since it was spring break, flight prices from Salt Lake City were crazy high. $800-$900 per person round trip. I found if we left from Las Vegas, the price was around $250 pp. With 14 people, that difference adds up quick making the 6 hour (each way) drive worth it, so that's what we did.

Meghan/Corey and family and us went 2 days early and spent an extra day in Miami. Jacob/Aubrie, Marissa/Matt & Hannah/Noah joined us the next day.

Meghan found these blow-up cushions that allowed her kids to actually sleep laying down somewhat on the plane

In Miami, we went to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens which were pretty cool

Jane found a new friend

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables (which we've stayed at before and loved it)

VIDEO Room Tour:

They brought us some special treats to welcome us back!

The next day we boarded the ship and had 2 relaxing days at sea as we headed to the Dominican Republic

As expected, the ship was beautiful and amazing

Surprisingly, we were all at the same table! It was a HUGE table!

The sushi restaurant - the plates of food moved along a trackless table past you

Meghan and Hannah dared to get close to the wild animals

Hannah made us all door decorations and Meghan made our new family logo which we also had t-shirts made with it and we all wore them the first day

Here is our family logo Meghan made for us:

VIDEO -Room tour from Marissa:

VIDEO: Tunnel - they had different colors of lights every day

Being "Diamond" on MSC, we get special treats throughout the week in our cabin

VIDEO: Ordering dinner:

VIDEO: One night we all gathered around the bed in Meghan's cabin while her kids slept to play games:

The kids water area was pretty amazing and not just for little kids!

VIDEOS:

The water slides were pretty fast!

VIDEOS - Slides thanks to Marissa and Matt!

VIDEO: Sailing the seas

Master Chef at Sea Junior Edition

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Jane is trying to be like Jacob and Hannah doing public handstands

VIDEO: Playing games

VIDEO: Evening entertainment

After two full days of sailing, we arrived at Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. The adult kids went to the Damajagua Waterfalls which we'd been to before, so we stayed with Jane, Ethan, Anne and Grant and went to swimming pools, lazy rivers and water fun

VIDEOS:

The 'Pink Street' in Puerto Plata

Shelley's sister - Saundra and her husband and his siblings were on the same ship!!! They also did the same tour in the DR!

The 'Umbrella Street'

Hannah taking it all in!

The ship had an 'infinity bridge' with glass floor with nothing underneath except the ocean 16 stories down

VIDEO: Playing games

The next day was San Juan, Puerto Rico. We decided to head to a 'local's beach' about a 15 minute city bus ride from the port.

It was beautiful! Soft sand, palm trees, shade. Super relaxing and chill

Some of the kids decided to go visit the fort in San Juan (which we did a few months ago)

We were in San Juan until 11pm, so we went back to the ship for a quick nap, dinner and then back into San Juan to watch the sunset

Jane always got ice cream and jello for dessert

That night was the 'white party'

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The next day was another day at sea on the way to MSC's private island

The 'Jungle Pool' which had a retractable roof

Not quite sure what's happening here

Like most of MSC's newer ships, this one had a chocolate factory onboard. They were making chocolate Easter decorations

Lots of yummy chocolate treats

Being "Diamond" with MSC, we get to go to 1 specialty restaurant - we decided to go to the Taco/Mexican one and Marissa/Matt came with us. It was VERY good!!

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The next day we arrived at MSC's private island only to find we couldn't get any closer than about 500 yards due to 'excessive current and wind' - both the current and winds were going in the same direction. The island has a very narrow passage and the ship couldn't stay in the lane due to the wind/current. We waited several hours while the captain kept trying, but eventually he decided it was too dangerous. We were looking forward to this relaxing beach stop as we loved it last time we were there. Instead, we had another day at sea as we (slowly) headed back to Miami.

VIDEO: Italian night in the dining room

We stayed an extra day in Miami before heading back early the next morning, and went to the everglades and took a fan boat tour. It was a lot of fun!

VIDEOS:

They had cages with alligators and tigers....and the lovely sign warning you might get your fingers bitten off

On the way back from the everglades, we went down a dirt road our boat driver told us about - indicating we would likely see alligators all over on the side of the road. He was telling us the truth

The next day bright and early were on the plane headed back to Vegas.

We had a GREAT trip! And so blessed that we were able to all be together again!

Quick Getaway to Paris

2025-03-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

With a long President's Day weekend coming up, we decided to take quick getaway.......to Paris! Nope, not Paris, Texas, not Paris, Maine and not Paris, Tennessee. Paris in France!

Here's how much it was to go from SLC to Orlando:

That's a pretty good price! But why settle for Orlando when we could go to Paris for less than that.

Now, just in case you decide to go to Paris in our winter, it's their winter too, and it's cold. Highs during the day topped out at 42 and mornings started out at around 32. But we knew that and dressed appropriately and for the most part, stayed warm.

We traded this........

and this.........

For this

Nobody between us which helped make the 10 hours more comfortable

We stayed at this Hyatt before and it's a pretty good one and close to the train, subway and bus

I booked a normal room on points (aka FREE) and thought we might get a normal upgrade. We were VERY surprised however, when we found out we were upgraded to the Presidential Suite! Top floor (32nd floor) where the main feature was the view.

Here is the room tour:

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For normal people paying money for a room like this, it goes for $1500 a night! So our stay was worth more than $4500, but of course, $0 for us.

Here is a map of the floor. Our room, #3214, is in the top right - it is as big as five other normal rooms!

We got to the hotel pretty early, about 10am and they let us check in early, which was nice, as we needed to "refresh" after flying 10+ hours.

After a 30 min nap, we headed out to explore. Our first stop, was the Arc de Triomphe - a 10 minute walk way. This this is huge when you get right up to it!
This famous monument honors those who fought and died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Around the monument are names of all the French victories and Generals. At the center of the monument, is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WW1.
The Arc sits in the middle of a huge round about with 12 roads all converging on it:

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We then took the subway to the Petit Palais. The Petit Palace (Small Palace) is a free art museum and was built in 1897. On the way there, we walked through the very and extremely wealthy shopping area (Champs-Elysees) with high end store after store after store. One of those, was this Louie Vuitton building that looks like a giant suitcase.

The Petit Palace was extremely ornate and decorative

Thought this would have been a good place for a geocache, and I was right.

We then walked to the Tuileries Garden about 10 minutes away. On the way, we passed one of the Luxor Obelisks. There are two Luxor Obelisks which are over 3000 years old. They were built to guard the entrance to the Luxor Temple during King Ramesses II reign in Egypt. They were carved from a single piece of red granite.

In 1799, a General in Napoleon's Army, saw the two obelisks as they were conquering Egypt and wrote a letter to Napoleon letting him know the obelisks would be an amazing sight to bring to Paris to celebrate France's victory over Egypt. Well, only one of the two ended up making it to Paris in the 1820's.

The Tuileries Garden is between the Louvre and the Obelisk. The garden was created in 1564 and is huge. In the spring and summer, it's beautiful with fountains, ponds, flowers, trees, benches, sculptures and manicured gardens. But, being winter, it was not so green, but still had it's beauty. One thing we found interesting is how busy the city was despite being 40 degrees out. The garden was pretty busy with people everywhere. Some even having picnics.

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We passed this square last time we were in Paris and happened on it again! Locals spontaneously dance and have a great time. It was very fun to watch.

VIDEO:

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM

After walking about 10 miles, (even with taking the subway), we ended up back at the hotel and enjoyed this amazing view. It never got old. And these photos aren't even close to how breathtaking it looked in person

VIDEO: The tower sparkles the top of every hour

The next morning was still hazy as we started the day early

The walk inside the subway station revealed they probably should cover up these wires...seems a little too easy for someone to cut the power to the subway station

Our destination was the Marche Richard Lenoir - Bastille Market. This is the largest outdoor market in Paris held every weekend

Pretty much 90% of everyone shopping were locals getting food for the week. It was pretty amazing the variety of all the food and stuff for sale. And it was so fresh and everything looked good!

I think the big eggs in the middle were ostrich eggs

No egg shortage here

A short ride on the subway took us to the Montmartre area of Paris. Montmartre is on one of the few hills in Paris and is known as the art district, once home to Picasso and other famous artists. Also the Sacre-Coeur Basilica is located here on the highest hilltop in the city, and was BUSY!

From the top of the hill, the view from Sacre-Coeur overlooks the entire city of Paris and is the 2nd most visited site in Paris after the Eifel Tower. The Basilica is beautiful, free to enter and totally worth a stop

Being the "warm" sunny day it was (40 degrees) the steps were packed with people just sitting and enjoying the sun and the view

Right next to the basilica, there is a "tourist train" that takes you around the Montmartre area for about a 45 minute drive

VIDEO:

The streets were narrow and this is how close we were on both sides to parked cars

After the little train tour, we walked around the area to the 'Rue Sainte-Rustique' - one of Paris's oldest streets, and walked through the 'Place du Tertre' where local artists show and sell their work every weekend

Yep, 40 degrees out but all the sidewalk cafes outside were full

How does this sound?

We did a self walking tour which led us around the neighborhood and once we left the artists market, it was much less crowded

This lunch spot was busy!! It was cold outside but that doesn't stop the Parisians!

We visited the 'Wall of Love' with 612 tiles all saying 'I Love You' in 250 languages

Heading back down the subway resulted in 4 flights of spiral staircases and went on and on and on. I felt like we were in the Silo.

We headed to the 'Galeries Lafayette' which is a HUGE department store, think almost as big as a normal mall. And it's fancy. And expensive - you probably should bring 2 credit cards if you go here. And it was PACKED!!

In the center of the store, is a huge stained glass dome which has become one of the most iconic architectural monuments in Paris. Directly under the dome, is the "glass walk" which takes you directly under the center of the dome.

Here is a video that is much better than any I could take to give you an idea of what it's like:

Here are my videos:

On the roof of the Galeries Lafayette is a rooftop view area which offered amazing views of the city

We saw this huge building across the street and wondered what it was. We found out is the 'Palais Garnier' - Paris Opera House. The setting for Phantom of the Opera was the Palais Garnier.

We walked down to the front of the Opera House to see if we could get tickets, and they were sold out for the day and closing soon anyhow. So, we will try and see if we can get in tomorrow.

After walking around 10 miles today, it was time to head back to the hotel.

VIDEO: The view never gets old......

The next morning we headed out early to go to Notre Dame to avoid the crowds. Although free to enter, there is usually long lines with about an hour wait. However, we knew if we got there before 8:30, lines should be minimal. Shelley wasn't mad in this photo, she just happened to look up exactly as I was taking the pic right before she smiled

Construction of Notre Dame began in 1163 and was finished in 1260 with many modifications, cleanings and restorations since then. Notre Dame has long been the symbol of Paris and France as a nation. A fire in 2019 destroyed some of the cathedral, mostly parts of the roof, and it was closed for 5 years as it was restored, cleaned and repaired and was re-opened just 2 months ago in December of 2024.

In 1238, a Latin Emperor of the East, who had possession of "Relics of the Passion" needed money and he sold some of the items to King Louis IX from France. King Louis brought back the items from Jerusalem in 1239, which consist of the Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus, part of the cross Jesus was nailed to, and one of the nails used, and they've been kept in Notre Dame ever since. Of course, the public doesn't get to see them.

As expected, we had minimal lines - actually no lines. We walked right in

Amazing, beautiful, religious and stunning. The size and arches inside reminded me a little of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

VIDEO:

Our next stop was just a 7 minute walk away - Sainte Chapelle which was the King Louis IX private chapel where he and his family worshiped which was built between 1238-1248. When the chapel was completed, the Crown of Thorns, piece of cross and nail were held here for many years until they were moved to Notre Dame.

There are two levels to the chapel -the bottom level was used by solders and service personal to the King. The top level which is where the relics were kept, was only for the King and his family worshipped.

The King's Chapel is what you go here to see. There are 15 huge bays of stained glass which were mostly created in the Middle Ages (13th Century) . There are 1,113 stained glass windows which all tell biblical stories from the Old and New Testament. You could spend hours in there looking at all of the stories.

During World War 2, the stained glass was removed so it wouldn't be destroyed and then put back in after the war

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Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle along with other landmarks in Paris, are actually on a small natural island with the Seine River on both sides

Along the river, is a UNESCO World Heritage "site" - the Paris booksellers. They've been selling books and art here along the river for over 450 years and the tradition still continues today. There is an 8 year wait list to be able to become a book seller!

Our next stop was guess where! The Paris Opera house - we got tickets. It was built in 1861 and seats 1,979 people inside. The building is extremely ornate and beautiful inside. It's considered the most famous Opera House in the world. It was one of the most expensive buildings ever built in Paris

VIDEO:

Our last stop of the day was a river cruise along the Seine River.

We managed to walk around 10 miles again today! Weird that it kept being 10 miles every day! That was not planned.

Well, that's it for the long weekend trip to Paris. We definitely made the most of the time we had and was totally worth it! What else were we going to do over the long weekend? Sit at home and watch Netflix I guess would have been the next best option. This was better and I still got to watch movies on the plane!

Caribbean - Holland Style

2025-02-09T10:06:00.000-08:00

Excited to leave Eagle Mountain's 20 degrees, we headed East for some warmer weather for cruise #27 in the Eastern Caribbean.

This time we booked with Holland America Line, best known for catering to the over 70 crowd, but also known for pretty fancy and posh ships and service. According to the all-knowing google, "Holland America is a mid-luxury cruise line that offers a moderately upscale experience. It's known for its high-quality service, delicious food, and entertainment."

This was our last of 3 free cruises so we wanted to make the most of it! No silly 5 days for us, we could have booked any 10 day cruise, so we opted for almost that - 9 days in the 80 degree Caribbean along with Jacob and Aubrie as well.

Yep, they were pretty much the youngest ones on the entire ship except for about 7 kids.

Google was not wrong. We sailed on the Rotterdam, Holland America's newest ship and considered the "flagship" of the line. It's a medium sized ship coming at 99,935 tons but with a relatively low passenger count - just under 2000 with just under 1000 crew. We're used to sailing on ships with 6000 passengers so this was very uncrowded.

The ship was fancy. Detailed and ornate. Food was very good and entertainment was pretty good with singers and dancers that could actually sing and dance! But the most impressive was the service by the crew members. It was amazing. Crew was always happy, energetic, talked to us, and someone was always there to help with anything.

We enjoyed it so much, we would totally consider another Holland America cruise. Due to their age demographic, there are no water slides, no ropes courses, roller coasters, bowling, bumper cars, flow riders, sky bikes, 10 story dry slides or extensive kids areas. But we still had no problem finding things to do in the 9 days we were on board. We had 5 stops and several sea days.

Our room for the next 9 days

The main pool area had a retraceable roof which was nice, as when we left Miami, it was cold and rainy, but not in here!

Shelley made a new friend

Our "obstructed" balcony cabin view

The dining room had tablecloths at every meal, even breakfast, which Jacob loved.

The ship had large bouquets of FRESH flowers all over

The stairs going up to the casino were littered with gold coins!!!

This was an interesting piece of macramé or knitting or tatting or whatever this is called

The main theater was different as there were no poles in the way and no balcony. And they had huge floor to ceiling LED screens around about 3/4 of the entire theater

Most ships have done away with a lower deck that wraps around the entire ship you can walk on. Not Holland America!

VIDEO:

They had made to order crepes on the buffet - they were really good!

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Obligatory Room video:

There was a pretty large game room at the top of the ship

The night's show was a super star violinist who supposedly is one of the best in the world. She was pretty good!

VIDEO:

And the biggest library we've ever seen on a ship

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Jacob was doing some light reading

One afternoon we went to a cooking demonstration with the head chef

VIDEO: It was just a tad breezy out at the front of the ship

The food was just as pleasing to the eye as it was to the mouth

After two full days at sea, we arrived at our first stop, Antigua. It's been some time since we've been here and we were excited to go back.

We took an island tour with "Lawrence of Antigua" who was a pretty good tour guide

This is Lawrence, which his colorful vest of Antigua's national colors

It just so happened that day the "World's Toughest Row" was completed and ended in Antigua! It's a cancer charity fund raising event that is done yearly. It starts in the Canary Island in Spain and crosses the Atlantic and ends in Antigua rowing 3000 miles over 40 days in a 30 foot boat with 5 crew. They row unsupported, 2 hours on, 2 hours off, 24 hours a day. It's considered the world's most challenging rowing competition and race. The race had ended earlier that morning.

https://www.worldstoughestrow.com/the-atlantic/

We ended up at Ffryes (yep, that's how it's spelled), Beach, which was beautiful and not very crowded

Our next stop was St. Thomas - it'd been a while since we were here, so we were excited to be back. We went to Sapphire beach and spent a few hours relaxing. It was beautiful.

Not sure what holding my hand out does, but everyone was doing it so why not.

There were a lot of super yachts in the harbor next to our cruise ship - this one was the biggest. It was built in 2014 and is considered one of the world's largest and powerful luxury "super yachts". It has a helicopter pad on the front. It has 36 crew members on board 24/7 and can have up to 12 guests. It's owned by Shad Khan (owner of the Jacksonville Cougars basketball team) who bought the yacht for $360 million.

But guess what? YOU can charter the yacht for your next vacation! It's only $3 million a week! And look what you get:

No cruise would a real cruise without Jacob's famous poses

Our next stop was Tortola and we haven't been back here since 2010 so we were really excited to go back and visit "The Baths" on Virgin Gorda again.

We got off the ship and had to walk about 8 minutes to catch a ferry to Vigin Gorda (30 min ride) and it was a little cloudy. Half way to the station, a huge downpour came in like 25 seconds. Luckily, we were close to this shed building that had a small overhang we could duck under waiting for the downpour to stop, which it did in about 5 mins and then was sunny the rest of the day

VIDEO:

At the ferry station, we got a good view of our ship

After a 30 min ferry ride, we arrived at Virgin Gorda, a small island which boasts "The Baths" - a very unique walk through sand, dense brush, cactus and huge boulders. Most of the Caribbean islands, including Virgin Gorda, were formed by volcanic activity. However, in this one part of this island, and the only place in all of the Caribbean, a small boulder field of granite (some of the boulders are 40 feet in diameter), formed and includes tide pools, tunnels, arches and grottos that you hike through, under and over to get to a beautiful beach.

We got there early, first ferry over, and it was great. No crowds during the hike. About an hour later, some people on the beach said it wasn't even fun hiking over because it was so crowded, just a long line of people. We had nobody around us when we hiked through - it was amazing

During high tide, areas like this can be waist deep in water that you walk through

VIDEO:

On the other side, we spent time on the beach and snorkeling

Arriving back - it was a good day!

When arriving back to the ship at each port, there is a resting station if you need it, and as you approach the ship, crew members are there with cold water, lemonade and cool face towels

The made to order pizza on board was pretty good!

The Blue's Club was always busy with live entertainment each night

That night there was a very unique party - a Carnival! We've never had a carnival before on a cruise! They had all kinds of normal carnival games, where you would win tickets and at the end they had a raffle giving away spa treatments, dinners and other things. We did not win anything so it must have been rigged.
They did have all kinds of treats, ice cream, candied apples, popcorn, sliders, corn dogs, it was like a real carnival! We enjoyed it.

VIDEOS:

This game was a little dangerous with everyone walking by

Our next stop was Puerto Rico - we hadn't been there in a while so it was good to go back. We didn't do any tours but just walked around, went to the Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro castle) and enjoyed Old Town San Juan. El Morro was built to protect San Juan from attacks by sea and protected Spain's access to the New World for over 300 years and was built in the 1500s.

This huge wall surrounds all of Old Town San Juan

On the way to the castle, we passed several churchs

This unique cat giraffe statue was the place of a geo-cache. We found geo-caches in every port we stopped in

After about a 30 minute walk, we made it to the castle. The grounds are HUGE and green

VIDEO: (Thanks to Jacob for this video)

We walked by the "Pigeon Park" - so many pigeons! They had a sign saying DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS yet they were selling pigeon food for you to buy ha ha.

VIDEO:

They had an "Orange Party" as the national Dutch (where Holland America is headquartered) national color is Orange. You can tell those who have sailed on Holland America before as they were all prepared with their orange clothes

Even the crew senior officers got into the party. The captain and his officers did a dance to a famous Dutch song. We've never seen the captain interact with passengers as much as we did on Holland. He was at the ports to welcome us as we got off the ship, was saying goodbye as we disembarked the last day, and even danced! It was so fun to see him so happy and welcoming.

VIDEO:

It's hard to remember what day it is, when knowing the day doesn't really matter, like when you're on a cruise. So the elevators always have a reminder when you step in - they swap these out at midnight

Our next day was our last day at sea, which meant relaxing, eating, napping, reading, eating, and doing as little or as much as we wanted.

Watched some Deal or No Deal

We went to a presentation of "behind the scenes" and it was very good!

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They had an afternoon "cake buffet"

Ah yes, there were LOTS of scooter parades on board. It was the transpiration of choice.

Not sure why we didn't take the pic before we ate - seems to always happen this way

Our last stop was a private island where we spent time at the beach and a huge BBQ lunch. This was our only day of cooler and not-so-sunny weather.

VIDEO:

All in all, it was a great cruise! We would definitely go on Holland again for a more upscale experience. Maybe you will come with us?

Thanksgiving on the beach - Cancun 2024

2024-12-10T09:36:00.001-08:00

Always wanting to do something different, and not having our kids for Thanksgiving this year, why not go somewhere? How about the beach for Thanksgiving? How about an All Inclusive resort? We've never been to an AI resort before.

Ok...let's do it. We flew out on Thanksgiving day and the airport was PACKED! It was so busy!

I did some research to find the best Hyatt AI Resorts and ended up with Secrets Akumal - about an hour south of Cancun.

Wow. It was amazing. Beautiful. Relaxing. Chill. Most of our vacations are active, go-go-go, got things to do and see. Not this one. This was going to be a lay around, not do much, eat and drink whatever we want, when ever we want, vacation which was new to us. This kind of vacation doesn't come cheap either. More about that later.

Who says airport food isn't that good? The Delta lounge had a really good breakfast spread!

Only 4 hours direct from Salt Lake

Cancun airport was very crowded

The resort was beautiful. It's 9 years old which is pretty new, and exudes luxury and calm and tropical and private and fancy.

They had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner out by the pool, but we opted for one of the fancy restaurants

A model of the resort. We were in the 3rd building from the bottom on the right

We went to the Italian restaurant the first night. This was my chicken parm and it was so tender and flavorful

The wedge salad was amazing. All the food was a feast for the eyes as much as it was for the mouth

At the beach you can have a private dinner on the beach - only $300 extra

View from our room

Somehow they knew it was my birthday the week before

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Obligatory room video

The entire resort was so lush, jungle like, not a single weed in sight. There were animals that we'd see racoons, some other looking thing, monkeys, birds

Besides Tennis, pickleball, bingo, crafts, yoga, snorkeling, and other activities, they also offer a guided 2 hour bike ride which we did

Our first stop was along a rough beach area where our guide told us the history of the area and about the Mayans

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He gave us a presentation of how the Mayan's communicated with shells

Our next stop was an open cenote that's very popular to snorkel. They just took us here to try and persuade us to come back and snorkel ha ha, but it was fun to come and see what it was like
We ended up snorkeling right off the beach at the resort

Time for some of the relaxing beach time

You can get any of the drinks without alcohol, although for some of them it just ends up being syrup and soda water. I usually got the many different flavors of mojitos which were good non-alcohol and Shelley got the pina-coladas

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There was a BBQ lunch by the pool one of the days

There were three large pools - the beach pool, right next to the beach, the "noisy" pool where there were a lot of activities and bands and music and the "quiet" pool which was so relaxing - it had spa music playing

The quiet pool

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Someone enjoying their private dinner on the beach

We did take one day and went on an excursion to Chechen Itza and Ek' Balam - it was a long day though. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive each way to Chechen Itza, so we got picked up around 7am.

Chechen Itza was a thriving Mayan city around 600 AD and was one of the largest Mayan cities. It's also one of the most visited sites in Mexico with about 7500 people visiting every day. We got there right when it opened so it wasn't very busy for us. Much of the city is still unexcavated but what is visible is impressive. Our guide was very knowledgeable and everything in the city has a meaning. Every carving, every stair, everything points to the sun and moon. Those Mayans were very smart and resourceful people.

Oops..the little girl photo bombed us

They built walls with skulls of enemies they killed and others that were sacrificed.

This is one of the largest "ball game fields" in any Mayan site. It's double the normal size of most others. The losers of the game would be killed. They Mayan civilization was a very blood thirsty one full of violence

The walls are not straight, they angle in slightly. You can stand at one end, and talk in a normal voice, and those at the far end can hear you. The walls echo sounds and the Mayans even built "speakers" to enhance the sound

Having been to many ruin sites before, we knew that what you see above ground isn't all there is. Most of the buildings visible were built on top of and inside other buildings. Here, you can see more outer walls of another building around and under the one you can see

This was the observatory which was built with precision to be able to see stars and sunlight at precisely the exact time of solstice and equinox. Also with the larger pyramid looking buildings, twice a year, at the solstice and equinox, shadows of serpents would "climb" and descend the stairs if you stood in right place, which was symbolic of the end and start of seasons

One thing that detracted from the sanctity of the site was how many vendors they let inside the site. Not just outside, there are plenty of those too, but actually inside...everywhere...all over. All selling the same exact things.

There was one vendor that had something nobody else had and it caught my eye. Very random and interesting they had this! I should have bought it.

About about 2 hours there, we headed to our lunch stop and a cenote to swim in - Hubiku.

There are over 10,000 cenotes in Mexico, this one is a little different as it's closed off, like a cave, which many are, but it also has a hole in the top to let light in. Our group were the only ones there! The water was pretty cold too

This is a photo of the ladder they used 100 years ago

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After lunch, relaxing and swimming, we headed to our last stop, another ruin site, although much smaller - Ek' Balam. At it's height around 750 AD, Ek' Balam was one of the biggest Mayan cities in the area. It was discovered by some hunters not long ago - in the 1990's and only about 10% of it is currently excavated. It's one of the sites you can still walk up the pyramid temples. It's not very busy either, there were maybe 50 people there when we were there.

The stairs are STEEP and narrow!

This is all original and cleaned up. They stopped working on the site due to budget issues though

Most of Mexico is flat as a pancake. No hills. Not even small ones. So when you see a hill like this, you know a ruin is under it

Here's another one

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When we got back to the resort, it was dark and they had put up all the Christmas decorations

We went to the Asian restaurant that night and it was yummy

The next morning we found the buffet (we went to the normal breakfast restaurant the other mornings) and wow, wow, wow, so many choices! I've never seen such a big buffet

How about some fresh honey?

After breakfast, it was time for some more beach time, nap time, reading time

Passion Fruit Mojito

After a few hours, we ventured back to the buffet to see what it was like for lunch and we heard there was pizza. Wow. Just wow. So much more than pizza.

The next day it was time to head home.

We flew right over Utah Lake and Lehi area

So, after going on so many other cruises and trips, how does the AI Experience compare? It's different. Not better, not worse, just different. You just have to realize it's a relaxing, not do much kind of a trip, and that's not a bad thing. It was really really good. The resort was beautiful. The staff was amazing. Every single one was happy...helpful...smiled....when you walked by anyone they would say hello. When you said 'thank you' for anything, their response was always "My Pleasure". The beach was clean, shaded, and inviting. We'd do it again.

So, let's talk cost. AI resorts like this one are not cheap.

We stayed 4 nights, and over a holiday so flights and hotel was more, but we had specific dates so that's what happens when you're not flexible.

Here's your cost:

Here's my cost:

All in all, not too bad!

We had a great time and although quick, we enjoyed every minute of it!