Category Archives: Travel

Jul 16 2012
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Life, Travel

Permission to Enjoy Life

This afternoon I had the good fortune to lay out on the beach of the St. Regis in Princeville, Kauai. If my husband and I were traveling alone, we’d be kicking it a lot more low-key, but we are fortunate to have family that invites us places.  Absorbing all of the opulence around me, I could not help but understand why people strive for wealth. As a teacher of low-income kids, I will be the first to proclaim wealth and happiness are not the same thing, but sometimes a bit of splendor can be pretty alluring.

Anchored out in the bay was an impressive yacht, complete with its own helicopter parked on back. The St. Regis staff told us it belongs to the owner of Budweiser, whoever that might be. What a different world from the rest of us on this planet.  While a yacht is more than I would wish for, it still struck me as a very interesting contrast.

Back during the school year, on days that were particularly challenging, I would imagine myself lying on the beach in Kauai, and everything else would be fine.  The fact that I could have this fantasy and really live it out provides a different, but also very real contrast between the relative prosperity of middle-ish class America and the poverty that exists in our country.  While I may feel like a have-less when I look at the truly wealthy, I am a have-a-darn-lot when compared with much of the world.

What I am trying to work on is transforming the guilt that sometimes accompanies this disparity into an extreme gratitude that I am as lucky as I am.  As I was sitting there thinking about the differences in worlds between myself and the people on the boat, as well as myself and the students in my classroom, I finally had to just tell my mind to shut up and enjoy it.  Life is short, we work for a better world, but we should also give ourselves permission to enjoy whatever good comes our way.

I’m on a boat and I’m going fast and…

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Jul 16 2012
12 Comments
Health, Life, Travel

Wanderlust vs. Sleep

It’s my little tradition to wake up early in Hawaii and run on the beach.  Our resort is perched up on a bluff, so I had to get creative.  The people at the front desk warned us not to take the public access trail to the beach at the entrance of our resort.  I figured they just wanted it for themselves, so of course, that is where I had to run.

At 5AM, like clockwork, my eyes opened, not accustomed to the time change.  Fighting the urge to just lie there, I pushed myself out the door, reaching the dirt trail by 6AM.  At first, I was a little nervous, reading all the signs warning me of danger, suddenly alone in a canopy of trees. Determined to keep going, I carefully maneuvered down the steep, muddy slope, and discovered a glorious little beach.

So glorious, in fact, a few smart campers have their tents protected beneath the thick tree branches, waking up to this amazing view.  I startled a bohemian sort of man, meditating alone at the base of the trail, his canoe and tent behind him.  Or, maybe he startled me. Either way, he has the best front yard on earth.

Jogging on the beach, I let a passing rain storm drench me, smiling with my face pointed to the sky.  My wanderlust restored, I reveled in life.  Sleep is tempting, yes, but nothing beats an early morning outing, alone, on the beach.

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Jul 16 2012
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Travel

Day One: Kauai in Three Pictures

I’ll spare you the long travelogue, today at least.

Three simple pictures to share why I love Kauai.  The first shows its raw, natural beauty.  The second its down-to-earth vibe.  The third what all of life should be, enjoyed in its own time, not hurried, delicious.

I might not come home.  Ever.

Garden Isle.

I fell in love with this cute little fruit stand.

Did you know pineapples are supposed to be yellow? I didn’t…

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Jul 14 2012
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Travel

Travel Rant: 3 oz, really?!

I remember standing in front of the guard at Heathrow a few years back.  A gruff man whose first language was definitely not English.  “You’re going to have to throw away the chocolates,” he told me flatly, pointing to the sign with the liquid regulations.  Tears welled in my eyes, $100 worth of Bavarian liquor-filled chocolates purchased as gifts for others down the drain.  I’m not sure if he took pity on me or was joking the whole time.  “No, you’re fine,” he finally smiled, letting me through.

Flash forward to today as I pack for Kauai.  Going about my business, oh, wait, all of this frickin’ sunscreen we just bought is in containers larger than 3 ounces.  Shit.  Google to make sure the ban still stands.  Yep.  Alright, options, options.  Try to find same “naturalish” sunscreen in Kauai, ehh…  Okay, what else…  Smaller containers!

So you’re telling me that I can have the same bottle of four ounce sunscreen divided into smaller containers?  What is the f’ing difference?  Seriously.  Why not just set a limit on the TOTAL number of ounces that can be carried on, or to whatever can fit in that dumb ziplock bag?  Is that so difficult?

I know what you’re thinking, just put it in your checked bags, but there’s where you’re wrong. My husband and I have a commitment to avoid checking baggage at all costs.  Too many bags lost or delayed or damaged along the way, not to mention the time lost waiting for your delightful goods to come around that magic circle.  No thanks.  Hawaiian Airlines now charges $25 per checked bag, too.  Insult to injury.  So, for now, all I have are my rants and my thousand little containers of sunscreen.

What’s wrong with this picture? Pretty sure the pile of sunscreen containers on the right is the same as the nice, protected container of sunscreen on the left…  Too bad TSA doesn’t think so.

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Jul 14 2012
10 Comments
Life, Travel

Around the World in Words

Blog stats are every nerdy international relations major’s dream.  Yes, I am talking about myself.  I won’t annoy you with breakdowns, but I will say this.  I am in awe of the global community on WordPress.  My words have gone more places than I have, and while this does make me a little jealous, I also think it is incredibly cool.  Armchair traveling at its finest.

Sure the good ol’ US of A is shaded darkest, but the fact that I get 10% of my traffic from other countries makes me geek out, in a good way.

30 countries and counting!  (Each time a new one hits the list I get excited like a little kid.)

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Jul 13 2012
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Life, Travel

Kicking it Old School

Oh gloriously happy day, an old friend was just brought back from the dead.  My new MacBook has roused my little old school pink iPod mini from at least five years of sleep.  It took a few tries, I didn’t think it was going to happen, but then it lit back to life.  Talk about time capsule.  This baby is filled with all the wondrous stuff I listened to in college– Drop it like it’s hot, anyone?

Okay, I did not just admit to that, there are plenty of songs I’d rather take credit for having on there, as well as some impressively intellectual podcasts (what in the world was I thinking?), but for some reason it’s the rap I’m sitting here reliving.  Laid back.  I can feel my feet hitting the dirt trails in Davis, rocking out on my afternoon runs across never-ending ag fields with my high-tech, pink iPod mini fastened to my side.

Now I just feel cool that I have one that still works.  Like, you have an iPod touch or one of those new iPod classics that fits 40,000 songs?  Well, I have a pink iPod mini!  And it works!  Who is the cool one now?  This little discovery is going to make for much better travels in the coming weeks– space for audiobooks galore!  (And, all those glorious rap songs.)

Happy Friday, indeed.

Welcome back old friend. I guess I named you Spunky in 2004.

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Jul 09 2012
5 Comments
Home, Life, Travel, Writing

Squeezing Every Second Out of Summer

This is my last week of summer vacation at home.  Five days, really.  Saturday is off to the Bay, then Kauai, the Oregon coast, teacher retreat and back to work!  Talk about a whirlwind!

No complaints out of me, truly.  I will be sad to see my summer go, but I also remember the years spent with three weeks vacation, total.  Oh, what I would have given for these glorious seven weeks of summer then.  Now, I just feel lucky.

Even so, time is quickening.  The seconds seem to matter more than in those first couple weeks. Here is what I hope to squeeze out of these last days of summer at home:

1.  I am reading up a storm.  Finished bird by bird and The Snow Child.  Started Sarah’s Key this weekend, already 2/3’s through.

  • bird by bird, Anne Lamott:  I sound like a broken record, but this is my favorite book on writing, to date.  Read it.
  • The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey:  Based on an old fairy-tale, couple in Alaskan wilderness makes a child out of snow, dark story of magical realism unfolds.  Slow but good read.
  • Sarah’s Key, Tatiana De Rosnay:  Modern-day journalist uncovers a tragic story of loss from the perspective of a child during the Holocaust.  Amazingly quick and engaging read.

All the books that remain on my overly-ambitious summer reading list.  Hope to make it through a few more!

2.  Yoga, anyone?  In addition to squeezing in those last few 90 minute daytime classes that are impossible during the school year, I’m also getting ready for yoga on the road, thanks in large part to this awesome post on yoga while traveling.  My new travel yoga mat arrived this morning.  It is perfect for keeping my practice going, and will also double as a great mat cover for my regular hot yoga classes.

This super thin travel mat will fit easily in my carry-on and make yoga on the beach much more enjoyable!

3.  I am writing, writing, writing.  Suddenly, 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there are actually getting me somewhere.  I refuse to put an end date on Expecting Happiness, but it is slowly drawing to a close and feeling a lot stronger thanks to the amazing insight of my readers and all that time to think on my road trip.  I am hard on myself, it is definitely a first work, but I am also incredibly proud that I’m sticking with it to arrive at a place I feel comfortable.  I am also really excited about what comes next.  I have a young adult book I want to write for my students (and share with them throughout the year), and a more brooding adult piece that will hit on the topic of human trafficking in a different light than what I have come across.  I’m very excited!

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Jul 07 2012
6 Comments
Travel, Writing

Writing Inspiration from Google Maps

Google Maps Street View is one of my favorite tools as a writer.  When I set out to write Expecting Happiness, I first asked myself what kind of book I was in the mood to read.  My answer, something involving a travel adventure, so I set to work creating characters that wanted to leave behind their boring lives and hit the open road, (real stretch of the imagination, right?).  Of course, I ended up taking them places I had been before, because writing about places I had never actually seen felt daunting.

However, I quickly realized that my fuzzy memories left holes in the pictures of these destinations, and the characters’ personalities also started to take them places within these cities that I never visited.  My solution?  Google Maps Street View.  Now, I do not pretend to be the first writer with this clever idea, but it is one of my favorite tricks to help me understand the layout of a city and visualize its scenery.  If you haven’t checked it out before, you should give it a shot.  You never know what sort of inspiration you’ll find.

My male protagonist wanted to run in Paris, but what would he see?  What parks on the list of places to jog in Paris might he visit?

I needed a place for my female protagonist’s cousin to live in Nuremberg.  What do the suburbs a couple of stops past the Hitler rally grounds look like?

Hmm, I wonder if I could find my dorm room while studying abroad in Burgos, Spain… Okay, this trick also gets me sidetracked.

Alright, if my female protagonist wanted to walk to a school in the Sarrià-St. Gervasi neighborhood of Barcelona, what would she see along the way?

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Jul 04 2012
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Life, Travel, Writing

Lessons Learned from Three Teachers in a Prius

When I was first invited on a road trip to Olympia and back with three other teachers on my team, I was hesitant.  As much as I hate to admit it, I am particular.  I like to be in charge of trips, I like to control my own time.  Knowing that my travel companions can be more boisterous and free-spirited than I normally am, I worried I might feel out of place.  Thankfully, I pushed myself outside my comfort zone.  Here is what I learned from my adventure:

1.  We all need to get out of our boxes from time to time.  It’s so easy to surround ourselves with people that are like us, which are undoubtedly wonderful people, but it is also important to get out there in this big world and meet others who are different.  Not only did I bond with my team of teachers in an entirely new way, but I also met a lot of travelers whose stories will stick with me.  A woman from Wisconsin with her two dogs and a cat stuffed into her station wagon, the old man by the sea, a transplanted waitress from Placerville now living in Reedsport, a starving young artist selling t-shirts in Portland…  The list goes on, you get the point.  I met a lot of really friendly people wanting to talk.  Some I met because I traveled with a car full of extroverts, some I met just being me.  Their stories were fascinating, my notebook now full of characters.  Nothing sparks the imagination like the half-told stories of strangers.

2.  Sometimes you have to go in circles to get where you’re going.  My mom likes to say I’m a type 3 personality, insinuating that type A isn’t enough to describe me.  Accordingly, I’m usually very impatient with being off-schedule because I try to stuff so many experiences into each day.  However, on this trip, since I was not in charge, I just sat back and let things happen.  Sure we got lost and time disappeared sitting in the car, but that time going in circles ended up holding its own adventures.  At the end of the day, we always ended up where we were trying to go.

3. Laugh, a lot.  Four women in a car for five days makes everything funny.  Never in my life have I laughed so hard or so frequently.  More than anything else from my adventure, I will remember the distinct laughters of my travel companions and the fun we had in every moment, whether it was stuck on a bridge in Portland or waiting for coffee at a Dutch Brothers.  After all, anything in life is better if you keep a good sense of humor.

Our little road family in Waldport, Oregon.

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Jul 03 2012
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Life, Travel, Writing

Oregon Coast: Old Man & The Sea

Yesterday I hiked a ways with an old man.  He had to be in his 80s, at least.  He walked alone with his Bichon Frise, a friendly girl named Maggie.  At first I tried to walk away, to stay up with my group, but he kept talking.  He told me about moving to Alabama during the height of desegregation, how his daughter adapted a Southern accent in just two weeks to fit in, being drafted after high school, wondering what his life would have been like if he had become a vet at UC Davis like he planned instead.  He was a Sacramento transplant living on the Oregon coast.  Life left him alone and he needed to talk.

Riding away in the car after we parted ways, I felt a little sad.  Here all that old man wanted was someone to listen to his story and I was trying to walk faster to keep up with my group. Once I really stopped to listen, I was happy I did– he told some incredible stories, I only wish I got to hear more.

Every time I visit the Oregon Coast I do not want to leave.

Our hike to the sand dunes.

Sunset picnic on the beach.

 

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Jul 01 2012
4 Comments
Life, Travel, Writing

My Love Affair with Powell’s Books

One hour to explore the world’s greatest bookstore.  The results:

  • Three books found me instead of me finding them.  Powell’s is an amazing labyrinth of stacks and stacks of books, (4,000,000+ to be precise).  I headed for Milan Kundera in literature and was sucked into countless book covers and displays along the way.
  • Finally reached my original destination– Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, had second thoughts because my arms were already full, opened to a random page, which turned out to be a passage about writing a novel for the first time.  Fitting, sold.
  • Tears.  Literally.  I wanted to stay all day.  I have never been in a bookstore that sucked me in to this degree.  All those words, all those authors.  So many worlds captured.  A live poetry reading by a published author.  I will be back for much more than an hour next time.  Maybe I will just move to Portland.
  • Last, but not least, new life goal– someday have my own book hidden somewhere in those glorious stacks.

So many choices, so little time.

The bounty of my 30-minute shopping spree, (including two t-shirts).

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Jul 01 2012
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Life, Travel, Writing

Keep the Pacific Northwest Weird

I figured out last night why I like Olympia so much.  It’s weird.  Good weird.  The walls are covered with amazing murals, the bars and restaurants are a mixture of kitsch, nostalgia and hipster.  It is working class, industrial, but also artsy, green, alive.  In short, I like it.  And, did I mention I have an obsession with murals?  I even found myself navigating alleyways full of broken glass to find more, (it was safe, I promise).  Ironically, I expected Olympia to be less interesting, just a stop to make for the roller derby bout.

Speaking of which, those girls know how to have a good time.  Truthfully, I threw in the towel around 1AM and walked my grandma-self back to the hotel.  By that point, the Jersey Shore beats in the club we somehow ended up in were just a little too much for me.  I can only fist pump so many times before I lose interest.  I think I reached my lifetime limit.  And, while I was asked more than once if I had any tattoos, I managed to avoid getting any, which is an accomplishment given the abundance of establishments and my not-so-secret desire for one.

Today we are headed for Portland.  Instead of Keep Portland Weird, I think it should be Keep the Pacific Northwest Weird.  If it were not so darn overcast up here all the time, I would move in a heartbeat.  There is enough weird in the Pacific Northwest to keep me writing for a lifetime.

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