After 5 days of island life on Mauritius, we headed to Cape Town for 3 days. Instead of a hotel, we got a condo through AirBnB near the V&A Waterfront. Wasn’t always the most convenient place relative to all the attractions we visited, but the views were nice and we had plenty of dining nearby.
The views from our condo:
The view from our condo – Table Mountain in the distance
The first morning we grabbed breakfast then headed to Table Mountain. The weather wasn’t perfect, but we’ve heard that Table Mountain gets shut down often due to bad weather and wind, so we needed to jump on getting up there when we had a decent enough window.
We drove part way up the mountain, then took the cable car to the top. The car spins so everyone gets a view as you ascend.
The side of the mountain on the ascentThat’s a long way down!
It was freezing up top! It was also a bit hazy so the views weren’t amazing, but it was still pretty cool. It was also far rockier up there than we expected. We spent about an hour wandering around the top taking in the views of the city from all sides.
We gave the kids a camera so they could capture their perspective. We should’ve known this is what we’d find:
At one point we saw a sign warning not to feed the Dassies. What on earth is a dassie? Eventually we found out. They’re adorable!
Beckett fell in love with them and bought himself a stuffed dassie to bring home.
After Table Mountain, we grabbed lunch, then headed down to the V&A Waterfront. The waterfront area has a mall, indoor food stalls, shops, and restaurants. We ended up picking this pub for dinner and the food was awful, but at least their hard cider was good. 🙂
Table Mountain in the distanceV&A Waterfront
The next morning we were up at 4:30am for our Great White Shark trip in Simon’s Town. After the shark trip, we had lunch then went to Boulders Beach to see the wild penguins. Yes, Penguins! They were adorable. We saw plenty of baby penguins and saw them wandering around, swimming, and just hanging out. We even had one “attack” Beckett’s shoe.
Penguin “attacking” Beckett’s shoe:
We then headed back to our condo and relaxed the rest of the day as we were pretty exhausted. Since we didn’t see any sharks, we called the shark company to see if spots were available for the next morning and 2 spots opened up. So the next morning, Chuck and I woke at 4:30am and headed back down to Simon’s Town to try to see Great Whites again. The kids were able to sleep in and had a nice, relaxing morning playing games on their iPads.
Unfortunately Beckett started to not feel well right before we got home and proceeded to throw up once we got back. The poor kid had a fever and felt awful so that shut down any plans we had for the afternoon. Mara and I did venture back to the V&A waterfront to wander around and have a snack. And later Chuck and Mara went out for dinner and brought me home food so I could stay with Beckett. It wasn’t exactly how we expected our last day to go, but such is life. And at least we got to do all the things we REALLY wanted to do.
Luckily Beckett was well enough the next morning for our flight to Kruger. It still took him 2-3 days to get fully better, but at least he could travel.
Overall, I went into Cape Town with high expectations and came away disappointed. I thought I’d fall in love with the city, but I didn’t. It was pretty, and I could see how fun it’d be during the summer. I think Chuck and I would’ve enjoyed it more if we had gone to Stellenbosch to go wine tasting or driven down to the Cape of Good Hope. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy my time there and am very happy we went. But I left not really ever needing to go back.Save
Once I saw pictures of Mauritius, I quickly added it to my list of places to go. It looked incredible! Plus, I’m always up for visiting a tropical island, especially one in a location I’ve never been before, the Indian Ocean.
When I booked our United flights, I realized we could stop over in Mauritius for free on our way to Cape Town. This seemed like a perfect way to start our trip.
We first flew on a red-eye to London, had a long layover in London, flew to Istanbul’s Ataturk where we had just enough time to grab some Turkish Delight and a snack, then took another red-eye to Mauritius. In total, we had 21 hours of in air flying time, and it took 30 hours, 30 minutes to arrive. We hired a shuttle company to drive us the 1 hour to the resort as we didn’t feel like landing and doing it ourselves after that much travel.
We were so happy to arrive especially once we saw our resort, the Victoria Beachcomber. Mara was so excited she threw up in their lobby. Ok, it was from motion sickness not happiness, but she did feel better after throwing up then seeing the place.
Yeah, this works. Yes, that is the kids posing.
After checking in, we changed then headed to the buffet lunch as we were quite hungry even though our stomachs thought it was 6am. And then it was time to relax and play!
After lunch, the kids were really excited to try water skiing. They were able to stand up pretty easily holding onto the bar beside the boat. They loved it!
Beckett ended up going out water skiing 3 or 4 times during our stay, while Mara went out twice.
Water skiing platformBeckett getting ready to goMara water skiing
Mara water skiing:
Beckett water skiing:
Over the next few days, we took advantage of the free kayaks, stand up paddleboards, paddle boats, water skiing, mini sailboats, and more. The kids loved being able to go down to the beach and head out in one of the water craft. Chuck and I took them out too, but loved watching the kids enjoy the ocean just as much.
The kids stand up paddleboardingKayakingMini sailboat. Both kids hated it!An array of fun ocean toysChuck on a stand up paddleboardThe kids spent so much time in the pool that I thought they were going to turn into fish
For a small fee, they also had an inflatable chair that they drag behind a motor boat which looked like a lot of fun. Chuck and Mara went first, followed by Beckett and I. It was a lot of fun although I made the mistake of giving the driver a thumbs up meaning to go faster – oh, we went faster and we really started flying around. It was awesome. Until the next morning when I couldn’t walk and had to cancel out of scuba diving. But it worked out as I went for a massage to help and had an interesting, but very good massage. The kids really wanted to go on the chair again, so we sent them out on our last day.
The kids getting towed in a giant inflatable chairI think they liked it
Luckily my back was better the next day and Chuck and I were able to go out scuba diving then. We only booked 1 dive and are glad we did as it was one of the worst dives we’ve ever done. There wasn’t much coral and what was left was mostly in poor shape, plus there weren’t that many fish or anything of interest. I thought the diving was supposed to be good in Mauritius, so we were pretty disappointed. But it’s still nice to get in the water, so it wasn’t a total loss. We did get to see a lot of clams, a moray eel, these neat sea cucumber type things that looked like fan filters, and I saw a lobster.
Me scuba divingFishiesNeat coralsClamAs you can see, the reef isn’t in great shape
The resort also had free snorkeling trips where they’d drive out to a reef about 10 minutes away and let you snorkel for 40 minutes. We all went our first full day and Chuck and the kids went the next day, but I stayed behind because of my back. The kids loved being the ocean and got so excited pointing out all the neat things.
I’m on a boat!Beckett and I snorkelingReef where we snorkeled
Aside from all the ocean activities, we enjoyed the all inclusive buffet and drinks. They had juice cocktails for the kids and Beckett must’ve ordered 50 “Emotions” during our stay which were some mango, tropical fruit infusion. The kids also had more sodas and shirley temples that you can count. Chuck and I fully enjoyed the fruity cocktails and drinks of the day as well.
The buffet also had a rotating variety of food each night. Despite that, Beckett had pasta with tomato sauce for every dinner. Mara was more brave and discovered a love for calamari. She also joined us at the seafood restaurant one night where we had a lovely 3 course meal with our toes in the sand as we watched the sun set.
On another night, we ate at the Italian restaurant on site. We were so looking forward to an amazing Italian meal, but came away a little disappointed.
We also went to the one restaurant for snack time and got pancake/crepes and drinks.
Snack time!Cheers!
When we weren’t eating, drinking, playing in the pool, or playing in the ocean, we enjoyed hanging out along the beach or around the resort. It was so beautiful there. And a great place to watch the sun set each night.
The view from our room
Too quickly our time was over and we headed to the airport for our flights to Cape Town.
Mauritius on the way to the airportBeckett asleep before we even took off. I think we wore him out!
Our time in Mauritius was even better than I hoped. The kids have never been big ocean/beach fans, but they loved all the water sports and had an absolute blast. The all-inclusive was absolutely the way to go as we didn’t have to think about the cost of all the food and activities and could just enjoy whatever we wanted whenever we wanted it. And we really allowed the kids a lot of freedom so they were able to enjoy themselves without many parenting reins on them.
We also ended up with some great family time as everyone was so relaxed and happy and not distracted by work, electronics, to do lists, etc. It was also a great way to start our trip to Africa as it let us adjust to the time change and let us recover from the flights. It also set a nice, relaxing tone for the rest of our trip.
View of Reykjavik from the top of the Hallgrímskirkja Church
I traveled to Reykjavik after 2 great days in Copenhagen on the free stopover deal on WOW Air. I arrived at my hotel, the CenterHotel Plaza, around 4pm quite hungry as I missed lunch again while traveling. After dropping my things, I walked about 5 minutes to the harbor to the Saegreifinn (Sea Baron) restaurant for their world famous lobster soup. I had just watched a Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern where they showed how it was made, so I had been looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I only give it a “meh”. It was good, but not great. I was still glad to try it though and enjoyed the experience as well.
Lobster soup at Saegreifinn
After relaxing at the hotel, I went out for a proper dinner of fish and chips. I tried Ling which made for a pretty good fish and chips.
Then it was time to head out on my Northern Lights tour! I returned after midnight and had to immediately get to sleep as I had early morning the next day going on my Golden Circle tour.
I returned from the tour around 5:30pm and quickly headed out for a meal of Plokkfiskur which is a fish, potato, and cheese gratin.
Plokkfiskur with rye bread
Then it was time to explore downtown Reykjavik so I walked one of the main streets up to Hallgrímskirkja Church then walked back on Laugavegur, the main shopping street.
Skólavörðustígur streetHallgrímskirkja Church
That night I didn’t have any plans so I went to a bar across the street from my hotel, Micro Bar, and had a local, Icelandic beer – very good – before getting some sleep.
The next morning I finally got to sleep in and have a casual breakfast at the hotel as my next excursion didn’t leave till noon. Unfortunately there was a bit of a snafu with getting picked up for my Blue Lagoon excursion. I stupidly waited inside (but looking out) as I had done for my 2 other tours because it was freezing rain outside. But these guys didn’t stop at my hotel and stopped down the street at a bus stop. When I checked in with the front desk, they told me about waiting at the bus stop and I was told to take the taxi to the bus terminal for the main bus to the Blue Lagoon. Luckily there was a taxi out front who raced me there in time, but then my credit cards wouldn’t work for some strange reason. He actually let me go without paying as I didn’t have any cash either, so I was able to make my bus in time. I almost cried when he told me to go – what a nice person! Phew!
The bus trip takes about 50 minutes to the Blue Lagoon and it’s great to see the topography along the way.
The Blue Lagoon is awesome! It’s definitely an experience. You have to shower naked before getting dressed and going down, but they do have private showers and they give you a towel so it wasn’t a big deal. They also have an indoor pool that goes outside so you don’t have to walk outside in the freezing cold to get in.
The water is so warm, it’s like crawling into a fantastically huge bath.
First stop was making my way to the face mask bar and slathering myself with the silica mud. It was awesome seeing everyone walking around with their faces covered in white goop! Of course I was the only person without their phone taking selfies, so I don’t have any pictures to share. Once you’ve let the mask set, you rinse off, then do the algae mask, which is a green/gray goop this time!
While that was working on my wrinkles, I swam all around the place then up to the swim up bar. My ticket included a drink so I opted for a glass of Prosecco which I enjoyed while sitting on a bench in the lagoon.
At this point, it was freezing rain on us and the wind was brutal on our faces so it was starting to get a bit unpleasant. I also was feeling really off that day since I’d been sick the entire trip, so I decided to leave the lagoon after only 45 minutes or so. Once dry and warm, I was able to get a snack before taking the bus back to my hotel.
Then it was time for an insanely late lunch of grilled scallops back at the Saegreifinn, before wandering around the downtown some more. Later I went out for a steak sandwich to The Laundromat Cafe, which is exactly as it sounds, a laundromat with an attached cafe. Even though I didn’t do laundry, the food was delicious so it was worth going.
The next morning it was raining out, but there was still one thing left I wanted to do – go up to the top of the Hallgrímskirkja Church. Even though it was about 10:30am and the sun had just risen, it was still so dark and gray because of the rain. It was still really cool to see Reykjavik in all directions!
Hallgrímskirkja Church
The inside of the church is really cool too with this amazing pipe organ. An organist came in and was playing the organ so I sat and listened to him for a while before heading back.
Inside of Hallgrímskirkja Church
Then it was time to pack up and head to the airport for my flight back to the US. I was sad to leave Iceland, but also looking forward to returning home as I’d missed Chuck and the kids so much.
All in all, I really enjoyed my time in Iceland. When I arrived, the land near the airport reminded me of the Big Island except covered in snow. Parts of it looked as expected and parts of it didn’t. It was also pretty chilly, but not nearly as bad as I worried, I guess because I was dressed for it. It was also wonderful to get out in nature and see pristine land, breathe the clean air, and drink the pure water. I definitely loved my time there and was glad I finally made it to this Bucket List destination.
Iceland from the airSome land on my flight back to the USGreenland?
One of the most popular tours in Iceland is the Golden Circle tour. It combines waterfalls, landscape, geysers, and more on an all day trip around the eastern part of Iceland.
I was picked up at 8:30am despite it still being dark outside (the sun doesn’t rise this time of year till 10:15am), and we got on our way around 9am. We drove about 45 minutes to the town of Hveragerð which is built on a hot spring field. We stopped at a rest stop for about 15 minutes for a bathroom and coffee break before heading out. There was an earthquake in 2008 that split the floor at the rest stop. Instead of fixing it, they put plexiglass over it so you could see into the crack in the earth. Kind of cool.
From there, we headed east about an hour to Faxi waterfall. We stopped along the way to get pictures of the sunrise as it was too beautiful to miss.
Sunrise around 10:15am
Upon arriving at Faxi waterfalls, we were given crampons to use while walking on the icy ground. They were invaluable as we would’ve been slipping around like the other tourists. We only stayed maybe 20 minutes which was plenty of time to take in the falls.
Faxi waterfall
From there it was another good hour or so to our next stop – Gullfoss waterfall! Here we were dropped off below and then walked up to get a view from a higher vantage point. It was beautiful, but quite cold, so after about 45 minutes I was grateful for the shop at the top to warm up!
Then it was time to head to Geysir for lunch and to see the geysers there. The English word geyser comes from the Great Geysir here. The Great Geysir no longer erupts, but the Strokkur geyser erupts every 4-7 minutes.
I was so hungry that I grabbed a quick lunch of delicious meatballs, before heading out to see the geyser.
Strokkur geyserStrokkur geyser
There are also boiling mud pits steaming all along the landscape.
Once back on the minibus, we headed to Thingvellir (Þingvellir) National Park which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was the site I was most looking forward to seeing. The site is a rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates where you literally get to walk between continents. The plates here are drifting apart at about 2cm a year and the rift valley is 7km wide between the 2 plates.
We arrived on the Eurasian plate, then headed onto the rift valley. We were left off at the bottom on the opposite side so we could hike up to the North American plate. First though, I hiked up to a cool waterfall, Öxarárfoss . We were told that the water comes from a glacier and it takes about 70 years for the water to flow to the waterfall and down to the lake making it some of the clearest, cleanest water you can get. Our guide told us to fill up our water bottles from the waterfall so we could enjoy the water.
Water from the Öxarárfoss waterfallÖxarárfoss waterfallHiking up to Öxarárfoss waterfallThe edge of the North American tectonic plate
I then walked up the path to the North American plate. I was so glad to have the crampons again as it would’ve been quite slippery without them. Along the way we passed The Alþing (Althing) which is the original national parliament of Iceland. It was started in 930 making it the oldest parliamentary institution in the world (it has since been moved to Reykjavik).
Alþing/Althing parliament site
Once at the top, we had a fantastic view of the rift valley. You could even see the dark edge of the start of the Eurasian plate across the continental drift.
Rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic platesRift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates
It was now about 4pm and time to head back to Reykjavik, a trip that took about an hour.
Along the way, we made a quick stop off to see some Icelandic horses up close. They came right over to us and were so beautiful and fuzzy and sweet. I wanted to take one home with me!
Icelandic horse. So fuzzy!!
I’m so glad I went on this tour. Not only did I get to see some of the Iceland landscape, but I got to see some beautiful sites too. It was great to get out in nature and breathe in the clean air and see the pristine snow covered land.
I took my tour with GeoIceland and they did a great job. Our guide, Siggi, was excellent and added enough information to enrich the day. Our tour was only maybe 12-15 people which made it more personal and gave us more flexibility at the sites.
Photo courtesy of Thor Ostensen of Discover Iceland
I’ve wanted to see the Northern Lights for as long as I can remember. Every year I’d see the cheap deals to Iceland and want to book a trip to see them, but never did. This year, however, I finally took the plunge and bought one of the crazy deals from WOW Air to see Copenhagen and hopefully see the Aurora Borealis in Iceland.
I booked the Disco Northern Lights minibus tour with Discover Iceland for my first night in Reykjavik. If you don’t see the lights the first night, they’ll let you go out another night for free so this left me with 2 more chances to see them if the first night didn’t work.
As soon as we left the lights of Reykjavik, our guide, Thor, pointed out the start of the Aurora Borealis out the windows of the minibus. He opted to take us near the mountains only 20-30 minutes out of town as we could already see them.
On the way, Thor told us exactly how to set our DSLR cameras, so we were prepared to take pictures as soon as we arrived.
Once I got out of the minibus, the lights were on full display. I couldn’t believe my luck!
The interesting thing is that they don’t look exactly like they do in the pictures. They’re more white wispiness with occasional colors. They’re still spectacular and I felt so lucky to finally see them with my own eyes.
Photo courtesy of Thor Ostensen of Discover IcelandPhoto courtesy of Thor Ostensen of Discover IcelandPhoto courtesy of Thor Ostensen of Discover Iceland
Thor helped me set up a tripod and I started snapping picture after picture. In the meantime, he took a bunch of pictures which he later shared with us. He also took pictures of each of us in front of the lights by having us stand frozen for about 10 seconds then briefly flashing a light on us. What an amazing keepsake!
Unfortunately, none of my pictures turned out well at all – I think my focus wasn’t set right but it also appears my tripod kept moving so they ended up blurry.
Here are my best shots 🙁
The stars were also incredible that night and Jupiter was so bright it was like a tiny moon in the sky.
Photo courtesy of Thor Ostensen of Discover IcelandAt least some of my star pictures turned out ok
After about an hour, Thor broke out the hot cocoa and cookies to help warm us as we stood in the 14°F cold. My hands and feet started to get quite cold, but I didn’t care as I took in the beauty of nature around me.
We stayed in the same spot for about 1:30 before finally calling it quits and heading back to Reykjavik. We could see the lights on the trip back and they started to get even more incredible, so Thor pulled off for a brief view. As soon as I got out of the bus, the lights were a brilliant green and were lighting up a huge section of the sky. They were even more magical than what we saw earlier and I think I stood there with my mouth open uttering “wow” as I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I swear those images are forever sealed in my memory.
I got back to my hotel a bit after midnight still pinching myself.
I highly recommend Discover Iceland especially after talking to other travelers that went on the big bus trips. They didn’t have nearly the same experience, didn’t get help with their cameras, didn’t get their picture taken, and didn’t get the guide’s pictures emailed to them later. Also, while we were out there alone, they were somewhere else with 100s of others. They definitely made the experience even greater.
I arrived in Copenhagen around 11am on a WOW flight that had a brief stop over in Reykjavik. I then took the metro from the airport to the Kongens Nytorv metro stop in the city center before walking the 4 blocks to my hotel, the Best Western Hotel City. Luckily they had a room available even though it was only noon. After dropping off my stuff in the room, I walked about 3 blocks to the famous Nyhavn waterfront district to find some breakfast/lunch as I was starving. The Nyhavn area was so picturesque and lined with restaurant after restaurant. Despite it being about 32F out, the restaurants all had outdoor seating with heat lamps and blankets. I choose to eat inside though as it was still a bit too cold for me.
NyhavnNyhavn
I settled on a place still serving breakfast as my stomach thought it was 6am. I had the most unusual, but delicious scrambled eggs with bacon, greek yogurt with triple berries, and coffee.
After my belly was sufficiently full, I decided to walk to the Little Mermaid statue. It’s about a 15-20 minute walk from Nyhavn, and the route I took went past Amalienborg Palace which is the home of the Royal Danish family. Every entrance is guarded by the coolest looking soldiers on patrol.
Amalienborg Palace
The Little Mermaid is in fact pretty small and situated on the Eastern side of the Kastellet fortress.
The Little MermaidSt Alban’s Church
I then had just enough time to pick up my camera at the room before heading on the Christianshavn free walking tour that started at 3pm. Our guide, Daniel, was awesome and did a lot to bring the city and sights to life. We met near Christiansborg Palace and he explained about it and the Børsen building before we wandered over the bridge to Christianshavn. The tour lasted for 90 minutes and took us to a couple of churches where he explained the history, to an old wooden building – one of the remaining ones that didn’t burn down in the Copenhagen fires – and then we finished at Freetown Christiania.
Our group of 34 – Photo courtesy of Copenhagen Free Walking ToursBørsenChristiansborg Palace
Old wooden beamed buildingChristianshavn
After the tour was officially over, we walked into Freetown Christiania. This area is an autonomous artist/hippie neighborhood in Christianshavn. The area is home to 850 permanent residents and has it’s own rules. It also has a ‘green street’, Pusher Street, where one can buy weed. That practice is illegal in Denmark, but it’s partly tolerated in Christiania. Taking pictures of it is strictly forbidden though.
I walked through Christiania with the others, but didn’t go onto Pusher street. It was interesting to get into this community within a city, even if it was brief.
After the tour, I wandered back to Nyhavn for a meal of fish & chips and a Danish beer. Then it was finally time for sleep! Unfortunately I slept great till about 1am, and then was awake for 3 hours in the middle of the night. Ahhh, time change woes!
The next morning, I got an early start as I wanted to head to Sweden after breakfast at the hotel. Yes, Sweden! Sweden is only about a 15 minute train ride from the Copenhagen airport so I thought it’d make a fun day trip. After taking the metro back to the airport, I boarded a train to Lund, Sweden. The entire trip took 50 minutes, but that was partly because of a long stop to spot check passports when we got to Sweden, and a long stop in Malmö. Lund is a college town (city) founded in 990. Once I arrived, I went to a creperie and had a fantastic egg, ham, and cheese crepe. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well so I only wandered around for about an hour before I took the train back to Copenhagen. The trip back only took about 30 minutes and shortly thereafter I was back in the city.
Lund, SwedenLund, Sweden
Once back, I wandered down Strøget street which is a car-free shopping street in the heart of town. There were your usual upscale stores, but also some European brands, souvenir shops, and of course, a Lego store. I just had to go in the Lego store! Unfortunately they didn’t seem to have any Danish specific Lego sets or I would’ve picked them up for the kids.
StrøgetStrøget
Lego storeThe Angry Viking
I walked the entire street, which is one of the longest pedestrian shopping streets in Europe, down to Tivoli Gardens. Unfortunately, Tivoli is closed for the winter so I could only see it from the outside.
Tivoli Gardens
After strolling the Strøget street back, I went to the Tower at Christiansborg Palace to get a birds eye view of Copenhagen. It’s free, and I only had a 15 minute wait before they let us in. The views were fantastic and you can even see across the water to Sweden!
Christiansborg PalaceView of CopenhagenView of Copenhagen – You can see Sweden in the distance across the water
After going up the tower, it was time to relax at the hotel a bit before dinner at an Italian restaurant back in Nyhavn. After dinner I wandered up to a coffee shop for a latte, before hitting a Meyers Bageri where I finally found a Danish danish!
A Danish danish
The next morning I only had time to eat breakfast before heading back to the airport for my trip to Reykjavik.
All is all, I really enjoyed my time in Copenhagen. The city is quite laid back and easy to navigate. I love how bike friendly it is and how people spend time outdoors even when it’s freezing out. I also love how safe it is – people would bike up to a shop and just leave their bikes out front without any locks! I definitely enjoyed my time there and would love to return some day!
WHAT?!? I had to read it twice before I busted out laughing. I had no idea that one could do such a thing and was equally shocked, excited and amused. Chuck really surprised me with this one.
It took us 1:30 to drive to Tank Town and we arrived right before 2pm. We met with the owner who had us fill out the required waivers and then we were ready to go.
I headed into the driver’s seat while Chuck took the seat up top. After a very brief explanation of how to drive the tank, off we went. The instructor stayed near my ear to tell me where to go and took me all around the course. It takes a little getting used to driving and how fast to go, but is pretty easy and a whole lot of fun.
After about 15 minutes of driving, we switched up and Chuck got to drive. I must say I really enjoyed being in the passenger seat up top. I’m also happy it had a seat belt as I surely would’ve been thrown off the top without it!
After we each got a turn driving the tank around the course, we got to choose our car to destroy, then spray-paint it. Of course, we had to take that opportunity to write Mara and Beckett’s names on there.
Then it was time to CRUSH IT! I took the first couple passes over the car, first head-on, then across the rear. Chuck then drove over the midsection a couple of times before driving up the front and parking on top of the car!
Oh, was this parking spot already taken? My bad!
Finally, we got to take a sledgehammer and take a few whacks at the car. I think this was Chuck’s favorite part and he was quite determined to hammer the mirror off the side.
It was a really fantastic, visceral experience! Definitely worth doing if you don’t mind shelling out the money.
Logistics: We did this at Tank Town USA near Blue Ridge, GA about 1:30 north of Atlanta.
For my birthday this year, Chuck surprised me with an Amazing Race inspired birthday adventure. I received a vague email a few weeks before my birthday telling me that we were going away from Friday to Monday and a later email said we were doing an Amazing Race. The afternoon before we left, I received one more email that said we were flying and to pack light. And that’s it, that’s all I knew.
On Friday afternoon around 2pm, I received my first clue:
First stop: Memphis!
After arriving at our hotel in Memphis, I received my next clue:
BEALE STREET! YAY! I’d driven by Memphis about 20 years ago but never drove into the city, so I was pretty excited to finally explore Beale Street. Plus a night out with BBQ, booze and Blues sounded awesome!
After a couple of block walk, we arrived at Beale Street and headed to BB King’s Blues Club for dinner. I had some yummy BBQ and Chuck enjoyed the ribs while we listened to a band playing all sorts of Memphis blues. After dinner, we wandered around Beale Street and stopped into an outdoor venue with a really good band. We had such a great time drinking cocktails and listening to live music under the night sky.
Saturday morning started with receiving my next clue:
Arkansas?!? To a Truck stop? I was thoroughly confused at this point and not exactly super happy to be going to a truck stop in Arkansas but I knew it had to be good. Turns out, Chuck has never been to Arkansas before so this was a way for him to get there. Love it.
At the truck stop, I got my next clue: another Road Block that said we were going to an Escape Room in Memphis. Fun! I didn’t know much about these except you have to solve a lot of puzzles and many people don’t escape.
Ours was called the Atlas 8 and was a spaced themed room. Along with another family of 5, we had 1 hour to solve the puzzles and get out. They basically put you in an sparse room without any clues and you have to figure it out from there. It was definitely not easy, BUT we managed to escape with about 6 minutes left.
Once we escaped, I got my first detour: Graceland or Continue on. Of course I chose Graceland!
I’m not a huge Elvis fan, but it was still very cool to see where he lived and to see all of his gold records, his awards and other artifacts from his life.
After Graceland, I found out we were going to Mississippi! I was quite happy as I’m trying to get to all 50 states (I was at 43) and Mississippi was one of my missing states.
We drove about 2 hours to Tupelo, Mississippi and saw Elvis’s birthplace.
We also stopped for a snack as I then found out my next clue: Drive 2 more hours to Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama was another of my missing states, so I got to cross off 2 states in 1 day.
I was so relieved as we approached Birmingham as it was getting late and we also started having some horrible storms. I was also done with being in a car and wanted dinner and a bed. Imagine my surprise when I was handed my next clue that said we were headed another 2 hours to Atlanta! ATLANTA?!?! Huh? I knew why were headed to Mississippi and Alabama, but couldn’t fathom why we were going there. Unfortunately our tire pressure light came on (still no idea why) and it kept raining so we didn’t roll into our hotel till after 11pm. Chuck had meant for us to go out to dinner – he gave me a choice of Italian, Mexican or German – but all the restaurants were closed by then. But we found an open pizza joint and then headed to bed. All told, we spent at least 8 hours and 400 miles driving and were in 5 states in one day. Phew!
Sunday morning, I got my last Road Block clue: Drive to Tank Town and Crush a car! You can read about that experience here.
After driving the tank, my last clue said to return to the hotel as the final pit stop for our race. For dinner, we went to the German restaurant we didn’t get to on Saturday and enjoyed some delicious jagerschnitzel and German beer.
Monday morning, my actual birthday, had us taking an early morning flight back home.
I must say, I can’t believe the trip Chuck put together for me. Not only did he get me to 2 new states, but he planned all these activities along the way. I can’t imagine the planning that went into this or how hard it was to keep quiet. I was completely blown away by the entire weekend and felt so loved. Thanks Chuck!
We went out to Oregon for over a week to visit with Chuck’s brother and his parents. We stayed busy but had a great time.
The first day we went to a nearby farm and had fun visiting the animals and letting the kids play.
The next day, we headed to the Oregon Coast and went on a dune buggy tour before meeting up with the rest of the family at our rented beach house.
The following day, some of the family went for a walk on the beach.
Later, the 3 of us went out on the boat while Mara enjoyed some time (and licorice ice cream!) with Grandma and Grandpa.
Later, we went to Pacific City, Oregon to let the kids play on the massive sand hill. This thing is ginormous! Chuck and the kids went up (Beckett ran up and down it 3 times) and had a blast running down.
The next day it was time to learn to hang glide and then back to Chuck’s brother’s house.
Chuck’s brother is a firefighter and works on a fire boat. We were lucky enough to meet him at work and get to take the fire boat out. Each of us got to drive it and the kids got to shoot the water cannons. Very cool.
We even visited the fire house where the kids got to slide down the fire pole! Beckett couldn’t resist doing it over and over.
Later in the week, the kids went out blueberry picking. They came home with 25lbs of blueberries plus marionberries and more! Most of them were eaten within a few days! In fact, I think that’s what the kids ate for lunch the one day.
On our last full day, the adults went out wine tasting in the Willamette Valley. We went to 3 different vineyards and had some really good wine (and the BEST cheese!). It was a beautiful day and really nice to spend with family.
Sadly then our trip was over and it was time to say goodbye and head home. Hopefully we’ll get to see each other soon!
After giving skydiving and paragliding a try, I thought we should give hang gliding a go, too. Unlike those, where we were passengers with a guide, we would actually do the flying of the gliders ourselves.
It didn’t take any convincing for the kids to say “I’m in!”.
We were originally scheduled for one day but the weather was bad so we rescheduled and ended up with a perfect day.
The class consisted of the 4 of us and an instructor. We spent the first hour or so learning about the history of the sport and basic flying information. Then it was time to practice getting into the glider and our stance on a stationary frame.
After we each had a couple of turns, we went to the dunes and helped build the glider. We all pitched in to help build it and I have to say the thing was HUGE!
After carrying it up to the top of the dune, it was time to fly! Each of us took a turn getting into position, running partly down the hill and getting a feel for the glider. The first run we stopped before we got to lift off, but on the next turn we each started to fly! And every turn after that we got better and better and flew further and further.
The feeling of lift off is amazing. You feel the glider start to float and pick up speed and then you get the whole sensation of flying! As soon as we all got in the air, we were hooked!
We each got about 7 runs before our time was over. I was exhausted from carrying the glider back up the hill, but I think the kids could’ve kept going all day.
This was definitely a highlight and fun to do as a family. It was also neat to get a sense for doing the flying instead of just going along for the ride. As a bonus, learning on the dunes beside the ocean was an incredible experience and a great way to spend a day!
I’ve wanted to see massive sand dunes and go dune buggy riding for a while, so I was really excited when I found out Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area was close to where we were staying on the Oregon coast. We debated whether we should rent some and drive ourselves or go on a tour and leave the driving to an expert. We opted for the second option because we knew they’d really give us the dune buggy adventure we were looking for.
There were a total of 6 of us plus a driver in our sandrail (buggy). The kids sat up front with the driver, Chuck and I were in the middle seats and another couple was in back. We started off slowly driving through some forest and then we got to the dunes. I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was nothing but sand dunes stretching out in front of us! It was incredible!
The driver then took off and we went flying over the dunes. He knew exactly how to come over the ridge and barrel down the other side before flying up another dune. And he would go onto the side of the dune and bank the buggy so you felt like you might flip before he’d barrel down again. It was a complete thrill! The only downside is that the sand flying into your face and mouth HURTS when you’re going that fast! Luckily I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and closed myself up so I looked like the sand people in Star Wars but Chuck and the kids had to stick it out.
Our 1/2 hour was up way too fast and we were all a bit sad as we headed out of the dunes. I have to say this experience exceeded my expectations. I’m so glad we went with the expert driver as he gave us such a thrilling ride!
Video of the tour:
Logistics: We booked with Sandland Adventures and did the 1/2 hour Sandrail tour. Definitely wear long pants, sneakers and a hooded sweatshirt to protect yourself from the sand!
We never went to Sea World while we were living in San Diego despite being a few miles away and hearing their fireworks show every night during the summer. I wanted to take the kids but with all the controversy about killer whales in captivity, I decided to stay away.
However, I had always wanted to take the kids since I remember going as a kid and remember what a big impression it made on me and how it gave me a love of the ocean as a young kid.
The kids and I watched “Black Fish” together and talked about whether it was right or wrong to keep animals in captivity and decided not to go. So we were delighted to hear that Sea World was going to phase out keeping their orcas in captivity and decided that now we felt right about visiting the park.
We started off by visiting the orca and dolphin show that was happening right after we entered the park. The orcas are such magnificent creatures and I was taken by their power and size.
Then we went to watch the orcas swim. This was a really cool experience as some of them came right up to the glass over and over. The kids seemed to love seeing them up close.
From there, we went to a Sea Lion and Otter show. We LOVE otters in our house so there was no way we were going to miss seeing one. He was adorable and the sea lions were great too.
Then we wandered around the park and rode some rides. We also found a spot where the kids could feed and pet sting rays which they loved.
Then we wandered over to the penguins because Mara loves penguins!
From there, we wandered to the arctic exhibit to see the polar bears and beluga whales. Mara fell in love with the beluga whales! We spent a long time at tank level watching them swim.
We also met a walrus that kept swimming up to the glass and flipping right in front of the kids.
All in all it was a great day at the park and I was glad that the kids could fall in love with the ocean animals.
Once we decided to go to Oregon and San Diego for our summer vacation, I started pushing to go to Universal Studios in LA. Beckett and I had just started reading the Harry Potter books in the spring and I was completely sucked into the Harry Potter world (Chuck and Mara had already read them). I think I was more excited than any of us to go and soak up all things Harry Potter.
We had early access (7am) to the park, but given our late night arrival, we didn’t get to the park till 8am. No worries though as it was still pretty empty. We made a bee line for Hogsmeade and to the 3D ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I was pretty nervous riding this as I’ve repeatedly heard how nauseous people get on it, and given how motion sick Mara and I get, I thought it could be a very bad idea. However, we really wanted to go, so I sucked down some ginger candies and hoped for the best.
The entrance to the ride takes you into Hogwarts and it’s AMAZING. You see the house point containers, a golden Griffin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, a portrait gallery (with walking, talking portraits that were amazing), the Gryffindor common room, the Fat Lady portrait which talks to you, Dumbledore’s office, the Sorting Hat, and more. It was incredible. It was also incredibly dark so my pictures didn’t turn out.
The ride itself was one of the best rides I’ve ever gone on. It’s part rollercoaster and part 3D ride. At a few points we were “flying” all around Hogwarts and in another we flew into a game of Quidditch (and almost caught the Golden Snitch). At other points, we were in parts of Hogwarts and almost got pummeled by the Whomping Willow and attacked by dementors.
Unfortunately, halfway through the ride, it came to abrupt stop with warning messages sounding. We just sat there in our car waiting to see what happened and after a few minutes, the ride started back up and we were back on our way.
When it was over, it was hard to process what had just happened. We had just flown! And played Quidditch! And soared over Hogwarts! It was SO COOL!
However, we all felt a bit nauseous afterwards and needed to get our bearings again. So we headed to Ollivander’s Wand Shop for the wand choosing ceremony. There was a 45 minute line so I offered to stand in line while Chuck took the kids on the other Harry Potter rollercoaster, Flight of the Hippogriff.
None of us were picked for the wand choosing ceremony but it was still really neat to see. I’m so glad I stood in line for it. After the ceremony, we went into Ollivander’s to pick out our wand. We had agreed to get 1 wand and share it, but both kids picked out different wands so we bought one for each of them. Mara picked out her own wand made of vine and Beckett picked out Dumbledore’s wand. Once bought, it was time to go outside and try casting some spells!
At the wand choosing ceremony in Ollivanders
Description of Mara’s wand
Different character’s wands – really neat to see what they all looked likeMy 2 wizards with their new wandsExpecto Patronum!
There are about 12 different spots around Hogsmeade where you can try out spells with your wand. If you do them correctly, something happens. Of course the kids and I tried every spot and LOVED when the various spells worked! Such a neat feeling!
Let’s see if they work!They work!
After trying out our wands, it was time for lunch at the Three Broomsticks! This place was so cool and it felt like stepping right into the movies. I kept expecting to see Snape come down the steps or Harry to walk in.
The Three Broomsticks
We ordered a Butterbeer with lunch and the kids went nuts for it. It reminded me of very sweet cream soda but was good. The kids could barely suck it down fast enough.
Butterbeer gets a Thumbs Up from Beckett
After lunch it was time to wander around Hogsmeade. First stop, Honeydukes! Man is this place a feast for the eyes. Beckett wasn’t nearly as interested in the candy as Mara was, and he made a beeline for the Pygmy Puffs in the adjacent Zonko’s.
HoneydukesPlease can I have the ginormous pygmy puff?!? Please?!?
From there, we took our time in Hogsmeade just wandering into the various shops, casting spells at the different locations and soaking up the wizarding world.
Hogwarts ExpressOwl post
Once we covered everything in Harry Potter world, we left to explore the rest of Universal Studios park. First stop, Lard Lad Donuts for the giant Homer donut! We got the pink Homer donut and a giant chocolate one. Quite tasty!
Then we popped into a special effects presentation, wandered through Springfield (Simpson world), did the Movie Studio tour, popped over to the Despicable Me world, and took in the Waterworld stunt show.
KrustyThe purple minion kept chasing Beckett around – it was hysterical
As the day was winding down, we headed back to Hogsmeade. We rode Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey again, this time it didn’t glitch, and thoroughly enjoyed it the 2nd time around too. Then we picked up a ton of souvenirs before reluctantly returning to the muggle world.
Beckett and his Pygmy Puff
The entire Harry Potter experience could not have been better. I was blown away by how realistic everything was from the shops and souvenirs to the moving portraits to the wands casting spells to the town. And ride was just incredible – I really felt like I got to fly and play Quidditch and I swear I touched the Golden Snitch. We all really felt like wizards for the day.
I now really want to take the kids to the one in Florida!
I knew about triathlons especially since my best friend competed in them. But it was never on my radar as something I wanted to do, largely due to my limitations in the past with biking and running.
That all changed when we moved to Kona and got to watch the Ironman World Championships in 2011 and 2012. I was so inspired by the event and watching people with far more physical restrictions than I, complete that race. I have never been so inspired in my entire life yet I still didn’t know how it could ever happen for me. Chuck was equally inspired – so much so that he completed the Ironman Honu 70.3 in Hawaii in 2013. It was incredible to cheer him on, yet it still left me on the sidelines.
That is until we realized that you can compete in some Ironman races as a relay team. This changed everything! I now had the chance to participate in a triathlon. But not just any triathlon, an Ironman! Team Trifecta was born: I would be the swimmer, Chuck would bike (his favorite of the 3 sports), and a friend of his, Dean, would run.
The first step? Learning to swim distances. I started swimming laps while living in Kona and even took some masters swim classes by a world class coach there. But I still had never swam very far or had my technique correct.
My first session I made it about 400 yards (with many breaks). My race distance was 1.2 miles or 2100 yards so I had quite a ways to go. I found a swim plan to follow and loosely followed it to keep me on track. However, there were some glitches along the way that kept me out of the water sometimes for weeks at a time, the worst being my left shoulder seizing up and preventing me from swimming. Because of that, I put in the bare minimum amount of training. To say I was undertrained and nervous come race day would be an understatement.
To add to that, I got a nasty cold leading up to the race and was so sick the day before I wasn’t sure if I could even compete. Chuck called Dean to see if he could swim in my place, but Dean wasn’t ready to swim 1.2 miles and neither was Chuck. So with our fingers crossed, we headed to the race and hoped I would feel good enough the next day.
If I couldn’t swim, Chuck and Dean wouldn’t get to compete at all. I would be taking all their training, and hard work away without letting them even participate. The pressure on me felt enormous.
The night before the race I was still quite sick, but at this point, the race hinged on me just doing it regardless of how I felt. My shoulder was still quite bad so that was a huge wildcard as well.
Race Day
The Swim – 1.2 miles – by Kirsten
Race morning we were up around 4am. We headed the 45 minutes to Dean’s rental house where he made us breakfast. The house was about 5-6 blocks from the race start, so we walked there around 6am. After getting body marked, I ventured out into the water for a warm up swim. The water was cold enough to make the race wetsuit legal (yay!), yet it wasn’t as cold as I feared.
The swim course – see the yellow buoys way out there?!?Team Trifecta
Then it was time to wait. The pros started then the amateur competitors started in waves. I was in the last wave so I had to wait around for about an hour.
Getting some pre-race love from my girlTrying to think positiveThe kids giving me some encouragement!SCARED!I can do this… maybe???
At last it was time. We walked down the boat ramp, lined up behind the start buoys, and waited for the starting horn. Then we were off!
Swim startGet Ready…And we’re off!
I stayed towards the back, which still didn’t help me from being run over by one of the swimmers and getting caught under the boat he was tugging. After the initial flurry, I found myself alone in the back. I knew I had 1 swimmer behind me, but I think that was it. And given that we were the last wave, I think I was the 2nd to last person out there on the course.
My biggest concern was making the cut off time of 1:10. I was pretty sure I could do the distance as long as my shoulder held up, but I wasn’t sure how fast I could swim given the conditions and how sick I was. And I didn’t have a lot of buffer time as I’m not a very fast swimmer.
Beckett watching the swim course
I got maybe 200 yards (out of 2100) and realized I was exhausted. I was just completely spent. If I didn’t have Chuck and Dean’s race hinging on my swim, I would’ve quit then. And anyone that knows me, knows that I never quit anything unless I have no choice. But frankly, I felt I had no choice but to keep on swimming. Dory’s “keep on swimming” line kept going thru my head over and over.
To make matters worse, my goggles fogged up instantly so I couldn’t see. I also pretty quickly realized how bad I was at spotting the buoys so I was swimming pretty blind. I even started closing my eyes because it didn’t make any difference. Of course this caused me to go completely off course the entire way – I kept getting near the water patrol and they’d send me back towards the course over and over again.
There were buoys every 100 yards so I would take a few second break at every buoy to clear my goggles, check my time, and take a break. Of course, every time I did, the current would push me backwards and off course so I’d have to re-swim the distance back.
The good news was when I realized a few hundred yards in that I was on record pace (for me!). I was swimming faster than usual so I as long as I could keep it up, I was in no danger from getting picked up or missing the cut off. This took a HUGE load off my mind so then I could just focus on swimming.
Once I hit the first turn, everything got worse: the current picked up and pushed me even further out into the river and I was exhausted beyond all belief. Luckily since I was the 2nd to last swimmer, the water patrol and boaters were all cheering me on, telling me how much time I had, and helping me stay on course. A woman in a kayak came up and offered to let me hold on to take a break – at first I declined, but finally gave in and held on for about a minute to catch my breath. In the Ironman, you’re allowed to hold on to the water patrol, you just can’t use them to make forward progress.
I owe the rest of my race to this lady. She stuck with me the rest of the race and became my eyes, time keeper, and cheerleader all in one.
Once I got to the turn for home – with about 700 yards left – I had plenty of time, but I was cooked. Plus, the wind picked up and kept blowing me off course. But with this kayaker beside me, I was able to spot off of her and she kept me from going all over the place. She also kept me abreast of the time and distance I had left and I knew I would make it if I just kept going even though every part of me wanted to quit.
Eventually I made it to the end of the course and, after thanking my kayak angel, I ran up the ramp and across the timing mat! 1:03:25! I DID IT!
I DID IT!!!!
I heard the kids ringing their cowbells and cheering for me, but I still had to run thru the chute to the relay tent to tag Chuck for the bike. He gave me the best hug and said he knew I could do it, grabbed the timing chip from my ankle, and took off for the bike.
I then found the kids who gave me big hugs. And Mara took my victory picture above.
The Bike – 56 miles – by Chuck
The bike started off well, as I was reasonably trained and the course was very flat, allowing me to get into the groove. Heading out on the bike loop, the wind was in my face and I raced a bit hard, trying to set a good pace. That worked for a while, but I bonked about 20 miles in, causing me to get faint and spend a few minutes alongside the road recharging and hydrating.
Down the road a few minutes, my energy recovered, but then I started with cramps in my right foot, causing me to get off the bike for a bit every few miles. All else was good, but it added up to a slow race when I had hoped to be sub-3:30.
Nice course and day, but I was just happy to be done! Time: 3:44:46
The Run
Once Chuck racked his bike, he tagged Dean who went off on his 13.1 mile run. It was about 1pm at this point and brutally hot. Many of the competitors coming in looked so haggard from the sun and heat, so we really felt for Dean.
While he was out there running, Chuck, the kids, and I found some shade to relax in and took advantage of the free food for the athletes. Chuck and I finally were able to relax at this point as our part was done and we’d both finished.
As it got to Dean’s estimated finish time, we headed over to the finish so we could cheer him home. It was so great hearing our team name announced as he crossed the finishing mat! Team Trifecta Finish Time: 7:45:25. And 23rd out of 26 teams!
Team Trifecta Finished!
We met him at the end of the finish chute where he had each of our medals and a hat.
Team Trifecta
Wrap Up
Once the race was over, we all left pretty quickly so we could get home at a decent hour as the kids had school the next day and Chuck had to go into work.
I was elated the entire day and evening from the experience. Unfortunately, I got even more sick on the way home and was even worse the days that followed. But that didn’t damper my excitement over having competed in an Ironman and finishing! I’m still so proud of my (our) accomplishment and know that I’m even tougher than I thought.
The kids received a gift certificate for indoor skydiving for Christmas. However, they had to wait for the place to open a few months later. We finally took them in April and they LOVED it.
They each said it was the coolest thing they’ve ever done and are already begging us to go back.
After a 15-20 min of classroom training, they each did 2 1-minute sessions. It doesn’t sound like a lot of time but it lasts longer than you’d expect. They had an option to add an additional 1-minute flight at the end. Both kids were begging to do it again and of course we said yes. By the third flight they were getting pretty good at it!
Beckett’s Videos:
Mara’s Videos:
Their instructor’s sick moves:
Update: We all went as a family in April 2017. Here are Chuck and my flights.
This is our new cat TT. She’s a four year old black cat with little white splotches and a white undercoat. We adopted her from an animal shelter a few days before Christmas.
I love her so so so so so so much! She loves to be loved and I love that. Every night she crawls into bed with me, curls up, and goes to sleep. Sometimes when I curl up on the couch she jumps up and sits in-between my legs. She loves it when I pet her head. She does not like to play much though. – By: Mara Ullan
Santa Cruz was the last island we visited on our trip. It’s not the biggest but has the largest population and is the tourist hub of the Galápagos. Most visitors we talked to said Santa Cruz was their least favorite island and I think we’d agree. It’s not that there is anything wrong with it, but it’s busier and more touristy and just didn’t have the character like San Cristóbal or Isabela.
That said, it did have a pretty harbor and reminded us a bit of Thailand.
We arrived on Wednesday morning after a 3 hour ferry ride from Isabela which was our longest ferry ride, but also the calmest. Luckily we were able to check into our hotel, Suites del Sol, and relax a bit. Wednesday was a pretty chill day of just walking around the town, getting our equipment fitted for our Gordon Rocks dive, and getting to bed early (again!).
Thursday we were up early (again!) for our dive to Gordon Rocks. Later that afternoon, we strolled around the main town looking for souvenirs for the kids and soaking up the sights. We also wandered down to the fish market where the fishermen bring their catches at the end of the day. It was quite a sight with a sea lion and many pelicans trying to steal any fish they could get.
Friday was our last full day on the island so we took the day to relax. We did hike to Las Grietas which is a swimming hole set among a crack in the lava rocks. There weren’t many fish in it and the water was very cold, but it was still a neat place to visit.
We were also lucky enough to spot a marine iguana swimming and were able to get in the water quite close to him. Unfortunately our pictures didn’t come out.
After getting cleaned up, it was time for cocktails, something that was mostly absent from our entire tropical beach vacation.
That night we ran into our Australian friends, Laith and Katie, and said our goodbyes. It’s funny how many times we saw them on our trip and it was such a pleasure to get to know them.
Our Australian friends Laith and Katie
On Saturday morning, we realized our flight had a delay so we had time to run back down to the pier to say goodbye to the island (and of course ran into Laith and Katie again!). We were treated to the pelicans and blue footed boobies diving into the water for their breakfast. We also got to see a marine iguana swimming.
And then it was time to leave which consisted of taking a pickup truck taxi to the ferry landing, then taking a ferry to Baltra, then taking a bus to the airport and then, finally getting on the plane. 🙁
One of the things we were most looking forward to on our trip was diving with hammerhead sharks. We had 2 chances – one at Kicker Rock off of San Cristobal and the other was at Gordon Rocks off of Santa Cruz.
Gordon Rocks is known as “THE” place to dive with schools of hammerheads in the Galapagos without doing a live-aboard. It is also considered an intermediate to advanced dive due to currents (it’s nickname is the “washing machine”). Most of the good dive shops won’t take anyone with less than 30 dives (I’m at 40+, Chuck is at 30-ish) and they make sure you’ve been diving recently too.
I’ll admit, I was actually nervous about this dive. I think I read too many stories online about the dive being difficult and even a case where a diver got swept a few miles away by the current (they found her a while later). Someone online was also telling a beginner that wanted to dive there to “Google ‘Gordon Rocks’ + death” as apparently people have died there. So yeah. Crazy current, being known as a “washing machine”, people dying, advanced dive credentials required. Oh and schools of sharks. Yep, I was a bit nervous.
At least my nerves were calmed when we went to the dive shop the previous day to get outfitted for our equipment. Once they heard we dove Kicker Rock a few days prior and had plenty of dives under our belt, they said we’d be fine and it’s only horrible a few days a year.
Ok, deep breath.
The morning of, we took a pickup truck taxi to the ferry landing at the north end of the island then headed out on the boat.
After about 45 min, we stopped to do a check dive. Then we took a 5-10 min trip over to Gordon Rocks. After about 5 minutes of the crew checking the current, it was time to go.
The dive entrance was different than normal because of the current. Our group got ready, sat on the side of the boat and waited. When our dive guide said “Go”, we immediately back rolled into the water, met at the back of the boat and descended quickly so the current didn’t sweep us away.
As soon as we got down to about 40′, I saw 2 hammerheads swim by on the sea floor (they were about 60′). And, that was the only hammerhead shark sighting we saw the entire dive. Sigh. 🙁
We swam around for about an hour but really didn’t see much: a sea turtle, others saw a golden ray, some fish. Very disappointing. The current wasn’t too bad though so that was good.
We were bummed coming back to the boat and got more bummed when we found out the other group saw a huge school of hammerheads. Guess we just weren’t in the right place at the right time.
After an hour surface interval (that was quite wavy and making me nauseous), it was time for dive #2. We knew the hammerheads were out there so our fingers were crossed.
Not long after we descended, we started seeing the sharks. Hammerheads, Whitetip reef sharks, Blacktip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks. Some were together maybe 20′ away, some were alone maybe 10′ away. Plus we saw a pair of spotted eagle rays. THIS was the dive we were hoping for. I was so calm yet excited when I saw the hammerheads. I kept saying to myself “I can’t believe I’m seeing this. I’m so lucky.”
Not me, but another girl in our group. Look how close!
Reef shark
There was definitely more current on this dive but nothing too bad. The only interesting thing was the up/down current that would make you ascend or descend a bit. It was subtle for me but Chuck got caught in it a bit more. Nothing too scary or a big deal, but I can totally see why this is an advanced dive.
Soon it was time to get back on the boat and head back to Santa Cruz. We were treated by a whale sighting on the trip back. At first they said it was a baby humpback whale, but I’ve seen enough of them to know it was something else. When I saw the head, I thought it was a pilot whale. But watching the video back, I’m starting to think it was a beaked whale, maybe a Cuvier’s beaked whale. Not sure, but still a cool sighting.
After lunch back at the harbor, we took the trucks back to the main town and that was that.
Logistics: We went diving with Academy Bay Diving out of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz. They did a pretty good job so I’d definitely recommend them. We met at the dive shop at 6:30am, left the shop at 7am and returned around 2:30pm.
Before we came to the Galapagos, we each picked which experiences we most wanted and also which animals we most wanted to see. Near the top of my list was penguins! Yes, they have penguins in the Galapagos! They can only be found on 2 islands but only 1, Isabela, is (semi-)easily accessible to those doing a land based tour. We knew adding a 3rd island to our trip was going to keep us really busy, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to swim with wild penguins, so we figured out an itinerary that included Isabela and figured out that snorkeling at Los Túneles, aka The Tunnels, was the best place to go.
Los Túneles is about a 45 min boat trip from Puerto Villamil, which is the main town on Isabela. It’s a rocky trip out but we were lucky that it wasn’t too bad on the day we went. We were also REALLY lucky that we had some great animal sightings on the trip out. We saw a massive manta ray somersault out of the water twice, a baby hammerhead shark, and mating turtles.
We first stopped at an area outside of the Tunnels where we snorkeled for 2 hours. There weren’t that many fish or even coral, however, there were a lot of other cool things: Huge sea turtles munching away, lots of reef sharks hanging out in a cave, a marbled ray, a massive lobster (thing had to be 5lbs!), a big parrotfish, and a really cool eel that looked more like a sea snake than an eel. However, the highlight of this snorkel, for me at least, was seeing a seahorse!
I also found one of the more interesting things I’ve ever found in the ocean – a $5 bill. If you don’t know, I tend to find money all over the place and have found random money in many of the countries we’ve visited even if we’re just there for a few hours. Usually it’s pennies or some other small coin, but this time, it was a $5 floating in the water. I asked our group who lost money out of their pocket and no one had so they clapped for me and my good fortune.
The money fishSeahorseSea turtleSea turtleHuge lobsterMarbled rayEel that looked a lot more like a snake9 Whitetip reef sharks in a caveThe Chuck fish
After our snorkel, we headed over to The Tunnels to see the penguins. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to get in as other boats were having trouble, but our captain surfed us in no problem.
I was so excited to see the penguins and we quickly got into the water to get a closer view. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any penguins swimming in the water as they were content to hang out on the rocks.
There were also blue-footed boobies hanging out on the other rocks, so we were able to swim near them for a closer view.
A pelican then flew in and landed on one of the rocks. So cool!
After snorkeling here, we headed over to the actual Tunnels which were so pretty. We ate a quick lunch then headed up on the rocks for a look around.
Then it was finally time to head back to Puerto Villamil. However on the way we were treated to some jumping manta rays.
We then came upon a rock that had Nazca boobies alongside Blue-footed boobies.
Then it was back to the dock and our hotel.
Logistics: We booked our trip with Scuba Galapagos which is located in The Wooden House hotel. I was able to arrange the trip via email before we left the US. The trip was $90USD pp which included lunch. The good: They were really good at spotting wildlife. The bad: the boat didn’t have a bathroom or any shade which would be nice on a 6 hour trip, lunch was a warm ham sandwich, and we had a 1Km walk home from the dock after the trip. Lastly, the guides spoke both Spanish and English, however, most of the people on the boat spoke Spanish so they didn’t bother to translate as much into English for us English speakers. This made us feel a little clueless on some things and ignored other times. Overall, they wouldn’t be my first choice, but they were a fine choice and we had a magical day so I really can’t complain.
Isabela was the 2nd island on our trip. We mainly wanted to go there so we could snorkel with penguins and seahorses, but also because everyone said it was their favorite island. We only had 1 late afternoon/evening and 1 full day on the island so we didn’t have time to do much.
We arrived on Isabela after a long day of ferry rides starting at 7am with a 2 hour ride from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz, a 5 hour layover on Santa Cruz, then a 2 hour ferry ride from Santa Cruz to Isabela. I was so happy to finally get there, partly because it meant I could get off speedboats and partly because it was gorgeous there!
When we arrived, we realized the dock was 1km from the town so we hired a taxi – more like a huge sightseeing thing that I wish we’d taken a picture of – for the ride to our hotel, La Gran Tortuga. I guess the hotel was full because they moved us to a room a block away which turned out to be just fine.
Our first impression was that we loved the main town, Puerto Villamil. It is so tiny and full of character and we loved that roads aren’t even paved.
We didn’t have time to do much except check in for our snorkel trip, get some laundry done and eat dinner. For dinner, I took a risk and ordered fish and it was outstanding. Best meal of my trip so far. Unfortunately, I woke quite sick the next morning (maybe it wasn’t the fish?!?!). Really unfortunately, it was also the day of our big snorkel trip to see the penguins so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to go. Luckily I rallied and we had an amazing day!
When we got back into port, we saw some penguins swimming around the dock. They are so fun to watch!
There were some massive marine iguanas hanging out near the dock too.
We then wandered to Concha de Perla near the dock to see if we’d get to swim with penguins and/or sea lions. Unfortunately neither were present although Chuck did get to swim near a marine iguana.
The next morning we took the 6am ferry from Isabela to Santa Cruz. We were sad to leave as we really didn’t get to spend enough time on Isabela. Next time!
We gave the kids a camera so they could capture their perspective. We should’ve known this is what we’d find:
