2023 in Review

February 08, 2024 by Nicole Harrison

2023 was perhaps not as balanced as we’d been planning originally - we ended up going to 8 countries, 7 of them in the last 6 months of the year. While it’s been amazing to travel so much, we’ve been missing having more time in Seattle, and it’s been really nice to take a look back at some of our local adventures, especially in the first half of the year.

Classic Puget Sound views - mountains and sailboats (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sailboat sitting on the water in the Puget Sound, with fluffy clouds in the background. — Jason continues lusting after sailboats (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up portrait photo of Caprica's face. — Testing out a new lens on Caprica (photo/Jason Rafal)

In February, we went to San Diego with friends for a long weekend and spent some time soaking in the beautiful sun and eating a lot of Mexican food.

People walking along the beach, with large sand cliffs on the right. — Looking for fun shore things at Torrey Pines (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pelican flying along over a rocky cliff alongside the ocean. — Many shorebirds (photo/Jason Rafal)

Several sea lions sitting on a large rock outcropping. — I always enjoy large piles of sea lions (photo/Jason Rafal)

Silhouettes of children climbing cliff rocks in the setting sun. — Sunset silhouettes (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also were able to fit in some camping over the summer, and we used our little drone to get some amazing pictures of the Washington wilderness. I had fun learning to fly the drone and clumsily edit together footage.

A drone shot looking down on the treetops of a forest. — Looking down at our campsite - see if you can spot us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunset drone photo of a dirt road winding through a forest, with snowcapped peaks in the background. — I love this wilderness so much (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset drone photo looking over forests and meadows toward snow-capped mountains. — A second view because I couldn’t pick one (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole holding a drone controller and looking up at the sky. — This is what it looks like to learn to fly a drone (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of Nicole looking at the camera while holding a beer. — More experimentation with a new lens (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole lying in a red hammock in the woods. — The joys of camping (photo/Jason Rafal)

For Fourth of July weekend we drove up to Canada, where we stayed at a lakeside guest house outside of Vancouver and spent a couple of days relaxing and taking in amazing water views.

Dozens of kayakers paddling past two small docks at dusk. — Our relaxing sunset view (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also found some beautiful hikes in the area. British Columbia never ceases to amaze with its beauty.

Sunlight hitting the top of a waterfall and spilling down the side of the mountain. — Dramatic sunlight at Shannon Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out toward a road winding between a mountain range and a large, turquoise body of water. — Looking south down Howe Sound (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason got much more into birding this year, and he had fun learning about species of birds and how best to photograph them.

A cormorant sitting on the water with a small fish in its mouth, surrounded by three seagulls who want to take the fish. — Seagulls are always being jerks and trying to steal things (photo/Jason Rafal)

A cormorant floating on the water with a fish in its mouth. — A cormorant with a treat (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bird with beige, yellow, gray, and black feathers perching on a branch. — A beautiful cedar waxwing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird sitting on a reed with its mouth open mid-song. — A very noisy songbird (photo/Jason Rafal)

Four strings of barbed wire, with two birds on the top wire and two on the second wire. — Birds on a line (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a small bird sitting on a string of barbed wire and glaring at the camera. — Glaring at the camera (photo/Jason Rafal)

A great blue heron sits on a ledge and releases a feather from its beak. — This heron was preening itself and releasing its feathers into the wind (photo/Jason Rafal)

Dozens of shore birds flying together low over the surf. — A collection of shorebirds (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fluffy owl perched on a branch in dense foliage. — A little owl peering down at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

As always, there were also lots of fun plants and animals.

A fuzzy bee hovering next to purple flowers. — A pastoral bee (photo/Jason Rafal)

A white flower with a bee in the middle, with green leaves and the blue sky in the background. — More flowers and bees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rat perching on a small tree trunk and looking down at the ground, with its tail wound around the tree. — A rat in a tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small branch with yellow and pink flowers. — Weird little flower leaf things (photo/Jason Rafal)

A creek flowing through mossy rocks and logs. — We have so many of these pictures from around Washington and I love them all (photo/Jason Rafal)

A marmot sitting on a rock with a snowy meadow and a mountain in the background. — One of posing marmots in Mt. Rainier National Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

We went camping in Oregon with friends during the Perseid meteor shower, and while we weren’t in the best place to see a ton of meteors, it was incredibly peaceful to just lay on our backs and marvel at the stars.

Looking up between the silhouettes of tree branches at a night sky with shooting stars. — The stars I always miss in Seattle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole riding a bike on a dirt road through a forest. — Riding a bike through a beautiful Oregon forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had friends visit from Colorado, and we showed them around both the wilderness and the city.

Martin opening a wooden box hanging from a log. — Martin opens some sort of geocache (photo/Jason Rafal)

A salmon staring through a glass window as it swims by. — Salmon at the Ballard fish ladder (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man assisting with the lock leans toward a boat to shout instructions. — Watching the sometimes chaos of the Ballard Locks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Martin, Rachel, and Nicole standing on the beach as sunset fades to dusk. — Inviting our friends to sunsets at Golden Gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the Seattle waterfront from behind apartment and public storage buildings. — Moody Seattle waterfront (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were gone for a lot of the second half of the year, but it was an amazing autumn, and we spent much of our time in town on walks and hikes to marvel at the fall colors.

Close up photo of a spider in a web with colorful fall leaves in the background. — Fall mood spider (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking up at an art installation of small suspended glass pieces made into a net. — An art installation at the Arboretum (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of a turquoise lake through pine trees. — The Cascade lake colors are always amazing (photo/Jason Rafal)

View across a lake to a cliff face with a lookout tower on top. — An alpine lake with a lookout far above (photo/Jason Rafal)

View across an alpine lake with colorful bushes and pine trees on the other side. — If you squint, you can see the side of Mt. Rainier in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

Autumn light falling between a metal tower and a brick building with an orange-leaf tree behind. — Light (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up photo of dozens of tiny mushrooms on a tree trunk. — So many tiny mushrooms (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a large tree trunk covered in ferns. — An incredible tree completely enveloped by other plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A moss-covered branch with red leaves in the background. — I will forever love all of the moss here (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo looking out from under a bridge to a beach, with the Olympic mountains in the distance. — Moody beach days (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole walking on a street corner with sunshine shining through yellow leaves. — That autumn sun and those yellow leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

People sitting on the lawn in front of Green Lake in the afternoon sun with a flock of geese flying overhead. — Green Lake is always a pretty magical place, but fall is an especially special time there (photo/Jason Rafal)

As always, thanks for reading along with our adventures this year, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures. We’re going for more balance in 2024, but as always, we’ll just have to see what life brings us. We feel so lucky to live in this beautiful place and be able to explore so much!

Nicole and Jason standing on a log in front of a lake and forested mountains. — Us on a backpacking trip in 2023 (yes, Jason is wearing a bug suit) (photo/Martin Brandt)

The Anglo-French Holidays

January 17, 2024 by Nicole Harrison

When our friend Bella got a new job in France, we decided (with a couple of other friends) to visit her for New Year’s. When we got a deal on flights to London, we decided to add a couple of days in London, since Jason knows a lot about England and loves their media but had never been.

It’s always interesting traveling over holidays, and we didn’t expect London to close down quite as much as it did for Christmas. Luckily we had a friend living in the city who had us over for a delicious dinner (thank you, Sam!), and we spent the next couple of days wandering around and enjoying some of the sights (and even a little sunshine). If you have a specific list of things you want to see and restaurants you want to visit, I wouldn’t recommend a Christmas trip, but if you just want to wander and have a generally weird experience (and see where the locals actually hang out then they’re not working), it’s not bad.

Classic telephone booths in an empty Smithfield Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Christmas scene at St. Paul’s Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

A nice collection of architecture (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cathedral dome through the city at night (photo/Jason Rafal)

I wonder if you can monitor depression in London using this box (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Tate Modern, which we don’t love the architecture of (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Millennium Bridge, my personal favorite (photo/Jason Rafal)

A multi-layered tower with a very shiny clock (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of a castle wall with a sunstar. — A sunstar at the Tower of London (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking across a bridge, under ornate castle architecture. — The locals were clustered around certain parts of the city, like London Bridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, angular apartment building with a green reflection in the windows. — A weird pointy building with a cool reflection (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tall, ornate, and nearly empty market with a Christmas tree. — An empty Leadenhall Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Cannon Street tube station, completely empty. — It was pretty cool to see some of the places so empty (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up portrait of a snowman statue. — There were several of these snowmen around…smiling at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking toward the London Eye, bathed in golden hour light. — The London Eye was also very busy, with a pop-up market and lots of strolling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across the river at Big Ben and the castle. — Looking over at Westminster (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at the Big Ben clock tower. — The clocktower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking down a street under red lanterns. — Chinatown in London (photo/Jason Rafal)

On the one day we were in London when attractions were open, we took the train out to Kew Gardens, since we always like to go to a nice garden. It didn’t disappoint. There are two old-school glass greenhouses and one very cool modern one, and lots of beautiful grounds in between. It would be an amazing place to spend a day during the summer when it’s a little warmer, and it could keep you occupied for hours.

A waterfall surrounded by palm trees and other plants in a large glass greenhouse. — An indoor waterfall at the amazing Palm House (photo/Jason Rafal)

An ornate orange flower. — A flower that looks like it was sculpted (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a walkway alongside a row of plants with a plaque that says Africa. — Scenes from Africa (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over the top of the tall plants hitting against the ceiling of the glass greenhouse. — We took the stairs up to the greenhouse catwalk, where we could look down onto the greenery below (photo/Jason Rafal)

The modern greenhouse was composed of many half levels, and it was a kind of maze to go through it. It was really fun to wander through, and there was always something new around every corner.

A hanging planter with long, white tendrils hanging down toward the floor. — This plant was amazing and completely unlike anything I’ve seen before (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down the tall stalks of a cactus. — Many spikes (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path winding through a glass greenhouse with plants everywhere. — An incredible assortment of plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tank with a lot of plants and a tiny orange shrimp. — A tiny shrimp in its tank habitat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole looking at a tree with an orange flower in the foreground. — This is a Brugmansia, and I love them (photo/Jason Rafal)

The other attraction we decided to visit was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was even more enjoyable than I expected. It’s composed of everything that wouldn’t necessarily go into another collection; it’s a museum of chaos, and we loved it. We wandered around between rooms of jewelry, metalwork, statues, glasswork, paintings, and all sorts of other things.

An old globe that fades out in the northwest of the United States and Canada. — A globe that had not yet discovered the Pacific Northwest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down into a room full of statues, including a statue of David, with art hanging on the walls. — A chaotic room - David, Greek goddesses, religious paintings…and a balcony? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A statue of a white and black dog stepping on a snake. — A dog that is very proud of itself (and maybe still in danger?) (photo/Jason Rafal)

A person under a large statue in a tall, dark, brick room. — A very moody room (photo/Jason Rafal)

After our days in London, we headed to Toulouse to see Bella in her new home. We met Ian and Kelly there for a few days of eating, drinking, walking, partying, and very little sleeping.

Nicole and Belly holding hands on a train. — Reunited and holding hands on the train (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first day in Toulouse, we actually went to Carcassonne, a medieval town and fortress a short train ride away. Its name has a fantastic potential origin story in which Charlemagne was besieging the city for years, and when food and water were running out, Dame Carcas took the last wheat and fed it to the last pig, and then threw the pig over the wall at Charlemagne. Seeing that the city still had enough food to waste both wheat and pigs, he lifted the siege, and the city was free. Dame Carcas was clearly a master of game theory and deserves to have a city named after her.

A street and lightly colored buildings with the castle in the background. — Looking up at the Cité de Carcassonne from the bridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stone wall with turrets with green grass on the ground and a town in the distance. — The outer wall and a good example of the choice to replace the traditionally terra cotta roofs with slate, a decision Jason hates (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the castle towers from under a bridge. — Looking up from the drawbridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A window display of pillows printed with cats in medieval dress. — An intensely dedicated window display (photo/Jason Rafal)

A castle wall across from old buildings with a lightly cloudy sky and sunstar in the background. — Inside the city walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking down at children passing through a door in a stone wall with the town in the background. — From atop the castle walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

View from above a stone wall with regular towers, with a town in the background. — The cars in the yards in the medieval driveways were a bit odd (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view down a walking street with old buildings on either side and holiday lights hanging over the street. — Walking through the lower town of Carcassonne (photo/Jason Rafal)

Over the next few days, we explored Toulouse, which is lovely. It’s known as the Pink City because of the brick color used in much of its architecture, which contrasts beautifully with the sky. It’s also the center of the aerospace industry in Europe. The city is transected by rivers and canals, so there’s always some lovely water nearby to walk along.

People shopping for fruit at an open-air market on the street. — One of the street markets (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunny street with people cleaning up from the market. — The aftermath of the street market (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Japanese garden with a building, carefully shaped bushes, and a red bridge. — The Japanese Garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of a street with a small car and ivy-covered building through a tunnel. — A photo from our trip, or from a moody noir film (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of people on the street watching a firetruck lift two people up to the side of a building. — While shopping we walked by…something happening with one of the buildings (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Toulouse capitol building, lit up by late afternoon light, with a stall selling baskets in the foreground. — A market and the capitol building (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunset view over a river with old buildings, a dome, and a bridge. — A gorgeous sunset from the river (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a church with lots of colored stone and stained glass. — The inside of the Couvent des Jacobins, which was quite beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking up from under an arch in a church, with colorful stonework and stained glass. — During the French Revolution, this stone was white washed over, and it’s now partially restored (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bella and Ian sitting in a pew and looking toward the front of a church. — Bella and Ian in Saint Stephen's Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went inside the capitol building, where Bella had heard good things about the art. There was an incredible amount of painting on the walls and ceiling, and lots of statues as well.

Painting of a person with a coral-colored full length body suit and cape sitting with pen to paper and staring into space. — A very moody person (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down an ornate room with colorful paintings on either side. — The happy, pastoral wedding room (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking through a long, ornate room with statues on either side and detailed paintings on the ceiling. — A long room of art (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a ceiling painted with a scene of a woman in a chariot pulled by lions being pursued by a dark army. — Some of the amazing ceiling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down a mostly empty street with closed shops on either side. — Quiet mornings in Toulouse (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pink building with an art piece of a model train driving off the roof. — Train crash art? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rounded tower with blue sky behind it, flanked by walls. — More lovely pink architecture (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a whirlwind trip, and it was so nice to see friends and explore new places. I’m sure we’ll be back to both London and Toulouse, and next time we’ll probably see some more tourists there.

The Coasts and Mountains of St. Lucia

December 12, 2023 by Nicole Harrison

St. Lucia was our Thanksgiving tropical paradise trip with Jason’s family. It’s a Caribbean island known for its mountainous beauty, and we were not disappointed.

We tried to actually relax on this trip (instead of our normal trend of running around trying to do everything). Most of our time, outside of lounging and eating, was spent out with the beautiful plants and birds, so the majority of this post will be about them. And, of course, the amazing views.

St. Lucia, the only country in the world named after a human woman, passed back and forth between French and British rule (14 times!) between 1600 and when it gained independence in 1979. While the economy of the island was previously based on bananas and other agriculture, the government started focusing primarily on tourism about 30 years ago. It takes less than 2 hours to drive the windy roads from one end of the island to the other, and about 180,000 people live in its hilly towns. Driving is an experience - they drive on the left, and many of the steep mountain roads are about one and a half lanes wide. Jason was a great driver, but there was also some squealing in the car at many points.

The kids flew in a day before Jason’s parents, Marc and Anne, and we went to hike at Pigeon Island. The British built Fort Rodney on the island in the late 1700s, and it served as a key vantage point in wars against the French. The island is now more of a peninsula, with the Sandals resort sitting on a new strip of land that’s been filled in.

The view from Pigeon Island looking toward Sandals resort. — The island and the red roof of Sandals (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across the mountainous coast of Pigeon Island. — The hike up Signal Peak (photo/Jason Rafal)

Signal Peak from Fort Rodney (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole leans over to pet a young tabby cat. — One of the many friendly little cats we met (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the next day relaxing at the pool and the beach. On the third day of the trip, we left our rented house in Rodney Bay and drove to our next place down south. On the way, we stopped in the town of Castries to do some shopping and have lunch. If you’re in Castries, definitely stop at the Coal Pot to eat - it had amazing food, wonderful service, and a lovely view of the harbor.

The giant tree at Derek Walcott square (photo/Jason Rafal)

Marc and Anne look at a row of brightly colored shirts and souvenirs. — Shopping at Castries Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last stop before we arrived at our new house was the Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens, where we spent an hour walking around in the dense, incredibly diverse forest and marveling at the plants.

Looking up through layers of large flat leaves. — Looking up through giant leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A beautiful cascading flowering plant. — Beautiful draping False Bird of Paradise (photo/Jason Rafal)

Dewdrops on a yellow flower. — Allamanda flower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small gecko on a tree. — A little Anolis lizard (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two cocoa pods hanging on a tree. — Cocoa pods (photo/Jason Rafal)

Beautiful reddish leaves on a bush. — I was surprised by the amount of red and pink leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

Small yellow and orange flowers against the dark leaves of a plant. — Sunset Bell (photo/Jason Rafal)

At around 4 pm, we began what was supposed to be a 10-minute drive from the garden to the house where we were staying, and then things got exciting. Keep in mind that we were 6 people, and our luggage, in an underpowered front-wheel drive SUV. The hill up to our place was a steep road with a combination of gravel and broken pavement, and there was a water leak so it was wet on one side. We tried to go up, promptly got stuck because it would have been impossible to get up, and then spent the next hour working with the incredibly kind locals to get out of the way and transport some of our people and stuff up the hill. Just after we got stuck someone with the same model SUV got stuck in nearly the exact place. Luckily half the town was already stopped and kept them from getting too stuck. Apparently it happens frequently and even their garbage truck gets stuck fairly often.

A vew looking down a steep road with broken pavement with three cars driving down. — The rather problematic road to and from our villa (photo/Jason Rafal)

The villa was an indoor-outdoor experience, with a large open-air living space stacked on top of semi-open bedrooms. The view, which took over the whole experience instantly, was incredible. We spent most of our time there just staring at the water and the pitons in the distance.

Sweeping view of the ocean over a jungle hillside with the Gros and Petit Pitons in the background. — The incredible sunset view from our villa (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny frog stuck to a white board wall. — A tiny frog at our villa (photo/Jason Rafal)

Aside from having an incredible view, our villa had glorious gardens and a lot of bird feeders, both with nectar and seeds. Jason had a wonderful time taking pictures of all the birds.

A grackle perches on a tree branch and looks into the distance. — A cute little grackle (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large round green fruit hanging from a branch. — The giant fruit of the calabash tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

Tall bright pink leaves jutting upwards from the ground. — Dramatic pink leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

Light shining through small pink flowers on a plant with large green leaves. — More pretty pink leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bright green, blue, and black carib perching on a broad leaf. — A very cute carib (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three hummingbirds at a feeder. — The hummingbirds went crazy for this feeder and drained it completely in a single day (photo/Jason Rafal)

A carib spreading its wings in front of a porch swing bird feeder. — Another curious hummingbird (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small black bird with a red underthroat and eyebrow with seed in its beak. — A little bullfinch (photo/Jason Rafal)

A hummingbird feeding from a large feeder. — More hummingbirds in action (photo/Jason Rafal)

A hummingbird hovers in front of dark leaves. — Another little guy (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two hummingbirds chasing each other around a feeder. — They did a lot of fighting over the hummingbird feeder (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bananaquit perched on a rope. — A bananaquit (photo/Jason Rafal)

A carib hovering with a larger bird on a feeder in the background. — And you thought you were done with hummingbird pictures (photo/Jason Rafal)

Another green and dark brown hummingbird. — One more (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird perching on a window grate. — Another little cutie (photo/Jason Rafal)

The two pitons with the sunset in the background. — St. Vincent faintly visible through the sunset (photo/Jason Rafal)

The last glimse of the sunset between dark sky and the dark hillside and ocean. — The last rays of the sun (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of the pitons at night under the stars. — The pitons at night (photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie, Ally, Jason and I did a hike to soak in the views of the Gros and Petit Pitons, St. Lucia’s most distinctive mountains. It was nice to see them up close after our view from the villa. The Petit Piton is taller, but also narrower and rockier.

Looking toward the petit piton with boats driving through the water. — Looking out towards the Petit Piton (photo/Jason Rafal)

A boat driving through the water around the base of the petit piton. — A boat skimming the edge of the piton (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photographing the Gros Piton (photo/Nicole Harrison)

An overlook view of Soufriere. — Looking out over Soufriere from an overlook on the way home (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also took a boat trip with Shashamane tours, which was a great experience. Our guides, Denver and Chad, took us to two snorkeling spots and to Marigot Bay for lunch. The snorkeling was lovely, with a great variety of fish, though we didn’t get much good footage.

The view from the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across the water toward a small town on a hillside. — The town of Canaries from the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

A few boats in a harbor, one of them sinking. — Some of the ships, some floating better than others, in Marigot Bay (photo/Jason Rafal)

For lunch, we sat on the beach and ate island food, which was standardly meat or fish, beans, rice, and ground provisions (a broad category including sweet potato, cassava, yams, and other tubular root vegetables in addition to plantains). For the entire trip, I basically alternated between this traditional meal and curry, and I never got tired of either.

Looking up at the tall tops of palm trees against the blue sky. — Looking up from our lunch spot on the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole, Emilie, Anne, Marc, Jason, and Ally on the beach. — Beach portrait (photo/Chad)

On the way back, Chad expertly cracked open coconuts for each of us and added some local coconut rum, and we got to sip amazing cocktails while riding in the boat. It was amazingly relaxing.

Nicole's hand holding a coconut with a straw coming out of the top with the side of a boat and water in the background. — A lovely drink on the water (photo/Nicole Harrison)

The sunset over a view of the oceans with the pitons in the background. — One last sunset from our villa (photo/Jason Rafal)

We would highly recommend St. Lucia - it’s beautiful, the food is great, and the locals were all kind and excited to show us around their island. There’s a lot to do, but it was also very relaxing and easy to unwind. It was a lovely way to spend a Thanksgiving, and I’m grateful that we were able to celebrate on island time.

Five people silhouetted and watching the sunset from an open porch. — Photo/Jason Rafal

Belize, Finally

September 20, 2023 by Nicole Harrison

This was the third time that Jason and I had tried to go to Belize (we can blame the events of 2020). In fact, if this third time didn’t work, we had agreed that we had to give it several years before trying again, since the trip was clearly cursed. When we decided on Belize with some of our friends, we were hopeful that the addition of several people would be enough of a change that the trip would actually happen - and it worked. Our timing, which took advantage of Labor Day, was both great and problematic - there were almost no other tourists, but it was also the most hot and sweaty that we had ever been. It was a great trip though, and I’m so glad we finally got to experience the country with some of our close friends.

None of us knew a lot about Belize, and it was fun to learn about the country as we went. First, it’s very sparsely populated - there are only 400,000 people in the country, and almost a quarter of those are in Belize City, which we didn’t visit. Most of the time we were driving, we saw only very small towns, and even the larger towns where we stayed felt pretty empty. When tourist season is in full swing, the country must feel like it’s bursting at the seams of the limited city infrastructure.

The roads are mostly in good shape, but the most memorable part of driving was the varied use of speed bumps - they were everywhere, sometimes seemed to be placed at random, and were all different sizes, so you never quite knew how significant they would be to get over. This resulted in the best speed control I’ve ever seen - everyone slowed way down for every speed bump. Sometimes there was one large one, sometimes a set of smaller ones, and sometimes just slightly elevated rumble strips, but predicting which it would be in any upcoming location was pretty impossible. We were also driving in a Kia Carnival, and the people in the back were especially subjected to any lack of care on the bumps.

We started our trip in San Ignacio, a town near the border of Guatemala. It’s the classic kicking off point to take a day trip into Guatemala to visit the ruins of Tikal, which is exactly what we did on our first full day of the trip.

Our guide walked us through the border crossing into Guatemala, and then we got in a van with a few other Americans (including a friend who happened to be in Guatemala and met us there for the tour) and drove a couple of hours to Tikal. On the way, he told us about Guatemala, which is about 60% Mayan and has more than 20 languages. The soil is not well suited to agriculture, so Guatemala raises a lot of cows (many of them Brahman cows, which are bred to handle heat well).

Tikal, a Mayan city, is fascinating and shockingly large. Only about 20% of the city has been uncovered, and in a few hours, we only explored about 20% of that. To prevent looting and improper handling of the site, Guatemala is doing all of the excavation themselves. It’s a very slow process - as soon as buildings are dug out, they have to be covered and supported immediately so they don’t collapse.

A LiDAR scan from a few years ago exposed the full size of the complex and clarified that hundreds of thousands of people lived there. Based on these numbers, the city may have been abandoned simply because of overpopulation and the issues that arise with it, not because of any crazy war or extinction event.

Tikal is in a rainforest, but not on a water source - the complex was built to collect rain water in reservoirs, which were then purified with volcanic rock. Another unexpected thing we learned was that several of the buildings had multiple layers - a Mayan building covering a Teotihuacan building, for example.

Taking a look at the part of Tikal we’d be exploring (photo/Jason Rafal)

A couple of the temples had stairs built against them so we could climb to the top. The views were amazing - jungle as far as the eye could see, with temple tops peeking above the trees.

Our happy and sweaty group of friends (photo/Jason Rafal)

Treetops and temple tops from a high point in Tikal. — Temples 1, 2, and 3 peeking above the trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large Mayan temple with people visible at the top. — The imposing Temple 1 (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large carved stone mask with green moss growing over some of the pale stone. — An incredible giant mask carving (photo/Jason Rafal)

The trunk of a large tree, with many leaves in the background and another plant winding up the branches. — The trees and plants at Tikal are awe-inspiring (photo/Jason Rafal)

The ruins were amazing, but the animals were the highlight for me (as usual). We saw lots of spider monkeys, two types of toucans (and some other birds as well), and white-nosed coatis, which are an adorable raccoon-anteater situation.

An adorable spider monkey (photo/Jason Rafal)

A spider monkey hanging by one arm and its tail from a tree branch. — A spider monkey…hanging out (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Collared Aracari with some food in its beak (photo/Jason Rafal)

The well-known Keel-billed Toucan (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black, dinosaur looking bird with a red wattle. — A Crested Guan that looks just like a dinosaur (photo/Jason Rafal)

An extraordinarily well camouflaged bird sitting on a tree branch. — An impossibly well camouflaged Northern Potoo bird that might actually be a muppet (photo/Jason Rafal)

A coati walking across the path. — One of the very chill coatis (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two coatis with their tails in the air sniffing the ground. — I love the coatis (photo/Jason Rafal)

A coati walking toward a temple. — A coati strolling toward one of the temples (photo/Jason Rafal)

A butterfly on a tree trunk drinking from a bead of sap. — A butterfly (or moth?) drinking tree sap (photo Jason Rafal)

A tiny lizard on a mossy tree trunk. — Just a little guy (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the day after our Tikal trip exploring the small town of San Ignacio. Belize and Guatemala both had very cute and sweet street dogs, and we met a lot of them as we strolled around town, shopped, and ate.

A brown and white dog stands on gravel beside a road and looks at the camera. — One of the cute roadside dogs (photo/Jason Rafal)

An equally cute and friendly street cat (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Green Iguana Conservation Project was conveniently located across the street from the house where we stayed, so it was an easy choice for an activity. Our guide, who was excellent despite initially apologizing for only being an iguana caretaker and not one of the formal guides, told us about the project’s program to incubate, hatch, and release endangered green iguanas into the wild. They also provide a sanctuary for iguanas who have injuries or other issues that prevent them from living in the wild. We got to feed and even hold a couple of the iguanas.

A male iguana in a small hut, looking regal. — A majestic male iguana (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason's hand holding out a large leaf to an iguana while it chows down. — Noming on a leaf (photo/Jason Rafal)

Four iguanas laying in a row. — Some of the adult iguanas relaxing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two baby iguanas stacked on top of each other on a stick. — A stack of young iguanas (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny female iguana with a genetic abnormality that gave her a beautiful blue tint (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black iguana sitting among the plants on a rock wall. — A sneaky black iguana (photo/Jason Rafal)

Apparently this is our year of seeing orb weavers (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last activity in San Ignacio was the beautiful Belize Botanic Garden. It had wonderful plants and a lot of animals - we’d definitely recommend it (though our overloaded car had a little bit of trouble on the dirt road getting there). I would also recommend going during a cooler season if possible - 90 degrees and 90% humidity was an intense time to explore a rainforest.

A toucan sitting in a tree with a nut in its beak. — Another toucan, this one with a nut in its mouth (photo/Jason Rafal)

All of the air plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the caretakers at the botanic garden pointed out some howler monkeys in some of the trees, which we really appreciated because we wouldn’t have seen them otherwise. We first saw a male, and then another whole family, including a young and adorable baby monkey.

A howler monkey lounging in the branches of a tree. — A relaxing howler monkey (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mother and baby howler monkey looking down from the tree branches. — A mother and baby howler monkey staring at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small black and green butterfly landing on a beautiful tropical flower. — There were so many beautiful flowers (and butterflies) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two leaf cutter ants carrying leaves across a log. — The always-mesmerizing leaf cutter ants (photo/Jason Rafal)

An iguana sitting on a tree trunk. — Another black iguana in the botanic garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

From San Ignacio, we headed to Placencia on the Caribbean Sea. We rented a very bougie beach house on the water with a beautiful pool, and we spent a majority of our time relaxing and hanging out. Our house was about halfway down the long peninsula, and we made the 20 minute drive a couple of times for activities and meals. It’s a very cute area, with lots of bars and restaurants, and was as empty as everywhere else we’d been.

Looking out over a pool and beach toward the sea. — The beautiful view from our rented house (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view down the peninsula with period piers jutting into the water. — The view up the peninsula from our house (photo/Jason Rafal)

A brightly painted bus between a row of palm trees and a gravel construction area. — Some fun painted buses (photo/Jason Rafal)

On one of our days on the beach, we went on a snorkeling tour. We got into a little motorboat and drove for almost an hour out to sea - every time we passed an island, we thought that’s where we’d stop, but we just kept going.

We eventually stopped at Silk Caye, a tiny island in the middle of nowhere consisting entirely of sand, a couple of palm trees, a BBQ and a handful of picnic tables, and a bathroom shack. It’s a protected marine reserve in Belize’s barrier reef, and the snorkeling was amazing. We swam around the island, which was completely encompassed by beautiful corals and fish. Looking out away from the island, the light turquoise water stretched into nothingness, which made me a little nervous, but it was also awe-inspriring in its vastness and how small it made me feel.

Several fish swimming through coral. — Some of the coral and fish we saw while snorkeling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Schools of several types of fish swimming above the coral. — There were a lot of fish (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a BBQ lunch, we went over to one of the nearby fishing boats, where our guide said there might be Nerf sharks looking for fish pieces. Some of us were a little nervous to get in the water, but it was worth it when we did - there were close to a dozen Nerf sharks, ranging from 3-6 feet long, just swimming around under the boat, ignoring us. A surprise turtle also appeared right next to us, with a couple of little fish swimming against its belly. I’ve never swam with such large animals, and it was very cool.

A nurse shark and several fish swim through the water. — One of the Nerf sharks we were swimming with (photo/Jason Rafal)

A turtle swimming low over the grass-covered sand. — The turtle was everyone’s favorite (photo/Jason Rafal)

Swimming with the turtle (spot the shark in the back) (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our way back from snorkeling, we stopped at Ray Caye Resort, where we got to use a very fun water slide into the ocean and relax in the pool with a beer. It was delightful, and also when we started realizing how insanely sunburned we were.

A pelican flying low over the water in front of an island. — A pelican matching the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

On the way back we saw dolphins, which was a great way to top off the day. I was expecting the snorkeling to be good, but I continue to be impressed by the wildlife I see in Central America, in the water or on land.

There were nightly storms while we were in Placencia, and one night we went out onto the pier to watch one for a while. A lightning storm across the water is amazing - it made me feel so small, but in such a comforting way.

A lighting strike across dark water, with clouds and stars overhead. — An awesome picture from the storm (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had a wonderful trip to Belize, and it was so great to be able to share it with some of our closest friends. Our travels to Central America continue to be amazing, and maybe we’ll try out a whole trip in Guatemala next time.

Two hammocks hanging beside a pool, with palm trees and the ocean in the background. — Our beach house vibe (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Last-Minute Trip to Mexico City

July 27, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in Mexico

We called Mexico City our bonus trip for the year. Jason was between jobs for a few weeks, so we booked a last-minute trip to take advantage of his time off. We both had vaguely wanted to go, but we didn’t actually know much about the city, so we were excited to experience it.

A metal wall with barbed wire along the top, with each segment painted with a mural and trees and a scooter in front. — Art and murals everywhere you look (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two people riding a motorcycle past a row of tents selling food. — A typical scene of vendors with a mural in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

People standing around a food stall, making and buying food. — Street fruit (photo/Jason Rafal)

A building with a large mural of a woman's head and shoulders, with stained glass on most of the windows. — They went all-out on building decoration (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mexico City is in a bizarre location. The lore says that when the Aztecs were looking for the right place to build their capital city, a prophecy said that wherever they saw an eagle with a snake in its mouth land on a cactus, they should build there. They ended up seeing the sign on an island in the middle of a swampy high-mountain lake, which was kind of terrible luck, but true to the prophecy, they started building the city of Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City.

Now home to a staggering 21 million people, the city feels special in both climate and history. It’s at almost 7400 feet elevation, so it takes a lot more effort to move, but unlike the high mountain desert where I grew up, the city is lush and green from the swamp it’s built on and the remarkably consistent climate (there’s a rainy season and a dry season, but the highs top out between 65 and 85 degrees year round). The city is full of beautiful parks with massive trees, and beautiful architecture from many different eras. There are benches everywhere for people to just hang out and enjoy the parks, which is lovely, and they were certainly being used.

A man pushing a loaded hand cart and a woman walking in front of a fountain with a statue of David in the center. — The David statue in Plaza Río de Janeiro (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large sign that says "CDMX" in front of a lake with large apartment buildings in the background. — CDMX against a cloudy sky (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of a park with a lake on one side, giant panda statue on the other, large buildings in the distance, and a scruffy bird flying through the foreground. — The bird makes this look so otherworldly (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two adults and a child climbing up the bottom of a large tree. — An ambitious endeavor (photo/Jason Rafal)

A brightly-lit two-level carousel in a forested park. — A beautiful carousel in Chapultepec Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we were wandering around Chapultepec Park, a thunderstorm quickly rolled in, and we took shelter under the covered storage units that the street vendors used for their wares. It rained hard for about 20 minutes, but there was beautiful light peaking through the storm.

Three metal garage doors with murals painted on them - one with butterflies, one with a sea turtle, and one with a cactus. — There was a mural on every storage unit door (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across toward a sheltered row of garage doors with murals on them, with a climbing structure in the foreground. — Waiting out the rain (I’m in front of the axolotl) (photo/Jason Rafal)

People hiding under a picnic table, with cups of juice still on top of the table. — Another method for hiding from the rain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three pillars with eagles on them and a statue with two people in the middle. — The dramatic Altar a la Patria (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had heard this was the case, but the food in Mexico City is amazing. There’s everything from street food, to traditional Mexican restaurants, to fine dining creative fusion. One of our favorite restaurants we tried was Mexican-Middle Eastern-African fusion.

A man ordering at the counter of a beautiful bakery. — The amazing Panaderia Rosetta (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cross section of a layered fruit tart. — We have no idea how they cut this…or maybe you’re forced to eat the whole thing? (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elaborate tower of food starting with a corn cake, then stewed meat, a green sauce, and mint piled on top. — One of the beautiful and delicious dishes at Masala y Maiz (photo/Jason Rafal)

The city also has amazing museums. We first went to the anthropology museum, which is in a beautiful complex and has a variety of artifacts and information spanning from the beginning of humanity through the development of the area. There were a lot of outdoor exhibits, which I loved, but the highlight was probably the rather graphic and detailed dioramas.

View through the courtyard of the anthropology museum, with a pond, buildings on each side, and a covered giant fountain in the center. — The courtyard at the Museo Nacional de Antropología (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path toward a stone building with palm trees on both sides and a stone wall on the right. — The outdoor parts of this museum were some of my favorites (photo/Jason Rafal)

A diorama of a sabertooth tiger pinning down a human and preparing to bite down on its head. — The dioramas were quite dramatic (photo/Jason Rafal)

A diorama of humans taking the organs out of a dead human. — …they were also a bit gory (photo/Jason Rafal)

A carved statue of a person with fangs staring upward. — I think this is Tlāloc, Aztec god of rain (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also visited the Templo Mayor, which was the main temple of the city and had been demolished when the Spanish started tearing everything down and rebuilding. It’s now an excavation site that you can walk through, and there are also indoor exhibits of items that have been found (there were lots of skulls and art pieces).

Rows of carved stone skulls on a wall. — So. Many. Skulls. (photo/Jason Rafal)

An assortment of skulls, stone carvings, and other artifacts. — One of the time capsule-like exhibits (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tree with bark like an asparagus stalk and branches with small, spiky leaves at the top. — A very cool tree in the ruins (photo/Jason Rafal)

Chapultepec Castle is on a hill in the massive Chapultepec Park, and the views are wonderful. Built around 1800, the site and the castle had various uses over the years. It’s now a museum where many of the rooms are set up for viewing, and visitors can also ascend the grand staircases to walk in the beautiful gardens and decks on top of the castle.

Looking down a long room with a black and white checkered floor, elaborately designed ceiling, and floor-to-ceiling stained glass depicting columns and women on one side. — This stained glass was crazy (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tower in the middle of a garden. — The beautiful rooftop gardens at the castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

A statue of a lion with one paw resting on top of the other and its head resting on top. — A mopey guardian lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

A painting of a person falling toward the earth with abstract horses and a castle behind them. — A rather intense ceiling painting in the castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and Nicole taking a self-portrait in a mirror in the museum with a model ship behind them. — Self portrait with a model ship (photo/Jason Rafal)

A red and gold carriage with a statue of a cherub on the front. — There were at least 6 cherubs on this carriage (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole leaning off a balcony and looking over the treetops of the park toward downtown Mexico City in the distance. — The view from the castle balcony over Chapultepec Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A very different museum that we visited was the Frida Kahlo house, where the artist lived for much of her life. A fascinating woman with absolutely terrible luck, Frida did amazing work, and the blue house and garden she inherited from her parents is amazing. Definitely look her up and learn more about her life, it’s a wild ride.

A large ceramic vase and plants in front of a dark blue wall with a red-rimmed window with green shutters. — A wall in Frida Kahlo’s beautiful garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also walked a little around the Coyoacan neighborhood where Frida’s house is. It’s a lovely neighborhood that felt older or more established than where we were staying. There were lots of restaurants, shops, and street vendors.

A water-stained old clock tower with a cloudy sky in the background. — The 16th century Parroquia San Juan Bautista (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fountain with a statue of two coyotes in the middle. — The coyote fountain in the park in central Coyoacan (guess what the neighborhood is named for) (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sign that says "Ignacio Allende" with a tiny painted coyote on top. — I love the little indicators of which neighborhood you’re in (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the nights we went to see the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, which is performed at the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes. We don’t have photos of the performance, but it ended up quiet different from what we expected. There was dancing. There was singing. There were dueling harps. There were people wearing giant heads. There was a comedic devil dragon. There was a ballet featuring the death throes of a deer. There was dancing with audience members. There were four false endings. It was an experience.

An elaborate building facade that says "Palacio de Bellas Artes" with an ombre tiled dome in the background. — The beautiful performing arts center (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stage with a background screen showing mountains and sky with a mural in an arch over the top. — The equally impressive stage curtain (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man in traditional clothing and a headdress surveys a crowd of people in front of the palace. — The scene in Zocalo, the central plaza (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also visited the artisan market, where we were some of the few tourists visiting on a weekday afternoon. Many of the pieces are made in studios at the market, which was very cool to see.

Looking up at a second-floor studio where guitars are hanging in a row. — A peek up into the guitar studio (photo/Jason Rafal)

We always love seeing the animals in cities, and Mexico City was particularly fun because there were tons of dogs, and tons of dog walkers, all over the place. The dog walkers would meet up in the parks, and the dogs they worked with were all very chill and well trained. We often saw them sitting in a semi circle or walking calmly in a row.

A man walking on a path through a park with 8 dogs on leashes. — A frequent park scene (photo/Jason Rafal)

Several dogs lying down in a semicircle in a park. — I was amazed at how well-trained the dogs were (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small, wrinkly white and brown spotted bulldog lying in the sidewalk with its legs stretched out behind it. — A particularly ridiculous and cute pup on the sidewalk (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dog sitting on a stool behind a street vendor and looking at the camera. — A very polite street cart dog (photo/Jason Rafal)

A blonde spaniel sticking its head out of a second-story window. — A cranky dog barking out the window at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

We didn’t see any cats at first, but we started seeing more as the trip went on, especially when we visited a community garden and educational center in Roma.

A cat sitting on the counter of a dry cleaning shop. — A dutiful shop cat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two cats on a bench with their eyes closed, one sitting and one curled up. — Sleepy kitties (photo/Jason Rafal)

A cat lying on a tin roof with large leaves in the background. — Another sleepy kitty (photo/Jason Rafal)

A kitten with blue eyes through chicken wire. — A little kitten with gorgeous eyes in a pen with its siblings (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a wonderful trip, and we have a lot of great things to say about the city. We’re happy to have a direct flight there and definitely plan to be back.

A mural with angel wings and a heart against a rainbow background that says "Love is Love..!" — There were so many rainbows <3 (photo/Jason Rafal)

A garbage truck piled high with a picture of Yoshi on the open door. — A Yoshi garbage truck (photo/Jason Rafal)

A yellow wall and clocktower of an old building. — A university near the city center (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bus with people looking out the window at the camera. — Portrait of a bus (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mural of a squirrel and a rabbit riding a pumpkin and holding a small wooden sword and a paddle with a sign that says "Huerto Roma" while an opossum stretches toward the pumpkin. — I loved this mural (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down a shaded street with a stone-walled building with ferns on the windowsill on. one side. — One of the beautiful streets in Roma Norte (photo/Jason Rafal)

On a Safari in South Africa

May 11, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in South Africa

After leaving Cape Town, we started our safari adventure. We flew to Johannesburg to meet Haley and David and, after spending one night there, we started driving out to Hoedspruit, where we would turn in the car and have a driver take us the last hour and a half to the safari lodge. Our drive was about six and a half hours, and we split it into two days.

The first few hours were through fields of crops and power plants, and the drive was pretty calm with the notable exception of a three-truck-accident that happened ahead of us and made for a very exciting half hour. At first, both lanes of traffic going our direction just stopped, with some drivers getting out or standing on their cars to see what had happened. Then, as the drivers started to clear one of the lanes ahead, everyone started moving.

A bunch of cars started driving on the shoulder, and then in the grass median between us and the other direction of the highway. We were in a rental car without the best clearance, so we were worried about driving in the grass without knowing where any holes might be, but we eventually followed a truck and an SUV over to the shoulder of the OTHER side of the highway, where we drove against traffic in a line of cars until the accident, and then cut back over through the grass to the correct side of the road. David, who was driving, did a great job staying calm in six chaotic lines of traffic as we all yelled and filmed the experience.

Luckily, that was the most exciting thing that happened to us while driving, and we were only slightly late to our lodging for the night in Graskop. Graskop is around the start of the Panorama Route, which is a beautiful, rocky area with stunning waterfalls and beautiful views. Unfortunately, the area was very smoky from nearby fires, so we didn’t see much of the views, but the waterfalls were still amazing.

Two tall waterfalls pouring down a rock face with trees growing out of the tops and sides of the rocks. — Mac Mac Falls, with amazing greenery all the way down the rock walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two waterfalls pouring into a river below with fields and mountains in the background. — Lisbon Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

The fading sun over smoky mountains with a river running toward them. — The smoky but beautiful view from Lisbon Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and Nicole reaching toward each other from an arm's length away with a waterfall in the background, and Nicole is laughing. — “Leave room for waterfalls!” (photo/Haley Carter)

We stayed in a beautiful Airbnb in Graskop that was basically made for photos. It was very simple but a great one-night stop.

The view of the sunset through a window wall with a bathtub on the floor in front. — The amazing view from inside our little cabin (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also got some great bunny chow at Divine Foods at the View in Graskop - it’s a dish consisting of (usually meat) curry in a bread bowl from the east coast of South Africa, and it’s amazing.

A bread bowl with a cracker and four sauces on a wood board on a table with a gas lamp in the background. — A delicious bunny chow meal (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next morning, we stopped for one more Panorama site at the Bourke’s Luck Potholes, where you can look down into a beautifully eroded rock canyon. We were sorry to miss the epic views part of the Panorama Route, but were still glad we were able to see the other attractions.

A view down steep rock walls into naturally-carved pools of water. — Looking down into the potholes (photo/Jason Rafal)

After dropping off our car at the adorable Hoedspruit airport and being driven to andBeyond Ngala Safari Lodge, our safari experience began with lunch and our first game drive.

A giraffe walking through tall grass toward trees. — We saw our first animals, including this giraffe, on our drive to the lodge (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two bush babies, one asleep and one peering over a wooden beam. — The lodge had a family of adorable bush babies living in one of the beams (photo/Jason Rafal)

The experience of being at a safari lodge is unlike anything I’ve ever done before. We had a 5:30 am wakeup call, headed to the breakfast area for coffee or tea and a snack, and then by 6 we were leaving for a game drive with our guide Amy and our tracker Mishack. They would have talked with the other rangers and trackers about the likely viewing options for the morning, and Amy would make a recommendation for where we could go and what we could try to see (we always followed her recommendation). For the next three and a half hours, we’d drive around the property, stopping to watch animals and changing our plans if Amy heard about a good sighting on the radio.

Around 9:30, we’d arrive back at the lodge and have breakfast, then relax for a bit before a 2 pm lunch. The next game drive started around 3:30 or 4, and we stayed out into twilight, watching animals or having drinks in the brush at sunset. Then we would head back to the lodge, have dinner around 7:30 or 8, go to bed, and then get up early to do it all over again. It was incredibly fun and fulfilling and completely exhausting.

We had a couple of special meals while we were there, including a surprise bush breakfast (Amy tricked us into thinking we might see rhinos in the area) and a boma dinner, where she joined us for our first dinner at the lodge. Both of these special meals were cooked over open fires, which is traditional in the area.

This is a good time to talk about the food at the lodge, which, along with the whole lodge experience, was amazing. We had a butler who was with us the whole time and quickly learned what we liked (sparkling water every meal), and he made sure there were always pescatarian options for Haley and David. We had a few options for each meal, and everything we picked was always delicious.

Our lodge rooms were also beautiful, with a large bed, private patio, and huge bathroom with both indoor and outdoor showers, as well as a large tub. When we returned to our room after dinner, we were escorted by a member of the staff, just in case there was a hyena or honey badger hanging out near our rooms (we didn’t see any, but it apparently happens somewhat frequently). The rest of the lodge included a pool, gym, spa, and eating area, all enclosed by a fence that started at four feet high and was only meant to keep out the elephants and buffalo, the most destructive animals who lived in the area.

The view of our bathroom from the outdoor shower (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Ngala safari lodge has a unique story - it was private land that was donated to WWF, but since they weren’t equipped to run a lodge, they leased the land to andBeyond for tourism operations. The land lease helps to fund the South Africa National Parks Trust and its work across the country. Ngala was also the first private game reserve to be incorporated into Kruger National Park, and it maintains an open boundary with Kruger, so the animals can go in and out of the property as they want (it was kind of a reverse zoo, since we had to stay inside of our property lines). They’re also very conservation-minded and focus on animal comfort, with policies like only allowing two vehicles to be near animals at a time. The prey animals were a little nervous about us, but all of the predators were completely comfortable with the vehicles - they just saw us as a large animal that sometimes hung out nearby and never really did anything.

A man bending over and drawing in the sandy ground with a small stick. — Mishack shows us where a baby rhino crossed the road (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of a zebra looking into the camera. — Each zebra has a unique stripe pattern, and I loved this one that was more black than white (photo/Jason Rafal)

A male baboon climbing up a large rock in the late afternoon light. — A large male baboon climbing to the top of a rock (photo/Jason Rafal)

A beautiful lilac-breasted roller, our favorite bird of the trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large kudu with spiraled horns looking into the distance. — A greater kudu (photo/Jason Rafal)

An impala that was in an unfortunate fight (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were lucky to hear about a female leopard sighting on our first evening at the lodge, and we got to go see her. She had stashed her cub somewhere and laid down for a nap in the tall grass (she was almost impossible to see at first), and as dusk fell she got up and started walking off and calling to the cub. We left her alone at that point, but it was amazing to spend some time with her.

Leopards are so beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

A leopard sitting in tall grass in late afternoon sunlight. — Starting to wake up and look around (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of an elephant's face between leaves. — A little elephant, so young it didn’t have tusks yet (photo/Jason Rafal)

A young elephant walking through tall grass. — Such a cute “little” elephant (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dense herd of impala, one with a red-billed oxpecker on its head. — We usually saw impala in dense herds (spot the red-billed oxpecker on the middle one’s head, eating bugs) (photo/Jason Rafal)

The trackers spend a lot of time sitting at the front of the vehicle looking for animal tracks in the dirt of the road. Once they see a fresh track to follow, they’ll get down and track on foot, and other trackers will often be dropped off by other vehicles to help. On our second day, Mishack went into the brush looking for lions. When he radioed in later to tell us he found them and we picked him up, we tried to get him to tell us how he found them. He just followed the tracks and then a lion walked in front of him, he said. Simple.

One of the lions we saw was one of three white lions that exist in the wild; it’s a recessive gene that was thought to have died out, but has started showing up again. He has very cool pale eyes and a light coat.

A white male lion yawning, with a female lion walking by in the background. — The white lion yawning - he’s not actually mad (photo/Jason Rafal)

The lion’s manes grow longer as they age, so the male lions were somewhat young. That being said, they’re huge.

A close-up of a male lion's head facing the camera. — I liked this guy’s hair tuft (photo/Jason Rafal)

A male lion lying in the grass looks back at the camera. — Another picture of the white lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

A close up of a male lion walking toward the camera and glaring. — The lions moved into the shade as they overheated in the sun, creating some dramatic action shots (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of the white lion's face, with many scars visible across his eyes and nose. — The incredibly dramatic white lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

There was a pride of female lions hanging out not far from the males - they all kept an eye out for an easy hunting opportunity but they were pretty chill overall.

A close up of a female lion looking into the distance, with a head and paw of another female lion in the background. — Two of the female lions hanging out in the sun (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the fun things about having an open camp is that the smaller animals were able to wander in - we mostly saw birds and lizards, but when we were heading to lunch from the pool this little bushbuck was grazing in the bushes right next to the path. They have absolutely giant, Disney-style eyes.

An adorable bushbuck at the lodge (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and Haley were constantly looking for new birds to add to their Merlin app, and we all enjoyed finding birds in between finding the big animals. It kept it interesting and always left us with something to do. South Africa also has a lot of really cool birds.

Two yellow-billed hornbills doing some sort of dance (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large black bird with bright red skin across its eye and under its neck and a long, sharp bill sitting perched in a tree. — The dramatic southern ground hornbill, which we saw in a tree instead of on the ground (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two African fish eagles (photo/Jason Rafal)

A male impala smelling us (photo/Jason Rafal)

We learned that hyenas often hang out near wild dogs. The dogs are very frequent and efficient hunters, but the hyenas are bigger, and they are often able to chase the dogs away from a kill pretty quickly.

A spotted hyena sitting up in the grass, with tearing and scarring on both ears. — Look at the beat up ears on this hyena (photo/Jason Rafal)

African wild dogs were first on my list of animals I wanted to see, but I tried not to get my hopes up because they’re fairly rare. Luckily, they had been hanging out on the property, and we were able to see a pack of them on the second afternoon - lions and wild dogs in one day!

They’re absolutely beautiful with their tan, black, and white coats, round ears, and long tufted tails. It was also so fun to see how much they acted like domestic dogs as they played and interacted with each other. Apparently, they are absurdly effective and impressive hunters, unlike most of our pet dogs.

A wild dog lifting its head out of the grass and looking behind it, away from the camera. — I love the ears! (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pack of wild dogs lying on the ground, with one in the back lifting its head to look into the distance. — Looking around from the pile of dogs in the grass (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two wild dogs standing next to a bush, with one licking the other's ear. — They spent a lot of time grooming each other (photo/Jason Rafal)

A standing wild dog with a cut behind its ear looking at the rest of the pack. — The dogs were covered in small (and sometimes large) cuts (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a wild dog with ears flopping to the side looking at the camera. — The pack leader, who had adorable floppy ears (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wild dog standing at a diagonal in the tall grass. — They’re such beautiful animals - I love their coat patterns (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the middle of the game drives Amy tried to make sure we were able to stop for drinks and snacks (sometimes she asked if we were okay skipping it because there were animals to go see, and we always opted for that instead). When we did have time, though, we’d stop for coffee in the mornings and drinks in the afternoon, and both came with delicious local snacks, from biltong (dried, cured meat) to cookies to some sort of amazing dried corn mix that was better than Corn Nuts. Amy and Mishack also made us a variety of mixed drinks - the classic was a gin and tonic with fresh lime, but I was partial to Amarula cream liquor over ice.

Amy and Mishack setting up a drink and snack table in a dry riverbed. — Amy and Mishack set up tasty drinks and snacks for us during the drives (photo/Jason Rafal)

The sun setting over the horizon between trees and bushes, with purple mountains in the distance. — Being out for sunrise and sunset every day is tiring but amazing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mishack is amazing at spotting things we would never have seen from the front of a moving car, especially at night. He shone a flashlight in long sweeps across the road in front of us, turning it off for us to drive by if we saw diurnal prey animals (their night vision takes a while to come back, which makes them vulnerable until it’s restored). On the second night when we were driving back, he had Amy stop for a moment, and then said what he had found was too hard to see and he’d find another one. A minute or two later he had Amy stop again and pointed out a chameleon on a tree branch, which blended in almost exactly with the leaves. When we asked how he possibly could have seen it, he said he just looks for half a lemon in the trees. We watched it change colors to react to the light for a minute, then left it alone.

A chameleon on a tree lit up by a flashlight in the dark. — A little chameleon in a tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next thing we were all able to see - a spider had created almost a full web across the road. We felt bad to have to destroy all its hard work, but the vehicles only went offroad for specific animal sightings, and we needed to take back the road.

Looking toward the front of the car in the dark, with Mishack shining a flashlight on a spiderweb across the road. — A surprise spiderweb (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elephant walking through grass with trees in the background. — We saw a ton of elephants, and it never got old (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a young elephant's face, with its trunk reaching up. — You can tell how old an elephant is by its tusk length - this one was pretty young (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a young elephant's face, with its trunk wrapped around its tusks. — Some fun trunk contortions (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elephant with its ears out to the side looking at the camera. — Flapping its ears to cool itself down (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two large birds perched in the top of a dead tree, with one bird behind the other. — Two tawny eagles in a tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

An impala walking behind a grazing wildebeest.. — The blue wildebeest and impala were often together for protection (photo/Jason Rafal)

A hippo in the water, with the eyes and nostrils of another hippo visible in front of it. — Two mating hippos (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bright blue, red, and green bird with a long forked tails flying against a blue sky. — A lilac-breasted roller in flight (photo/Jason Rafal)

A warthog walking across the road with a red-billed oxpecker on its back. — A warthog with a red-billed oxpecker hanging out on its back (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elephant walking down a dirt road flanked by dense trees. — An elephant walks down the road in the distance (photo/Jason Rafal)

The animal Jason was most excited to see was a cheetah, and they’re not always on the property. We got very lucky, though, and heard from another group that there was a mother and her half-grown cub on the reserve. The baby was still learning what to expect from the vehicles, and got into a tree to watch us more clearly.

A cheetah stalking through the grass and looking at the camera. — The mother cheetah watching us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A young cheetah standing in a dead tree and chewing on some of the bark. — The young cheetah got into a tree to see further and chew on some bark (photo/Jason Rafal)

A young cheetah standing in a dead tree and looking into the distance. — He watched us for a few minutes (photo/Jason Rafal)

We only watched the cheetahs for a few minutes before heading out to give them some breathing room, but it was so cool just to watch them move - they’re so lanky and elegant.

A large spider in a web, with smaller spiders in the web and a green background. — A large and terrifying spider (we think a golden silk orb-weaver) at our lodge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A zebra looking at the camera, with a baby zebra behind it. — This baby zebra was adorable and I was so happy to see her (photo/Jason Rafal)

The baby zebra hadn’t yet learned that oxpeckers are friends and shook this one off (photo/Jason Rafal)

A zebra that is covered in brown dirt looks into the distance. — Another zebra, this one with wider black stripes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a zebra's face looking at the camera. — This one had a bit of ear missing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bush duiker considering whether it should run away (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, fluffy bird with a long, thick tail and long talons sitting at the top of a tree. — A grumpy-looking white-browed coucal (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two young elephants walking through the grass, with the back one resting its trunk on top of the front one's back. — Two young elephants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wildebeest with several birds on its back scratching its jaw with its left back hoof. — Several yellow-billed oxpeckers were hanging out on this wildebeest (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were constantly amazed by how quickly we saw a blanket of stars after sunset - by the time we got back to the lodge around 7:30 pm, we could see the Milky Way. On our last night at the lodge, we asked one of the room escorts to take us out to the pool for a few minutes so Jason could take a couple of pictures. I don’t think it was a common request, as he was surprised but excited to see the pictures. If you look closely you can see the little round bird nests in the tree!

The star-covered night sky with a blue-illuminated tree in the bottom of the frame. — The incredible night sky (the tree was lit up from the pool below) (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the last morning before leaving the lodge hanging out with the cheetahs again, and we were the only car there, which was really nice. They were more comfortable with us than the day before, and the baby even started nursing, with the mother occasionally growling to let him know that this wouldn’t happen for very much longer.

Two cheetahs, a mother and half-grown cub, look back at the camera. — Double cheetah (photo/Jason Rafal)

A female cheetah lying in the grass and looking off to her right. — The mother cheetah checking out some sounds (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mother cheetah lying down and her baby laying next to her with its paw on her side. — The baby cheetah looking up from nursing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two men in tan pants, gray fleeces, and gray fleece hats walking away down the road. — Mishack and Tonight, another tracker, heading off to look for animals (photo/Jason Rafal)

Five impala next to a body of water, with one butting the back of another. — We spent some time at a watering hole with some hippos, a crocodile slinking around, and some playful impalas (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dwarf mongoose popping out of a hole and looking at the camera, with another one behind. — A cute dwarf mongoose next to the road (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our safari was incredible, from seeing all the animals, to Amy and Mishack hanging out with us for 8 hours a day and answering all our questions, to the amazing lodge and food. All four of us want to start planning our next safari adventure - Botswana is looking like the next one.

Close-up of a wild dog yawning. — One more bonus picture - we had a great time watching all the animals yawn (photo/Jason Rafal)

At the Cape of Storms

May 07, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in South Africa

Cape Town

Our South Africa trip was based around a safari that our friends Haley and David had found and invited us to book with them. Jason and I decided to add on some time in Cape Town before going to the lodge as well, and we ended up spending a day and a half in Johannesburg too. Overall, we took almost two weeks for the trip, which is the minimum I think I’d book to justify the 30+ hour travel days to get all the way across the world (South Africa is close to the antipode of Washington state).

I had always heard great things about Cape Town, and we were excited to spend some time there. The city has endless things to do, from outdoor activities to museums, and I was frustrated trying to prioritize what we wanted to do in our four days there.

Our first activity after arriving in Cape Town was to go on a free walking tour, which is always a good way to get some context from a local. Our walking tour was historical, and our guide took us through some of the important points of the city center. We took the tour about an hour after arriving in the city and are very glad we challenged ourselves to explore a bit before jet lag set in.

The area was originally inhabited by a few tribes, including the Khoikoi, San, and Xhosa people. The first western “discovery” of Cape Town was by the Portuguese, who sailed by in the late 1400s but never established a long-term presence in the area. The first colonization began in the mid 1600s, when the Dutch decided to establish a settlement to support ships traveling to the Dutch East Indies. Unable to find enough labor locally, they began to import slaves from other areas of Africa, as well as Indonesia, which began the cultural melting pot of the city, as well as the introduction of the “Cape Colored” racial group. The British eventually also saw the value of the Cape and, through various complicated war efforts, fought for control of the city throughout the 1800s; they eventually unified South Africa in the early 1900s.

In 1948, the National Party won on a platform of institutionalized racial segregation, or apartheid. Previously racially integrated, Cape Town, as well as the other cities in South Africa, subjected Black citizens to forced relocation to townships. While apartheid was finally repealed in 1991, racism and government corruption are still everywhere. South Africa has an unemployment rate of 40%, and there are hundreds of thousands living without electricity, clean water, and proper sanitation. As a tourist, there are large areas of the cities that we were advised not to visit based on high crime rates. The wealthy areas of the city are very white, even though white people make up only 16% of the population, and the inequality is still painfully evident. The history in this area is winding, not always well reported, and generally hard to wrap one’s head around; we had difficulty finding more detailed information to link to, but this article does as well as anything we saw online (we do want to note that the article stops at 1948 and the history most certainly does not). The history of this city, region, and country is complex and learning to understand it a bit more by visiting was rewarding though also often painful.

Okay, stepping away from the history. Cape Town is incredible. It’s gorgeous, with mountains to the south and ocean to the west. Dramatic clouds often pour over Table Mountain like a blanket, inspiring a legend of the devil having a smoking contest with a pirate. The city has incredible food, with influences from Indian, Malaysian, and African cuisine, and there’s also a lot of great coffee. Nearly everyone we met was kind and happy to talk to us about what we were enjoying on our trip, and they’re obviously all so proud of the beautiful city they call home.

A large, ornate government building next to palm trees with mountains in the background. — The Cape Town City Hall (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nine engravings on columns on the side of a stone building facade. — Carved faces representing the nine original tribes of South Africa - the Zulu, Xhosa, Bapedi, Batswana, South Ndebele, Basotho, Venda, Tsonga, and Swazi people (photo/Jason Rafal)

Cape Town buildings in front of Table Mountain, with a mural that says "Just Be Kind" visible on one facade. — The view from our hotel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a street at a row of brightly painted attached homes. — Painted houses near the waterfront (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wide building mural with three faces. — There were so many amazing murals in Cape Town (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stand selling flowers under a thatched roof that allows in streaks of light. — A flower stand at the Oranjezicht City Farm Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sea lion at the end of a dock, with boats and buildings in the background. — A sunning sea lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

One night in Cape Town we had reservations at a speakeasy, which has truly become a major American export. They were serious - we didn’t find out the location until last minute and had to provide a code to a skeptical doorman - but once we were inside we were greeted by a warm, friendly set of employees and a three-piece band singing covers of pop and rock songs. It was really fun, and the decor was pretty great as well.

Black and white photo of two bartenders singing while making drinks in a speakeasy. — Multi-talented bartenders (photo/Jason Rafal)

We took one day to drive out to the Cape of Good Hope, seeing some sights along the way. We first visited Muizenberg, which is a classic surfing town with iconic brightly colored changing shacks on False Bay. It’s very cute, and fun to watch the surfers. From there, we drove south along the water, stopping for lunch in Simon’s Town, where we ate fish and chips with a lovely view of the water. Our next stop, and one of our most anticipated, was Boulders Beach, where we got to see the penguin colony there. These are African Chinstrap penguins, and they only live in South Africa. They’re really adorable, and there were even some fluffy chicks. In addition, Boulders is an absolutely beautiful beach, and we also saw some dassies, which I loved. It was lovely all around.

A beach with large, smooth rocks, low greenery, and clear blue water with small penguins on a rock on the left. — Boulders Beach, aside being a great place to see penguins, is really beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

A penguin walks by a rock with a person's legs, shoes, and water bottle in the foreground. — At part of the beach, the penguins can come visit the humans (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two penguins swimming through green-blue water. — Penguins surfing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A penguin burrowed in the sand with a chick draped over its back. — A baby penguin draped over its parent (photo/Jason Rafal)

A penguin laying on a nest with its eyes closed and face turned toward the sun. — They’re kind of ridiculous and I love it (photo/Jason Rafal)

Five adolescent penguins on the beach. — Some adolescent penguins hanging out (photo/Jason Rafal)

An adolescent penguin walking in front of a large rock. — This one looked slightly possessed (photo/Jason Rafal)

A penguin swimming through the water with droplets flying around it. — This one was way too cool for the others (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dassie stretches its legs while staring at the camera. — Dassies are delightfully awkward (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dassie laying stretched out on the sand. — Just look at these things (photo/Jason Rafal)

From Boulders Beach we drove all the way south to the Cape of Good Hope. Along the way, we saw a lot of signs telling us to beware the baboons, which was a bit alarming since we hadn’t realized they lived in the area. We didn’t see any, but there were lots of signs telling us not to feed them.

The cape is a national park, and on our way in we were surprised to see ostriches roaming around - we had both thought they were native to Australia for some reason, but they’re actually from South Africa. It was cool to suddenly see them in the wild. We drove to the most southwest place in Africa and climbed to the top of the hill, where there were great views across False Bay and into the water below.

Two ostriches, one adult and one adolescent, standing on sandy ground. — Skeptical ostriches - don’t worry, this was taken with a telephoto lens and we didn’t actually get close (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black and green lizard suns itself on a rock. — A beautiful southern rock agama (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Cape Point lighthouse perched on a rocky outcropping with ocean and mountains in the background. — The lighthouse at Cape Point, with views across False Bay (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which is absolutely amazing. It’s a huge piece of donated property that reaches up the backside of Table Mountain (you can technically hike to the top of Table Mountain from the garden), and it’s been really well cultivated and taken care of. We spent a couple of hours strolling through the gardens and eating lunch at the on-site restaurant, which was surprisingly good. It’s one of our favorite botanical gardens, and we’ve been to a lot.

A view of the top of several giant trees with a mountain in the background. — Some of the very large trees at the botanical garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole on a walkway through the treetops, with mountains in the background. — The tree canopy walkway, which has great views of the mountains (photo/Jason Rafal)

A cobbled path with plants and trees on each side. — These pathways are amazing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view across the botanical garden, with multiple types of trees visible and Cape Town in the background. — You can see Cape Town in the distance to the top left (photo/Jason Rafal)

The base of a plant with two long leaves branching out from the center. — The bizarre Welwitschia, which has two long, thin leaves that grow for its entire life - which can be over 1,000 years! (photo/Jason Rafal)

We heard from a lot of people that going up Table Mountain while we were in town was a must. You can hike up, which takes a few hours, or there’s a cable car that only takes a few minutes. A lot of people hike up and take the cable car down, but as I was still having trouble sleeping and generally struggling a bit, we decided to just take the cable car both ways.

Aside from the spectacular views in every direction, Table Mountain is special because it’s a biodiversity hotspot for flora, with hundreds of endemic species. The top, which is a large flat area with lots of hiking trails, is rocky and covered in small plants, shrubs, and short trees. It’s beautiful in a very stark way, like many of the more extreme climates we’ve visited.

A map of the world distinguishing the different world floral kingdoms - Boreal, Neotropical, Palaeotropical, Australian, Antarctic and Patagonian, Cape. — We had no idea that the Cape has its own World Floral Kingdom - and that we’ve now been to 5 of 6 (photo/Jason Rafal)

The view looking up from the base cable car station to the top of Table Mountain, with a cable car approaching. — The view up the cables (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cable car is very cool - the bottom spins slowly as it moves, so no matter what side of the car you’re on, you can see the views from every direction during the ride. We’ve never seen that before, but it’s a great idea. As we arrived at the top, the operator welcomed us to the “ice box” and told us the last ride time down.

Generally, all the locals we met in South Africa were very sensitive to the cold, but the real thing that made the top of Table Mountain cold was the intense wind. I wore a sweatshirt plus a windbreaker, with the hood up, for most of the time - it ended up being the perfect layering for the weather.

We took the cable car up in the late afternoon, which was a choice we felt very good about because there was almost no one else up there. When we started hiking around the top, we were often totally alone. As the sun dropped lower in the sky, we also got beautiful glowing views of the city and beaches below us.

View of Lion's Head Rock and Cape Town, with the ocean in the background. — Looking down at the city, Lion’s Head, and Robben Island (photo/Jason Rafal)

A frequent view at the top of Table Mountain - people wearing all the clothes they brought and taking pictures (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking south from Table Mountain over two manmade bodies of water. — Two reservoirs near the top of the mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking out over the mountains toward the Cape of Good Hope. — Looking out toward Cape Point (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down at Camps Bay (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of a small, tall plant with upturned green and red petals. — One of the weird and beautiful plants at the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last day in the area we took a day trip to the wine areas outside of the city - Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Franschhoek.

For the entire trip, we marveled at the absence of other American tourists, and our day tours were no exception. On this one, there were two other people from the United States, but there was also a couple from Finland, another from Switzerland, two sisters from Botswana, and one person from Nigeria. It was interesting to talk to everyone and hear what questions everyone had for each other - we got into a long conversation about the crisis of American healthcare with the Finns.

We also went to three beautiful old wineries - La Bri, where we had a chocolate and wine pairing; Boschendal, where we tried to make everyone tell us what they call the game cornhole in their country (no one else had a local name for it); and Fairview, where we had a wine pairing with cow and goat cheese.

Piece of wood that says "La Bri, Franschhoek, 1694" and has three chocolates on it, with wine glasses in the background. — Our beautiful chocolate pairing at La Bri (photo/Jason Rafal)

An owl looks down from a tree branch surrounded by green leaves. — A skeptical owl outside of the La Bri tasting room (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking across a rectangular lawn toward a white house, with trees on either side and mountains in the background. — The beautiful Boschendal tasting area (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dark red and green grape leaf, with other leaves and vines in the background. — Fall colors on the vines (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two wine barrels, with more stacked barrels in the background. — Barrels in the cellar (photo/Jason Rafal)

A yellow and black bird perched on a bush. — A curious bird in a rosebush (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two people holding hands and walking down a path with overarching trees over the path. — All three of these wineries were really beautiful properties (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small white goat next to a fence. — I was thrilled to find the goats at Fairview (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our guide, Nelson, was a Cape Town local who taught us a lot about the history of the area. On our way back to the city, he talked about the townships and pointed out where he had grown up. It was a very sobering and important end to a very bougie day of fancy wine and food.

The sunset over the mountains viewed through the windshield of a van. — The last light of sunset over Table Mountain. Can you see the shape of a man laying down? (photo/Jason Rafal)

Cape Town was absolutely wonderful, and we loved our time there. I want to go back for a week and do all the things we didn’t get a chance to do - climbing Lion’s Head, visiting more of the peaks and beaches, and going to the museums that we didn’t have time to visit. There were also so many more restaurants I wanted to try. We were sad to leave but excited for the rest of our trip.

The silhouette of trees on the top of a hill with an orange sky in the background. — Trees along the ridge of Signal Hill (photo/Jason Rafal)

Johannesburg

This blog is a little different because it’s not chronological - I wanted to pair our the first part of our trip in Cape Town with the last part in Johannesburg so that the safari would get its own blog. So, please time travel with me as I tell you more about the city we visited at the end of our trip. We flew into Joburg before heading out to the safari, and then after the safari we flew back to the city for a day before heading back to Seattle.

Johannesburg was difficult for me. It’s massive, with more than 5 million people in the city and 10 million in the metro area, and so much of that population lives in abject poverty. We stayed in one of the fancy tourist areas, which was essentially a completely walled-in outdoor mall with three Marriott hotels, lots of restaurants and high-end shops, a supercar dealership, and an armored car dealership. Access was strictly controlled, especially at night, so that we could feel safe walking between the buildings. It did feel safe, but also incredibly isolated from the rest of the city.

Throughout our time in South Africa we learned about load shedding, which impacts the entire country. Essentially, the power system has collapsed, and there are rotating power outages every day, with the government designating a phase that dictates how many hours a day the power is out. While we were there, the country was in phase 8, which means that the power was turned off for 4 hours in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, and an additional couple of hours overnight. The rest of the time, everyone uses generators or other alternate power if they can afford it, but a lot of people just don’t have power. There’s been a high impact on small businesses, many of which had to shut down, and there are constantly stoplights out all over the city, causing increased traffic. Even our nice hotel in Johannesburg, which was set up on the compound’s generator power, had trouble switching to generator the last night we were there, and we woke up without power or water for a couple of hours. The problem is constantly top of mind for residents, and an enormous percentage of the advertising we saw either referenced, joked about, or promised solutions to the pain of living with load shedding. Unfortunately, with a government-funded power system that sees constant embezzlement of allocated funds, there is no faith of or hope in improvement any time soon.

We were planning both a bike tour in Soweto and a visit to the Apartheid museum on our last day, but because our flight got moved up a couple of hours, we only had time for the bike tour. Despite the amazing things we’ve heard about the museum, we both thought the bike tour was the right option for us. We learned a lot about the history of this important township and I felt a lot more connected to the city after talking to locals.

Soweto - originally South Western Townships - was an area where Black residents of Johannesburg were moved in the 1930s and 40s. It quickly became the largest Black city in South Africa, with a current population of more than 1 million. It was home to Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Trevor Noah (the South Africans would like Trevor Noah back, but say America can keep Elon Musk). It’s also the home of the 1976 student uprising, where students of all ages protested a ruling that Afrikaans, a language developed by the Dutch settlers of the area, should be the language used in schools in Soweto, destroying the educational opportunities of the residents. The protests were violently suppressed, with more than 1,000 killed or injured, but civil unrest grew until the repeal of apartheid in the 1990s. We heard a lot of exasperation with the current government, but there’s a general sense that one of the more successful government efforts of the past 30 years has been free, accessible education for all South Africans. To learn a bit more about the history of Soweto you can read this page or the Wikipedia article - there seems to be a dearth of well written information about Soweto on the internet which is a shame. Please let us know if you find anything else!

Our guide Tebogo, a Soweto local, led us on our bike tour through the West Orlando suburb (We can’t recommend One Day Africa enough - look them up if you’re in Cape Town or Johannesburg). We visited Nelson Mandela’s house and museum, then biked to the decommissioned Orlando Towers, which were previously part of a coal power plant and now home to a complex that features food, beer, and activities like in-tower bungie jumping and paintball. On the way back, we biked next to an improvised “shanty” town, where we saw how some of the township’s poorest residents lived (and waved back to a lot of kids).

Ten dancers in motion, with six clapping and four dancing in front. — Botswanan dancers (when the arbitrary line was drawn between South Africa and Botswana, they happened to be on the South African side) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Seven people on bicycles at a stop sign, with houses behind brick fencing on the left and a green field on the right. — Our group of bikers (photo/Jason Rafal)

A herd of goats eating from a pile of trash at the side of a road, with buildings and power lines in the background. — Some goats eating on the side of the road (photo/Jason Rafal)

View between two brightly painted towers. — The Orlando Towers (photo/Jason Rafal)

A hollowed out half loaf of bread with fries and sauce poking out and a fried egg on top. — A kota sandwich, a local street food designed to be easily portable and carb-heavy (it’s delicious) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Something that struck us throughout our time in the cities was the sense of hope - despite the significant social and governmental issues faced by the South Africans, there’s a general feeling that things can and will get better. I’ll be thrilled to see it. We’d highly recommend visiting South Africa, and please book some tours with Black-owned tour companies while you’re there.

Next, we get to show you some safari animals.

2022 in Review

February 22, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in United States

We did a lot in 2022, from traveling to attending weddings to seeing friends. These photos from the year aren’t from one of our large trips, but they encompass more of what made the year special overall.

The Space Needle from the Bainbridge ferry, with a dock and apartment buildings in the foreground. — One of the best views of Seattle is from the Bainbridge ferry (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent most of the spring in the Seattle area, where we hiked and enjoyed the views as the days got longer.

The beautiful Olympic mountains on a rare sunny winter day

A surprise baby seal at Discovery Park

A fun trail obstacle

A lovely view from Queen Anne

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A winter sunstar in Leavenworth

In March, we got together with Jason’s family for the GOES-T launch in Cocoa Beach. Between the launch, visiting the Kennedy Space Center, and spending time at the beach, we all enjoyed ourselves. Jason rented a big lens just for the occasion.

Our view of the GOES-T launch at Kennedy Space Center

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The Firing Room Theater at the Kennedy Space Center

The Saturn V rocket

Nicole and Ally at the beach

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An extensive mini golf course with the Rafals

Since we were on the East Coast anyway, we flew up to Virginia to spend some time with Jason’s family and visit a whole lot of baby animals. I always love an excuse to cuddle with baby goats.

The adorable Adele

Hiking at Ivy Creek

Cuddling with baby goats <3

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This is what happiness looks like

In August, we went to a wedding at Lake Tahoe. I had never been and was really excited, and it didn’t disappoint. There were parts of the area that felt surprisingly similar to Colorado, but the giant, beautiful lake is really one of a kind. We’d love to go back.

Lake Tahoe is amazing for drone shots

Eagle Lake

Jason took lots of beautiful pictures of plants and flowers over the year.

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Jason wanted me to specify that this one was in Texas, not Washington

Jason also took a lot of photos of animals, from pets to wild birds (he’s getting increasingly into birding).

Albus posing adorably, as usual

Trying out a new zoom lens on Caprica

A cute little Canada Jay

We spent some time in the summer camping, hiking, and exploring. It was nice to see friends and get the Jeep dirty.

Nicole and Megan on the Olympic Peninsula

Find the people climbing down the trail

A dirty Jeep is a happy Jeep

Jarod catching a fish

We also got a little drone, and we took some pretty shots from above our house.

An aerial view of the rose garden near our house

A sunset view of city

Our house is near the Seattle Zoo, so we got memberships to add it to our walking options around our place. Jason enjoyed practicing his wildlife photography, particularly once the birds were let out again after the avian flu quarantine.

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As always, Seattle is beautiful and we feel lucky to live here. We’ll see where 2023 takes us.

Two boats on the Puget Sound at sunset with the Olympic mountains in the background. — Sailors at sunset from Golden Gardens park (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Sparkling Lights of Madrid

January 13, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in Spain

The day after Christmas, we took the train from Barcelona to Madrid for the remainder of our trip. High speed trains are wonderful - it was about 2.5 hours between the cities, and it was nice to be able to alternate between reading and looking out at the farmland around us. I’m always sad about our lack of trains when I’m in Europe or Asia.

We had seen something about a forest in the Madrid train station, so I dragged us over to it before we went to our hotel. The internal hallways between the trees were blocked off, but the forest itself was amazing - it gave a sense of calm to the area, and it was nice to see so much lush green right next to the hectic terminal.

I want a forest in every train station now (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we arrived in Madrid, we were struck by two things: there were beautiful lights everywhere, and the city was FULL of people. Apparently everyone has family in Madrid, and they seem to visit them over Christmas.

The holiday lights in Madrid are extensive, and I’m sure part of the reason that the city is so crowded over the holiday. There seemed to be a big strolling culture, and people spent the afternoon and evening walking through the central streets, shopping, and taking pictures.

Photo of lit up trees and a monument with a horse and rider on top across a lake. — Completely lit up trees across the Great Pond of El Retiro (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole walking down a street in a crowd of people toward a tree. — Walking toward the tree at Puerta del Sol (photo/Jason Rafal)

Statue of a man on a horse on top of a stone pillar with writing wrapped around it, riding toward a giant lit up tree. — Carlos III rides into a giant Christmas tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an overhead light display between three buildings. — The most impressive part of the light display, IMO (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of crowds of people walking down a street with red light displays in the shape of ribbon overhead. — Giant ribbon loops of light over tons of people (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a crowded street toward a large Christmas tree. — More tree, more lights, more foot and car traffic (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our first full day in Madrid, we did a free walking tour. I’d highly recommend looking one up in a new city if you have time - we’ve always had great experiences and learned a lot of good information. Note that while the tours are free, you should definitely tip your guide (it’s a pay what you want system). If you’d like some overall Spanish history, Jason enjoyed these videos: The Animated History of Spain and Why 70% of Spain is Empty. We’re both fascinated by the fact that in the 1970s, after democracy was re-established at the end of the Franco regime, Spain actually reinstituted a constitutional monarchy.

Our actor-and-tour-guide, Paul, walked us through the different kings and quirks of Madrid’s history, which all revolved around his claim that the Spanish are superstitious and like things simple. The city was originally built by the resident Muslim forces to defend Toledo, the original location of the Royal Court, until the Royal Court moved to Madrid in the mid 1500s. The history that Paul walked us through was over the Habsburg reign of one Carlos, and then three Felipes, and then another Carlos (he illustrated this with a hamburger analogy, which was entertaining).

We spent some time in Plaza Mayor, the square in the center of the old city, was built and re-built from wood three times before they decided to rebuild using stone so it would stop burning down.

Photo of a circular bench with engravings of people walking and dancing. — A historical scene depicted on one of the benches surrounding a lamppost at Plaza Mayor (photo/Jason Rafal)

We learned that the first time the statue of Felipe III and his horse was erected in Plaza Mayor, the horses’s mouth was open wide enough that birds kept getting in and dying, and the constant noises made people think the statue was haunted. They redid it to fix the issue.

Photo looking up at a statue of a horse being ridden by a king. The horse has huge, weirdly shaped eyes. — Whoever was carving Felipe III’s horse’s head was struggling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two towers through an archway that leads to another street. — One of the archways leading out of Plaza Mayor (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also learned about a weird quirk of the city’s clocks, where the number 4 is represented by IIII instead of the more widely accepted Roman numeral IV. Upon some research, it looks like this was fairly common in old clocks and watch faces, and there are some theories as to why. The one Paul told us was that there’s a greater visual balance to using IIII across from VIII on the clock, so it was originally preferred and lasted into modern times.

Photo of a life-sized figurine leaning out of a second-story balcony and holding a clock. — A figurine of a watch maker with a clock representing 4 as IIII (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looping back to superstition, Paul told us about the traditions that people had in order to maximize their chances of winning the lottery. There is one shop that sells lottery tickets that is vastly more popular than all the rest because it’s sold to multiple winners. He also took us to a statue of a man, called “The Curious Neighbor,” who has a shiny gold butt from all the people trying to replicate the luck of a man who touched the statue shortly before winning the jackpot. Most of our group touched the butt.

Photo people looking at a statue of a man leaning against a railing. — The Curious Neighbor (photo/Jason Rafal)

Paul ended our walk with a quiz, which was surprisingly fun. We did much better than expected.

Photo of a man squatting in the center of a circle of people and holding up three fingers. — Paul asks us something about the superstitious number three in our quiz (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of Jason’s friends recommended the naval museum, which was pretty cool even as someone who is not super interested in the navy (Jason is much more into it). There were tons of boat models, and many of them were cut in half to see the inside of the boat.

Model ships in glass boxes in the naval museum (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a room with a tapestry and cabinets displaying jugs and plates, with a mirror on the ceiling reflecting the tapestry. — A collection of items found in the sunken *San Diego* in 1992 (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of three buildings, one with a mural of fruit, one pink, and one dark yellow, with a statue of a cross in the foreground. — A colorful view near Plaza Mayor (photo/Jason Rafal)

On one of the clearer days, we walked over to the Temple of Debod for sunset. Aside from having nice angles for photography, it’s also on a hill that has a nice view overlooking the city. The temple itself is a bit controversial; it was relocated from Egypt in the 1960s so it wouldn’t get flooded by a dam, but it was reassembled in a different order than the original setup, and it remains uncovered and exposed to the elements. It sounds like there’s a plan to cover it soon.

The view from the temple (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset on a building (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of many peafowl in the garden outside of the royal palace (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our hotel was near the giant and lovely Parque de El Retiro, which features beautiful buildings, museums, and miles of walking trails. In such a dense city area, it was great to have this giant piece of nature so close.

People strolling in front of the Palacio de Cristal (photo/Jason Rafal)

A nice lumpy fountain in the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

This empty path at dusk felt starkly different from the rest of the city (photo/Jason Rafal)

We happened across a feral cat colony getting fed (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a skyline of trees and buildings viewed over a full vessel of water. — Dusk reflections from the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

I was sick for part of the time we were in Madrid, so we didn’t do as much sightseeing as we’d like, but when we could get away from some of the crowds, the city was lovely. We’d like to go back and visit some of the museums we weren’t able to get into, and also take a day trip out to Toledo. We had a great time in Spain and are excited to do some more exploring in the future.

Photo of a man shopping at a small storefront of books. — One of the adorable book kiosks near El Retiro (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Jason holding up a togo coffee cup that says "Feliz Coffee" and has a stamp of small shapes, including a moka pot, camera, and flower. — A cup from one of our favorite coffee shops (photo/Jason Rafal)

Christmas in Catalonia

January 08, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in Spain

First, Barcelona is a great winter holiday destination. The weather was 60s and sunny, only a couple of attractions were crowded, and we were able to get into almost all the restaurants and bars we were interested in. We immediately loved the city for its walkability, great food, and highly available specialty coffee.

Barcelona is in Catalonia, a region of Spain that identifies as having a unique language, history, and culture. There have been off-and-on movements to separate from the rest of Spain. If you’d like to learn more about that, Jason found some videos that explained some of the history: Catalonia’s Independence Movement, Explained and The History of Catalonia.

Photo of Nicole and Jason taking a self portrait in an elevator. — Our customary jetlagged-in-a-tiny-European-elevator picture (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a park with two tall buildings in the background and a structure with a golden chariot pulled by golden horses on top. — The view from our hotel room (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two exterior walls, one colorfully painted and one covered with ivy. — A colorful corner in Barcelona (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a butcher stall in a market. — A butchery in a market (photo/Jason Rafal)

In our explorations of the city, we went up to Montjuïc, where we had lunch overlooking the city and then went up to the castle. I wouldn’t consider the castle a must-do, but there’s a beautiful walking trail around the outside of it, and the views from the top of the hill are lovely. We took the gondola back down into the city.

Photo of a path with grass on one side and wide, lumpy trees on the other. — The park at Mirador de Miramar (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole ducking to go through a tower door on the castle. — I’m too tall for this (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Montjuïc castle wall. — The Montjuïc castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also spent some time at Christmas markets, where we struggled to understand some of the local jokes.

Photo of a market stall with a figuring of a man pooping on the roof. — We kept seeing this figurine everywhere, in various sizes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Fira de Santa Llucia. — The market (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo looking down a walking street toward the Arc de Triomf. — A nighttime view of the Arc de Triomf (photo/Jason Rafal)

I don’t usually go out of my way to recommend bars and restaurants, but we had a really wonderful experience at Two Schmucks, which is a top 10 cocktail bar in the world. It was pretty empty so we were able to chat with the very friendly bartenders, and the drinks were unusual and incredibly good. The decor was also very fun, and they sent us home with stickers and restaurant recommendations.

Photo of a wall in the Two Schmuck's bar, with writing all over one side. — The decor at Two Schmucks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a light brown cocktail next to a glass of water. — A delicious drink with the longest ice cube we’d ever seen (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also had absolutely wonderful coffee, and we didn’t even make it to all of the places that looked good. The coffee shops were often adorable as well.

Photo of a small coffee trailer in an industrial space. — The adorable and infrequently open Skye Coffee (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the inside of a small coffee shop with a stone and brick interior and a green espresso machine. — The equally adorable Xiloteca Coffee + Botiga (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also paid the entrance fee to go into la Palau de la Musica, which is just a very beautiful concert hall. The ceiling has a massive dewdrop of glass, and the entire thing is colorful and impressive.

Photo of an intricate ceiling with elaborately carved stairs going up in the background. — The staircase going up to the auditorium (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two rows of colorfully tiled columns with Nicole in the background. — Beautiful balcony columns (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an auditorium with stained glass windows on one side and a huge stained glass skylight in the center of the ceiling. — The inside of the auditorium at la Palau de la Musica (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the the ceiling of the auditorium, with the stained glass skylight surrounded by carved roses. — Another shot of the amazing ceiling (photo/Jason Rafal)

On Christmas Eve we took a day trip out to Montserrat, which is wonderfully accessible by train and has great hiking around the monastery. The landscape is vast, dry, and full of giant lumpy rocks. It vaguely reminded me of the American southwest. There were many well-established paths (though the map was not as helpful as I hoped) and we took the Sant Joan funicular and climbed up to a viewpoint to see all the way to the Mediterranean Sea and watch the climbers on one of the giant rocks near us. It was a nice way to get some fresh air and see more of the area.

Photo from the inside of a cave looking out over a concrete wall and toward the landscape. — Our lunch spot at Montserrat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole ducking to go under a rock overhang. — One of the more challenging parts of the trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a steep trail toward a small chapel. — Looking down the steep trail toward the Sant Joan Chapel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a large rock wall with two climbers working their way up. — Climbers on one of the big rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a building on a rocky outcropping with rocks and trees in the foreground. — The Ermita de Sant Miquel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a mountain from a gondola, with the other yellow gondola coming up in the distance. — Taking the gondola back down the mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the surprises of the trip was how much we fell in love with Gaudí’s creations. We first went to Casa Batlló, where we were struck by the beauty, livability, and natural elements of the apartment. He prompts a sense of wonder and surprise that is missing from most (all?) other architecture, and it was so fun to walk through the rooms and see how everything was done.

Photo looking up at the facade of a building. — The facade next to Casa Batllo (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a curved ceiling with intricate skylights. — Skylights in Casa Batllo (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an elaborate chandelier in the middle of a spiraled ceiling. — The spiral ceiling and chandelier in the living room (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of ventilation built into the ceiling. — Some of the ventilation in the apartment (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a door and two windows in a blue-tiled room. — Beautiful doors and walls in the central staircase (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking up through the central staircase area of the house. — The under-the-sea feel of the apartment (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a wooden door with a weird, curvy doorknob. — One of the doorknobs that Jason fell in love with (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two artistic sculptures on the roof deck of the house, one similar to a cross and one to a ridge. — Some of the tiled work on the roof of the apartment (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went to la Sagrada Familia. I’m not at all religious, and I regard most cathedrals as very pretty (I loved stained glass) but vaguely uncomfortable. It’s usually a 5-minute in-and-out experience. From the outside, the building is very weird but not very appealing to me - it’s a bit brown and lumpy, and there are lots of religious carvings.

Photo of the outside of la Sagrada Familia with a lake and trees in the foreground. — The current state of the outside of la Sagrada Familia (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of 6 spires, the central tower under construction, and a crane. — Some of the weird spires (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a carved facade of Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus with a pigeon roosting on the baby's head. — A pigeon rests on the baby Jesus’s head (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we walked into la Sagrada Familia, however, my jaw literally dropped. It’s one of the most incredible human feats I’ve ever seen. First, the scale is insane. Both of our necks hurt from looking up by the time we left. The columns, which I could only reach halfway around, reach impossibly high before branching like trees against the intricate ceiling. The stained glass, instead of clearly depicting scenes, is made up of abstract shapes, enforcing the feeling of being in a gigantic indoor forest. One side of the cathedral has cool shades of stained glass, mostly blues and greens, while the other has warm yellows, oranges, and reds. All of the stained glass brings in light that reflects off the columns and ceiling in a beautiful rainbow of light. Sainte-Chapelle in Paris has an impossible amount of stained glass, but the beauty and intentionality of la Sagrada Familia’s stained glass is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Photo of the high, elaborate ceiling and upper stained glass in the cathedral. — The remarkable ceiling of la Sagrada Familia (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a corner between two walls of stained glass. — The cooler-toned side of the cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a dark figure between two columns in the cathedral. — A slightly ominous figure (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a corner of the cathedral with yellow and orange light pouring in and reflecting off of the ceiling. — The incredible warm wall of the cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of stained glass projecting a rainbow of colors onto a column. — I loved the rainbow reflections on this column (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of one side of a curved row of organ pipes with walls of stained glass in the background. — Some of the organ pipes in the church (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our third Gaudí exploration was Park Güell, outside of the city center. It’s a beautiful park, but it was quite crowded on Christmas, especially in the tiled areas. There are times in the morning and evening when it’s only open to locals, which sounds like a wonderful experience. It has a great view of the city, and more fun architecture throughout.

Photo of a pink building and palm trees with Barcelona in the background. — Looking out toward the sea from Park Güell (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of NIcole sitting on a rock bench in a wall of benches and stone columns. — Hanging out in the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two Gaudi-designed towers with Barcelona in the background. — Another view from the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a while tiled ceiling with two green and blue tiled suns. — The beautiful tiles under the observation deck in the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a lizard with tourists in the background. — The famous lizard at the front of the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a pond with an elaborate structure with a golden chariot on top in the background. — The lovely Cascada del Parc de la Ciutadella (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole walking through a tall stone structure. — Walking through the structure above the pond (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a statue of a crane standing over a fox that has knocked over a water vessel. — An interesting statue in the Parc de la Ciutadella (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a small, three-wheeled truck that says "Rockstar Lifestyle" on the side. — An excellent vehicle (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Many Charms of Bergen

October 13, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in Norway

Every time we told someone in Oslo or Svalbard that we were going to Bergen next, they were delighted for us. It was a high bar and we weren’t disappointed.

After a long travel day, (Longyearbyen to Tromsø to Oslo to Bergen with a painful customs and security process in the hangar serving as Tromsø’s temporary airport), we got in late and headed to bed. On our first full day, we explored the city center.

Photo of a park with a moat surrounding an internal green space, with colorful row houses in the background. — Muséhagen park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bergen exudes beauty, fun, and youthful energy. It’s a college town with hundreds of years of history that’s also covered in beautiful murals and (frequently painfully direct) graffiti. It’s touristy but there’s enough space to get away from the crowds. Everywhere you turn there are colorfully painted houses (why does everything have to be neutral colored in the U.S.?) and tree-covered hills next to glassy water. We immediately loved it.

Photo of an espresso drink in a white cup. — First, coffee (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a narrow cobbled street with colorful houses on both sides. — One more look at the beautiful colorful houses of Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a full-height blue and white mural of a bird on the side of a two-story building. — A beautiful mural (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a mural of a rainbow colored banana with a dripping ink blot above it. — Another excellent mural (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bryggen, one of the most iconic areas on Bergen, features a row of wooden buildings that contain shops and galleries. First established in the 14th century, the area has burned down several times, and continues to be rebuilt to the original plans using traditional (very slow) methods.

Bryggen was the home of the German merchant community in Bergen, where they dominated northern European trade to both the east and west for two hundred years. The neighborhood within Bergen functioned as a self-contained village for the Hanseatic League, only integrating with the rest of the city when it lost power in the 1700s.

Photo of a row of brown, yellow, red, and white storefronts along a wide wooden deck.

Photo of people walking between two wooden buildings on plank wooden flooring with a pride flag hanging on one side and a sign that says "Apent". — One of the inner alleys in Bryggen (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of a ship through a large arched doorway in a medieval-looking wall. — A ship through the wall of Bergenhus Fortress (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a pigeon perched on a bench next to a lake, with other pigeons on the ground around it. — Some of Jason’s urban bird photography (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the wooden buildings of Bryggen at sunset. — Bryggen at sunset (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the evenings we were in Bergen, there was a culture night where various amateur groups gave performances at different stages around the city center. It was an incredibly broad selection of things - there was hip hop dancing, orchestral classical music, pole dancing, tango, and much more.

Photo of a basset hound in front of a bandstand with flowers everywhere. — An adorable dog listens to the classical music (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a group of people watching two people pole dance on a stage set up in a street. — A pole dancing performance in downtown Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a walking street in Bergen at dusk. — Evening walks in Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

On day two we took the funicular up Mount Fløyen, which has a wonderful view overlooking the city. After hiking around a small portion of the beautiful and established trails at the top, we walked the steep, winding path back down to the city.

Photo of the view from Mount Floyen, with Bergen and the water below. — The view from the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole crouching next to five goats lying on the ground. — I was delighted that there were goats at the top of Mount Fløyen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a duck swimming through very still water. — A duck on a very calm mountain lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a painted wooden troll's head with a chunk of forehead missing. — One of the trolls at Trollskogen, a troll-themed park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking up the hill toward Mount Floyen, with houses wrapping around roads on the way up the hill. — The view up the hill to Mount Fløyen from Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the afternoon, we drove west of Bergen, near Telavåg, and went for a hike out to the coast. I found the trail by zooming around Google maps until I found some accessible public land, and it was a little longer and much muddier than we’d anticipated, but it was worth it. Sometimes the random side trips are busts, but sometimes they work out beautifully, and this was the latter.

Photo of Nicole walking up a steep hill toward trees at the top, with blue skies and wispy clouds in the background. — Walking up one of the very steep hills on the hike (photo/Nicole Harrison)

The scenery was gorgeous but not at all what I expected - it was mainly huge rocky outcroppings with small plants and marshes in between. For some reason I had expected more forest and less low brush. We saw some other hikers, but the area was mostly quiet and incredibly peaceful.

Photo of ponds of water between rocky outcroppings with a cloudy sky in the distance. — Little lakes of water between the rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a catwalk trail going through the marsh, with a fork in the trail at the center and steep wooden stairs going up a hill. — A fork in the marshy trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole walking on a rocky outcropping toward the ocean. — Finally spotting the sea (photo/Jason Rafal)

One thing about being so far north is that the light is beautiful for a much longer period of time. We spent a few hours at the coast, and all of it was beautiful even though the sun didn’t set until after we left.

Photo of a trail, some of it mud and some catwalk, winding through grass and rocks toward the ocean. — The trail was all rocks, mud, and catwalks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole standing on a rock above the ocean. — Nicole and the sea (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of six sheep, five white and one brown, in a green field at sunset. — Sheep grazing in the golden light (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Askøy Bridge at sunset with a boat in the foreground. — Sunset from the lovely Nordnesparken in Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last day in Norway, we took a fjord tour. We drove out to Øystese for the tour, and stopped to see waterfalls on the way.

Photo of a waterfall with dense forest in the background. — Mørkhølsfossen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an Avis van next at the side of a road with two people in camouflage crouched near it. — You can see some guys doing military training on the right - we were amused that they used a rented van (photo/Jason Rafal)

In Øystese we put on thick, windproof full body suits and goggles and boarded a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) and set out into the fjord with four other tourists. Our local guide alternated between telling us about the surrounding scenery and taking sweeping, high speed turns through the water just for fun. It definitely would have been chilly if the weather was any colder or wetter, but we got lucky. The boat was very fun, had great visibility, and was able to get right up to the cliffs on either side of the fjord.

Photo of Nicole with a warm suit and goggles on, looking excited. — Very excited to get on the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a rocky, forested island with one golden coniferous tree in front. — A lone fall-colored tree on a rocky island (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking up at the top of a cliff with water spilling downward over the edge. Trees and blue sky are above. — There were tons of tiny waterfalls in the fjord (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of water spilling over a rocky cliff with trees growing in the background. — A tiny rainbow in the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of water falling over a rocky mountainside with trees going in the background. — One more picture of pretty water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a red and white commercial boat in the water with a forested mountainside behind it. — A photogenic red boat in the green water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a gray shed camouflaged against gray rocks, moss, and trees. — A little shed with a green roof hiding behind the rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a sunbeam over a rocky island with coniferous trees. — A little rocky island (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of three houses, two gray and one white, on a forested hillside overlooking the water. — We would like this house (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a bird taking off from the water. — Jason continues to improve his bird photography (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two birds perching on a wooden dock. — More birds (photo/Jason Rafal)

There were little towns everywhere in the fjord, some reachable by road and some only by boat. Many of them required a car or boat ride and then a short hike to reach the house.

Photo looking up a valley from the water, with some houses in a sunbeam on the lower hillside. — Dramatic fjord landscapes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two buildings with a sailboat and a commercial boat in front. — A boat dock deep in a fjord (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of houses on a grassy hillside with lots of trees with a glaciated mountain in the background. — A dramatic glacier background for some lovely hillside houses (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bergen was the perfect ending to our whirlwind Norwegian adventure, and we understand why people love it. We’ll definitely be back.

Photo of Bryggen across the water. — Bryggen from across the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the front doors of two colorful houses in Bergen. — Colorful houses in Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Jason taking a picture of us in the reflection of a mirrored art piece. — Self portrait in an art piece at the Bergenhus Fortress (photo/Jason Rafal)

78' North

October 07, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in Norway

We’d been excited for Jason’s work trip to Svalbard since he got the invite. An archipelago deep in the Arctic, Svalbard is home to Longyearbyen, the northernmost settlement in the world, and we knew it would be unlike anywhere else we’d ever been.

If you haven’t heard of Svalbard, I’d recommend finding it on a map for context. It’s closer to the North Pole than it is to mainland Norway. They have four months of midnight sun, two months of polar night, and another monthish where it’s just twilight all the time. We visited in the in-between time where there was both a day and a night, but it never truly got dark.

Traditionally, the human presence on the islands has been mostly Norwegian and Russian, but the Russian settlements mostly shut down in the 1990s. The region is considered an unincorporated area of Norway, so we had to go through passport control on the way there and the way back. The first prominent industry was coal mining, which is now mostly shut down and replaced by tourism and research.

Photo of red buildings with mountains and a glacier in the background. — Longyearbyen from the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were in Svalbard because Jason had a satellite conference hosted by KSAT, who owns ground stations all over the world (though the most exciting ones are in the Arctic and Antarctic, where they communicate with satellites in polar orbit.

Our first stop when we got off the plane at the Longyearbyen airport was the SvalSat ground station, where we were greeted by the eerie sight of more than 100 radomes appearing through the fog. The antennae and the radomes that enclose them range in size, but the largest ones are massive, as you can see in the first picture. We went inside one for the conference introduction.

Photo of two tour buses in front of an antenna dome with foggy mountains and ocean in the background. — The scale of the larger radomes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two radomes with on a flat shale area with foggy ocean in the background. — The radomes had varying patterns (photo/Jason Rafal)

I have been a few places that I could describe as otherworldly, but nothing comes close to the plateau with these radomes. The ground was all brown and gray shale, and especially in the fog, there was nothing you could see except for radomes and the occasional building. Some of the KSAT employees mentioned that the people who live in Longyearbyen have conspiracy theories about what the ground station is actually for, and I can’t fault them for that.

Photo of dozens of radomes with shale in the foreground and fog in the background. — Radomes in the fog (photo/Jason Rafal)

The road to the ground station also goes past the Global Seed Vault, which houses more than a million seed varietals in case of any catastrophic incident that wipes out crops. The seeds are frozen and kept in the Arctic permafrost.

Photo looking down a curved dirt road with a view of the global seed bank with water and mountains behind. — Looking down the hill at the Global Seed Vault (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the global seed vault door next to a brown building with tundra and a dirt road in the foreground. — The door to the Seed Vault (left) and a building that we can’t help you identify (right) (photo/Jason Rafal)

After we checked into the hotel, we left for a boat trip into Isfjorden. It was dark and foggy and beautiful.

We went past Bjorndalen, the area I would hike in the next day. It was cool to see this valley from the water and then later be able to hike around.

Photo of a dozen houses on a brown and gray hillside across a wataerway. — A neighborhood leading into Bjorndalen, the valley between the two mountains (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went past one of the old Soviet towns that are no longer populated. Grumont was home to more than 1000 people, which is hard to imagine looking at it now. The remaining buildings are very apocalyptic looking, with no windows and disappearing paint colors.

Photo of a hillside across the water with four abandoned, crumbling buildings. — The Soviet settlement of Grumont, which was abandoned in the 1960s (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the coolest things we got to see were the jagged mountainsides emerging out of the fog. In the summer, this strip of cliffs is the home to tons of birds who make their nests here. We were in Svalbard after they had migrated away, but the cliffs were still green from all of the guano.

Close up photo of gray cliffs with orange and green vegetation growing. — Some of the most colorful landscape we saw in Svalbard (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of brown and gray cliffs with dozens of radomes visible on the top of the mesa in the background. — A view of the radomes from the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Longyearbyen, the town where we stayed, is home to about 2000 year-round residents and about 1000 dogs. No other animals can be imported, and there’s no agriculture allowed. There are also 300-500 polar bears in the general area, depending on who we asked, and anyone going outside of the main town area has to carry a gun, flare gun, or both. There are about 20 miles of roads total, stretching in three directions from Longyearbyen.

Photo of rows of colorful houses in Longyearbyen with tundra in the foreground and hills in the background. — Colorful houses of Longyearbyen with snowmobiles in a row in front (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a row of brown, green, red, and yellow houses with fog in the background. — Some more of the colorful houses in Longyearbyen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two people walking huskies, with one of them wearing a gun and a flare.

Along with the customary ban of cigarettes in Longyearbyen public buildings, you also can’t bring dogs or guns. The dogs are tied up outside, and the guns are checked into lockers or left in vehicles.

Photo of a door with three signs indicating that cigarettes, dogs, and guns are not allowed inside. — Three things not allowed inside public buildings in Longyearbyen (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of a dog tied to a pole in front of the Longyearbyen grocery store. — A dog patiently waiting for its owner outside the grocery store (photo/Jason Rafal)

For being quite literally in the middle of nowhere, the creature comforts in Longyearbyen were pretty solid. There was a fairly well-stocked grocery and general store (Jason couldn’t get over the fact that there was self checkout in the Arctic), multiple outdoor clothing stores (the locals abide by the general Norwegian sentiment that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing), and a few restaurants and bars. My favorite store was a husky cafe where we got some gourmet hot chocolate and spent some time with three adorable, friendly huskies.

Photo of a white husky in front of orange chairs. — One of the huskies we hung out with at the cafe (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a Circle K gas station next to a Toyota dealership. — The most northern fuel station in the world (and I have to assume the most northern Toyota dealership) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a disc golf target with a playfield, mansion, and glacier in the background. — Yes, disc golf has made it to the Arctic (photo/Jason Rafal)

This is where the photos will be of significantly lower quality, because I took them with my phone or with Jason’s camera that I barely know how to use.

While Jason was in a conference room on the second day, I took a hike in Bjorndalen with an armed guide and a very nice couple from Switzerland. It was a great trip - we walked around in the Arctic tundra and saw reindeer and whales (I was torn about not seeing a polar bear but ultimately would have been very freaked out to see one on foot). I was originally supposed to go on a longer guided hike, but two trips had to be consolidated so the itinerary changed. While I would have loved to hike on the glacier, I’m ultimately glad I was on this trip because of the whales (more on that soon).

Photo of several houses on the tundra with the ocean and a mountain in the background. — The end of the road at Bjorndalen (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Our guide, a Swedish student who changed her major to study in Svalbard and then decided to stay after her program was complete, walked us into the valley and showed us the landscape, pointed out reindeer, and slowly spun in a circle every couple of minutes scanning for polar bears.

Photo of a small stream with green moss and small white flowers with two houses, one black and one red, in the background.

When I go somewhere new, it’s the presence of things that usually stand out - new architecture or city sounds or dramatic landscapes. In Svalbard, the most striking thing wasn’t the presence of anything, but the absence. It’s an absence of smells, because the tundra smells like nothing, and neither does the sea. It’s the absence of sounds, except for the occasional barnacle goose honk and the summer song of the migratory snow bunting. We had multiple people tell us with reverence of the first time they heard the snow bunting in the spring and the feeling of awe that overcame them.

There’s also the absence of trees, and bushes, and color other than brown, gray, white, and the occasional green moss. I’ve never been to a place that’s so close to sensory deprivation, and I can’t imagine what it’s like in the winter.

All that being said, there’s a striking beauty to the landscape, and the simplicity and repetition of the mountains and ocean are awe-inspiring.

Photo looking up the Bjorndalen valley with a stream running through the shale. — Looking up the valley (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of a streambed with a reindeer skeleton surrounded by hair with a mountain in the background. — A reindeer skeleton and some leftover hair blending in with the shale (photo/Nicole Harrison)

We did see a few live reindeer, but as I was having trouble making Jason’s camera work, I had to make do with my phone.

Photo of a reindeer grazing with a mountainside in the background. — Yes, this is the best picture of a reindeer I got - I also wish Jason had been there (photo/Nicole Harrison)

There is old mining equipment scattered around the area, and we saw some on our hike. All the mines but one have been closed, but much of the equipment is considered protected for historical purposes, so it just hangs out and poses for tourist photos.

Photo of a rusted mining cart sitting slightly off of tracks with a mountain in the background. — Some of the old mining equipment (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of hundreds of shore birds flying in a group with the ocean in the background. — Circling shorebirds (photo/Nicole Harrison)

After we hiked around for a while, we went back to a yurt near the airport (right next to a campground where a man was attacked and killed by a polar bear a couple of years ago) and had a hot lunch while I tried to figure out what I was doing wrong with Jason’s camera. A few minutes after I figured it out, we saw the first whales.

Belugas don’t usually breach or do anything else so dramatic, so they just look like a lot of whitecaps in the water at first. This was a lot of whitecaps, though, so we quickly walked to the edge of the water and realized that there were about 50 whales feeding right in front of us. Our guide was even freaking out, which is when you know you’re having a rare experience. I spent the next 45 minutes taking pictures and videos, shaking from cold because I had forgotten my gloves at the lunch site, and trying to absorb the moment.

Photo of the backs of dozens of beluga whales swimming with brown hillsides and houses in the background. — Dozens of beluga whales feeding in the water (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of a beluga whale's back in the water with two birds overhead. — The scarred back of a beluga (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of five beluga whale backs, one of them gray, in the water with a brown mountain in the background. — Swimming belugas - the gray one is a baby (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of the backs of several beluga whales in the water. — Whales passing very close to us (photo/Nicole Harrison)

After the whales started moving away from the shore, we headed back to the site to sit in the yurt and warm up. We also drank a lot of toddy, which is not what I would think of as an American but was also delicious - it’s like a (non-alcoholic) berry syrup mixed with hot water.

Photo of the town of Longyearbyen in the evening with lights on in the buildings, with a glacier visible in the background. — The view of Longyearbyen at dusk (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were only in Svalbard for about 48 hours, but it was definitely one of the most memorable parts of the trip. I can’t recommend it for everyone, but if you want to go somewhere otherworldly and maybe, if you’re lucky, see some whales and maybe a polar bear, it’s a good choice.

Welcome to Norway

September 27, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in Norway

Our trip to Norway started out in an amazing and completely unexpected way - we saw the northern lights from our plane while flying over northern Canada. It was the first time either of us had ever seen them, and I wish there was a better way to take pictures. It was a very special start to the trip.

Before we went to Norway, I kept hearing that Oslo wasn’t a must-see and there wasn’t much point in spending more than a day or two there, so I was a little nervous that our two and a half days would be too long. After being there, I’m not upset about our choices. If you’re trying to do all of Norway in a week or two, sure, you can get a feel for the city in a day. But there’s also great food and parks and hiking nearby, and generally plenty to do. It’s relaxing but not boring.

Photo of a cobblestone street in Oslo with the palace in the distance. — Looking down a street with the palace in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a street in Oslo lined with pink flowers on both sides. — Another lovely street (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two statues in front of a formal-looking building. — The statues outside of the Oslo city hall (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a boat in front of the Oslo fortress with a cruise ship in the distance. — A many-flagged boat in the harbor (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a waterway between two buildings with the sunset in the background. — Sunset from Aker Brygge (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent a lot of time wandering through neighborhoods and trying coffee shops. Norway has really consistently good coffee, which was a nice surprise, and the food was great.

Photo of three French-themed public toilets. — We never figured out why these French public toilets were there (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a bird perched on top of a chair with a crumb in its mouth. — A friend at a coffee shop.

Photo looking down at the first floor of a food hall. — Looking down on Mathallen Oslo (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also explored Akershus Fortress, where some of the buildings have been since the 1200s. Something that became clear about Norway when we were there was that everything was originally built in wood and burned down several times over the years, so it’s pretty rare to have a very old building. Old areas, yes, but not as many very old buildings themselves.

Photo of a cobblestone path going between two fortress walls. — Walking between the fortress walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

The telefon booths were very cute. There are about 100 left in the country, and they’re all protected. They still have phones in them, but also free libraries and a plaque telling the story of the booths. They’re charming.

Photo of Nicole in a telefon booth. — Trying out a telefon booth (photo/Jason Rafal)

As is becoming our habit, we spent some time at Oslo’s botanic garden, which features sprawling grounds, large trees, and beautiful greenhouses showcasing different plant biomes.

Photo of a large greenhouse. — The beautiful Palmehuset (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up photo of a large purple flower with a greenhouse in the background. — A huge drooping flower (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a yellow cactus flower. — A lovely cactus flower in the desert greenhouse (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of six-foot art mimicking tree seed pods. — Helicopter seedpod art (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole sitting on a bench in a vine-covered mesh cave. — A cave of greenery (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a cascading waterfall through a garden of rocks and plants, with children playing and adults watching. — Another beautiful part of the botanic garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also spent some time exploring the Grünerløkka neighborhood, which is a lovely mix of river walks, great food, and amazing art.

Photo of an alley with murals on the walls. — Murals and graffiti (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a black-and-white mural showing different levels of industrialization. — One of my favorite murals in the city (photo/Jason Rafal)

The royal palace is a cool experience because while the palace itself is guarded, the grounds are free and open to the public, which adds another giant park to the city’s list. The informational sign even said “Please walk on the grass. Hug the trees - Enjoy!” which is the happiest message I could imagine on a park sign.

Photo of two people walking along a path in a park. — Walking through the park to the palace (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Opera House is iconic and wonderful. The sloped roof lets you walk all the way up to the top, where you get a lovely view of the city and the water.

Photo of one side of the Oslo opera house. — Walking up the opera house (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of floating saunas. — Some of Oslo’s floating saunas from the opera house (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of people sitting along the water in front of the Oslo opera house. — Sitting in front of the opera house at sunset (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the central library, opera house, and Munch museum. — The central library on the left, opera house in the middle, and Munch museum on the right (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went to see the Oslo central library on the recommendation of our Airbnb host, and it was lovely - open, airy, lots of windows, lots of art, and lots of what people actually need from modern libraries (computers, work spaces, and good areas to hang out and talk with people).

Photo of a two-story art piece made of a rainbow of small pieces of paper in a library. — A massive art piece in the central library (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last day we went to explore the Vigeland park, which is known for its size and its enormous number of statues of naked people. Aside from the giant pillar of bodies, there were various interactions between pairs and triads on top of bridge railings and incorporated into steps. It was fairly weird, but some of the emotional ones were pretty interesting.

Photo of a statue of one person pressing their head to another person's head, with a tower of carved stone bodies in the background. — Statues at the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

The last thing we did in Oslo was head out to the peninsula that has all the museums. The viking ship museum is unfortunately closed for the next several years while they rebuild it, so we went into the Fram museum, which was also very cool and featured two 19th century polar ships that we could walk through. The fact that someone went to the south pole in 1910 is both fascinating and horrifying to me, and the fact that Admundsen also reached the north pole in 1926 is even crazier. My favorite part of the museum was walking through the ships and seeing the meticulous detail that has been restored to the living quarters, including life sized, realistic mannequins.

Photo of a mannequin of Admundsen in his room in a ship. — Admundsen in his study (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a ship's kitchen with fake food and cookware and a mannequin of a cook holding pancakes. — The ship’s chef (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a piano next to a map in a ship. — We were surprised to see they took a piano to the north pole…but entertainment is important on a six-year trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

Early the next morning, we left Oslo and headed very far north.

Photo of Jason taking a picture of us in a mirror in an elevator. — Tiny elevator self portrait (photo/Jason Rafal)

Eleven Miles and Six Gondola Rides

August 03, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in Switzerland

After leaving Italy, Jason and I headed to Switzerland for a few days. We’d never been before, and we had decided to split time between Zurich and Interlaken to experience both the city and the Swiss Alps. My two expectations coming into the trip were that it would be absurdly beautiful and very expensive, and Switzerland definitely delivered on both.

We took the train from Florence to Interlaken, where we stayed in one of the old hotels downtown. It’s always odd for me, as an American, to be in a place where there is such well-established tourism infrastructure dating back hundreds of years. I felt a bit like this in Yellowstone National Park, but Swiss mountain towns are definitely a whole other level.

The afternoon that we arrived, we took the funicular from town up to Harder Kulm. The ride was steep and showed off beautiful views. At the top there is a viewing platform and restaurant.

Photo looking out the front of a funicular over the heads of two riders — The view from the funicular on the way up to Harder Kulm (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a Swiss building with a red, pointed roof with a lake and mountains in the background — The view from the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Interlaken with mountains in the background and lakes on either side — The view of Interlaken (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up photo of a wooden sculpture of a man blowing into a horn — One of the decorations at the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a hotel in Interlaken with glowing mountains in the background — Alpenglow in Interlaken (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we followed an itinerary I had found online that included two train rides, six gondola rides, and 11 miles of hiking in between some of the mountain towns.

The first leg of our journey was a gondola up to Grütschalp and then walking to Murren. The walk was beautiful; it was a clearly marked path that wound through the forest and meadows. We saw cows and lots of flowers.

Photo of a water trough that says 1912 with an animal engraving — A water trough in front of a cow barn on our hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a cow under a large pine tree — A whole meadow and this cow was looking for food under a pine tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of seven bees on a flower — There were so many bees on these flowers (photo/Jason Rafal)

We took a gondola up to Birg, where they have installed a walkway midway below the top of the cliff that allows you to walk around the edge. While the walkway was slightly unnerving, and I’m not sure I can recommend it for people who are afraid of heights, the views were amazing. It also included some scarier elements, like walking along a cable or over a plexiglass floor.

Photo of a catwalk around a rock face with mountains in the background and a sign that says "photo point" — This made us laugh because it was an insane view all the way around the mountain…but this one point was designated for photos (photo/Jason Rafal)

Panoramic view of mountains — The amazing view from Birg (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole walking along a cable with the mountains in the background — The Birg catwalk had a lot of fun and alarming challenges hundreds of feet off the ground (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a gondola going up to Brig with the mountains in the background — Gondola views (photo/Jason Rafal)

From Birg we took another gondola to Schilthorn, which was full of information about the James Bond movie that was filmed there. It had 360 degree views of the mountains all around, and while it wasn’t as fun as Birg in my opinion, it was very enjoyable.

Photo of walking paths along the top of the mountain at Schilthorn — The view at Schilthorn (photo/Jason Rafal

Photo of small flowers growing out of rock shale — Tiny flowers among the mountaintop rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

After hanging out for a while at Schilthorn, we took the gondolas back down to Murren and then hiked to Gimmelwald. It was more stereotypical Swiss pastoral beauty, always with the striking mountains in the distance.

Photo of a butterfly on a purple flower with a meadow in the background — A butterfly in the meadow on our hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a wooden building with a sign that sais "Willkommen in Gimmelwald" — Our welcome to Gimmelwald (photo/Jason Rafal)

Once we got to Gimmelwald, we took the last gondola of the day down to Schilthornbahn and then began walking back to Lauterbrunnen to catch our train home.

Photo from the inside of a gondola with a waterfall in the background — More gondolas (photo/Jason Rafal)

We walked down the valley through flat pasture land and watched the crazy base jumpers landing.

Photo of a person with a parachute between two tall rock cliffs — A base jumper comes in to land (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a meadow with a high cliff and a waterfall in the background — More meadows, cliffs, and waterfalls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of gliders coming in to land with mountains in the background — Gliders in the park in Interlaken (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day we headed to Zurich for the next part of our trip. We both really liked Zurich - it’s beautiful, easy to get around, has great vegetarian food, and generally feels very livable. It also oozes money, but in a very casual, classy way. At least half the cars were over $100k, and there were drivers waiting for their clients everywhere. When I would see a normal-looking brown Nissan or something similar, it was always a surprise.

It was also quiet. People seemed to use inside voices all the time, and I almost felt the need to whisper while walking around. The dogs were incredibly well behaved and just as quiet as their people.

One of my favorite parts of the city was the fountains. There are about 1200 of them, and they all provide drinkable water, which was lovely. The ones that were too large to reach always had a smaller, more convenient option for filling up a water bottle to the side.

Photo of a fountain in a square in Zurich — One of the many beautiful (and drinkable!) water fountains in Zurich (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of multicolored buildings — Some of the beautiful buildings in Zurich (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a cat walking down a deserted street — A cat wanders down the street (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a chair on a sloped street with a propped-up piece of plywood keeping it flat — The tiniest porch (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of our activities was visiting the university botanic garden, which was beautiful. It has three domes each featuring a different climate, and also had lawn and gardens around the domes as well.

Photo of a yellow flower — One of my favorite plants, the South American *Brugmansia suaveolens* (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole climbing stairs to a platform in a garden dome — One of the beautiful domes at the botanic garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking across the river in Zurich at dusk — Zurich at dusk (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a street at dusk with Swiss flags and a clocktower in the background — Quiet nighttime streets in Zurich (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the recommendations we got from a local was to go to the Lindt factory, which was on one side of Lake Zurich. After some confusion about the ferry system, we arrived at the giant building, which features an impressive two-story chocolate fountain.

If you’re interested in chocolate production, it was a really impressive tour. We spent about an hour but could easily have spent two if we listened to all of the audio clips and read every sign. My favorite part was the room wallpapered with spectacularly high-res photos of a cacao forest, but the descriptions of chocolate additives (and the associated taste testing) was also a good section.

Photo of the inside of the chocolate fountain inside the Lindt factory — The real chocolate fountain in the Lindt factory (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the rest of the day wandering before catching our flight back to Seattle.

Photo of a giant meta sculpture with a man holding a child looking up at it — A giant piece of art that moved a few times a day (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two dogs next to a lake with a swan watching them — Most of the swans seemed very chill, but this one was hissing at the dogs (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a bee on a bright purple flower — More flowers and bees (photo/Jason Rafal)

We loved Switzerland about as much as we expected - it’s beautiful, full of kind people, and we found lots of great food. We’re excited to go back.

A Villa in Italy

July 15, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in Italy

In 2014, Jason and I visited Italy on our first international trip together, and when we took a day trip out into Tuscany, he said he wanted to come back someday and stay there for a week with friends. Eight years later, with friends we hadn't yet met, we fulfilled that dream.

On a whim last fall, during a boozy brunch with new friends, we booked a surprisingly cheap villa outside of Lucca for a week in June. To everyone's surprise, eight months later we actually went.

Everyone got to Lucca in various ways - some spent a couple of days in New York and then London, some just went to London first, and a few of us went to Rome for a day before taking the train north. We stayed by the Trevi Fountain, which had been wrapped up and under construction the last time Jason and I were in the city, so we finally got to see it. We also enjoyed a visit to the Roman Forum and our favorite spot in the city, the Orange Garden.

A photo of the Trevi Fountain from the side, with a view of the crowd — The crowd at the Trevi Fountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of the inside of the Pantheon's roof — The roof of the Pantheon (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two buildings in Rome, one yellow and one red — Some of the buildings near our hotel in Rome (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a narrow street in Rome with outdoor restaurant tables — Narrow streets in Rome (photo/Jason Rafal)

A close up photo of one side of the Colosseum — The Colosseum against a cloudy sky (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the view along the wall of the Orange Garden, with the Rome skyline in the distance — Along the wall at the Orange Garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up photo of a face whose mouth is a fountain — One of the amazing fountains in Rome (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking up an apartment wall covered in thick ivy — A green wall (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Roman Forum, somewhat under construction (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a narrow street in Lucca, with a tall arch connecting two buildings — The view down a Roman street (photo/Jason Rafal)

We weren't quite sure what to expect when we got to the villa, since it had looked amazing in pictures but we were still skeptical of the price, but it was amazing. Five bedrooms, most of them with their own bathrooms and sitting areas, and a large kitchen and dining room greeted us. There was a second kitchen outside, as well as a grill and pizza oven, a greenhouse dining room, and a pool.

Photo of a building with mostly glass walls in front of a tall blue house at sunset — The view of our villa from the backyard (photo/Nicole Harrison)

One of our first excursions was to the Villa Reale di Marlia, which was a large, stately house surrounded by incredible grounds and gardens. If you’re ever in Marlia (for some reason?) I think all of us would highly recommend it.

Photo of a very old building with open windows and a rock tiled floor — One of the beautiful views on the grounds of the Villa Reale di Marlia (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the villa group between two high hedges with a clock tower in the background — The villa group at Villa Reale di Marlia (photo/some random guy)

The group also did a cooking class that focused on pasta. Everything was delicious, and the surrounding winery was beautiful as well.

Photo of a hand kneading pasta dough — Making pasta dough (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a person putting greenish white ravioli filling onto a strip of pasta — Filling the ravioli (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a person running a strip of pasta through a pasta machine — Making the pasta (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of three piles of fresh pasta — Finished pasta (photo/Jason Rafal)

On one of the days, we made an excursion to the town of Lucca, about 20 minutes from where we were staying. It’s a very cute town that features completely intact city walls from the Renaissance era. The top of the wall around the town has been made into a park with lots of trees for shade and a path around the parameter for walking, running, and biking.

The view down one of Lucca’s old, narrow streets (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a fountain with two humanoid statues in the foreground, and more statues behind the fountain — In the beautiful gardens of the Palazzo Pfanner in Lucca (photo/Jason Rafal)

Later in the week, we headed for Cinque Terre. In a day that featured a variety of transportation options, we drove to La Spezia, then took a train to Riomaggiore, then took a ferry to Manarola. The towns are absolutely beautiful - brightly painted houses against a coastline of clear blue Mediterranean water.

Photo of pink flowers with the buildings of Riomaggiore in the background — Looking back at the coast in Riomaggiore (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking away from the ocean over the buildings of Riomaggiore — Looking out across Riomaggiore (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a cat laying on the ground with an old wall in the background — A cat lounging in the town (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the colorful buildings of Riomaggiore along the coastline — The buildings of Riomaggiore (photo/Jason Rafal)

In Manarola, we went swimming and cliff jumping (with various levels of difficulty - the part I was jumping off of was more like a large rock than a cliff, but some of the bravest in our party jumped off the top part of the rocks in the photo below). It was the first time in the Mediterranean, and after I got over the initial shock of the amount of salt (the sea is about 10% saltier than the Pacific), I loved the perfect temperature and the ease of treading water.

Photo of a cove with swimmers and people jumping off of cliffs into the water — The cliff jumping area at Manarola (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Manarola with the swimming cove in the foreground — Manarola (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last day in Italy, some of us left and the rest spent some time wandering around Florence. We saw the Duomo, which is always amazing, spent some time shopping at Ponte Vecchio, and walked through some of the Uffizi (we were too overwhelmed to do the whole thing). Jason and I loved Florence the first time we visited, and even though it was a bit too full of tourists this time for our liking, it was wonderful to get to spend time there again.

Photo of buildings at the Duomo — Some of the beautiful tile work at the Duomo (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an old wall cutting through Florence with dense green trees on either side — The view along the wall from the Piazzale Michelangelo (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Ponte Vecchio bridge with the Florence skyline in the background — Ponte Vecchio from the Uffizi (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a full-wall painting of Tuscany specifically showing the sea monsters detailed in the sea — The sea monsters detailed in a full-wall painting of the area in the Uffizi (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a close up of part of a statue that features a goose holding up some cloth, with two crossed legs in the background — And excellent goose in the Uffizi (photo/Jason Rafal)

Italy was our first trip out of the U.S. in two and a half years, and it set the bar high for future group vacations. It was wonderful to just hang out somewhere new, eat cheap and delicious produce, struggle with language barriers, and spend time with friends escaping the heat in the pool. Until next time, Italy.

Photo of nine people on one side of a long table recreating the Last Supper — One last group photo (photo/Jason Rafal)

2021 in Review

January 30, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in United States

In 2021, we tried to balance a lot of outdoor time with finally getting to see people in person. We moved out of our downtown apartment and bought a townhouse, and we spent a lot of time exploring our new neighborhood as well. We miss the view from our apartment, but I’m really enjoying having a private door to the outside. The pandemic has continued to be rough in many ways, but we’ve been very lucky to keep having new experiences in our adopted PNW home.

Something I have really learned to appreciate in Seattle is sunlight in January. It’s rare, but when it does happen, the low angle of the light is always beautiful, no matter what time of day. It’s almost special enough to make all of the gray days worth it.

Sunlight through the Boulder River canyon

Nicole at Boulder River Falls

More light through the canyon

In the spring, we spent some time playing in the snow, which I still miss from living in Colorado. Seattle stays pretty snow-free in the winter, but the snowy mountains are just a couple of hours away.

Dramatic clouds around the Mt. Baker ski area

The start of an ill-fated snowshoe trip

Hikers taking a picture on top of frozen Lake Twentytwo

Spring also brought a lot of beautiful flowers.

Spring blossoms

A flowering bush

A striking water lily flower

Jason found many small creatures to take pictures of.

On one of our hikes, Jason spent a long time trying to take the right picture of a dragonfly (I think this one succeeded)

A bee and a flower

Jason has been getting into taking photos of birds, which is concerning for his lens collection

A smaller bee with a bigger flower

A small lizard friend

A coho salmon swimming upstream

Our first camping trip of the year was at the end of a washed out forest service road, and it had an amazing view. The Jeep has opened up a lot of dispersed camping options for us, and we love it.

Photo of a tent next to a Jeep next to a grove of trees, with mountains in the background. — One of my favorite campsites

The summer was full of beautiful landscapes.

The view at Packwood Lake

The view from Dog Mountain

A beautiful autumn stream

Sunset near Mt. Ellinor

The view over the North Fork Nooksack River

A set of small waterfalls

For my birthday weekend we met friends at a cabin near Mt. Adams, where we stared at the views of the mountain at every single time of day.

I woke up at random, saw this sunrise, and made Jason get up to photograph it

Midday

Sunset

Dusk

A selection of water pictures from the summer - waterfalls, streams, and rivers.

Nicole and Martin behind a waterfall

Martin, waterfall model

From the inside of a waterfall

A stream and a sunbeam on my birthday

A picturesque lunch spot on a backpacking trip

The view from one of our campsites

Nooksack Falls

In the fall, Jason had a short work trip to New York. It was wonderful to be able to walk around the city and eat all the amazing food.

Jason had a weekend trip with friends to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree, where he took a lot of pictures of spiky plants.

A cactus in Joshua Tree National Park

Abstracted leaves

The world of Joshua trees

The view at Joshua Tree National Park

Washington is, as always, full of tiny, fascinating plants and animals.

Tiny mushrooms

A spiderweb contrasting with the human-made signage

Cold autumn leaves

Tiny tiny organisms

Since we live four blocks from the zoo, we decided we had to go see the animals.

Happy penguins

Some zebras pass by a giraffe

A resting warthog

I believe this is a Steller’s sea eagle

A passing gorilla

This is a somewhat random collection of photos from around town over the year.

Caprica on our new roof deck

One of the final sunrise views before we moved out of our downtown apartment.

Nicole with the Fremont Troll in our new neighborhood

Floating lanterns at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony at Green Lake

The adventurous Pika at St. Edward State Park.

Pike and the sunset

And then some random photos from day and weekend trips.

The mouth of the Columbia River from Astoria

Nicole points out…something

Nicole and Megan at a beautiful lunch spot

The life of Portland Party Puppy, Instagram star

Albus…sniffing the water

The sun through the trees from our cabin porch on a weekend trip

We ended the year in Astoria with this view of a tree and a cat.

Waves and Mountains

December 14, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Halfway through our trip, we moved to a resort in Wailea, on the southern coast. It was much flatter and drier on that side of the island, but the feral chickens remained (they seem to be everywhere, and I don’t hate it).

A rooster slowly circles us at Maui Brewing (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the handsome feral colony cats (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunsets on the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two naked people made of sand on the beach — A magnificent art piece we found on the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

We went on a snorkeling and scuba trip to Molokini Crater, which is one of the classic snorkeling spots off the coast. We also opted to try Snuba as a less-intense intro to see whether we’d ever be interested in scuba diving.

I’m a nose breather and get paranoid about running out of air, so it was difficult for me to adjust to the basic breathing mechanics of Snuba. Our instructor, who was exceedingly patient, finally told me to just stop thinking and stay underwater. I still wasn’t extremely comfortable after that, but I was able to enjoy the beautiful fish and have some fun. After a few minutes of Snuba, we did some normal snorkeling and saw a rare Hawaiian monk seal, which you’ll have to take my word for because we didn’t have a camera with that range underwater.

Photo of Nicole in the water with Snuba equipment on — I was still trying to figure out what I was doing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Underwater photo of fish and the legs of swimming people — Honestly the iPhone-in-a-bag thing worked better than expected (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole under the water in Snuba equipment — Learning the ropes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Beautifully patterned fish (photo/Jason Rafal)

When it started to look like the weather might get less favorable in the next couple of days, we decided to go up to Haleakala National Park for sunset. The classic trip is going up for sunrise, but that required either obtaining a rare permit or joining a group tour bus, and we didn’t feel like we wanted it that bad. We thought we had more time, but there was a long line to get into the park, so we got to the visitor center right before sunset and had to jog up to the summit. Jogging at 10,000 feet is no joke. We made it up to the top the minute the sun started to touch the horizon and watched with a few dozen people while it went down and the entire sky began to glow with bands of color. We both agreed that it was worth the drive, and also that we’d come up during the day and hike around next time. I’d also love to go up for stargazing - the incredibly clear 360 degree views would be incredible.

Photo of the Haleakala Observatory in front of a sunset — The Haleakala Observatory on our run up to the summit (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Haleakala Crater covered in clouds at sunset — The cloud-covered Haleakala crater with the shadow of the summit behind (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Haleakala sunset — Instagram version - all alone at the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of people taking pictures of the Haleakala sunset — Reality - jostling for space at the summit (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a man standing on the roof of a car watching the Haleakala sunset — A man watches the sunset fade from the roof of his car (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a full day of relaxing (kind of crazy for us), we checked out on Monday and went on a drive around West Maui before our red eye flight. We started out by driving to Lahaina, which is a very pretty and very touristy beach town that was the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom in the early 1800s. Apparently the town was a center of prostitution as the sailors came into port until the newly converted queen made it illegal.

Our next stop was Honolua Bay, which is amazing in a few ways. To get there, you have to walk through a forest of huge trees that’s apparently also full of unmarked graves. The path itself is on private land, but all beaches in Hawaii are public so there has to be some sort of access. The beach is rocky but fairly protected, and there were several people snorkeling. The beach also provides a good view of the surfers at the edge of the bay, so we watched them for a while.

Photo of tree branches covered in vines — Massive trees covered in vines (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a rooster — A very handsome rooster (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a heron flying over the ocean — A heron flies over the ocean (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of surfers in the water — Watching surfers from Honolua Bay (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next stop was Nakalele Blowhole, which we had seen from above on our helicopter tour. It’s a blowhole on the coast surrounded by volcanic rock, and it reminds me of the geysers in Yellowstone. It’s surprisingly large at times, and the spray kept creating rainbows as it dissipated. My favorite part was actually the coral-like volcanic rocks, which were often smooth on one side and sharp and spiky on the other.

Photo of the Nakalele Blowhole — The Nakalele Blowhole, which we also saw from the helicopter (photo/Jason Rafal)

After the blowhole, our audio guide firmly recommended that we turn around and drive back the way we came, and I made the call to keep going around the north shore of the island. This turned out to be a highly questionable decision, as it took us on an often one-lane mountain pass. Trying to pass other people was dangerous at the best of times and impossible at the worst. At one point we had to inch past a rental mustang that had tried to get around someone and had gotten stuck halfway off the side of the cliff (we saw the driver down the road on the phone, and then a tow truck with a very grumpy driver coming up the road a few minutes later). I was continuously thankful that Jason is such a good driver as we inched around blind corners and I scouted for oncoming cars as we drove along the hillside. You can tell we were stressed because we have zero pictures. For what it’s worth, it was incredibly remote and gorgeous, but I don’t think Jason would want to drive it again.

Once we got down to Kahului, we went to a beach and spent an hour sitting, drinking a beer, and watched the kite surfers as the sun dropped low in the sky. It was an excellent way to end the trip.

Photo of wind surfers with west Maui in the background — Sitting and watching the kitesurfers (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a man jumping above the water while kitesurfing — Things I would never be able to do (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a beach at sunset with kites in the air and on the ground — The last sunset of the trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

If you’ve read this far, here are some restaurant recommendations from our trip:

Paia Fish Market: there are a few locations, but we went to the one in Paia. It features customizable entrees and quality fish.
Mama’s Fish House: this is definitely a more upscale choice, but the ambience, drinks, and food were all very enjoyable, and the restaurant has a beautiful location on the beach.
Baked on Maui: this is a great breakfast and lunch place near the start of the Road to Hana.
Monkeypod Kitchen: there are a couple of locations. The food is really solid and the drinks are amazing - it’s always on the top of the list for best Mai Tai in Hawaii.
Kihei Caffe: another good breakfast and lunch place with a great loco moco
Cuatro: a BYOB latin fusion restaurant with two seatings per day. The food is excellent and it has an unassuming vibe.
Drift Coffee: the best coffee we had on the island.
Star Noodle: a picturesque restaurant on the water with a variety of soup and dry noodle dishes.

Basically, go to Maui. It’s amazing.

Far Above Jurassic Park

December 08, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

During our trip to Maui we took a helicopter ride, and this beautiful collection of photos seemed to deserve their own blog post.

It was a struggle to find a company that would have doors off and also allow Jason to bring a real camera, and we ended up booking a private tour with Go Fly Maui, a small company that’s mostly a helicopter pilot training school but also does some private photography flights. The co-owner and our pilot, Nick, recommended a flight path and then we set off over western Maui.

Photo of an aerial map of the Hawaiian islands — The map Nick used to suggest routes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of ocean waves from above — Waves from above (photo/Jason Rafal)

Doors-off helicopter flights aren’t for everyone - I think I would have been pretty nervous if I hadn’t been up in both a helicopter and an open-cockpit biplane before. It helped knowing that our pilot was good enough to both teach other people and put up with crazy professional photographers. Nick was also fun to hang out with and pointed out all the points of interest.

Photo of the Maui coast — Flying along the west Maui coast (photo/Jason Rafal)

We started off by flying along the northern coast of Maui, where we saw jagged cliffs, surfers, and beautiful beaches.

The Nakalele blowhole from above (photo/Jason Rafal)

After we hit the northernmost edge of the island, we headed up into the mountains. The mountains of west Maui are largely inaccessible except by helicopter or backcountry expedition, and I was excited to get to see the area. It’s a ton of absurdly lush jungle with absurdly tall waterfalls and, predictably, looks a lot like Jurassic Park. There’s a drought right now, but the majority of the waterfalls still had water tumbling down hundreds of feet of cliffs. The scale was impossible for my mind to comprehend - I kept trying to look at trees to figure out relative sizing, but it only got me so far. I have rarely felt so small.

Photo of Honokohau Falls — The awe-inspiring, 1,100-foot Honokohau Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a waterfall — Looking down (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a helicopter cockpit — I tried to just let Nick worry about what all of these meant (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Wall of Tears — The Wall of Tears (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Needle — The Needle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a mountain ridge with the ocean in the background — Looking south (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of mountains with the ocean in the background — West Maui Forest Reserve with Pacific Ocean behind (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of mountains — Looking east (photo/Jason Rafal)

After the mountains we headed back toward the airport, over ground that looked very flat and brown by comparison. Maui had sugar cane processing until 2016, and Nick pointed out the old equipment as we flew overhead.

Photo of sugar processing equipment — Old sugar processing equipment (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole on the helicopter — Back on the ground; obviously had a terrible time (photo/Jason Rafal)

If you can’t tell from the above photos, the helicopter ride was amazing. If you’re not afraid of heights and are okay with the expense (it was the most we spent on an activity on the island by far), we would definitely recommend it. When we drove around the west side of Maui later in the trip, it was really cool to see some of the coastal places we had flown by at ground level as well.

Bugs, Beaches, Banana Bread

December 04, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

Maui was our first trip out of the continental US in two years, and after having to cancel two planned trips due to covid, neither of us was actually able to get excited about being on a trip until we actually got to the island. After about 24 hours, I started to feel like I could relax and believe that I was on vacation. It helps that Maui is gorgeous and easy to get around, and the food is wonderful.

For the first half of our trip we stayed in an Airbnb in Upcountry Maui near Makawao. The listing warned that we’d need to be alright with jungle sounds, which I was excited about. We got to the cabin after dark and the surrounding forest was full of the sounds of bugs, wind through leaves, and the occasional feral chicken cluck. In the morning we were woken by roosters (several times) and treated to an expansive view of forest, mountains, and a bit of ocean. Our host gave us a tour of her property, which is a garbage-dump-turned-coffee-farm that is dotted with fruit trees, ancient burial sites, and some amazing rock drawings along the river. We also each got approximately 30 bug bites on the tour, which we treated with calamine lotion from the cabin while being overwhelmed by nostalgia.

Phot of the view from the cabin over a jungle with mountains in the distance — The view from our cabin in Upcountry Maui (photo/Jason Rafal)

The spiders were equal parts harmless and alarming (photo/Jason Rafal)

Learning about the pictographs and petroglyphs

Riding around with Sydney

An incredibly old mango tree

Trees on the property

Coffee plants with coffee berries

The mesmerizing banyan tree, with new roots dropping toward the ground

A lifebuoy at one of the swimming holes

On our first afternoon we decided to drive a little bit up the road to Hana to see a couple of attractions and get some food at a roadside stand. The stand was closed, either from covid or it being Thanksgiving week, so we pressed on to the next stand and ate banana bread for lunch before doing a little exploring. First lesson learned: never count on availability of food on the road to Hana. Once we had at least some food, our first visit was to the Keanae peninsula, where we ate bread and watched the waves crash against the dark volcanic rocks. The banana bread (Aunty Sandy’s) and the coast are both worth a stop in their own right, but together they are really excellent.

Delicious banana bread after a long drive

The view at Keanae Lookout

After the peninsula we went back toward town and stopped at the Garden of Eden arboretum, which is one of many stops on the road to Hana that is privately owned. Land rights for these areas are very interesting - some of them are private and you pay to go onto the land, some are private and you will be trespassing if you go onto the land, and some (though not a lot) are public land (state, regional, or national parks). The Garden of Eden charges admission but is definitely worth a visit to see a beautiful variety of tropical plants.

Photo of an older black dog with a lei and a ribbon that says "Hawaii" — The garden’s guard dog, a sweetheart named Dan D Lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m still trying to figure out what kind of tree this is, but it was amazing to stand under (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent sunset on a local beach, hanging out with sea turtles. They’re awesome and calming all at the same time.

On Wednesday we set out early to do the full road to Hana. It’s a wonderful experience, but it’s an incredibly long day trip. We made 8 stops with some short hikes and didn’t swim at all, and it took almost 12 hours round trip. I’ve heard that some people stay overnight in Hana, which is definitely a good idea if you want to see more. It’s also a good idea to get an audio guide that you can play in your car. We bought one from the (somewhat problematically named) GyPSy Guides, but once we got back I heard there’s a local version as well. The guides are downloadable and tell you information when you hit certain GPS points, which is really helpful in areas without service, and they also share a lot of interesting history and culture.

Since we got an early start, we were able to get parking at the very popular Twin Falls, which includes a short hike to a couple of lovely waterfalls. Some of the non-volcanic rock walls here have a beautiful honeycomb pattern, which makes the waterfalls even more interesting to me. We didn’t swim because it was 8 am and 65 degrees out, but it would have been a nice place to swim.

The waterfall at the end of the Twin Falls trail - if you look closely, you can see two annoying drones

I love the honeycomb rocks at this waterfall

Stupid invasive fire ants

A tiny friend

A collection of businesses on the road to Hana

Our next stop was the Hana Lava Tube, where we explored the large cavern with flashlights while reading informative signs. The cave was relatively untouched and completely unlit, which was a nice alternative to some other caves we’ve been to, and we saw a lot of stalactites and stalagmites.

Reading the signs in the lava tube

A very bold plant trying to grow in the darkness

My favorite part was the view up to the entrance

Our next stop was Wai'ānapanapa State Park, which was one of my favorite areas of the day. They recently switched to a reservation system, so you have to book a time slot in advance and be in and out within that 2.5 hour window. There’s a black sand beach, which was quite crowded but still awesome, and a hiking trail that winds through black rocks and neon green vegetation along the coast. It was pretty amazing.

The somewhat crowded black sand beach

Tell me you spent 3 days in the jungle without telling me

We ate lunch in Hana, which is tiny and adorable and has several food trucks (though most of them were closed). After lunch we pressed on.

Since there was parking available and we had to take advantage of that, we stopped quickly at Waioka pond, which would be an amazing place to jump off rocks and swim if you’re not in a hurry, and then Wailua falls, which is another beautiful and quite tall waterfall.

The Hana Highway from an overlook

Insane water colors at Waioka pond

An adorable cat at one of the parks

The lovely Wailua Falls

Our last top was just inside Haleakalā National Park, where we took the Pīpīwai Trail. This was my other favorite part of the day. We hiked through a bamboo forest, where the wind made the bamboo stalks clink together, and I felt like I was surrounded by a giant wooden wind chime. The end of the trail is a valley with a huge waterfall, which was beautiful as well. The bamboo forest alone makes it worth the trip, but it is half an hour past Hana and takes some extra time. The park also has smaller waterfalls, pools, and a beautiful rugged coastline.

An amazing Banyan tree on the trail

A moment of peace in the bamboo forest

Waimoku Falls

Photo of a stone bridge over two waterfalls against the backdrop of a forest — The view looking up ‘Ohe’o Gulch (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole sitting on a rock with the ocean on the background — Nicole on the coast next to ‘Ohe’o Gulch (photo/Jason Rafal)

Since the road to Hana is busy tourist destination with complicated property laws and access rules, these are the general tourist guidelines that should always be followed:

Pull over to let locals pass
Don’t go on private property unless explicitly invited to do so
Don’t stop or park on the road
Respect No Parking signs
Don’t use drones
Generally, just be respectful and kind and ready to change plans when needed

After our long driving day, we spent Thanksgiving cooking and relaxing in the cabin before we migrated to the other side of the island for the rest of our trip.

Photo of Nicole sitting on the porch of a cabin with a rainbow over the jungle in the background — We got a rainbow for Thanksgiving on our last morning at the cabin (photo/Jason Rafal)

Off to the Islands

July 11, 2021 by Nicole Harrison in United States

At the start of the year, when we weren’t sure what covid would look like by mid-year and whether we’d be vaccinated, we booked a 4th of July trip to Orcas Island as an excursion that would be fairly local but also pretty different from our normal lives. Even when we were able to get vaccinated in April and May, we were excited to spend some time in the islands.

Orcas Island is the largest of the San Juan islands, which are near the Canadian border and are just as close to Vancouver Island as the Washington mainland. The trip from Seattle involves an hour and a half drive and then an hour ferry ride, so it feels like a fairly significant trip. Orcas is known for its beauty and plethora of outdoor recreation opportunities. We stayed in the little town of Eastsound, where we could walk to restaurants and also enjoy water views.

A ridiculously beautiful potato dish (photo/Jason Rafal)

Dinner on a beautiful patio (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first non-food activity was the one I was most unsure whether I wanted to do - a biplane ride. A husband and wife team run a small business taking people on flights in a 1927 biplane, and when Jason said he wanted to go, I decided I would probably be able to get through it without throwing up.

Our plane (which was a whole 5 years newer than the stamp claimed) (photo/Jason Rafal)

After receiving our safety briefing, life jackets, ear plugs, caps, and goggles, we climbed into the plane. We just barely fit in the side by side seat in the front (it was made for much smaller people), and our pilot sat in the seat behind us. Climbing into the plane did not raise my confidence - at first glance, it looks flimsy at best and hazardous at worst. It’s all delicate wings and small sticks tied together. As soon as we took off, though, I felt immediately better. The plane is loud, since it’s not a closed cockpit, but it’s so light that ascending felt effortless.

The view from the air (photo/Jason Rafal)

We saw dozens of sailboats hanging out in coves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the terrifying plane wings in the evening light (photo/Jason Rafal)

For an hour, we flew around the islands, flying to the top of Mount Constitution at 2400 feet elevation before dropping down to almost skim the water. It was exceptionally fun, even as I kept turning sideways to give Jason a little more room to take pictures.

A peek of the Mount Constitution tower (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mount Constitution with the San Juan Islands in the distance (photo/Jason Rafal)

Flying low around an island (photo/Jason Rafal)

Circling while waiting for our turn to land (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we drove to the top of Mount Constitution to take in the sights. The mountain is in Moran State Park, which has lovely forests, lakes, and views of the islands. The top of the mountain has a weird medieval-style tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30s, which is visually confusing but gets you up a little higher to see the views. We could see Mount Baker in the distance on the mainland, as well as some of the Cascades and a tiny bit of Mount Rainier.

In my happy place: on top of a mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mount Baker on the mainland (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rather flustered bird (photo/Jason Rafal)

From the top of the mountain, we took a hike before heading to Buck Bay Shellfish Farm for lunch. This restaurant came highly recommended, and for good reason - it’s casual, has lovely outdoor seating, and the food is great.

After lunch we headed back to the park to paddle board on one of the lakes, where we alternated between laying in the sun and doing some strenuous paddling against the wind.

Jason floats in the sun (photo/Nicole Harrison)

On Sunday we hiked in Turtleback Mountain Preserve on the other side of the island, which had similarly great views of San Juan Island and Canada, and then spent the rest of the day hanging out and browsing the shops in Eastsound.

Some very green marsh scum (photo/Jason Rafal)

We joined the handful of people at Orcas Knob (photo/Jason Rafal)

Foxgloves on the trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

The north beaches of Orcas have exceptional sunsets, so we headed over there at about 9:00 each night to take in the views. There’s no large public beach, but there are a couple of small chunks of coast where we could sit with our fellow sunset seekers and take in the view.

Taking in the colors (photo/Jason Rafal)

The sun touches the horizon on a clear evening (photo/Jason Rafal)

The waves created by boats made a lovely texture contrast (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a wonderful long weekend, only slightly soured by the cancelation of a ferry that resulted in us waiting for about 4 hours to board the next one. I suppose that’s island life.