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I’m back!

Well, I’m back from my 6 month trip around the world!  I saved money for 7 years, quit my job, sold or gave away most everything I own, and for the last 2 months trekked nonstop with a backpack and suitcase. The first 4 months I did short trips to Barcelona, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, visited friends and family I haven’t seen in years in some cases, and took my niece to Cedar Point for a weekend, then went to San Diego and Mexico.  After I dropped my cats off with my mom so I could travel nonstop, I went to London (day trip to Stonehenge, Bath, Cotswolds), Edinburgh, Scottish Highlands (including Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Glencoe), Dublin (day trip to Cliffs of Moher and Galway), Paris, Venice, Rome (day trips to Vatican City, Pompei, Positano), Chiang Mai (including Elephant Nature Park), Krabi (day trip to Phi Phi Islands), Phuket, Bangkok, Tokyo, Kamakura/Enoshi Island, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka (day trips to Nara, Himeji, Hikone), and Iceland (my mom came with me on that one!) There have been a lot of ups and downs, the more important ones as follows:

Pros:

–  Reconnected with family, old friends that I haven’t seen in years, and met a lot of fun new people.

– Visited places I’ve always dreamed about, and saw things I’ve always wanted to see while they’re still there.

– Tried new food, new desserts, new drinks…and yet, still lost about 5 inches on my waist probably from walking an average of 7-9 miles per day almost every day.  Usually uphill, which I still haven’t figured out the logistics in that.  If you go up you’d think you’d have to go down but it always seemed to be uphill!

– Saw new cultures and learned a TON of history including doing some ancestry research in England/Scotland/Ireland.

– Worked things out on my own whenever there was a problem and learned not to have a meltdown about the little things even if I wasn’t happy about it.

– Learned how to walk slower. Everyone in my family power walks everywhere and are masters at weaving through crowds, we also usually inhale our food rather than eat and enjoy it, it’s just the way it has always been.  I was walking around Chicago today and for the first time everyone was pushing past ME and I was seeing things I haven’t acknowledge in the 8 years that I’ve lived here.  Like, was that restaurant always there?  It looks neat, I never noticed it before…

Cons:

– I missed my pets so bad, I can’t wait to see them when I go to my mom’s for the holidays this weekend!

– The sheer volume of tourists is crazy!  I’m not complaining, since I am also one of those tourists and I think it’s amazing that the world has gotten to a point where so many people can enjoy it, it was just really surprising.  I used to live in Japan 15 years ago so a lot of my stops there were for nostalgia purposes and the number of people in places that had previously been practically unknown was shocking. The main concern I had was about safety, a lot of these places weren’t designed to hold that many people and those mega-tour buses are way too big in a lot of cases (I almost got squished by one!) I used to work at construction sites and we have OSHA in the United States and I think I got a few new gray hairs just from some of the safety related things I’ve seen.  I’m also an environmental scientist, so seeing some of the unhygienic things people were doing in some locations made me cringe. Bring a hand towel and hand sanitizer everywhere with you, for real! I would need an entire separate post to explain all of the people, behaviors, and safety issues though.  I’m putting this under “cons” but honestly this was one of the most interesting parts of the trip given my profession.

– I get why it’s hard for some people to understand how bad climate change is especially if they don’t travel.  It was really sad to see some of the locations because of all the trash and pollution, irregular weather patterns, damaged ecosystems, and changing behaviors of the animals. I already knew a lot about the impacts of the climate crisis, but some places really opened my eyes to how bad it’s truly becoming.

– Blisters.  So. Many. Blisters.  Even with broken in boots and moleskin and bandages.  I’m fairly convinced it’s inevitable.

– The scammers.  I managed to avoid them mostly, but one got me in Venice and it was so obvious I had to laugh after I realized it.  Rookie mistake!
Anywho, now that I’m back I’m going to spend the holidays with family then decide if I want to be a responsible adult and get back to work, or buy an RV and do an epic 6 month National Park road trip with my cats…

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Cage Diving with Great White Sharks (Guadalupe Island)

After my trip in San Diego (see previous post) I woke up with the sunrise when the sun was bright, the sky was beautiful, the water was calm, and everyone was in good spirits.  The cages went into the water around 6:30am and the wranglers were trying to entice the sharks to come to us rather than the 4 other boats.  It didn’t take long for a small male shark to pop his head in and see what was up.  I suited up and jumped in after choking down an apple and coffee (sea sickness is the WORST!)  The first shark was about 12 feet long, with a scar over his right eye that made him look like he was permanently grumpy.  I didn’t know his name, so I just called him Groucho.  A big female, about 17 feet long named Blue Steel popped in later in the day, as well as another male called Sad Face because he had a scar on his back that resembled the sad face emoji.  The sharks were AMAZING y’all, they were scary at first but I got over that really quickly.  They were more scared of us than we were of them, but they were driven to us by their curiosity.  The tuna being used to lure them in was barely a snack, not enough to justify them coming over alone but combined with their inquisitive nature was enough to bring them over.  Sometimes they got close enough to touch, but you couldn’t that was against the rules.  At a couple points the sharks lunged at the bait and landed so close to the cages they knocked into them which was both terrifying and thrilling.  One thing I didn’t know, but know and love now, is that great white sharks actually have blue eyes but their pupils are so big you can’t really see it until they’re up close and in the darker depth.  Beautiful ocean blue eyes.  They’re also huge scaredy cats, that old phrase “they are more scared of you than you are of them” is so true in this case.  If there was anything unexpected at all, a sudden movement, a tap on the cage, a yell from above…ZOOM off they went into the deeper water.  Like big, scared, puppy dogs all of them.  Even the 17 footers that visited us!  In all, we identified about 11 different sharks over the course of the three days.  On the second day, we were even graced with an approximately 30 foot whale shark!!  The captain who had been doing tours out to the island for the past 10 seasons said it was the first time he, or anyone else he asked, had heard of a whale shark all the way out there.  It was a beautiful creature and I feel blessed having seen it.  In addition to the whale shark and white sharks we saw some sea turtles that came close enough to check things out but not close enough to entice the sharks.  The seals and walrus also stayed closer to the beach and mostly just screamed all day and night like a pack of deranged Wookies.

The Nautlius Belle Amie was a gorgeous boat with a wonderful crew.  The food was delicious, and all of the staff were kind, compassionate and respectful of not just the people but the animals as well.  They were funny and quirky and seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs.  One guy in particular everyone called “Gato” was super funny.  I brought a great white shark onesie on the boat for fun, and he absolutely loved it!  Even put it on and ran around in it.  At the end of the trip I decided to give the onesie to him, he’d get far more use out of it on a shark boat than I would in my closet.  Martyn was also a blast, always cracking jokes and throwing out friendly insults and encouraging people to get in the water. 

It wasn’t all fantastic, although the bad parts were all my fault! Early on the third day, I set my AKASO camera next to the cage while I was getting in and my foot caught on the plastic mat.  I lazily and recklessly kicked my foot free, and also kicked my camera into the water.  Poor Jack tried his best to grab it, and the people in the cages below all tried to get it, but it was too late.  My camera is now settled about 150 feet down at the bottom of the ocean.  Fortunately I had already backed up my photos from the past few days so I only lost footage from that morning.  People were super nice about sharing their photos though, so I definitely didn’t go without.  I spent the rest of the last day just enjoying the sharks, and living in the moment, which I don’t mind at all considering at the very end two HUGE 17+ foot sharks came out and circled close to the cages.  Even Gato came out afterwards to the three of us who had still been in the water like “Did you see those two?!?” They were both absolutely gorgeous, I wish we could have stayed longer!

We left to head back to port in the late afternoon.  At first I put on the shark onesie to stay warm and sat above deck on a reclining chair, trying not to get sick, but also just enjoying the view of a light pollution free sky.  I was up there for over an hour marveling on the gorgeousness of our galaxy.  I saw at least two shooting stars, a satellite, and perhaps the space station.  The point is, it was crystal clear, and so so many stars it was amazing.  Eventually though the cold, windy night made its way through the shark onesie, so I took more medicine and spent most of the next day in my room lying in bed.  It was mid-afternoon the next day when we made port in Ensenada. Getting back into the U.S. was surprisingly fast and easy.  Once back in San Diego I checked into my next hotel and a group of 8 of us went to Mitch’s Seafood for dinner, which was once again super delicious.  I crashed hard and fast that night, and slept in until mid-morning.  After a good café mocha, I went out front to catch and Uber and ran into a very nice newlywed couple also heading to the airport so we carpooled over.  The flight home was uneventful, and it was so nice to be home with my cats after being apart for 9 days.

.To be honest, I’m not sure what trip is going to top this one.  This has been on my bucket list for 30-some years, and now I’ve jumped out of a plane and dived under the ocean…what’s a girl to do now?

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San Diego 2019

9/9 Monday

I got up before dawn and grabbed a ride to O’Hare for an early morning flight.  With the time difference being what it is, we landed in San Diego around 9:30am.  I decided to head to the hotel, Best Western Island Palms, figuring I could leave my luggage there but they actually already had my room ready so I could check in and leave my stuff which was super awesome.  The room was really nice, a king sized bed that was so perfectly comfortable, a little patio where I could sit and drink coffee overlooking the marina, and a quiet room right across from the fish pier.  After dropping my stuff off, I took a ride to Belmont Park at Mission Beach.  It was a weekday and school is back in so the park was pretty dead, but the beach was lovely.  I got lunch at Draft’s which had really great burgers and walked along the beach for an hour.  Then I went south to Ocean Beach and walked up the huge fishing pier, and watched all the surfers catching waves for a while.  I stopped and grabbed supplies at the store then went back to the hotel to relax a bit before heading to Sunset Cliffs at sunset.  The cliffs definitely have their name for a reason, it was a gorgeous view!  After sunset I headed back to the hotel and relaxed until bedtime.  It had been a long day!

9/10 Tuesday

I walked over to the fishing pier across the street with a coffee to watch the sun rise but it was pretty cloudy so not much to see.  No matter, it was still a gorgeous morning.  Today was the zoo day, so I got there just after they opened and hung out with the flamingos while assembling my camera.  Then I walked over to the Outback before turning to Africa Rocks and Elephant Odyssey.  I got to Northern Frontier right as they were feeding the polar bear so he came right up to the glass so people could see him, it was pretty cool.  Unfortunately the pandas were nabbed back to China, but the red panda was super cute and I got some great pictures of him.  After that I went to the Lost Forest area with all of the monkeys and gorillas, who are always a lot of fun to watch, then went down the hippo and tiger trails but it was midday by that point and they were all snoozing.  I took a detour to the Reptile House and Walk and laughed a bit because they were using a TMNTesque font for their turtle area.  My ticket included a guided bus tour, so I figured that would give me a chance to sit.  Just FYI, you don’t need to pay for the guided bus tour.  It just drives around the perimeter and you really can’t see anything you wouldn’t see just walking.  Also, if you must do the guided bus tour, be sure to sit on the right side of the bus since everything is on the right.  After the tour I went over to the Urban Jungle area and the Asian Passage.  By that point it was about closing time so I went through what parts of the aviary were open (most of it was closed to prevent spread of a contagious disease that’s been going around out here) and headed out.  I was pretty wiped out from walking all day, so opted to crash at the hotel afterwards.  It was a lovely, relaxing day 🙂

9/11 Wednesday

I didn’t have anything planned today, and while I was looking around for something to do noticed a whale watching tour which picked up right next to my hotel.  So, I boarded The America, an old old school giant sailing vessel contracted under Next Level Sailing tours, and we headed out. Of course I had to make friends with Walter and Louie, the two sea dogs first…I wanted to petnap Walter but refrained! There was a huge pod of hundreds of dolphins feeding offshore, and we even ran into a humpback whale that fully breached out of the water and then popped his head out to watch us.  I wish I had gotten better pictures, but to be honest I was having fun just watching all of the dolphins, sea lions, and the whale and wasn’t much thinking about lifting up the camera.  Also, San Diego being a huge military port there were lots of cool helicopters and military aircraft and ships all around us including a new one that looked like a gigantic catamaran and could really move through the water, something like 50 mph which is crazy for something so big in the water.  After we got back to the marina I took the recommendation of one of the crew and went to Mitch’s Seafood right there for their delicious fish tacos and watched the fishermen cleaning the boats and hilariously fighting with the birds over bait fish.  A sea lion even swam right up to the restaurant dock, probably looking for food.  After eating I opted to take the mile walk back to the hotel by foot. I was planning on going back to the cliffs for sunset but made the mistake of “laying down just for a second” and I ended up sleeping until about 3am.  Which kinda sucked because I lost the late afternoon and early evening to do stuff… I laid in bed until 6am when I finally got up.  Ah well, apparently I needed some rest!

9/12 Thursday and 9/13 Friday

I had lazy morning in bed until 10ish, repacked my bags and checked out.  Fortunately my hotel has an internal restaurant, and I was allowed to store my bags and hang out at the pool and jacuzzi all day.  It was nice to just chill out, relax, have a couple drinks, and enjoy the beautiful weather for the day.  Eventually I had to change into regular clothes and make my way to the shark diving welcome center through Nautilus.  After dropping off my bags, I walked around and watched the fish and seals until it was time to board the bus to Ensenada. The trip through customs was pretty lowkey, they barely even checked our bags, and we made it to the docks around 10pm.  Turns out my roommate on the boat, the Belle Amie, cancelled, so I would up with a room all to myself!  It took about an hour to finally cast off, and like that we were in the ocean…the wavy, nausea inducing ocean.  I took Dramamine but it just wasn’t enough. I was so sea sick I spent most of the 20 hour ride in my cabin trying to not throw up. I failed twice, and didn’t get to socialize much on our way to Guadalupe Island. Curse my ears and stomach!  We arrived at the island late on Friday, around 7ish, I knew we were there when the sun abruptly went behind the island and I got up to see why there was such a sudden change.  Upon seeing the island I went to the top deck to get a proper look and man, it was GORGEOUS.  That night the full moon rising was huge, bright, and a little red.  It was creepy but cool. After skipping three meals I just wanted to sleep and I did until morning.  Next up, GREAT WHITE SHARKS!!!