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Rome – Day 1

I got up and had breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and took a ferry (now that they’re running again!) to the train station. Now, originally I was going to go to Athens after Venice, but dang Athens is expensive and difficult to get to and I’d have to go to Rome to fly to Thailand so I figured I’d save two days of travel and travel expenses and just go visit Rome since I had to be there anyway. Woe is me! The train ride was uneventful, it goes about 155 miles per hour (250 km/h) and a lot of it is in underground tunnels.

After arriving in Rome I took a taxi as close as he could get to the hotel, then walked it from there. It’s not that he couldn’t drive me to my hotel, there were roads, but they were absolutely PACKED with people, and the time spent trying to push through wasn’t worth it. Getting my suitcase over the old cobbled roads was interesting, but I made it to the hotel and checked in. I was starving, and wasn’t up for playing charades for communication, so I went to the Hard Rock Café right around the way from the hotel for a club sandwich and English conversation. By the time I was done eating it was sunset, so I hiked up the Spanish Steps to watch the sun go down. It was a bit crowded, so I meandered over to the Terraza de Pincio, which overlooks the entire city and Piazza del Popolo which is Rome’s oldest obelisk. The sky exploded into pink and purple, and I wandered around the big park looking at all the cool statues including entire rows of prominent Italian people in that area while stopping by the lookout areas to watch the sky change. After it was dark, I headed downstairs and found a pharmacy for some cold meds (I’ve had a sore through these past couple days, fingers crossed it doesn’t turn into anything worse!) and some groceries, then turned in for the night. I have a big walking day tomorrow!

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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!!!

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Yellowstone National Park: Part 2

I decided to make a grand trip around Yellowstone today, so I got up really early and headed north.  At West Thumb I veered east around the north side of Yellowstone Lake and enjoyed the gorgeous views.  I continued north after Fishing Bridge/Lake Village and stopped at LeHardy’s Rapids.  Between the rapids and the Mud Volcano/Sulphur Caldron I noticed some bison in the distance and hooked up my telephoto lens for a few shots.  Little did I know that not a quarter mile ahead was an entire herd of bison, all over the place just hanging out in and around the road.  I drove through at first, then decided I needed more pictures and turned around and pulled over.  As I was taking lots of shots of bison in the road, I noticed another group in the distance east of the road with calves.  I angled my car so I could shoot out of the passenger window (because like heck I was getting out of my car in the middle of a 100+ herd of wild bison) and started to notice as the minutes passed having to pack the lens up more and more.  Then I realized it was because they were coming towards me, and I was parked right where the pavement dipped and an obvious trail was located.  So I knocked my car in reverse and back up out of the way.  Despite this, one of them came right at me, and walked maybe a foot away from my driver side window (which I rolled up as soon as I saw him coming!)  It was altogether an amazing, but also terrifying, experience and I’m glad I opted for the extra vehicle insurance even if I didn’t need it in that moment.  Also, something I learned, although I am allergic to buffalo in zoos (sneezing, watering eyes, running nose hits me almost instantly once I get near them) I don’t seem to be allergic to bison…or perhaps there something in their diet that changes their dander that makes me allergic.  I’m not sure!

After hanging out with the bison for half an hour or so, I continued over to Mud Volcano which also had a lot of bison hanging around it, and walked up to the Dragon Mouth which is a cave where sulfur smelling steam is constantly escaping and almost sounds like a dragon is inside sleeping with all the bubbling and rumbling from inside.  Best steam cave ever! 

I continued north, stopping to take pictures of the beautiful Yellowstone River and Hayden Valley until I got to Canyon Village.  There I visited what is known as the “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone”, a gigantic gorge carved through by the Yellowstone River and I visited both the lower and the upper falls.  Uncle Tom’s Trail was closed, which was a bummer, but I drove up the South Rim Drive to Artists Point and you guys, it was AMAZING.  The view was gorgeous no matter which way you looked, the water was blue and aqua, the rocks were like rainbows of colors, I could have sat there all day just looking at all the things.  However, I still had a long way to go and daylight was burning fast.  I would have loved to have gone on the North Rim Drive too but it was shut down for construction, I’ll save that for next time.

I continued north up into the Washburn Range mountains, stopping at the various overloocks like Hot Springs Overlook, Dunraven Pass and all along the way of the curvey, swirly, “don’t drive on this if you’re tired” road up and around the mountains to Tower Falls.  Word of advice, don’t drive all the way out to Roosevelt to see Tower Falls, it was the least impressive of all the falls to me.  I would have loved to see the Petrified Tree but daylight was burning and I still needed to finish getting up and back down the route!  I continued west through the Blacktail Deer Plateau, and again, I really wanted to stop at Wraith Falls and Undine Falls but it was already almost 4pm!  I instead went straight to Mammoth Hot Springs.

For Mammoth Hot Springs, you can park on the lower end and walk around the lower spring terraces by foot.  But if you don’t have time, or your feet are killing you (both conditions which I was experiencing at that time) you can jump back in your car and drive about a mile west to where the road loops back north and enter a one way drive through the upper terrace area.  On the drive there are lots of pull-offs and I didn’t have trouble parking and walking to see the main upper terrace attractions.  Given the driving options I was able to see all the highlights of the springs in about an hour, and I didn’t feel like death afterwards!

It was about 6pm when I left Mammoth and I had about a 2.5 hour drive back to the campground.  So I jumped back on the southbound road and powered through, stopping at the Obsidian Cliff and Artists Paintpots.  The Paintpots were pretty cool, very muted and pastel colors in the water and soil that made for almost a dreamy appearance.  At near dark I did pull off to see Gibbon Falls, a fairly large waterfall with nice scenery in the background given that it was nearly sunset.  By the time sunset was about ending I reached Gibbon River, where there were some gorgeous springs and geysers that the sunset light was reflecting off of beautifully!  I had to stop one more time and get some pictures of it, it was so cool!  Honestly, the whole trip today I was stopping every 15 minutes and either saying “Oh, pretty!” or “Holy shit!” or “Wow” it was almost comical. Driving in the dark at Yellowstone is pretty stressful, I don’t recommend it unless you absolutely have to.  I didn’t have much choice, I was still almost 2 hours from camp.  So I just cranked up the radio, rolled down the windows so any animals would hear me coming and powered my way home.  I made a pit stop just outside of the Yellowstone south entrance to take some photos of the awesome super clear night sky.  Seriously, after living in Chicago for 10+ years and suburbs of Michigan before that it had been a long, long time since I saw that many stars.  I got some okay enough shots, then headed back.  I left around 9am and didn’t get back until 11pm.  What a day!