2014 Travels

Boardwalk, Atlantic City

In January we traveled to Atlantic City to participate in Yelp's Winter Break, a weekend of entertainment co-organized by Yelp New Jersey and Yelp Philadelphia. It was a fun weekend of scavenger hunting and drinking but, mostly, it was a great way to experience Atlantic City for the first time.

Our weather wasn't the best, but we still got to see some of the famous landmarks from Monopoly and the gorgeous beach.

Someday, hopefully, we'll get to see it in all its summertime glory. But, its wintertime glory wasn't too bad at all.

In February we spent a long weekend in Boston. We did the Freedom Trail. We ate Boston creme pie. We drank Sam Adams beer. We pub crawled.

Boston was cold in February but we still had a great time wandering the city and exploring historically significant locations (including Cheers, pictured).

The Freedom Trail is excellent for the really old, historically significant stuff (not just '80's TV shows, though Cheers is near the start of the trail). Plus, the Trail leaves you in a lovely part of Boston called Charlestown. You should go to Sullivan's Pub for some local color. And watch The Town with Ben Affleck before you get there.

Puerto Rico

In March we went to Puerto Rico for a proper holiday. We scored on a Delta glitch and got roundtrip first class / priority tickets for only US$87 from NYC via ATL.

This trip was amazing for many reasons but mostly because we got to reconnect with old friends who now live there. Also, we want to live in Viejo San Juan. Its colonial charm and friendly locals really made it hard to say goodbye. We'll be back, Viejo San Juan. Promesa.

Playa El Cuco, El Salvador

In May we traveled to El Salvador for a long holiday. We stayed over three weeks at La Tortuga Verde in Playa El Cuco. The picture on the right was our view for the entirety of our stay.

Although El Salvador was slightly dodgy at times, we made some great friends on this trip, had some great experiences, and ate some great food. I can totally see us going back someday.

If you go and stay at La Tortuga Verde, don't miss the All Day Open Water Adventure. Magical. ¡Hay pescado!

The end of June and beginning of July were reserved for visiting family and friends in Utah. We spent the bulk of two weeks in the Salt Lake valley visiting family before venturing on a quintessential road trip to Las Vegas for a long weekend with old friends.

Las Vegas

July also saw us officially becoming expats again. After a night in Long Beach, California, we caught a flight to Manila, Philippines where we survived two nights before landing in Taipei, Taiwan.

We spent over two weeks in Taipei before moving south to Kaohsiung, our new home. Besides a few day trips to Maokong, Danshui, and Yangminshan, we didn't really do much sightseeing again until November.

We had a houseguest from Seattle join us for a week in early November. Besides showing her around Kaohsiung, we took her up to Taipei where, in addition to Maokong, we also traveled to Beitou for the hot springs.

Beitou Hot Springs

We finished the year with an ambitious day trip to Sun Moon Lake.

2014 was an amazing travel year for us. We got to see new places, visit old favorites, and share many of them with friends and family. We hope this foretells a new trend in travel for us. Sharing experiences with those you love is truly one of life's joys.

To all the Travel Bunnies out there, may 2015 bring you good health, happiness and many safe travels.

2013 Travels

Brussels

Although Husband and I returned to the USA this year, bringing an end to our European travels, we still found ways to satiate our wanderlust. Our move to New York City provided us with a great base for exploring New York state and the northeastern United States, both regions we'd almost fully neglected prior to our move. We did sneak a little bit of Europe in at the beginning though, just for fun.

We started 2013 travelling. After celebrating the new year in London, we boarded the Eurostar to Brussels. After a day there we went to Duesseldorf for our flight to New York City, where we permanently relocated on January 3rd.

Cape Cod

We stayed within the city limits until June when we traveled to Cape Cod in Massachusetts for our first mini-break of the year.

The rest of the summer was mostly spent in the parks of New York City, especially once we discovered the Urban Park Rangers Family Camping program. We also spent a good deal of time at Coney Island, our favorite place in NYC and where we'll be watching the final sunset of 2013.

In late summer and early autumn we ventured into upstate New York, visiting The Adirondacks, Syracuse and the Finger Lakes region, including Watkins Glen State Park and Ithaca.

Watkins Glen State Park

From October we began venturing out of town for day trips and rambles. We hiked Bear Mountain and stayed to celebrate their Oktoberfest, we journeyed out to Long Island for their Oyster Festival and we devoted two trips to Tarrytown, rambling along different sections of the Old Croton Aqueduct.

We already have a few trips planned for 2014, including another big move, so our travel in this area of the USA will greatly decrease after 2013. And, while our travels in 2013 weren't exactly what we had expected, we do realize how incredibly fortunate we are to have had them.

In 2014, we'd like to find ourselves abroad again, with plenty more to write about. We'd also like to find ourselves healthy and happy, wherever we may be.

To all the Travel Bunnies out there, may 2014 bring you good health, happiness and many safe travels.

Cape Cod

Highland Lighthouse, North Truro

Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit Cape Cod with a dear friend and his family, including his youngest brother, future sister-in-law, mother, and grandmother.  We stayed in a lovely cottage near the sea in Dennisport and proceeded to have an amazing time, dare I say "Best Weekend 2013".

Getting to The Cape from New York City without a car is pretty straightforward.  One can either take a train or bus to Providence and then take a bus to Hyannis from there.  We opted to take a bus to Providence, purchasing on Greyhound's website because they had the cheapest fare.  (Side note: apparently, Greyhound is no longer Greyhound because our bus was labelled Peter Pan and, though the driver would mention Bonanza in conjunction with Peter Pan ("thanks for choosing Peter Pan / Bonanza"), we never heard anyone say anything about Greyhound.)

The Port Authority (aka bus station) in New York City is very reminiscent of the bus stations we experienced in Europe (actually, there's a lot about New York that reminds us more of Europe than of the US, but I digress); buzzing with activity as though riding the bus is really a thriving transportation alternative (though most people in the US would not consider it an option at all because, if you're going to use the road, why don't you just drive yourself?).  Though our experience was relatively painless, it could have easily gone the other way.

First of all, the Port Authority does not have a departure board telling you where to go for your bus, nor is the information printed on your ticket and, at 7am on a Saturday morning, all information booths are closed.  Luckily, while retrieving our tickets the day before, we had been told what terminal our bus would be leaving from (though the Peter Pan insignia on our bus made us doubt the information for a bit).  Secondly, apparently bus companies will intentionally and regularly oversell their buses.  If you're one of these sad fools who don't get on the bus you bought a ticket for you may be lucky and another bus will be brought in to accommodate your reservation relatively quickly or, and just as probable, you may have to wait for the next scheduled bus.  Without knowing about this custom of overselling, we barely made it onto our bus.  The poor fools behind us were not as lucky.  Whether another bus came for them or they had to wait until the next bus, a whole 2 hours later, we will never know.

The bus ride was 3 hours and 45 minutes from New York City to Providence and another 2 hours to Hyannis.  Leaving New York at 7am, we were in the welcoming embrace of our friend by 1:30pm Saturday afternoon and enjoying our first Cape Cod feast by 2pm.

lobster roll and chowder

One of the things that made me instantly fall in love with Massachusetts, or maybe just The Cape but, as I've never been to other parts of MA before, I'll assume it's the whole state until otherwise disproved, was that beer is served everywhere.  You're in a family friendly diner?  Want a beer?  Yes, please!  You're at a tent party in a random, isolated area?  Want a beer?  Yes, please!  And, not just any beer.  You get variations of Sam Adams.  Know why?  Because Sam Adams is The Boston Beer Company and (another thing that made me fall in love with Massachusetts) the people here have great pride in all things Massachusetts.  (We saw "Go Bruins!" alternating with the destination on city bus display boards.)

Our time on The Cape was relatively short - we were on our way back to New York City by 4:45pm the next day - but we packed a whole lot of good times and memories into what also felt like an incredibly relaxing weekend. In just over 24 hours, we were able to do all the things one does whilst enjoying The Cape during The Season. We lounged on the beach for hours, we sat drinking mimosas on the back porch for an entire morning, we played a leisurely game of mini-golf, we bought salt water taffy and attended drag karaoke in P-Town, and we went to a benefit concert for the local radio station which included seafood gumbo, amazing zydeco and, of course, Sam Adams beer. Seriously, Best Weekend 2013!

After a lifetime of hearing references to The Cape, my first visit did not disappoint.  This area has been in the common American lexicon since at least the Kennedy administration but it doesn't look like an aged seaside retreat at all.  Instead, it is thriving and modern, achieving the latter without having changed much over the past few decades (at least according to our hosts).  I'm so glad I had the opportunity to visit such a great place with such a good friend and his fun family.  Enjoying The Cape with the added benefit of generational knowledge turned a lovely weekend into a memorable one.