Sabbattical Travels: 4 weeks
Merced River & Yosemite
- What to say — except I felt like I almost died white-water rafting on class IV rapids. Damages: 3 sprained fingers. Damn Stark Reality. Good fun prior to all 16 of us falling out…
- Pleasant camping out and waking up next to the river in beautiful weather.
- Day hiking up to Mirror Lake in Yosemite was relaxing
- Things I’ll have to go back for: More hikes!
- Photos: my flickr | emily’s picasa (better photos!)
"I survived Stark Reality" group shot
Napa Valley
- One evening up at the Silverado Resort was surreal.
- Unlimited alcohol and banquet dinner overlooking the country club golf course.
- Imagine the 1800s and classy people wearing their expensive hats, dresses, sipping red wine and listening to a pianist perform as the sun goes down in the summer weather.
- A medium-sized suite to crash in: kitchen, living room, a seat in the shower, and large comfy bed — need I say more?
- Things I’ll have to go back for: Visiting the vineyards and winetasting.
Boston
- Beautiful colonial architecture, nothing like I’ve seen anywhere else.
- Everywhere you go: Dunkin’ Donuts, Bank of America, and CVS.
- Pay the premium for good eats/seafood, otherwise food isn’t anything to talk about.
- People sleep in this city; downtown is dead compared to Manhattan, Asia, and Australia.
- Hanging out with the Bostonians at night was a nice break from touristy sightseeing.
- Things I’ll have to go back for: Red Sox game, Boston Pops & Symphony Orchestra performances.
- Photos/Video: my flickr | Teri’s 6 videos via FB (view on my wall)
Old South Church
Australia
- Sydney: an expensive version of Hong Kong (Asians everywhere!), people don’t really sleep here, streets are constantly packed and busy with people.
- All over Australia has really good eats (Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Bondi Beach, Manly, Katoomba/Blue Mountains) and bakeries (ham & cheese croissants, apple croissants, strawberry crepe-like dessert, pineapple buns, cocktail buns, foccacia, blueberry muffins, chocolate and raspberry muffins, etc!) are plentiful and offer more of a variety than Asia.
- Meat pies are addicting. I crave one right now. Gonna have to learn how to make the crust!
- Tomato chips! Ugh, three days in a row I had to buy them at the convenience store. I still think Canada’s are better though!
- I tried tasting Kangaroo meat but the way it was cooked was super spicy (losing my tolerance for spiciness) so I gave up.
- Blue Mtns really appear blue.
- Hike down to the 3 Sisters was extremely windy and vertical ladders at some points. Breathtaking views and sea-legs climbing down ladders that peered down to the canyon below!
- Manly beach had a sustainable fair going on and lots of food booths. If it was like that all the time, I could live there. Twas a favorite.
- Bondi beach was gorgeous. The water was warmer than the outside air and clear like jelly!
- Wollongong was a huge let down — except dinner. Most of our evening was trying to get a hotel room on a holiday weekend (Queen’s birthday). We pretty much saw the whole city driving around. Tehehe! Every hotel (tried about 8-10) was full…so after we drove down and around, we headed back north.
- Hunter’s Valley was cool, wish we had time to go wine tasting (bought duty free wine @ the airport since I didn’t get to try them), but we watched kangaroos hopping around at The Vintage (a golf course). Cheap entertainment.
- Newcastle was dead. It was quite seedy. Downtown was deserted and boarded up; however, the beach was as expected, beautiful.
- I could go on and on about Australia, but my Twitter recap is much more brief:
- Things I’ll have to go back for: The Outback and Melbourne
- Photos/Video: my flickr
Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House
Echo Point Lookout: Blue Mountains
Three Sisters
