As the roosters started crowing, I packed up my campsite at 6 AM (an old throwback to my boy scout days). I was determined to maximize my time today at the Grand Canyon. I wanted to make it to one of the ends of the south rim trail. I was also going to figure out the bus system. Each stop of the shuttle bus yielded a new amazing view. Sometimes I would hike to the...
Today I took a wine tour in the Stellenbosch region. I never knew that there was a wine culture in South Africa. According to history, the Dutch and the French had a large influence on bringing wine making to this area in the late 1600s. Honestly, I’ve never been all that interested in Wine. During my years of bicycling around the Lake Erie region I usually...
This journey marks my 3rd trip to South Africa. All of my trips have been to Johannesburg for 1-2 weeks of work. My first trip gave me a bad impression of the country primarily because of a painfully long flight and and the culture shock. On my second trip, I found an easier way to travel and had some friends along. For this trip, I decided I need to see somewhere...
With a 10 hour flight to JNB at 8pm, I had most of the day to go exploring. For a few years I have wanted to visit the London Film Museum to see the James Bond 007 exhibit. It did not disappoint as my movie geek was fully satisfied. Can you identify some of the following film props? Next, I headed over to the London Sea Life Aquarium. I have not visited this place in...
A few weeks back, after returning from my month of work in Singapore my manager encouraged me to take a week off to make up for all my lost weekends. I decided to finally get to work on one of my bucket list items of visiting the Kentucky Bourbon trail. I found a tour company, Mint Julep Tours, and signed up. I also invited an old high school friend, (and experienced...
The day started with a mixology tour at the Bacardi distillery. I have enjoyed many adult beverage tours in Ireland and Scotland, but have never done one in the USA. High on my list has been the Bourbon trail in Kentucky. Second on that list is this place. Next we had a traditional Puerto Rican lunch. I had to explain to my friend the old 96er joke from The Great...
I’ve been traveling to Puerto Rico since 2011. I still believe it is quite the treasure and as a bonus, a US Province. For the first time in a while I was here to vacation instead of work. Today’s adventures included some Kayaking in the Condado Lagoon and a road trip to Aricbo to hike the Window Cave (aka Cueva Ventana). Every time I have crossed the...
One last stop before ending this vacation. David insisted that we visit the Hakone Open-Air Museum, a famous outdoor sculpture park in the mountains near Tokyo. Hakone is the typical resort/hot springs that people from the cities like to visit. They usually have enough time for a long weekend trip so places like this appeal to that need. While I was starting to get...
Two weeks ago I decided on a whim to visit a new (to me) city, Takayama. For the life of me I could not find a hotel or hostel. I finally got something on Monday. It turns out that we caught the tail end of one of the biggest fall festivals in Japan. The city is actually has 3 big festivals throughout the year. The train ride up to the mountains from Nagoya took...
After a few days in Kyoto, we took a day trip to Hiroshima. I’ve not been back here since 2009, at the time I rode the train for 5 hours, walked to the peace memorial, then went strait back to Tokyo. I didn’t realize one of the most famous shrines (photograph) in Japan was located here. The Itsukushima Shrine is located on an Island on the south west side...