Patagonia, Part 3: Argentina

April 10, 2025 by Nicole Harrison in Argentina

From Torres del Paine, we had an early morning ride to the border with Argentina, where we crossed and got on a bus to El Calafate. The bus full of people was a little claustrophobic after the vast wilderness of the park, but the views continued to be lovely. Once we got to El Calafate, we checked into our house for the night, did some much-needed stretching, and walked around town.

A statue of a guanaco wearing a coat and drinking mate. — A very Argentinian statue: a guanaco drinking maté (photo/Jason Rafal)

A building with painted walls and a sign that says Calafate Coffee Roasters with a dog asleep in front of the door. — El Calafate had lots of stray dogs, including this one who seemed universally beloved (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole and Emilie stretching on the floor with clothes strewn about. — When you have a one-night stop in the middle of an active trip to do laundry and repack (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the morning, we picked up a rental car and drove to El Chalten, a smaller town right at the foot of the mountains. The drive, which was a couple of hours, had beautiful views of two large lakes and dramatic mountains in the distance. Once we got to El Chalten, we settled into our home base and got some food in town.

A trash can covered in stickers in front of a lake with mountains in the background. — Rest stop views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole in the middle of the road leading into the national park. — Nicole loves mountains but doesn’t know what to do with her arms (photo/Jason Rafal)

El Chalten, due to its location directly at the base of the mountains, is a paradise for climbers and hikers. Most of the popular hikes are accessible walking from town, which was novel and really nice. Sometimes we took the car somewhere if we were tired, but it really wasn’t necessary once we got to the house we were staying at.

On our first full day in El Chalten, we rallied our tired bodies to hike Laguna de Los Tres, the glacial lake at the foot of Mt. Fitzroy. It was a grueling day of more than 15 miles and 3500 feet of elevation gain, but the weather continued to smile down at us, and the views were amazing. In addition, as we climbed we found more and more beautiful fall foliage, which carpeted the mountainsides in red and orange.

A woman standing on top of a rocky outcropping with mountains in the background. — Ally looking like an outdoor clothing ad (photo/Jason Rafal)

Red bushes alongside a rocky trail leading up toward Mt. Ritzroy. — Fall colors and beautiful light on the hike up (photo/Jason Rafal)

Layers of hills, glaciers, and mountain peaks under light clouds. — Glimpses of glaciers (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down at a turquoise lake in front of sunlit mountains. — We finally see the top of Mt. Fiztroy (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our hike down, we went to Laguna Capri to rest on the rocky beach for a few minutes and look at the incredible views in the afternoon light.

A rotting wooden sign asking people not to step on the vegetation in front of mountains. — We were fascinated by these rotting signs asking us to stay on the trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

People sitting on the shore of a clear lake with mountains in the background. — Relaxing vibes on the shore of Laguna Capri (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunstar through green and orange leaves. — More amazing Patagonian forests (photo/Jason Rafal)

Layers of fall foliage in front of a glacier and mountains. — So many beautiful colors (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we visited a waterfall and then Jason stayed behind to rest while Emilie, Ally, and Nicole took a smaller hike to Mirador del Torre. The views were a little more cloud-covered, but they were still beautiful.

Long exposure of a waterfall cascading into a stream. — A beautiful and very accessible waterfall (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tree with red leaves in the foreground and a glacier in the background. — Fall colors at the mirador (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Taking in the views (photo/Ally White)

More fall colors on the way down (photo/Emilie Rafal)

Looking out over El Chalten at mountains with yellow and pink clouds floating above them. — Sunset from our house in El Chalten (photo/Jason Rafal)

From El Chalten, we made our way back to El Calafate for a few hours and then flew out to Buenos Aires to end our trip.

A life-sized model of a man looking at a dinosaur skull with a magnifying glass. — A very odd full-sized model in a park in El Calafate (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was Ally’s first time in Buenos Aires, and the rest of us were excited to return to the city. Jason and Nicole were here in 2018 (you can see those blogs here and here) and Emilie spent a few weeks in the city after college. Buenos Aires continues to be charming; it has beautiful buildings, lovely parks, and amazing food.

Looking down at a city street and an ornate stone building. — Looking down from the apartment where we stayed in Buenos Aires (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large roundabout with a pillar topped with a statue of a woman in the center. — The Monument to the Magna Carta (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sidewalk views in Buenos Aires (photo/Jason Rafal)

A lovely mural (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole looking over the railing at the Ateneo bookstore. — El Ateneo Grand Splendid, one of the most beautiful bookstores (photo/Jason Rafal)

We booked a walking tour in La Boca, where a local told us stories while he walked us along the river and through some of the busy, colorful streets. La Boca was where immigrants arrived in the city, and the bright, colorful buildings are a callback to the patchwork of extra paint that was originally used to paint the walls. The area is full of tourists and souvenir shops, but there is also great art and food (and the Boca Juniors stadium).

Looking down a street in La Boca. — La Boca (photo/Jason Rafal)

Buenos Aires has amazing trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole with a giant park tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also took a couple of birding excursions to Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur, which was near where we were staying. The birding was amazing, but we also got a ton of bug bites—definitely wear lots of bug spray if you’re going to visit.

A large gray bird with giant pink feet walking on top of a patch of grass in a swamp. — The incredibly named southern screamer walking in the swamp (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black and brown water bird standing on water plants with two chicks. — A wattled jacana and its chicks (photo/Jason Rafal)

A brown and black bird with long toes striding across the water plants. — Watching the wattled jacana walk across water plants with its incredibly long toes was fascinating (photo/Jason Rafal)

Five waterfowl floating in water with lots of vegetation. — White-faced whistling ducks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Red flowers on a dark background. — An Indian shot flower, or Canna indica (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird prancing on a stick. — A rufous hornero prancing on a stick (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three orange and black butterflies flying around a flowering bush. — The quite rudely named Lazy butterfly, or Actinote pellenea (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large orange bee on bright green and brown tree bark. — A carpenter bee on interestingly-colored tree bark (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird perched on a fluffy plant. — A grayish baywing (yes, that is the actual name) perching on a reed (photo/Jason Rafal)

Red and white orchid flowers on a tree branch. — This is known as both the calico flower and the elegant Dutchman’s pipe (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black and white bird with a bright red head standing on a branch. — A dramatic red-crested cardinal (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bird skipping along the ground with a bug in its mouth. — A chalk-browed mockingbird with a grub (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had an amazing trip, and we’re so grateful to have been able to have these experiences with some great travel partners. Not sure how we’ll follow up this trip, but we’re looking forward to trying!

Patagonia, Part 2: Torres del Paine

April 04, 2025 by Nicole Harrison in Chile

The second stage of our trip was spent on a guided tour with EcoCamp, a sustainable dome hotel.

A driver picked us up from our hotel in Punta Arenas and drove us to Puerto Natales to meet up with the rest of our group (and showed us guanacos, rheas, and caracaras on the way). We also met our guides—Diego, who is from Mexico and splits his time between guiding in Patagonia and Austria, and Javi, a young Chilean who we bonded with over birding. They were both really informative and also very fun to hang out with.

EcoCamp is on a private land holding that borders Torres del Paine National Park and is run as a private reserve. The camp, which houses a few dozen people in a series of geodesic domes of different sizes, works to balance sustainability and luxury. The setting, right at the edge of the national park, is amazing, and so is the food—each morning we were asked to pick from three options each for appetizer, entree, and dessert.

A series of geodesic domes under cloud-covered mountains. — Cloudy views when we arrived at EcoCamp (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first day of hiking began with a 5:30 alarm and an uneasy realization of just how windy it was outside. Of our days in Torres del Paine, this was the one predicted to have the most unpleasant weather. We layered up to the sound of wind and occasional raindrops thrashing the dome, then packed up our stuff to check out (in a process that sounds like a logistical nightmare, the night we spent at a Refugio was the first night a different group spent at the lodge before they went off to spend two nights at Refugios, so someone else was in our room for the one night out of four that we were away). After eating breakfast and packing gourmet lunches from a buffet (we all wish we had that lunch buffet available all the time), we headed out to the van for the ride to the boat that would take us to our first hike.

A boat called "Hielos Patagonicos" on the water. — The boat waiting to take us across the lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jagged mountain peaks through the clouds. — A glimpse of crazy views from the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

The boat took us to Refugio Paine Grande, and from there we started hiking up the French Valley. The first 45 minutes were a blur of wind and rain (never a super fun combo), but we felt like we were getting the real Patagonia experience. As we approached the entrance to the valley, we started hiking along a beautiful lake and began seeing glimpses of views, which propelled us forward.

A rainbow over a trail with a lake in the background and dark cloudy skies. — Rainbows under the rain clouds (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bright red flower. — A bright spot of color (photo/Jason Rafal)

Clouds breaking over mountain peaks. — Looking up at the mountains as we climbed (photo/Jason Rafal)

By lunch, we were starting to shed some of our layers, and the clouds moved around to start showing us some of the mountain peaks. We ate next to a beautiful little waterfall before continuing to the top of our climb to Mirador Frances. The climb was tough on tired legs, but at the top we were in the midst of snow flurries and surrounded by a 360 degree view of snow-topped mountain peaks. It was magical.

Clouds revealing snow-covered peaks and a glacier. — Glacier views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at peaks that are tan rock below and black rock on top. — The crazy colors of Cuernos del Paine (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mountain top emerging through the clouds. — More dramatic mountain glimpses (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a few minutes taking pictures, we headed down the hill and back to camp. We were all tired and looking forward to food by the time we got back to the Refugio, where we checked in and got settled into our tents. It was definitely one of the craziest campsite views we’ve ever had.

Looking over a bright blue lake toward snowy mountains.

A lake with a grand, multicolored mountain in the background. — Clearer mountain views in the afternoon (photo/Jason Rafal)

A guanaco standing in front of a bright blue lake. — A guanaco poses in front of the lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

A trio of yellow tents with mountains in the distance under a light pink partly cloudy sky. — Amazing sunset views over our tent (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day started out very windy, but it was at least dry. We spent the first hour or so hiking up a valley without any of the spectacular views of the previous day, but as we continued the mountains started coming into sight. Torres del Paine had a big fire in 2011 (with no lightning naturally occurring in the area, all fires are started by humans) and we hiked through a lot of silver tree corpses and small bushes. When we made it to the top of the ridge, we were greeted with more intense wind but also incredible views of Lago Grey and the glacier that feeds it. At the viewpoint where we stopped, the wind was so strong it felt like you could take off.

People walking on a trail in front of a lake, glacier, and mountains. — First Views of Glacier Grey (photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie and Ally standing on a rock in front of Lago and Glacier Grey. — Emilie and Ally in the glacial wind (photo/Jason Rafal)

Icebergs dotting a lake under a cloudy sky. — Icebergs floating in the lake below us (photo/Jason Rafal)

After taking some pictures and practicing our stationary skydiving skills, we headed through a less burned section of the park toward Lago Grey. I had never heard much about the forests of Patagonia, but I really loved them. There are only a few types of trees, but they layer beautifully and protect a grassy forest floor. We could also start to see the start of leaves changing for fall, which would ramp up throughout our trip.

A large, fluffy bird sitting on a dead tree branch. — A crested caracara watches us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A woodpecker with a bright red head on a tree. — A brightly colored Magellanic woodpecker (photo/Jason Rafal)

After stopping for lunch in the woods, we went down to the beach to await our boat, which arrived almost immediately. A shallow catamaran, it drove right up to the beach, where some stairs were lowered for us to climb aboard.

A red and white boat called Grey III pushing onto the beach. — The boat picking us up (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a really incredible boat ride. At the start, the boat went right up near the icebergs and the glacier, and we all stood outside taking pictures. The icebergs are such an unreal shade of blue. After several minutes hanging out near the glacier, the boat turned toward the other side of the lake and we went inside to drink complimentary mini cocktails made with glacier ice. It was as satisfying as it sounds.

The meeting of a glacier, water, and field of rock in front of mountains. — Getting close to the glacier (photo/Jason Rafal)

Icebergs floating in the water in front of three layers of mountains. — Icebergs and snowy peaks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Fresh snow covering jagged mountain peaks. — More fresh snow (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we arrived at the south side of the lake, things got exciting again. We all got off the boat onto a rocky beach and walked toward the pickup point through some of the craziest wind of the entire trip. We staggered against it, occasionally watching as people tried to run after and catch things that had blown away. After a half mile of windswept chaos, we got to the pickup and drove back to camp, stopping at an amazing viewpoint along Lago Pehoé to take photos.

Small groups of people walking across a flat beach in front of mountains. — Walking across the windiest beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down over a long footbridge over a lake with dramatic mountains in the background. — The view over Lago Pehoé (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were all very excited for a shower and a nice dinner when we got back to the domes.

Two domes next to a courtyard with trees and benches. — The restaurant domes at EcoCamp (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last hiking day at EcoCamp, we left early to beat the crowds and hiked directly from our domes to the base of the towers. There were high clouds coming in, but there was barely any wind, which was amazing (except for the bugs that came out). We hiked up the mountain, over the windy pass, and onward to the Chilean Refugio, which used rooftop tents attached to the hillside to provide bookable housing. From there, we hiked through forests that Javi called Patagonia Flat (up and down hills) before starting the slow climb through the Boulder field to the lake.

Alpenglow over a snowy mountain. — Sunrise as we head out on our final hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

A river running through a forest. — Beautiful river views (photo/Jason Rafal)

A helicopter pulling up a net full of trash bags. — The ranger station was taking advantage of the lack of wind to lift out trash bags (photo/Jason Rafal)

Once we got to the summit, we sat down on a giant rock couch and ate our sandwiches overlooking the amazing view. It wasn’t too crowded yet, and we were able to walk around to take photos and just gaze into the crazy-colored water.

A glacial lake in front of three towers. — The Las Torres viewpoint (photo/Jason Rafal)

As we walked down, Diego asked us to exercise patience with the crowds going up to the top; as one of the logistically easier day hikes to do without staying in the park, the hike to the towers was always busy. Although this was our longest hiking day, we were all in great spirits on the way down from a sense of accomplishment and appreciation for everything we were able to experience in the park.

A branch of green and orange leaves in front of mountains. — Little glimpses of fall (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small tree with leaves changing colors in front of a river. — Another beautiful river scene (photo/Jason Rafal)

A saddled horse tied to a tree. — A horse waiting to take someone down the trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole, Emilie, Ally, and Jason standing on a path and laughing in front of a river valley. — At the top of Windy Pass (photo/Diego)

A river running through a canyon of black rock with golden veins running through it. — Crazy geologic layers (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of hikers standing in a loose circle. — Stopping to learn about geology (photo/Jason Rafal)

We got back with enough time to have a snack, stretch, relax, and shower before our delicious dinner, and then our group spent some time reminiscing about our favorite parts of the excursion. For me (Nicole) personally, the fact that I was able to just show up every day, not have to think about logistics, and spend all of my time enjoying the beauty around me made everything that much better. This part of the trip was really special to all of us, and I’m so grateful we got to experience it together.

Here are a few more bird pictures to close out our time in Chile.

A bird sitting on a dead branch and singing. — An austral thrush singing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small grey, red, and beige bird sitting on a branch. — A little rufous-collared sparrow (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fluffy bird sitting on a branch. — A chimango caracara (photo/Jason Rafal)

The night sky over a dome. — Last views of the domes (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the next blog, we head over the border to Argentina.

Patagonia, Part 1: Santiago, Punta Arenas, and Tierra del Fuego

March 30, 2025 by Nicole Harrison in Chile

It’s been five years since we (Nicole, Jason, Emilie, and Ally) last went on a big trip together. Over a year ago, we decided that we wanted to prioritize going to Patagonia and started planning a 2.5-week trip that combined trekking, a penguin detour, and city exploration. This blog post includes the first part of our trip, including our time at the bottom of the continent (much farther south than any of us had been before).

We all arrived in Santiago fairly early on Thursday morning. We planned to just drop our bags at the airport hotel, but in an unexpected but greatly appreciated turn of events we were able to check into our rooms at 9 AM, so we showered before heading into the city for the day.

We had signed up for a free walking tour (always a good start when you’re trying to figure out what to do in a new city), so we spent a few hours learning from a local about the history of the city. The area was brutally taken over by the Incas, and then less than 100 years later by the Spanish, so there was a considerable amount of violence and forced assimilation. Almost everyone who gained power in Chile is somewhat controversial, including the founding father who has a lot of monuments and streets named after him, Bernardo O’Higgins. The illegitimate son of a wealthy landowning family with Irish noble lineage, O’Higgins led the successful revolt against the Spanish (who were at that point moderately under the control of Napoleon). After an exile, some backstabbing, and many battles, he eventually became a somewhat successful leader for six years, but was ultimately deposed by a conservative coup in 1823. If you’re interested in learning more about that whole ordeal, the Wikipedia page is wild.

Santiago also feels different culturally from Patagonia, which was physically harder to take over and still has some cultural ties to its indigenous heritage.

An interesting statue at Plaza de Armas (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pigeon perches on a tall fountain in a courtyard. — A pigeon looks down on us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bicyclist with an Uber Eats bag bikes down a pedestrian street. — A pedestrian street in downtown Santiago (photo/Jason Rafal)

A clock tower reaches into the sky above a red wall. — The clocktower of the San Francisco Church (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at historic buildings in the Santiago city center. — The very French Edificio de la Bolsa building (photo/Jason Rafal)

A convenience store with a painting of a cat on the outer wall. — A convenience store with a painting of a royal cat (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of the inside of a church with elaborate pillars and painted ceilings. — The incredible interior of the Metropolitan Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man sitting on a horse in the street and typing something on his phone. — Modern mounted police (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also explored the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago by taking the funicular up the hill and the gondola down the other side, which provided some nice views of the city (Emilie, who agreed to ride the gondola despite a fear of heights, also entertained us with her pained facial expressions, but she also had fun).

View looking over the city of Santiago. — The view from the top of the mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie and Ally sitting in a gondola and laughing. — Emilie had lots of emotions on the gondola ride (photo/Jason Rafal)

After about 24 hours in Santiago we flew to Punta Arenas, one of the most southern cities in the world. We liked it immediately, despite the constant weather changes and considerable wind. There are great parks, a long beachfront to stroll, interesting buildings, and good food. We spent an afternoon wandering, eating, and wishing we could adopt all of the cute stray dogs.

Nicole, Emilie, and Ally petting a black dog on the beach. — The first dog we met, who we all fell in love with (photo/Jason Rafal)

An old dock stretching out into the strait, with a container ship in the background. — Old docks were very popular with gulls and cormorants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of gulls taking off from the beach into a partly cloudy sky. — Birds being alarmed at the dog running along near us (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole sitting next to and petting a black dog. — Nicole probably would have taken this dog home if she wasn’t 7500 miles from home (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two poles with signs pointing to different areas of the world and noting distances. — We were fascinated by which cities were on these signs (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset over a city street in Punta Arenas. — Sunset over Punta Arenas (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day we went on a quest to see penguins, a trip that involved a ridiculous amount of transit but was also amazing and definitely ended up being worthwhile.

The first part of our day was a ferry ride across the Strait of Magellan. We had hoped we would see some animals on the crossing, but it surpassed our expectations almost immediately. From the boat we saw dolphins, sei whales in the distance, sea lions swimming by, Magellanic penguins hunting, and lots of other birds flying around. The two-hour ferry ride flew by.

View over the front of a ferry toward water and a partly cloudy sky. — Our view after boarding the ferry (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunlight lights up buildings on the shore. — Sunlight on the shore (photo/Jason Rafal)

A seagull perching on top of a light pole. — A dolphin gull perched on the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two dolphins swim in the water in front of a container ship. — Southern dolphins swimming by (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two water birds flying over the waves. — Imperial cormorants flying over the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large black and white bird splashing the water as it takes off. — A black-browed albatross performing the impressive feat of getting its huge body out of the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

A whale blow in the distance. — A sei whale in the distance (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three sea lions swimming and looking at the boat. — Southern sea lions swimming by (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two small penguins floating in the water. — Magellanic penguins hunting in the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Once we docked at Porvenir, the capital of the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego, we picked up bag lunches at a nearby cafe and drove east to Inútil Bay. Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago that encompasses the southernmost parts of both Chile and Argentina. It was given its name by the Spanish Explorers, who arrived to see bonfires that the indigenous people were using for warmth and communication dotting the coastline. It’s an extreme climate, with lots of scrubby brush and grasses. The landscape was dotted with guanacos, a wild relative of the llama, and we enjoyed spotting them throughout the drive. There were fences everywhere to contain herds of sheep, but the guanacos, for the most part, jumped them easily whenever they needed to get to another area.

A guanaco standing in a field and looking at the camera. — A guanaco observes us from afar (photo/Jason Rafal)

A baby guanaco standing in front of a wire fence. — An adorable chulengo (baby guanaco) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up image of a guanaco winking at the camera. — Guanaco wink (photo/Jason Rafal)

Eventually, we reached the Reserva Natural Pingüino Rey, which feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere (because it very much is). We were all relieved by how seriously they were taking the safety and well-being of the penguins; they allowed a limited number of people in for an hour time slot, and we were kept back at designated viewing areas appropriately far from the colony. The reserve opened in 2011 to protect and study a colony of penguins who had just appeared there, lured by the shallow bay and protection from predators.

A wooden sign that says Parque Pinguino Rey. — Parque Pinguino Rey Sign (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole and Emilie standing on front of the ticket office at the penguin reserve. — Yes, it was this cold and windy (photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie looking through binoculars at penguins from behind a wooden wall. — Our first glimpse of the penguins from behind a wind block (photo/Jason Rafal)

The penguins who live at the reserve are king penguins, the second largest penguin species. They are simultaneously so beautiful and so absurdly silly. They’re contrasting black, bright white, and vibrant orange, except for the babies, who are a fuzzy uniform brown with adorable fat rolls. They also waddle around ridiculously.

A group of adult penguins with fluffy brown chicks. — There were about 70 penguins at the reserve when we visited (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of penguins laying on the ground, grooming, and flapping their wings. — Some of the penguins were just stretched out on the ground (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of penguins in long grass, one of them rotating its body to shake. — So beautiful, so silly (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of king penguins, including brown fluffy chicks. — We loved the little brown fluffy chicks (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of penguins standing together, one molting a fluffy coat. — The brownish penguin in the center group is in an awkward molting stage (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of penguins and chicks, with two of them raising their beaks toward each other. — No idea what these guys were doing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two penguins walking down a hill from the group. — Two penguins wandering down to the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our guide also used her scope to find and point out a surprise—a Snares penguin, native to New Zealand, who had landed in Chile and was hanging out with the king penguins, who seemed to have adopted it. It was much smaller than the king penguins and had adorable yellow eyebrows.

A group of king penguins with a smaller Snares penguin among them. — Can you spot the little Snares penguin? (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also saw some other animals at the reserve - a fox looking for penguin eggs, upland geese, and rufous-collared sparrows.

Two geese walking in the grass. — Upload geese living near the penguins (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fox walking through the grass along a river. — The adorable South American gray fox (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fox trotting through low grass and moss. — Cruising around looking for lunch (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fox sitting in the grass and looking off into the distance. — The fox was amazingly well camouflaged (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bird perched on a bush and looking up at the sky. — A rufous-collared sparrow peering up at something (photo/Jason Rafal)

After spending an hour watching the penguins from a couple of viewpoints, we headed back to the van for the long ride home (made longer by some unfortunate car issues). It was a long travel day, but completely worth it. The penguins were magical, but we also felt like we were on a safari the rest of the day, too.

A person looks out the window of a boat into a sunny ocean. — We only had an indoor view on this shot ferry ride (photo/Jason Rafal)

Next blog, we head north to Torres del Paine.

2024 in Review

January 12, 2025 by Nicole Harrison in Pacific Northwest, United States, Canada

Welcome to our annual end-of-year post, in which we share photos from the year that weren’t already featured on the blog. These usually include photos from weekend trips, hikes, and general snapshots of life around Seattle.

We’ll start at the beginning of 2024. Winter in Washington is characterized by muted shades of white, gray, and green. The sun is usually obscured by clouds, but when it does come out, everything is bathed in a golden-hour glow from the low sun angle for quite a bit of the day. There’s an almost mandatory sense of relief and happiness when the winter sun is out in Seattle.

A drop of water on a branch reflecting other trees. — A winter forest reflected in a water droplet (photo/Jason Rafal)

Light green fungi growing on a wet branch. — We have so many interesting different types of algae and fungi (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stream running through a forest with a mossy rock in the foreground. — Winter hiking involves a lot of river walks (photo/Jason Rafal)

In March, we went with friends to eastern Washington for the Sandhill Crane Festival. Every spring, the sandhill cranes stop on their migration north and feed on the grain fields. The festival has lots of lectures about the birds, and also provides guided tours that are jointly hosted by someone involved with farming in the community and a biologist. On our tour, we rode a school bus to different farms to get a glimpse of the tall, awkward birds.

Two sandhill cranes landing in a small flock on a field. — Synchronized landing on a farm field (photo/Jason Rafal)

A flock of cranes walking across a dirt road. — Something about the sandhill cranes crossing the road (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large camera lens poking out of a school bus window. — A photographer shooting out of the bus window (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large flock of specs flying against a party cloudy sky. — A huge flock of sandhill cranes flying overhead (photo/Jason Rafal)

Of course, Jason found lots of other birds to take pictures of throughout the year as well.

A kingfisher sitting on a metal wire and facing away from the camera. — A belted kingfisher looking out over the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of birds swimming and eating mussels off of a wooden post. — Some Barrow’s Goldeneyes eating mussels (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small gray bird perching on a chimney. — A Say’s phoebe perched on a chimney (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small brown bird perched on a branch. — A puffy song sparrow on a branch (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A shiny blue and white swallow perched next to a hole in a dead tree trunk. — A tree swallow perched next to its nest (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small fluffy bird peering at the camera from its perch on a branch. — A very skeptical bushtit (photo/Jason Rafal)

A red-headed woodpecker on a branch. — A pileated woodpecker (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two great blue herons standing in a nest together (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of the head and neck of a blue heron with water sparkling in the background. — A majestic great blue heron (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small brown, white, and yellow bird singing from its perch on a dead bush. — A singing savannah sparrow (photo/Jason Rafal)

A brown and white bird with a yellow crown sitting on a bush with small yellow flowers. — A quieter savannah sparrow (photo/Jason Rafal)

Spring and summer in the Pacific Northwest are dramatically beautiful. The gray, rainy skies give way to sun, warmth, and brilliant colors.

Close up photo of light pink cherry blossoms. — The beautiful cherry blossoms at the University of Washington (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of a white flower with light green and red stamen. — A lovely Christmas rose (photo/Jason Rafal)

A seagull flying over the water with the snowy Olympic Mountains in the background. — The snowy Olympic range makes a beautiful backdrop (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up image of an upward facing purple flower. — A magnolia flower (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole standing on a dock and looking out over the water, with little white dots of sailboats in the distance. — Watching for seals (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out the back of an empty cary ferry at a bright pink and purple sunset. — An incredible 9 pm June sunset from a ferry (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pedestal next to a turtle sitting on a rock in a pond. — A tranquil turtle at the Seattle Japanese Garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of dollar bills, coins, and flower petals inside a stone lantern. — Offerings in a stone lantern (photo/Jason Rafal)

Red maple leaves peaking through dense green folliage. — Japanese gardens emphasize layers and textures (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of white and yellow drooping flowers. — I have no idea what this very cool flower is (photo/Jason Rafal)

Every year, we try to go to the Fremont Solstice Parade, which anyone can enter as long as their float is hand-built and unmotorized (they must be pulled by foot, bike, or similar). There are also no corporate sponsorships allowed, and it’s just generally a great time.

A person holding an umbrella up toward a silver dragon breathing steam on a parade float. — An amazing dragon float (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Flying Spaghetti Monster float with people holding up pool noodles and yelling. — The ever-present Flying Spaghetti Monster float (photo/Jason Rafal)

A person wearing a huge pink axolotl costume. — Incredibly, there were multiple axolotl floats and costumes, but this was my favorite one (photo/Jason Rafal)

For Labor Day weekend, our friends Ross and Shannon came to visit and we drove up to Vancouver and spent some time on the mainland as well as Vancouver Island.

A tall, narrow waterfall down gray and beige rocks. — Shannon Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Light, flat mushrooms growing from a mossy log. — Sunlight on mushrooms (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wasp on a wasp nest on a mossy tree branch. — A scary but beautiful wasp nest (photo/Jason Rafal)

A green toad standing on the ground. — A beautiful Western Toad at Alice Lake Provincial Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunset over a dock and boats. — Sunset at Lonsdale Quay (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over a crowd of people between two rows of street foot vendors. — Crowds at the Richmond Night Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking into a BBQ stall at a night market. — We tried a lot of fun street food (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two harnessed horses behind a bar warning that they will bite. — Carriage horses in Stanley Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A young seal nursing from its mother on a boat dock. — A nursing seal near the Vancouver Seawall (photo/Jason Rafal)

An indoor market crowded with people surrounding fruit stands. — The market at Granville Island (photo/Jason Rafal)

A close up of two drooping pink flowers. — I think this is a Fuchsia? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small lizard peering through blades of grass. — A very small lizard (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of a bee sitting on the top of a flower. — Jason’s continued experimentations in macro photography (photo/Jason Rafal)

A moss-covered pedestal. — A stone lantern in the Japanese garden at Butchart Gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bee perched on a pink flower. — A bee enjoying Butchart Gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunlight filtering through the veins of a large leaf. — Sunlight filtering through beautiful leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small lighthouse on a rocky coastline. — A tiny lighthouse from the ferry to Vancouver Island (photo/Jason Rafal)

Several boats on the water, with a forested hillside in the background. — Boats sharing the Strait of Georgia (photo/Jason Rafal)

Tiny plants growing out of the top of a stump. — Tiny tiny trees growing from a log (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tree with circular pieces of bark flaking off. — A tree with curious circular bark chunks (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tree root with the ocean and a cloudy sky in the background. — Massive driftwood against the Strait of Juan de Fuca (photo/Jason Rafal)

People walking along a rocky coast. — A typical summer beach day on Vancouver Island (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rocky beach with a waterfall flowing between pine trees. — The amazing water features at Sandcut Beach (photo/Nicole Harrrison)

Looking out over a small islands around Vancouver Island. — Absurdly smooth water on our ferry ride back (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over a ferry deck, with forested islands and partly cloudy sky behind. — Ferry views (photo/Jason Rafal)

An orange life boat tied to the side of a ferry, with water in the background. — A life boat that I hope we won’t have to use (photo/Jason Rafal)

A seal floating along the top of the water. — A seal looking for lunch at the Ballad Locks (photo/Jason Rafal)

A salmon swimming through green water. — A salmon swimming through the locks (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sea lion in the water, throwing a salmon, with seagulls circling overhead. — A sea lion pulverizing and eating a salmon while seagulls look for an opportunity to grab some (photo/Jason Rafal)

People playing volleyball on the beach as the sun sets. — Evening volleyball at Golden Gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

This is kind of a miscellaneous animals category from our visits to parks, the zoo, the Washington State Fair. and a friend’s animal rescue.

A fox lying under a spiky bush and looking toward the camera. — This coyote was just sitting under some bushes at the arboretum, watching us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black lab sitting next to an outdoor table and turning back to look at the camera. — A friendly neighborhood winery dog in Charlottesville, VA (photo/Jason Rafal)

A nest full of tiny baby birds on top of a roof rafter. — A nest of baby birds at the above winery (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of a bear's head with its mouth open. — One of the resident bears at our local zoo (photo/Jason Rafal)

The zoo also had snow leopard kittens this year, which were absurdly cute (photo/Jason Rafal)

A snow leopard cub perched on a log and looking into the distance. — Look at the size of the paws! (photo/Jason Rafal)

A red panda curled up in a tree. — The elusive red panda, a personal favorite (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man vacuuming a Clydesdale horse. — A Clydesdale being vacuumed at the Washington State Fair (photo/Jason Rafal)

A flock of chicks sitting under a heat lamp. One white one is standing on a feeder and looking very warm and comfy. — Very young chicks enjoying food and heat lamps (photo/Jason Rafal)

A litter of black and white piglets nursing. — Adorable piglets at the state fair (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole bonding with one of the goats at Ballydídean Farm Sanctuary (photo/Jason Rafal)

A light brown cow staring through a fence. — A majestic cow (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small spotted pig in a covered pen with white chickens. — Pigs and chickens living happily together (photo/Jason Rafal)

In October, we took a trip to Chicago with Jason’s family, where we had weirdly beautiful weather and had a great time walking, eating, taking the architecture tour, and hanging out.

Groups of people looking at themselves in the reflective surface of the Bean. — Fall colors in the Bean (photo/Jason Rafal)

Several distorted and duplicated reflections of groups of people from inside the Bean. — The inside of the sculpture is a fun mind bender (photo/Jason Rafal)

The riverwalk in Chicago with large buildings in the background. — Enjoying the architecture tour (photo/Jason Rafal)

I’ll close with a northern lights picture taken from our neighborhood - we missed the first big showing in 2024, but we were able to see some of the lights later in the year.

Faint green and purple light streaks in the sky above neighborhood buildings. — Faint dancing lights (photo/Jason Rafal)

2024 had a mix of both local road trips and international excursions, but we’re always grateful to live in such a beautiful place where we can find peaceful, green nature within a few minutes of our house. 2025 isn’t fully planned yet, but we’re looking forward to seeing where it takes us.

Nicole and Jason in a very snowy landscape.

Thanksgiving in Japan, Part 2: Another Side of Honshu

December 30, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in Japan

From Tokyo, we took a 2.5 hour bullet train to Kyoto, where we were staying for the rest of the trip. While I hadn’t gone into the trip planning on trying to see Mount Fuji, since that seemed like a great way to be disappointed, the weather was amazingly kind to us, and for several minutes on the train we had an amazing view of the volcano out the window.

Looking out over fields and a small town at a snowcapped Mount Fuji with bright blue sky behind it. — The gorgeous snowcapped mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Kyoto is one of Japan’s oldest cities, and it has so much cultural and historical significance that it was considered and then thankfully dismissed as a target for an atomic bombing during WWII.

We arrived in Kyoto in the afternoon on Thanksgiving. We walked to a small miso ramen shop for dinner, and then watched a traditional maiko performance at our hotel. I’m not going to pretend to understand all the cultural significance of the dances, but every element was incredibly deliberate, graceful, and precise, and it was a good introduction to the different feel of the city.

People watching a traditionally dressed maiko dancing on a platform. — Watching the maiko performance with other tourists (photo/Jason Rafal)

Kyoto was very beautiful and incredibly crowded. We hadn’t fully realized that we were going to hit high time for Kyoto’s fall foliage visitors. We normally try to avoid the crowds of high season, so it was a bit frustrating, but the leaves were absolutely beautiful. Everywhere we went, from temples to shrines to parks or just streets, were surrounded by green, yellow, orange, and red accents.

On our first full day, we went to Fushimi Inari-taisha, the famous shrine with 10,000 torii gates, early to try to beat the crowds. The bottom was annoyingly crowded despite our best efforts, but as we climbed further up the mountain, the crowds thinned and we were able to have small moments by ourselves among the bright orange gates and the beautiful fall leaves.

An ornate red, green, and white shrine building. — The beautiful main hall of the shrine (photo/Jason Rafal)

People walking through a row of orange torii gates. — A typical crowded scene near the base of the gates (photo/Jason Rafal)

A lantern hanging from one of a row of gates. — One of many hanging lanterns (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking through orange torii gates at a small shop. — A typical scene as we walked up the mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Moss on the black tops of a row of torii gates. — Small mossy details at the top of some torii gates (photo/Jason Rafal)

Pieces of paper tied along a string. — A row of Omikuji (paper fortunes) tied along a string (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over a row of orange torii gates with power wires hanging overhead. — The gates led to groups of small shrines all over the mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stone platform with small torii gates and a rope and bell hanging beneath a blue cloth. — Tiny torii gates at one of the small shrines along the path (photo/Jason Rafal)

Small red gates stacked in front of a large rock with red leaves in the background. — More tiny gates (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stone fox with a cape and bell hanging from its next next to a lit candle. — Foxes are considered messengers of the god Inari and were everywhere at the shrine (photo/Jason Rafal)

A row fox faces painted on wooden blocks. — Lots of fox faces (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stone fox sitting on a pedestal with beautiful fall leaves behind it. — A fox in the forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our afternoon excursion, after fighting some more crowds at the other side of the city, was a climb up the mountain to Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama. After a beautiful hike, we arrived at a viewpoint that had both beautiful views and dozens of wild macaques.

A path leading up the hillside with maple trees on either side. — Even beyond the wildlife, the hike up the mountain was beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out over Kyoto from a mountain viewpoint. — The view over Kyoto (photo/Jason Rafal)

The monkeys on the mountainside aren’t contained in any way, but they do hang out at this overlook during the day because they get fed there, and then go back up in elevation at dusk. There were lots of rules about giving them space, not making eye contact, and keeping all your belongings in your backpack, and there were also several rangers making sure that people didn’t get too close, which made me feel better about the safety of the animals. There was an option to buy snacks for the monkeys (to feed the monkeys safely, the humans went inside a big cage), but we just walked around the area and took pictures and were generally entertained.

Aside from being adorable, the macaques are highly social, and it’s fascinating to watch them interact with each other while they groom, cuddle, and chase each other off when they get annoyed.

A Japanese macaque sitting on a rooftop with treetops in the background. — A handsome monkey on a rooftop (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three monkeys sit hugging each other. — A cuddling monkey family (photo/Jason Rafal)

Five monkeys sitting on a rooftop, with the city of Kyoto in the distance. — Hanging out on the roof (photo/Jason Rafal)

A monkey sits on a rock and cleans its hind foot. — This one spent a lot of time grooming its foot (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three monkeys on the ground, one grooming another while the third sleeps in the background. — More family grooming (photo/Jason Rafal)

Four young monkeys playing on a rope fence. — While the adults were snoozing, these young monkeys spent some time playing on the fence (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of young monkeys playing on a rope fence. One is running away with a stick in its mouth. — Playing protect the stick (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out over a beautiful array of treetops of various colors. — Monkey mountain had the most amazing foliage of the trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

A monkey sitting on a tree branch and looking at the camera. — A handsome monkey posing in a tree on our walk down (photo/Jason Rafal)

People boating on a river with forests of beautiful red and yellow leaves in the background. — People boating on the Katsura River against a beautiful backdrop (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day we took a day trip to Nara, which had two draws for us: the largest bronze Buddha in the world, and a whole lot of very friendly deer. I went into this excursion with pretty open expectations, and I had a great time. The deer, which are just…everywhere, are wild but also very used to getting fed by visitors (people could buy cookies to feed them at official stalls), so they’re not really nervous about humans. They were laying all over the park, following tourists around looking for treats, and just generally hanging out.

Close up of a buck's face with his lip raised toward the camera. — A buck smelling Jason’s camera (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole leaning down toward two small deer who are sniffing her hand. — Saying hi to some of the deer (photo/Jason Rafal)

The bronze Buddha, which was completed in 751, is in a giant building at the Tōdai-ji temple. The great hall that houses the Buddha (like many fancy buildings in Japan) has burned down and been rebuilt multiple times. When it was built, the original building was the largest wooden structure in the world. Both the current Great Buddha Hall and the statue itself were incredibly impressive.

A huge, ornate, brown and white building viewed across a lawn. — The Great Hall from the outside (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of a huge bronze buddha through red pillars. — Looking through the entrance of the Great Hall (photo/Jason Rafal)

A giant bronze Buddha under an ornate red and white roof. — Looking up at the massive 500 tonne Buddha (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small wooden model of several ornate structures. — A model of the original structures of the Tōdai-ji complex (photo/Jason Rafal)

A buck standing in front of a pond with a gate in the background. — A buck acting like a statue in front of Tōdai-ji (photo/Jason Rafal)

A doe stands in the sunlight in front of a gate and sign. — A doe in the sunlight (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at the a ceiling light that has two deer on it. — Nara was filled with deer imagery, which I loved (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small deer walking across a street near a crosswalk. — Something about a deer crossing the road (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day we took an afternoon trip to Osaka, where our plans were to wander around the ornate Osaka Castle and find some good food. Immediately upon getting off the train, we walked straight into a Santa Parade, which was unexpected and kind of amazing. There were hundreds of Santas mulling around, and a band playing rock covers of Christmas songs.

People in Santa costumes walking around a field with Osaka castle in the background. — Santas filling Osaka Castle Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

People in Santa costumes mull around with people in T-rex and bunny costumes. — Some dinosaur Santas enjoying the band (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man with an owl on his arm walking by food carts. — We saw people carrying owls a few times over the trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

The main attraction we went to in Osaka was the Castle, which was built in the 1580s and was originally the largest castle in Japan. We didn’t go in since the lines were so long, but the grounds are beautiful and the outside of the castle is ornate and commands attention every time it’s visible.

Looking up at the white, gold, and green of Osaka Castle. — Looking up at the castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Osaka Castle poking up above a well-kept garden pond. — The view of the castle over a garden pond (photo/Jason Rafal)

Red maple leaves against a background of green trees and blue skies. — Beautiful leaves in the garden outside the castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across a moat at a rock wall with a tower and trees poking up above it. — The moat around Osaka Castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small maple tree with red leaves in front of a stone building. — Shrine buildings and fall leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also spent some time walking around the Osaka waterfront, which is a feast for the eyes. The Don Quijote (an amazing Japanese everything store with casino vibes) even had a ferris wheel. Osaka seems like a very cool city (including all the locals, who were definitely cooler than me) and I’d like to spend more time there.

Looking over the river walk in Osaka. — Looking out over the Osaka river walk (photo/Jason Rafal)

A giant model crab on the side of a building above a restaurant. — One of the giant animal models adorning restaurant facades (photo/Jason Rafal)

A set of signs on a building, including one with a pirate head that says BeeRush. — I’m not even sure what is happening here (photo/Jason Rafal)

A claw machine with fried chicken and sushi models as the prizes. — I love this combination of Japan’s obsessions with claw machines and food models (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down a covered shopping street. — One of the downtown shopping streets, complete with giant food models (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a coffee shop, with everything from the counters to the artwork made of wood. — Tasogare Coffee Stand, which had delicious coffee and an incredible commitment to their rustic decor theme (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last morning in Kyoto, we spent some time wandering around the city before heading to a tea ceremony we had booked.

Nicole walking through a gate under a large red lantern. — A Kyoto temple (photo/Jason Rafal)

A lovely pig statue

Black Cat Coffee

Two dressed up people standing on a bridge over a pond surrounded by trees with red leaves. — A couple taking photos at Maruyama Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A canal with rock walls and a row of buildings on one side and trees and bushes on the other. — One of the peaceful canals running through Kyoto (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our tea ceremony was at a cultural center with two other couples, one from Finland and one from Germany. Our instructor, Suzuki, told us about how she joined a tea ceremony club in school because it was the only way to eat sweets while at school, and then fell in love with the art and teaching ceremonies.

A matcha bowl, whisk, and plate of treats sitting on a bamboo mat. — Matcha and sweets (photo/Jason Rafal)

A woman kneeling over a bowl and mixing matcha. — Suzuki showing us how to mix matcha (photo/Jason Rafal)

A courtyard with stone walkways and trees. — One of the many courtyard gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sun shining through the red and yellow leaves of a maple tree. — I will always remember the incredible fall colors of this trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had a wonderful time in Japan, and we’re excited to come back (next time, we want to head north and explore Hokkaido). Until then, I have memories of blue skies and red leaves to get me through this winter.

Thanksgiving in Japan, Part 1: Tokyo

December 24, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in Japan

Jason and I had been planning to go to Japan for years - he had visited as a kid and wanted to go again (when he was more willing to enjoy all the food on offer), and I was excited to visit for the first time. The pandemic, of course, slowed things down considerably, but when I saw a points deal in January 2024 for a trip over Thanksgiving, I jumped on it. This was before I knew that 2024 was going to be a huge year for tourism in Japan; I know several other people who went before we did.

We began our trip with five days in Tokyo. I’d been curious to see how overwhelming I’d find the massive city, and it was both just as overwhelmingly large as I’d imagined, and much easier to navigate. This is mostly due to Tokyo’s gold standard transit systems, which we used every day while we were there (we didn’t get in a car the whole time we were in Japan). Aside from having a lot of lines and stops, trains are frequent, and we rarely waited more than 3 minutes in the city center. Each train line also has a letter and a numbering system for the stops, so we could just remember that we needed to go toward A14 while trying to navigate. Our transit cards worked for trains, buses, and even many vending machines, so we didn’t have to think about which method of transit we were allowed to take. It was just all pretty seamless (though we did get lost in a couple of train stations - I’m not even embarrassed to admit that, it’s a second city under the ground level).

Tokyo is both very busy and utterly quiet. We spoke in whispers pretty much the entire trip, and when Jason (who is quite a loud human) forgot and spoke at normal volume a couple of times, he got some disapproving looks. It’s so interesting to be in a city of 10 million people and have everything be so…quiet. It’s simultaneously nice and unnerving.

A bicyclist riding down an empty street at night, with electronic billboards lit up in the background. — A quiet moment next to a busy area (photo/Jason Rafal)

Everything in Japan was cute, short, and narrow, and most restaurants were either tiny or stacked. I was right on the edge of having to duck constantly, but Jason was always either in danger of hitting his head or actually hitting it. There are also signs all over Tokyo, warning against all sorts of things, including many parking rules and regulations which made me very glad I didn’t have to park a car.

A large brick building in front of several rows of train tracks, with large city buildings in the background. — A small sliver of the huge span of Tokyo Station (photo/Jason Rafal)

We attempted to prioritize food, coffee, parks, Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, and some general attractions. Despite the amazing train system, we also walked a lot, averaging about 10 miles per day. Tokyo, as well as the other cities we visited, has beautiful green spaces, whether it’s a giant park or a tiny street corner. We also had amazing timing for fall foliage; the ginkgo and maple trees were all amazing.

A fountain featuring a statue of a crane in the middle of a pond and viewed through beautifully lit red leaves. — The fountain at Hibiya Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking toward the sun through dense, yellow ginkgo leaves. — Amazing ginkgo leaves at Hibiya Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first big excursion was to the Imperial Palace, where the sitting emperor lives. We didn’t go in, but spent a while exploring the beautiful grounds.

A stone bridge reaching over a moat and surrounded by trees and two palace buildings. — The bridge to Sakashita-mon Gate at the Imperial Palace (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Sakurada Tatsumi Yagura against the backdrop of the city (photo/Jason Rafal)

View over a pond with trees and lawn in the background. — More views of Ninomaru Garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

An octagonal concert hall building with tile scenes on each side. — The Touka Gakudo concert hall on the Imperial Palace grounds (photo/Jason Rafal)

We went to the Sensō-ji temple, and though it was crowded and touristy, I had a great time. The grounds are in the middle of a bustling neighborhood, and there were shops and food stalls set up all around the temple.

A crowd of people walking toward a red temple. — Approaching the temple (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of the large paper lantern in front of a temple. — A giant red lantern (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent some time walking around the neighborhood next to the temple, which has a lot of the knives, kitchenware, and food models.

One of the many shopping streets (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole holding a cup of matcha ice cream with a bear on top and looking delighted. — High levels of excitement for matcha ice cream with small bears (photo/Jason Rafal)

I have a great love of miniatures and food models, and Japan had a ton of both (photo/Jason Rafal)

Tokyo Skytree in the distance (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also caught the beginning of a parade as night fell. There was drumming and light up floats and announcements we couldn’t understand and it was very fun.

Looking over a crowd toward a lit up dragon float. — Approaching some amazing parade floats through the crowds (photo/Jason Rafal)

I have no idea what was happening, but it was fun (photo/Jason Rafal)

We decided to go to the Shibuya Scramble Crossing at night to get the full effect of the lights, ads, and crowds.

Two very different buses (photo/Jason Rafal)

People walking around a train station. — A very tall and pretty train station (photo/Jason Rafal)

People walking across Shibuya crossing with electronic billboards on the buildings in the background. — The classic Shibuya crossing photo (photo/Jason Rafal)

We pretty quickly got overwhelmed by the crowds at Shibuya and decided to go to Omoide Yokocho, a famous street full of casual food stalls, to get something to eat. We stopped at Kameya, a soba noodle shop with a line, but were seated almost immediately because the process of eating took about 10 minutes - you sat down, handed the guy some coins, got your noodles a couple minutes later, ate quickly, and got up. It was delicious and also just fun to watch them work.

A person walking through a narrow alley with lanterns and fake fall leaves hanging overhead. — Tiny seasonally decorated streets (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole sitting at a noodle counter and smiling with yellow lanterns in the background. — So excited for noodles (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bowl of soba with tempura. — The noodles (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Golden-Gai, quiet early on a weekday evening (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went to the giant Meiji Jingu shrine, which was finished in 1920 during the Meiji period in the midst of a huge forest. While I’m not a spiritual person, there’s something very magical about a deliberate, special place inside a huge forest in the middle of a massive city.

A wall of hundreds of sake barrels by the side of a path. — The Meiji Jingu Consecrated Sake Barrels (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sign next to a row of dozens of stacked wine barrels. — A lot of wine barrels from Bourgogne, where we spent our honeymoon (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two bonsai trees on platforms in a park area, with larger trees in the background. — Bonsai trees in Meiji Jingu Gyoen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Piles of various vegetables on a tarp in front of a building. — An offering of vegetables (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people in front of a shrine. — People writing prayers on small wooden plaques called ema (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had been looking forward to the coffee in Japan, and it did not disappoint us. There’s coffee everywhere, from chains to traditional coffee lounges to the third-wave shops that we love most. The care put into every step of the coffee experience is amazing, from roasting the beans to brewing the coffee and steaming the milk. We found a lot of great coffee shops, and a couple of amazing ones.

Coffee bags sitting on a floating wooden shelf with a well-lit branch behind them. — Coffee for sale at one of our favorite coffee shops (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking inside a doorway into a tiny coffee shop with a shelf of records on the wall. — Swamp was an incredible coffee shop - tiny, amazing coffee, and great jazz playing (photo/Jason Rafal)

View into a dimly lit coffee shop with colorful coffee bags on the counter and a bonsai tree in the back. — The peaceful atmosphere at Bongen Coffee, where we waited an hour and the coffee was amazing (photo/Jason Rafal)

The front of a coffee shop with a sign that says Cafe de L'ambre, coffee only — The original specialty coffee shop in Tokyo, Cafe de L’ambre (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole pouring milk from a tiny pitcher into a cup of coffee. — Not my favorite type of coffee, but the atmosphere and experience was wonderful (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also really enjoyed going to Tsukiji Market, which is covered in tourists (earlier is always better for fewer crowds) but has a lot of fun food to try. I had my favorite piece of tuna in my life cooked in front of me with a shallow cast iron pan of oil and a torch.

A hand holding a tray with pieces of cooked tuna on a stick. — My favorite tuna (photo/Jason Rafal)

People cooking scallops in the shell over a grill with a torch. — I also had a grilled scallop (photo/Jason Rafal)

My favorite park that we visited in Tokyo was the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It’s absolutely stunning, with a lot of unique areas and beautiful ponds and amazing trees.

A person walking on a path below beautiful green, yellow, and red leaves. — This park had incredible trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

Carefully trimmed bushes and hedges with the top of a skyscraper peeking up in the background. — There was a formal, more manicured area of the garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down between two long rows of trees with golden leaves. — A beautiful row of trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

Plants with broad leaves growing out of a rock wall. — Crazy plants in the greenhouse at the garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pink flower poking up in front of multiple layers of tropical plants. — A very cool flower (photo/Jason Rafal)

Some cactus plants with signs saying "beware of slipping" and "don't touch the plants." — Japan loves rules and signs (photo/Jason Rafal)

A red flower with petals so thin they look like hairs in the midst of a bushy plant. — Some more cool flowers (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bee perched on one of hundreds of golden ginkgo leaves. — I can’t really express how amazing the golden ginkgo leaves were (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent a couple of hours exploring before heading to a tiny (and amazing) udon restaurant nearby, and then we went back to spend some more time in the park. It was especially magical with all the yellows, oranges, and reds of fall.

A bowl of noodles with an egg yoke, slices of meat, and a tempura topper. — Jason’s lunch (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out over a pond in a carefully managed garden. — Perfectly kept gardens and ponds (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking through the porch area of an intricate building with the garden visible through the pillars. — The photogenic Taiwan Pavilion (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of people standing on a lawn in front of a pond surrounded by trees with changing leaves. — A typical scene around the park - pretty leaves and lots of people taking photos (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had been going back and forth about whether we wanted to go to Tokyo Skytree, which is very similar to the Seattle Space Needle (but much taller - I found out after our trip that it’s the tallest tower in the world). I eventually booked tickets for sunset, figuring that would be one of the more interesting times to visit, and after walking through a very surreal European-style Christmas market, we headed up the 450 meters to the top deck.

A European-style Christmas market stall with fake snow on top selling sausages and chicken. — A very surreal moment of fake snow and European sausages (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up the latticed structure of Tokyo Skytree. — It’s so much taller than it looks (photo/Jason Rafal)

A character posing with a child near the windows looking down over the city. — Sorakara-chan, one of the official characters of Tokyo Skytree, taking photos with fans (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down at a river running through the city of Tokyo. — Looking north over the Sumida River (photo/Jason Rafal)

I had been a little disappointed because it was such a hazy afternoon, and I knew it wouldn’t be clear enough to see Mount Fuji. However, to my amazement, once we got up there we could see the setting sun highlighting the outline of the volcano. We all stared at it for several minutes and tried to take photos around the other tourists.

People looking out the tall windows of Tokyo Skytree at the sunset. — Taking in the sunset in the top gallery (photo/Jason Rafal)

View out a window at Tokyo, with the outline of Mount Fuji casting a shadow against the sunset. — Mount Fuji casting a mountain shadow across the sunset (photo/Jason Rafal)

Alright, time for some random photos from Tokyo that didn’t really have a section.

At one point, we went into a mall to get dinner (all of the malls are full of amazing food, especially in the basement), and while we were walking around a clothing store waiting for the restaurant to open, we started hearing a loud fan noise and smelling burning plastic & rubber. Mildly concerned, we went up on the roof garden (also almost ubiquitous to malls) to avoid breathing fumes. When we went in half an hour later, the noise was gone and the smell was dissipating, so we went and ate. On our way out, we saw the fire department examining…something in one of the shops.

Tonkatsu with bowls of rice, sauce, and miso. — We’re glad we braved whatever small fire was happening for this delicious tonkatsu (photo/Jason Rafal)

Examining the issue on our way out (photo/Jason Rafal)

This city also has a minor obsession with cats and I’m here for it.

Various things I loved in Tokyo: hot drinks from vending machines, beautiful autumn leaves, great parks, and gashapon.

We had a wonderful time in Tokyo. Five days was the right amount of time for us this trip, though it would be easy to spend weeks exploring the different areas of the city. We stayed busy, but also made sure to not load up our days with too many activities.

Next, we boarded a Shinkansen to travel to Kyoto for the next leg of the trip, which you’ll be able to see in the next blog (and if you thought the foliage was good in Tokyo…it gets better).

A Tour of Portugal

September 06, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in Portugal

I hope you’re excited to see a lot of pictures of beautiful Portuguese architecture, because that’s much of what this blog is going to be. When our friend Bella planned a birthday celebration in southern Portugal, we took the opportunity to add on a few days in Lisbon and Porto as well.

We arrived in Lisbon several hours late due to a flight delay and a missed connection (thanks, Condor), so we spent a single day in Lisbon (for the second time - we had been here for about 24 hours at the end of 2019). We took the opportunity to go to some adorable coffee shops, eat good food, and walk up some of Lisbon’s many steep hills.

Picturesque churches and trolleys are everywhere in Portugal (photo/Jason Rafal)

A patient dog sitting beside an excellent example of how patios must be built on hills in Lisbon (photo/Jason Rafal)

Lisbon was just as I remembered - colorful, beautiful, absurdly clean, and constantly hilly.

A steep pedestrian street (photo/Jason Rafal)

A person sits on a railing halfway up a set of stairs between two buildings. — Classic Lisbon (photo/Jason Rafal)

A don't even know what's happening here (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fado mural in one of the pedestrian stairwells (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole sitting on a bench partway up a stairway between two buildings with tassels hanging overhead. — Resting partway up the stairs (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the nice things about cities with lots of steep hills is that they tend to have lots of great viewpoints.

A view over the rooftops of Lisbon, with a bridge and waterway in the background. — The beautiful view from Miradouro da Graça (photo/Jason Rafal)

A retro blue car following a yellow trolley up the street. — Antiquated-looking transit in front of the Arco da Rua Augusta (photo/Jason Rafal)

People walking across a plaza, with stately buildings and a statue of a person on a horse on one side. — The Praça do Comércio (photo/Jason Rafal)

A huge, brutalist concrete building jutting out against the blue sky. — A big brutalist building among the colorful houses (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiled building with tons of plants coming out of the first floor balcony. — A beautiful building facade (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large tree with massive roots snaking on top of the ground in a park. — A giant tree at the lovely Jardim da Estrela (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wide panorama of Lisbon from a viewpoint. — Sunset views from Miradouro da São Pedro de Alcântara (photo/Jason Rafal)

An ornate fountain with people sitting on the edge in the evening sun, with a church in the background. — Evening views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two trolleys side by side on a very steep street. — Trolleys hanging out on an incredibly steep street (photo/Jason Rafal)

From Lisbon, we drove down to Alvor, where we met up with some of our favorite people to celebrate our friend Bella’s 30th birthday. It was three wonderful days of eating and drinking and laughing and we have very few photos (and most of the ones we do have are ridiculous).

Bella's birthday bash (photo/random person on the beach)

On our last day in Alvor, we took a boat trip from Lagos to Luz, along some of the stunning southern Portuguese coastline. It was a lovely afternoon spent cruising in a catamaran and swimming in the Atlantic with friends, and we ended the weekend tired and with full hearts.

A stone bridge between two rocky land masses over the ocean. — Natural and manmade rock formations (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of layers of rocky land masses in front of a plant-covered cliff face with a staircase going down to the water.. — More beautiful coastline (photo/Jason Rafal)

Boats and kayaks in the water in front of large rocks jutting out of the water. — A good day to be on a boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a wonderful weekend with friends, we flew to Porto, in the northern part of the country. Jason and I have been wanting to go to Porto for years, and we fell in love with the city immediately. It’s beautiful, interesting, welcoming, covered in tiles, and a little run down. It has so many tiny, amazing restaurants, coffee shops, and antique shops.

People walking up a narrow cobblestoned street. — Colorful buildings and cobbled streets (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of a spire through an open passageway between two rows of stores. — I loved this green roof/garden on top of an outdoor mall area (photo/Jason Rafal)

We booked a free walking tour for our first morning in Porto, which is something I always recommend (though they’re not actually free, because you do need to be a good person and tip the guide who is showing you around). Our guide, an Italian expat, walked us around some of the churches and government buildings and gave us context about the city. While it was never the capital of Portugal, Porto was the center of merchant power in the country. They’ve always been anti-authority, whether it’s the authority of the church, or the king, or the guidelines presented by UNESCO (apparently they’re constantly putting their status and funding at risk by building new, non-historic things in the historical center).

Looking up at the front of a church. — Looking up at the Igreja do Carmo (photo/Jason Rafal)

A row of tiled houses next to a church spire. — A very narrow church at the edge of the old walled city (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view looking out over the rooftops of Porto toward the river. — The view from the Miradouro da Vitória (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two modern tiled rowhomes in yellow and orange. — Even the more modern buildings are colorful - I wish we would go that direction in the U.S. (photo/Jason Rafal)

A corner of a building, half concrete and half covered with old-looking rock. — I don't even know what's happening here...seems like art, or a metaphor (photo/Jason Rafal)

Porto is famous for its iconic blue tile buildings, and while I had assumed that blue was tied to the city’s identity from the beginning, our walking tour guide told us that blue is used most frequently because it fades the least in direct sunlight. In the San Bento train station, which you can see below, the walls on the left that never got direct sunlight had many more colors in the tiled scenes.

Looking into a crowded train station with blue tiled walls and a yellow ceiling. — The beautiful Sao Bento train station (photo/Jason Rafal)

The dragon is the symbol of Porto - from what I can find, it symbolizes heroism, resistance, and the city’s invicta (unconquered, invincible) identity. Paired with this dramatic symbolism, I very much enjoyed the statues that featured little cat-sized dragons sitting on people’s heads.

A statue of a man holding a spear with a dragon on his head in front of rooftops. — A statue of a man with a dragon on his head to represent Porto (photo/Jason Rafal)

A row of tiled buildings along a street. — Beautiful tile everywhere (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a blue-tiled church building with a blue and yellow striped banner. — The Church of Saint Ildefonso (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a coffee shop with a menu that says "C'alma" on the wall. — Our favorite coffee shop of the trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent a lovely evening at the dramatic Casa da Música, where we toured the building (highly recommended if you’re a fan of weird brutalist architecture, which I’m not really, but it was still cool) and then saw a fado performance.

Looking up at a set of windows in a concrete wall against a partly cloudy sky. — Brutalist vibes at the Casa da Música (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a concert hall, with metalic tiger stripes through the walls on either side. — The main concert hall (photo/Jason Rafal)

As usual, some of the time we enjoyed the most was just spent wandering around, seeing parks, viewpoints, and buildings along the way.

Looking toward a stadium dome over lawns and flower beds. — The beautiful Jardins do Palácio de Cristal (photo/Jason Rafal)

A peacock looking at the camera with gardens in the background. — One of the many free-ranging birds at the gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

Groups of people standing or sitting along a rock wall watching the sunset. — The crowd taking in the sunset next to the Parque das Virtudes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out at the sunset over rooftops, a terraced park, and the river. — My favorite view in the city (photo/Jason Rafal)

Turquoise paint wearing off and revealing gold paint on a letter slot that says "Cartas". — Some sort of metaphor about layers of paint (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the top attractions in Porto is Livraria Lello, a bookstore that is said to have inspired J.K. Rowling’s description of Flourish and Blott’s in Harry Potter. It’s a really beautiful bookstore, but for me it’s not worth the pain of dealing with the lines and crowds of people trying to get perfect photos. I’m sure it’s better in the offseason, but if you do want to go in the summer, try to reserve the 9 am slot (days in advance) and be there by about 8:30 if you want to get in quickly.

Crowds of people standing in loose lines on the street. — The insane crowd outside of Livraria Lello (photo/Jason Rafal)

A line of people walking toward an ornate staircase up, with a view of the stained glass roof above. — The admittedly beautiful staircase and ceiling in the bookstore (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over a railing at bookshelves, with the lower ones filled in modern books and the upper ones filled with older books and ceramic busts. — I enjoyed the contrast between the modern books for sale at the bottom and the ones to look old in the upper cases (photo/Jason Rafal)

A house narrowing into a corner with stone walls, a chimney, and graffiti. — Corners (photo/Jason Rafal)

While I was napping, Jason went to explore the Portuguese Photography Center at the Cadeia da Relação, a former prison. The building houses photography exhibits along with an incredibly extensive collection of cameras, mostly from a professor.

Looking into a room with glass cases full of old cameras. — A hallway looking into the prison photography museum (photo/Jason Rafal)

The prison is a key location in Porto’s most famous love story, and the two lovers are immortalized in stone in the courtyard. Camilo Castelo Branco and Ana Plácido were two writers who met at a dance and were friends and then lovers for many years. Eventually, Ana left her husband for Camilo. When the affair became public, Ana was forced into a convent, but then escaped and returned to Camilo. Then, because her bitter husband filed an adultery lawsuit against them, they were both imprisoned in the Cadeia da Relação, where Camilo wrote his most famous novel, Amor de Perdição (Doomed Love). They were eventually released, and much later the prison was turned into a photography museum, but the story and the statue remain.

A statue of a clothed man and a naked woman embracing. — The doomed couple - I'm not sure about why there's such a difference in clothing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the river over treetops. — Looking out over the river from Torreão do Jardim do Palácio (photo/Jason Rafal)

A clean, modern market with people walking between fruit stalls. — The very clean and modern Mercado do Bolhão (photo/Jason Rafal)

A chapel covered with bright blue tile. — The ornately decorated Chapel of Souls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two stairways converging between a row of houses and a greenery-covered wall. — I love a green wall (photo/Jason Rafal)

People walk between covered stalls selling goods in front of rows of tiled houses. — Wandering near the waterfront (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our walking tour, our guide told us a joke about how the best thing about Gaia, the city across the river, was its beautiful view of Porto. On our last day in the city, we headed over the pedestrian and transit-only bridge to the Jardim do Morro. It was indeed a beautiful last view of the city.

Looking back toward Porto from the top of a bridge. — The view back across the river from Gaia (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking at Porto over the river, with a gondola and boats in view. — One more view of Porto (photo/Jason Rafal)

We really enjoyed spending more time in Portugal - it’s easy to navigate, beautiful, and has great food. Lisbon, Porto, and the southern coast were all worth the trip (though I am, as usual with European destinations, jealous of the ease with which east coasters can visit - it’s a trek from Seattle). Next time we travel to Portugal, my top priorities are visiting Sintra and spending some time in nature. Until then!

Roadtrip to the Land of Giants

June 10, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in United States

In the first half of 2024, we took a break from international travel and took a road trip closer to home. I had been wanting to drive down to the southern Oregon coast and visit the California redwoods. The trip ended up being about 1400 miles over seven days, and we stopped at eight state parks, two national parks, a national monument, and a state scenic area.

Our first stop was a campsite in Sunset Bay State Park, where we set up camp and then spent some time hiking along the beach.

Sunset Bay beach at low tide (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole standing in front of a culvert to walk under a road. — A giant culvert to the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wooden sign with an image of a route over the northern United States and a hot air balloon that says "From this point on October 4, 1973 Malcom Forbes of New York began the first transcontinental crossing of the United States in a hot air balloon." — There are a lot of interesting transcontinental journeys that began or ended in Oregon (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, green, shiny leaf. — Giant leaves on the edge of the forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Action shot of Nicole jumping over part of a muddle trail. — Mud obstacle course (photo/Jason Rafal)

A lighthouse perched on a rocky stretch of land, with ocean and rocks in the foreground. — Cape Arago Lighthouse (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the morning, we hiked down toward Cape Arago, where I had heard we could find some sea lions. The hike started with plants, birds, and a surprise deer on the beach.

An orange flower. — A pretty coastal flower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A deer trotting over a beach. — A deer ran across the beach on our morning hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird perched on a branch. — A cute Swainson’s Thrush (photo/Jason Rafal)

We heard them before we saw them, and once we got to the Simpson Reef lookout, we could see dozens of sea lions lounging on the beach. We could also see a lot of them swimming around the area.

Dozens of sea lions laying on a beach, surrounded by rocks. — Sea lions lounging on the beach at Simpson Reef (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rocky outcropping in the ocean, with some sea lions on the rocks and some swimming. — Lots of sea lions playing and lounging (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were looking for sea lions, but we also had a great view of lots of birds (we saw a crazy number of bald eagles during this trip) and some very sleepy harbor seals.

A bald eagle flying over the ocean and rocks, with seals asleep below it. — A bald eagle flies over sleeping harbor seals (photo/Jason Rafal)

After our morning hike, we packed up and headed down the coast to a room we rented for the night in Brookings, Oregon. On the way, we made a few stops for short hikes and pretty coastal views.

Looking down at two arches under the cliffs on the coastline. — Afternoon sun at Natural Bridges - you can see a person on top of the left one if you squint (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our VRBO was very close to Harris Beach State Park, which has a beautiful rocky beach.

Nicole on the beach, with a sunstar behind her. — On Harris Beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

The house we were staying at had amazing views of the ocean, and we spent a lot of time that evening watching the orange sunset over the rocks and water.

Jason and Nicole in front of a rocky beach. — Sunset views at our place (photo/Jason Rafal)

The sun setting beyond the ocean, with large rocks in the water in the foreground. — Sunset from our VRBO (photo/Jason Rafal)

Eight pelicans flying over the water. — Watching pelicans from our deck (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent a beautiful morning at the beach before driving to California. The plants and animals that live among the rocks are so fun to watch.

The lovely Secret Beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Small plants growing on top of a coastal rock, lit up by the morning sun. — Morning light on a very vegetation-covered rock (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dark rock face with black and white birds nesting. — Pigeon guillemots perched on a rock face (photo/Jason Rafal)

By the afternoon, we were hiking among giants in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. I love hanging out with these trees; their sheer size and the amount that has happened during their lifetimes is both amazing and comforting to me. They’re very difficult to photograph, but looking up is a good way to convey the feeling of being so very small.

Looking up at the top of a grove of redwood trees. — Looking up at the giant redwoods (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunstar shining through the leaves of a giant tree. — A very large tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

The view through the tunnel created next to a redwood that fell over. — A very cool plant tunnel next to a fallen redwood (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the next couple of nights camping in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, with very little service and lots of big trees.

Nicole standing between two large redwood trees. — Very large trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small, white, striped flower amidst leaves and a cobweb. — A delicate flower in the forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

A squirrel on a fallen tree. — A cute little squirrel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Ferns and other plants growing out of a fallen redwood tree stump. — I love how many plants a fallen tree in the forest can support (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole hugging a huge redwood tree. — In my happy place (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bright yellow slug. — A banana slug with a leaf hat (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we were driving to the beach to have lunch on the second day, we saw a sign for a skunk cabbage trail. I love skunk cabbage; there’s a ton of it where I grew up in Crested Butte during the summer, and I’ve never seen a large quantity outside of that. We didn’t see as much as we’d hoped for, but it was still a beautiful trail covered with ferns.

Nicole smiling at ferns and skunk cabbage. — Looking at the ferns and skunk cabbage (photo/Jason Rafal)

Plant stalks growing through the leaves of another plant. — A plant growing through the leaves of another plant (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we drove to central Oregon, stopping at Crater Lake on the way. There was still quite a bit of snow, and the Rim Road isn’t open until July, but we drove to Discovery Point and walked around a bit to take some pictures. I didn’t have a lot of expectations, but the lake was really cool, with its absurdly deep blue water and snowy ridges on all sides.

Crater Lake, with snow in the foreground. — A sunny day at a snowy Crater Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

We kept an eye out for the Clark’s Nutcracker, which lives at Crater Lake, and we saw them pretty quickly. They’re very loud, fluffy birds with big black beaks.

A gray and black bird perched on the edge of a dead branch. — A Clark's nutcracker perched on a dead tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

A gray bird with a large beak perched on an evergreen branch. — The nutcrackers, while larger than I expected, were adorable and fluffy (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our next couple of days were spent in Bend, where Jason worked some and we did some small afternoon hikes at Smith Rock and Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Looking down at the Crooked River winding through large rock faces. — Dramatic views at Smith Rock State Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A river and green plants running between tall rock towers. — More beautiful views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a steep rock face, with lots of chalk spots from climbers on the rock. — We liked seeing the chalk from climbers on the sides of the rock face (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last day in central Oregon was also very clear, and we had great views of the snow-capped peaks of the Sisters, Broken Top, and Bachelor. We went out to the Lava Butte lookout, where we hiked around the very apocalyptic-looking lava flow area.

A firetower on the edge of a caldera, with snow-capped mountain peaks in the background. — The view from the trail at the Lava Butte lookout, with the Sisters in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

The apocalyptic scene from the caldera (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small plant with a flower made of tiny bulbs in the volcanic rock. — Little lava plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black lizard sitting on dark lava rock. — A little black lava lizard (photo/Jason Rafal)

Overall it was a great trip, with a variety of beautiful landscapes and a lot of lovely hikes. It was fun to get to explore more of the Pacific Northwest, and to hang out with some very old, very large trees.

2023 in Review

February 08, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in United States, Canada

2023 was perhaps not as balanced as we’d been planning originally - we ended up going to 8 countries, 7 of them in the last 6 months of the year. While it’s been amazing to travel so much, we’ve been missing having more time in Seattle, and it’s been really nice to take a look back at some of our local adventures, especially in the first half of the year.

Classic Puget Sound views - mountains and sailboats (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sailboat sitting on the water in the Puget Sound, with fluffy clouds in the background. — Jason continues lusting after sailboats (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up portrait photo of Caprica's face. — Testing out a new lens on Caprica (photo/Jason Rafal)

In February, we went to San Diego with friends for a long weekend and spent some time soaking in the beautiful sun and eating a lot of Mexican food.

People walking along the beach, with large sand cliffs on the right. — Looking for fun shore things at Torrey Pines (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pelican flying along over a rocky cliff alongside the ocean. — Many shorebirds (photo/Jason Rafal)

Several sea lions sitting on a large rock outcropping. — I always enjoy large piles of sea lions (photo/Jason Rafal)

Silhouettes of children climbing cliff rocks in the setting sun. — Sunset silhouettes (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also were able to fit in some camping over the summer, and we used our little drone to get some amazing pictures of the Washington wilderness. I had fun learning to fly the drone and clumsily edit together footage.

A drone shot looking down on the treetops of a forest. — Looking down at our campsite - see if you can spot us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunset drone photo of a dirt road winding through a forest, with snowcapped peaks in the background. — I love this wilderness so much (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset drone photo looking over forests and meadows toward snow-capped mountains. — A second view because I couldn’t pick one (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole holding a drone controller and looking up at the sky. — This is what it looks like to learn to fly a drone (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of Nicole looking at the camera while holding a beer. — More experimentation with a new lens (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole lying in a red hammock in the woods. — The joys of camping (photo/Jason Rafal)

For Fourth of July weekend we drove up to Canada, where we stayed at a lakeside guest house outside of Vancouver and spent a couple of days relaxing and taking in amazing water views.

Dozens of kayakers paddling past two small docks at dusk. — Our relaxing sunset view (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also found some beautiful hikes in the area. British Columbia never ceases to amaze with its beauty.

Sunlight hitting the top of a waterfall and spilling down the side of the mountain. — Dramatic sunlight at Shannon Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking out toward a road winding between a mountain range and a large, turquoise body of water. — Looking south down Howe Sound (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason got much more into birding this year, and he had fun learning about species of birds and how best to photograph them.

A cormorant sitting on the water with a small fish in its mouth, surrounded by three seagulls who want to take the fish. — Seagulls are always being jerks and trying to steal things (photo/Jason Rafal)

A cormorant floating on the water with a fish in its mouth. — A cormorant with a treat (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bird with beige, yellow, gray, and black feathers perching on a branch. — A beautiful cedar waxwing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird sitting on a reed with its mouth open mid-song. — A very noisy songbird (photo/Jason Rafal)

Four strings of barbed wire, with two birds on the top wire and two on the second wire. — Birds on a line (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a small bird sitting on a string of barbed wire and glaring at the camera. — Glaring at the camera (photo/Jason Rafal)

A great blue heron sits on a ledge and releases a feather from its beak. — This heron was preening itself and releasing its feathers into the wind (photo/Jason Rafal)

Dozens of shore birds flying together low over the surf. — A collection of shorebirds (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fluffy owl perched on a branch in dense foliage. — A little owl peering down at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

As always, there were also lots of fun plants and animals.

A fuzzy bee hovering next to purple flowers. — A pastoral bee (photo/Jason Rafal)

A white flower with a bee in the middle, with green leaves and the blue sky in the background. — More flowers and bees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rat perching on a small tree trunk and looking down at the ground, with its tail wound around the tree. — A rat in a tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small branch with yellow and pink flowers. — Weird little flower leaf things (photo/Jason Rafal)

A creek flowing through mossy rocks and logs. — We have so many of these pictures from around Washington and I love them all (photo/Jason Rafal)

A marmot sitting on a rock with a snowy meadow and a mountain in the background. — One of posing marmots in Mt. Rainier National Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

We went camping in Oregon with friends during the Perseid meteor shower, and while we weren’t in the best place to see a ton of meteors, it was incredibly peaceful to just lay on our backs and marvel at the stars.

Looking up between the silhouettes of tree branches at a night sky with shooting stars. — The stars I always miss in Seattle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole riding a bike on a dirt road through a forest. — Riding a bike through a beautiful Oregon forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had friends visit from Colorado, and we showed them around both the wilderness and the city.

Martin opening a wooden box hanging from a log. — Martin opens some sort of geocache (photo/Jason Rafal)

A salmon staring through a glass window as it swims by. — Salmon at the Ballard fish ladder (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man assisting with the lock leans toward a boat to shout instructions. — Watching the sometimes chaos of the Ballard Locks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Martin, Rachel, and Nicole standing on the beach as sunset fades to dusk. — Inviting our friends to sunsets at Golden Gardens (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the Seattle waterfront from behind apartment and public storage buildings. — Moody Seattle waterfront (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were gone for a lot of the second half of the year, but it was an amazing autumn, and we spent much of our time in town on walks and hikes to marvel at the fall colors.

Close up photo of a spider in a web with colorful fall leaves in the background. — Fall mood spider (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking up at an art installation of small suspended glass pieces made into a net. — An art installation at the Arboretum (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of a turquoise lake through pine trees. — The Cascade lake colors are always amazing (photo/Jason Rafal)

View across a lake to a cliff face with a lookout tower on top. — An alpine lake with a lookout far above (photo/Jason Rafal)

View across an alpine lake with colorful bushes and pine trees on the other side. — If you squint, you can see the side of Mt. Rainier in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

Autumn light falling between a metal tower and a brick building with an orange-leaf tree behind. — Light (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up photo of dozens of tiny mushrooms on a tree trunk. — So many tiny mushrooms (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a large tree trunk covered in ferns. — An incredible tree completely enveloped by other plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A moss-covered branch with red leaves in the background. — I will forever love all of the moss here (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo looking out from under a bridge to a beach, with the Olympic mountains in the distance. — Moody beach days (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole walking on a street corner with sunshine shining through yellow leaves. — That autumn sun and those yellow leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

People sitting on the lawn in front of Green Lake in the afternoon sun with a flock of geese flying overhead. — Green Lake is always a pretty magical place, but fall is an especially special time there (photo/Jason Rafal)

As always, thanks for reading along with our adventures this year, and we hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures. We’re going for more balance in 2024, but as always, we’ll just have to see what life brings us. We feel so lucky to live in this beautiful place and be able to explore so much!

Nicole and Jason standing on a log in front of a lake and forested mountains. — Us on a backpacking trip in 2023 (yes, Jason is wearing a bug suit) (photo/Martin Brandt)

The Anglo-French Holidays

January 17, 2024 by Nicole Harrison in France, England

When our friend Bella got a new job in France, we decided (with a couple of other friends) to visit her for New Year’s. When we got a deal on flights to London, we decided to add a couple of days in London, since Jason knows a lot about England and loves their media but had never been.

It’s always interesting traveling over holidays, and we didn’t expect London to close down quite as much as it did for Christmas. Luckily we had a friend living in the city who had us over for a delicious dinner (thank you, Sam!), and we spent the next couple of days wandering around and enjoying some of the sights (and even a little sunshine). If you have a specific list of things you want to see and restaurants you want to visit, I wouldn’t recommend a Christmas trip, but if you just want to wander and have a generally weird experience (and see where the locals actually hang out then they’re not working), it’s not bad.

Classic telephone booths in an empty Smithfield Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Christmas scene at St. Paul’s Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

A nice collection of architecture (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cathedral dome through the city at night (photo/Jason Rafal)

I wonder if you can monitor depression in London using this box (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Tate Modern, which we don’t love the architecture of (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Millennium Bridge, my personal favorite (photo/Jason Rafal)

A multi-layered tower with a very shiny clock (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of a castle wall with a sunstar. — A sunstar at the Tower of London (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking across a bridge, under ornate castle architecture. — The locals were clustered around certain parts of the city, like London Bridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, angular apartment building with a green reflection in the windows. — A weird pointy building with a cool reflection (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tall, ornate, and nearly empty market with a Christmas tree. — An empty Leadenhall Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Cannon Street tube station, completely empty. — It was pretty cool to see some of the places so empty (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up portrait of a snowman statue. — There were several of these snowmen around…smiling at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking toward the London Eye, bathed in golden hour light. — The London Eye was also very busy, with a pop-up market and lots of strolling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across the river at Big Ben and the castle. — Looking over at Westminster (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at the Big Ben clock tower. — The clocktower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A crowd of people walking down a street under red lanterns. — Chinatown in London (photo/Jason Rafal)

On the one day we were in London when attractions were open, we took the train out to Kew Gardens, since we always like to go to a nice garden. It didn’t disappoint. There are two old-school glass greenhouses and one very cool modern one, and lots of beautiful grounds in between. It would be an amazing place to spend a day during the summer when it’s a little warmer, and it could keep you occupied for hours.

A waterfall surrounded by palm trees and other plants in a large glass greenhouse. — An indoor waterfall at the amazing Palm House (photo/Jason Rafal)

An ornate orange flower. — A flower that looks like it was sculpted (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a walkway alongside a row of plants with a plaque that says Africa. — Scenes from Africa (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking over the top of the tall plants hitting against the ceiling of the glass greenhouse. — We took the stairs up to the greenhouse catwalk, where we could look down onto the greenery below (photo/Jason Rafal)

The modern greenhouse was composed of many half levels, and it was a kind of maze to go through it. It was really fun to wander through, and there was always something new around every corner.

A hanging planter with long, white tendrils hanging down toward the floor. — This plant was amazing and completely unlike anything I’ve seen before (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down the tall stalks of a cactus. — Many spikes (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path winding through a glass greenhouse with plants everywhere. — An incredible assortment of plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tank with a lot of plants and a tiny orange shrimp. — A tiny shrimp in its tank habitat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole looking at a tree with an orange flower in the foreground. — This is a Brugmansia, and I love them (photo/Jason Rafal)

The other attraction we decided to visit was the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was even more enjoyable than I expected. It’s composed of everything that wouldn’t necessarily go into another collection; it’s a museum of chaos, and we loved it. We wandered around between rooms of jewelry, metalwork, statues, glasswork, paintings, and all sorts of other things.

An old globe that fades out in the northwest of the United States and Canada. — A globe that had not yet discovered the Pacific Northwest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down into a room full of statues, including a statue of David, with art hanging on the walls. — A chaotic room - David, Greek goddesses, religious paintings…and a balcony? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A statue of a white and black dog stepping on a snake. — A dog that is very proud of itself (and maybe still in danger?) (photo/Jason Rafal)

A person under a large statue in a tall, dark, brick room. — A very moody room (photo/Jason Rafal)

After our days in London, we headed to Toulouse to see Bella in her new home. We met Ian and Kelly there for a few days of eating, drinking, walking, partying, and very little sleeping.

Nicole and Belly holding hands on a train. — Reunited and holding hands on the train (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our first day in Toulouse, we actually went to Carcassonne, a medieval town and fortress a short train ride away. Its name has a fantastic potential origin story in which Charlemagne was besieging the city for years, and when food and water were running out, Dame Carcas took the last wheat and fed it to the last pig, and then threw the pig over the wall at Charlemagne. Seeing that the city still had enough food to waste both wheat and pigs, he lifted the siege, and the city was free. Dame Carcas was clearly a master of game theory and deserves to have a city named after her.

A street and lightly colored buildings with the castle in the background. — Looking up at the Cité de Carcassonne from the bridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stone wall with turrets with green grass on the ground and a town in the distance. — The outer wall and a good example of the choice to replace the traditionally terra cotta roofs with slate, a decision Jason hates (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of the castle towers from under a bridge. — Looking up from the drawbridge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A window display of pillows printed with cats in medieval dress. — An intensely dedicated window display (photo/Jason Rafal)

A castle wall across from old buildings with a lightly cloudy sky and sunstar in the background. — Inside the city walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking down at children passing through a door in a stone wall with the town in the background. — From atop the castle walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

View from above a stone wall with regular towers, with a town in the background. — The cars in the yards in the medieval driveways were a bit odd (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view down a walking street with old buildings on either side and holiday lights hanging over the street. — Walking through the lower town of Carcassonne (photo/Jason Rafal)

Over the next few days, we explored Toulouse, which is lovely. It’s known as the Pink City because of the brick color used in much of its architecture, which contrasts beautifully with the sky. It’s also the center of the aerospace industry in Europe. The city is transected by rivers and canals, so there’s always some lovely water nearby to walk along.

People shopping for fruit at an open-air market on the street. — One of the street markets (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunny street with people cleaning up from the market. — The aftermath of the street market (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Japanese garden with a building, carefully shaped bushes, and a red bridge. — The Japanese Garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo of a street with a small car and ivy-covered building through a tunnel. — A photo from our trip, or from a moody noir film (photo/Jason Rafal)

A group of people on the street watching a firetruck lift two people up to the side of a building. — While shopping we walked by…something happening with one of the buildings (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Toulouse capitol building, lit up by late afternoon light, with a stall selling baskets in the foreground. — A market and the capitol building (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunset view over a river with old buildings, a dome, and a bridge. — A gorgeous sunset from the river (photo/Jason Rafal)

The inside of a church with lots of colored stone and stained glass. — The inside of the Couvent des Jacobins, which was quite beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking up from under an arch in a church, with colorful stonework and stained glass. — During the French Revolution, this stone was white washed over, and it’s now partially restored (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bella and Ian sitting in a pew and looking toward the front of a church. — Bella and Ian in Saint Stephen's Cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went inside the capitol building, where Bella had heard good things about the art. There was an incredible amount of painting on the walls and ceiling, and lots of statues as well.

Painting of a person with a coral-colored full length body suit and cape sitting with pen to paper and staring into space. — A very moody person (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down an ornate room with colorful paintings on either side. — The happy, pastoral wedding room (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking through a long, ornate room with statues on either side and detailed paintings on the ceiling. — A long room of art (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a ceiling painted with a scene of a woman in a chariot pulled by lions being pursued by a dark army. — Some of the amazing ceiling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down a mostly empty street with closed shops on either side. — Quiet mornings in Toulouse (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pink building with an art piece of a model train driving off the roof. — Train crash art? (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rounded tower with blue sky behind it, flanked by walls. — More lovely pink architecture (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a whirlwind trip, and it was so nice to see friends and explore new places. I’m sure we’ll be back to both London and Toulouse, and next time we’ll probably see some more tourists there.

The Coasts and Mountains of St. Lucia

December 12, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in St. Lucia

St. Lucia was our Thanksgiving tropical paradise trip with Jason’s family. It’s a Caribbean island known for its mountainous beauty, and we were not disappointed.

We tried to actually relax on this trip (instead of our normal trend of running around trying to do everything). Most of our time, outside of lounging and eating, was spent out with the beautiful plants and birds, so the majority of this post will be about them. And, of course, the amazing views.

St. Lucia, the only country in the world named after a human woman, passed back and forth between French and British rule (14 times!) between 1600 and when it gained independence in 1979. While the economy of the island was previously based on bananas and other agriculture, the government started focusing primarily on tourism about 30 years ago. It takes less than 2 hours to drive the windy roads from one end of the island to the other, and about 180,000 people live in its hilly towns. Driving is an experience - they drive on the left, and many of the steep mountain roads are about one and a half lanes wide. Jason was a great driver, but there was also some squealing in the car at many points.

The kids flew in a day before Jason’s parents, Marc and Anne, and we went to hike at Pigeon Island. The British built Fort Rodney on the island in the late 1700s, and it served as a key vantage point in wars against the French. The island is now more of a peninsula, with the Sandals resort sitting on a new strip of land that’s been filled in.

The view from Pigeon Island looking toward Sandals resort. — The island and the red roof of Sandals (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across the mountainous coast of Pigeon Island. — The hike up Signal Peak (photo/Jason Rafal)

Signal Peak from Fort Rodney (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole leans over to pet a young tabby cat. — One of the many friendly little cats we met (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the next day relaxing at the pool and the beach. On the third day of the trip, we left our rented house in Rodney Bay and drove to our next place down south. On the way, we stopped in the town of Castries to do some shopping and have lunch. If you’re in Castries, definitely stop at the Coal Pot to eat - it had amazing food, wonderful service, and a lovely view of the harbor.

The giant tree at Derek Walcott square (photo/Jason Rafal)

Marc and Anne look at a row of brightly colored shirts and souvenirs. — Shopping at Castries Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last stop before we arrived at our new house was the Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens, where we spent an hour walking around in the dense, incredibly diverse forest and marveling at the plants.

Looking up through layers of large flat leaves. — Looking up through giant leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A beautiful cascading flowering plant. — Beautiful draping False Bird of Paradise (photo/Jason Rafal)

Dewdrops on a yellow flower. — Allamanda flower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small gecko on a tree. — A little Anolis lizard (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two cocoa pods hanging on a tree. — Cocoa pods (photo/Jason Rafal)

Beautiful reddish leaves on a bush. — I was surprised by the amount of red and pink leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

Small yellow and orange flowers against the dark leaves of a plant. — Sunset Bell (photo/Jason Rafal)

At around 4 pm, we began what was supposed to be a 10-minute drive from the garden to the house where we were staying, and then things got exciting. Keep in mind that we were 6 people, and our luggage, in an underpowered front-wheel drive SUV. The hill up to our place was a steep road with a combination of gravel and broken pavement, and there was a water leak so it was wet on one side. We tried to go up, promptly got stuck because it would have been impossible to get up, and then spent the next hour working with the incredibly kind locals to get out of the way and transport some of our people and stuff up the hill. Just after we got stuck someone with the same model SUV got stuck in nearly the exact place. Luckily half the town was already stopped and kept them from getting too stuck. Apparently it happens frequently and even their garbage truck gets stuck fairly often.

A vew looking down a steep road with broken pavement with three cars driving down. — The rather problematic road to and from our villa (photo/Jason Rafal)

The villa was an indoor-outdoor experience, with a large open-air living space stacked on top of semi-open bedrooms. The view, which took over the whole experience instantly, was incredible. We spent most of our time there just staring at the water and the pitons in the distance.

Sweeping view of the ocean over a jungle hillside with the Gros and Petit Pitons in the background. — The incredible sunset view from our villa (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny frog stuck to a white board wall. — A tiny frog at our villa (photo/Jason Rafal)

Aside from having an incredible view, our villa had glorious gardens and a lot of bird feeders, both with nectar and seeds. Jason had a wonderful time taking pictures of all the birds.

A grackle perches on a tree branch and looks into the distance. — A cute little grackle (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large round green fruit hanging from a branch. — The giant fruit of the calabash tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

Tall bright pink leaves jutting upwards from the ground. — Dramatic pink leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

Light shining through small pink flowers on a plant with large green leaves. — More pretty pink leaves (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bright green, blue, and black carib perching on a broad leaf. — A very cute carib (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three hummingbirds at a feeder. — The hummingbirds went crazy for this feeder and drained it completely in a single day (photo/Jason Rafal)

A carib spreading its wings in front of a porch swing bird feeder. — Another curious hummingbird (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small black bird with a red underthroat and eyebrow with seed in its beak. — A little bullfinch (photo/Jason Rafal)

A hummingbird feeding from a large feeder. — More hummingbirds in action (photo/Jason Rafal)

A hummingbird hovers in front of dark leaves. — Another little guy (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two hummingbirds chasing each other around a feeder. — They did a lot of fighting over the hummingbird feeder (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bananaquit perched on a rope. — A bananaquit (photo/Jason Rafal)

A carib hovering with a larger bird on a feeder in the background. — And you thought you were done with hummingbird pictures (photo/Jason Rafal)

Another green and dark brown hummingbird. — One more (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird perching on a window grate. — Another little cutie (photo/Jason Rafal)

The two pitons with the sunset in the background. — St. Vincent faintly visible through the sunset (photo/Jason Rafal)

The last glimse of the sunset between dark sky and the dark hillside and ocean. — The last rays of the sun (photo/Jason Rafal)

View of the pitons at night under the stars. — The pitons at night (photo/Jason Rafal)

Emilie, Ally, Jason and I did a hike to soak in the views of the Gros and Petit Pitons, St. Lucia’s most distinctive mountains. It was nice to see them up close after our view from the villa. The Petit Piton is taller, but also narrower and rockier.

Looking toward the petit piton with boats driving through the water. — Looking out towards the Petit Piton (photo/Jason Rafal)

A boat driving through the water around the base of the petit piton. — A boat skimming the edge of the piton (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photographing the Gros Piton (photo/Nicole Harrison)

An overlook view of Soufriere. — Looking out over Soufriere from an overlook on the way home (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also took a boat trip with Shashamane tours, which was a great experience. Our guides, Denver and Chad, took us to two snorkeling spots and to Marigot Bay for lunch. The snorkeling was lovely, with a great variety of fish, though we didn’t get much good footage.

The view from the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across the water toward a small town on a hillside. — The town of Canaries from the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

A few boats in a harbor, one of them sinking. — Some of the ships, some floating better than others, in Marigot Bay (photo/Jason Rafal)

For lunch, we sat on the beach and ate island food, which was standardly meat or fish, beans, rice, and ground provisions (a broad category including sweet potato, cassava, yams, and other tubular root vegetables in addition to plantains). For the entire trip, I basically alternated between this traditional meal and curry, and I never got tired of either.

Looking up at the tall tops of palm trees against the blue sky. — Looking up from our lunch spot on the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole, Emilie, Anne, Marc, Jason, and Ally on the beach. — Beach portrait (photo/Chad)

On the way back, Chad expertly cracked open coconuts for each of us and added some local coconut rum, and we got to sip amazing cocktails while riding in the boat. It was amazingly relaxing.

Nicole's hand holding a coconut with a straw coming out of the top with the side of a boat and water in the background. — A lovely drink on the water (photo/Nicole Harrison)

The sunset over a view of the oceans with the pitons in the background. — One last sunset from our villa (photo/Jason Rafal)

We would highly recommend St. Lucia - it’s beautiful, the food is great, and the locals were all kind and excited to show us around their island. There’s a lot to do, but it was also very relaxing and easy to unwind. It was a lovely way to spend a Thanksgiving, and I’m grateful that we were able to celebrate on island time.

Five people silhouetted and watching the sunset from an open porch. — Photo/Jason Rafal

Belize, Finally

September 20, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in Belize, Guatemala

This was the third time that Jason and I had tried to go to Belize (we can blame the events of 2020). In fact, if this third time didn’t work, we had agreed that we had to give it several years before trying again, since the trip was clearly cursed. When we decided on Belize with some of our friends, we were hopeful that the addition of several people would be enough of a change that the trip would actually happen - and it worked. Our timing, which took advantage of Labor Day, was both great and problematic - there were almost no other tourists, but it was also the most hot and sweaty that we had ever been. It was a great trip though, and I’m so glad we finally got to experience the country with some of our close friends.

None of us knew a lot about Belize, and it was fun to learn about the country as we went. First, it’s very sparsely populated - there are only 400,000 people in the country, and almost a quarter of those are in Belize City, which we didn’t visit. Most of the time we were driving, we saw only very small towns, and even the larger towns where we stayed felt pretty empty. When tourist season is in full swing, the country must feel like it’s bursting at the seams of the limited city infrastructure.

The roads are mostly in good shape, but the most memorable part of driving was the varied use of speed bumps - they were everywhere, sometimes seemed to be placed at random, and were all different sizes, so you never quite knew how significant they would be to get over. This resulted in the best speed control I’ve ever seen - everyone slowed way down for every speed bump. Sometimes there was one large one, sometimes a set of smaller ones, and sometimes just slightly elevated rumble strips, but predicting which it would be in any upcoming location was pretty impossible. We were also driving in a Kia Carnival, and the people in the back were especially subjected to any lack of care on the bumps.

We started our trip in San Ignacio, a town near the border of Guatemala. It’s the classic kicking off point to take a day trip into Guatemala to visit the ruins of Tikal, which is exactly what we did on our first full day of the trip.

Our guide walked us through the border crossing into Guatemala, and then we got in a van with a few other Americans (including a friend who happened to be in Guatemala and met us there for the tour) and drove a couple of hours to Tikal. On the way, he told us about Guatemala, which is about 60% Mayan and has more than 20 languages. The soil is not well suited to agriculture, so Guatemala raises a lot of cows (many of them Brahman cows, which are bred to handle heat well).

Tikal, a Mayan city, is fascinating and shockingly large. Only about 20% of the city has been uncovered, and in a few hours, we only explored about 20% of that. To prevent looting and improper handling of the site, Guatemala is doing all of the excavation themselves. It’s a very slow process - as soon as buildings are dug out, they have to be covered and supported immediately so they don’t collapse.

A LiDAR scan from a few years ago exposed the full size of the complex and clarified that hundreds of thousands of people lived there. Based on these numbers, the city may have been abandoned simply because of overpopulation and the issues that arise with it, not because of any crazy war or extinction event.

Tikal is in a rainforest, but not on a water source - the complex was built to collect rain water in reservoirs, which were then purified with volcanic rock. Another unexpected thing we learned was that several of the buildings had multiple layers - a Mayan building covering a Teotihuacan building, for example.

Taking a look at the part of Tikal we’d be exploring (photo/Jason Rafal)

A couple of the temples had stairs built against them so we could climb to the top. The views were amazing - jungle as far as the eye could see, with temple tops peeking above the trees.

Our happy and sweaty group of friends (photo/Jason Rafal)

Treetops and temple tops from a high point in Tikal. — Temples 1, 2, and 3 peeking above the trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large Mayan temple with people visible at the top. — The imposing Temple 1 (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large carved stone mask with green moss growing over some of the pale stone. — An incredible giant mask carving (photo/Jason Rafal)

The trunk of a large tree, with many leaves in the background and another plant winding up the branches. — The trees and plants at Tikal are awe-inspiring (photo/Jason Rafal)

The ruins were amazing, but the animals were the highlight for me (as usual). We saw lots of spider monkeys, two types of toucans (and some other birds as well), and white-nosed coatis, which are an adorable raccoon-anteater situation.

An adorable spider monkey (photo/Jason Rafal)

A spider monkey hanging by one arm and its tail from a tree branch. — A spider monkey…hanging out (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Collared Aracari with some food in its beak (photo/Jason Rafal)

The well-known Keel-billed Toucan (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black, dinosaur looking bird with a red wattle. — A Crested Guan that looks just like a dinosaur (photo/Jason Rafal)

An extraordinarily well camouflaged bird sitting on a tree branch. — An impossibly well camouflaged Northern Potoo bird that might actually be a muppet (photo/Jason Rafal)

A coati walking across the path. — One of the very chill coatis (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two coatis with their tails in the air sniffing the ground. — I love the coatis (photo/Jason Rafal)

A coati walking toward a temple. — A coati strolling toward one of the temples (photo/Jason Rafal)

A butterfly on a tree trunk drinking from a bead of sap. — A butterfly (or moth?) drinking tree sap (photo Jason Rafal)

A tiny lizard on a mossy tree trunk. — Just a little guy (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the day after our Tikal trip exploring the small town of San Ignacio. Belize and Guatemala both had very cute and sweet street dogs, and we met a lot of them as we strolled around town, shopped, and ate.

A brown and white dog stands on gravel beside a road and looks at the camera. — One of the cute roadside dogs (photo/Jason Rafal)

An equally cute and friendly street cat (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Green Iguana Conservation Project was conveniently located across the street from the house where we stayed, so it was an easy choice for an activity. Our guide, who was excellent despite initially apologizing for only being an iguana caretaker and not one of the formal guides, told us about the project’s program to incubate, hatch, and release endangered green iguanas into the wild. They also provide a sanctuary for iguanas who have injuries or other issues that prevent them from living in the wild. We got to feed and even hold a couple of the iguanas.

A male iguana in a small hut, looking regal. — A majestic male iguana (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason's hand holding out a large leaf to an iguana while it chows down. — Noming on a leaf (photo/Jason Rafal)

Four iguanas laying in a row. — Some of the adult iguanas relaxing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two baby iguanas stacked on top of each other on a stick. — A stack of young iguanas (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny female iguana with a genetic abnormality that gave her a beautiful blue tint (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black iguana sitting among the plants on a rock wall. — A sneaky black iguana (photo/Jason Rafal)

Apparently this is our year of seeing orb weavers (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last activity in San Ignacio was the beautiful Belize Botanic Garden. It had wonderful plants and a lot of animals - we’d definitely recommend it (though our overloaded car had a little bit of trouble on the dirt road getting there). I would also recommend going during a cooler season if possible - 90 degrees and 90% humidity was an intense time to explore a rainforest.

A toucan sitting in a tree with a nut in its beak. — Another toucan, this one with a nut in its mouth (photo/Jason Rafal)

All of the air plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the caretakers at the botanic garden pointed out some howler monkeys in some of the trees, which we really appreciated because we wouldn’t have seen them otherwise. We first saw a male, and then another whole family, including a young and adorable baby monkey.

A howler monkey lounging in the branches of a tree. — A relaxing howler monkey (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mother and baby howler monkey looking down from the tree branches. — A mother and baby howler monkey staring at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small black and green butterfly landing on a beautiful tropical flower. — There were so many beautiful flowers (and butterflies) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two leaf cutter ants carrying leaves across a log. — The always-mesmerizing leaf cutter ants (photo/Jason Rafal)

An iguana sitting on a tree trunk. — Another black iguana in the botanic garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

From San Ignacio, we headed to Placencia on the Caribbean Sea. We rented a very bougie beach house on the water with a beautiful pool, and we spent a majority of our time relaxing and hanging out. Our house was about halfway down the long peninsula, and we made the 20 minute drive a couple of times for activities and meals. It’s a very cute area, with lots of bars and restaurants, and was as empty as everywhere else we’d been.

Looking out over a pool and beach toward the sea. — The beautiful view from our rented house (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view down the peninsula with period piers jutting into the water. — The view up the peninsula from our house (photo/Jason Rafal)

A brightly painted bus between a row of palm trees and a gravel construction area. — Some fun painted buses (photo/Jason Rafal)

On one of our days on the beach, we went on a snorkeling tour. We got into a little motorboat and drove for almost an hour out to sea - every time we passed an island, we thought that’s where we’d stop, but we just kept going.

We eventually stopped at Silk Caye, a tiny island in the middle of nowhere consisting entirely of sand, a couple of palm trees, a BBQ and a handful of picnic tables, and a bathroom shack. It’s a protected marine reserve in Belize’s barrier reef, and the snorkeling was amazing. We swam around the island, which was completely encompassed by beautiful corals and fish. Looking out away from the island, the light turquoise water stretched into nothingness, which made me a little nervous, but it was also awe-inspriring in its vastness and how small it made me feel.

Several fish swimming through coral. — Some of the coral and fish we saw while snorkeling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Schools of several types of fish swimming above the coral. — There were a lot of fish (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a BBQ lunch, we went over to one of the nearby fishing boats, where our guide said there might be Nerf sharks looking for fish pieces. Some of us were a little nervous to get in the water, but it was worth it when we did - there were close to a dozen Nerf sharks, ranging from 3-6 feet long, just swimming around under the boat, ignoring us. A surprise turtle also appeared right next to us, with a couple of little fish swimming against its belly. I’ve never swam with such large animals, and it was very cool.

A nurse shark and several fish swim through the water. — One of the Nerf sharks we were swimming with (photo/Jason Rafal)

A turtle swimming low over the grass-covered sand. — The turtle was everyone’s favorite (photo/Jason Rafal)

Swimming with the turtle (spot the shark in the back) (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our way back from snorkeling, we stopped at Ray Caye Resort, where we got to use a very fun water slide into the ocean and relax in the pool with a beer. It was delightful, and also when we started realizing how insanely sunburned we were.

A pelican flying low over the water in front of an island. — A pelican matching the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

On the way back we saw dolphins, which was a great way to top off the day. I was expecting the snorkeling to be good, but I continue to be impressed by the wildlife I see in Central America, in the water or on land.

There were nightly storms while we were in Placencia, and one night we went out onto the pier to watch one for a while. A lightning storm across the water is amazing - it made me feel so small, but in such a comforting way.

A lighting strike across dark water, with clouds and stars overhead. — An awesome picture from the storm (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had a wonderful trip to Belize, and it was so great to be able to share it with some of our closest friends. Our travels to Central America continue to be amazing, and maybe we’ll try out a whole trip in Guatemala next time.

Two hammocks hanging beside a pool, with palm trees and the ocean in the background. — Our beach house vibe (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Last-Minute Trip to Mexico City

July 27, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in Mexico

We called Mexico City our bonus trip for the year. Jason was between jobs for a few weeks, so we booked a last-minute trip to take advantage of his time off. We both had vaguely wanted to go, but we didn’t actually know much about the city, so we were excited to experience it.

A metal wall with barbed wire along the top, with each segment painted with a mural and trees and a scooter in front. — Art and murals everywhere you look (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two people riding a motorcycle past a row of tents selling food. — A typical scene of vendors with a mural in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

People standing around a food stall, making and buying food. — Street fruit (photo/Jason Rafal)

A building with a large mural of a woman's head and shoulders, with stained glass on most of the windows. — They went all-out on building decoration (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mexico City is in a bizarre location. The lore says that when the Aztecs were looking for the right place to build their capital city, a prophecy said that wherever they saw an eagle with a snake in its mouth land on a cactus, they should build there. They ended up seeing the sign on an island in the middle of a swampy high-mountain lake, which was kind of terrible luck, but true to the prophecy, they started building the city of Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City.

Now home to a staggering 21 million people, the city feels special in both climate and history. It’s at almost 7400 feet elevation, so it takes a lot more effort to move, but unlike the high mountain desert where I grew up, the city is lush and green from the swamp it’s built on and the remarkably consistent climate (there’s a rainy season and a dry season, but the highs top out between 65 and 85 degrees year round). The city is full of beautiful parks with massive trees, and beautiful architecture from many different eras. There are benches everywhere for people to just hang out and enjoy the parks, which is lovely, and they were certainly being used.

A man pushing a loaded hand cart and a woman walking in front of a fountain with a statue of David in the center. — The David statue in Plaza Río de Janeiro (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large sign that says "CDMX" in front of a lake with large apartment buildings in the background. — CDMX against a cloudy sky (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view of a park with a lake on one side, giant panda statue on the other, large buildings in the distance, and a scruffy bird flying through the foreground. — The bird makes this look so otherworldly (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two adults and a child climbing up the bottom of a large tree. — An ambitious endeavor (photo/Jason Rafal)

A brightly-lit two-level carousel in a forested park. — A beautiful carousel in Chapultepec Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we were wandering around Chapultepec Park, a thunderstorm quickly rolled in, and we took shelter under the covered storage units that the street vendors used for their wares. It rained hard for about 20 minutes, but there was beautiful light peaking through the storm.

Three metal garage doors with murals painted on them - one with butterflies, one with a sea turtle, and one with a cactus. — There was a mural on every storage unit door (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking across toward a sheltered row of garage doors with murals on them, with a climbing structure in the foreground. — Waiting out the rain (I’m in front of the axolotl) (photo/Jason Rafal)

People hiding under a picnic table, with cups of juice still on top of the table. — Another method for hiding from the rain (photo/Jason Rafal)

Three pillars with eagles on them and a statue with two people in the middle. — The dramatic Altar a la Patria (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had heard this was the case, but the food in Mexico City is amazing. There’s everything from street food, to traditional Mexican restaurants, to fine dining creative fusion. One of our favorite restaurants we tried was Mexican-Middle Eastern-African fusion.

A man ordering at the counter of a beautiful bakery. — The amazing Panaderia Rosetta (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cross section of a layered fruit tart. — We have no idea how they cut this…or maybe you’re forced to eat the whole thing? (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elaborate tower of food starting with a corn cake, then stewed meat, a green sauce, and mint piled on top. — One of the beautiful and delicious dishes at Masala y Maiz (photo/Jason Rafal)

The city also has amazing museums. We first went to the anthropology museum, which is in a beautiful complex and has a variety of artifacts and information spanning from the beginning of humanity through the development of the area. There were a lot of outdoor exhibits, which I loved, but the highlight was probably the rather graphic and detailed dioramas.

View through the courtyard of the anthropology museum, with a pond, buildings on each side, and a covered giant fountain in the center. — The courtyard at the Museo Nacional de Antropología (photo/Jason Rafal)

A path toward a stone building with palm trees on both sides and a stone wall on the right. — The outdoor parts of this museum were some of my favorites (photo/Jason Rafal)

A diorama of a sabertooth tiger pinning down a human and preparing to bite down on its head. — The dioramas were quite dramatic (photo/Jason Rafal)

A diorama of humans taking the organs out of a dead human. — …they were also a bit gory (photo/Jason Rafal)

A carved statue of a person with fangs staring upward. — I think this is Tlāloc, Aztec god of rain (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also visited the Templo Mayor, which was the main temple of the city and had been demolished when the Spanish started tearing everything down and rebuilding. It’s now an excavation site that you can walk through, and there are also indoor exhibits of items that have been found (there were lots of skulls and art pieces).

Rows of carved stone skulls on a wall. — So. Many. Skulls. (photo/Jason Rafal)

An assortment of skulls, stone carvings, and other artifacts. — One of the time capsule-like exhibits (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tree with bark like an asparagus stalk and branches with small, spiky leaves at the top. — A very cool tree in the ruins (photo/Jason Rafal)

Chapultepec Castle is on a hill in the massive Chapultepec Park, and the views are wonderful. Built around 1800, the site and the castle had various uses over the years. It’s now a museum where many of the rooms are set up for viewing, and visitors can also ascend the grand staircases to walk in the beautiful gardens and decks on top of the castle.

Looking down a long room with a black and white checkered floor, elaborately designed ceiling, and floor-to-ceiling stained glass depicting columns and women on one side. — This stained glass was crazy (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tower in the middle of a garden. — The beautiful rooftop gardens at the castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

A statue of a lion with one paw resting on top of the other and its head resting on top. — A mopey guardian lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

A painting of a person falling toward the earth with abstract horses and a castle behind them. — A rather intense ceiling painting in the castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and Nicole taking a self-portrait in a mirror in the museum with a model ship behind them. — Self portrait with a model ship (photo/Jason Rafal)

A red and gold carriage with a statue of a cherub on the front. — There were at least 6 cherubs on this carriage (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole leaning off a balcony and looking over the treetops of the park toward downtown Mexico City in the distance. — The view from the castle balcony over Chapultepec Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A very different museum that we visited was the Frida Kahlo house, where the artist lived for much of her life. A fascinating woman with absolutely terrible luck, Frida did amazing work, and the blue house and garden she inherited from her parents is amazing. Definitely look her up and learn more about her life, it’s a wild ride.

A large ceramic vase and plants in front of a dark blue wall with a red-rimmed window with green shutters. — A wall in Frida Kahlo’s beautiful garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also walked a little around the Coyoacan neighborhood where Frida’s house is. It’s a lovely neighborhood that felt older or more established than where we were staying. There were lots of restaurants, shops, and street vendors.

A water-stained old clock tower with a cloudy sky in the background. — The 16th century Parroquia San Juan Bautista (photo/Jason Rafal)

A fountain with a statue of two coyotes in the middle. — The coyote fountain in the park in central Coyoacan (guess what the neighborhood is named for) (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sign that says "Ignacio Allende" with a tiny painted coyote on top. — I love the little indicators of which neighborhood you’re in (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the nights we went to see the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, which is performed at the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes. We don’t have photos of the performance, but it ended up quiet different from what we expected. There was dancing. There was singing. There were dueling harps. There were people wearing giant heads. There was a comedic devil dragon. There was a ballet featuring the death throes of a deer. There was dancing with audience members. There were four false endings. It was an experience.

An elaborate building facade that says "Palacio de Bellas Artes" with an ombre tiled dome in the background. — The beautiful performing arts center (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stage with a background screen showing mountains and sky with a mural in an arch over the top. — The equally impressive stage curtain (photo/Jason Rafal)

A man in traditional clothing and a headdress surveys a crowd of people in front of the palace. — The scene in Zocalo, the central plaza (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also visited the artisan market, where we were some of the few tourists visiting on a weekday afternoon. Many of the pieces are made in studios at the market, which was very cool to see.

Looking up at a second-floor studio where guitars are hanging in a row. — A peek up into the guitar studio (photo/Jason Rafal)

We always love seeing the animals in cities, and Mexico City was particularly fun because there were tons of dogs, and tons of dog walkers, all over the place. The dog walkers would meet up in the parks, and the dogs they worked with were all very chill and well trained. We often saw them sitting in a semi circle or walking calmly in a row.

A man walking on a path through a park with 8 dogs on leashes. — A frequent park scene (photo/Jason Rafal)

Several dogs lying down in a semicircle in a park. — I was amazed at how well-trained the dogs were (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small, wrinkly white and brown spotted bulldog lying in the sidewalk with its legs stretched out behind it. — A particularly ridiculous and cute pup on the sidewalk (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dog sitting on a stool behind a street vendor and looking at the camera. — A very polite street cart dog (photo/Jason Rafal)

A blonde spaniel sticking its head out of a second-story window. — A cranky dog barking out the window at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

We didn’t see any cats at first, but we started seeing more as the trip went on, especially when we visited a community garden and educational center in Roma.

A cat sitting on the counter of a dry cleaning shop. — A dutiful shop cat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two cats on a bench with their eyes closed, one sitting and one curled up. — Sleepy kitties (photo/Jason Rafal)

A cat lying on a tin roof with large leaves in the background. — Another sleepy kitty (photo/Jason Rafal)

A kitten with blue eyes through chicken wire. — A little kitten with gorgeous eyes in a pen with its siblings (photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a wonderful trip, and we have a lot of great things to say about the city. We’re happy to have a direct flight there and definitely plan to be back.

A mural with angel wings and a heart against a rainbow background that says "Love is Love..!" — There were so many rainbows <3 (photo/Jason Rafal)

A garbage truck piled high with a picture of Yoshi on the open door. — A Yoshi garbage truck (photo/Jason Rafal)

A yellow wall and clocktower of an old building. — A university near the city center (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bus with people looking out the window at the camera. — Portrait of a bus (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mural of a squirrel and a rabbit riding a pumpkin and holding a small wooden sword and a paddle with a sign that says "Huerto Roma" while an opossum stretches toward the pumpkin. — I loved this mural (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down a shaded street with a stone-walled building with ferns on the windowsill on. one side. — One of the beautiful streets in Roma Norte (photo/Jason Rafal)

On a Safari in South Africa

May 11, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in South Africa

After leaving Cape Town, we started our safari adventure. We flew to Johannesburg to meet Haley and David and, after spending one night there, we started driving out to Hoedspruit, where we would turn in the car and have a driver take us the last hour and a half to the safari lodge. Our drive was about six and a half hours, and we split it into two days.

The first few hours were through fields of crops and power plants, and the drive was pretty calm with the notable exception of a three-truck-accident that happened ahead of us and made for a very exciting half hour. At first, both lanes of traffic going our direction just stopped, with some drivers getting out or standing on their cars to see what had happened. Then, as the drivers started to clear one of the lanes ahead, everyone started moving.

A bunch of cars started driving on the shoulder, and then in the grass median between us and the other direction of the highway. We were in a rental car without the best clearance, so we were worried about driving in the grass without knowing where any holes might be, but we eventually followed a truck and an SUV over to the shoulder of the OTHER side of the highway, where we drove against traffic in a line of cars until the accident, and then cut back over through the grass to the correct side of the road. David, who was driving, did a great job staying calm in six chaotic lines of traffic as we all yelled and filmed the experience.

Luckily, that was the most exciting thing that happened to us while driving, and we were only slightly late to our lodging for the night in Graskop. Graskop is around the start of the Panorama Route, which is a beautiful, rocky area with stunning waterfalls and beautiful views. Unfortunately, the area was very smoky from nearby fires, so we didn’t see much of the views, but the waterfalls were still amazing.

Two tall waterfalls pouring down a rock face with trees growing out of the tops and sides of the rocks. — Mac Mac Falls, with amazing greenery all the way down the rock walls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two waterfalls pouring into a river below with fields and mountains in the background. — Lisbon Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

The fading sun over smoky mountains with a river running toward them. — The smoky but beautiful view from Lisbon Falls (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and Nicole reaching toward each other from an arm's length away with a waterfall in the background, and Nicole is laughing. — “Leave room for waterfalls!” (photo/Haley Carter)

We stayed in a beautiful Airbnb in Graskop that was basically made for photos. It was very simple but a great one-night stop.

The view of the sunset through a window wall with a bathtub on the floor in front. — The amazing view from inside our little cabin (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also got some great bunny chow at Divine Foods at the View in Graskop - it’s a dish consisting of (usually meat) curry in a bread bowl from the east coast of South Africa, and it’s amazing.

A bread bowl with a cracker and four sauces on a wood board on a table with a gas lamp in the background. — A delicious bunny chow meal (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next morning, we stopped for one more Panorama site at the Bourke’s Luck Potholes, where you can look down into a beautifully eroded rock canyon. We were sorry to miss the epic views part of the Panorama Route, but were still glad we were able to see the other attractions.

A view down steep rock walls into naturally-carved pools of water. — Looking down into the potholes (photo/Jason Rafal)

After dropping off our car at the adorable Hoedspruit airport and being driven to andBeyond Ngala Safari Lodge, our safari experience began with lunch and our first game drive.

A giraffe walking through tall grass toward trees. — We saw our first animals, including this giraffe, on our drive to the lodge (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two bush babies, one asleep and one peering over a wooden beam. — The lodge had a family of adorable bush babies living in one of the beams (photo/Jason Rafal)

The experience of being at a safari lodge is unlike anything I’ve ever done before. We had a 5:30 am wakeup call, headed to the breakfast area for coffee or tea and a snack, and then by 6 we were leaving for a game drive with our guide Amy and our tracker Mishack. They would have talked with the other rangers and trackers about the likely viewing options for the morning, and Amy would make a recommendation for where we could go and what we could try to see (we always followed her recommendation). For the next three and a half hours, we’d drive around the property, stopping to watch animals and changing our plans if Amy heard about a good sighting on the radio.

Around 9:30, we’d arrive back at the lodge and have breakfast, then relax for a bit before a 2 pm lunch. The next game drive started around 3:30 or 4, and we stayed out into twilight, watching animals or having drinks in the brush at sunset. Then we would head back to the lodge, have dinner around 7:30 or 8, go to bed, and then get up early to do it all over again. It was incredibly fun and fulfilling and completely exhausting.

We had a couple of special meals while we were there, including a surprise bush breakfast (Amy tricked us into thinking we might see rhinos in the area) and a boma dinner, where she joined us for our first dinner at the lodge. Both of these special meals were cooked over open fires, which is traditional in the area.

This is a good time to talk about the food at the lodge, which, along with the whole lodge experience, was amazing. We had a butler who was with us the whole time and quickly learned what we liked (sparkling water every meal), and he made sure there were always pescatarian options for Haley and David. We had a few options for each meal, and everything we picked was always delicious.

Our lodge rooms were also beautiful, with a large bed, private patio, and huge bathroom with both indoor and outdoor showers, as well as a large tub. When we returned to our room after dinner, we were escorted by a member of the staff, just in case there was a hyena or honey badger hanging out near our rooms (we didn’t see any, but it apparently happens somewhat frequently). The rest of the lodge included a pool, gym, spa, and eating area, all enclosed by a fence that started at four feet high and was only meant to keep out the elephants and buffalo, the most destructive animals who lived in the area.

The view of our bathroom from the outdoor shower (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Ngala safari lodge has a unique story - it was private land that was donated to WWF, but since they weren’t equipped to run a lodge, they leased the land to andBeyond for tourism operations. The land lease helps to fund the South Africa National Parks Trust and its work across the country. Ngala was also the first private game reserve to be incorporated into Kruger National Park, and it maintains an open boundary with Kruger, so the animals can go in and out of the property as they want (it was kind of a reverse zoo, since we had to stay inside of our property lines). They’re also very conservation-minded and focus on animal comfort, with policies like only allowing two vehicles to be near animals at a time. The prey animals were a little nervous about us, but all of the predators were completely comfortable with the vehicles - they just saw us as a large animal that sometimes hung out nearby and never really did anything.

A man bending over and drawing in the sandy ground with a small stick. — Mishack shows us where a baby rhino crossed the road (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of a zebra looking into the camera. — Each zebra has a unique stripe pattern, and I loved this one that was more black than white (photo/Jason Rafal)

A male baboon climbing up a large rock in the late afternoon light. — A large male baboon climbing to the top of a rock (photo/Jason Rafal)

A beautiful lilac-breasted roller, our favorite bird of the trip (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large kudu with spiraled horns looking into the distance. — A greater kudu (photo/Jason Rafal)

An impala that was in an unfortunate fight (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were lucky to hear about a female leopard sighting on our first evening at the lodge, and we got to go see her. She had stashed her cub somewhere and laid down for a nap in the tall grass (she was almost impossible to see at first), and as dusk fell she got up and started walking off and calling to the cub. We left her alone at that point, but it was amazing to spend some time with her.

Leopards are so beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

A leopard sitting in tall grass in late afternoon sunlight. — Starting to wake up and look around (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of an elephant's face between leaves. — A little elephant, so young it didn’t have tusks yet (photo/Jason Rafal)

A young elephant walking through tall grass. — Such a cute “little” elephant (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dense herd of impala, one with a red-billed oxpecker on its head. — We usually saw impala in dense herds (spot the red-billed oxpecker on the middle one’s head, eating bugs) (photo/Jason Rafal)

The trackers spend a lot of time sitting at the front of the vehicle looking for animal tracks in the dirt of the road. Once they see a fresh track to follow, they’ll get down and track on foot, and other trackers will often be dropped off by other vehicles to help. On our second day, Mishack went into the brush looking for lions. When he radioed in later to tell us he found them and we picked him up, we tried to get him to tell us how he found them. He just followed the tracks and then a lion walked in front of him, he said. Simple.

One of the lions we saw was one of three white lions that exist in the wild; it’s a recessive gene that was thought to have died out, but has started showing up again. He has very cool pale eyes and a light coat.

A white male lion yawning, with a female lion walking by in the background. — The white lion yawning - he’s not actually mad (photo/Jason Rafal)

The lion’s manes grow longer as they age, so the male lions were somewhat young. That being said, they’re huge.

A close-up of a male lion's head facing the camera. — I liked this guy’s hair tuft (photo/Jason Rafal)

A male lion lying in the grass looks back at the camera. — Another picture of the white lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

A close up of a male lion walking toward the camera and glaring. — The lions moved into the shade as they overheated in the sun, creating some dramatic action shots (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of the white lion's face, with many scars visible across his eyes and nose. — The incredibly dramatic white lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

There was a pride of female lions hanging out not far from the males - they all kept an eye out for an easy hunting opportunity but they were pretty chill overall.

A close up of a female lion looking into the distance, with a head and paw of another female lion in the background. — Two of the female lions hanging out in the sun (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the fun things about having an open camp is that the smaller animals were able to wander in - we mostly saw birds and lizards, but when we were heading to lunch from the pool this little bushbuck was grazing in the bushes right next to the path. They have absolutely giant, Disney-style eyes.

An adorable bushbuck at the lodge (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and Haley were constantly looking for new birds to add to their Merlin app, and we all enjoyed finding birds in between finding the big animals. It kept it interesting and always left us with something to do. South Africa also has a lot of really cool birds.

Two yellow-billed hornbills doing some sort of dance (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large black bird with bright red skin across its eye and under its neck and a long, sharp bill sitting perched in a tree. — The dramatic southern ground hornbill, which we saw in a tree instead of on the ground (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two African fish eagles (photo/Jason Rafal)

A male impala smelling us (photo/Jason Rafal)

We learned that hyenas often hang out near wild dogs. The dogs are very frequent and efficient hunters, but the hyenas are bigger, and they are often able to chase the dogs away from a kill pretty quickly.

A spotted hyena sitting up in the grass, with tearing and scarring on both ears. — Look at the beat up ears on this hyena (photo/Jason Rafal)

African wild dogs were first on my list of animals I wanted to see, but I tried not to get my hopes up because they’re fairly rare. Luckily, they had been hanging out on the property, and we were able to see a pack of them on the second afternoon - lions and wild dogs in one day!

They’re absolutely beautiful with their tan, black, and white coats, round ears, and long tufted tails. It was also so fun to see how much they acted like domestic dogs as they played and interacted with each other. Apparently, they are absurdly effective and impressive hunters, unlike most of our pet dogs.

A wild dog lifting its head out of the grass and looking behind it, away from the camera. — I love the ears! (photo/Jason Rafal)

A pack of wild dogs lying on the ground, with one in the back lifting its head to look into the distance. — Looking around from the pile of dogs in the grass (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two wild dogs standing next to a bush, with one licking the other's ear. — They spent a lot of time grooming each other (photo/Jason Rafal)

A standing wild dog with a cut behind its ear looking at the rest of the pack. — The dogs were covered in small (and sometimes large) cuts (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a wild dog with ears flopping to the side looking at the camera. — The pack leader, who had adorable floppy ears (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wild dog standing at a diagonal in the tall grass. — They’re such beautiful animals - I love their coat patterns (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the middle of the game drives Amy tried to make sure we were able to stop for drinks and snacks (sometimes she asked if we were okay skipping it because there were animals to go see, and we always opted for that instead). When we did have time, though, we’d stop for coffee in the mornings and drinks in the afternoon, and both came with delicious local snacks, from biltong (dried, cured meat) to cookies to some sort of amazing dried corn mix that was better than Corn Nuts. Amy and Mishack also made us a variety of mixed drinks - the classic was a gin and tonic with fresh lime, but I was partial to Amarula cream liquor over ice.

Amy and Mishack setting up a drink and snack table in a dry riverbed. — Amy and Mishack set up tasty drinks and snacks for us during the drives (photo/Jason Rafal)

The sun setting over the horizon between trees and bushes, with purple mountains in the distance. — Being out for sunrise and sunset every day is tiring but amazing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Mishack is amazing at spotting things we would never have seen from the front of a moving car, especially at night. He shone a flashlight in long sweeps across the road in front of us, turning it off for us to drive by if we saw diurnal prey animals (their night vision takes a while to come back, which makes them vulnerable until it’s restored). On the second night when we were driving back, he had Amy stop for a moment, and then said what he had found was too hard to see and he’d find another one. A minute or two later he had Amy stop again and pointed out a chameleon on a tree branch, which blended in almost exactly with the leaves. When we asked how he possibly could have seen it, he said he just looks for half a lemon in the trees. We watched it change colors to react to the light for a minute, then left it alone.

A chameleon on a tree lit up by a flashlight in the dark. — A little chameleon in a tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next thing we were all able to see - a spider had created almost a full web across the road. We felt bad to have to destroy all its hard work, but the vehicles only went offroad for specific animal sightings, and we needed to take back the road.

Looking toward the front of the car in the dark, with Mishack shining a flashlight on a spiderweb across the road. — A surprise spiderweb (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elephant walking through grass with trees in the background. — We saw a ton of elephants, and it never got old (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a young elephant's face, with its trunk reaching up. — You can tell how old an elephant is by its tusk length - this one was pretty young (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a young elephant's face, with its trunk wrapped around its tusks. — Some fun trunk contortions (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elephant with its ears out to the side looking at the camera. — Flapping its ears to cool itself down (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two large birds perched in the top of a dead tree, with one bird behind the other. — Two tawny eagles in a tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

An impala walking behind a grazing wildebeest.. — The blue wildebeest and impala were often together for protection (photo/Jason Rafal)

A hippo in the water, with the eyes and nostrils of another hippo visible in front of it. — Two mating hippos (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bright blue, red, and green bird with a long forked tails flying against a blue sky. — A lilac-breasted roller in flight (photo/Jason Rafal)

A warthog walking across the road with a red-billed oxpecker on its back. — A warthog with a red-billed oxpecker hanging out on its back (photo/Jason Rafal)

An elephant walking down a dirt road flanked by dense trees. — An elephant walks down the road in the distance (photo/Jason Rafal)

The animal Jason was most excited to see was a cheetah, and they’re not always on the property. We got very lucky, though, and heard from another group that there was a mother and her half-grown cub on the reserve. The baby was still learning what to expect from the vehicles, and got into a tree to watch us more clearly.

A cheetah stalking through the grass and looking at the camera. — The mother cheetah watching us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A young cheetah standing in a dead tree and chewing on some of the bark. — The young cheetah got into a tree to see further and chew on some bark (photo/Jason Rafal)

A young cheetah standing in a dead tree and looking into the distance. — He watched us for a few minutes (photo/Jason Rafal)

We only watched the cheetahs for a few minutes before heading out to give them some breathing room, but it was so cool just to watch them move - they’re so lanky and elegant.

A large spider in a web, with smaller spiders in the web and a green background. — A large and terrifying spider (we think a golden silk orb-weaver) at our lodge (photo/Jason Rafal)

A zebra looking at the camera, with a baby zebra behind it. — This baby zebra was adorable and I was so happy to see her (photo/Jason Rafal)

The baby zebra hadn’t yet learned that oxpeckers are friends and shook this one off (photo/Jason Rafal)

A zebra that is covered in brown dirt looks into the distance. — Another zebra, this one with wider black stripes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close-up of a zebra's face looking at the camera. — This one had a bit of ear missing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bush duiker considering whether it should run away (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, fluffy bird with a long, thick tail and long talons sitting at the top of a tree. — A grumpy-looking white-browed coucal (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two young elephants walking through the grass, with the back one resting its trunk on top of the front one's back. — Two young elephants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wildebeest with several birds on its back scratching its jaw with its left back hoof. — Several yellow-billed oxpeckers were hanging out on this wildebeest (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were constantly amazed by how quickly we saw a blanket of stars after sunset - by the time we got back to the lodge around 7:30 pm, we could see the Milky Way. On our last night at the lodge, we asked one of the room escorts to take us out to the pool for a few minutes so Jason could take a couple of pictures. I don’t think it was a common request, as he was surprised but excited to see the pictures. If you look closely you can see the little round bird nests in the tree!

The star-covered night sky with a blue-illuminated tree in the bottom of the frame. — The incredible night sky (the tree was lit up from the pool below) (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the last morning before leaving the lodge hanging out with the cheetahs again, and we were the only car there, which was really nice. They were more comfortable with us than the day before, and the baby even started nursing, with the mother occasionally growling to let him know that this wouldn’t happen for very much longer.

Two cheetahs, a mother and half-grown cub, look back at the camera. — Double cheetah (photo/Jason Rafal)

A female cheetah lying in the grass and looking off to her right. — The mother cheetah checking out some sounds (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mother cheetah lying down and her baby laying next to her with its paw on her side. — The baby cheetah looking up from nursing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two men in tan pants, gray fleeces, and gray fleece hats walking away down the road. — Mishack and Tonight, another tracker, heading off to look for animals (photo/Jason Rafal)

Five impala next to a body of water, with one butting the back of another. — We spent some time at a watering hole with some hippos, a crocodile slinking around, and some playful impalas (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dwarf mongoose popping out of a hole and looking at the camera, with another one behind. — A cute dwarf mongoose next to the road (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our safari was incredible, from seeing all the animals, to Amy and Mishack hanging out with us for 8 hours a day and answering all our questions, to the amazing lodge and food. All four of us want to start planning our next safari adventure - Botswana is looking like the next one.

Close-up of a wild dog yawning. — One more bonus picture - we had a great time watching all the animals yawn (photo/Jason Rafal)

At the Cape of Storms

May 07, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in South Africa

Cape Town

Our South Africa trip was based around a safari that our friends Haley and David had found and invited us to book with them. Jason and I decided to add on some time in Cape Town before going to the lodge as well, and we ended up spending a day and a half in Johannesburg too. Overall, we took almost two weeks for the trip, which is the minimum I think I’d book to justify the 30+ hour travel days to get all the way across the world (South Africa is close to the antipode of Washington state).

I had always heard great things about Cape Town, and we were excited to spend some time there. The city has endless things to do, from outdoor activities to museums, and I was frustrated trying to prioritize what we wanted to do in our four days there.

Our first activity after arriving in Cape Town was to go on a free walking tour, which is always a good way to get some context from a local. Our walking tour was historical, and our guide took us through some of the important points of the city center. We took the tour about an hour after arriving in the city and are very glad we challenged ourselves to explore a bit before jet lag set in.

The area was originally inhabited by a few tribes, including the Khoikoi, San, and Xhosa people. The first western “discovery” of Cape Town was by the Portuguese, who sailed by in the late 1400s but never established a long-term presence in the area. The first colonization began in the mid 1600s, when the Dutch decided to establish a settlement to support ships traveling to the Dutch East Indies. Unable to find enough labor locally, they began to import slaves from other areas of Africa, as well as Indonesia, which began the cultural melting pot of the city, as well as the introduction of the “Cape Colored” racial group. The British eventually also saw the value of the Cape and, through various complicated war efforts, fought for control of the city throughout the 1800s; they eventually unified South Africa in the early 1900s.

In 1948, the National Party won on a platform of institutionalized racial segregation, or apartheid. Previously racially integrated, Cape Town, as well as the other cities in South Africa, subjected Black citizens to forced relocation to townships. While apartheid was finally repealed in 1991, racism and government corruption are still everywhere. South Africa has an unemployment rate of 40%, and there are hundreds of thousands living without electricity, clean water, and proper sanitation. As a tourist, there are large areas of the cities that we were advised not to visit based on high crime rates. The wealthy areas of the city are very white, even though white people make up only 16% of the population, and the inequality is still painfully evident. The history in this area is winding, not always well reported, and generally hard to wrap one’s head around; we had difficulty finding more detailed information to link to, but this article does as well as anything we saw online (we do want to note that the article stops at 1948 and the history most certainly does not). The history of this city, region, and country is complex and learning to understand it a bit more by visiting was rewarding though also often painful.

Okay, stepping away from the history. Cape Town is incredible. It’s gorgeous, with mountains to the south and ocean to the west. Dramatic clouds often pour over Table Mountain like a blanket, inspiring a legend of the devil having a smoking contest with a pirate. The city has incredible food, with influences from Indian, Malaysian, and African cuisine, and there’s also a lot of great coffee. Nearly everyone we met was kind and happy to talk to us about what we were enjoying on our trip, and they’re obviously all so proud of the beautiful city they call home.

A large, ornate government building next to palm trees with mountains in the background. — The Cape Town City Hall (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nine engravings on columns on the side of a stone building facade. — Carved faces representing the nine original tribes of South Africa - the Zulu, Xhosa, Bapedi, Batswana, South Ndebele, Basotho, Venda, Tsonga, and Swazi people (photo/Jason Rafal)

Cape Town buildings in front of Table Mountain, with a mural that says "Just Be Kind" visible on one facade. — The view from our hotel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up a street at a row of brightly painted attached homes. — Painted houses near the waterfront (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wide building mural with three faces. — There were so many amazing murals in Cape Town (photo/Jason Rafal)

A stand selling flowers under a thatched roof that allows in streaks of light. — A flower stand at the Oranjezicht City Farm Market (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sea lion at the end of a dock, with boats and buildings in the background. — A sunning sea lion (photo/Jason Rafal)

One night in Cape Town we had reservations at a speakeasy, which has truly become a major American export. They were serious - we didn’t find out the location until last minute and had to provide a code to a skeptical doorman - but once we were inside we were greeted by a warm, friendly set of employees and a three-piece band singing covers of pop and rock songs. It was really fun, and the decor was pretty great as well.

Black and white photo of two bartenders singing while making drinks in a speakeasy. — Multi-talented bartenders (photo/Jason Rafal)

We took one day to drive out to the Cape of Good Hope, seeing some sights along the way. We first visited Muizenberg, which is a classic surfing town with iconic brightly colored changing shacks on False Bay. It’s very cute, and fun to watch the surfers. From there, we drove south along the water, stopping for lunch in Simon’s Town, where we ate fish and chips with a lovely view of the water. Our next stop, and one of our most anticipated, was Boulders Beach, where we got to see the penguin colony there. These are African Chinstrap penguins, and they only live in South Africa. They’re really adorable, and there were even some fluffy chicks. In addition, Boulders is an absolutely beautiful beach, and we also saw some dassies, which I loved. It was lovely all around.

A beach with large, smooth rocks, low greenery, and clear blue water with small penguins on a rock on the left. — Boulders Beach, aside being a great place to see penguins, is really beautiful (photo/Jason Rafal)

A penguin walks by a rock with a person's legs, shoes, and water bottle in the foreground. — At part of the beach, the penguins can come visit the humans (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two penguins swimming through green-blue water. — Penguins surfing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A penguin burrowed in the sand with a chick draped over its back. — A baby penguin draped over its parent (photo/Jason Rafal)

A penguin laying on a nest with its eyes closed and face turned toward the sun. — They’re kind of ridiculous and I love it (photo/Jason Rafal)

Five adolescent penguins on the beach. — Some adolescent penguins hanging out (photo/Jason Rafal)

An adolescent penguin walking in front of a large rock. — This one looked slightly possessed (photo/Jason Rafal)

A penguin swimming through the water with droplets flying around it. — This one was way too cool for the others (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dassie stretches its legs while staring at the camera. — Dassies are delightfully awkward (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dassie laying stretched out on the sand. — Just look at these things (photo/Jason Rafal)

From Boulders Beach we drove all the way south to the Cape of Good Hope. Along the way, we saw a lot of signs telling us to beware the baboons, which was a bit alarming since we hadn’t realized they lived in the area. We didn’t see any, but there were lots of signs telling us not to feed them.

The cape is a national park, and on our way in we were surprised to see ostriches roaming around - we had both thought they were native to Australia for some reason, but they’re actually from South Africa. It was cool to suddenly see them in the wild. We drove to the most southwest place in Africa and climbed to the top of the hill, where there were great views across False Bay and into the water below.

Two ostriches, one adult and one adolescent, standing on sandy ground. — Skeptical ostriches - don’t worry, this was taken with a telephoto lens and we didn’t actually get close (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black and green lizard suns itself on a rock. — A beautiful southern rock agama (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Cape Point lighthouse perched on a rocky outcropping with ocean and mountains in the background. — The lighthouse at Cape Point, with views across False Bay (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which is absolutely amazing. It’s a huge piece of donated property that reaches up the backside of Table Mountain (you can technically hike to the top of Table Mountain from the garden), and it’s been really well cultivated and taken care of. We spent a couple of hours strolling through the gardens and eating lunch at the on-site restaurant, which was surprisingly good. It’s one of our favorite botanical gardens, and we’ve been to a lot.

A view of the top of several giant trees with a mountain in the background. — Some of the very large trees at the botanical garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole on a walkway through the treetops, with mountains in the background. — The tree canopy walkway, which has great views of the mountains (photo/Jason Rafal)

A cobbled path with plants and trees on each side. — These pathways are amazing (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view across the botanical garden, with multiple types of trees visible and Cape Town in the background. — You can see Cape Town in the distance to the top left (photo/Jason Rafal)

The base of a plant with two long leaves branching out from the center. — The bizarre Welwitschia, which has two long, thin leaves that grow for its entire life - which can be over 1,000 years! (photo/Jason Rafal)

We heard from a lot of people that going up Table Mountain while we were in town was a must. You can hike up, which takes a few hours, or there’s a cable car that only takes a few minutes. A lot of people hike up and take the cable car down, but as I was still having trouble sleeping and generally struggling a bit, we decided to just take the cable car both ways.

Aside from the spectacular views in every direction, Table Mountain is special because it’s a biodiversity hotspot for flora, with hundreds of endemic species. The top, which is a large flat area with lots of hiking trails, is rocky and covered in small plants, shrubs, and short trees. It’s beautiful in a very stark way, like many of the more extreme climates we’ve visited.

A map of the world distinguishing the different world floral kingdoms - Boreal, Neotropical, Palaeotropical, Australian, Antarctic and Patagonian, Cape. — We had no idea that the Cape has its own World Floral Kingdom - and that we’ve now been to 5 of 6 (photo/Jason Rafal)

The view looking up from the base cable car station to the top of Table Mountain, with a cable car approaching. — The view up the cables (photo/Jason Rafal)

The cable car is very cool - the bottom spins slowly as it moves, so no matter what side of the car you’re on, you can see the views from every direction during the ride. We’ve never seen that before, but it’s a great idea. As we arrived at the top, the operator welcomed us to the “ice box” and told us the last ride time down.

Generally, all the locals we met in South Africa were very sensitive to the cold, but the real thing that made the top of Table Mountain cold was the intense wind. I wore a sweatshirt plus a windbreaker, with the hood up, for most of the time - it ended up being the perfect layering for the weather.

We took the cable car up in the late afternoon, which was a choice we felt very good about because there was almost no one else up there. When we started hiking around the top, we were often totally alone. As the sun dropped lower in the sky, we also got beautiful glowing views of the city and beaches below us.

View of Lion's Head Rock and Cape Town, with the ocean in the background. — Looking down at the city, Lion’s Head, and Robben Island (photo/Jason Rafal)

A frequent view at the top of Table Mountain - people wearing all the clothes they brought and taking pictures (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking south from Table Mountain over two manmade bodies of water. — Two reservoirs near the top of the mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking out over the mountains toward the Cape of Good Hope. — Looking out toward Cape Point (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking down at Camps Bay (photo/Jason Rafal)

Close up of a small, tall plant with upturned green and red petals. — One of the weird and beautiful plants at the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last day in the area we took a day trip to the wine areas outside of the city - Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Franschhoek.

For the entire trip, we marveled at the absence of other American tourists, and our day tours were no exception. On this one, there were two other people from the United States, but there was also a couple from Finland, another from Switzerland, two sisters from Botswana, and one person from Nigeria. It was interesting to talk to everyone and hear what questions everyone had for each other - we got into a long conversation about the crisis of American healthcare with the Finns.

We also went to three beautiful old wineries - La Bri, where we had a chocolate and wine pairing; Boschendal, where we tried to make everyone tell us what they call the game cornhole in their country (no one else had a local name for it); and Fairview, where we had a wine pairing with cow and goat cheese.

Piece of wood that says "La Bri, Franschhoek, 1694" and has three chocolates on it, with wine glasses in the background. — Our beautiful chocolate pairing at La Bri (photo/Jason Rafal)

An owl looks down from a tree branch surrounded by green leaves. — A skeptical owl outside of the La Bri tasting room (photo/Jason Rafal)

View looking across a rectangular lawn toward a white house, with trees on either side and mountains in the background. — The beautiful Boschendal tasting area (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dark red and green grape leaf, with other leaves and vines in the background. — Fall colors on the vines (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two wine barrels, with more stacked barrels in the background. — Barrels in the cellar (photo/Jason Rafal)

A yellow and black bird perched on a bush. — A curious bird in a rosebush (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two people holding hands and walking down a path with overarching trees over the path. — All three of these wineries were really beautiful properties (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small white goat next to a fence. — I was thrilled to find the goats at Fairview (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our guide, Nelson, was a Cape Town local who taught us a lot about the history of the area. On our way back to the city, he talked about the townships and pointed out where he had grown up. It was a very sobering and important end to a very bougie day of fancy wine and food.

The sunset over the mountains viewed through the windshield of a van. — The last light of sunset over Table Mountain. Can you see the shape of a man laying down? (photo/Jason Rafal)

Cape Town was absolutely wonderful, and we loved our time there. I want to go back for a week and do all the things we didn’t get a chance to do - climbing Lion’s Head, visiting more of the peaks and beaches, and going to the museums that we didn’t have time to visit. There were also so many more restaurants I wanted to try. We were sad to leave but excited for the rest of our trip.

The silhouette of trees on the top of a hill with an orange sky in the background. — Trees along the ridge of Signal Hill (photo/Jason Rafal)

Johannesburg

This blog is a little different because it’s not chronological - I wanted to pair our the first part of our trip in Cape Town with the last part in Johannesburg so that the safari would get its own blog. So, please time travel with me as I tell you more about the city we visited at the end of our trip. We flew into Joburg before heading out to the safari, and then after the safari we flew back to the city for a day before heading back to Seattle.

Johannesburg was difficult for me. It’s massive, with more than 5 million people in the city and 10 million in the metro area, and so much of that population lives in abject poverty. We stayed in one of the fancy tourist areas, which was essentially a completely walled-in outdoor mall with three Marriott hotels, lots of restaurants and high-end shops, a supercar dealership, and an armored car dealership. Access was strictly controlled, especially at night, so that we could feel safe walking between the buildings. It did feel safe, but also incredibly isolated from the rest of the city.

Throughout our time in South Africa we learned about load shedding, which impacts the entire country. Essentially, the power system has collapsed, and there are rotating power outages every day, with the government designating a phase that dictates how many hours a day the power is out. While we were there, the country was in phase 8, which means that the power was turned off for 4 hours in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, and an additional couple of hours overnight. The rest of the time, everyone uses generators or other alternate power if they can afford it, but a lot of people just don’t have power. There’s been a high impact on small businesses, many of which had to shut down, and there are constantly stoplights out all over the city, causing increased traffic. Even our nice hotel in Johannesburg, which was set up on the compound’s generator power, had trouble switching to generator the last night we were there, and we woke up without power or water for a couple of hours. The problem is constantly top of mind for residents, and an enormous percentage of the advertising we saw either referenced, joked about, or promised solutions to the pain of living with load shedding. Unfortunately, with a government-funded power system that sees constant embezzlement of allocated funds, there is no faith of or hope in improvement any time soon.

We were planning both a bike tour in Soweto and a visit to the Apartheid museum on our last day, but because our flight got moved up a couple of hours, we only had time for the bike tour. Despite the amazing things we’ve heard about the museum, we both thought the bike tour was the right option for us. We learned a lot about the history of this important township and I felt a lot more connected to the city after talking to locals.

Soweto - originally South Western Townships - was an area where Black residents of Johannesburg were moved in the 1930s and 40s. It quickly became the largest Black city in South Africa, with a current population of more than 1 million. It was home to Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Trevor Noah (the South Africans would like Trevor Noah back, but say America can keep Elon Musk). It’s also the home of the 1976 student uprising, where students of all ages protested a ruling that Afrikaans, a language developed by the Dutch settlers of the area, should be the language used in schools in Soweto, destroying the educational opportunities of the residents. The protests were violently suppressed, with more than 1,000 killed or injured, but civil unrest grew until the repeal of apartheid in the 1990s. We heard a lot of exasperation with the current government, but there’s a general sense that one of the more successful government efforts of the past 30 years has been free, accessible education for all South Africans. To learn a bit more about the history of Soweto you can read this page or the Wikipedia article - there seems to be a dearth of well written information about Soweto on the internet which is a shame. Please let us know if you find anything else!

Our guide Tebogo, a Soweto local, led us on our bike tour through the West Orlando suburb (We can’t recommend One Day Africa enough - look them up if you’re in Cape Town or Johannesburg). We visited Nelson Mandela’s house and museum, then biked to the decommissioned Orlando Towers, which were previously part of a coal power plant and now home to a complex that features food, beer, and activities like in-tower bungie jumping and paintball. On the way back, we biked next to an improvised “shanty” town, where we saw how some of the township’s poorest residents lived (and waved back to a lot of kids).

Ten dancers in motion, with six clapping and four dancing in front. — Botswanan dancers (when the arbitrary line was drawn between South Africa and Botswana, they happened to be on the South African side) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Seven people on bicycles at a stop sign, with houses behind brick fencing on the left and a green field on the right. — Our group of bikers (photo/Jason Rafal)

A herd of goats eating from a pile of trash at the side of a road, with buildings and power lines in the background. — Some goats eating on the side of the road (photo/Jason Rafal)

View between two brightly painted towers. — The Orlando Towers (photo/Jason Rafal)

A hollowed out half loaf of bread with fries and sauce poking out and a fried egg on top. — A kota sandwich, a local street food designed to be easily portable and carb-heavy (it’s delicious) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Something that struck us throughout our time in the cities was the sense of hope - despite the significant social and governmental issues faced by the South Africans, there’s a general feeling that things can and will get better. I’ll be thrilled to see it. We’d highly recommend visiting South Africa, and please book some tours with Black-owned tour companies while you’re there.

Next, we get to show you some safari animals.

2022 in Review

February 22, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in United States

We did a lot in 2022, from traveling to attending weddings to seeing friends. These photos from the year aren’t from one of our large trips, but they encompass more of what made the year special overall.

The Space Needle from the Bainbridge ferry, with a dock and apartment buildings in the foreground. — One of the best views of Seattle is from the Bainbridge ferry (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent most of the spring in the Seattle area, where we hiked and enjoyed the views as the days got longer.

The beautiful Olympic mountains on a rare sunny winter day

A surprise baby seal at Discovery Park

A fun trail obstacle

A lovely view from Queen Anne

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A winter sunstar in Leavenworth

In March, we got together with Jason’s family for the GOES-T launch in Cocoa Beach. Between the launch, visiting the Kennedy Space Center, and spending time at the beach, we all enjoyed ourselves. Jason rented a big lens just for the occasion.

Our view of the GOES-T launch at Kennedy Space Center

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The Firing Room Theater at the Kennedy Space Center

The Saturn V rocket

Nicole and Ally at the beach

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An extensive mini golf course with the Rafals

Since we were on the East Coast anyway, we flew up to Virginia to spend some time with Jason’s family and visit a whole lot of baby animals. I always love an excuse to cuddle with baby goats.

The adorable Adele

Hiking at Ivy Creek

Cuddling with baby goats <3

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This is what happiness looks like

In August, we went to a wedding at Lake Tahoe. I had never been and was really excited, and it didn’t disappoint. There were parts of the area that felt surprisingly similar to Colorado, but the giant, beautiful lake is really one of a kind. We’d love to go back.

Lake Tahoe is amazing for drone shots

Eagle Lake

Jason took lots of beautiful pictures of plants and flowers over the year.

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Jason wanted me to specify that this one was in Texas, not Washington

Jason also took a lot of photos of animals, from pets to wild birds (he’s getting increasingly into birding).

Albus posing adorably, as usual

Trying out a new zoom lens on Caprica

A cute little Canada Jay

We spent some time in the summer camping, hiking, and exploring. It was nice to see friends and get the Jeep dirty.

Nicole and Megan on the Olympic Peninsula

Find the people climbing down the trail

A dirty Jeep is a happy Jeep

Jarod catching a fish

We also got a little drone, and we took some pretty shots from above our house.

An aerial view of the rose garden near our house

A sunset view of city

Our house is near the Seattle Zoo, so we got memberships to add it to our walking options around our place. Jason enjoyed practicing his wildlife photography, particularly once the birds were let out again after the avian flu quarantine.

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As always, Seattle is beautiful and we feel lucky to live here. We’ll see where 2023 takes us.

Two boats on the Puget Sound at sunset with the Olympic mountains in the background. — Sailors at sunset from Golden Gardens park (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Sparkling Lights of Madrid

January 13, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in Spain

The day after Christmas, we took the train from Barcelona to Madrid for the remainder of our trip. High speed trains are wonderful - it was about 2.5 hours between the cities, and it was nice to be able to alternate between reading and looking out at the farmland around us. I’m always sad about our lack of trains when I’m in Europe or Asia.

We had seen something about a forest in the Madrid train station, so I dragged us over to it before we went to our hotel. The internal hallways between the trees were blocked off, but the forest itself was amazing - it gave a sense of calm to the area, and it was nice to see so much lush green right next to the hectic terminal.

I want a forest in every train station now (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we arrived in Madrid, we were struck by two things: there were beautiful lights everywhere, and the city was FULL of people. Apparently everyone has family in Madrid, and they seem to visit them over Christmas.

The holiday lights in Madrid are extensive, and I’m sure part of the reason that the city is so crowded over the holiday. There seemed to be a big strolling culture, and people spent the afternoon and evening walking through the central streets, shopping, and taking pictures.

Photo of lit up trees and a monument with a horse and rider on top across a lake. — Completely lit up trees across the Great Pond of El Retiro (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole walking down a street in a crowd of people toward a tree. — Walking toward the tree at Puerta del Sol (photo/Jason Rafal)

Statue of a man on a horse on top of a stone pillar with writing wrapped around it, riding toward a giant lit up tree. — Carlos III rides into a giant Christmas tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an overhead light display between three buildings. — The most impressive part of the light display, IMO (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of crowds of people walking down a street with red light displays in the shape of ribbon overhead. — Giant ribbon loops of light over tons of people (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a crowded street toward a large Christmas tree. — More tree, more lights, more foot and car traffic (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our first full day in Madrid, we did a free walking tour. I’d highly recommend looking one up in a new city if you have time - we’ve always had great experiences and learned a lot of good information. Note that while the tours are free, you should definitely tip your guide (it’s a pay what you want system). If you’d like some overall Spanish history, Jason enjoyed these videos: The Animated History of Spain and Why 70% of Spain is Empty. We’re both fascinated by the fact that in the 1970s, after democracy was re-established at the end of the Franco regime, Spain actually reinstituted a constitutional monarchy.

Our actor-and-tour-guide, Paul, walked us through the different kings and quirks of Madrid’s history, which all revolved around his claim that the Spanish are superstitious and like things simple. The city was originally built by the resident Muslim forces to defend Toledo, the original location of the Royal Court, until the Royal Court moved to Madrid in the mid 1500s. The history that Paul walked us through was over the Habsburg reign of one Carlos, and then three Felipes, and then another Carlos (he illustrated this with a hamburger analogy, which was entertaining).

We spent some time in Plaza Mayor, the square in the center of the old city, was built and re-built from wood three times before they decided to rebuild using stone so it would stop burning down.

Photo of a circular bench with engravings of people walking and dancing. — A historical scene depicted on one of the benches surrounding a lamppost at Plaza Mayor (photo/Jason Rafal)

We learned that the first time the statue of Felipe III and his horse was erected in Plaza Mayor, the horses’s mouth was open wide enough that birds kept getting in and dying, and the constant noises made people think the statue was haunted. They redid it to fix the issue.

Photo looking up at a statue of a horse being ridden by a king. The horse has huge, weirdly shaped eyes. — Whoever was carving Felipe III’s horse’s head was struggling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two towers through an archway that leads to another street. — One of the archways leading out of Plaza Mayor (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also learned about a weird quirk of the city’s clocks, where the number 4 is represented by IIII instead of the more widely accepted Roman numeral IV. Upon some research, it looks like this was fairly common in old clocks and watch faces, and there are some theories as to why. The one Paul told us was that there’s a greater visual balance to using IIII across from VIII on the clock, so it was originally preferred and lasted into modern times.

Photo of a life-sized figurine leaning out of a second-story balcony and holding a clock. — A figurine of a watch maker with a clock representing 4 as IIII (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looping back to superstition, Paul told us about the traditions that people had in order to maximize their chances of winning the lottery. There is one shop that sells lottery tickets that is vastly more popular than all the rest because it’s sold to multiple winners. He also took us to a statue of a man, called “The Curious Neighbor,” who has a shiny gold butt from all the people trying to replicate the luck of a man who touched the statue shortly before winning the jackpot. Most of our group touched the butt.

Photo people looking at a statue of a man leaning against a railing. — The Curious Neighbor (photo/Jason Rafal)

Paul ended our walk with a quiz, which was surprisingly fun. We did much better than expected.

Photo of a man squatting in the center of a circle of people and holding up three fingers. — Paul asks us something about the superstitious number three in our quiz (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of Jason’s friends recommended the naval museum, which was pretty cool even as someone who is not super interested in the navy (Jason is much more into it). There were tons of boat models, and many of them were cut in half to see the inside of the boat.

Model ships in glass boxes in the naval museum (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a room with a tapestry and cabinets displaying jugs and plates, with a mirror on the ceiling reflecting the tapestry. — A collection of items found in the sunken *San Diego* in 1992 (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of three buildings, one with a mural of fruit, one pink, and one dark yellow, with a statue of a cross in the foreground. — A colorful view near Plaza Mayor (photo/Jason Rafal)

On one of the clearer days, we walked over to the Temple of Debod for sunset. Aside from having nice angles for photography, it’s also on a hill that has a nice view overlooking the city. The temple itself is a bit controversial; it was relocated from Egypt in the 1960s so it wouldn’t get flooded by a dam, but it was reassembled in a different order than the original setup, and it remains uncovered and exposed to the elements. It sounds like there’s a plan to cover it soon.

The view from the temple (photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset on a building (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of many peafowl in the garden outside of the royal palace (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our hotel was near the giant and lovely Parque de El Retiro, which features beautiful buildings, museums, and miles of walking trails. In such a dense city area, it was great to have this giant piece of nature so close.

People strolling in front of the Palacio de Cristal (photo/Jason Rafal)

A nice lumpy fountain in the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

This empty path at dusk felt starkly different from the rest of the city (photo/Jason Rafal)

We happened across a feral cat colony getting fed (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a skyline of trees and buildings viewed over a full vessel of water. — Dusk reflections from the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

I was sick for part of the time we were in Madrid, so we didn’t do as much sightseeing as we’d like, but when we could get away from some of the crowds, the city was lovely. We’d like to go back and visit some of the museums we weren’t able to get into, and also take a day trip out to Toledo. We had a great time in Spain and are excited to do some more exploring in the future.

Photo of a man shopping at a small storefront of books. — One of the adorable book kiosks near El Retiro (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Jason holding up a togo coffee cup that says "Feliz Coffee" and has a stamp of small shapes, including a moka pot, camera, and flower. — A cup from one of our favorite coffee shops (photo/Jason Rafal)

Christmas in Catalonia

January 08, 2023 by Nicole Harrison in Spain

First, Barcelona is a great winter holiday destination. The weather was 60s and sunny, only a couple of attractions were crowded, and we were able to get into almost all the restaurants and bars we were interested in. We immediately loved the city for its walkability, great food, and highly available specialty coffee.

Barcelona is in Catalonia, a region of Spain that identifies as having a unique language, history, and culture. There have been off-and-on movements to separate from the rest of Spain. If you’d like to learn more about that, Jason found some videos that explained some of the history: Catalonia’s Independence Movement, Explained and The History of Catalonia.

Photo of Nicole and Jason taking a self portrait in an elevator. — Our customary jetlagged-in-a-tiny-European-elevator picture (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a park with two tall buildings in the background and a structure with a golden chariot pulled by golden horses on top. — The view from our hotel room (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two exterior walls, one colorfully painted and one covered with ivy. — A colorful corner in Barcelona (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a butcher stall in a market. — A butchery in a market (photo/Jason Rafal)

In our explorations of the city, we went up to Montjuïc, where we had lunch overlooking the city and then went up to the castle. I wouldn’t consider the castle a must-do, but there’s a beautiful walking trail around the outside of it, and the views from the top of the hill are lovely. We took the gondola back down into the city.

Photo of a path with grass on one side and wide, lumpy trees on the other. — The park at Mirador de Miramar (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole ducking to go through a tower door on the castle. — I’m too tall for this (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Montjuïc castle wall. — The Montjuïc castle (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also spent some time at Christmas markets, where we struggled to understand some of the local jokes.

Photo of a market stall with a figuring of a man pooping on the roof. — We kept seeing this figurine everywhere, in various sizes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Fira de Santa Llucia. — The market (photo/Jason Rafal)

Black and white photo looking down a walking street toward the Arc de Triomf. — A nighttime view of the Arc de Triomf (photo/Jason Rafal)

I don’t usually go out of my way to recommend bars and restaurants, but we had a really wonderful experience at Two Schmucks, which is a top 10 cocktail bar in the world. It was pretty empty so we were able to chat with the very friendly bartenders, and the drinks were unusual and incredibly good. The decor was also very fun, and they sent us home with stickers and restaurant recommendations.

Photo of a wall in the Two Schmuck's bar, with writing all over one side. — The decor at Two Schmucks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a light brown cocktail next to a glass of water. — A delicious drink with the longest ice cube we’d ever seen (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also had absolutely wonderful coffee, and we didn’t even make it to all of the places that looked good. The coffee shops were often adorable as well.

Photo of a small coffee trailer in an industrial space. — The adorable and infrequently open Skye Coffee (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the inside of a small coffee shop with a stone and brick interior and a green espresso machine. — The equally adorable Xiloteca Coffee + Botiga (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also paid the entrance fee to go into la Palau de la Musica, which is just a very beautiful concert hall. The ceiling has a massive dewdrop of glass, and the entire thing is colorful and impressive.

Photo of an intricate ceiling with elaborately carved stairs going up in the background. — The staircase going up to the auditorium (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two rows of colorfully tiled columns with Nicole in the background. — Beautiful balcony columns (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an auditorium with stained glass windows on one side and a huge stained glass skylight in the center of the ceiling. — The inside of the auditorium at la Palau de la Musica (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the the ceiling of the auditorium, with the stained glass skylight surrounded by carved roses. — Another shot of the amazing ceiling (photo/Jason Rafal)

On Christmas Eve we took a day trip out to Montserrat, which is wonderfully accessible by train and has great hiking around the monastery. The landscape is vast, dry, and full of giant lumpy rocks. It vaguely reminded me of the American southwest. There were many well-established paths (though the map was not as helpful as I hoped) and we took the Sant Joan funicular and climbed up to a viewpoint to see all the way to the Mediterranean Sea and watch the climbers on one of the giant rocks near us. It was a nice way to get some fresh air and see more of the area.

Photo from the inside of a cave looking out over a concrete wall and toward the landscape. — Our lunch spot at Montserrat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole ducking to go under a rock overhang. — One of the more challenging parts of the trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a steep trail toward a small chapel. — Looking down the steep trail toward the Sant Joan Chapel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a large rock wall with two climbers working their way up. — Climbers on one of the big rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a building on a rocky outcropping with rocks and trees in the foreground. — The Ermita de Sant Miquel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a mountain from a gondola, with the other yellow gondola coming up in the distance. — Taking the gondola back down the mountain (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the surprises of the trip was how much we fell in love with Gaudí’s creations. We first went to Casa Batlló, where we were struck by the beauty, livability, and natural elements of the apartment. He prompts a sense of wonder and surprise that is missing from most (all?) other architecture, and it was so fun to walk through the rooms and see how everything was done.

Photo looking up at the facade of a building. — The facade next to Casa Batllo (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a curved ceiling with intricate skylights. — Skylights in Casa Batllo (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an elaborate chandelier in the middle of a spiraled ceiling. — The spiral ceiling and chandelier in the living room (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of ventilation built into the ceiling. — Some of the ventilation in the apartment (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a door and two windows in a blue-tiled room. — Beautiful doors and walls in the central staircase (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking up through the central staircase area of the house. — The under-the-sea feel of the apartment (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a wooden door with a weird, curvy doorknob. — One of the doorknobs that Jason fell in love with (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two artistic sculptures on the roof deck of the house, one similar to a cross and one to a ridge. — Some of the tiled work on the roof of the apartment (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went to la Sagrada Familia. I’m not at all religious, and I regard most cathedrals as very pretty (I loved stained glass) but vaguely uncomfortable. It’s usually a 5-minute in-and-out experience. From the outside, the building is very weird but not very appealing to me - it’s a bit brown and lumpy, and there are lots of religious carvings.

Photo of the outside of la Sagrada Familia with a lake and trees in the foreground. — The current state of the outside of la Sagrada Familia (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of 6 spires, the central tower under construction, and a crane. — Some of the weird spires (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a carved facade of Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus with a pigeon roosting on the baby's head. — A pigeon rests on the baby Jesus’s head (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we walked into la Sagrada Familia, however, my jaw literally dropped. It’s one of the most incredible human feats I’ve ever seen. First, the scale is insane. Both of our necks hurt from looking up by the time we left. The columns, which I could only reach halfway around, reach impossibly high before branching like trees against the intricate ceiling. The stained glass, instead of clearly depicting scenes, is made up of abstract shapes, enforcing the feeling of being in a gigantic indoor forest. One side of the cathedral has cool shades of stained glass, mostly blues and greens, while the other has warm yellows, oranges, and reds. All of the stained glass brings in light that reflects off the columns and ceiling in a beautiful rainbow of light. Sainte-Chapelle in Paris has an impossible amount of stained glass, but the beauty and intentionality of la Sagrada Familia’s stained glass is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Photo of the high, elaborate ceiling and upper stained glass in the cathedral. — The remarkable ceiling of la Sagrada Familia (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a corner between two walls of stained glass. — The cooler-toned side of the cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a dark figure between two columns in the cathedral. — A slightly ominous figure (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a corner of the cathedral with yellow and orange light pouring in and reflecting off of the ceiling. — The incredible warm wall of the cathedral (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of stained glass projecting a rainbow of colors onto a column. — I loved the rainbow reflections on this column (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of one side of a curved row of organ pipes with walls of stained glass in the background. — Some of the organ pipes in the church (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our third Gaudí exploration was Park Güell, outside of the city center. It’s a beautiful park, but it was quite crowded on Christmas, especially in the tiled areas. There are times in the morning and evening when it’s only open to locals, which sounds like a wonderful experience. It has a great view of the city, and more fun architecture throughout.

Photo of a pink building and palm trees with Barcelona in the background. — Looking out toward the sea from Park Güell (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of NIcole sitting on a rock bench in a wall of benches and stone columns. — Hanging out in the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two Gaudi-designed towers with Barcelona in the background. — Another view from the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a while tiled ceiling with two green and blue tiled suns. — The beautiful tiles under the observation deck in the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a lizard with tourists in the background. — The famous lizard at the front of the park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a pond with an elaborate structure with a golden chariot on top in the background. — The lovely Cascada del Parc de la Ciutadella (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole walking through a tall stone structure. — Walking through the structure above the pond (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a statue of a crane standing over a fox that has knocked over a water vessel. — An interesting statue in the Parc de la Ciutadella (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a small, three-wheeled truck that says "Rockstar Lifestyle" on the side. — An excellent vehicle (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Many Charms of Bergen

October 13, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in Norway

Every time we told someone in Oslo or Svalbard that we were going to Bergen next, they were delighted for us. It was a high bar and we weren’t disappointed.

After a long travel day, (Longyearbyen to Tromsø to Oslo to Bergen with a painful customs and security process in the hangar serving as Tromsø’s temporary airport), we got in late and headed to bed. On our first full day, we explored the city center.

Photo of a park with a moat surrounding an internal green space, with colorful row houses in the background. — Muséhagen park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bergen exudes beauty, fun, and youthful energy. It’s a college town with hundreds of years of history that’s also covered in beautiful murals and (frequently painfully direct) graffiti. It’s touristy but there’s enough space to get away from the crowds. Everywhere you turn there are colorfully painted houses (why does everything have to be neutral colored in the U.S.?) and tree-covered hills next to glassy water. We immediately loved it.

Photo of an espresso drink in a white cup. — First, coffee (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking down a narrow cobbled street with colorful houses on both sides. — One more look at the beautiful colorful houses of Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a full-height blue and white mural of a bird on the side of a two-story building. — A beautiful mural (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a mural of a rainbow colored banana with a dripping ink blot above it. — Another excellent mural (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bryggen, one of the most iconic areas on Bergen, features a row of wooden buildings that contain shops and galleries. First established in the 14th century, the area has burned down several times, and continues to be rebuilt to the original plans using traditional (very slow) methods.

Bryggen was the home of the German merchant community in Bergen, where they dominated northern European trade to both the east and west for two hundred years. The neighborhood within Bergen functioned as a self-contained village for the Hanseatic League, only integrating with the rest of the city when it lost power in the 1700s.

Photo of a row of brown, yellow, red, and white storefronts along a wide wooden deck.

Photo of people walking between two wooden buildings on plank wooden flooring with a pride flag hanging on one side and a sign that says "Apent". — One of the inner alleys in Bryggen (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of a ship through a large arched doorway in a medieval-looking wall. — A ship through the wall of Bergenhus Fortress (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a pigeon perched on a bench next to a lake, with other pigeons on the ground around it. — Some of Jason’s urban bird photography (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the wooden buildings of Bryggen at sunset. — Bryggen at sunset (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the evenings we were in Bergen, there was a culture night where various amateur groups gave performances at different stages around the city center. It was an incredibly broad selection of things - there was hip hop dancing, orchestral classical music, pole dancing, tango, and much more.

Photo of a basset hound in front of a bandstand with flowers everywhere. — An adorable dog listens to the classical music (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a group of people watching two people pole dance on a stage set up in a street. — A pole dancing performance in downtown Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a walking street in Bergen at dusk. — Evening walks in Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

On day two we took the funicular up Mount Fløyen, which has a wonderful view overlooking the city. After hiking around a small portion of the beautiful and established trails at the top, we walked the steep, winding path back down to the city.

Photo of the view from Mount Floyen, with Bergen and the water below. — The view from the top (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole crouching next to five goats lying on the ground. — I was delighted that there were goats at the top of Mount Fløyen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a duck swimming through very still water. — A duck on a very calm mountain lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a painted wooden troll's head with a chunk of forehead missing. — One of the trolls at Trollskogen, a troll-themed park (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking up the hill toward Mount Floyen, with houses wrapping around roads on the way up the hill. — The view up the hill to Mount Fløyen from Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the afternoon, we drove west of Bergen, near Telavåg, and went for a hike out to the coast. I found the trail by zooming around Google maps until I found some accessible public land, and it was a little longer and much muddier than we’d anticipated, but it was worth it. Sometimes the random side trips are busts, but sometimes they work out beautifully, and this was the latter.

Photo of Nicole walking up a steep hill toward trees at the top, with blue skies and wispy clouds in the background. — Walking up one of the very steep hills on the hike (photo/Nicole Harrison)

The scenery was gorgeous but not at all what I expected - it was mainly huge rocky outcroppings with small plants and marshes in between. For some reason I had expected more forest and less low brush. We saw some other hikers, but the area was mostly quiet and incredibly peaceful.

Photo of ponds of water between rocky outcroppings with a cloudy sky in the distance. — Little lakes of water between the rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a catwalk trail going through the marsh, with a fork in the trail at the center and steep wooden stairs going up a hill. — A fork in the marshy trail (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole walking on a rocky outcropping toward the ocean. — Finally spotting the sea (photo/Jason Rafal)

One thing about being so far north is that the light is beautiful for a much longer period of time. We spent a few hours at the coast, and all of it was beautiful even though the sun didn’t set until after we left.

Photo of a trail, some of it mud and some catwalk, winding through grass and rocks toward the ocean. — The trail was all rocks, mud, and catwalks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Nicole standing on a rock above the ocean. — Nicole and the sea (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of six sheep, five white and one brown, in a green field at sunset. — Sheep grazing in the golden light (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the Askøy Bridge at sunset with a boat in the foreground. — Sunset from the lovely Nordnesparken in Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our last day in Norway, we took a fjord tour. We drove out to Øystese for the tour, and stopped to see waterfalls on the way.

Photo of a waterfall with dense forest in the background. — Mørkhølsfossen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of an Avis van next at the side of a road with two people in camouflage crouched near it. — You can see some guys doing military training on the right - we were amused that they used a rented van (photo/Jason Rafal)

In Øystese we put on thick, windproof full body suits and goggles and boarded a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) and set out into the fjord with four other tourists. Our local guide alternated between telling us about the surrounding scenery and taking sweeping, high speed turns through the water just for fun. It definitely would have been chilly if the weather was any colder or wetter, but we got lucky. The boat was very fun, had great visibility, and was able to get right up to the cliffs on either side of the fjord.

Photo of Nicole with a warm suit and goggles on, looking excited. — Very excited to get on the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a rocky, forested island with one golden coniferous tree in front. — A lone fall-colored tree on a rocky island (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo looking up at the top of a cliff with water spilling downward over the edge. Trees and blue sky are above. — There were tons of tiny waterfalls in the fjord (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of water spilling over a rocky cliff with trees growing in the background. — A tiny rainbow in the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of water falling over a rocky mountainside with trees going in the background. — One more picture of pretty water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a red and white commercial boat in the water with a forested mountainside behind it. — A photogenic red boat in the green water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a gray shed camouflaged against gray rocks, moss, and trees. — A little shed with a green roof hiding behind the rocks (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a sunbeam over a rocky island with coniferous trees. — A little rocky island (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of three houses, two gray and one white, on a forested hillside overlooking the water. — We would like this house (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a bird taking off from the water. — Jason continues to improve his bird photography (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two birds perching on a wooden dock. — More birds (photo/Jason Rafal)

There were little towns everywhere in the fjord, some reachable by road and some only by boat. Many of them required a car or boat ride and then a short hike to reach the house.

Photo looking up a valley from the water, with some houses in a sunbeam on the lower hillside. — Dramatic fjord landscapes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two buildings with a sailboat and a commercial boat in front. — A boat dock deep in a fjord (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of houses on a grassy hillside with lots of trees with a glaciated mountain in the background. — A dramatic glacier background for some lovely hillside houses (photo/Jason Rafal)

Bergen was the perfect ending to our whirlwind Norwegian adventure, and we understand why people love it. We’ll definitely be back.

Photo of Bryggen across the water. — Bryggen from across the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the front doors of two colorful houses in Bergen. — Colorful houses in Bergen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of Jason taking a picture of us in the reflection of a mirrored art piece. — Self portrait in an art piece at the Bergenhus Fortress (photo/Jason Rafal)

78' North

October 07, 2022 by Nicole Harrison in Norway

We’d been excited for Jason’s work trip to Svalbard since he got the invite. An archipelago deep in the Arctic, Svalbard is home to Longyearbyen, the northernmost settlement in the world, and we knew it would be unlike anywhere else we’d ever been.

If you haven’t heard of Svalbard, I’d recommend finding it on a map for context. It’s closer to the North Pole than it is to mainland Norway. They have four months of midnight sun, two months of polar night, and another monthish where it’s just twilight all the time. We visited in the in-between time where there was both a day and a night, but it never truly got dark.

Traditionally, the human presence on the islands has been mostly Norwegian and Russian, but the Russian settlements mostly shut down in the 1990s. The region is considered an unincorporated area of Norway, so we had to go through passport control on the way there and the way back. The first prominent industry was coal mining, which is now mostly shut down and replaced by tourism and research.

Photo of red buildings with mountains and a glacier in the background. — Longyearbyen from the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were in Svalbard because Jason had a satellite conference hosted by KSAT, who owns ground stations all over the world (though the most exciting ones are in the Arctic and Antarctic, where they communicate with satellites in polar orbit.

Our first stop when we got off the plane at the Longyearbyen airport was the SvalSat ground station, where we were greeted by the eerie sight of more than 100 radomes appearing through the fog. The antennae and the radomes that enclose them range in size, but the largest ones are massive, as you can see in the first picture. We went inside one for the conference introduction.

Photo of two tour buses in front of an antenna dome with foggy mountains and ocean in the background. — The scale of the larger radomes (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two radomes with on a flat shale area with foggy ocean in the background. — The radomes had varying patterns (photo/Jason Rafal)

I have been a few places that I could describe as otherworldly, but nothing comes close to the plateau with these radomes. The ground was all brown and gray shale, and especially in the fog, there was nothing you could see except for radomes and the occasional building. Some of the KSAT employees mentioned that the people who live in Longyearbyen have conspiracy theories about what the ground station is actually for, and I can’t fault them for that.

Photo of dozens of radomes with shale in the foreground and fog in the background. — Radomes in the fog (photo/Jason Rafal)

The road to the ground station also goes past the Global Seed Vault, which houses more than a million seed varietals in case of any catastrophic incident that wipes out crops. The seeds are frozen and kept in the Arctic permafrost.

Photo looking down a curved dirt road with a view of the global seed bank with water and mountains behind. — Looking down the hill at the Global Seed Vault (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of the global seed vault door next to a brown building with tundra and a dirt road in the foreground. — The door to the Seed Vault (left) and a building that we can’t help you identify (right) (photo/Jason Rafal)

After we checked into the hotel, we left for a boat trip into Isfjorden. It was dark and foggy and beautiful.

We went past Bjorndalen, the area I would hike in the next day. It was cool to see this valley from the water and then later be able to hike around.

Photo of a dozen houses on a brown and gray hillside across a wataerway. — A neighborhood leading into Bjorndalen, the valley between the two mountains (photo/Jason Rafal)

We also went past one of the old Soviet towns that are no longer populated. Grumont was home to more than 1000 people, which is hard to imagine looking at it now. The remaining buildings are very apocalyptic looking, with no windows and disappearing paint colors.

Photo of a hillside across the water with four abandoned, crumbling buildings. — The Soviet settlement of Grumont, which was abandoned in the 1960s (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the coolest things we got to see were the jagged mountainsides emerging out of the fog. In the summer, this strip of cliffs is the home to tons of birds who make their nests here. We were in Svalbard after they had migrated away, but the cliffs were still green from all of the guano.

Close up photo of gray cliffs with orange and green vegetation growing. — Some of the most colorful landscape we saw in Svalbard (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of brown and gray cliffs with dozens of radomes visible on the top of the mesa in the background. — A view of the radomes from the boat (photo/Jason Rafal)

Longyearbyen, the town where we stayed, is home to about 2000 year-round residents and about 1000 dogs. No other animals can be imported, and there’s no agriculture allowed. There are also 300-500 polar bears in the general area, depending on who we asked, and anyone going outside of the main town area has to carry a gun, flare gun, or both. There are about 20 miles of roads total, stretching in three directions from Longyearbyen.

Photo of rows of colorful houses in Longyearbyen with tundra in the foreground and hills in the background. — Colorful houses of Longyearbyen with snowmobiles in a row in front (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a row of brown, green, red, and yellow houses with fog in the background. — Some more of the colorful houses in Longyearbyen (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of two people walking huskies, with one of them wearing a gun and a flare.

Along with the customary ban of cigarettes in Longyearbyen public buildings, you also can’t bring dogs or guns. The dogs are tied up outside, and the guns are checked into lockers or left in vehicles.

Photo of a door with three signs indicating that cigarettes, dogs, and guns are not allowed inside. — Three things not allowed inside public buildings in Longyearbyen (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of a dog tied to a pole in front of the Longyearbyen grocery store. — A dog patiently waiting for its owner outside the grocery store (photo/Jason Rafal)

For being quite literally in the middle of nowhere, the creature comforts in Longyearbyen were pretty solid. There was a fairly well-stocked grocery and general store (Jason couldn’t get over the fact that there was self checkout in the Arctic), multiple outdoor clothing stores (the locals abide by the general Norwegian sentiment that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing), and a few restaurants and bars. My favorite store was a husky cafe where we got some gourmet hot chocolate and spent some time with three adorable, friendly huskies.

Photo of a white husky in front of orange chairs. — One of the huskies we hung out with at the cafe (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a Circle K gas station next to a Toyota dealership. — The most northern fuel station in the world (and I have to assume the most northern Toyota dealership) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Photo of a disc golf target with a playfield, mansion, and glacier in the background. — Yes, disc golf has made it to the Arctic (photo/Jason Rafal)

This is where the photos will be of significantly lower quality, because I took them with my phone or with Jason’s camera that I barely know how to use.

While Jason was in a conference room on the second day, I took a hike in Bjorndalen with an armed guide and a very nice couple from Switzerland. It was a great trip - we walked around in the Arctic tundra and saw reindeer and whales (I was torn about not seeing a polar bear but ultimately would have been very freaked out to see one on foot). I was originally supposed to go on a longer guided hike, but two trips had to be consolidated so the itinerary changed. While I would have loved to hike on the glacier, I’m ultimately glad I was on this trip because of the whales (more on that soon).

Photo of several houses on the tundra with the ocean and a mountain in the background. — The end of the road at Bjorndalen (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Our guide, a Swedish student who changed her major to study in Svalbard and then decided to stay after her program was complete, walked us into the valley and showed us the landscape, pointed out reindeer, and slowly spun in a circle every couple of minutes scanning for polar bears.

Photo of a small stream with green moss and small white flowers with two houses, one black and one red, in the background.

When I go somewhere new, it’s the presence of things that usually stand out - new architecture or city sounds or dramatic landscapes. In Svalbard, the most striking thing wasn’t the presence of anything, but the absence. It’s an absence of smells, because the tundra smells like nothing, and neither does the sea. It’s the absence of sounds, except for the occasional barnacle goose honk and the summer song of the migratory snow bunting. We had multiple people tell us with reverence of the first time they heard the snow bunting in the spring and the feeling of awe that overcame them.

There’s also the absence of trees, and bushes, and color other than brown, gray, white, and the occasional green moss. I’ve never been to a place that’s so close to sensory deprivation, and I can’t imagine what it’s like in the winter.

All that being said, there’s a striking beauty to the landscape, and the simplicity and repetition of the mountains and ocean are awe-inspiring.

Photo looking up the Bjorndalen valley with a stream running through the shale. — Looking up the valley (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of a streambed with a reindeer skeleton surrounded by hair with a mountain in the background. — A reindeer skeleton and some leftover hair blending in with the shale (photo/Nicole Harrison)

We did see a few live reindeer, but as I was having trouble making Jason’s camera work, I had to make do with my phone.

Photo of a reindeer grazing with a mountainside in the background. — Yes, this is the best picture of a reindeer I got - I also wish Jason had been there (photo/Nicole Harrison)

There is old mining equipment scattered around the area, and we saw some on our hike. All the mines but one have been closed, but much of the equipment is considered protected for historical purposes, so it just hangs out and poses for tourist photos.

Photo of a rusted mining cart sitting slightly off of tracks with a mountain in the background. — Some of the old mining equipment (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of hundreds of shore birds flying in a group with the ocean in the background. — Circling shorebirds (photo/Nicole Harrison)

After we hiked around for a while, we went back to a yurt near the airport (right next to a campground where a man was attacked and killed by a polar bear a couple of years ago) and had a hot lunch while I tried to figure out what I was doing wrong with Jason’s camera. A few minutes after I figured it out, we saw the first whales.

Belugas don’t usually breach or do anything else so dramatic, so they just look like a lot of whitecaps in the water at first. This was a lot of whitecaps, though, so we quickly walked to the edge of the water and realized that there were about 50 whales feeding right in front of us. Our guide was even freaking out, which is when you know you’re having a rare experience. I spent the next 45 minutes taking pictures and videos, shaking from cold because I had forgotten my gloves at the lunch site, and trying to absorb the moment.

Photo of the backs of dozens of beluga whales swimming with brown hillsides and houses in the background. — Dozens of beluga whales feeding in the water (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of a beluga whale's back in the water with two birds overhead. — The scarred back of a beluga (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of five beluga whale backs, one of them gray, in the water with a brown mountain in the background. — Swimming belugas - the gray one is a baby (photo/Nicole Harrison)

Photo of the backs of several beluga whales in the water. — Whales passing very close to us (photo/Nicole Harrison)

After the whales started moving away from the shore, we headed back to the site to sit in the yurt and warm up. We also drank a lot of toddy, which is not what I would think of as an American but was also delicious - it’s like a (non-alcoholic) berry syrup mixed with hot water.

Photo of the town of Longyearbyen in the evening with lights on in the buildings, with a glacier visible in the background. — The view of Longyearbyen at dusk (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were only in Svalbard for about 48 hours, but it was definitely one of the most memorable parts of the trip. I can’t recommend it for everyone, but if you want to go somewhere otherworldly and maybe, if you’re lucky, see some whales and maybe a polar bear, it’s a good choice.