Searching for my Travel Mojo

Capitol Reef, Utah. Pretty, isn’t it?

We are flying over Seattle, gliding through gray, cloudy skies, high above equally gray, but still water. As I look out the window, I wonder where my travel mojo has gone.

This year, I’ve logged more medical appointments than any 65 year-old should. Among too many pulmonology, cardiology, dermatology appointments, as well as weird appointments for infusions, hand surgery and busting a vein while traveling, my usually active travel mojo vamoosed.

Where does travel zest come from and how does it leave?

The simple answer is that travel mojo springs from curiosity and a desire to know more about the world. How it evaporates, I do not know. Perhaps I mistaken left mine at a doctor’s office.

We are beginning a trip, our first in many months, a tour of four Utah national parks. As our plane floats over the deserty red lands of Idaho and then Utah, passing mountain peaks dusted with snow, I wonder if travel mojo can be rediscovered while traveling.

Given the unsteady, chaotic political state in DC, an impeachment inquiry, unrest, protests and violence worldwide, rising hatred…. I could go on — my missing mojo doesn’t really matter — except to me.

How did the mojo search/trip go?

As our plane glided over the beautiful, desolate Great Salt Lake, I felt hopeful and a little excited. We arrived in Salt Lake City on a late Sunday afternoon. On the taxi ride to the hotel, I watched the sprawling, unpretty Salt Lake City pass by. I witnessed a disorganized mess of strip malls, industrial buildings, car dealerships, and big stores threaded along freeways and all living under smog ladened skies. I expected something prettier. The next day as we set off in our rental car, wanting to put miles between us and the freeway villages’ clutter, I knew travel mojo could not live in such a place. 

Somewhere outside Boulder, Utah

On car trips like this one, I’m reminded that the west encompasses vast, uninhabitable lands, places mostly devoid of water, with harsh, unwelcoming soil, hazardous terrain, uncertain weather.  Land wild and unused by humans.

Capitol Reef was our first park visit. We stayed about an hour from the park in Boulder, population 225, at Boulder Mountain Lodge. On the hotel property is Hell’s Backbone Grill, a renown restaurant that offers mostly celiac safe food.

On arrival, my first thought was — we really are in the middle of nowhere…..Cows, the free-range type, were everywhere and noisy. We slept with the hotel room window open and fell asleep to cows vocalizing well into the night. What in the world do cows discuss at 1am?

For mid-October, Capitol Reef seemed busy. I understand why some folks say the national parks are being loved to death. We hiked the old-people’s paths and marveled at the rocks, taking in the beauty.

A stop in Escalante National Monument before reaching Bryce. Beautiful.

Next up, Bryce

Yellowstone, Summer, and Life Whizzing By

After the spring transatlantic cruise with stops in the Azores, Liverpool, and Ireland and before the 65^th birthday, we traveled to Yellowstone. I do love Yellowstone National Park, America’s 2.2 million acre gem and first national park.  Given Oregon’s relative closeness to Yellowstone, we made this a road trip, that most American, pseudo-delicious way of traveling with its fantasy of open roads and freedom and reality of long, boring drives and fatigue.

We traveled to the park in late May, before season and with the hope of seeing lots of baby animals.  Did we over do on wildlife viewing this year given the first six months had been packed with wildlife sightings? 

Perhaps. Humpbacks, grays, dolphins, elephant seals, sea turtles, sharks, and more birds than I can name filled our trips.  That’s ok because nature is soothing, a balm for the chaotic, scorching political climate of current American life.

So to Yellowstone we traveled by car and we were rewarded with big horn sheep, baby bison, black bears, shedding, big-headed adult bison, and others. Wonderful trip. Yellowstone, with a little prep is also a place a celiac can eat. 

A Whale of a Pre-birthday

A dramatic sunset on the North Atlantic

The gentle, warm waters in Maui, the shallow, calm Magdalena Bay, Baja, the deep blue waters embracing the Channel Islands, these wild, magical places provided us wonderful whale watching experiences this year.  What a privilege to view these mammals.

We’d hoped that the fourth whale watching outing, a stop at Saõ Miguel Island, the Azores, would be just as charmed. In April and May, the magnificent blue whales migrate  past the islands on their way to northern feeding grounds. More frequently, Sperm whales are spotted in the Azores since the males make their home in the island waters and females with their calves arrive during the summer months.

Seemed like whale spotting would be a slam-dunk.   

Whales are wild mammals and thus operate on their own schedules. The naturalists onboard the whale watching vessel explained that the whales were around but that they’d arrived to the Azores late this year. That was code for — we haven’t seen many yet. While we saw hundreds of Common dolphins and lots of Spinner dolphins, not a single whale did we see. The seas around Saõ Miguel were inhospitable in another way — they were crazily choppy. Had I spotted a whale, I would have been too terrified to release my death grip on the railing, that slim piece of metal securing me to the boat, to pull out my camera and capture the moment.

The green island of Saõ Miguel, Azores. The Portuguese grow pineapples on this tiny island

Oh well.

Our cruise ship made other stops, though, each providing its own fun, but no whales.

We visited a market in Cork, an Irish pub, of course, the pretty seaside town of Cobh, and in Dublin, the spectacular EPIC — the Irish immigration museum and Jameson Distillery.

Houses in the charming seaside village of Cobh, Ireland

A beautiful Dublin building and who doesn’t enjoy watching people drink whiskey at 10 am….

Our favorite Dublin experience — EPIC. We are all immigrants.

A couple of things I’ve learned in 5 Years of retirement travel

I’ve learned a few things in our five years of retirement travel.  You probably already know this stuff, things I’ve learned from experience. I’ll be back with more in future blogs but for now…..

First, Vervet monkeys in South Africa are smarter than you and every other tourist who has previously stayed in your luxury tented room.

We were warned. No, not warned, we were clearly and sternly told to lock our tent. Staff told us not to just zip the zipper to the beautiful luxury tented room but secure the zipper’s lock because the monkeys enjoy breaking and entering and taking off with everything. But we were jet lagged, under the spell of Africa, dazzled by the African countryside, seduced by the views of elephants, whatever excuse we want to use — so we ignored the warnings. How silly are we. As we settled into

The criminal back in the tree…..

our tented room, R headed to the bathroom while I started unpacking. I heard a quiet patter behind me, enough of a noise to know something had joined me in the tent.  When I turned around and spied a large Vervet monkey, I screamed. Startled by my response, my monkey visitor screamed right back at me, stared at me briefly, and then scampered out the zipped tent door and back to the trees.  As I recounted the tale, R said he was sorry he missed out on the monkey meetup.

One would think that having a monkey break into our tent would convince us to follow directions and lock the tent’s zipper. No. The next day R’s wish for a monkey encounter of his own was fulfilled. This time I was in the bathroom when I heard R say “ What do you want?” I knew he wasn’t speaking to me. As I cautiously walked into our sleeping area, I found R addressing his question to a monkey. As the two of them stared at each other, R apparently waiting for his new friend to answer the question, I rather expected this bold little guy to say “I’ll have a gin & tonic, please.”

We started locking the zipper.

Monkeys are smart. Not so much the two of us.

Next lesson, life is different in other countries, often times in ways you can’t imagine. Don’t expect places to look and feel like the USA or to have USA conveniences.

You know this. I know this. But it is easy to expect certain conveniences, even when traveling far from home.  For example, toilets are different in Asia. Have you ever encountered a squatty potty?

If you are over five feet tall and less limber than Gumby, squatty potties just might be your traveling nemesis. On a stop from one place to Bangkok, Thailand I really needed to pee. The sole option at the rest stop was a squatty potty. The issue was I could not squat low enough to effectively pee in the squatty potty. Channeling my best yoga/Pilate poses I took a semi-girl dog one-legged squat over the potty, carefully balancing myself on one arm, trying to pee away from my left foot, while dabbing with my free hand. I never appreciated western toilets until I almost flooded my left shoe at that Thailand toilet stop. After that, every time the tour was close to a western toilet, I slugged my way to the front of the line, pushing older women out of my way just for a chance at a decent toilet.

Remember, not everyone lives a western lifestyle. People in many countries live very differently from Americans. Therefore, be kind and respectful because you are a visitor, even when you want to weep from heat, dehydration, hunger, and pee in your left shoe.

An electrical fixture in Hanoi. The wires ran to apartments, the public alert system, to small shops — everywhere. The westerners with us were fascinated by this tangle. Fire code?

A squatters’ township outside Sowetto, South Africa. I’ve never seen such poverty. When I’m feeling whiny or ungrateful about my life, I look at this photo. Quick cure for whininess. 

A Peruvian woman at a community market in the Sacred Valley eating homemade cow’s head soup.  Notice the teeth?

I’ll be back with more but now I’m off to XC ski.

 

Eating on the Road

Most travelers anticipate enjoying food as well as experiences while on the road. But for a celiac, eating while traveling, and for me especially on road trips, can be tricky but navigable with planning. Oddly, destinations like African safari camps with their own chefs who ensure safe food have proven easier places to eat than many a restaurant in our neighboring state California. 

Black bean soup, Think Thin bars and other snacks fill in when safe food is scarce when traveling.

Options for a celiac pescatarian-semi vegan are good in Monterey, CA, where we stayed four nights. After a long day of driving in heavy traffic, we reached Monterey late on a Saturday afternoon. A quick search of gluten-free friendly restaurants yielded Alvarado Street Brewery and Grille, which was open and within walking distance of our hotel. The kitchen staff understands celiac and I ended up with a decent meal of tilapia street tacos with a side of sautéed brussels sprouts, minus bacon and cheese. Not a bad start to the trip.

A highlight of our stay in Monterey was kayaking the Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing where we made fast friends with sea otters, harbor seals, and lots of birds. While kayaking the slough was an exceptional wildlife treat, the food after at Phil’s Fish Market was a delicious food treat. I brought some Schär’s gluten-free bread with me in preparation for Phil’s cioppino. While I ordered the individual size ($25), the portion was large enough for two people — but I ate the whole serving by myself. It was the best cioppino ever and I’ve made a hobby of sampling cioppino whenever I find it on a menu.

Officially, the best cioppino I’ve ever eaten.

Next, we traveled south to Cambria, a delightful little Central California village located on the coast where we spent three nights and celebrated our 38^th wedding anniversary. On our anniversary, we lined up with a colorful collection of wine sipping (gulping?) folks for a table at The Sea Chest (no reservations, cash only).  I ordered their small cioppino which is still huge. While I enjoyed the stew, the cioppino at Phil’s Fish Market is the best.

Of the restaurants we tried in Cambria, Robin’s is the place for consistently excellent, safe, healthier, though pricey food.  One evening I devoured prawn enchiladas in a tomatillo sauce that were gluten-free, delicious, but not quite vegan.  Rather than salads, that evening we ordered crispy brussels sprouts without cheese. Everything was wonderful.

 After hiking one day, I ordered Robin’s veggie tacos for lunch — butternut squash, black bean purée, lettuce, onions, avocado cream, cashews. These gluten free beauties were unbelievably delectable.

I can’t decide which I liked better — the veggie tacos or prawn enchiladas.

Next we headed further south to the desert, making our way through torturous Los Angeles traffic. Our reward was dinner at Guillermos’s Restaurante in Palm Desert. While Guillermos’s does not offer a huge selection of celiac safe, pescatarian options, the restaurant takes care to ensure safe food.

 

Shrimp fajitas which were photographed poorly but quite delicious.

Our other favorite in the desert is Pacifica Seafood Restaurant. Richard loves their Quinoa Kale Salad and I love most everything on the menu.

Until next time, safe eating.

Fall Road Trippin’

Do you enjoy road trips, those adventures often defined by long treks through open spaces? In my fantasies, I love road trips, the freedom, the new experiences, the beautiful sights.  But in reality….hmmmmm, I don’t know.

Harbor seals doing what they do — which isn’t much….. But they are cute.

When a family gathering was planned for Thanksgiving in Palm Springs, we decided to turn the long drive from Bend to the desert into a holiday road trip, planning fun stops along the way. I’ll admit, I’m a fairly poor traveling companion when confined to a car for 10 hours or more, which is how long it took us to reach coastal Monterey.  After hours of battling heavy traffic, dodging mammoth trucks, and cautiously driving through thick smoke from the devastating fires in Northern California, we arrived at the congested but pretty Monterey, our home for four nights.

Fort Ord National Monument.  The pacific is somewhat shrouded in smoke from the fires.

My kind of cycling path — paved and no cars.

We toted our bikes with us, planning to cycle when we could. What a treat to cycle in November. We parked in Seaside where we rolled onto the Fort Ord bike & pedestrian path then on to the paved roads of Fort Ord National Monument. This is my kind of cycling path — no cars, moderate inclines, sweeping, almost distractingly beautiful views. 

The next day we kayaked on the Elkhorn Slough, an adventure highly recommended by lots of folks and our top to-do while in Monterey. We booked a guide and kayaks through Kayak Connection in Moss Landing. What a fabulous outing in an area rich with water fowl, harbor seals, and frisky sea otters.

They are cute…..

The man watching one of our new friends.

Next we headed to the charming little coastal town of Cambria where we hiked through Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, a point from which we viewed enormous pelicans, delicate snowy egrets, and a few off shore dolphins and celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary.

The view from Fiscalini Ranch Preserve

These enormous pelicans will soon be heading further south for the winter. Smart birds.

After our hike, we headed north to Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery located a few miles north of San Simeon to watch the males act like aggressive males.

And then it was off to Southern California and hours of traffic. Ugh!!!

 Next post, how this celiac fared with food on the road.

 

 

Of Vistas and Bears

A beautiful Ketchikan rainforest and the location for viewing bears — from a platform!

Outside the weather is foggy, drippy, and chilly, perfect weather for a cruise through the beautiful inside passage. As our ship glides past small wooded island after island, I step outside on our little balcony, attempting to capture the scene with my camera. The sky and water are perfectly matched in color, a gloomy shade of gray. My small camera is no match for this Alaskan landscape.

Twenty years ago, we took this same cruise, though we remember little of the passage. Alaska is vast, its size prohibiting meaningful overviews and instead begging small, curated views.

After much debate surrounding a small ship cruise versus a bigger ship versus staying on land only or figuring out a combination of the two, we opted for a somewhat big ship and a few days on land — all booked at the last minute. Prior to booking, we were specific regarding what we wanted to see — bears, eagles, moose, otters, whales of course, and glacier bay.  So far we think we made a good choice.

A black bear eating salmon.

A mama bear with cub looking for salmon.  Cub is about seven months old.

Later today, we’ll visit Juneau and watch whales. More to come.

Thoughts on Traveling

Me in Moeraki, New Zealand. What amazing beauty.

While browsing the magazine International Travel News, I came upon a little gem written by an ITN contributor —

“Each trip you take will change your mind about what you like.”  I like this idea but would amend the line to “…will change your mind about what you like and will change you, if you let it….”

After reading the line, I decided to take a little “Where-We’ve-Been” travel inventory, in part so I could ponder what I like and how I’ve changed, through travel and life. But I’m also thinking about what I want from travel going forward.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with all the little details about where we’ve been these past four years, I’ll just bore you with the summary —

Since spring 2014, we’ve taken ten cruises, including three transatlantic (😲), four guided bike tours, plus our own to the San Juan Islands, visited eight national parks, and 24 countries, most for the first time. Also we visited three new continents — Australia, Africa, and Asia (I still can’t figure out how to categorize New Zealand and the islands of Bora Bora and Tahiti — which we also visited). 

That’s a lot of travel.  And lots of opportunities to learn and change and grow.

We met this little guy on Kangaroo Island, a must visit for those who love wildlife.

For me, travel is best when I discover something (or many things) new, learn, and expand my understanding of the world, its people, and its wildlife.

During our travels, we enjoyed the privilege of hearing and seeing how people live on tiny Kangaroo Island just off the coast near Adelaide, AU, surrounded by wildlife, how folks on the remote Shetland and Faroe Islands, located on the rugged far north seas, craft their lives far from urban cities, and how people live and work, happily, in the dusty South African bush — where many say, “A bad day in the bush is better than a good day in the office.”

On an early morning safari ride, our ranger spotted this resting lion. I loved everything about our African safaris. Ah, life in the bush.

But after four years of lots of travel and a “I gotta see it all” stance, I’m moving toward a more measured, thoughtful selecting of what I like in travel.

For now that means more travel focused on nature and wildlife and less on cities. Learning is good. 

But before I sign off, a little Wallaby cuteness

 

A Midsummer Coastal Escape

From our ferry, watching a ferry cruise past us as we head to San Juan Island.

Central Oregon is hot in July and wildfires are burning throughout the state, but then hundreds of places in the US are hot and battling wildfires. Fires have become a part of life in the west. Climate change. Global warming.

To break up the summer, get out of the heat, and visit some family, R and I headed to the Oregon coast and then made our way to the San Juan Islands to cycle and finally on to Victoria, BC. I’ve learned that when we are on the road, I must pack some food which I did for the first day or so and that as we move from place to place, I need a list of restaurants that serve safe, gluten-free food.

How’d we do? We stayed two nights in Astoria, Oregon where I safely ate at the Bridgewater Bistro  (www.bridgewaterbistro.com) though apparently I was so hungry I failed to snap photos. The Bridgewater Bistro offers excellent seafood, including delicious gluten-free fish cakes and gluten-free bread (extra charge for the bread).

From Astoria, we headed to the Swinomish Casino & Lodge in Anacortes, a nice place to stay when one is booked the next day on an early ferry to the San Juan Islands.

The lodge, located about 20 minutes from the ferry port, has an excellent, though pricey restaurant, 13Moons. I ordered a salad, beautifully grilled halibut with fresh vegetables and we enjoyed a view of Swinomish Channel while eating dinner.

Pricey, fresh delicious halibut. 

Off we were the next day on an early ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, a place known for its seafood and easy living.  Who knew we’d find a great restaurant with lots of gluten-free, plant based options in this island community. Mike’s Cafe and Wine Bar (mikescafeandwinebar.com) offers an excellent menu for people like me. Both times we ate at Mike’s I ordered sweet potato tacos, yummy tacos of seasoned potato wedges, black beans, corn, and vegan sour cream. Yum. Really, you cannot believe how good these tacos are.

Unbelievable sweet potato tacos. Looking forward to making these at home…..

Our other favorite at Mike’s was the Thai Crunch Salad, a combination of cabbage, onion, and edamame tossed with peanut sauce and peanuts. Heavenly.

We also enjoyed huge, fresh prawns at the Cask & Schooner.  The service was good and the servers knowledgable about celiac.

After several days of cycling and eating on the islands, we headed by ferry to Victoria, BC. Truly, it is probably difficult to have a bad meal in Victoria, whether you are a gluten- free, veganish-pescatarian or not. Some faves were Cafe México (cafemexico.com) were I ate superb salmon tacos and vegetarian black beans and The Tapa Bar (tapabar.ca) a place we shared prawns, both spicy and garlic, prepared with a Spanish flare and washed down with delicious Tempranillo.

We loved the Tapa Bar and these spicy prawns. And the wine wasn’t bad, either.

On our last night in Victoria, we enjoyed a more intimate meal, this time with our aunt (my side) and uncle who, as always, treated us royally. That evening included wine, sautéed scallops, a view of Vic harbor and lots of catching up and chat about travel and life. Best meal of the trip.

My beautiful aunt Toots, 83 years young.

 

A Traveling Celiac Eats on Land

A happy traveler outside Sagrada Familia

We disembarked the Crown Princess in Barcelona where we stayed for a few days before joining the bike tour in the Costa Brava region. Barcelona is a fabulous food city, even if one is a celiac who mainly eats a pescatarian-plant based diet.

One of our first food stops was the Mercado de Santa Caterina where the restaurant Cuines Santa Caterina is located. Even though Barcelona offers all kinds of yummy options, we were looking for some basic, satisfying food. With that in mind, we ordered a wonderful salad and a rich, fresh, savory lentil soup which we washed down with several glasses of Spanish wine.

 

Ah, savory Spanish lentil soup.

As we strolled around the elegant, artistic Barcelona, admiring the architecture, we stumbled upon Flax & Kale, a flexitarian restaurant. I instantly felt happy and relieved that we’d easily found our next food stop. At Flax & Kale, 80% of the items are plant based while the other 20% are recipes made with oily fish. All dishes are gluten-free so I had no worries about limited options or cross contamination.

We ordered a margarita pizza covered with a pretty good vegan cheese and a salad. Bliss.
We ate there twice — pizza both times. I left Barcelona happy but frustrated that crusty, delicious gluten-free bread and authentic-tasting pizza crusts are mostly elusive in the states.

Gluten-free Margarita pizza with vegan cheese. Looks good, doesn’t?

After Barcelona, we headed north by express train to the charming, old city of Girona, the beginning point for our bike tour. Since our guides knew about my food restrictions and could interpret for me, I mostly relaxed my worry about food while on the bike tour.

Catalonians eat rice, lots of rice. At first I called their rice dish paella, but was quickly corrected and told in the Girona region, they eat rice. This delicious rice can be made with seafood, vegetables, or meat.

Vegetarian rice

Two nights the group stayed at the Castell d’Empordà, a charming hotel crafted from the ruins of a castle. One evening before dinner at the castle, we sat outside in perfect weather, sipping cava and sharing crudités served with a dreamy Romesco sauce for dipping. This was my first ever encounter with Romesco and I was smitten at the first bite. Back at home I’ve learned to make this tomatoey-nutty concoction.

Luscious romesco sauce with veggies. 

On the tour, we often ate dinner as a group but some evenings we were on our own. That evening at Castell d’ Empordà, we enjoyed dinner in the Drac restaurant. I ordered white fish with polenta that was smothered in fresh peas and a creamy dairy-free sauce served with hot gluten-free crusty bread. I love Spain

White fish smothered in creamy peas with polenta. Yum.

After the bike tour, we flew from Barcelona to Lisbon. At that point, we were tired after four weeks of traveling and decided we needed a slower pace. One afternoon, we ate simple tomatoes and gluten free bread in our hotel as we checked emails, plotted possible activities, regrouped and then went to bed early.

The next day, feeling somewhat refreshed, we took the subway toward the port where we searched for the gluten-free friendly seafood restaurant Cais ao Mar.

The restaurant, located on the busy Rua Bernardino da Costa in the heart of tourist activity, draws a steady flow of international customers. Armed with a trusty Portuguese celiac card, I easily navigated the menu with the additional assistance of staff who spoke pretty good English. I asked the server to recommend something and I ended up with the beautifully grilled giant tiger prawn. It was delicious.

A giant perfectly grilled tiger prawn

From Lisbon, we traveled by train to Porto, a wine region in Portugal. At this point in our travels, our interest in food was waning, although occasionally we chatted about food we missed from home. The highlight of our three day stay was a day tour of the Douro Valley wine region. Food may have lost its appeal, but happily wine had not. Our lunch at a winery came with a stunning view and lots of delicious red wine and port.

The impressive Douro Valley, Portugal

Overall, on our five week trip I managed to eat a veganish-pescatarian diet about 95% of the time and the necessary gluten-free all the time. Almost everywhere we visited in Spain and Portugal, I found gluten-free bread but not the mostly tasteless, dry type available at home. Bread in these countries is considered part of a good life and gluten-free bread there reflects that philosophy. I wish that were true in the states.