Staying in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn, should be a required part of every visit to Japan.  Not only is the food fantastic in its presentation and taste, but the private and private mineral baths are a pleasure.

Dinner at ryokan

Once again Darshan saved us and booked the ryokan in the Hakone area.  Instead of the usual train to the area, we were recommended to take the “romancecar” which is a more luxurious option with reclining seats and large windows.  The seats were more comfortable than the enchanting windows and we proceeded to sleep for most of the 2 hour journey to Hakone.  However, we did manage to wake up about 10 minutes prior to our arrival and think we got a glimpse of Mount Fuji.  We were not that lucky the next day, though.

After taking another train through the mountainous region of Hakone, we diligently followed various instructions and found the check-in office of our ryokan.  We were then escorted down another hill and boarded a small private funicular which was probably a modified body of an old Mini Cooper.  It was very Japanese cute.  The funicular took us down into the valley where the ryokan was located on a fast flowing river.  We took off our shoes, put on slipper, checked into the ryokan, and were escorted to our suite.  There, we changed into yukata (bathing robes) and proceeded to have tea on the veranda (so classy).  Before dinner, we proceeded to the private outdoor hot mineral bath, which was very therapeutic.  We realized that it’s been a while since we’ve been this clean for so long.  We’ve been taking various types of Japanese baths for the last week.  Not that we were complaining, but it was just an observation.

After the bath, we returned to our room.  The floor in the room was covered in tatami mats and had a low table in the middle.  It was flanked by backed pillows for sitting at the table for our meals.  Shortly after our return, our maid/server woman, arrived and after speaking to us at length in Japanese proceeded to set up a beautiful spread of 10 dishes for each one of us.  This included various pickles, salads, soups, sashimi, a stew, and tea.  We were stuffed at the end, and decided to take another bath.  This time, they were inside and segregated by gender.  All that relaxing really made us tired.  A different maid came in to clean off the table.  He moved the table to the side and laid down two layers of futons on top of the tatami mats and very soft pillows and blankets.  All that relaxing led us to retire at 10 in the evening.

Breakfast was served at 8 in the morning.  The spread was equally opulent as the one the night prior, and equally as delicious.  After breakfast, we gathered our belongings, and checked out of the hotel.  It was not that warm out at the time, so when we came to pick up our shoes, they were pre-wamred for our wearing pleasure.  Such service.

Back up the private funicular and on the little mountain train – next stop was the Open Air Museum.  We were at first a bit skeptical about going there.  However, it turned out to be a spectacular museum with great interactive statues, kids climbing all over them, and an outdoor foot bath.  The Japanese do take their cleanliness very seriously.

Close by Antony Gormley at Hakone Open Air Museum

The rest of the day was spent in pursuit of seeing the elusive Mount Fuji, as we went from one funicular to another.  The mountain, unfortunately, was shrouded in clouds that day.  However, we did manage to procure some sulfur blackened soft-boiled eggs and had them over a bowl of rice in Tokyo that same evening.

The next day, Friday, was to be our last day in Tokyo.  We had to purchase Halloween costumes and decided to join Darshan and be Japanese construction workers.  The Japanese love their uniforms, much like the Italians, and spend most of their life in uniform.  They start wearing it in school, and then take a break in university.  Then, when they’re working, they’re usually wearing suits or some other type of uniform that is befitting their profession.  Only when they retire, do they not wear a distinct uniform.  In keeping with ingenious design and functionality, Japanese construction workers wear billowy pants that taper at the bottom.  Additionally, they were bright reflective vests and ninja shoes where the big toe is separated from other toes.  So, Maya led us to the uniform store (of course they exist) where we proceeded to purchase the pants, shoes, socks, and vests.

Darshan, Simon, and Monica as Japanese Construction Workers

Halloween in Tokyo

When Darshan came back from work, Monica, Darshan, and I dressed up as a construction brigade, complete with hard hats which Darshan borrowed from work (every one has one in preparation for earthquakes), and Maya dressed up as a very cute pumpkin.  We donned our hats and tied white towels around our heads (also done by Japanese workers to signify lower class = sweat), and went to town.  We were invited to a party at a fancy restaurant where one of Darshan and Maya’s house neighbors works as a chef.  On the way, photos of us were taken by bemused people, sometimes discreetly and sometimes not.  Though Halloween goods are sold everywhere, we didn’t see that many people dressed in costumes.

As it turned out, the party at the restaurant was supposed to be classy so everyone except for us was dressed in black.  The Japanese, just like taking care of their clothes, took dressing up seriously, while the overwhelming gaijin (foreigner) contingent was somewhat less impressive (though there were two men dressed up in very great women’s dresses with copious amounts of make-up).  Our bright reflective vests and believable costumes seemed to be a hit with the discerning public.  After some fine dining, we descended to the after-party in the basement where cheap punch was served from a bucket and the dominant language was English.  Some ridiculous investment bankers came in (still employed) and ordered 3 magnums of champagne (they referred to it as bubbles).  We caught the last train with the chef back to our house.

Saturday, the day of our departure, was a surreal day.  Our flight departed at 3:30 in the afternoon, but we landed in San Francisco at 8:30 in the morning, also on Saturday.  We were greeted by rain and gray skies and got to relive those few hours.  In the evening, after a much needed early afternoon nap, we recounted stories of Halloween (which seemed so distant already) to some friends.  Saturday, was probably the longest day we’ve ever lived.

The trip to Japan was great.  Traveling there is easy and with a vocabulary of about 10 words you can get around.  The language is simple to pronounced (unlike Chinese) and the people’s innate politeness makes it very manageable.  We were very grateful for being able to stay with Maya and Darshan, as well as couchsurfing with Shoji.

Until next time!  Sayanora!

Wall Art in Tokyo

We returned back to Tokyo last night after a wonderful time spent exploring countless gardens and temples in Kyoto and Nara – both cities were previous capitals of Japan so there are still many well-preserved historic sites.  Kyoto is also famous for the geishas – we managed to catch a glimpse of two who were all done up in the full outfit and white face makeup.  Given the crazy array of uniforms and distinct aspects of dress we had already seen in Tokyo, these women were not as strikingly odd as I had expected, but it was still interesting to see.

Foliage in Kinkaku-ji

We couchsurfed in a neighborhood south of Kyoto called Rokujizo, which while fun, was very different from our previous couchsurfing experiences because our host, Shoji, didn’t actually live in the house where we were staying.  Instead, he and his family lived in a house about 15 minutes away, and he opened up his second house as a guest house for couchsurfers to stay for free – up to 8 people could fit.  While we did get to meet Shoji when he picked us up at the local train station, he hung out for only about a half an hour – though he seemed like a great person, and obviously extremely generous to open up this house for free.  He manages to improve his english and we got to enjoy living in a traditional japanese house, with tatami mats and the whole shebang.  We also enjoyed getting to know the other couchsurfers who all had great travel stories.  Darshan and Maya joined us in Kyoto on Friday night and we had a great weekend with them, going to Nara on Saturday and seeing loads of deer and two amazing gardens, and then having a sleepy day in the rain on Sunday in Kyoto, exploring a local park and more gardens.

Window Reflection at a Garden in Nara

For me it was great to just wander around and see the gardens and parks and temples – though they could get tiring so we had to break these up with frequent tea and cake breaks – there are great coffee shops in Kyoto.  On Monday we took a series of trains up to the mountains north of Kyoto and got off in a small town called Kibune, where we did a nice walk over a mountain to get to Kurama – another small village – where we went to a traditional outdoor onsen (hot spring spa).  On the train ride up, Simon was feeling especially weak and had a pain in his chest that convinced him he was suffering from tuberculosis…I recommened some advil and then we had a nice nap and woke up, Tb free, in the moutains.  After making sure we were all fully recovered and healthy in the hot baths, we headed back to Kyoto where we had the traditional dish of nigiyaki – a pancake like thing topped with scallions, beef bits, red ginger and bonito flakes.  We then started celebrating Simon’s birthday for real with a stop at a bar where we had some great sake served in a bamboo container.  (Every night we went out to eat or drink we were generally at very small places and were pleasantly surprised by how friendly everyone was, buying us a drink and offering us some small tasty local food.  It was a contrast to how reserved we’ve noticed the Japanese to be on the street or in public.  We really enjoyed the feeling of being in a such a small bar that you can easily interact with the other patrons – it probably also helped that the people who were chatting with us had had already a drink or two, but it was great and we managed to get some great tips on dishes to try and sights to see.)

Yesterday we wandered through the Nishiki Food Market in Kyoto and then hopped the Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo were we celebrated Simon’s birthday in style with Darshan and Maya.  The evening included all you can eat and drink shabu shabu – you get a hot pot of broth and you cook yourself thin slices of beef and pork and japanese vegetables.  After this, we hit up a karaoke place where we had a private room on the seventh floor in the Ikebukuro neighborhood – with the neon signs down the streets shining into the room.

All into the karaoke

Today we’re heading west of Tokyo to Hakone, a resort type area where you can hike and see views of Mount Fuji.  We’ll be staying in a traditional ryokan – the only night we’ll actually be paying for a our place to sleep – and we’ll be back in Tokyo tomorrow to get ready for Halloween in Japan.

We’re going to try to add some photos soon, and get ready to see loads of photos on our smugmug page when we’re back in San Francisco.

Sayonara!

The long flight Tokyo was uneventful.  Upon arrival in Narita Airport in Tokyo, the customs process was the fastest we ever experienced.  No lines anywhere, just take your photo, scan your index fingers, and the luggage was out right away.  Then, we exited the international arrivals area, and proceeded to be amazed by flashy screens.

Luckily, Darshan, Simon’s former co-worker, met us at the airport.  We could’ve figured out how to get to his house, but it would have been a struggle.  Monica was passing out, while I powered through until going to sleep at 11pm.  Darshan and his wife, Maya, live in the northwest of the city center, in a cute neighborhood with little quiet streets (it’s quiet everywhere here, despite the multitudes of people everywhere).

All four of us woke before sunrise at 4:30 in the morning and rushed to the train to witness the tuna fish auction at the fish market.  On the way, we passed through a market where people were already eating breakfast at 6 A.M.  The fish auction takes place in the depths of a giant warehouse, where men in rain boots and various types of uniforms congregate around giant flash-frozen tuna fish laid out on the floor and call out bids that are accepted by an auctioneer with a bell.  The process didn’t take very long.  The fish were picked up by guys driving little barrels with a truck bed attached to it.  They are called “mighty car” and were zooming around the whole place.  After the auction, Darshan, dressed to the nines in a suit, went to work, while Maya, Monica and I, walked through the market where all sorts of sea creatures were being sorted for selling and consumption.  Whole tuna fish were being quartered with 5 foot long knives or cut with band saws.  We exited the fish market to be greeted by a spectacular mountain of styrofoam boxes and did our best to avoid being struck by “mighty cars.”

Flash Frozen Tuna at Fish Market

Mighty Car

The fish market is supposedly one of the best places to eat fish, as it’s the freshest.  Thus we proceeded to a typically Japanese hole in the wall establishment (they’re just lined up one after another), where one sits behind a counter and the proprietor makes the dishes.  It’s like eating in someone’s kitchen.  Our “kitchen” could seat 7 people.  Monica had cooked eel over rice and I had tuna over rice.  This was accompanied by fresh wasabi (delicious on its own as well and tastes much better than the stuff in the States).  The meal is traditionally finished off by miso soup, which we savored.

After, we shopped around a bit.  It was all of 8 in the morning by this time, and we proceeded to walk around the city for hours on end, wandering from garden to shrine to temple to shopping district to French bakery and then to a ramen shop for lunch.  This was another hole in the wall.  Maya, our savior on the first day navigating the craziness, saved us with some knowledge of the Japanese language, but somehow managed to offend the proprietor of the ramen shop when she asked for the ramen to be spicy.  Social graces are tough to understand here, but being gaijin (foreigners) we are forgiven for our brutishness.  We then returned home for a much deserved mid-afternoon nap.  In the evening, we joined up with Monica’s co-worker, Maura, who just got married to Ari.  They are on the road for 3 months for their honeymoon, traveling around Southeast Asia and Central America.  Their first stop was Japan, where we met up with them yesterday.

After meeting them at their hostel, we rode on the subway (super efficient, clean, and quiet), (we constantly feel like we’re the only ones talking), from Asakusa to Shibuya.  It was Monday evening, but people were out in full force.  We went to dinner, where we cooked our own chicken dish right on the convection stove build into the table.  Delicious.  Then, we went to a bar where we were accosted by a very drunk Japanese man who after sharing a few awkward moments, tried to kiss Ari.  We left at that point, walked around a bit more, and then rode back to the hostel.  We stopped by a 7-eleven and accidentally purchased sake that at the push of a built-in button on the bottom, heats it up.  Amazing technology.

Showing off our bounty from the convenience store with Maura and Ari

The night was spent on the top bunk of Ari and Maura’s room.  We haven’t slept in a bunk-bed since May 2007.

Overall, the impression that we have is that Japanese people love uniforms and wear them throughout their life, starting with school continuing in their suits when they become salarymen/women.  Additionally, did we mention that it is quiet and clean?  People are very friendly and as long as you know a couple words, your presence is much appreciated (maybe on the surface but that’s all we need to make us feel good).

Another interesting observation, in Japanese beautiful is the same word as clean.  This is amazing and I found it to be quite deeply ingrained in all aspects of life.  Everything is well designed, clean, and tasteful.  People keep meticulous small gardens within the city, the city spends enormous amounts of money on keeping public gardens and trees well trimmed and manicured.  Can you imagine the hordes of gardeners that the city employs?

Tokyo covers a ridiculously large swath of land and stretches in all directions.  It is  busy everywhere, but neighborhoods have their own characteristics.

We spent one more day walking around Tokyo yesterday and spent two hours in a 8 story department store that sold everything from 800 types of cell phones to bikes and photo equipment.  On the 8th floor there were about 20 full-fledged restaurants.  Then, we walked through a residential neighborhood on our way to the sumo-wrestling stadium only to be greeted with a little free museum.  It was interesting nonetheless.

Today, we’re heading out to Kyoto and will be there until Monday or Tuesday of next week.  We might not have internet access until we return to Tokyo next week.

After laying in the dark and feeling unused for a very long time (so long that they might overgrow with weeds like a fallow field), our passports are going to acquire a new stamp in the next 48 hours, because we’re going to Japan.

We realized recently, that this is the first time that either one of us took a two week vacation from work.  On the one hand it seems like a long time to be away from work.  But, these thoughts need to be quickly brushed aside, because they’re silly.  After all, what can you really see in two weeks.  We’re not being too ambitious, and are really focusiong only on two cities, Tokyo and Kyoto.  Tokyo is now home to one of Simon’s former co-workers who has been living there since early 2007.  He lives there with his wife and they are graciously going to host us.  In Kyoto, we’re going to be couchsurfing with a Japanese guy who has a guesthouse specifically designated for couchsurfers.  Apprently, it’s really something special and we’re really looking forward to it.  Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan for over 1,000 years, is reknown for its various gardens and is more chilled out than Kyoto. You can even ride a bike around.

We’ll be taking some day trips into the environs of the cities.  We’re also planning on meeting up with one of Monica’s co-workers who just got married and is taking a three month honeymoon with the first stop being Tokyo.  And lastly, we were able to arrange to stay in a ryokan which specializes in Italian food and is owned and run by one of Simon’s former English-conversation students.  Should be awesome!

So, back on the road and away from this craziness that is engulfing the US with its economic and political crises.  It will be a welcome respite.

July 5th marks the one year anniversary of our trip, and we felt it was time for a short update.

We have not been entirely lazy during this year, and though we didn’t travel as many miles we have had several adventures and are plotting new trips in the future.  First a recount:

We settled in San Francisco after finding an apartment in the SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood.  Monica was restless and found a temporary jobs right away and fed our household for a number of months.  She found a permanent position at a private high school in November working in fund-raising.  In the meantime, I was stubborn in my desire to work with smart people doing interesting work and while I was interviewing on an ongoing basis, was not finding anything for months on end.  I occupied my time by baking various types of breads and bagels (it takes a lot of time to watch the dough rise)

Miche – French country loaf – Simon’s baking accomplishment

and by biking around the city exploring different neighborhoods.  Eventually I was hired by a small wealth management firm and am enjoying the work and the people since February.

In fact, both of us got into biking (road biking that is) and have taken some picturesque trips in the environs.  We rode around the hills in the East Bay that overlook the whole of the San Francisco Bay; have ridden in the Marin Headlands, all around the city conquering a number of steep inclines that are an inherent part of biking around San Francisco.  Lastly, over Memorial Day in late May, we took a two day bike ride from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.  The photos of that trip can be found here: bike trip to Santa Cruz.  En route we Couchsurfed in Moss Beach with an extremely hospitable woman and then in Santa Cruz, with friendly young Texans.  We’re planning on taking multi-day bike rides among the giant redwoods in the northern part of California in the future.

Additionally, we’ve been able to enjoy a few great days of snowboarding in the Lake Tahoe region.  Monica and I recently purchased new snowboards – getting ready for the next season.

We’ve also been regular (about once a month) hosts to Couchsurfers and have enjoyed the experience a lot.  For some odd reason, we’ve been quite popular with French and German travelers.  So much so, that one request for a couch from a French couchsurfer mentioned that apparently our “house was not to be missed on a visit to San Francisco.”  We have not seen any tour buses on our little dingy street yet, but we’re expecting them any time now.  We’ve met some great travelers who have shared their stories and enjoyed some of ours.

Here’s a photo of us on our street in a Ford Mustang rented by one of the couples that was couchsurfing at our place in January:

Last but not least, Monica has started taking classes in landscape architecture and is enjoying it immensely.

We’ve happily rediscovered cooking at home and have been enjoying the bounty of the different types of zesty produce that is grown in California.  We now purchase a $25 box of vegetables every other week that is delivered to a different location in the city from a farm about 100 miles south of San Francisco.  We don’t know what will arrive in the box and it tends to surprise us every time.  Additionally, we recently split a purchase of a quarter of a cow with 3 other couples (so each couple got roughly 20 pounds of different cuts of beef).  We were going to do the cruel thing and visit the cow while it was still alive, but then by the time we got around to it, we were informed that it has already been slaughtered and butchered.  Now we’re enjoying it slowly.

Our travels this year have mostly taken us around northern California, though we’ve had a chance to visit Boston and New York in the winter and spring, respectively.  Simon also had a chance to visit Memphis and enjoyed a visit to Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home, and participated in the International Barbecue Championship (delicious).

This fall we’re going to the Republic of Georgia for a few weeks to visit Monica’s brother and sister-in-law who is going to be conducting research there.  We’re both very excited to go to the Caucasus, though Monica has already been.

We still think about our trip often and are see the photos from our adventures on a regular basis as a screensaver on our computer.  We’ve had a chance to share our experiences with the new friends that we’ve made in San Francisco and have hopefully inspired others to follow suit in taking some time off from their busy schedules to explore other parts of the world.

This is not the end of this blog and we’ll continue to document our adventures on a more regular basis.

P.S. Check out the separate page (the link is on the sidebar or at the top) detailing some statistics from our trip around the world.

As it turns out, finding an apartment to rent in San Francisco without having a job is no easy task.  Additionally, September 1st is most likely the most popular date of the year to move to a new dwelling.  This is due to people starting their academic years, entering one year leases, and then continuing in that perpetual cycle until they purchase homes eventually.  The San Francisco apartment hunting procedure goes something like this: look on craigslist.org continuously looking for apartments, then call them to set up appointments or show up to the scheduled open houses, wait around for the landlord to show up (they don’t always feel that they should) with a dozen other applicants, then look around the apartment, ask some questions of the landlord/manager, and then if you  like the apartment, then apply.  Most of the time we tried explaining that we are unemployed, but have enough savings, but this didn’t placate most of them.  This is quite a time-consuming process, and it took us 2 weeks to find an apartment.  We are moving to SoMa on September 1st.   It’s a one bedroom apartment with a little balcony in the back and a shared garden as well.

(As an aside, in New York, to find an apartment, you usually go to a real-estate agent in the neighborhood where you want to live, talk to them about your budget and what kind of apartment you’d like to live in, and then he’ll show you what you want, you pay them their agents fee, and that’s that.  Much more expensive, since the agent’s fee is 10-12% of the yearly rent, but much less time-consuming.)

The upside to spending this time driving around San Francisco in search of apartments all over the city, is that we now have a fair idea about how to get around.  We’re enjoying the city so far and its widely varied neighborhoods.

While searching for apartments, we also purchased the new iMac computer with a 20 inch monitor.  We’ve made the switch from PCs and are enjoying the new stylish life.

Yesterday, we safely arrived in the Bay Area, where my parents live.  The journey from Massachusetts to California took 9 days and 3,900 miles (or 6200 kilometers).  Along the way we mostly camped at campgrounds and stayed with friends, except for the last night, when we slept at a motel about 50 feet from the highway with our windows facing toward the traffic.  This unfortunate situation occurred to us in Reno.

Among the highlights of the trip were the viewing of Niagara Falls near Buffalo, New York.  It turned out that Niagara Falls is a very popular destination for international tourists, and especially Indians.  We hadn’t seen so many Indians since India.  We were told that the best views of the falls were from the Canadian side, and were also told by the parking attendant that if we were U.S. citizens and had a driver’s licence then we would be able to get back into the country without a U.S. passport.  So, we parked our truck on the American side, and walked across the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side.  Took some pictures, walked around, took in the sights, and then walked back across the bridge to stand in line to get back across the border.  First of all, the border was severely understaffed which resulted in a long wait, and secondly there were signs prominently displayed proclaiming that the customs officers are the face of the nation.  With such proclamations all around us, we were hoping for a pleasant border crossing experience.  However, this was not the case.  When we presented our licenses to the border officer, he asked us where we were born.  Monica said Massachusetts and I said Estonia and that I’ve been a U.S. citizen since 2001.  The following conversation proceeded:

Officer: “Where on your license does it say that you are a citizen?”

Simon: “It does not say on the license, but we were told that since we’re citizens that we could just get back across the border without bringing our passport.”

Officer: “Well, if you brought your passport it would have been much easier.”

Simon: obedient silence.

Officer: “Now I have to type in all of your information into the computer and ask you a bunch of questions about your parents, etc.,” and he proceeds to do that.  “Next time bring a passport.”

Simon: “OK,” meanwhile thinking to himself that this guy is being ridiculous, since it’s his job to enter this information and he was refusing to do it and making it a big deal.

After this exchange, he started talking to us about some idiosyncrasies of local highway numbering and stupid small talk, and other nonsense.  So, I guess the local border officers don’t really realize that they’re the face of the nation or this is the face that they choose to present.  Then we met up with our friend Anita who moved to Buffalo the day prior to our arrival and was a gracious host to us.  We went and had Buffalo wings at the restaurant that invented this American delicacy.

The next day we drove along Lake Erie, through eastern New York, eastern Pennsylvania, northern Ohio, and spent the night in Potato Creek State Park, south of South Bend, Indiana.  Along the way we drove through Mennonite country (who are a less Luddite branch of the Amish) and saw people riding horse-drawn buggies and other funny things.  Corn and soy beans fields were the predominant feature of the landscape starting from Ohio all the way to South Dakota.  The park had a nice lake and a bunch of people camping in RVs.  Some RV owners even had little signs out front stating who they were and some brought potted plants to beautify their habitat.  A little strange considering that they’re already in a park.  If they were not in RVs, they were camping in large palatial tents that could fit a small army regiment.  Our two person tent was definitely the smallest one in the park.

The next day was a Monday which meant more congestion on the roads.  This didn’t slow us down, and we covered a lot of ground that day, about 670 miles (1070 kilometers). We went through Illinois, skirting Chicago on the west, through Wisconsin, and alon gthe southern edge of Minnesota.  We spent that night in the south-west corner of Minnesota, at Blue Mounds State Park, where they keep a herd of buffalo.  That park also tried to preserve the natural prairie environment with tall prairie grass.  Unfortunately, aside from this park, the rest of the prairie turned out to be great for farming vast quantities of corn and soy.

Our neighbors in the park were two families with a few kids each from Minnesota.  They even spoke with a Minnesota accent, which was amusing to hear.  They had a noble project in mind.  They wanted to visit all 71 state parks of Minnesota over a period of 10 years, given that they were able to take a one week vacation in the summer.  They also told us about ice fishing in Minnesota.  The most fascinating aspect of ice fishing is that pizza can be delivered to your little tent out on the frozen lake!  Also, it’s about negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 45 degrees Celsius) out on the lakes in the winter.

Next day’s drive was relatively short.  We did stop at the world’s only corn palace in Mitchell, SD.  The outside walls are all made of corn, and are covered in murals also made of corn depicting various themes, which change every year.  We stopped for the night at the entrance to the Badlands National Park in southwestern South Dakota.  The Badlands look similar to the geological formations in Cappadocia in Turkey, but came about differently.  We drove around the Badlands, and witnessed a spectacular thunderstorm approaching the area with darkening skies and frequent lightning.  It also turned out that the week that we chose to go through this area was the week of the annual and world-famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota.  Sturgis is a small town in the Black Hills of South Dakota, also in the southwest of the state, and attracts an estimated half-a-million visitors during the 10 days of the Rally.  There is wild partying going on, complete with visiting Playboy Bunnies and massive amounts of Jack Daniels Whiskey.  Aside from the partying, the bikers like to ride in the vicinity of the event through the beautiful nature of the Badlands and the Black Hills.  So, over the next two days we observed a strong American sub-culture, leather-clad, overweight, and riding mostly Harley-Davidsons, on vacation.  We also visited Wall Drug, a drug store which displayed billboards for its store starting 355 miles from their actual location, and regularly updated you on the wonders inside their store.  They were indeed wonderful.  Aside from prescription and over-the-counter medications they also have a restaurant and a soda fountain, a store full of Wall Drug paraphernalia, a Western clothing store, a fudge counter, a jewelry store, and a some other stores that I don’t recall.  In the backyard, they have a large figure of a T-Rex that roars every 12 minutes, and a statue of a jackalope (a mix between a jack rabbit and an antelope).

The next day was spent driving around the Black Hills, taking a little hike in Custer State Park, seeing Mount Rushmore and the unfinished carving of Crazy Horse and a lot of wild animals such as herds of buffalo close to the road, wild donkeys blocking our car, antelope, deer, prairie dogs, eagles, and chipmunks.  We stayed at Bismarck Lake campground in Custer State Park on the lake, which was very tranquil but lacked shower facilities.  Our tender sleep was rudely interrupted by bikers taking their steeds for a spin at 7 in the morning.  Also, Monica set out two bananas on the picnic table for us to have for breakfast, and a chipmunk stole both of them and ate them.  In the end the chipmunk took more than he could handle and half of a chewed up banana fell from the tree as we were about to leave the campground.

On the way out of the Black Hills we stopped by Deadwood and saw this historic gold mining town now famous for spawning a popular TV series.

From the Black Hills we drove to Sheridan, Wyoming, the “#1 Western town in America.”  When we entered “The Mint” bar in town to meet up with our friends Christina and Phil (who were vacationing on a dude ranch nearby), all of the patrons of the bar turned toward the door and gave us a once over.  Never has this happened to us.  Then they returned to sipping their beers at 2:30 in the afternoon.  A few minutes late Phil, Christina, Kate (Phil’s sister) and Chris (Kate’s boyfriend), met us, we had a beer and went to the ranch where they’ve been staying for the prior 10 days.  We were welcomed to this ranch very graciously by Phil’s grandmother who first came to vacation at the ranch in 1936.  Eatons’ Ranch, located in Wolf, Wyoming, has been around since the late 19th century, and one of their notable early guests was Teddy Roosevelt.   The ranch is located in the shadows of Bighorn National Forest, a collection of dramatic mountains against the background of flat.  Very beautiful and Phil and Christina and Sis were great hosts.

The next day we drove west and through Yellowstone National Park and spent the night in Grand Teton National Park, just south of Yellowstone.  In Yellowstone, there was a sizable fire which made for some beautiful photos of the sky.  We didn’t see Old Faithful, but saw the field of geysers in the West Thumb area.

That night was very cold and we got out of there first thing in the morning.  We drove the the next 13 hours and 770 miles later we arrived in Reno, Nevada – a depressing place overall.  We drove through Idaho and Nevada.  It turned out that Nevada is very sparsely populated state with few gas stations between towns.  On the last day, we drove into sunny California and arrived at my parents house in the early afternoon.

My grandparents joined us for dinner, and it was great to see everyone!

Now, we’re starting to look for apartments in San Francisco.

Today is the day of Erik and Keeli’s wedding.  People are gathering and having a good time.  Anxiety is at an all-time high level, but it will all dissipate in a few hours.  Yesterday, was the rehearsal dinner, where we met some of Keeli and Erik’s friends and some of Keeli’s relatives.  Keeli’s mother was one of nine children, so Keeli has 55 cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, in addition to her own two siblings.  We’re excited to meet them, but I am afraid that I will not remember everyone’s names. 

We arrived in Omaha on Monday evening.  On the way we had a layover in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Due to the fact that we had to wait for five hours until our next flight, we took the light rail from the airport to the center of town and walked along the banks of the Mississippi river.  Minneapolis used to be a huge flour milling town and until the 1920s.  Judging by the fact that we saw only a handful of people during our multi-hour walk, we judged that it was not such a booming metropolis today. 

For the first three days in Omaha, we stayed with Keeli’s parents and helped out with various projects for the wedding, such as assembling welcome bags for the out-of-town guests and assembling very fancy-looking wedding programs.  The goodie bags included a two magazines about Omaha, a map, three chocolate chip cookies, two bottles of water, three Halloween-sized candy bars, and a bag of popcorn.  All of this was very well received.  The programs were a huge arts and crafts project and I learned a lot of new terms such as “scoring,” “velour,” &c. 

On Wednesday we visited the famous Omaha Zoo, which was indeed spectacular.  Aside from having the second largest geodesic dome in the U.S. (the pride of the city), it also had a great tropics exhibit, and Monica was taken with the new gorilla exhibit.  Instead of the gorilla’s being in a cage, it’s the other way around.  The felines seemed to be either malnourished (not likely in Nebraska), or really hot, because most of them were inert. 

The rest of Monica’s close relatives arrived on Wednesday, and Keeli’s family had a big family dinner at their house.  On Thursday we went to visit Keeli’s paternal grandparents, Norma and Dick, in Elk Horn, Iowa.  Elk Horn has the largest rural Danish-American population in the US, and the only Danish-American Immigrant museum in the country.  Keeli’s grandparents were two of the founders of this museum, and we visited it after lunch with her grandparents.  Dick gave a tour of the place to everyone except for me (I am a slow museum visitor and couldn’t keep up with them), and was very knowledgeable about the subject.  He used to be the archivist at the museum.  I, on the other hand, got stuck at the exhibit that detailed the process of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   Aside from a display of old ship tickets and health inspection forms filled out at Ellis Island, there was a binder of stories by immigrants about their journeys to America.  My favorite, if I may recount it here was of a 17-year old Danish woman who had a brother, Simon, who immigrated to Iowa.  Several years after Simon immigrated to the States, he came back to Denmark to pick up his sister and bring her to Iowa.  When they disembarked in Ellis Island, it turned out that she had a problem with her hip, that was a birth defect, and she was put in quarantine for three days until the doctors established that it wasn’t a contagious or debilitating disease.  In the meantime, her brother left her there and departed for Iowa.  When she was released on to American soil, not knowing any English, she somehow found her way to the train station and was able to purchase a train ticket to Iowa.  Four days later, she turns up in this town in Iowa, where supposedly her brother resides, and luckily she runs into an old lady who speaks Danish.  The young woman explains her situation and the old lady happens to know Simon.  They then proceed to the courthouse to put in a request to search for Simon, and when they arrive at the courthouse, they run into Simon and his friend, who are in the process of placing a search request for Simon’s sister.  Apparently, Simon realized that he should have waited for his sister in New York City.   Overall, it was a great museum and very professionally curated with a large number of unique artifacts.  For a town of 750 people, this is a phenomenal achievement. 

As an aside, Keeli said that whenever she or her brother or sister would come to visit her grandparents in this town, it would be mentioned in the town newspaper. 

That same evening, we went to Gorat’s Steakhouse which served some awesome steaks.  This is supposedly the place where Warren Buffet and Bill Gates go to dine when they meet up for their chats.  We prematurely celebrated Monica’s grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.

Yesterday, we visited the Durham Western Heritage Museum of Omaha, where Keeli and Erik are getting married.  It is an old train station built in the Art Deco style with very very tall ceilings, great stained glass, and old signs.  On the lower level they have old trains that you can walk inside of, and a large exhibit on how the west was settled and some models of typical Omaha homes from the early 20th century, old mud dwellings of the first settlers, and other stuff.  Walking through the old sleeper and lounge train cars I felt disappointed that passenger train travel is not popular or really feasible in the States these days.  There are so many functioning railroad tracks here and people prefer to travel in their own cars along boring interstate highways.  Maybe, some day, train travel will return through some serious lobbying.  I saw one photograph in the book at the museum gift shop of a protest in the early 1970s and one sign said, “Daddy, what are passenger trains?”

I’d say that we’re positively impressed by Omaha and are having an awesome time here.

On that note, I will adjourn to continue the festivities in honor of Erik and Keeli. 

Tomorrow we fly out to Omaha, Nebraska for my brother’s wedding.  We’re planning on making side-trips to Elkhorn, Iowa to visit with Keeli’s grandparents, to Lincoln and hopefully to the famous Omaha Zoo!

Last week we were in New York, catching up with former co-workers, friends and family.  It was not so strange to be back there as it still feels like we’re just traveling through.  (We think reality will kick in once we settle into an apartment in San Francisco, but that won’t be for another month, at least.)  So the adventures continue!  We reunited Ball with the couple that owns the craft store below our old apartment and sold us this lucky toy.

After this week in Nebraska, we’re heading back to Wenham to get ready for our cross-country trip!  We’re renting a 12″ box truck to haul us, and our stuff, to California.  We’re planning on driving through Buffalo (hopefully seeing Niagara Falls), South Bend, Indiana, Southern Minnesota, the Badlands and Black Hills Park in South Dakota (along with Mt. Rushmore), Wolf, Wyoming, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National Park, and then zoom through Nevada to California!  We head west on August 4 and if all goes well we’ll arrive at Simon’s family house in Cupertino, CA on August 12.  We’re driving mostly on route 90, so if anyone has any other suggestions for sites to see along the way, feel free to let us know.

We’re planning on edit our photos on smugmug down to a manageable “best of” gallery, and we’ll be putting up the photos that we took in New York and ones that we’ll take in the Great Plains, during the first week of August.  The Best of gallery has no planned completion date yet, but we’ll work on it.  Based on conversations we’ve been having with people since we’ve gotten back, we’re also planning on adding a Frequently Asked Questions page to this site.  Email us any questions you want us to answer about our trip and we’ll add them to this list.

Three-hundred and forty-seven days after departing from the United States, we have returned. The three flights that we had to take to get to Boston were long and arduous. The first flight of the journey, from Odessa to Kiev, was the most worrisome, as we flew on an old Soviet airplane (Yak-42D), and the pilot seemed to think that he was at the controls of a jet fighter. Maybe it’s the design of the aircraft, but every single turn could be clearly felt. The nine hour flight from Kiev to New York was only long, and the passport control went smoothly after having to fight off a ballsy line-jumping Ukrainian woman in a pink sports suit. The last flight was unfortunately prolonged by two hours since we got stuck waiting for our turn for take-off in a queue of 35 airplanes.

Now we’re in Wenham, Massachusetts, Monica’s hometown. Monica was very excited today when she rediscovered a suitcase of her clothes that we had to leave behind. It was like getting a whole new wardrobe without having to go shopping for it.