Matanuska Glacier is one of those glaciers in Alaska that you can easily drive to. You can see it from the highway. It’s also one of the few glaciers where you could, if you want, walk right across it, slip, and crack your head. And people do.
Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas For Adventurers and Travelers
TipsI promise you won’t find gag gifts, or single-use items, or “fad” items. Instead you’ll find products I truly love (and have bought with my own money), causes I support, and gifts that do good. Conspicuous waste should never be celebrated.
Under $25: Must Have Travel Accessories for No-Fuss Travelers (Updated 2024)
Travel TipsFrom camera protection, to portable door alarm, these are must-have travel items under $25 for practical, non-sense travelers.
What We've Been Up To
Wasilla, Alaska
Say you want about her, without Sarah Palin, Wasilla would only have been one of the many small towns we pass by that we never paid much attention to. I’d say that putting Wasilla on the radar of travelers like us might have been her biggest accomplishment.
It started as a joke
“Hey, we’ll be passing Wasilla. We should look for Sarah Palin’s house.”
“Hahaha, right. You.. funny… you.”
(15 seconds of thoughtful silence)
“Hey guys, it’s actually right by the road. I have the address right here,” Aaron chimed in from the back seat.
Then of course curiosity got the better of us.
It was amazingly easy (so easy it was scary) to find out exactly where she lives. Some other blogger has put up not only a satellite map, but pictures of her house so we knew exactly when we found it.
So we got off the highway right after Wasilla’s Best Western, following a nondescript dirt driveway parallel the road following the directions Aaron was reading off his phone.
What were we hoping to do there?
Jack was hoping to get a picture with her. We scoffed, “Yeah, that’s likely going to happen” (not). I’m not sure if he thought we’d spot her grocery shopping or cleaning her guns outside her house or what.
Aaron whined about Secret Service and this being Alaska everytime we got within 20 ft of a “No Trespassing” sign, so he was clearly just hoping not to get shot.
The voyeour in me was just hoping we could actually get close enough to see the house.
We couldn’t.
The driveway to the house was extra long. The house was partially hidden by trees and there were “No Trespassing” signs all over (which we respected).
So that was a little disappointing. We didn’t get shot at. And Jack didn’t get his picture.
We did get to check out Lucille Lake, the lake on Palin’s backyard.
Random fact: 1 in 15 Alaskans owns a plane
And we have the bragging rights that we saw Sarah Palin’s house. Or to be exact, the right corner of her roof. But still.
Ruminating on the life and death of Alaskan salmons.
Looming 2000 ft above Tenaya Lake in Yosemite, Tenaya Peak has been one of our climbing projects for this season. Finally last weekend, we set out to do just that (we even managed to talk another couple to come along – little did they know what they were getting themselves into
There are literally thousands of these sinkholes in Yucatan, Mexico. Here are 5 of our favorite cenotes.
Las Casa de Los Venados (The House of Deers) in Valladolid is owned by an American couple, John and Dorianne Venator. They bought this hacienda style house in ruins, spent 10 years renovating and filling it with the largest collection of Mexican folk art in a private collection.
It’s not hard finding a place to eat in Playa del Carmen. One of the busiest towns in Riviera Maya, its main street, La Quinta Avenida, is jammed packed with restaurants. But we were looking for something more low-key and let’s be honest… something that doesn’t cost the same as a dinner in San Francisco.
On a whim, I jumped on a bus to Izamal from Valladolid. The promise of a city painted in egg yolk yellow, basking in gold in sunset prompted me on. The only bus to Izamal was leaving in 20 minutes. A sign? I think so.
We were feeling somewhat lukewarm about Playa del Carmen. Until we stumbled upon Chaak Tun cenote – it’s so awesome we can say it ‘made’ the Playa for us. For us, Chaak Tun is the best cenote in the whole Yucatan.
Like any awesome find, I want to keep this gem for ourselves. But just like any other awesome finds – I love sharing them as well.
Confession: We have a love affair with cenotes.
A minute ago, all 8 of us were brimming with excitement about the prospect of swimming with whale sharks in Mexico. Now that we’ve seen the whale sharks – hesitation creeps in. These guys are HUGE!
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Chiang Mai Sunday market, held every… well, Sunday, is the mother of all markets. It’s the most touristy and crowded market we’ve ever visited. We loved every minute of it.
Every Sunday night the main street of Chiang Mai was lined with stalls after stalls selling anything from handmade crafts to deeply discounted branded backpacks. The front yards of the wats (the temples) – and there seems at least a wat in every block – are turned into instant food courts crammed with more food stalls than my stomach knew what to do with.
This is what heaven must feel like. To be surrounded with morsels of food (and so cheap) everywhere you look. (Although in heaven, I’d have 4 stomachs like a cow so I could eat 4 times as much).
People come out in droves: tourists and locals alike. By early evening, the speed of the crowd has slowed to snail like.
Then the strangest thing happened..
My brother and I were stuck in this crowd, trying to make our way back when I noticed a crowd of people gathering around a stall. With great effort I elbowed my way through the crowd to see what they were staring at only to be mildly disappointed. They were watching people making smoothies. Wha?
Now that I’m paying a closer attention, the people working behind the booth aren’t even doing that good of a job at it. They look bored, standing around doing nothing. Don’t they realise that there’s a group of people waiting?
Quickly losing interest, I turn around and ran smash into a wall of people. Quite literally. We – as a group of people – have stopped moving and were standing completely, utterly, still.
Wtf?
Just imagine New York Times Square on a weekend night. You’re out and about ogling the orgy of light displays when all of a sudden the thousands of people around you are standing still as if frozen by an invisible light beam of an alien spaceship. Only the movement of their eyes give a hint that there’s life within.
Of course by this time, my brain was whirrring frantically trying to find an explanation to this phenomena.
Is it an alien attack? But no, aliens only attack American cities. Or big cities. I mean, they’d attack Bangkok. But Chiang Mai? No.
The lack of noise was obvious. I didn’t even notice how loud the thoroughfare was until it stopped being so loud. We could only hear the gurgle of static coming out of the loudpeakers spread out throughout the street. It seems that… wait, is it playing a song?
Suddenly everything clicks together. Something I read a while ago comes rushing back from the depth of my memory. They’d play Thai national anthem before every movie in movie theaters and during this time, you’re supposed to get off your butt and stand up to pay respect. The loudspeakers are currently playing the national anthem and this is why everyone has stopped whatever they were doing in the market: to stand up, stay still, and pay respect.
As soon as I realised this, the song ended. As if relased from the spell, everyone went back doing what they were doing before. The smoothie makers go back making smoothie, the shoppers and the vendors go back bargaining, we – as a group – continue inching forward as if the last 10 seconds, when the whole street of Chiang Mai stood still, didn’t happen.
You just have to be there.
I swear, it was the most surreal thing that ever happened.