onwards to anchorage.

after a few days in seattle, i took off for anchorage. i would have about 24 hours there before my family was to arrive.

a small trail in town with some salmon viewing spots

salmon!

hotels are basically unaffordable in anchorage in the summer, so i stayed at this more reasonable hostel. it was less than $100 a night and that made it a win!

beautiful flowers around anchorage

the resulting travel tip here-- don't wait to book a lace to stay in alaska in the summer.

the following day, i had breakfast at this highly rated restaurant (it was delicious) and then rented a bike to ride one of the local trails.

kodiak benedict: poached eggs, alaska king crab cakes,
toasted english muffin, housemade hollandaise, green onion  

the trail was 11 miles in each direction, and i thought, i can do that! remember, i had just managed a huge british bike ride a few months prior.

and i did.

it was quite beautiful.

but they neglected to share that this trail was not flat.

dear god, it was full of hills.

but for one reason or another, i went the whole way along the trail.

probably because i have a unique interest in finishing things.

after a few hours of wandering anchorage and meeting up with my family, i discovered the after effects of 22 plus miles of bike riding.

pain.

cramps.

and a desire to chop my legs off completely.

it was not my best moment.

after several ibuprofen, i found myself lying face down on the bathroom floor- because the ice cold tiles felt amazing and provided a small amount of relief.

i wish i had a picture of this for you.

but maybe it's best that i don't.

thankfully, the next day, my legs returned to a condition in which i could once again appreciate them.

#lessonlearned

we had a little bit of time that next day to see a little more of anchorage and then it was off to the cruise port! my sister even got to see a moose up close!

seward here we come!

traveling stateside: first stop? seattle

as part of the #summerof40 my family and i planned an alaskan cruise.

i decided to try to sloooooowly acclimate to the time zone difference by swinging through seattle for a few days on my way to that side of the us.

i had wanted to visit more of the west coast of the us for awhile, and this was a great chance to explore more while headed in that direction.

of course i had planned to visit the space needle, a seattle tourist mecca. it's a little expensive for what it is, but you have to do it, right?

views from the space needle

right next door to the space needle is the chihuly garden and glass. this was an amazing place. i've always loved chihuly's blown glass artwork and this museum and garden is just full of bright, colorful and unique pieces.

i happened to be in this area on the 4th of july and happened upon a rush of people in red, white and blue pouring into a local convention center. after looking around at what was going on, i discovered that all these people, carrying american flags, were racing to try and get a picture with the mayor after they became us citizens.

seriously?

they were all so happy. it was hopeful to see so many people thrilled to become americans and be reminded that despite my current disappointment with the government that being american is something to cherish.

i tried out the free tour in seattle. after trying them all over the world, thought i'd give one of these a shot on us soil.

i spent the rest of the time in seattle eating. and eating. and eating. the public market area is so full of food vendors you could eat there for days. i saw the fish being thrown through the market.

Piroshky Piroshky Bakery yum! 

Rachel's Ginger Beer

awesome grilled cheese from Beecher's

Rainier cherries
I actually think I was allergic to them. Eeeek!

i drank starbucks in seattle.

repeat.

i drank starbucks in seattle.

i saved none of those snaps apparently.

#theoriginal

the line for the "first" shop is ridiculously long and i never was willing to wait when there was a starbucks around the corner with no line.

seattle was really great! i loved all the food options and the beautiful views of the water and the nearby mountains. the one downfall i'd say is the homelessness that has overrun the downtown area. there were so many destitute individuals, and many who were mentally ill, that at times it felt unsafe.

from seattle i flew to anchorage to wait for my family's arrival!

travel tip:
-buy your tickets for the space needle when you first arrive to the area or order online in advance. they are set with a time, so you will usually have to wait for your time window to start. buying in advance should limit your wait.

a lesser known paradise.

back in 1992 i convinced my parents to send me on the high school spanish trip to spain and portugal.

it was my first and only trip to europe before moving overseas.

spain was cool,

but i hated portugal.

probably the naivete of an american teenager.

so it was time to return to portugal after so many years.

when school let out in june, caitlin and i headed to the southern region of portugal known as the algarve.

and it was amazing.

i feel confident in saying that tourists who want to come to some of europe's most amazing beaches should skip those of france, italy and greece and head straight to portugal instead.

it's incredibly beautiful and so much less expensive than the typical tourist destinations.

we started the week in armacao de pera. there are some beautiful beaches along this section of the algarve, but they are quite spread out. this was something we realized after google took us on a several mile journey through dirt paths and brush. in flip flops.

#notthebestmoment

however, most of the beaches in portugal are nestled between cliffs and have quite the picturesque backdrops.

despite the cloudy skills, still beautiful

#photoshoot

cave beaches

sometimes trusting google is a questionable decision...

amazing rock formations

same rocks, but from the sea

this coastline is incredible.

wow wow wow.

after a few days with a verrrrrrrry interesting airbnb host, we moved onto lagos.

there we stayed in a delightful airbnb and the nearby beaches were quite walkable and each unique in their own way.

each day we headed off to a different beach, some quiet, some busy, but all stunning.

beauty for days

right on the beach

i've never seen such large shells on the beach

and such clear water

the biggest problem this area has is the water temperature.

even in late june.

it was freezing.

but, i digress...

the southernmost point in europe

cabo de sao vicente (cape saint vincent)

this beach was huge, and nearly empty

the beach for our last day in portugal

just incredible.

#lifemotto

travel tips for the algarve:

- this was a solid airbnb option; this was not
- in lagos we did okay without a rental car, but i'd probably recommend it if you want to go to other areas
- here's a nice post from migrating miss that you might find useful in trip planning and the brit & the blonde shared their top 5 beaches here

have you ever been to the algarve? fave beach?

spring break in the canaries

in an effort to get to more new places, caitlin and i headed the canary islands for spring break. we hoped for warm weather and time on the beach.

those goals were sort of met?

we flew direct from milan to tenerife. it is so easy to travel around europe and the surrounding areas that it makes the travel options around the u.s. look shameful.

there we are, off the west african coast
don't mind all the travel saves i'm collecting all over europe

the beach in costa adeje

and it's not often that we don't enjoy a place, but tenerife is one place that falls into that category. our airbnb was not great. the food in the area is so touristy: every menu was huge, with pictures and seven languages of explanations. and we quickly tired of the walk from our airbnb to the beach. it wasn't that far, but with an annoying overpass in between the two, we weren't thrilled.

something i did enjoy: the coffee, complete with sweetened condensed milk 

we complain, but life could be worse #firstworldproblems

marina in tenerife

thankfully, we had planned only a few days in the costa adeje area. we had read about a neighboring island in an article and so we hopped the ferry and took a ride to la gomera.

la gomera

it seemed like an easy ask to get to valley gran rey when we researched beforehand. we took the ferry from tenerife without issue and found the local bus that would take us to our destination.

if you look at this map, we started to the right of the blue dot in san sebastian de la gomera. this is the ferry port from tenerife. the bus takes you up over the mountain top of the island and down into the valley marked with a yellow star. i had expected it to be about 60 to 90 minutes, but i think in the end it was more like 2.5 to 3 hours to make the whole journey. we started to feel motion sickness, as the roads were all curvy and steep.

took this when we were finally getting closer. the town at the beach was our destination.

happily we booked a really nice two story apartment in valle gran rey. we had a little patio, a living room, kitchen and a bedroom upstairs. the wifi was temperamental but we managed. the restaurants in this area were of much better quality and we found quite a few interesting options. we shopped at the small markets for snacks to take to the beach each day.

spanish wine...the canary islands are part of spain

the beaches are black sand.
it is a volcano after all.

the weather wasn't perfectly beach weather, so we didn't swim too much.
the people watching was pretty amazing. and unbelievable.

the nudity on the beaches here by far exceeded any amount i anticipated or expected. it seems that no european visiting here would ever sit in a wet swimsuit. they'd come to the beach in street clothes and change on the beach, then hop in the water for a swim and once out of the water immediately change into a second dry swimsuit. many would change back into the wet suit if they were to get in the water again. all i can say is 'no way' would i ever go to the beach if it involved that much effort.

ask us sometime to tell you about the yoga on the beach. now that was something.

we ended the week with another long bus ride across this tiny island and ferry back to tenerife. another interesting airbnb experience before heading back to milan. it wasn't our most amazing spring break, but interesting nonetheless.

travel tips: avoid any and all tourist areas in the canaries. la gomera was fine, but i would suggest a rental car to skip the bus ride.