Alaska trip felt like a National Geographic expedition. Vancouver to Anchorage (overnight in a weird airbnb), Anchorage to Kodiak Island by plane (Goal:10 foot Kodiak bears – fail; instead we saw friendly Cross Fox). Back to Anchorage by plane, train to Seward, boat to Glacier, (Goal:whales) back to Anchorage by bus. Anchorage to King Salmon by plane; Brooks Camp (Goal: bears and celebrate 100 years of Katmai NP) by float plane. South from Pilot Point by bush plane (Goal: walruses).
Over 5,000 km around two islands in a not-the-best camper van. We started our adventure with a visit Hobbiton, to our surprise all members of the family had a good time there. New Zealand’s nature and wildlife is priceless, from massive sea lions, albatrosses, dolphins and penguins all in just few days. Beautiful coast lines, beaches, mountains, volcanoes, and more sheep than people, New Zealand you have it all! Even the grass is greener there and the rainbows are more colorful. Milford Sound was spectacular, people were kind and friendly, living in peace and harmony not worrying about tech, gadgets and faster internet 😉
Yellowknife: -33 degrees check!, dog sledding check!, ice fishing check!, northern lights next time 😉
Four days in a very cold and peaceful land of Northern Territory. The warmth of the locals stole our hearts. Met Snow King who builds ice castles since 1995 as a gift to the community, drove on a ice road, ate fish from frozen, Slave Lake and visiting the first nation communities: priceless. Visited Giant (closed for public) Gold mine. We even had chance to g to emergency 😉 . We will be back !
Sun Peaks was epic. Four girls on skis followed by parents. Despite -17 at times we had a blast. We had great convincing power and got permission to ski on Disaster! (blue run) and sleep overs with all my friends in a room. We had the best ever (well first ever) two sleeps overs and we did really well, our parents never complained. We didn’t run out of energy until the very end. Skiing followed by sledding, movies, sleep overs and repeated again..three days non-stop. Elsa the dog was with us most of the time and I miss her a lot. I am looking forward to another great trip like this one. Only phone quality pictures taken by all the parents.
Seems like November has become a tradition to go to Japan with Dad. Mom joined us after a week as she was busy with the Culture Crawl art show during that week each year. We started off with a big 15km hike up Mt. Takao and Matsumotyo Castle. We did an Udon Noodle class in a funky little shop in Asakusa. We saw the Emperor’s carriages one morning and the Empress drove buy us in Ginza the next morning and waved. I think she must have recognised us. Since we had the JR pass, everyday was a train adventure to a new destination.
Mom arrived and visiting continued through Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Kurashiki, Nara and Yokohama.
There was time for art as well, we got big sheets of paper and we traced art from manhole covers.
In Osaka we met a lovely family with two kids and they invited us for a dinner to their home. We had very nice time and we hope they will visit us in Vancouver.
Nara was a dear fest! ..and I met two Angels in Osaka and Totoro in the mountains.
Cook Island was a bit different than planned. We all went to airport but only me and dad managed to fly to the island. Well mom got a new passport now valid for more than 6 months.
We rented Quad bike and joined a tour, dad went wild. We saw lots of geckos in our house.
Prague was short and sweet. My sister Amber flew to see us there with Josh Posh. We had great time together visiting places, eating out and chilling with good beer. I was allowed to taste some beer when we went to the beer museum. Communist museum was interesting, it is hard to relate to it, but mom was a great tour guide. Enjoy!!!