Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Vacation
Time to go back to a big city. We left the quaintness of Hakone for Kyoto and had time to visit a temple, a mausoleum, and a shrine before settling in for the evening.
Our last full day in Hakone was spent along the Old Tokaido Road and the south end of Lake Ashi. Rain from the previous day was nowhere to be seen, so we held out hope that we would see Mt. Fuji. Spoiler: we got a great view.
For a day in which we really only did one thing, it was plenty. That wasn't unexpected since we like having a “down” day every now and then. We also got our first rain of the trip; good thing we were prepared for it to start.
It may sound like we've already been to a lot of temples and shrines, but we took quick peeks at more of them today. But first was a visit to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, both the grounds and its greenhouse.
We spent most of the day out of Tokyo, going to Nikko to visit Nikko National Park, which houses several prominent shrines and temples. We went to Toshogu Shrine and Taiyuinbyo.
On this day we a more successful shot at seeing the Tsukiji market, looked through some of the Tokyo National Museum, went through a lot of Ueno Park, and not much else after that.
We decided to not do too much on our first full day in Tokyo, so we started at the Hamarikyu Gardens, took a ferry up to Asakusa, wandered around the Sensoji temple area, then walked around Asakusa. The evening's excursion was to Tokyo Tower.
Just as Monday was a short day, so was Tuesday. We landed at Narita International Airport around 3pm, and it took us almost a couple hours before we were on the train to the city.
We're setting out today on a month-long trip to Japan. This day will be quite short for us; our trans-Pacific flight took off at about 1:30pm, so we set our watches ahead to 5:30am Tuesday. It's like living in the future.
We made a quick trip to Vancouver to go in for interviews for the Nexus program. Deciding to make a weekend out of it, we spent a couple nights and took the opportunity to hike at Grouse Mountain.
It was just a couple weeks ago that we were in the Los Angeles heat for our family reunion. I flew down again to help celebrate my Aunt Aiko's 88th birthday.
My dad’s family has been getting together about every five years for a reunion, the latest being this past weekend. We had a great time, talking with people we hadn’t seen in years. Unlike Melody’s reunion which was a relatively unstructured weekend at an Indiana state park, this one centered around a luncheon with several activities happening around the meal, and a few before and after.
I just got back from Southern California where a lot of my family gathered to celebrate my Aunt Haru’s 100th birthday. It’s amazing enough for someone to reach the century mark, but even at that age, she’s still doing amazing well physically and is extremely sharp and witty.
Melody and I took our annual trip to Southern California, but this year was a little shorter than usual. Instead of staying through New Year's Day, we came home after a few nights, since I'll be going back down in a couple weeks. We still managed to do quite a bit during our stay.
Another travel day. We started by visiting the Air Force Museum. After that, we escorted the guava cake to Kathy and Irland in Toledo.
The beginning of July was our last day in Indianapolis. The plan was to leave in the morning and go to the Dayton Art Institute, get in some walking, and perhaps stop by a café for a while. In the late afternoon, we were going to see Arleen and John.
It was time to say goodbye to the Mealys, then meet the Brothers at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Then a driving tour of Indianapolis, followed by dinner and dessert.
For the last day of June, the plan was to do the grounds tour at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, find a place to do some walking, then spend the late afternoon/evening with the Mealys.
The Winkle Family Reunion came to a close, and we said our goodbyes. Then it was off to Indianapolis to walk around downtown a bit, after which we went to Kara's to spend the night.
The second full day at the reunion was set aside for canoeing or a covered bridge tour, some hiking, and dinner at the guest house. But even the beginning didn't go as expected.
