Sunday, July 6, 2025
Per usual I was unable to sleep on the plane, and Scott had nearly no sleep as well. Overall it was an easy direct flight from Seattle to London on British Airways, and we even landed a bit early. Our route from Heathrow to Canterbury would involve taking the Elizabeth Line to the Thameslink connection…
Friday, July 4, 2025
I turned 50 years old in May, which still seems odd to say out loud. I don’t really have a hangup about the number, it’s more that I feel a bit too immature to have earned it if that makes any sense. But then sometimes I’ll have conversations with younger friends, like in their 30s…
Sunday, August 25, 2024
We had to be out of our cabin by 8:00 AM so the crew could turn it over for the next sailing, but we didn’t have to be off of the ship until 9:30 AM. So we brought our bags with us to one of the main dining rooms for a leisurely breakfast. Gotta maximize…
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Technically today was considered a port day so that NCL can make it’s legally-required stop in Victoria, BC, Canada. But that stop is from 8PM-11PM, and since we’ve both been many times before and can go whenever we want to we skipped it and considered this a sea day. We just spent today soaking up…
Friday, August 23, 2024
NCL only allotted a half-day in Ketchikan for today’s port stop, 7AM-1:15PM. And it’s made even shorter by the fact that they dock quite a ways out of town requiring a (complimentary) old yellow school bus shuttle service. You can pay for an excursion that includes transportation, or hire a taxi for a chunk of…
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Scott let me pick the specific itinerary for this cruise, and I always knew I wanted a route that would include Glacier Bay National Park. I had been looking forward to this day for a very long time. Scott had treated us to a balcony cabin and thermal suite passes in part so we could…
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Today was our Skagway, Alaska stop, and we were scheduled to have a long port day here. We wandered the streets of the very small town. It was quite quaint with pioneer-era buildings and small shops surrounded by an epic natural backdrop. I got an official Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park stamp in my…
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Our first port stop for the cruise was Juneau, AK and it was today. But we also weren’t docking until 2:30 pm and were able to have a leisurely morning and early afternoon, soaking up the scenery in the quiet environments of our balcony and the thermal suite. We had no specific plans or excursions…
Monday, August 19, 2024
A full day at sea is the best way to start a cruise, I think. Time to settle in, decompress, find your vacation vibe. No alarm clock and a lazy pace. We had two planned engagements for the day: the Latitudes event and another specialty dinner reservation. Latitudes is the loyalty program for NCL, so…
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Today we boarded our Alaska cruise. My first and Scott’s fourth! We were booked on the Norwegian Encore on a 7-night itinerary, embarking and disembarking in Seattle. Readers of my prior cruise blogging might remember me as quite disenfranchised with the vacation method. But with some more careful planning, strategic upgrades, and taking advantage of…
Sunday, August 11, 2024
When we were in Japan I made it a point to stop into yarn and craft shops because… “Hello, my name is Stacy and I am addicted to yarn and starting knitting/crochet projects.” I can’t remember where we were honestly, but in one of the larger kind of “big box” craft stores I found a…
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
This is the Japan trip post-mortem. But first… shout out for my love’s 48th birthday. He’s my favorite person. ****** Near the beginning of our visit to Japan I was messaging with a friend and I said, “I knew they were better than us, but now I know it know it.” There’s no question in…
Monday, July 22, 2024
I made a video compilation of all most of the clips we took during the Japan trip. These were taken using my iPhone, Scott’s Pixel, and the GoPro 12. This is pretty rough and ready as I mostly just threw the clips into Clipchamp. Video editing is not something I enjoy so I think YouTube…
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Thanks to the magic of time zones we managed to live two days between waking up at 6:30 am in Kyoto on June 21st and walking through our front door in Seattle about 4:00 pm, also somehow on June 21st. To make sure we had the seats we wanted for our transit between Kyoto and…
Saturday, July 20, 2024
We decided to spend our last full day in Japan in Osaka. Pro tip: pronounced “OH-suh-kuh”, not “oh-SAW-kah”. We hopped on a slow local train out of Kyoto Station and enjoyed the views on the journey. Once in the city we transferred to the subway to get to Dotonbori. I didn’t do much research on…
Friday, July 19, 2024
We had a bit of a lie in and then caught a long 45-minute city bus to Arashiyama with a plan to catch several attractions in the popular area. I found this article with a recommended order for visiting sites, but did not expect us to get through all of it. The first stop on…
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Today was for a walk in the mountains, a hike between two villages: Kibune and Kurama. The route includes many points of interest tucked into idyllic nature, and came up as a day trip idea during our pre-trip research. I had asked our Kyoto Free Walking Tour guide about it back on the 13th and…
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
We had two goals for today: attend the Gion Matsuri parade and pick up my new prescription glasses. Gion Matsuri is a large annual festival that takes place over the entire month of July. We learned from our Free Walking Tour guide that this festival originated as a way to pray to the gods to…
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
We got a bit of late start and headed out at 10:45 am to walk the 1.4 miles from our hotel to Nishiki Market. Along the way we stopped into a shop and found a cute baby shower card for a friend and a small art piece to commemorate the festival that we planned to…
Monday, July 15, 2024
Today was our Fushimi Inari day. After a quick bakery snack and coffee at Cafe Veloce, we tried really hard to take transit from Kyoto Station but we had the hardest time figuring it out for some reason (I blame humidity fatigue and annoyance at other tourists). After wandering around the whole place twice we…
Sunday, July 14, 2024
I had a lie in so Scott took off for a long walk around Kyoto. Here is a sampling of what he saw and captured along the way… When I finally emerged from the comfy bed I took some time to organize our purchases as the piles and bags were a bit overwhelming in our…
Saturday, July 13, 2024
I had pre-booked us into a Kyoto Free Walking Tour focused on the Gion District for 10:00 am. I’ve rarely been disappointed with a free walking tour and I like doing them on our first full day whenever we go somewhere new to get a lay of the land. To get to our meeting point…
Friday, July 12, 2024
Today the goal was to travel to Kyoto. We slept in and took our time packing up since our hotel checkout time wasn’t until 11:00. We ended up leaving around 10:30, with the addition of a large shopping bag that I needed to carry since they were not lying about the shopping temptation in Japan.…
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Today was a reminder that a flexible mindset is key to staying positive during travel. For months prior to our departure I had planned the FUCK out of this day trip out of Tokyo, so on the surface this day looks like a failure. Early in our travel planning I learned about Hakone as a…
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
I had decided yesterday that Scott must have one of those amazing wagyu skewers at Tsukiji Market. So this morning we retraced my steps via the train to Hongwanji. We went inside the temple, but unfortunately much of the interior was covered. A lovely greeter gave us two origami cranes. So sweet. Like Hongwanji, Tsukiji…
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Today Scott and I spent a day apart. We had the BIGGEST FIGHT EVER. Just kidding. Typically we both love, love, love food tours. But when I was trying to find one in Japan I was hitting a lot of roadblocks due to Scott’s, um, limited palate. He won’t touch sushi, or most seafood. There…
Monday, July 8, 2024
We had planned on this being a slow morning since we knew we would have a later evening, but Scott was restless so he took off for one of his signature “long walks”. He took the opportunity to scout where he would need to meet his transportation for tomorrow morning. Around 11:00 am we headed…
Sunday, July 7, 2024
Nothing pre-planned on the agenda today so we slept in and were not ambitious in what we put together for the day. We decided to start with what we call “coffee shop time” which is, in fact, us spending time in a coffee shop. We do this in our hometown on a semi-regular basis -…
Saturday, July 6, 2024
We woke up early after not the best sleep. The A/C just wasn’t doing its job. But then we did a better job looking around the room, found the A/C remote and English instructions and quickly “fixed” the A/C. Guess we were more tired last night than we thought. Otherwise, jetlag wasn’t really affecting us…
Friday, July 5, 2024
We landed at Narita close to 3:00 in the afternoon. Customs/immigration had a longish line, but it moved. At immigration they didn’t put a stamp in our passports; they put a sticker which was so easy and clear to read. This was our first moment of “they do things that make sense here!” And the…
Thursday, July 4, 2024
I can think of no better way to celebrate US Independence Day than by leaving it. I was ready to be independent and free of this shitshow situation, most effectively displayed in our presidential contest that was in full swing. My people have the shortest memories, I swear. We booked our flights for Japan at…
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Cross stitching as a hobby is a bit difficult for me to admit. Somehow it feels more geriatric than my knitting. But it’s one of the first crafting hobbies I had as a child, and recently when I needed a knitting break I went in search of a project that interested me. It had been…
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Some life updates… neurodiversity, retirement planning, summer plans, travel plans (x2): The Trendy Diagnosis My suspected ADHD brain actually let me follow through on a goal I’ve had for awhile now. I got evaluated and officially diagnosed, so I am now a confirmed ADHDer! I also worked with a nurse practitioner to figure out the…
Thursday, August 10, 2023
Airalo. Yes. Technology that makes traveling so much easier. And it’s affordable. I’m starting to hit those middle-aged years where I find myself avoiding learning new technology. When I was a corporate manager I had some older staff that I inherited and they would drag their heels when we upgraded software and it would drive…
Saturday, August 5, 2023
I went to my first fiber festival ever! And it was the first year that this fiber festival was ever held. So I’m like a pioneer. Flock Fiber Festival was held at Magnuson Park here in Seattle and I’m so glad I went. I didn’t go with any particular projects in mind but still managed…
Monday, July 24, 2023
This is the day we traveled home from Reykjavik, so here’s the post-mortem on this trip. The Wins Scott still wins as best travel partner I could ever hope for or dream of. I am so, so lucky to have him as my life partner. Reykjavik is a lovely city. I’m really glad we had…
Sunday, July 23, 2023
This was Scott’s birthday! We made sure to book an extra night at the end of our cruise in town so he wasn’t spending his birthday traveling home from a vacay – how depressing is that? We disembarked our cruise in Reykjavik with a plan to take a city bus to our hotel. But I…
Saturday, July 22, 2023
This is simply a photo dump of a full day we had wandering around Reykjavik.
Friday, July 21, 2023
OK, last sea day. We can do this. Tomorrow we get an extra day in Reykjavik, we can stretch our legs, and feel a little less like a pig in a trough. But honestly, how can any day with this man be a tough one? He tried two new drinks today based on my recommendation…
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Originally, today was our port stop for Nuuk, Greenland. Then Plan B was to go into a fjord/glacier situation and then another smaller town south. Then Plan C was to skip the fjord and just go into the smaller today today. Well, ummm… not. The vast drift ice and currents just weren’t on our side.…
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
Today was supposed to be Paamiut, Greenland. But mother nature says no. It was pretty early in the day that the captain came over the intercom system to let everyone know we would not be stopping at Paamiut today due to weather and difficulties navigating the drift ice surrounding the port. So today was a…
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Next stop – the first of three port stops that made me choose this cruise itinerary – Nanortalik, GREENLAND bitches! I appreciate an obscure destination. Although we were visiting with 2000+ other cruise ship passengers which would kind of negate the idea of obscurity, right? Whatever, it’s still cool. But before I even saw land…
Monday, July 17, 2023
Today was a scheduled “sea day” as our ship crossed between Iceland and Greenland. I need to get better at writing during trips, or at least taking notes, so that when it’s weeks later and I’m trying to write about a day I have a clue beyond the photos we took. The only photos we…
Sunday, July 16, 2023
Today’s port was Isafjordur, Iceland. Per Wiki, “Ísafjörður experiences high winds and very few clear days throughout all the year”… well suck it Wiki, because our day was freaking epic and gorgeous. I honestly kind of squealed when I saw this view from the ship the morning we arrived. You can’t really see too much…
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Next cruise port stop: Akureyri, Iceland. Long, but good day. Long, but (you decide) post. Again I looked to see what we could do on our own vs. a ship excursion. In researching the area we decided we were most interested in seeing the Godafoss waterfall, and checking out the Myvatn Nature Baths. The ship…
Friday, July 14, 2023
Today the planned cruise port stop was Djupivogur, a small town on the south east coast of Iceland. I’m so glad I blog and don’t vlog because I can’t pronounce this town’s name. The ship’s shore excursion options weren’t particularly appealing, and they ranged in price from $199-$499 per person. Even if they had been…
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Since apparently we have more Hilton status than I realized, we joined about a hundred of our closest friends at the hotel breakfast buffet. But oh my goodness it was really good. I’m generally not a fan of buffets, to be honest they kind of creep me out. But if they are very well attended…
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
The sun never set during our polar-route flight from SEA > KEF. This is a shot we got over Greenland in the middle of the night. Landed in Iceland to beautiful clear views. And had a fun time watching our shadow on the moonscape. Despite the lack of sleep on the redeye (per uzhe) I…
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Oh, but first, let’s get everything done that I coulda done yesterday. Or a few things I coulda done a couple of weeks ago. 🤦🏻♀️ I finished Scott’s gloves. I used this yarn (the top one) that I bought at the Spincycle store in Bellingham back in April. I picked the store, Scott picked the…
Thursday, July 6, 2023
I have never done anything like this before. I mean, I’ve dyed my hair before, but never like… this. I’ve been thinking about it for a few years off and on but never felt like I was in the right place to rock this before. I definitely didn’t want to do it while I was…
Sunday, July 2, 2023
I moved my body: kayaking and a short walk. It was a glorious summer day so we took our new-ish kayaks out for their 2nd adventure. We live just a few blocks from a little Salmon Bay “beach” access point so we walked our kayaks-in-backpacks down there for a leisurely adventure. The access point is…
Saturday, July 1, 2023
HELLO SUMMER BREAK!!! (Well, kind of…) I just finished my first (school) year working as an occupational therapist in a public school system. And now I get my summer break. Except I still have paperwork to do. Because I procrastinate. I might have ADHD. It’s on my summer to-do list to get evaluated for that.…
Kjar-ied Away 