http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Michael T/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Michael T en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:19:39 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:19:39 UTC After flying all night we arrived in Cusco at 900 am and were picked up by our hotel and driven the fortyfive minutes to Pisac. We were tired and adjusting to the altitude going from sea level to over 9000 feet overnight had given us both headaches so we basically did nothing the first day but wander the market in the center of town and bit drink water and coca tea which is supposed to help http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Cusco/Pisac/blog-343300.html We just booked our reservations to hike the Inca trail to Machhu Picchu starting October 15. Check back then for pictures and stories from our two week trip to Peru http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-286612.html I went to Hawaii for an oral argument in a case and stayed four extra days. The argument was in Honolulu then I flew over to Kauai for the vacation. It was a nice laid back vacation with only one story of note. My first full day on Kauai I planned to go for a hike. I woke up early to leave as the hike was about an hour drive from my hotel but it was raining. After a couple of hours of wonderin http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Hawaii/Kauai/blog-221853.html On Thursday we returned to Reykjavik where we would stay for the remainder of the trip. Thursday evening and Friday were spent relaxing in the local hot pools eating out walking around the city and visiting the National Museum of Iceland. We also walked over to the sports center to pick up our registration packet for the annual Reykjavik Marathon on Saturday. We were both signed up to run http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-221292.html Emstrur to rsmrkDay four was a long hike and every time we thought we were surely getting close it always seemed as if there were a little more to go. We saw the only trees of the hike at the end going through a birch forest with trees about 10 feet high. Then we arrived in beautiful Thorsmork with the hut at the base of the glacier. Waiting on us there were two legs of lamb several fish f http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Laugavegur/blog-220765.html lftavatn to EmstrurDay 3 was mainly interesting for the side trips at the beginning and end of the day. We started by climbing a small mountain next to the hut to the 360 degree views at the top. There we signed the notebook left for all of those who make the climb. At the end of the day we did a short hike from the hut out to a canyon. The wind was blowing like crazy but we stood on the lip and http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Laugavegur/blog-220730.html Hraftinnusker to lftavatnDay 2 may have been the hardest day. We had to cross a series of icefilled crevices but the ice was melting in many places. Then we had to climb a steep mountainside then descend the other side on a trail of loose rocks to the valley below. Still we were a good ways from our hut and in fact had to hike past what looked like a nice hut and go another couple of miles http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Laugavegur/blog-220699.html Landmannalaugar to HraftinnuskerWe woke early in the morning to catch the bus from Reykjavik to Landmannalaugar the starting point of our hike. It was a four hour bus ride and we arrived around lunch time. We had a nice lunch at Landmannalaugar and of course I managed to cut my thumb slicing cheese. Already injured But it wasn't too bad so I slapped a bandaid on it and our group of 13 set ou http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Laugavegur/blog-201806.html Iceland isn't as far away as you think. It's about a six hour flight from Baltimore and we took a redeye arriving around 630 am local time. I woke up as the plane was descending and looked out on a bright blue morning. A layer of clouds several thousand feet below us obscured the ground. As we descended into the clouds I watched intently out the window waiting for that first view of land as http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-201604.html If you've tried to access our page in the last few days I'm sure you've noticed that you couldn't. The travelblog server crashed and we lost our blog entries but not the photos. We were able to recover all but one through Google Caches and that one we have the text saved elsewhere so it should be up soon. It took us several days to notice the problem with the blog because we've been busy prepar http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-189343.html We woke on our last day of vacation tired from ten days of going nonstop eager to fill our day with what we could and dreading our return to the workaday world. We slept too long to get the free continental breakfast so we got a bagel and coffee from the coffee shop attached to the hotel. Somewhat revived we walked over to the Burke Museum on the campus of the University of Washington. It had http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-174448.html Jerry Seinfeld is the Devil. His show ruined my life. I can hardly go a single day without something happenening that causes me to make a lame Seinfeld reference. This day was no exception. The ShangriLa hotel nice as it is is situated next to a 24hour gas station. The shades on the windows of the ShangriLa might as well not be there. The light poured through the window keeping me up most of http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-174441.html There were signs throughout the city for the Monet to Dali exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The exhibit sounded great but unfortunately it didn't open for another two days. It was raining though and so we decided to check out the Art Gallery anyway. From the guidebook we learned that the museum has a permanent collection of paintings by Emily Carr. We had never heard of her but the Lone http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver/blog-174437.html The next day we started slow. After sleeping late we wandered down the street to a small crepe shop. We spent a good hour there drinking coffee reading the newspaper in case you were curious Paris Hilton is frontpage news even in Vancouver and eating absolutely delicious crepes. After a relaxing morning we decided to take the scenic route to North Vancouver. We caught the Seabus a large http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver/blog-174425.html We decided to have breakfast at the Elbow Room which the guidebook told us is ldquoa Vancouver institution.rdquo We were not sure what to expect given that the primary description of the place is that it has abusive waiters. It turned out to be a great choice. The food was delicious and our waiter was only surly once when Michael attempted to pour coffee from the staffonly pot. One of the http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Vancouver/blog-173995.html Refreshed from a relaxing day of whale watching and driving instead of hiking to the top of Mt. Constitution we were up for the 800 a.m. serving of breakfast at the Kangaroo House and then back out to Mt. Constitution for some hiking. We started at the southwest end of the park and hiked around Cascade Lake. That was a bit more challenging than it looked because of a detour around the Lagoon. http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Washington/San-Juan-Islands/blog-173511.html After two days of tough hikes and long drives we wanted to take it a bit easy and relax on Orcas Island. We started the day with a nice breakfast at the Kangaroo House and then headed downtown East Sound to explore our options for the day. There are three main activities on Orcas Island hiking whale watching and sea kayaking. We decided that hiking could wait a day and since the island looked http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Washington/San-Juan-Islands/blog-173013.html At 545 a.m. Rachel woke up and rolled over to look out the window and check on the weather. Confronted with a majestic view of Mt. Rainier she couldnrsquot wait to get out on the trails. And neither could I. Yes I said majestic. I donrsquot care if it does sound cheesy because it WAS majestic. Check the pictures and then question my choice of words. We had prepurchased a packed trail lun http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Washington/Mt-Rainier/blog-172958.html We didnrsquot expect to hike in the snow in early June but thatrsquos exactly what we found ourselves doing. The Paradise area of Mt. Rainier is billed in the travel books as an expansive meadow of wildflowers during the summer. But summer on Mt. Rainier starts late and the flowers are really in bloom in July and August. In June at least this June Paradise is still covered in snow. Of cour http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Washington/Mt-Rainier/blog-172901.html Even though we had gone to bed at what for our bodies was 300 a.m. we were up early and ready to do some serious vacationing. We headed down to Pikersquos Place Market to get some breakfast stopping in at the Athenian Inn. The food was ok but the views of Puget Sound from our window table were enough to whet our appetites for a day of siteseeing. It also turns out that the Athenian Inn appe http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-172012.html