The EU removes the US from their safe travel list, airfares drop, and we snatch up a couple of tickets to Southern Spain. The East Coast is the perfect springboard to Europe, and it’s hard to just turn around and fly back to the West Coast while there. The original plan was to go to … Continue reading Dos Boletos a Andalucía
Phoenix is an urban sprawl much like LA, albeit cheaper. One wouldn’t expect to find any nature paths or scenic hiking trails in such a mega city, but there is one — the popular Echo Canyon Trail on Camelback Mountain, which reaches up to 2706 ft in elevation. Not a very imposing height for those … Continue reading Echo Canyon Trail @ Camelback Mountain
Since we had covered the Western district of the Saguaro National Park yesterday, I decided that we’d revisit the Eastern district today. We would later find out that the use of the word “revisit” was completely wrong, because when we pulled into the park we realized that we had literally never even been to the … Continue reading Saguaro National Park
It’s astonishing that there are places we had never been to in Tucson despite having lived here for 5 years. We didn’t even know that the Saguaro National Park is split into East and West, with the town of Tucson sitting in the middle of it. We’d been to the park on the East side … Continue reading Trip Down Memory Lane
Three days of rest and rehab with eccentric calf strengthening and foam rolling did wonders for my achilles. Managed to tuck in my 18-miles this morning before hitting the road for Phoenix at 10AM. The 5.5-hour drive went by quickly with minimal congestion. That is until we got closer to Phoenix, when we encountered the … Continue reading Phoenix
Airfare prices are cracking again. With uncertainty associated with the Delta variant, businesses are grounding their sales force this fall. Business travelers are canceling their flights, and fares for the rest of us are dropping like a ton of bricks. We managed to rebook our October one-way NYC to LAX flight for a fraction of … Continue reading Delta Uncertainty
The dreaded old injury is back. Woke up with soreness in the left Achilles this morning. I suspect the culprits were the fartlek I did 2 days ago, and the lack of foam rolling over time. Tried to run this morning, but within a minute I knew I had to stop. My younger self would … Continue reading Setback
I’ve reluctantly let go of my CSR. Just couldn’t justify having 2 premium travel cards. I managed to downgrade it to a no-fee Freedom Flex card during the grace period to get the full CSR annual fee back. What I didn’t realize was that the $300 travel credit is yours once used. Meaning the 2021/2022 … Continue reading Unexpected Windfall
Caught a scene that warmed and brought joy to my heart this morning as I was on my way out for a run. It was as beautiful as the colors of the Grand Prismatic Springs, As breathtaking as the sunrise at the Mesa Arch, And as exhilarating as hiking in the cold waters of the … Continue reading Change of Season
Kaua’i has to be my favorite Hawaiian island. Oahu is too commercialized, Maui too crowded, and the big island of Hawai’i a bit bland. Kaua’i is simply beautiful with its lush greenery, stunning coastline, and less crowds. Alas, our time on the island has come to an end. We were due to fly out at … Continue reading Last Day In Kaua’i
There are several trails in the Koke’e State Park that bring you out onto ridges to view the NāPali Coastline. The 2 most popular are the Awa’awapuhi and the Nu’alolo trails. There is the option to do both by hiking the connecting Nu’alolo Cliff trail between the 2 to form a 12-mile loop, which is … Continue reading Nu’alolo Trail
Owing to yesterday’s Hanakapi’ai Falls hike, waking up this morning was incredibly hard. Is this another sign of aging, where we can’t do back to back 8-mile hikes anymore? Since we only have 2 more days of hiking on the island, I decided to push the agenda. I have 5 trails on my hike list. … Continue reading Pihea Trail
Anyone who’s watched the movie Jurassic Park will be familiar with the famed NāPali Coast. To view the NāPali coast, one would have to be on a helicopter, catamaran, or kayak. Since none of those options appealed to us, we decided on the second best option - hiking it. The Kalalau trail is the 11-mile … Continue reading Hanakapi’ai Falls Trail
We don’t have a car booked for the first 3 days of our trip. This is mainly because I had wanted to pare down the expenses by just having a car for 4 of the 7 days that we’re here. When I had booked the car back in early April, the rates were around $100 … Continue reading Kaua’i Sans Car
The last time we set foot in the airport was 4 months ago back when domestic traveling was just picking up. Today, domestic traveling has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Images of long lines in the airport, packed flights, and stories of flight delays/cancellations and crowds in HI had me reconsidering whether to make our way … Continue reading Post Vaccine Pandemic Traveling – Domestic Edition
Having had the Amex platinum card for the past 3 months, I’ve finally come to the conclusion of what this card really is. There are currently 2 premium travel credit cards here in the US - Chase Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum (Citi Prestige has been discontinued, but it was never truly a contender). I … Continue reading Amex Platinum Thoughts
In the days of social media, it has now come down to this - if you want to access a particular trail, you will need to book your parking and entry permits 30-90 days in advance. Gone are the days when you can stroll onto a trail after having read about it in a guidebook … Continue reading Park Permits & Reservations
We are half way through 2021, and next year’s traveling is starting to take shape. Unlike this year’s monthly domestic excursions, next year will involve more international traveling - fingers crossed that Asia and Africa will have most of their people vaccinated against Covid by then. If Havasupai opens up next February as they’ve projected, … Continue reading Trip Planning 2022
One of the reasons we had timed our Zion and Grand Canyon visit for this week was so that it would coincide with the Resorts World opening. What we were interested in wasn’t so much the hotel itself, but in their Famous Street Eats featuring all the famous hawker foods in South East Asia. Since … Continue reading Vegas Eats
After spending a night at the luxurious suite at the Palazzo, it was hard to say goodbye. Alas, good things must come to an end. Before checking out, I logged 10 numbing miles on the fitness center’s treadmill, instead of running outdoors in 90F weather. Dry heat or not, it’s still too hot. I used … Continue reading Wynn Las Vegas
