MBD

I am fortunate to be able to see this beautiful view on my birthday morning again. Finally Montreaux has sun and the snow mountain peeked out it’s top from clouds. Le Leman is like a jewelry box, surrounded by colorful flowers and reflecting sunshine. We had my BD cake on the balcony.

I made a mistake with the mascara as the eyebrow brush and my eyebrows looked like Ayako Imoto 

Chateau de Chillon is in the view  This side of town is quieter and may have a better view of the lake with the castle and snow mountain. I look much older than 4 years ago last time we came to Montreaux.

We strolled down to the hotel garden and took a walk to Freddie’s statue until the check out time. 

Our room is the 2nd top window on the left. I guess they DID upgrade us. 

After all I couldn’t ignore my favorite singer 

Back to the hotel. This hotel’s lobby is beautiful. We had iced coffee on the terrace. In this country, they always bring coffee with foams even we order black. That’s ok! I love it. 

I found cushions in the closet right before we checked out. They adds the color in the pictures. Oh well! 

Waze said our next destination was 5 hours away  When I checked Google map, it was half! After all it took about 3 hours. Safely crossed the border and we are in Colmar, France!

I heard Disney took the idea from this city. Colorful old buildings. Our hotel is in the part of famous views by the canal. Not much privacy but the particular room we are staying is in the post cards. 

Ken was tired from driving and slept for a while. 

It must be much better pictures in the sun. Hoping to take good pics next day. 

This is our room! All three windows! 

Before the dinner reservation, we walked around. I will probably take the same pictures in the better lighting. 

I reserved the restaurant at the hotel three months ago. 

Even I requested a table by the window twice on writings, our request was denied but I insisted. I wanted to have a nice BD dinner. This bitch was so hard to give us a better table. I told her we came all the way from USA for this  We almost left. 

Simply their mistake of booking or discriminated? Probably both. 

Finally she gave us the table by the canal. I was going to order 6 course but I was disgusted how she treated us so I downgraded to 4 course. The food lacked flavors. Wine was good and strong. 

Poor ducks. We are eating their livers. They looked happy living in the canal. 

I feel like no more snobby French good on my BD. If I spend close to 300 euro, I can buy very tasty sushi! 

Then we saw a family of swans 

The best thing was the complementary cakes they gave us. Creamy deserts are the best in France. 

This was on TV. The name is like the combination of me and Ken. It was exactly like Ken’s nightmare. He was kicked out of the bed and floated in the universe forever, thinking fuck he was stuck  The characters’ face somewhat resembles Ken 

Again I fell in sleep and completed this blog past 4AM. Thank you for Facebook and email BD messages. I will read little by little. Even I paused playing guitar, they still wish me being a young skinnier female guitar player rocking. I turned 54 

Montreux 2

Again it’s past midnight. My blog is a day late. As the forecast said it was all day raining. We woke up early for the hotel breakfast which was good but I over ate again. 

The lake view was ruined so we stayed in the hotel resting until 3pm. We are old and needed it. Nice kitty cats on the wall in our room. 

Going to Moutarlier, the cake shop, was one of the important tasks yesterday. I really wanted the same cake as my 50th BD’s. Because we have a rental car, we were able to come to the bigger branch with the parking.

I found the same cake  This time I know this brand tastes very well so I bought a lot of chocolates and cookies. We had iced coffee there. The online review was terrible but the lady who helped me was nice. If you expect a bad service, it turns out to be better. I never thought that I could eat the same cake again. It’s not a special BD like 50th, so I feel little guilty coming to this luxurious town. It is our 3rd time in Switzerland. We have to do it while we can. 

We stopped by the grocery store, Migros. Ken always makes fun of the name  New shopping devices we have never seen. 

Then we finally went to Jazz festival. Every time we walked, it started raining. Originally I was going to walk along the lake and enjoy the view but this time we gave it up and took a car. I saw Freddie Mercury’s statue from behind  It’s ok we took pictures 4 years ago. Inside the Stravinsky music hall, the festival looked like a small Namm’s atmosphere. Ken’s guitar was ruined in the airplane, so he hadn’t played guitar for a couple of days. He started playing in the shop. People were taking videos of his playing. 

Meanwhile I was walking around. 

57th! 

I bought the raincoats. I think the lady at the register made a mistake?!? Or they were on sale, the price was less than half 

We tried to look for BB King’s statue but we gave up. It’s ok we found Miles. Even with the raincoats, we got wet. We didn’t really come to this side last time. 

Young artists. Audience was drenched. 

All food venders looked good but we didn’t want to eat in the rain. We drove away from the festival for dinner. 

We found a restaurant in front of Chateau de Chillon. Even with 50% off the admission to the castle, we chose not to go inside 

Good choice! Not crowded and new experience! Western style Yakiniku! 3 different kinds of beef: current, aged, ribeye. 

Rectangular salt on the grill. 

Good creamy sauces. 

It was good and fun dinner 

Wow Sun is out! 

Nyon - Yvoire

The day before yesterday, we arrived at Switzerland after long red eye flights with a layover. Having difficulties of finding a checking in counter and mistakingly going to the wrong gate which was almost the furthest in the airport, we felt this was the last time we would take a connection flight. Shopping at Heathrow airport was fun though. There were so many cute products of British characters sold. 

Arriving at our hotel near Geneva airport after midnight, we slept until we were able to recover well enough to do sight seeing. Luckily we have no jet lags this way. Yesterday, we started with huge breakfast at the hotel and went back to GVA to rent a car. I didn’t see Montreux Jazz Cafe in GVA before. Must be new?!? We are here for Montreux Jazz festival for only one day. No really particular artists we want to see but I just like to visit Lake Geneva around this time of the year. I couldn’t forget about how beautiful it was when we came for my 50th BD. 

The rental car maker is that we never heard of but it looks like a French car. Driving from GVA to Nyon went smoothly. A lady at the ferry ticketing office informed us the parking was one hour limit and suggested the longer term garage. From the garage, we found a path to Nyon castle. 

Beautiful view from the castle. 

Strolling the town until the next ferry. 

Since I misunderstood the ticketing lady, we missed one ferry. 

It was too late for the bigger ferry anyway but small one was ok. 

Leaving Nyon. 

Arrived at Yvoire, medieval French town. 

Old buildings were decorated with flowers tastefully and breathtaking views kept coming into my eyes 

Everybody was waiting to take pictures with this fat lady. No wait in USA 

There were so many people and it was almost impossible to take pictures without people so I missed a lot of great shots. 

Yvoire Jazz festival starts next day. We avoided the crowds because the line ups were not our interests. 

I made a mistaking again waiting at the wrong line for the return ferry but we were able to find seats. We took off on the ship originally we planned to take even visited the town two hours later. It was enough time since we were not hungry. 

Coming back to Nyon. 

Because of the traffic, it took an hour and half to go to Montreux. Arrived at our hotel. 

Hotels are tastefully decorated but I wasn’t happy with the room even they said “ free upgrade”  The bed and the window are too small. The reason why I reserved this hotel was because we needed the parking space. 

We tried to walk to the main area but it started raining. Instead we drove and ate dinner at Fuji Japoniese restaurant. We got to catch the thunder lightning show in the sky again. This time though it looks like tomorrow is rain all day  The beauty of this lake is half on the shitty weather days. 

Sedona ~ Clear Sky

It’s past midnight so the day before yesterday, we drove to Sedona. 

Early check in wasn’t available so we explored around our hotel, Cedar Resort. Lower side on Upper Sedona is luxurious. Tlaquepaque art place was beautiful! Though these cactus deserts were nasty  Also the lady made a mistake and tried to charge me $33 for it 

After one bite, we through it away 

Tlaquepaque across the street was much nicer. 

Front desk guy never called me when the room was ready. When we walked in the lobby, he said he was just gonna call us. Yeah right  I liked the room even though it had a broken shade. Beautiful stained glass in the bathroom. 

Nice view at the balcony. The room was very clean. 

Before we got too comfortable and sleepy, we went to Upper Town. This Indian craft place sold every animal parts. 

There were faces of coyotes, deer’s feet, and many more animal parts. I felt bad for animals so I didn’t take many pictures. 

I like the look of stuffed animals but I don’t want to support killing animals so I never buy those things. Indians do not waste any parts of animals because they still respect after taking their lives away I think. 

I was tired of American food everyday so we had dinner at Chinese restaurant and night night 

Next morning, we started early for hiking.

According to web search, Fay canyon trail was the easiest so we chose this trail. Beautiful wild flowers.

Rocks looked like faces. 

We tried to find the bridge but we missed the turn. 

Ken was tired. We were gonna turn around after the bridge which was about 0.6 miles away from the start line. 

Since we missed the turn, we ended up with finishing the whole trail which was about 2 miles in and out. 

Behind of End of Trail, many young people were climbing up all the way up. 

Ken refused to go so I went up by myself until the half way. 

Wow  It was worth it 

I called Ken because it was only 2 minutes climb. 

I wonder this was the bridge? 

After completing the trail, we went to get lunch. 

We went to The Hudson. The view from the restaurant was amazing 

The waitress told us the most famous rock was snoopy. Really? We went to the way she told us but we couldn’t find the rock looked like snoopy. 

Cathedral rock is of course famous. 

After that we had drinks at the food court with a view and left Sedona. 

 Arrived at our hotel, Clear Sky Resort. The dome was much bigger than I expected. Very nice!!!

It is different from glass igloos in Finland. 

Even the bathroom is roomy. 

View from the bed which is located upstairs. Bright moon. Feel like my mom is overlooking me. Ken is drunk and slept in his favorite chair. Night night 

Route 66〜 Grand Canyon

Yesterday we drove the famous Route 66 to Arizona for Ken’s BD trip. We briefly stopped Kingman for photo sights.

Then we stopped Seligman for dinner at Roadkill Cafe. Since it was getting late, we decided to explore this town on the way back. 

Finally we arrived at Williams AZ. Our motel is in the center and souvenir stores were still open. The lady who drives this car and works at this store was friendly so we decided to purchase souvenirs at her store the following day. 

Today

We went to Grand Canyon. It’s been about 25 years since I visited last time  but the first time for Ken. At the park entrance, three orange Dodge cars were in line  Is it a coincidence or all rental cars? 

Oh wow! Followed by a similar red car! Total four! 

First we headed to Mather view point. 

Then we drove to the hotel area and took Bright Angel Trail which was the most popular and easiest trail. 

Lookout studio

We debated to stay at Grand Canyon until sunset for better photos but Ken said he saw enough We came back to Williams for dinner. Red Raven restaurant was the best in town! Great waitress and great food! After the dinner, we took some pictures on the other side of the street. 

Happy Anniversary!

Local time is three hours ahead of California and all activities made us tired so it was extremely hard to get up early. When I woke up, Ken prepared a nice anniversary card with a crystal pendant. How sweet! I also prepared my card for him. When I opened his card, what a surprise! We wrote the exactly the same messages 

We had breakfast at the beach restaurant. A lot of fish since someone was feeding them. 

I booked Xplor. Since the park closes at 5pm, we tried to rush there but still got there after noon 

Just going into the cave is worth it. Beautiful 

We had to wear helmets. 

I took as many pictures as possible before we started water activities. Once at the locker room, we had to leave all stuff. You were not allowed to have things in hands. 

Ken said it looked like a stingray’s fossil. 

I think this is where zip line ends. I was afraid of messing up my back when landing in the water so we didn’t do it. It is supposed to be the world most used zip line. Instead we did hammock splash 

After we did river swim and vehicle and ate lunch, we headed back. 

We got back to the hotel early hoping to do snorkeling again but we physically got beat and decided to rest until the sunset time. 

Main stage was preparing for Valentine show. 

Realized no sunset in the beach in east coast  We slept through the dinner reservation time at Seafood restaurant. I was still full from all you can eat during our stay. 

Valentine special menu was provided. 

The below are extras we ordered. 

My stomach wasn’t feeling well so I am posting this next morning. 

Checking out. 

I finally caught this on the camera. Looks like a big squirrel. Just sitting on the same spot. We saw him before and after breakfast 

After checking out, we are resting at the beach chairs. I think we did snorkeling on the best day (the day before yesterday). Waves are big now. 

Deer was eating flowers. She isn’t scared by people. 

Xcaret

We have been in Mexico since two days ago for our anniversary trip. Xcaret is like Mexican Disneyland but all real in nature. When I first found out about this, I was so excited and made a trip plan relatively quickly. Because it is a water park, my hair got messed up and too embarrassing. I almost not to write the blog for that reason but I did it. That’s why this blog is very very long  Forget about pictures while doing water activities! I look like my aunts and definitely show my father’s side traits on my face as I get older  It is getting harder to take good pictures 

This pic is the first night at the hotel. All inclusive. 

On the second day, we ate breakfast at the beach restaurant. Our upgraded room is closer to everything. The property isn’t as big as they brag about but I think it’s a nice size. This hotel is the best location if you are going to Xcaret park since this property is inside the park. 

This sea water pool we experienced today was great that we could see fish and enjoy snorkeling. Outside the pool had bigger fish. 

Hotel lobby

This is the way to go to Xcaret. We took the boat but walking was actually faster  

Entrance of the park was so small. Was it because we were in their property already?!? I was totally prepared for the security check. I heard selfie sticks and non biodegradable sunscreens were confiscated but nobody checked our bags. The first thing we did was Sky Tower, the closest to our hotel. 

Our room is located on the left of the pool. Actually it isn’t really an upgrade. The room has only one bed so they brought a roll in bed. They never registered right after moving us so we encountered some difficulties such as our keys stopped working and dinner reservations took a long time etc.

We were surprised that the park wasn’t crowded at all. We rode on the boat on the underground river. It reminds me of Jungle Cruise in Disneyland. 

Then we actually swam in the underground river, which was much cleaner than the boat path. This activity is the most popular one. We finally saw many people there  No pics while we were swimming. 

Mayan ruins. 

Then we saw manatees  I always love big fat animals. 

Flamingos were everywhere. 

My messed up hair and no eye makeups after swimming 

The monkey looked disappointed 

Good thing about Xcaret is that we could go in and out the park so that we could change and eat at our hotel.  

After the dinner we rushed to catch the night show at the park but we got lost! We were heading to the opposite direction. 

We missed the first 15 minutes of the show but it was quite long. The performances were amazing but unfortunately my lack of Mexican music background and all activities all day made me sleepy. 

The third day, today. 

This bridge is the landmark to go to our room. Without this, we easily get lost. 

After the breakfast, we walked in the hotel property, which is like the park itself. Wild animals and Mayan remains are here. 

I enjoyed this ecological path. 

We spent most of the day at the beach, snorkeling and Ken was drinking  This smaller pool is the closest to our room. 

We could reserve two alacarte restaurants during our stay. We chose a steak house tonight. It’s funny that waiter took this pic. I like it better than the posed shot  All appetizers were the same as buffet but medium rare steak was good. 

Hakone

I have been in Japan over three weeks. Only three days left until I go back to US. The beginning of my trip was very difficult. My father contracted covid and I had to pay extra attentions not to catch it. Wearing a mask and disinfect everything every time needed so much effort. Plus my father damaged the tire when he wasn’t feeling good, we had no car for 3-4 days. Extensive cleaning of my house and lack of transportation, everything made the living so difficult. Luckily he got well quickly and I didn’t catch it from him. After his quarantine period, we went to numerous hot springs. I am writing this blog on the way back to Shinjuku from Hakone. My friend from high school and I had a trip to Hakone hot spring. We got there yesterday but it took one hour more than the bus schedule and it freaked me out if we took a wrong bus or not.  Finally we arrived, whew!  Nothing was around there so I had to pay extra to get dinner at the hotel. 

Susuki plants are famous here. 

We have a very similar picture from Shugaku ryoko from our high school days 

The room was ok but the beds were the worst I had ever used. My back was killing me so I had to sleep on the couch. However, the hot spring was good even though Mt. Fuji wasn’t visible. It was one of the best water qualities I had ever experienced. My friend and I talked and talked and couldn’t sleep much on the extra hard beds with wire feelings. 

After we checked out the hotel, we had great experiences. We visited Owakudani and could see Mt. Fuji’s top with clouds. It was so beautiful 

Mt. Fuji on the back. 

The view of Mt. Fuji didn’t get better than this.

Black eggs are the special products here. Everything is black! Soft cream and my friend’s fashion 

On the way to the terminal of this rope way. 

“Dai” the big Japanese letter is on the mountain. They burn the letter for the festivals. 

Going to Togendai station.

Ashinoko. 

We gave up on taking a ship at Ashinoko lake and walked around instead. 

Beautiful 

Came back to the hotel and waited for the transportation back to Shinjuku. 

Mt. Fuji wasn’t still visible from here. 

Buckeye Hot Springs

I almost gave up visiting this hot springs because David Walley’s hot springs were cold and we didn’t enjoy them. I had to take a hot bath in the hotel room. Soon after I was in the tub, their technician came and told us there was a leak downstairs from my tub  I couldn’t finish taking my bath and Ken couldn’t even take a shower. After all this property didn’t worth $300 a night 

We checked out early and headed home. On the way, we stopped by Buckeye Hot Springs. It was challenging to drive on the dirt road and our car’s bottom got damaged on the way to the hot spring. Probably this is the most natural and true hot springs I have ever visited. 

We made it 

There were two tubs close to the parking but we headed to the main tub. 

Luckily there were only two people at the tubs but one of them was completely naked  I had a hard time not to include him in my pictures 

This guy… We finally expelled him from this tub by joining him 

The tubs behind the main one were not as hot and clean. 

I like the water running endlessly. Kakenagashi style. 

River next to the tub was very cold and clean. I soaked myself in the river for ten seconds and went back into the hot tub back and forth mimicking Scandinavian style. 

I love snow covered mountains. 

Mammoth Lake was on the way so we stopped there to get our lunch. Snow covered mountains were right there! It started raining and freezing. Most of the restaurants were closed. 

We found the stage Ken played years ago in the shopping center. 

Not good choice of restaurant. This ramen place used pasta as the ramen noodles  There was a display of toy lottery I used to love when I was a kid. 

I am glad that we made it to Buckeye hot springs.I realized that true nature hot springs were so much better than man made chlorinated pricy hot springs. 

Hot Spring trips

Ever since I’ve lived in US, I missed Japanese cultures a lot and got more interested in hot springs. Probably I want to heal and relax my body from hard work. We made a short trip to Kernville three weeks ago. We went to California Hot Springs Resort and Miracle hot springs. Because the hotel sucked and didn’t have a good wifi, I couldn’t write a blog. Two nights three days trip was too short. We decided to make a trip to Tahoe this weekend. Again because of my work, we have to head back tomorrow but I am having more fun than Kernville trip so far. Arrived last night going through a cute town, Bishop where we bought our lunch at this Dutch bakery. 

I think this is Mono Lake. Beautiful 

After 8 hours of driving, we arrived Genoa. I reserved this hotel because all good hotels in Lake Tahoe were sold out. We like it! It has a David Walley’s hot spring resort in the property. This is a time share place but we could reserve it through Expedia. Very nice one bed room with a big jacuzzi and a full kitchen plus a washing machine! Much nicer than overly expensive Tahoe’s mediocre hotels. We wish we had a room on the other side which has a nice view . 

Lake Tahoe is only swimmable during a hot seasons like end of July to beginning of August is the best. I thought this might be the last Tahoe trip we could do this year so we decided to do it last minute. I missed this beautiful view so much  We couldn’t come here last year because of fire. 

Secret beach is no longer secret. 

We came back to our favorite secluded place where nobody was around. 

When I saw the view upside down as I laid on the rock, the view looked amazingly artistic. I wanted to create a wavy strings of clear emerald water with warm furry textures of trees on a canvas with oil painting. Lazy me, I wanted to buy it rather than painting by myself  

About one hour later, people with a dog on the surf board arrived from the shore and suddenly got crowded. Soon after we left. I hope we can come back here again soon. 

Looking for an oil painting, we went to South Lake Tahoe downtown. Car show was going on and Ken was happy. 

No luck on finding a painting but I bought a nice top. Downtown was crowded as usual so we went through Kingsburry to get to Summit Village where we ate our light lunch/dinner at a rib restaurant at 7000 ft elevation. 

It was good! It looked like it was voted number one rib restaurant in Nevada. 

Since this hot spring at the hotel property charges $55 per person, I wanted to make the most out of it. This part of river is hot spring but they don’t allow people to swim there because it is 140 degrees hot. 

There are five tubs and a pool. Mineral hot springs but it is chlorinated. 

All was occupied but this one. Soon after people started joining on this small tub, we left. 

We went back before closing but the water was cold  It was NOT hot spring. I had to stay in the sauna and steam room but they were crowded. After all this hot spring doesn’t worth paying $55 per person. Well we never know until we tried. It was still a good experience.