Trails 2 Travel

Evermore Aurora  Review OK this has been a long time coming but I’m finally writing up my thoughts on the new Evermore park in Pleasant Grove (aka.. my back yard) We went for the Fall experience of “Lore” and came away happy but somewhat let down by the mass of crowds we encountered the Monday before Halloween as well as how complicated the process seemed to be. Let’s just say it wasn’t a place for introverts. We mostly just walked around admiring the building/garden details, character costumes, and we did dabble in some ax throwing. (There was archery as well but the line was too long).

Day 9… our last day (and not even a full day at that) ended as any busy trip should- with a lazy Sunday morning stroll through a park. Not just any park though. Jingshan park.. which I hadn’t even known was a thing until we arrived in Beijing and our first tour guide mentioned it to us. Luckily our hotel was an easy 5 minute walk from the East gate of the park.

Our day started on a train and similar to our last sleeper train experience, I was up at the crack of dawn unable to fall back asleep… starting what would be a fairly long day. Luckily we didn’t have to worry too much about organizing our trip as this day was our 2nd tour and was organized for us.  About the Tour : I didn’t book this tour through a website or by happening upon someone’s page but instead was referred to the tour guide Lisa from a friend who had previously visited Beijing. The cost was the most affordable I saw comparing to online prices for a private tour and the biggest benefit was since we had a private car for the day, we didn’t have to worry about what to do with our luggage while we explored the city. While we didn’t get to meet Lisa personally (she had a family emergency) we did have a great tour with one of her associates. Our stops would be the Summer Palace and Forbidden City and would only end up taking about half a day. If you are wanting to bo...

Bring it on Disney! This was our 4th Disney Park together (having already visited Disneyland Anaheim, Disneyland Paris, and Disneyworld in Orlando) and we were ready to see what the latest Disney park had to offer. 

Day 6- Exploring Shanghair from ancient water towns to modern skyscrapers: We wanted to see all we could in a day of what the Shanghai area had to offer. 

My last Carbon County post: last but not least as the little town of Helper is up there on one of my favorite parts of the area. If you like small towns with artsy vibes, historic buildings, amazing locals, and delicious food, this town is for you! 

First and foremost: Let's start with the food  GROGGS Pinnacle Brewing Co.  Our first night in town we headed to the local brewery/ pub (because after ATVing all day, that seemed the natural progression). GROGGS while sounding medieval, turned out to be quite delicious. They had decent prices, and fantastic food. I got my usual bacon cheese burger (which I would put on top 10 burgers ever) and Katie's in-house smoked prime rib sandwich looked pretty fantastic as well. This place is open 7 days a week (though closes at 8 on Sunday) so if you're looking for a place to eat, particularly on Sunday, I recommend.

Another Carbon County Success story: Getting to watch closing races of a 3 day event: The Castle Country Clash at the Desert Thunder raceway. Some of you who knew me years ago would know I was a big NASCAR fan back in the day. (I mean I made NASCAR board game for a 5th grade math project once...I was serious about it)  So when Tina asked us if we would be interested in attending the weekend's stock car races my answer was an easy YES! Saturday with our ATV ride, we were wiped out but luckily we finished our hike Sunday just in time for me to check out the afternoon races. 

Everyone knows I can't go on a vacation without checking out at least one hike and in this case, the Gordon Creek waterfall was calling my name.  Trail Stats: Distance: 2.5 miles RT if you go all the way to the top of the falls Elevation gain: 250 feet (there's one decent up and one down each direction) Kid friendly, dog friendly, ATV friendly.  

Fall Carbon County ATV Tour Let me start off this post by saying that not only did this tour far exceed my expectations, but the entire area did. If you hear Carbon County, most people immediately ask "what is there to even do there," "where is that?" Then you mention "Price" which is on all the road signs when you head from SLC to Moab and you get a few nods.  WELL, time to change that.

Day 5- our 2nd day on the mountain. We were both kind of waking up around 5:30 and noticed lights of people/ groups out hiking to a peak to watch sunrise. We both had rough sleeping, but felt good enough at least so we got dressed, gathered our small pack of things, and headed out to check out sunrise. In the interest of not getting up early enough and being hungry for breakfast, we only did the short walk back to the cloud dispelling pavilion where we’d watched the sunset. I wish however that we had just done the jaunt up to Purple Cloud Peak as that was probably the best/ closest peak to our hotel and was tall enough we would've been able to see the East side of the mountain. 

Day 4, part 2 continued: The hike to the Fairy Walking Bridge. Once we reached the bottom we took the Northern rail car back up to the top which spit us out near the Baiyun hotel. (where I would personally recommend staying for location and reviews) We debated going to check in at our hotel but the day was still young (it was only 11) and we were right at the top of the SOUTH trail around the Western Sea. This was the trail I originally planned on taking all the way down but was told it was closed half way. 

2nd best day of our trip (after the Great Wall) as the mountains and sites we saw this day were EPIC. but let's get things straight.. this day was a TONNNN of stairs. 

Day 3, ahh the most stressful day of them all. We were up and at Mcdonalds again for breakfast round 2. This time we avoided the sandwich all together and ordered the “big breakfast” which was basically the makings of a sandwich but with scrambled eggs and a hash brown. No ketch up in site and a little more food although it cost more than twice what the previous day had cost. We stopped at a store for some snacks and then checked out of our hotel and headed for the metro. Getting to the train station was relatively painless but once there… we were a bit lost.  We wandered to 3 different corners of it looking at the giant screens for our train number. The easiest way to think of it is like an airport and you have to look for your gate. Once you find your waiting room/”gate” you wait until about 30 minutes before departure when you “check in” and queue to go out to the platform. Once we managed to find our actual room and go through security, it was pretty easy and locating our ...

Let me start off... by apologizing about just how many photos are contained in this post. I could't choose favorites. When first planning our trip to China, I can’t tell you HOW many hours I spent agonizing over what section of the Great Wall to see. Do we visit the most popular one Badaling? Or the second most popular Mutainyu that is close to Beijing and has a cool Tobogan ride down? OR do we venture out further from the city to visit a less restored section, otherwise called the “wild” sections. There’s a section where the wall meets the sea (probably too far), a section with very scenic views of a lake and mountains, a moderate hiking section that was 50% resorted, or a HARD hike section where the wall is 100% wild. The pros of doing one of the first 2 is that we’d be able to combine the Great Wall with other cool historic sites like the Ming burial sites, temples, or sites in Beijing city. The cons would be they would likely be more busy (especially Badaling) and I li...

Ok so here comes the first post about what can only be called an overwhelming trip to China! Our travel day started at the 0-Dark hundred hour of 4:30 to get to the airport for a 6:40 AM flight to San Francisco. Smooth 1.5 hour flight and a short 2 hour layover we were on our way again to Beijing. Both flights were on United and fairly smooth apart from getting 0 sleep since it was pretty much all during my normal waking hours. We arrived in Beijing just after 2 PM. Customs was pretty similar to any other passport control apart from the passport control kiosks also requesting all 10 of your finger prints.  Then you wait in a line with the kiosk receipt, go through passport control and customs. The process from getting off the plane to leaving the airport took just over an hour. (the line wasn’t too bad and we didn’t check bags) soo all in all not bad! We stopped at the first ATM in the airport we found to take out cash (which you need immediately to even leave the airport) then ...

Ah Manila... the city (in the Philippines) that never sleeps, has terrible traffic, and an odd assortment of things to do. We wanted to have a full day (just in case) back in Manila before our flight home and as I didn't have anything terribly specific in mind, we let Tippe's local friend plan our day. 

Philippines Day 7: Return to Manila First off, sorry this post is insanely late... It's been a busy summer that will maybe get blog posts one day... one day. Anyways so Day 7, sleep schedule remained royally cursed so I was up before dawn and back out in a rocking chair crossing my fingers for another crazy sun rise. And while it wasn't as mind blowing as the previous day, the calm water, canoes, and clouds just on the horizon were the peace this crazy day needed to start out with.

Philippines Day 6: Swimming with Whale Sharks Whale Sharks- Did you need another reason to visit the Philippines?  While there are numerous boating spots around the islands to spot or possibly swim with whale sharks, the most accessible and reliable is definitely Oslob on the island of Cebu. Here the whale shark tours operate 363 days of the year, are incredibly affordable, and you can "count" on seeing them. The reason why? Unlike other whale shark sighting spots, the tours in Oslob feed the whale sharks.

Philippines Day 5: Kawasan Falls Tour Day 5, another Island, another Epic Day. This was the only day tour we pre-booked before our trip: Canyoneering Kawasan Falls and hiking Osmena Peak. There was a fair amount of mis communication leading up to it as far as pick up time since initially they had said pick up at 6:30 but then the night before when I e-mailed to confirm, they said 8-8:30... well ok so the next morning around 8 we started watching for the van and it got there just before 8:30 but I noticed later he tried to change it back to 6:30... oops we were already passed out though. So 8:30 it was. We had a comfortable private van for the almost 90 minute journey to the Canyoneering outfitter. There we finished paying for our tour, selected our lunch options, and were fitted for helmets, life jackets, and water shoes (if you wanted... I just used mine that I know I like) 

Philippines Day 4: Exploring Cebu OK so day 4. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:30 so the shuttle picked us up at 5:30 from our hotel for the 30 minute ride back to the airport. Cost was the same at 150 pisos pp and we got there right after 6 after picking up a few other people on the way. The line was pretty long to get in (the airport was still opening and we had to go through FIRST security) Again we had to show proof that we already had tickets to get through this security point. Once in, we went to one of the 3 booths, they weigh your carry on (and this time we could only have 1!!) and then you go through 2nd security… which ironic enough there was a guard sitting there telling you the machine was broken and to just go on through haha but he was checking our boarding passes at least. Then once again like an hour before our flight they started boarding and we were off a few minutes early.

Philippines Day 3 - Island Escapade   Our 3rd day thankfully started a little later in the morning (I think we made it till about 5 this time haha) otherwise much the same. We killed time in the room until coffee shops opened at 7 and we headed out in search for sustenance. This time we tried a place called Tea & Shake which we liked much better as far as cost/ service/ and atmosphere. Tea and Shakes for breakfast  Then it was back to our room this time getting picked up shortly after 8 for the short trike ride back to the tour shack to pay and then onto our boat for the Island Escapade tour! This time we were on the boat for like 30 minutes with just one couple so at least we weren't crammed in waiting... but we still didn't leave until almost 10. (*eye roll) It takes forever.

Philippines Day 2: The Ultimate Coron Tour Waiting for the sun to come up so we could escape our room  This day was definitely EPIC but it was off to a slow start... Since we fell asleep so early we were wide awake around 1:30 AM with nothing to do until 8ish when the tour company would come get us. We killed time reading and chilling in our room until 6 when the sun started coming up so we threw on a cover ups and ran outside to greet the morning sun on the water. By 7, coffee shops and restaurants started opening for breakfast so we walked into town to grab some waffles! Then back for a bit more waiting for our tour.

So the Philippines ... a place most people asked me why I wanted to go there? Well uh let's see: stunning beaches, warm water, incredible landscapes, whale sharks, caves, and SO cheap. So with that... let's go over why YOU SHOULD be planning a trip to the Philippines.

How To Plan Your Dream Trip  Since I started traveling a lot more in the last few years, a lot of people have asked me A. "how do you afford to travel so much?" I answer with a quick trip to some of my posts to see my budget for each trip as well as happily explain I get a lot of time off from my company. (and leverage the time off the best way that I can) B. "how do you PLAN where to go and what to do?" The question I'll answer with this post. So with that...