Plane Cancellations and Adventure

The second-to-last day of our honeymoon, my husband and I discovered the Air France strike. Which is to say, our flight home had been canceled.

Ravello, Italy:
Paradise.

Almost everyone who has flown has at some point or another dealt with plane delays, but this was my first outright cancellation. Luckily I'd taken an extra day of vacation from work to recover from jetlag, so we had some flexibility getting home. And hey, extra time in paradise: we weren't complaining!

DH undertook the effort of getting us re-routed, and--with 3 hours of phone calls, including time spent trying to get through--managed to get us on a flight the day after our original flight, going through Munich and New York instead of a one-layover straight to NC. A bit hectic, but we'd be getting home.

Here is where I shall note to any intrepid travelers: if you plan to fly out of Italy, make sure your following layover has an extra hour or so built in beyond the minimum you think you'll need. Let's just say Italy does things on its own time, and as the kind staff at the Munich airport helped us hurtle through twenty minutes late on an already tight connection, we got more than a few knowing winks and nods. "Every day, those Italian flights..." may have been heard at one point.

Jetting home

The bright side is that we got to the plane just in time, and they even kindly put our baggage back on the plane for us. Of course, they'd already given away our seats, but this was to our benefit, as we got upgraded to premium economy. That extra knee room makes a huge difference on a 9-hour flight.

And when we got off the plane, they offered each disembarking passenger on the plane a chocolate. German chocolate lives up to its reputation. We even managed to get through customs and onto our next plane in plenty of time!

The long story short is that everything worked out well, people in airports will try their best to help you as long as you're patient and polite, and that it's a good idea to give yourself an extra day for 'jetlag recovery'... you might just wind up spending it getting home.

Back from Vacation

After a very lovely vacation, I have returned! How lovely was it? Well...

Let's just say it well and truly was the best vacation I've ever taken. ;)

Now that the Dear Husband and I are back, things begin to return to normal. Which is to say, unpacking, house cleaning, laundry, and the day job. I have the strangest feeling of being in an denouement, or perhaps the skipped scenes between the books, because the adventure has really just begun.

Are there any wedding scenes from stories you've read or watched that you particularly loved? What about real wedding stories?

Taiwan makes an awesome vacation

I recently came back from a trip to Taiwan. If you've never been there, it's an awesome place, and I'd highly recommend it.

It's a tropical island, hot and humid. We went in late June, so it was particularly hot, but we found ways of staying cool. Pretty much everywhere we went was beautiful, and if you're a tea person, Taiwanese oolong tea is famous for being fantastic. Boba tea (also known as bubble tea) is another Taiwanese treat that is becoming world famous. It's good just about anywhere you have it, but we've yet to find American-made boba tea as good as what you can find in Taiwan.
Here's a few snapshots of what Taiwan is like:

Sunrise over the city

A local park

A mountain stream is ice cold and surrounded on all sides by
lush tropical foliage. It's a popular destination for river trekking.

The Taiwanese coast

Temple and beautiful mountain overlook

Historical city gate to the old city of Hsinchu.

Amazing ramen can be found even at the shopping malls. So good!

A city street

The Hsinchu glass museum. It's well-known for its glass art exhibits. There are also several other museums and a zoo nearby.

Piece of artwork in the museum

Nearby park early one morning, before the heat of the day sets in.

Taiwanese countryside. It's a very crowded country in the urban areas, but there are also sprawling rural areas.

Taipei 101, which was for a few years the tallest building in the world.
It's still a huge tourist attraction.

View from Taipei 101, overlooking Taipei. Taiwan as a whole is very mountainous.

Lotus flower blooming. Lotus grow all over in Taiwan.

Fish seller at the day market. You can buy pretty much anything
at the markets. Some of the stands sell whole fried roosters--
heads, feet, and all.

One of Taiwan's famous night markets. Games, toys, clothes,
jewelry, food—it's a carnival every night, so long as you
are willing to travel to the nearest night market.

It was a wonderful trip, and if you ever get the chance... well, I'd say you should make the chance, but perhaps I'm not entirely objective. Still, it really was a wonderful trip, and it's an amazing country.

Happy Holidays

From VH1's "50 Cats in Santa Hats"

A very Merry Christmas, or other happy winter holiday, or just happy winter, to everyone!

It's likely I'll miss posts for the rest of this week, what with family time and all. So I hope you have a great week and I'll see you for the next one! Publishing News will probably be next Monday.

So happy reading, happy writing, and have a great week!

Disney Vacation: a few final photos and a couple of tips

Final photos of Disney, and then I promise, no more! ;)

Princess Tiana and Naveen

Flying Triceratops!

Warning: Fossils may bite. But they don't have digestive
tracks, so as long as they swallow you whole, you'll be
fine. Just jump out the ribs.

You're probably safe from giraffes, although they share
long necks and have skin covering their ribs. They tend
to prefer grass.

The traffic's pretty bad in the Animal Kingdom, though.
Step on the gas, zebras!

And then we got lost in the sea on the way back.

We made it back to the Animal Kingdom proper
by sunset, though.

So they gave us sword-fighting lessons in Epcot,
taught by Norse statues...

Which we only accepted because lightsaber lessons
in Hollywood Studios were restricted to those under age 12.

But Hollywood Studios does have a bit of magic of its own.

Such as a much-abridged version of Beauty and the Beast.

Still not as magical as the Magical Kingdom
at sunset, though.

Word to the wise: Take water-flavorings (we used Mio). The fountain water tastes pretty, um, let's just say it's a good idea to avoid having to taste it. A couple of bottles of water each day and two bottles of Mio, though, and we stayed hydrated and happy the whole trip.

Tip two: If you want to get a nice, high pedometer count (we got up to 25K steps one particular day), sign up for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. Not only is it fun and adorable to find the hidden portals and try the "spells" (hidden cameras recognize the trading cards you hold up), but it's great exercise. Also, you get free keepsake cards. Keep using the first ones you get, because they level up the more you use them, and if you complete easy level, you'll need leveled-up cards to play medium difficulty.

Yes, we had a lovely time. 

Disney vacation, part 2

Another day in Disney!

The Haunted Mansion!

If you go, try to stay long enough to see the castle show and fireworks at the end of the night. Here's a clip of the 15-minute castle show:

Really cool. And after the castle show, fireworks. Fire. In the sky. You can't go wrong with that... well, they can't, anyway.

Plus, Disney is really pretty at night. Worth seeing.

Disney World from the ferry... at about 1 am...
My feet were quite happily sore.

Vacation

So this post might be a few minutes late, on account of me being on vacation and having walked a few miles the previous day and thus slept in late.

Yep, I'm in Disney, giving my roommate a few days of having the apartment to herself. And the cats. And her dog. And maybe the neighbors.

And yes, I'm having a great time. :)

Splash Mountain

I've even settled a small grudge by punching Gaston in the chin. Take that, interrupter of books.

So needless to say, Publishing News will go up next week instead, and this week's posts will be short and probably involve a humorous picture or two. Have a great week!

Dream Vacations: What would you choose?

Even better than drinking it
at my home: drinking tea at
the tea's home!

Over the weekend my friends and I talked about dream vacations. We decided we'd love to do a group tea tour, trying teas in Japan, China, India, and Morocco. In our dream vacation, we'd stay 3-4 days in each country and go from place to place to try the most excellent of teas, in their home locations.

Green tea, oolong tea, white tea, chai, herbals... an array of the tastiest of tasty.

If you and your friends were to come up with a dream vacation, what would you choose? Where would you go and what would you see or do?

Jet Lag and Snow Delays

Perhaps you noticed I wasn't here on Monday, as I'd originally planned.

The foot of a giant
laughing Buddha

Turns out, it snowed in my layover, delaying flights and pushing back my return to the States! But no worries, I made it home in one piece.

Adventures in Taiwan--quite fantastic!

It's a lovely place, and I had a great time. I don't recommend being snowed in during the flight back, and the jet lag is interesting, but if you're like me and picked up a nice collection of tea while you're there, you'll have the caffeine to help you transition back.

Here's a little collection of pictures on why you might want to visit one day. Not too many, of course; just a teaser for your own trips...

What are some of the most interesting places you've been?

Beautiful parks

Just an ordinary
suspension bridge.

Flower clocks, too.

Lovely hiking paths.

A view of one of the cities
nestled in a tropical valley.

The sunset, enjoyed whilst
being stuck in Japan.

Seen on Vacation

 Saw this in Myrtle Beach over Thanksgiving Weekend, and had to share the laugh:

Whoops--Don't worry, Heather, I'm sure Watts will let you live this one down someday*! 

 

 *(Probably in about thirty years or so.)

Picture time - sunrises & sunsets

Last week, we got tropical pictures. This week, it's beautiful ocean sunrises and sunsets.

Again, if you'd like a copy for inspiration or a desktop photo, let me know. If you want to use one for commercial purposes, also let me know (we'll talk.)