san francisco and florida with the family

We don't just travel internationally--we have some fun trips in the US, too. We were lucky enough to have Maggie's parents take us along for a couple trips recently, which always means a ton of good food (and wine!) and checking out some gorgeous sights we haven't seen.

San Francisco is one of Maggie's parents' favorite cities, and though we've been a few times on our own, this was our first time going with them. We got to eat at some of their favorite restaurants, like pasta and wine at the country's oldest Italian restaurant, Fior d'Italia, some of the best steak we'd ever had at Harris Steakhouse, and mid-morning Irish coffee at the place that supposedly invented it, the Buena Vista. We probably gained at least ten pounds on this trip, but it was worth it!

We saw the sights, from Ghiradelli Square to the Golden Gate Bridge, to Chinatown, to the Palace of Fine Arts. One day, we visited Muir Woods, in Marin--we'd never seen trees that big. And we drove through the areas nearby where homes are tucked into the hillsides like the fanciest hobbit houses you've ever seen.

And of course, we did lots of cable car riding!

Attempting (semi-successfully) to take a 4-person selfie on our first cable car ride of the trip, with San Francisco in the background. 

Literally hugging giant trees in Muir Woods

Dinner (and lots of wine) at the country's oldest Italian restaurant

Cable cars!

Maggie's parents at the Palace of Fine Arts

So much pretty foliage in this city

Look at the size of this tree!

Maggie got lots of DIY ideas...

Adorable baby ducks in the park!

Maggie and Andrew under the Chinatown gate

Gorgeous day to look out over the bay

We also traveled to Florida for a dose of warmth in the winter. That meant more good food, beach time, some amazing views, and a city that was brand new to both of us--Miami.We stayed in Ft. Lauderdale, but spent some time in Miami Beach--and on Miami beaches!

Now we see why so many people retire to Florida. It's a very relaxing place. We spent lots of time reading on the beach, sitting in the hot tub, playing yard games, and eating eating eating. We even took a kayak out one day!

On the hotel room balcony, Maggie discovered her phone's panoramic photo setting.

Beach time!

A very colorful candy store

The hotel had all kinds of games, like this giant chess. 

Can you spot us in the little yellow kayak?

One of the many times we ate too much...

And another time...with bonus gigantic chocolate cake. 

Pre-dinner drinks and snacks ritual in the lovely hotel outdoor area.

life's better on a boat

Andrew grew up sailing with his parents on a boat they kept in northern New Mexico. But then the rain stopped falling and ten years later, there wasn't much sailing to be done out here in the desert, so Andrew's parents joined a few clubs that allow you to show up and take a boat from any of their harbors around the world.

In the past year, we did a few sailing trips, the first being to San Diego Bay. Just the bay? you say. Yup, just the bay. There is no more exciting place to sail than San Diego Bay. You're out there on the water with sailboats, motorboats, aircraft carriers, battleships, submarines, pirate ships--you name it, they got it.

Andrew inspecting the boat.

The marina.

Andrew's mom checking the rigging.

Maggie taking the wheel in the wind.

Another great thing about San Diego Bay is cellphone service.

Sea lions just chillin.

We stayed on the boat in the Marina, so every night we'd look for a micro-brew / restaurant to go to. The second night we ended up in Hillcrest and found the best one ever. If you take a good look at the names of their beers and realize that Hillcrest is known as the gay neighborhood, you'll get all the puns--and they were great beers to boot.

A little later in the year, we went on a week long sailing trip the the British Virgin Islands (BVIs).  On our way we had a one night layover in Puerto Rico that ended coinciding with the arrival of a hurricane that shut down the whole city and caused our flight to be delayed an extra day. We weathered the storm in a hotel a few blocks off the beach (probably not the best idea). It hit us while we slept, but with no severe consequences.

Eventually we made it to the BVIs, just a day late. We flew into Tortola and picked up the boat there. We also stocked up on the food and most importantly, the beer. You never feel more like an alcoholic then when you are adding up how much beer you need for five people for a week on vacation. And it was the first time we had been on a catamaran, and we loved the extra space. Catamarans are boats with two hulls attached by a cabin area, instead of the typical single hull boats where the only cabin space is in the one hull. Andrew's parents had one hull, and we got the other to share with Andrew's brother.

The BVIs are one of the best places to sail because all of the island are within eyesight. You feel a lot like a pirate as you make your way between islands during the days and spend the nights taking the dingy to shore to have drinks and eat dinner. As we always do when we sail, even in San Diego, we slept on the boat. It's just not the full boat experience unless you sleep on it.

From Tortola we sailed to Copper Island and celebrated our wedding anniversary there, with a friendly (at least that's how I remembered him) sea turtle swimming around our boat. The next two nights took us to Virgin Gorda and then Jost Van Dyke, with a quick stop Sandy Cay (maybe the most photographed island ever--trust me, you've seen it in commercials). The next night was spent in Frenchman's Cay, where a barracuda spend the whole night under our boat, unnerving Andrew. The final night we found a buoy on Treasure Island, the island believed to have actually been the one written about in the book with the same name.

Copper Island

Frenchman's Cay looking back out at our boat.

Andrew and his Mom having a five o'clock beer.

Andrew and his Mom looking for a buoy for the evening.

Barracuda friend from Frenchman's Cay

Andrew and Maggie on their anniversary in Copper Island, sunburned after a day on the water.

Our boat at Treasure Island.

Snorkeling was more hazardous than usual with a lot of jellyfish about.

egypt, it's where it's at

Something we had talked about doing, but hadn't yet, was the one night layover thing that certain airlines offer. On our way back to the US from Israel, we finally go the chance to do it with a one night layover in Cairo. Neither had ever been there and we really wanted to go. We made sure we'd have enough time to get from Cairo to see the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx--and it was close, but we would just make it.

We got into Egypt around noon, but the whole process of getting one day visas and having to go through customs didn't get us to the hotel and ready to head out until 3. We walked out to the street in front of our hotel and talked to a few cabbies before finding one who was charging what we thought was reasonable for the ride to the pyramids and back. He was a nice guy who ended up telling us a lot about Egypt's current situation and from a local's perspective, why they had their summer revolt.

The traffic was pretty stop and go for a while and we didn't get to the Pyramids until around 4. Once there, we found out that the Pyramid Complex had closed early that day, and was already closed. We were bummed, but what could we do, jump the wall in front of the military patrolling with guns? We took pictures of it from the gate, which luckily wasn't too far away. (And strangely, there wasn't another tourist to be seen. We knew Egypt tourism was down, but there was literally no one there.)

Maggie over the Nile River in Cairo 

View from the locked gate

A cat guarding the Sphinx--whose original head is thought to have been a cat.

Andrew finding high ground to peer over the wall into the Great Pyramid Complex

Maggie posing with the Great Pyramid

As the taxi driver told us, the fairly new wall around the Pyramid complex is a good example of why the people of Egypt are so upset. The government built the wall around the Pyramids so they could control who could gives tours and when they are allowed in. While to Americans this may make sense, to the hundreds, if not thousands, of Egyptian families who have been making money off Pyramid tourism for generations, this is creating a barrier for making a living.

We saw this with a family we met while walking around the Pyramid wall. We were just wandering around (we were still the only tourists in the entire area) when a lady came out of her house and started chatting with us, and invited us into her house for tea. There we sat on the floor in the one small room where it appeared the whole family lived and slept (there were six of them there at the time) and met the whole family. The oldest son spoke English, so he was the translator, and we told them about ourselves, how we had been traveling for awhile and were now going home. The woman told us that her husband's family had been living in Cairo for hundreds of years and that they used to be able make money giving tours of the Pyramids whenever they wanted, but now because of the wall and the permits, they have had to try to find new ways to make money off the tourist trade, but with many families in the same boat, it is harder to do. This combined with the huge decrease of tourism has made the times harder.

Everyone we met in Egypt told us, and wanted us to relay to everyone we knew, that Egypt is not dangerous and no one should be afraid to travel there. It is really is true. (Or at least, it definitely seemed to be at the time--this was mid-2014.) To us, it seemed like there is no better time to go to Egypt. The tourist infrastructure is there, but with fewer tourists. The people couldn't be nicer and really want tourists to come back to their country. So if you are thinking of going to Egypt sometime in your life, now is a great time. We couldn't speak more highly of what we saw of the country.

Maggie with the family we met, in their house

Andrew hanging with the Egyptian Justin Bieber

tel aviv

Another unexpected stop for us was Israel. Andrew had a good college buddy, Dave, who lives there with his wife Shara and their two kids, who he had wanted to visit for years. Before we headed to Germany, we saw that there were fairly decently priced tickets from Berlin to Tel Aviv, so we decided it was fate and bought them - and we were off to the Middle East.

Accommodations were a little (a lot) more expensive then we were accustomed to, so we ended up getting a shared apartment that overlooks the Israeli version of the Pentagon. It was in walking distance of Dave and Shara's place and the walk took us through Rabin Square, the heart of Tel Aviv.

The view from the balcony of our place.

We spent a lot of time hanging out with Dave and Shara and their family.

With Dave and a crazy colorful fountain in the middle of the city.

Babysitting on their lovely porch

Shara and the kiddos

We also happened to be in town during the Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade, which is known as one of the best Pride Parades in the world - and it lived up to it. The streets were packed. We didn't know where we were going, and ended up finding the tail end. So we jumped in and second-lined the Parade until we caught up to it and found our way up to the floats. 

Our outfits weren't quite as brightly colored as many

Next up: activities around Tel Aviv.

dead sea

We had heard good things about the Dead Sea, so it was a place we wanted to go. It would have been a really hard day trip, so we planned to stay there overnight. When looking online, we found that there was a place to camp right on the beach, so with Andrew's bag full of pillows, blankets, food and water, we jumped on a bus. We went through Jerusalem a different way than we had before, which took us right up against the wall separating Israel from the West Bank.

It was a few hour bus trip that took us through one of the most desolate parts of the world - and it lived up to it. There was nothing once you reached the Dead Sea, it made New Mexico look lush. While we were skirting the Dead Sea towards the major city on the Israel side, we went right past Masada. We had no idea we were even going to be close and hadn't alloted enough time to go there - a regret we still have.

When we were finally dropped off in Ein Bokek, we didn't really know where we were going, so we just headed to the beach. Once we arrived there, we found small covered area with tents set up right on the shores of the Dead Sea. We knew we were in the right place. We claimed an area and stripped down to our swim shorts and got in.

It was as buoyant as we heard. You felt like a cork trying to touch the bottom--it would shoot you back up to the surface. And you do not want to get any of that water in your eyes. It's like pouring salt directly into them - not comfortable.

Maggie covered in Dead Sea mud

Andrew floating on the surface

While hanging out on the shore, we befriended a gay couple from Moscow. One of the guys was from New York and the other was a native Moscowian. They were really nice and we talked a lot about Russia and what it was like being a gay couple there. We found out that these guys only knew of two gay bars in Moscow and they rotate to keep from being shut down.

We'd heard that Dead Sea mud was good for the skin. We thought that we'd just be able to find mud on the Dead Sea shore and cover ourselves in it. But as we found out, the Dead Sea - at least where we were - had no mud. It was just a sandy / salty mix that you would not want to rub all over yourself. Because of this, we had to go to the mall by the beach and buy packets of Dead Sea mud, while in sight of the Dead Sea. With mud in hand, we head back down to the beach and smeared it all over ourselves. It was definitely not normal mud. It was super greasy and almost clay like. You are supposed to let it dry on you, then take a dip in the water to wash it off. As it's drying you start to feel a little bit like Han Solo getting stuck in Carbonite. Once you get in the water you really have to scrub to get it off to, but when you emerge, your skin feels silky smooth.

As the sun began to set over Jordan, we set up our sleeping arrangements, which was a tarp with a blanket and two pillows - so pretty much the Ritz. The plan was the same as it was in Taiwan when we were sleeping in the airport: enough wine and you can sleep anywhere.

Dead Sea at dusk

Our hotel for the night

It was not quite as nice of a night sleep as it had been in the airport in Taiwan. Andrew was attacked by a swarm of biting Dead Sea flies and in the middle of the night, a group of Arab women showed up and went into the Dead Sea, burkas and all. The Arab women then sang songs for many hours while soaking, which means we didn't sleep much.

The next morning, we made our coffee and headed right into the Dead Sea for a morning dip. It was so buoyant that we could just sit in it and drink our coffee.

Morning coffee