Top 10: San Francisco

Out of all of my favorite cities to visit, San Francisco might be #1. It has everything I would look for in a city break: conveniently located (a direct flight from Calgary is under 3 hours), great climate, amazing food and restaurants, centrally located shopping, loads of character and plenty of unique activities.

If you have enough time you can really explore and get to know the city, but say you only have a few days, what would I recommend? Here is my top 10 list:

1. Run the Nike Women's Marathon. NWM is seriously one of my favorite memories out of all of my travel adventures. The race starts in Union Square, winds along the Wharf, with views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, goes out along the Sea Cliff districts and Great Highway, through Golden Gate Park and back along the Pacific Ocean.  When you cross the finish line a member of the San Francisco Fire Department, wearing a tuxedo and holding a silver platter, congratulates you and hands you a little blue box which contains your special edition Tiffany's finishers necklace! Unfortunately, you need to win the lottery to get a bib (which I somehow managed on my first try) so there are no guarantees. I will definitely be attempting to get a spot in this prestigious race again in the future. 

With my parents at the finish line of the NWM

2. Take a ferry to Alcatraz. The Rock is located in the San Francisco Bay and an easy ferry ride from the Pier. If you are a first timer to the San Francisco Bay area, Alcatraz must be on your list of things to do.

3. Hang out on Pier 39. From the carousel, to sea lions, to vendors selling things you never knew you needed, Pier 39 is full of surprises. While you are visiting the Wharf make sure you watch out for the Bush Man!

The Pier 39 Sea Lions

4. Shop Union Square. Every thing you need is conveniently located around Union Square: the cable cars, restaurants, Tiffany's, Macy's, Niketown and more. Also a great place to make your home base, Union Square is only a short walk or cable car ride to many of the other attractions such as the Ferry Building, Chinatown, Little Italy and the Fisherman's Wharf.

5. Wine tasting in Sonoma. Not technically in San Francisco, but an easy day trip. Sonoma and Napa Valleys are no more than a 2 hour drive from the city. If you're up for it you can stop at Muir Woods along the way to see the Redwoods.

Muir Woods

Sonoma Vineyard

The wine tasting cave at Bella Winery in Sonoma

6. See Ghirardhelli Square. Located in the Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardhelli Square features specialty shops and restaurants including the Ghirardhelli Chocolate company. A trip to San Francisco is not complete without tasting some divine Ghirardhelli chocolate or ice cream.

7. Visit the Ferry building. San Francisco's historic ferry building used to be one of the busiest in the world. Now the main floor is used for an upscale marketplace and farmer's market featuring local delicacies. 

8. Bike across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausilito. Scott and I rented bicycles and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge the day after I completed the Nike Women's Marathon in 2011. My legs were totally useless for walking the hills of San Francisco, but I found cycling was a bit more tolerable. Unfortunately, the day we biked across the bridge was the only day there was fog on our whole trip. But the fog just made it seem more adventurous. We met up with my parents in Sausilito for some shopping and lunch before taking the ferry back to San Francisco. 

 Biking across Golden Gate Bridge

9. Walk down (or up) Lombard Street. None of my Lombard Street pictures turned out very good. It's supposed to be the crookedest street in the world. Go check it out, it's cool.

10. Bargain hunt in Chinatown. The Chinatown in San Francisco is said to be the largest Chinatown outside of Asia.  Stop here for some of the famous chinese cuisine, visit the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, or just spend your time wandering aimlessly and bargain hunting in the many unique shops.

Caving in Belize

If there is one experience that stands out in our memory of our trip to Belize this year, it would be the caving. Don't get me wrong, the whole trip was really totally out of this world amazing. But for us, the caving (which is something we have not done much of in the past) was the by far the coolest part of the trip. If you go to Belize you should try caving at least once. Most of the popular tourist caves have rivers running through them and many of the tours involve tubing along leisurely while looking at the pretty formations. For a lot of people, that is adventurous as you need to get on a relaxing vacation in a beautiful country. For the thrill seeker there are plenty of other options including zip lining and more intense caving experiences.

The first cave we did is called Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM Cave). The ATM Cave starts with a 45 minute long hike through the jungle and wading across 3 rivers along the way, the cave itself involves swimming, wading and scrambling along the underground river to a large cathedral containing ancient Mayan pottery and fireplaces, then climbing a ladder into a small room that contains the full skeletal remains of an ancient human sacrifice known as the Crystal Maiden. The calcified skeletal remains of the Crystal Maiden have a sparkling and haunting appearance.  If you have never done any caving before, I highly recommend the ATM Cave as a first cave experience, it has everything an adventurous traveler could ask for: physical challenge, mineral formations, mystery and archeological artifacts that seem like they are straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Unfortunately, last year a tourist damaged a Mayan skull when he dropped the lens of his camera on it (Luckily not the skull of the Crystal Maiden, but still horrible for the archeological society!) and now as a result of that incident photography is not allowed inside the cave (click here if you would like to see images and read more about the ATM Cave).

The day after completing the ATM Cave we hired the same company to guide us in the Crystal Cave which is located in the Blue Hole National Park (not the same Blue Hole as the one in the ocean where divers go). We heard about the Crystal Cave from some of the guys who worked at the lodge we were staying at.  Some of them are avid cavers and recommended Crystal Cave as one of their favorites in Belize. The Crystal Cave is a dry cave, which means it does not have a river running through it, and requires more physical challenging caving techniques, as a result it is not as widely known to the tourist circuit as they tend not to advertise it so aggressively. We were warned in advance, very ominously, that getting to the cave requires at least 1 hour of strenuous hiking followed by several hours of gruelling caving. No food is allowed inside the cave and nothing can be left behind (to spare you the major details plastic bottles would be used for liquids and ziploc bags for solids, see my post on amusing toilets and cave burritos here). Great! we said Sign us up!

The 1 hour strenuous hike from the parking lot to the mouth of the cave turned out to be about 25 minutes of hiking through a muddy, mosquito infested forest with one hill that was sustained for about 10-15 minutes. I said that it would not be a true adventure until at least one of us slipped and fell into the mud, something that didn't happen until the return trip when both Scott and I fell into the mud on the downhill section within about 30 seconds of each other. Once we reached the mouth of the cave a rope was fixed to assist with the 15 foot downhill scramble into the cave.  We didn't need to rappel, the rope really was not totally necessary but there for comfort or reassurance just in case.

Entering the cave

Once in the opening of the cave we ate our sandwiches and hid the backpacks, taking only water, some basic supplies and our camera. We spent the next 3-4 hours exploring the cave. Scott and I are normally alone to fend for ourselves when we go adventuring so having two guides (1:1 ratio) was a huge luxury! The guides Glis and Miguel were so nice and helpful! The whole way they would say "put your hand on this rock", demonstrate how to navigate a section, "don't step there", "be careful this rock is loose", and joke when we saw a stalagmite "don't sit down" or pretend they were lost and say "do you see the yellow arrows?". When traveling in a foreign country we prefer to hire local guides whenever possible. The locals are normally very proud to share their country with you, it contributes to the local job market and they can give you a lot of information from a perspective that you might not get in a book or from someone who is transient, is only there temporarily and has not grown up in the area with the local customs. It was apparent right from the beginning that our guides loved their country, heritage and traditions, and they loved caving.

With our cave guides Glis and Miguel

The Crystal Cave does not contain any complete skeletal remains (such as the Crystal Maiden in the ATM Cave), but does contain many pieces of Mayan pottery, evidences of fireplaces and partial human remains. The narrow passages that open up into grand cathedrals containing massive stalactite and stalagmite formations that all seem to shimmer in the light of your headlamp are truly awe inspiring. Even the walls of the cave seem to sparkle like gold.

Going through a tight passage

Scott squeezing through a narrow section

Much of the cave sparkles like gold

People have asked me what it is like inside the cave (besides muddy and damp). It's dark. As dark as you can imagine, maybe darker. We sat down and turned our headlamps off for a few minutes and could not even slightly see our own hands in front of our faces. It's an eerie feeling. There are some tight spaces, but the vast cathedrals are even more surprising. They are absolutely huge! It is hard to imagine there is an entirely different world underground and we are often barely even aware of it when above ground. The shadows from the lamps and mineral formations make the whole experience seem mystical and supernatural. Another question I have been asked: Does the cave have creatures or insects?  Yes, but we didn't see very many. We saw a couple of bats and some really large spiders (larger than my hand), those were all closer to the opening of the cave. As you go deeper into the cave you start to see these transparent little creatures that were supposed to be some type of lice. The environment is totally void of light so these insects are almost completely transparent.

This sparkling chandelier stalactite is probably the size of a Volkswagen Beetle

A human skull with the first few vertebrae, making archeologists believe that it might have been a decapitated head of a human sacrifice

Ancient Mayan pottery and tools (such as obsidian)

All of the artifacts are at least 1000 years old

We finally got to a section in the cave where the guide said that is normally where the tourists turn around and go back and asked if we would like to go back or continue to the area they call Wonderland? Would we like to continue? Was there ever a question about that? We replied. Glis explained that there weren't any Mayan artifacts in that part of the cave but even more marvellous mineral formations. There would be some scrambling, followed by a section of clay (where we could slide down on our butts) and then for the next part we would have to remove our shoes and go barefoot. He explained that it would take about 40 minutes to get to Wonderland from where we were.  About 20 minutes later we were sitting in the area they call Wonderland. Our pictures didn't really do it justice because some of the formations were so big it was hard to take good picture with our little point and shoot camera and there was a lot of humidity. I can understand why they call it Wonderland, you really do feel a sense of wonder like you are in another world. Way in the back there are the remains of a snake which is a bit of a mystery because they do not know why a snake would go so far back into a cave with no food source.

Some of the mineral formations resemble icicles

 The skeletal remains of a snake - who knows why it came here to die or how long ago!

It is easy to see why the ancient Mayans thought that caves were the passage to the underworld 

After our experience in the cave we emerged from the underworld back into the sunlight, mosquitos, and heat of the day. Our hike back to the parking lot is when Scott and I both wiped out in the mud, but it didn't really matter at that point because we were already covered in mud anyways. Glis made us sit on a plastic bag in backseat of the car! They drove us to the Blue Hole cenote for a "swim" but we suspected that their real motivation was to wash us off.  Either way a refreshing swim in the cenote was the perfect way to conclude our adventure.

Scott's Top 10 "Scott Moments"

It would be fair to say that my life isn't boring. Not only do I have two rambunctious, crazy dogs but I am married to an equally adventurous and accident-prone husband, Scott. People who know us well would refer to those episodes that could only happen to him as "Scott Moments".  After a dirt biking trip one summer a friend told me he was sure he would be the one to tell me Scott's last words and they would be "watch this". While on vacation in Honduras we were socializing with some other travellers and Scott had been entertaining them with some of his stories. Someone asked Scott what he does for a living, to which he replied that he was an insurance broker. Well everyone thought that was pretty funny and they turned to me and wanted to know what I did for a living. So I replied that I was a workplace health and safety advisor. The group erupted in laughter and they proclaimed that we were the most ironic couple they have ever met. I suppose that might be true. But seriously, it is a really good thing that we have adequate insurance coverage.

I have decided to share some of the most memorable "Scott Moments" that have happened since the year 1999 when we started dating. Scott had already experienced a lifetime of "Scott Moments" before we met, but I couldn't do those events justice as I did not personally witnessed them.

Our family - December 2011

Here are the Top 10 "Scott Moments" (since the year 1999 when we met):

1. Not long after we started dating Scott came home from a day of skiing at Fernie with chest pain and a lot of difficulty breathing. He has asthma and had assumed he was having an asthma attack. He just wanted to go to bed, but I insisted on taking him to the hospital. When you go to the emergency room and say you are having trouble breathing you go straight to the front of the line. Within minutes he was on oxygen and being examined. Only a few minutes later the thoracic surgeon arrived and started asking Scott questions and wanted to know when he had hit his chest. Scott said that he had not hit his chest but had planted his poles while skiing and his arms were jerked back. As it turns out, while his arms were being forcefully ripped behind his body he tore a hole in his lung and it collapsed. The doctor said it was the type of injury they usually see with a blow to the chest such as hitting your chest on a steering wheel in a car accident. The air from the lung had filled the mediastinum (chest cavity) and we could feel air bubbles in his neck. The doctors wanted to keep an eye on Scott overnight, but didn't want to admit him, so instead they decided to put him in the only quiet area of the ER, the psychiatric room with padded walls. They also gave him Demerol to help with the pain.  While he was getting settled in the psych room, and going between various levels of consciousness due to the pain killers, he suddenly opened his eyes wide, sat up and said (in a slurred voice) "I LOVE YOU!" And that was the first time he said he loved me. Awww! How romantic.

2. While we were engaged to be married Scott decided to go mountain biking with my cousin. They hadn't been gone long when they came rushing in the front door, Scott covered in blood. The story goes that while they were getting their bikes ready in the parking lot, Scott had been hopping curbs and went over his handlebars. While we were examining his roadrash to decide if he needed a trip to the ER, we commented that a wound on his abdomen looked pretty deep and was gaping (sort of like a bullet wound). When we took a closer look someone commented that it looked as though there was something in the wound. Scott stuck his finger in there and pulled out a pebble about 1 cm in diameter. We decided to take him to the ER for first aid and stitches. For reasons I don't understand the ER nurse thought it would be best to give Scott the stitches without anesthetic.

3. On our first wedding anniversary we went camping in Fernie. While Scott was cutting firewood he chopped the axe into his hand. So we celebrated our first anniversary in the ER waiting for Scott to get stitches. 

4. Our 4th trip to the ER was because he sliced open his finger on a steak knife when loading the dishwasher. He went up to the desk and asked the intake clerk if she thought he needed stitches to which she replied "I can't tell you if you need stitches". He then showed her the cut and she said "you need stitches go sit down". Since that day I have stopped accompanying Scott to the ER when he needs stitches. If he is conscious and not bleeding profusely he can drive himself there. Such a caring wife right?!

5. One day when Scott was walking Samson off leash in the field behind our house Samson was running around and wouldn't come back. Scott decided to get Sam's attention by throwing a rock near him, but the rock ended up hitting Samson on the leg. Scott swears he didn't do it on purpose! The next day I had to take my dog to the vet and make up a story that we didn't know how Sam got a puncture wound on his leg.

6. While waiting at the beach for the dive boat to pick us up in Costa Rica, Scott jumped into the water to cool off and landed in a swarm of jelly fish.  The Costa Ricans thought it was hysterical and said they had never seen it so bad before.

showing off his jelly fish stings

7. While ice climbing the left compound gully in Waterton a few years ago Scott decided to use his axe to make me a shelf to stand on while belaying the next pitch. As he was chipping the ice away with the axe his hand slipped and the axe hit me squarely on the knee. 

this is a mountaineering axe not an ice climbing axe, but it will give you an idea of

what the spike looked like on the axe that Scott hit me in the knee with - at the time we
only had one set of ice tools and had borrowed a set from a friend which is a good thing
because the spikes on Scott's axes are much sharper

the gully we were climbing when Scott hit me on the knee with his axe, we weren't 

at the top when the accident happened but to get back to the truck we still had 3 rappels 

followed by a 30 minute hike

8. In the fall of 2011 Scott took up bow hunting. While practicing his "bow hunting skills" in the garage one evening the bow string hit his forearm (with about 60 lbs of sudden force).

Scott's forearm about 3 days after the bow incident

9. In July 2012 Scott was participating in the Magrath I Swam the Dam Triathlon. It had started to rain slightly making the pavement wet and as he turned the second last corner into town at 40 km/hour on his bike he lost traction and wiped out. He finished the rest of the race with road rash and covered in blood and now is a minor celebrity in the town of Magrath for being the guy who crashed his bike and still finished the race.

the paramedics were excited that they had something to do

...and I saved the best for last,

10. Scott got his 15 minutes of fame on the hit TV show America's Funniest Videos. Instead of trying to describe the incident I will just give you a link to the video. 

Scott's Slackline Fail Video

I hope you enjoyed my Top 10 list of Scott's most memorable "Scott Moments". I have joked that living with Scott is like being in a gag reel and now you know why. It was hard to narrow this list down to only 10. I honestly don't think I can even remember every time Scott got stitches, chucked himself off of something, singed his eyebrows starting a fire, crashed a bike, had to get a tetanus shot or tomahawked down a ski hill, but I think you get the idea. 

Scott fell in a hole - instead of helping him I laughed and took pictures

Things I learned while traveling

1. How to use a squat toilet. This is an extremely valuable skill and something everyone should know how to do.
2. We need to take care of the environment. We only have one planet and we all have to share.
3. Always check entry requirements for each country you are visiting or you may end up spending 22 hours in the Delhi airport on a connection. 
4. If you think you have contracted a parasite called giardia, do not go to work on Monday and google “Beaver Fever”.
5. In Ecuador to order water with carbonation you say “agua con gas” but in Mexico that means “water with farts”.
6. When you don’t shower for over a week people might compliment you on how shiny your hair is.
7. French people really are rude. But, when shopping at a market in Nice, marching up to the french lady selling crafts and telling her you think she was rude to your husband probably will not improve the situation.
8. When traveling in poor countries your empty backpack could be worth more than what an entire family makes in a whole year. And yet they are usually happier and more generous than we are.
9. If you want an authentic travel experience, don’t spend it with a bunch of other Canadians (or Americans) at an all-inclusive. In fact don’t book an all-inclusive ever. And don’t get me started on cruise ships.
10. If we had never travelled, we probably could have paid off our mortgage by now, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Except maybe I’d travel more.

A squat toilet in the Himalayas

Garbage that washed up on the beach of Little Corn Island, a remote caribbean island off the coast of Nicaragua.