oliviatamccue

The Itinerary

Day 1, June 14, SFO to IST, Istanbul

Day 2, June 15, IST to ASR, check in Aydinli cave hotel, Goreme

Day 3, June 16, Cappadocia, guided Green Tour

Day 4, June 17, Cappadocia, Butterfly balloon ride, Avanos, Goreme

Day 5, June 18, Cappadocia, Camel Ride @red valley, Goreme open air museum

Day 6, June 19, Cappadocia, Goreme, ASR -> IST, IST -> DNZ, Denizli, check in Cotton House, Pamukkale

Day 7, June 20, Pamukkale, Hierapolis ruins, the antique pool, the Pamukkale travertine and thermal pools.  

Day 8, June 21, Pamukkale, Aphrodisias ruins

Day 9, June 22, Pamukkale, Turkish bath and spa @Tripolis Hotel, DNZ -> IST

Day 10, June 23, IST -> SFO

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Istanbul and the airports

Turkey is a large country. In my opinion, it is much underrated in what it offers to travelers.  Located mostly in Asia and slightly in Europe, its rich history including the Byzantines era and the Ottoman Era, has been underappreciated .  I spent a week in Istanbul a few years ago and like the city a lot.  I could take the ferry round, crossing Asia and Europe, all day long, to watch people and to be impressed by the beautiful landscape of the religious mosques, the historic Hagia Sophia, the palaces and more.  This time, I reluctantly skipped the city of Istanbul to make time for two Turkish areas,  Cappadocia and Pamukkale. 

Istanbul is an important travel hub to get to those cities. The Award winning Istanbul IST airport, opened after my last visit, is spacious, beautiful and functional as it leapfrogged Frankfurt last year in terms of traffic.   My first impression of it was far from award winning.  It was quite a walk to get to the passport control. I missed the domestic transfer passport control, and was turned back after waiting for a while at the arrival area.  Fortunately, I had hours to spare before my domestic transfer to Kayseri of Cappadocia.  Sim card is essential in travel.  I did not set up my Airalo sim card properly and had to use the airport Wi Fi where I needed to first locate the yellow Wi Fi balloon and then scan the passport to get an hour of free usage.  I also expected high for an international airport, only to find the food court at the domestic terminal has three American chain stores (Burger King, PopEyes, and some New York Pizza).  That initial setback was quickly replaced by many discoveries.  The spacious greenery surrounding the airport is impressive but not easily noticeable for the busy travelers.  The multiple climb structures are great additions for families traveling with young children.  The playground area with arcade games are also thoughtful designs. My biggest discovery has been the library with “real” people and real books.  This may be the first airport that I find a functional and comfortable library. 

The Turkish government has been efficient in their infrastructure projects and in fixing infrastructures.  IST certainly is a strong evidence of the investment. 

If Istanbul IST is state of the art with all the infrastructure investments, the domestic airports Kayseri and Denizli domestic airports have been quite different discoveries.  Kayseri, Cappadocia airport, is tiny.  From the plane to the baggage claim area, it felt like a short 50m walk. From the domestic terminal to the international terminal, it is a minute’s walk.   Even the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong required significantly more walking. The airport serves one flight at a time, and just outside of the airport, there are taxi drivers, a few locals and some others holding signs to pick up passengers.  The departing passengers are waiting across the road.  These tiny airports made an interesting impression with their practicality and simplicity.

Our adventures began in Cappadocia (Kapadokya in Turkish) . . .

Coming up next : 4-day Cappadocia, Turkey

I am so grateful for the amazing trips to meet families and friends this year – Hawaii in January, Hong Kong, Macau and Canton in April, Vancouver & Reno in May and Turkey coming up soon in June.

I lack the literary skills and patience to vividly summarize the emotions and experiences.  I need the time to rest and reflect.  I need the time to settle down the emotional excitement in many gatherings.  The world is moving towards a multi-modal recall of our experience.  We take pictures to immortalize the point in time experience, we use video to capture the 3D events, conversations, and these days, a written report seems to be a thing in the past.   Our memory changes all the time too.  As much as I want to catch those in-the-moment happiness for longer, I don’t have enough long-term memory nor a way to freeze time.  The world is a fair place in the sense that if we do many things, we tend to remember less of each thing. If we do little things, we remember most of the things.   My mother remembered every single trip vividly.  In contrast, I often have a hard time remembering the specifics and need help from the multi-model technology.   With all the technology, it is so easy to be occupied in every single moment. At the same time, I miss those empty spaces that allow us to enjoy and stay in one moment.   Living in slow motion is indeed an art that I have not grasped.

January 2023 Big Island

Once the children start having their own career, it needs careful scheduling for family trips. We earn the luxury to skip the busy school breaks.  This January, mom and dad, and my younger son flew from SFO with my daughter flying from NYC for a week in Hawaii Big Island.  This was our Hawaii encore after our last trip to Honolulu.  

We always enjoyed the laid-back sentiment and an itinerary without must-see attractions nor must-do. 

We split our Big Island itinerary between the Hawaii Volcano area and the Kona/Waikoloa area.  

• The Kilauea lodge, with a short distance from Hawaii Volcano area, was welcoming, and well maintained.  Its location was perfect for us to visit the Volcano National Park at any time of the day or night.  It has relatively small rooms for the four of us, but its external setting made up for all the interior constraints.  Every morning, we could get out of our room to an immediate garden in the backyard, to appreciate the flora and bird chirping; or enjoy our breakfast in a spacious community area all by ourselves.  In the evening, we could relax in the outdoor spa. The lodge has a dining room with subtle decor and can be easily disguised as modest. The lodge dinner room served one of the most delicious dinners on this trip, if not the most on my son’s birthday. The lodge takes dinner reservations and we highly recommend it to fellow tourists.  

• We spent more time in the Kona area with better weather and more beaches.  Our airbnb in the Waikoloa area provided a kitchen, two bedrooms and a balcony that overlooked a quiet golf course and a petroglyph area. Every morning, we started slowly with breakfast on the balcony for everyone to ease into the day.  Sometimes a colorful gecko can be seen, on the balcony, as an uninvited guest.  

At the time of our visit, the Kilauea Volcano was erupting. The Volcano National Park was a short drive from the Kilauea Lodge followed by a perfect after-dinner walk to get to a vista point.  The scene of a live lava eruption was otherworldly and powerful even viewing from more than a mile away.  

The National Park was a different scene during the day as we drove by the Lava Rocks the next day.  Walking on them feels like walking on glass particles, rightfully so. We enjoyed the Mars-like scenery as we explored the rugged crater floor and hiked on the Kilauea Iki Trail, Halema’uma’u Crater Trail and Crater Rim Trail.  These sceneries are unique in Hawaii Big Island. 

The Kona and Waikoloa area in the West has better weather and more calming beaches waiting. The airbnb host provided us with all kinds of beach gear and towels that pretty much filled up the truck of our rental car.  They equipped us super well in our beach hoppings on Mauna Kea, Beach 69 and other nearby beaches.

We enjoyed Hawaiian cuisine (Poke bowl, ice shave, the Moa Kitchen, the Hilo Kona coffee and BBQ meat) and many more.  There are beaches with different sand colors that make them unique. The black sand beach with green sea tortoise abounds. The hike to a green sand beach along the coastline was special. 

Taking a hike with my family along the coastline was a truly memorable experience.  We were intrigued with the concept of a green sand beach, Papakōlea Green Sand Beach. From the parking lot, it was an over-an-hour hike on a rugged path. Some got to the beach by taking a 20-minute jeep ride and experiencing the many bumps along the way.  We were filled with excitement  as we arrived at the Papakōlea Green Sand Beach. The beach was a bit sparse, definitely not crowded like other more accessible beaches.  The water was too wavy for a safe swim.  We had a great time walking along the beach, relaxing on the beach, dipping into the ocean water, and admiring the unusual color of the sand.  

The camera could not capture the greenness in the way we want.   We still tried.

We have not done snorkeling as a family since our trip in Maldives more than a decade ago.  The children are young adults. Once in the water, we were in all different directions, searching for the most beautiful fishes or sea creatures. 

Swimming, mini-shortboarding and sunbathing on beaches were so much fun to do as a family.   

I could not ask for a better week of family fun and look forward to our next trip to maybe Kauai. 

Coming soon : Hong Kong, Macau, Foshan April blog

A friend offered a week of Four Seasons resort in Jackson Hole, a place inside the Grand Teton National Park.  Together with the Yellowstone National form, it forms the greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.  It has been over two decades since we last went to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton areas.   

National parks are places to be as Covid is still active.  As we spent our week in the parks, it was apparent that there has not been much international travel going on. We hardly noticed any tour bus along the way, we hardly noticed any tourists from Asia.

In Wyoming, we were often among the very few who put on the masks. The caution has not helped, and a few days upon our return, Covid-19 finally has fallen on us.  

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Day 1 – Arriving in Jackson Hole

Jackson hole is a short flight from San Francisco.  As the plane landed at the small airport, we were treated with the 5000 ft view of the lakes and the mountain ranges.  We walked from the tarmac to the small airport building which offered a relaxed ambience but not much else. We picked up our bear spray rental as well as the car rental. 

The Four Seasons Resort is a luxurious ski resort in winter, and an expensive place for weddings, events or simply mountain biking in summer months.  It is a beautiful place to be in, with restaurants and small shops within walking distance. 

We tried the Bison steak at the nearby Osteria restaurant. Bison tasted like beef with a subtle sweet flavor.

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Day 2 – Yellowstone NP

Yellowstone is about 2 to 3 hours of drive from the resort.  There are various vista points along the way including turnouts and lake views.

Glacier View turnout and Teton point turnout offer the grand view of Grand Teton and the Teton mountain ranges.  Grand teton looks grand and distinct. 

Grand Teton NP is picturesque and cozy.  On the other hand, Yellowstone NP has history and over a millions of acreage. It has a lot of things to offer, from geysers to wildlife, to outdoor activities.  

We arrived at Yellowstone NP around lunch.  NP is not a place for gourmet, we had simple hot dogs and soups.   We did a small hike up the Old Faithful observation points and admired the geysers in the areas. 

Grand Prismatic Spring is beautiful, but so crowded with people at the observation points.   Our pictures turn out to be not even close to the pro shot typically found in postcards.

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Day 3 – Amangani

Our energy level was good.  We jogged at the Valley Trail, along the right outside of the resort, to the Grand Teton NP.    It is quiet, lush and beautiful, with a nice view of the Valley down below. The trail is along the ski lift, which remains open during the summer months, for the mountain bikers.

Our  main attraction of the day was the lunch at the Jackson Lake Lodge and dinner at Amangani. The Pioneer Grill inside the Jackson Lake Lodge is an old-time American casual diner with happy waiters/waitresses, serving customers at a number of long tables.  We enjoyed the ambience and felt that we were back in the 60s.

After sampling Cotton Bay,Leeks Marina, and Signal Mountain Lodge, Jenny Lake, we swung by Jackson downtown, and had a serving of the delicious huckleberry ice cream at the Moo’s.  

Amangani is an expensive hotel with fine dining, at the top of the hill, and offers a magnificent view overlooking the valley and mountain ranges miles away.  There are not that many hotels with that breathtaking view.    We watched both the sunset, a “special bear” appearance among the bushes, and enjoyed the dinner.   

It was dark as we got out of the restaurant.  We were alert at night after so much caution about animals crossing the road in the area, 

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Day 4 – Safari Tour 

We woke up before sunrise to join the Four Season Safari Tour from 6:30am to 11am.  The Tour is not cheap but often the tour guide can share stories that we normally do not hear about. 

We spotted a variety of wildlife including mule deer, moose and her calf, elk, antelope (pronghorn?), bear and herd of bison; and learned about the interesting story of the bear 399 and her daughter bear 610 in the area.  We did not see bear 399, but did spot a black bear along the road.   

After lunch at the Mangy Moose in Teton village, we hiked a short 3.9 Taggart Lake Loop and finished the day with dinner at the Kitchen at Jackson.

It was a long day and we were tired. 

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Day 5 – Yellowstone NP

We woke up before sunrise again, to drop our friend at the airport.   With such an early start, we decided to visit Yellowstone NP again. 

We stopped at the Signal Mountain Lodge inside Grand Teton NP, and were greeted with a waiter with the most unwelcome look.  We suspected that he may be the son of the owner, and the lodge was running a losing business, with very low water level at the Jackson lake right outside the lodge.  The breakfast is fine.  

We stopped by the Sulfur Calderon.  It was hot around the hot springs and we spotted a number of bison.  They are huge animals with size probably larger than a full grown lion.  If you want to spot more bison, Hayden Valley is the place to go.  We drove by Hayden Valley and there were hundreds of them, and on our way back, we spotted them running and crossing the river.  It was quite a scene. 

The main attraction of the day was the Yellowstone Canyon area. The Yellowstone Canyon is not as grand as the Grand Canyon, but it offers a much more picturesque look with the upper & lower waterfalls, especially from the Artist Point.  It is a must-go place when you visit the Yellowstone NP. 

There were too many places in Yellowstone, so we could not afford the time to do a long hike. 

We visited the Lake Yellowstone Hotel at dusk.  It is a very classic hotel, with live piano performance, and a view of Yellowstone Lake.  The luxurious ambience feels like the Titanic (before it sank). 

Yellowstone is famous for wildlife.  It did not disappoint, we spotted two mooses, herds of Bison at the Hayden Valley, two male elks, a lone coyote and a family of Grizzly bears.   

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Day 6 – Four seasons 

Rest and relaxation at the resort was the way to be after two long days.

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Day 7 – Grand Teton Jenny Lake

We took a boat ride across Jenny Lake, did a short hike of 2.5 miles, and finished with a dip in the ambient water in Jenny Lake.  There were tons of berries along the way (the thimbleberry, and probably some huckleberries), and we spotted a bear cub swimming in the lake, some white tail deers, and a moose calf.

We had dinner at the Local, a restaurant recommended by a number of locals, in Jackson. 

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Grand Teton and Yellowstone NP never disappoint.   Our first visit was way back in 95.  We are back in 2022.  When will we be back again?

Few trips can be more memorable than a family trip to Hawaii during Christmas.

Pandemic situation was looking up a few months ago.  We were excited about the idea of a family getting together in Hawaii.  Hawaii is an isolated group of islands.  The state has done a great job in handling the inbounds of people.  Travel.hawaii.gov covers all we need to do to avoid the 14-day quarantine.  In spite of the curved balls thrown by the Omicron variant, Hawaii still came across as a safer place than many other places in the country.  In mid December, my family of four got together in Honolulu. 

We (mom and dad) arrived the earliest at the Honolulu HNL airport.  We picked up our son from HNL a couple of  hours later; and then our daughter almost twelve hours later.  My daughter needed to get through 3 flights from NYC to Honolulu.  That proved too much exhaustion and she ended up falling sick right off the bat.    The in-home testing kits that we brought along, confirmed that it was not Covid-19.   In the past two years, we have been so interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, that we started to have these distorted reactions that Covid-19 was the cause of all illness.  This served as a reminder that we could fall sick in many different ways.  The Kuhio walk-in medical clinic made an unusual itinerary on day 4 to give us our peace of mind and that she got a stomach flu that would go away by itself.   

Our Airbnb has a well equipped kitchen and is a home away from home.  Waikiki beach is within minutes of walking.  We love the location.  It has a partial ocean view from our 20th floor.  In the morning, it was relaxing and refreshing to spend some time on the balcony to watch the swimming pool below and the ocean afar; in the evening, we could watch the tiny surfers during the sunset.  We ended up spending tons of time at our Airbnb, especially the first 3 days.   

Oahu greeted us with high rises, busy traffic and lots of travelers.  Lines were very long to get food or beverage.  One morning, we waited for an hour at Kona coffee purveyors for a cup of the famous 100% Kona coffee.  The coffee was world class, rich but subtle; and the bakery was delicious.  One evening, we waited for over an hour for a Maguro Spot Poke; and these Poke shops either ran out of sashimi or ran out of rice.  It was a bit frustrating though the food was really good at the end.  I did not expect Honolulu to be such a busy city, reminiscent of Hong Kong.   The rhythm was something to get used to.  The island rewarded its tourists with such a variety of offerings – scenic hiking trails, beautiful beaches, historical museum, shopping, cuisines.  We could have spent more days.  

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The hiking trails were pretty crowded, even though we were told that there were less tourists this Christmas than other years.

• Diamond Head Hike, there was no choice but to walk with the crowd on this hike.  We  stopped a lot for the magnificent views of the crater, Waikiki beaches, Pearl Harbour and many more.  The view was hard to beat in this relatively easy round-trip hike.

• Koko Tramway Hike was the most strenuous with thousands of uneven steps to the top.  We were rewarded with a glimpse of sunrise (we were late for the real sunrise),  beautiful views of Hanauma Bay and so much more.    

• Manoa falls trail was a moderate hike, with uneven and stony grounds.  We were rewarded with scenes that seemed to come directly from the Jurassic Park movies.  The waterfall was all right, though I could not believe we needed to wait for 10 minutes to take a picture of it.  And most ignored the “danger” sign and went on to get to the bottom of the waterfall. I was convinced they were idiots for not following the “danger” sign and then became one of those idiots.

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The cuisine choice can satisfy the most demanding eaters.  The Japanese presence can be felt almost everywhere, including the cuisine. 

• Ginza Bairin was the best meal with super delicious Kurobuta Pork Loin Katsu and the super juicy light and fluffy “Omurice” with demi sauce.  It is almost worth going  back to Honolulu just for the restaurant!   
• Marugame Udon had the longest line of people waiting, and we learned the lesson to order an hour ahead to pick up.  The quality of the food explained the long line. 
• We tried a few poke too, at the off-the-wall beer pub, the Maguro spot and the five star poke.  Maguro spot has the freshest fish, I still gave it a low rating just because the line was so long, the service was so slow, and then many sashimi ran out by the time we got to the top of the line.   With all these qualifiers, I like the one at off-the-wall beer pub the best.  
• The Hawaii J&J BBQ served the meal with the biggest portion, enough for two meals.
• Scratch Kitchen lunch served us with the most fancy pancakes.

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The beaches can be rated by the softness of its sand, the location, the view, and the water.  Hawaii beaches all have beautiful water and views.  

Waikiki has soft sand and long beaches, and is convenient.  There are small rocks as we get to the ocean water that still hurts a bit.  

Kailua beach has the softest sand from the beach to the ocean water, it has fewer people, still you can expect a line to drive into the parking lot.   

With ten days on the island, it may be a surprise that we only visited two beaches.

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There are plenty of places to visit.  We enjoyed the Dole plantation and learned more about growing pineapples. Again, we had to wait more than an hour to get on to the train.  The train tour and the maze in the Dole plantation exceeded our expectations. We expected to see pineapple trees, but then we also found the macadamia nut tree, the cocoa tree, the lychee tree, the banana tree and so much more.  

That Altantis submarine was a bit of a rip-off, more of an experience to brag that we have been in a submarine. 

The Pearl Harbor visit was such a rush and we should have given it a full day.  After visiting the World War museum, it dawned on me that the Pearl Harbor attack could not have been a surprise to the Americans,  the attack was bound to happen in just a matter of time.  With the US military deployment from the West Coast to Hawaii, it put the US military to be within a few hours  of flights to mainland Japan.   What would you expect Japan to do differently?

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Itinerary (our itinerary was often decided at the beginning of the each day)

Day 1, travel time

Day 2, stayed at Airbnb, one of us was sick.

Day 3, Waikiki beach, Moana surfrider hotel, pu’u pia trail

Day 4, Kuhio walk-in medical clinic , shop for hiking shoes, Waikiki lagoon

Day 5, Dole plantation train tour and maze, Marugame Udon

Day 6, Diamond head hike, Maguro Spot poke, Five star poke take out

Day 7, Koko tramway hike to sunrise, Scratch Kitchen lunch, Atlantis submarine tour

Day 8, Pearl Harbor bowfin submarine, Ginza Bairin lunch , shop 88 tees and neighborhood, shaved ice

Day 9, Manoa falls trail, Kailua beach park

Day 10, travel time

There are so many places we have not explored.  Maybe one day we will return.