Top 10: Most popular TRAVEL posts of the year (Unpublished #3 from Hong Kong)

A family trip to Spain:  One of our many, MANY yet-to-be-published overseas travel stories

From Hong Kong:

As explained last month in my Honorable Mentions compilation, this is Part 3 of a previously unreleased "Best of" series from January 2014, based on page views for my 2013 posts.  Yes, this series is an entire year old and these posts are from 2013.

Writing new content for this blog has taken a backseat recently to family time, ministry, leading hikes, the occasional climb, and traveling overseas.  Perhaps this unpublished series will help readers pass the time until I start blogging again.  If not, check back when I get home from Hong Kong in a few days!

As always, links look like this.  Here is the link to last week's "Top 10: Most popular non-travel posts"!  Only the 18 travel posts from that year were factored into this list.  So now, from January 2014, here are some brief reflections on each of my travel-themed Top 10:

10.  Bogota, Pt. 5:

Risky Business and the Musicology Hostel

Sometimes a travel post is nothing more than a plug for a Colombian hostel with plenty of character.  And characters.

A couple of earlier entries in this Colombia travelogue, covering my journey from the U.S. to South America, didn’t make this Top 10 list:  No Sleep ‘Til Bogota!, and also Bogota, Pt. 2:  Colombia, At Last

9.  Milan Epilogue

This journey that immediately followed South America began in Switzerland, continued in Italy, and was finally coming to a close when I met Ravil at the JFK airport.

More worthwhile, I.M.O., is the less popular "Italy: Killing a Day in Milan."  Stories and photos from my least favorite Italian city (I prefer the mountains and countryside anyway) included the can’t-miss sights of the Duomo cathedral and the Swiss/ Italian mountains.

On some years we frequently fly to Italy every few months, so I’m looking forward to seeing Houtan again on one of our upcoming Italian visits!

8.  Bogota, Pt. 3:  The Big Welcome Party

Though awash in criticism, this story was all clean, innocent fun.  After relocating to the next Colombian hostel, I edited and tightened up this post to clear up any misconceptions.

The inserted apology was probably overkill.

7.  Bogota, Pt. 4:  In Harm’s Way

And I thought that previous #8 post about the birthday party was controversial?  Public and private backlash on Facebook and Twitter was staggering after I released this story of fellow traveler Hector and me exploring a rough part of Bogota, Colombia.

Granted, our lives were put in serious danger multiple times (including a terrifying, unmentioned episode that I’ll share in person but would never release online).  But Hector and I knew what we were doing.  And God was certainly watching out for us as we shared a wonderful act of service together.

True story, with one significant footnote:  The only artistic license I took with this narrative was my intentional vagueness about Hector’s true identity (again, I’ll freely share the “real” version with anyone who asks).

In other words, a few extra sentences would've changed this story completely.  Choosing to omit this detail dramatically changed the original, inspirational narrative into a straight up life-or-death adventure… and it definitely was that.

6.  Noordwijk, Netherlands:

The almost daddy-daughter day trip

Three hours before departure, Mommy changed her mind about allowing Lil’ Lena to visit one of Daddy's friends in the Netherlands for the day.  I gave a rain check to my graciously understanding friend in Amsterdam and hit this Dutch beach town instead.

Thanks to my other well-traveled friends at the Flying Pig Beach Hostel, this relatively minor weekend getaway was one of my favorite trips of the year (after Rome and Venice, of course)!

But alas, there's just no substitute for an overseas daddy-daughter day trip.

5.  Northern Italy, Pt. 2:

Verona, Venice, and beyond

Before the year's end party in Rome, some clever friends surprised me for a most memorable weekend in Venice.  While the departure from Venice was downright catastrophic, the quick stopover in Verona beforehand was a joy.

The only damper on Carli's and my wedding facility recon for Robbin (which we never got around to anyway) and touristy Verona sightseeing was setting a sky high record for sleep deprivation.  Full flights had dragged out my U.S. departure for Italy by two full days, forcing me to cut out the en route get-together in Austria entirely.  Thus, I was a barely conscious zombie by the time I reached Verona.

I don't exactly remember falling asleep... But at some point that night, I woke up in Venice for the main event.

4.  Part 2-  Japan:  Golden Week in Osaka

Speaking of ever-evolving trip beginnings, this unplanned trip to Osaka was the fallout from the unfortunate events in Part 1- China: Shot down and the earlier teaser, China:  Beijing in My Sights.  No single factor was to blame.  My convoluted visa scheme was risky, I was brushed aside by my hopeful contact in China, and the standby passengers were all deplaned when our flight was declared overweight in Seattle.

The change in destination sent me headlong into Japan's Golden Week. The festivals and parades were exuberant. And it was all worth the hassle for the opportunity to bust out some wingman magic for my eligible bachelor buddy, Xia.

My Japanese coworkers later objected that chaotic Golden Week is the craziest time of the year to fly standby to Asia.  But it came down to flying to Osaka or flying home.  On that note, flying home from Osaka was one of the most unbelievable "non-rev" ordeals I've ever encountered.  The best twist: getting my passport yanked in Guam. Long story.

And that's why there's definitely gonna be a very belated Parts 3 and 4 on Garth's Blog to conclude this saga.  Trust me, the rest of this story is too outrageous to pass up.

3.  Switzerland:  A Protest in Lausanne

The Swiss protest photo above is the first pic that I ever "live tweeted" from a news making event.  Merely a week after my "In Harm's Way" incidents in Colombia (see #7 on this list), I wasn't in a rush to get caught up in any more excitement for the month.  But then this happened.

Kathy and I hadn't seen our buddy Sebastien since the dancing, sailing, swimming, and snorkeling at Club Med in Turks and Caicos Islands several months earlier.  After landing in Zurich, I hopped a train through the Swiss Alps to Lausanne.  Seb gave me some suggested sights to see while I waited for him to get off work.  Before sightseeing, I made sure that I could navigate my way to his flat and also to our meeting spot, the nearby Church of Saint-François.  All was peaceful.

All hell had broken loose by the time I returned to our meeting spot that evening.  Throngs of protesters had overrun the church courtyard and the surrounding streets.  The collective shouting* made it impossible to hear a phone conversation, so Seb and I attempted to locate each other with a mish mash of emails, texting and Facebook.

*Fortunately, there were no gunshots this time.  Kathy and I nearly peed our pants when deafening gunfire broke out during the earlier protest that we saw in Argentina.  The nerve of those guys!

By the time Seb showed up from work, the crowd had moved on.  I excitedly told him what had just happened as we left the scene to kick off our night.  Other than my pics and a video clip, he had to take my word for it.

The next day's stop was, you guessed it, another Italy trip.  But that was completely unrelated to my second most popular travel story of the year...

2.  Northern Italy: Confrontation in First Class

My tweet from the JFK airport taxiway was elaborated on here, in this short story about the alcohol-related incident that forced our plane to return to the gate.  It was hastily composed on my Note phone as my water taxi cruised through the canals of Venice.  And it is disgusting.

Consider this a cautionary tale about excessive drinking before flying... as well as a warning to anyone in the airline cabin service industry who is prone to gag reflex.

And the #1 most popular travel post of the year (and nearly all time) is...

1.  Leaving Bogota:

Hiking Mt. Monserrate and Scaling the Wall

Other than a questionably prudent but climbable side excursion (referenced in the title) that I discovered, the pilgrim's path up Colombia's Mount Serrate is not difficult nor dangerous in the least.  In fact, anyone in decent shape should be able conquer the high altitude and run up to the peak.

Lingering too late at the touristy summit, however, can lead to problems.

Since trail access is shut down before dusk, running back down may be the best option to slip through the gates before they are locked for the night.  In this case, though, there were some non-runners making their way down who needed a hand.  And you know what they say, leave no man (or woman) behind.

As I was assisting some older ladies on a steep stretch of trail, the gates below closed for the night.

 Lowering fragile bones over the side of a trail and then boosting them back up the other side was the only thing I could think of to get us back to the trail head.  Surely there was a better way?


Previously unknown fact: 
A single photo of Hector, the violence-prone star of #7's "In Harm's Way," is subtly buried in the #1 post.  That's probably the closest I'll get to publicly revealing the truth about Hector's identity.  Any guesses as to which one he is?


Thanks for taking the time to revisit these travel posts, readers.  The current adventure in Hong Kong is almost ready to be published.

Stories from our family's more recent and upcoming overseas travels are coming soon!

Butchering the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon

Though this week's post is about our May marathon in Cincinnati, all my friends out there who completed either Hood to Coast or the Triple D challenge in Oregon last weekend deserve a shout out.  I appreciated all the invites, and wish I could've joined you guys.  Great endurance, everyone!

Our two local Delta teams (out of 40), PDX Porklandia and the PDX Sassy Squealers, regroup after running the 26.2 mile Flying Pig Marathon relay in Cincinnati.
Back: Garth, Patti, Renee, Dayle, Curtis, Sandy.  Front: Lisa, Dawn, Jackie.

At long last... Here is the promised follow-up to my prequel "Is the Flying Pig Marathon ready for us?" (link) blog post, uploaded last May from Minneapolis!

Earlier this year, Delta Airlines employees from our PDX station began raising money for the Flying Pig Marathon foundation (no relation to the Flying Pig Beach Hostel in the Netherlands that I blogged about here, where we had that party last Fall in Noordwijk). Funds raised would go towards various charitable organizations, such as the ALS Association, Alzheimer's Association, Autism Society, City Gospel Mission, Team World Vision, Shriner's Hospital for Children, and dozens of other charities.

A spot on the Porklandia team opened up for me a few weeks before the race. Although my left foot was still recovering from a freak hiking injury caused by a dog who started a rockfall on a VERY sketchy trail (the full hiking story is here, and my foot has fully recovered), I eagerly filled in.  My only "training" for the race was allowing my foot to heal.



On May 3, PDX's Sassy Squealers and Porklandia (and Dawn!) took to the skies to meet up with the 38 other Delta teams the day before the marathon.

The nine of us landed in Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon to check into the Millennium Hotel, complete our registration, pick up our race packets/ bibs/ Delta team t-shirts, and browse the PGE Health and Fitness Expo for impulse racing gear.

The Health and Fitness Expo

Somehow I got talked into buying and wearing this:

Even KATHY insisted over the phone that I buy this pink tutu at the expo (for little Lena's sake, of course) and race in it the next day.

The night before: Evening merriment at the Via Vite Italian Bistro and Fountain Square Festival Stage

Vine video (Shot on Fountain Square's actual Vine Street-- nifty, eh?):  Click the upper left corner to hear the audio.

5:45 am Sunday: Ready, set...

The morning of the marathon was chaotic, to say the least. Thousands of runners were spilling out from hotels and attempting to find their various starting positions. Porklandia and the Sassy Squealers were running the marathon as a relay, so this was the perfect setup for...

Oops #1: The bus mix up

We followed the crowds to the bus stops where we expected to be shuttled to the our respective baton hand-off locations at the beginning of Legs 2, 3, and 4... only to discover that this huge mob of runners was actually headed to the starting line instead.

Our Leg 1 runners Patti and Renee powered away from the starting line at 6:30 a.m. sharp.  The rest of us were left to pass around and squint at our lone map.

By the time we made our way back to the actual pick up point, the final bus for Leg 2 had already departed. I walked even further to a place where several other Leg 2 runners in the same predicament had been calling cabs. I split the cab fare with another team and our taxi driver dropped us off outside the race course.


It was an additional mile walk uphill to our baton hand-off point at the end of Leg 1.

Leg 1 runners Patti and Renee ran up the hill, handed off the batons to to Jackie and I, and we set off!

The hand-off had been smooth, our pace was steady, and Jackie and I were on our way to pass our batons to Curtis and Sandy.  But something wasn't quite right.

The intensity of the crowd strangely began to build to a ridiculous crescendo.  It began to dawn on us where we were, and there was no turning back.  Jackie and I were about to bump into...

Oops #2: Crossing the finish line (instead of handing off the batons)

Enough said. As Leg 3 runners Curtis and Sandy patiently waited for us to hand off our batons at the end of Leg 2, Jackie and I accidentally kept running until we crossed the "Finish Swine" of the entire Flying Pig Marathon!

Embarrassed and bewildered, Jackie and I graciously accepted the cheers of the crowd before pulling aside the nearest race worker. Our mere mention of the end of Leg 2 resulted in a knowing look, and these instructions from the volunteer:

You too, huh? This just keeps happening. Don't worry, we have drivers who are shuttling the Leg 2 runners from the finish line back to the beginning of Leg 3... and the latest shuttle JUST took off. Sit tight. The next van will be leaving for Leg 3 shortly.



What went wrong? Simple-- The race course had split into two lanes at some point. Several Leg 2 runners had been missing a crucial turnoff, following the main crowd of runners to the Finish Swine instead. To complicate matters further, spectators (who probably thought they were standing on the sidelines) were scattered around on the right side of the course itself in that area, obscuring the Leg 2 turnoff lane.


Jackie and I could hardly contain our laughter as the van drove us all back to the intended hand-off point. But not everyone could appreciate the humor in this situation. An ultra-competitive relay runner who sat in the van's middle row was grumbling about how she'd NEVER missed a turnoff sign in previous Flying Pig races. She was visibly upset.


The shuttle van stopped at the beginning of Leg 3 long enough to hand off our batons to Curtis and Sandy, and then drove us back to wait for everyone at Finish Swine.  Curtis and Sandy ran Leg 3 AND continued on with Leg 4 runners Lisa and Dayle, just for fun.  What a supportive team!

Post-race festivities, prizes, and refreshments

Irresistible rockabilly ruckus from Northside Garage

PDX station manager/ marathon cheerleader Dawn checks on the status of our remaining runners from Legs 3 and 4.

PDX teams Porklandia and the Sassy Squealers join forces to cross the Finish Swine together

The overly dramatic finish

Our two PDX teams didn't break any records that day, but no matter.  Dozens of charities benefited from the money raised!  And our Delta Airlines' runners proved that nothing could prevent us from finishing the race.

Noordwijk, Netherlands: The almost daddy-daughter day trip

Running on Noordwijk Beach in the Netherlands last weekend, with friends from around the world

How did last weekend's impossibly fun day trip to Noordwijk turn out differently than planned? There were a couple of last minute changes:

1. I swapped out a friend visit in Amsterdam for a one night stay in the coastal town of Noordwijk, the Netherlands.  Why?  Because...
2. ...This trip was intended to be a daddy-daughter weekend away.  But at the last minute, the decision was made to keep our precious two year daughter old at home.

Lena would've loved her quality bonding time with Daddy in the Netherlands, and her hard working Mommy surely deserved a relaxing bachelorette weekend at home. And on the heels of my brief friend-visiting spree in northern Italy last month (link), I was anxious to squeeze in one more overseas family outing before our baby's January due date.

Sadly, Mommy was concerned that Lena may have still been recovering from a cold. So less than three hours prior to departure, Lena was removed from my flight listing.   Kathy requested that I reshape our travel plans for the Netherlands into to a solo day trip.


Even with these two last minute changes, the trip played out like a dream.

The bus from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to Noordwijk took about 1 1/2 hours (2 hours for the return trip to Amsterdam the next morning) to reach the coast.

The peaceful views of the Netherlands' misty countryside made my transition from a cushy 8 1/2 hours in Delta's Business Elite cabin to a public bus that much smoother.



My early morning arrival at the Flying Pig Beach Hostel gave me a chance to rest up before heading out for the day. Bianca from northern Ireland at the reception desk generously invited me to join the community for breakfast, making up in advance for my 5:45 a.m. checkout time that would send me away hungry the next morning.

I explored the town of Noordwijk for a while before heading back to the Flying Pig to round up some people.  A brisk beach run was the cure for my airplane/bus ride blues. Ishai and I assembled a crew of the willing and able from our hostel.  Israeli mountaineer Ishai, Brit Sophia (training for a marathon!), and Americans Christine, David and I all hit Noordwijk Beach to stretch out our legs.

It wasn't all sunshine and sand, of course. A couple miles or so in, a light drizzle escalated into a hail storm. We turned around, but not in time to spare our faces from a stinging microdermabrasion of ice pellets. We splintered apart into pairs running all directions, yet somehow hilariously got back to the hostel doorstep at the same time.

**********

Here's a first: That night, we stayed in. When checking into any hostel, my customary shtick is to drag my fellow backpackers/accomplices out of their beds, couches, hammocks, etc. to join me for a rambunctious night out on the town.

No need. The Flying Pig is already a popular hangout for Noordwijk's locals. And our beach hostel had all the right ingredients for a memorable night: a fun party atmosphere, music for dancing, comfortable places to chill, and the perfect mix of people.

Our night at the Flying Pig beach hostel begins!

As always, it was my mates who made the night so unforgettable. The night flew by for our gang of five fearless beach runners plus Stu, Mariah, Rick, Jacques, Keelie, Kat, Michael, Bianca, Vanessa, and everyone else who drew us in for the laughs, stories, surprisingly deep discussions, and ridiculous drama.  I wouldn't have traded a minute with those friends for the extra hour or so I could've spent sleeping.

My night continued straight on until dawn. It was cringe-worthy to wake up Sophia (and Kat!) at 5:45 a.m. to get my passport back, but the rest of my return trip went off with a hitch.  Fading quickly, I was out like a light as soon as I boarded the early morning bus to Amsterdam.

It seemed as though I didn't finally wake up until my plane prepared to land at PDX 13 hours later.

Waking up to the familiar views of two of my favorite climbs, Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams

Back in Portland I helped a friend in Italy fly back to the U.S. with one of my buddy passes, hooked up with a compadre here in Beaverton, and then hurried home to Lena and Kathy, the love of my life.  I walked into the house to find my baby girl in good health.

Lena, I'm glad that you're feeling better now. I still owe you a daddy-daughter trip.

Better start packing!

Coming up on Garth's Blog...

Recent family surfing weekends at the Oregon Coast!

And then...

Lena's 1st international trip to Madrid, Spain!!