Paris: The French Connection

5/4/16:  Happy Star Wars Day!  In case you missed it last month, check out the link to my "Just read" mini reviews of the latest Star Wars books (and other books), and also my earlier post about why I'm reading the latest Star Wars "canon" novels.

From the Loft Boutique Hostel Paris, last Thursday:

Merely an hour before my connection flight to Seoul, Korea left Seattle yesterday, I had a change of heart.  I had just flown standby in Business Elite class to from Portland-Seattle, and another Business class seat was all but guaranteed for the Seattle-Seoul leg as well.  The problem was that the return flights from South Korea to the U.S. were 95% full for days.  As a Delta standby traveler, I tend to play it safe.

I had mapped out some enticing hiking/scrambling trails near Seoul.  But this wasn't the first time that I had abandoned plans to hike in South Korea.  See the link to my previous post, South Korea: The Bumpy Road to Seoul... And also the sequel, The Netherlands: Bicycling to Haarlem.

I landed in Paris today... And yesterday’s attempt to climb in South Korea brought back memories of hiking the Dragon’s Back in Hong Kong.

A photo posted by Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) on Apr 28, 2016 at 3:31pm PDT

Fortunately, there was a Seattle flight to Paris only one gate away.  55 minutes prior to departure, I changed my listing.


En route to Paris, the Business Elite flight attendants were flawless.  The food was exquisite.  But for whatever reason, I landed in Paris with a splitting headache and a barely manageable fever.

Flying over France

Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport

Nursing my headache for a spell in the CDG airport arrival lounge helped get me back on my feet.  I set off for the Loft Boutique Hostel Paris using the RER train to connect with the blue Metro line.  From the Belleville stop on the Metro, the Loft Boutique Hostel was a five minute walk down the street.

On the way to drop off my backpack at the hostel, I stopped by the Englise Notre Dame de la Croix... Not to be confused with its more famous cousin, Paris' iconic Notre Dame cathedral.

Paris last weekend- Not the Notre Dame you're looking for

A photo posted by Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) on May 3, 2016 at 5:22pm PDT

As soon as I upload this quickie blog post from Loft Boutique Hostel, I'll dash over to the Louvre museum and (of course) the Eiffel Tower.

I've visited Paris countless times... How have I not yet toured the Louvre?

From Rome: Traveling to Africa, Nicaragua, South Korea, or ANYWHERE?

Flying standby overseas in early December is usually pretty easy for us.  Flights loads are lighter.  But our recent winning streak of hassle-free international trips came to a screeching halt this week.

Update 12/8/14:  Originally uploaded from Italy on Saturday morning, I reposted this story today with some bonus photos from Rome.  Plenty of more Italy photos are coming!

Kathy's and my South African safari should have wrapped up on Friday, freeing up this weekend to swing by Italy to see some friends.  Even if I ran out of time to make it to their villa, we could still meet in Central Italy for a Saturday night out in Rome.  It all seemed like a sure thing.

But then this week happened.

Nervous, Kathy?  Not to worry, Kathy totally gave me permission to share this pic, en route to Seattle.

Attempt #1:  PDX to Atlanta to South Africa

Kathy was fearful of traveling back to South Africa on Monday, even more so than our recent overseas trips. The anxiety was too much for poor Kathy, and for days there was nothing I could do or say to console her. To make matters worse, last October our South African outlet adapter had literally caught on fire in our dorm in Spain. We knocked out the power to the entire wing of our Madrid hostel!

The night before we were scheduled to fly down to South Africa for our safari, I mercifully suggested an alternate destination. South Africa would be our first of many attempts this week.

Attempt #2:  PDX to Atlanta to Nicaragua

I stayed up all night on Monday reworking our plans: where to surf in Nicaragua, which active volcanoes to climb, and which hiking trails would be enjoyable for Kathy. But Tuesday morning, we were unable to get on our Atlanta flight to connect to Managua. We flew Business Class to Seattle instead, attempting to catch a red eye flight to Atlanta. Shortly after we landed in Seattle, the red eye became completely oversold.

Central America was out, and we were stuck overnight in Seattle until Wednesday.

Attempt #3:  Seattle to South Korea

Wednesday's Seattle flight to Seoul looked open. We overnighted in Burien with our good Warner Pacific friends Michael and Melanie. Readers may remember Michael from little Lena's first Daddy-daughter trip to Seattle this fall. Here's the link to that story.

Camera one, camera two.  And camera three?

But on Wednesday morning, we were unable to get on our flight from Seattle to Seoul. And all flights to Atlanta (or to any of Delta's international hubs) were oversold for days.

Making progress:  Seattle to Los Angeles

Finally!  We got unstuck from Seattle and flew to L.A on Wednesday afternoon.  This was our last chance this week to transfer to Atlanta and fly overseas, though the LAX-ATL red eye flight was slightly oversold.  Regardless of which country we visited first, the clock was ticking until I had to be in Italy on Saturday night.

More progress: Los Angeles to Atlanta

Against all odds, we didn't get stuck in LAX overnight. The oversold red eye flight to Atlanta gradually opened up enough for Kathy and I to grab the last two seats. Together!

Upon landing in Atlanta before dawn on Thursday morning, we discovered that our doable international connections from ATL now looked horrible until the NEXT day. We had run out of time to visit any counties prior to our arrival in Rome, which wasn't even our main destination.  Italy was merely intended to be a fun way to cap off a week of continent hopping.

The white flag:  Atlanta it is.

We made the most of our extra day in Atlanta. We hiked to the top of Stone Mountain, negotiated an outrageously low rate for a premium hotel suite, and kicked off our tour of the Atlanta nightlife with the Cowboys vs. Bears game at J. R. Cricket's.  Dallas steamrollered Chicago, of course.

A quick afternoon hike to the top of Stone Mountain, Georgia

Our flight to Rome was less than a day away. But Kathy decided that she was content with our unplanned domestic vacation as is. The night before our flight left for Italy, she eagerly removed her name from our listing and booked a flight home to Portland instead. The tail end of our vacation week would be solo.

Back on schedule: Atlanta to Rome

This is where our vacation went back to normal (for us): A Business Elite cabin seat over the ocean, an early arrival in Rome with plenty of time for sightseeing with my friends, and an opportunity for the craziest Saturday night out that Rome has ever seen!  Let's hope!

But that will be a story for another travel post.

12/8/14:  Here are a couple pics from my upcoming Rome post:

The Roman coliseum: Who knew that the Eternal City would take an eternity to get to?

Seattle: A warmup for Daddy-daughter travel season

Plans to return to Munich, Germany over the weekend were shelved for a couple of nearer adventures here in the Northwest.  On Saturday, a dozen of us got together for a 17.6 mile hike/scramble on Mount Hood to the Mooney plane crash site and Mooney Tarn, including the Elk Cove trail, Pinnacle Ridge, and some off-trail action.  Stories and photos are coming soon!


Garth's Blog skips over many of my international travelogues (or I often post them later).  Friends who follow my blog grudgingly accept this.  But hopefully I'll be uploading more international posts now that Kathy is almost ready to let me take Lena along overseas!

For now, here is our OTHER adventure from this weekend:

We've come a long way since Lena: International Baby of Mystery (link).  At three years old, Lena already has Daddy's sense of adventure, exploration, and restlessness.

And I'm praying that our 8 1/2 month old Levi will, too!

Lena's vacation in Spain last Fall was so long ago...

En route to Madrid, Spain

...So, with Mommy's permission, I figure it's WAY past time to get Lena flying again.


Flying Lena to Seattle on Friday for lunch with my friend Michael Alben (living in Burien) was a good place to start.  Let's call this a "dress rehearsal" for some upcoming kid-modified, Garth-style international trips.

PDX Airport

Mommy holds back tears long enough to drop Lena and me off at curbside.  Kathy's dry eyes lasted all the way to the PDX cell phone waiting area, where she awaited my text assuring her that Lena and I were assigned seats on board.

A groggy Lena tugs her little roll-aboard luggage though the TSA checkpoint, charming everyone.

Lena's is giddy for her favorite part of flying:  The airport people-mover!

Delta'a PDX rampers Jeffy and Cindy load up our Skywest CRJ for departure.  Lena's car seat is sitting on the ground, next to the aft belt loader.

Seattle - Burien

Rather than this church parking lot, imagine Lena dragging her luggage to a kid-friendly hostel or friend's house in Italy... or anywhere in the world!

After Michael picked us up from SEA-TAC airport, he showed us around his house, his church, and the town of Burien.

Michael gives us a tour of Burien Evangelical Church (don't let the name "Evangelical" fool you), including the music room upstairs.

Downtown Burien

Seahurst Park, on Puget Sound

The journey home to Beaverton

Vine video-  End of a Daddy-daughter trip:  A sleepy Lena boards our flight home from Seattle to Portland.

Flying back to PDX:  Lena is too young to fly standby in Business Class, so we sat in the comfy Economy Comfort row again.

Riding the Max train home from PDX airport to Beaverton:  Lena is in desperate need of her afternoon nap.

Reunited with another future traveling, hiking, and climbing companion:  Baby Levi!

Garth's Blog will return in late October with...

Climbing Mount St. Helens again!

Part 1- China: Shot Down

The Forbidden City in Beijing: Definitely next time!   Photo credit: Jacob Mee's Flickr photostream.

Part 1 of 5

(Or, the continuation of my "Beijing in My Sights" blog post)
(Or, Part 1 of my Asia travelogue series, sorely missing the cool overseas photos coming in Parts 2-5)

Unintentionally, my blog post titles about a hopeful China visit have maintained a misconstrued warfare motif... "Beijing In My Sights" and "China: Shot Down," anyone?  What's next?  "Aiming for Beijing?"  Actually, that WILL be the title chronicling my next attempt to visit China.



My convoluted scheme for a 72 hour visit to China "in transit" without paying for a visa seemed foolproof.  Although frowned upon by nearly every ticket counter agent I encountered, most employees conceded that the plan was fully legal.  A tad risky and complicated, but legal.  I had carefully assembled the various documentation to prove it.

For reasons I won't specify, my plan required me to depart from Seattle airport on a day that I was working at PDX.  I used a lunch break to purchase a standby flight pass on Alaskan Air, finished my shift at Delta, hastily completed a crucial shift bid after work, got involved in a minor security-related scuffle, and barely checked in in time for my flight to Seattle.

PDX airport, after my Delta work shift:  My Alaskan Airlines flight bump-a-thon to Seattle

Oversold.  I got bumped to the next flight.  Then the next flight.  Then the next flight.  Five flights later, I finally nabbed a seat out of Portland.

**********

Landing in Seattle several hours late, I was still optimistic about making my connection to Beijing.  Making that connection, however, would mandate sprinting through the Sea-Tac concourse like a madman.  And sprint I did.

Gasping for air, I dashed into the Beijing departure gate just before the final boarding call.  The gate agent begrudgingly signed off on my travel plans, although she was clearly skeptical and disavowed responsibility for the outcome.

Unforeseen Problem:  All of us standby passengers had seat assignments (and the others had already boarded), but the airplane was overloaded with cargo.  Clutching my worthless boarding pass, I helplessly watched as my fellow non-rev passengers were unceremoniously deplaned.

My flight to Beijing needed to lose some weight before I could board.  I'm such a fatty!  

It was getting late, and the next flight to Beijing wouldn't leave Sea-Tac for two more days.  Extending my long weekend into a full week away from baby Lena wasn't an option.  Kathy and Lena would be home from Salem by Saturday night.  It was time to admit defeat.

**********

My relative Eileen was gracious enough to pick me up from Sea Tac and allow me to crash overnight at her triplex, near the University of Washington.  We had the best of times catching up on life since Brent and Cheryl's February wedding in Bend (wedding party blog links here and here)!

Early the next morning, Eileen dropped me off near the Seattle light rail line on her way to work at the U of W campus.  It wasn't really on her way... but with a heart as big as hers, it didn't seem to matter.



Plan B was already in motion.  En route to Seattle the evening before, I had scoured the Delta flight schedules on my Galaxy Note 2 for alternate options.  Osaka, Japan was a wide-open route, and Kyoto should be an easy train ride away from Osaka.

Problem: The immensely popular Golden Week festival was underway in Japan.  I would be a fool to visit Kyoto on such a frenetic, crowded week without plans, lodging, or a confirmed seat!

Opportunity: See "Problem," above.  I couldn't resist!


A couple hours later, I scored a seat in the Business Elite cabin to Osaka.  I was on my way to Kyoto for Golden Week!

Coming Monday night on Garth's Blog...

Part 2-  Japan: Golden Week in Osaka!!