When we take our travel trailer to Padres Spring Training, we like to extend our time away to explore Arizona or Utah. Last year, the late snow season around Flagstaff diverted us south to Tucson, instead to Page and Monument Valley. This time we headed north but did not travel as far & stayed at a lower elevation. We didn’t have as much time to travel & Camp Verde is 1.5hrs north of Phoenix. A very short travel day, and great when you only have a few days. There are only a few RV parks in Sedona and they are usually fully booked & expensive. So we reserved a spot 25mi south at Camp Verde at Verde Ranch RV Resort. We figured it was a short drive north to the Sedona area. Plus we could explore other places like Montezuma’s Castle along highways 17, 169 or 260.
Unfortunately, the rainy weather we had the first game in Phoenix, as still hanging around. So the five days we had in the area to hike & explore were often affected by rain.
Verde Ranch RV Resort is a CRR “Lifestyle” destination – associated with the River Sands RV Resort we’ve stayed at in Ehrenberg AZ. Like River Sands, this resort is fairly new, opening in August 2019. It has plenty of spaces, amenities, and activities. There are even covered spaces at the top of the hill with great views. One of these sites would be great during the heat of summer. But in March, our RV site at the bottom of the hill was fine. The Verde River runs through the northeast border of the resort and is a nice hike.
It’s become a family tradition to travel to San Diego Padres Spring Training. Other than in 2020, during the Covid shutdown, we’ve gone to Arizona in March for baseball. The last few times, we taken our travel trailer, Howie, and made a vacation of it, traveling beyond Phoenix after attending a few games. Our son Matthew arranges the tickets dates and we find a RV park near Peoria. We’ve were lucky finding three nights during this peak season in northern Phoenix.
Friday 08 March 2024 – San Francisco Giants vs San Diego Padres
We had tickets to Friday night’s SF Giants vs SD Padres game at their Peoria Sports Complex. The evening started well. That was short-lived because after the pre-game warm-ups and the National Anthem. The dark clouds rolled in and it started raining. We were hopeful the game would be delayed but still played. But after the lightning lit up the skies multiple times and the downpour started. It was obvious that the game was rained out. Fortunately, we visited the team at the practice field the next and saw a day game against the Angels. Mike Trout is still with the Angels but Ohtani is now a Dodger. Seeing the up-and-coming players trying to make the team is always fun. Plus you get to see the veteran players up close, like pitcher Joe Musgrove or Fernando Tatis.
Practice Field before the game
One of the funnest things about Spring Training is visiting the practice fields at the Peoria Sports Complex before a game. It’s a great opportunity to see your favorite players up close and even get a hard-to-get autograph. If you travel to Spring Training, be sure to make it a point to go to practice. Note: if the game is away, players are gone early. So go when they have a home game.
Saturday 09 March 2024 – Chicago White Sox vs San Diego Padres
Thankfully, last night’s thunderstorm blew through and the Saturday day game at the Peoria Sports Complex was played. Usually, during the first five innings, the starting players are in. Then after the fifth inning, the newer players come into the game. New, unknown players trying to make the team or non-starting players get their time on the field. Spring Training games are also a great opportunity to see NL or AL teams the Padres rarely play during the normal season.
Sunday 10 March 2024 – San Diego Padres vs Los Angeles Angels
During Spring Training, the Padres have away games at other complexes in the Phoenix area. The Los Angeles Angels practice field, Diablo Stadium, is in Tempe, AZ.
We’ve been staying closer to home and taking shorter trips. So our RV trips are to locations that are within two-days travel from home. We were hoping that there might be Fall colors in the eastern Sierras based on some travel vlogs & Google searches. Plus some photographers in the UCSD Photography Interest Group have talked about their trips to the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine California. So we planned a short trip in mid-October, hoping to catch some Fall colors.
Since we often start our trips at noon, we prefer to keep our drives on day 1 to ~3hrs. Towing our travel trailer at ~55-60mph, especially through traffic, can be nerve-wracking. So we stopped about mid-way at Arabian RV Oasis in Boron CA. There aren’t many RV parks along highway 395 in this area. There are plenty of dispersed campsites but we prefer hookups. Oct 13th – Arabian RV Oasis was good for one night – not fancy, quiet and affordable.
My friends recommended Lone Pine/Alabama Hills as a great plan to hike, camp, & photograph. They camp at Tuttle Creek Campground or other BLM dispersed campgrounds in the Lone Pine area. We wanted hookups so we stayed at Boulder Creek RV Resort in south Lone Pine. It’s a really nice RV park near the Mt Whitney Portal and Alabama Hills with great amenities and location. There are plenty of places to camp but this is one of the only RV campgrounds with hookups in the area.
Entrance sign on 395View of the Eastern Sierras from the RV parkPool & hot tubRV site
Alabama Hills – we hiked multiple days in the Alabama Hills, checking out the various movie locations and many arches. Hikes are short, and easy, on hot & dusty level trails.
Not a RV trip of course, but this was our first international trip since Italy in Dec 2019/Jan 2020. Our son Sean & family planned a long-awaited trip to Japan and invited us to join them. They planned a 3-week trip but we only planned for a two-week stay. We would overlap in Tokyo for 5 days then travel separately to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka. I’ve been to Japan several times but this was my first trip without my Mom, who was Japanese. I was hoping to explore areas of Japan I’ve missed on our many earlier trips. It was a very different travel experience without her. But thanks to Google Maps & T-Mobile, navigating the Japanese mass transit system was pretty easy. Even with all the trains, buses, and taxis, we averaged ~20,000 or more steps each day.
Covid-19 is still on everyone’s mind in Japan and (almost) everyone wears masks, even outdoors. Japan is so densely populated and the trains/subways/metros/buses are packed so it’s very understandable. Carol and I, who have gone 3yrs Covid-free, both came down with it this trip. Fortunately, symptoms were mild and neither of us were severely sick. If you plan on traveling internationally, especially to Japan, be sure to bring Covid tests. Getting tested there as a tourist can be expensive & complicated – there are a few locations offering PCR testing for foreigners or refer to this US Embassy info page. When we were there and asked a local pharmacy, they said they only provide testing for residents. So Covid testing for foreigners isn’t as easy – refer to these sites that provide info on tourist testing.
One of my biggest frustrations about traveling to Asia is crossing the International Date Line, so you immediately lose a day. Plus the flights are 11 or more hours long, so you are losing most of a second day. If you fly non-stop from SoCal at 1pm May 10th, you land in Narita Airport May 11th ~5pm. Going through customs, then traveling an hour to Tokyo from Narita, adds to the long travel day. You ‘gain’ a day coming back but a two-week trip to Japan is more like 10 days with all the travel involved. But Japan is worth it and one of our favorite countries to visit. Going there with the grand-kids was refreshing plus Sean & Melissa planned full days of eclectic activities. We had very little to plan for the first five days of our trip.
Balcony View, Hotel EdmontTokyo Giants BaseballTokyo Dome City
11 May: Hotel Metropolitan Edmont Tokyo – this hotel is centrally located and near the Suidobashi & Iidabashi train stations. The room was spacious by Japanese standard with a balcony with a view to the area (see photo 1). The Tokyo Dome (photo 2) and Tokyo Dome City (photo 3) are within walking distance. Catch a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome or just visit the shops, restaurants, gardens, amusement park & playgrounds of Tokyo Dome City.
12 May: Tokyo
Gotokuji Temple: Toyko’s Maneki Neko ‘Lucky Cat’ Temple
Ghibli Museum 4:00PM
13 May: Tokyo
MINI PIG CAFE 11 AM
Baseball Game 2:00PM
Tokyo Dome City
14 May: Tokyo
Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens
Kanda Matsuri Festival
Sumo Tournament
Tokyo Skytree
15 May: Hakone Day Trip
Open Air Museum
Hakone Ropeway to Owakudani
Lake Ashi
16 May: Last Day in Tokyo
TeamLabs Tokyo- Art Exhibit 1:30-2 Entry
Shinkansen to Kyoto
16-19 May 2023: Kyoto
Sean & family’s plan was to stay in Tokyo till May 20th. Since our Japan trip was only two week, not three, we headed to Kyoto on May 16th. I’ve been to Kyoto a several times but this was my first visit without my Mom. Traveling so far has been pretty easy using Google directions to find our way. Having a Suica card in our iPhone wallet made riding the train and buses in Japan really easy. You place your iPhone on the IC reader and it automatically deducts the correct fare from your Suica card. It displays your balance so you can recharge your card whenever your balance gets low. We used T-Mobile’s $50 International Plan so our phones just worked normally. We did not need a mobile wifi device, Japanese e-sim card or eSim app like Airalo. Using something other than T-Mobile may have been cheaper. But having our regular phone numbers and iPhones working natively was worth the convenience.
16 May: Sakura Terrace The Gallery Hotel – the hotel is a short two-minute walk from the Kyoto train station. It was the perfect base location for our itinerary in Kyoto. The hotel was wonderful with nightly complimentary welcome drinks & a special guest dinner menu. Their breakfast buffet was the best we had in Japan. If we get back to Kyoto, we will definitely stay here again.
17 May: Kyoto
Fushimi Inari
18 May: Kyoto
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
Iwatayama Monkey Park
Sagano Romantic Train
19-20 May 2023: Nara
When we came back to the USA from Thailand in 1970, we stopped in Japan. One of my favorite memories of our visit to Japan besides visiting our Japanese relatives Obaasan Misa (grandma), Obasan (Aunt) Kiyoko and Kazuko, was our visit to Nara. In the family photo album was a favorite photo of me surrounded by deer. I remembered being amongst them as they roamed freely around the city – wild but habituated to people. I made it a point to spend one night in Nara versus just a day trip. Being in Nara in the early morning is special, before the crowds arrive and the deer get aggressive for rice crackers (Osembe). A day trip or even one night isn’t really a long enough stay. Like Hakone, there is so much to experience besides the usual tourist spots. I would have love to have at least one more day to hike Mt. Kasuga Primeval Forest.
19 May: Nara Visitor’s Center & Inn – we stayed on the perimeter of Nara Park, in a huge (by Japanese standards) private room at the Nara Visitor’s Center & Inn. Kyoto and Nara have many traditional hotels (ryokans) but the location & amenities this place offered were hard to beat. They do not serve breakfast but provide cultural experiences and free luggage storage. There are several nearby coffee shops, including Starbucks, and restaurants for meals.
Nakatanidou Mochi Shop – a short must ‘must-see’ stop is a local mochi shop where every 20-30mins they pound mochi (sweet sticky rice) with wooden mallets. It’s quite the energetic show but only last a few minutes. The resulting rice cakes with sweet beans are the freshest you’ll ever find and delicious.
Of the many times I visited Japan, I do not remember staying in Osaka. After Kyoto, we typically traveled south to Kagoshima where my Mom grew up. This trip, Osaka would be the furthest south we would travel.
20 May: Holiday Inn Osaka Namba – I decided this late in the trip we’d prefer a roomier hotel room than the typical Japanese hotel. Some are only 118-161 sq ft, so I booked a larger (269sqft) room at the Holiday Inn. We wanted to be walking distance to the river & Dontonburi and this hotel was one block away. Being a Holiday Inn, they provided a lot of American amenities (plus IHG points). But I’d have to say their breakfast buffet was a disappointment, worst we had in Japan. Still, it was great not being cramped in a small hotel room our last few days in Japan was relaxing.
Osaka Dotonburi
21 May:
Osaka Aquarium
Dontonburi Night Photography
22 May:
Osaka Castle
Tsutenkaku Hitachi Tower
23 May 2023: Osaka Shinkansen to Tokyo to Narita Airport
We considered traveling back to Tokyo for one night. But decided a long train ride from Osaka was less tedious than checking in and out of another hotel. It was a long busy day of travel but we had plenty of time to make our 5:20pm flight. It should be notable that although Japan has a great infrastructure of mass transit and taxis. You still can easily log more than 20000 steps in a day.
Our itinerary in Tokyo was full thanks to Sean & Melissa’s planning. This was their first family visit to Japan so they wanted to make the most of it. May 14th was Mother’s Day so Melissa wanted to see the Kanda Matsuri Festival. This is an important cultural Shinto event that she wanted to experience.
“Kanda Festival, is one of the three great Shintofestivals of Tokyo, along with the Fukagawa Matsuri and Sannō Matsuri. The festival started in the early 17th century as a celebration of Tokugawa Ieyasu‘s decisive victory at the battle of Sekigahara and was continued as a display of the prosperity of the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period. Additionally, the current form of the festival is also held in honor of the kami of Kanda Myōjin (Kanda Shrine). The festival is held on the Saturday and Sunday closest to May 15, but since it alternates with the Sannō Matsuri, it is only held in odd-numbered years. On these years, the festival takes place at Kanda Shrine as well as in surrounding central Tokyo districts. Its prominent parades involve over 200 mikoshi, in addition to musicians, dancers, and floats.”
Kanda Masuri Festival
Kanda Matsuri FestivalKanda Matsuri FestivalCarrying the shrine outShine at Temple
Sumo Tournament
With all the visits I’ve made to Japan, I’ve never experienced a Sumo Tournament, other than on TV. It is another wonderful cultural event that expresses the Japanese culture. Sean bought tickets from the US well in advanced and we had seats above the front of the ring – Dohyo.
Sumo TournamentSumo TournamentSumo Tournament
Tokyo Skytree
I’ve visited the Tokyo Skytree on previous trips but missed much of the shopping & restaurants, just going up in the tower for panoramic views of Tokyo. This trip, we were there at night and enjoyed the city lights at night. Then walked through the mall & had Japanese fast food – ramen.
There is so much to see in Tokyo and you can just hop on the train and/or walk to many sights. But if you want to visit certain venues or businesses, many require a reservation. Japan has many animal-themed cafes where you can visit dogs, cats, hedgehogs, pigs, birds, and even snakes/reptiles. They offer animal companionship without the burden of maintaining pets in an urban environment. Our granddaughter chose the mini pig cafe since she had a cat cafe birthday a few months before. We made an 11am reservation and we all had a great time. The pigs were sweet and cuddly, loving to nap on our legs/laps. Some bickered with each other and the cafe hosts were quick to snatch-up the troublemakers.
Tokyo Dome Giants Baseball & Tokyo Dome City
If you love baseball or even if you don’t, you’ve got to experience baseball in Japan. It’s quite a different experience – it celebrates the game as only the Japanese can. The left & right outfields have two separate cheering sections for each team – think Friday Night High-school Football amplified. The two sides below the panoramic score board are dedicated, opposing cheer sections. They are loud and enthusiastic. Coordinated cheers, especially when a popular player is coming up to bat, results in a lot of noise throughout the game. The Tokyo Giants, although wearing the same colors as the San Francisco Giants, are the ‘New York Yankees of Japan’. The Tokyo Dome is an amazing place to watch a game and it is always packed. But tickets can be had if booked far in advanced or through various ticket agencies. Tip: on a previous trip to Japan, we bought two last-minute Tokyo Giants tickets at a nearby Lawson convenience store. They had a ticket vending machine in the store. This trip’s tickets were reserved online from the US well in advance. Surrounding the Tokyo Dome is Tokyo Dome City, acres of shopping, restaurants, gardens, and amusement rides. It was a wonderful place for the grand-kids to get ice cream, ride the ferris wheel, and expend their pent-up energy from sitting during the game.
We started our two weeks in Japan in Tokyo. Staying at the Hotel Edmont that’s walking distance from the train station. This location was a great base location for our destinations around Tokyo. Sean & Melissa had planned most of the activities for us, buying tickets etc. It was great traveling to Japan with our kids and grand-kids since their viewpoints are so refreshing.
Day 1: “G-Day”
Shinjuku Godzilla Head, Toho Theatre
Just a short scavenger hunt to find Godzilla in Shinjuku. Rising over the Toho Theatre there, is Godzilla, well just the head & neck but a fun place if you are a Godzilla fan.
Gotokuji Temple: Toyko’s Maneki Neko ‘Lucky Cat’ Temple. I expected to see live cats at this ‘cat temple’ but in hindsight I guess that’d be silly. According to atlasobscura.com: “Legend has it that during the Edo period, the final era of traditional Japanese government, a cat under the care of a priest at Gotokuji Temple led a feudal lord to safety during a thunderstorm. The cat beckoned the lord and his servants inside with a waving gesture—hence all maneki-neko statues have one paw raised.” The thousands of white ceramic waving-paw good luck cats will be very familiar to those seeking good luck & good fortune.
A hard-to-get ticket in Tokyo is the Ghibli Museum but Sean managed to secured tickets for all of us for 4pm, the last entry time of the day. Like Disney in the US, the Ghibli characters, such as Totoro, are Japanese animation’s most beloved characters. The museum describes & archives the humble beginnings and rigorous process of creating these amazing characters & animating them. The analog processes are described in detail through the many displays and authentic work-spaces. (Tip: ask the information desk for an English language guide since all the descriptions are in Japanese.) Unfortunately, photos inside the museum are forbidden so I could only photograph the rooftop garden & exterior spaces of this magical place.
After spending the morning at Center of the World, & lunching in Yuma, we drove an hour to the Imperial Sand Dunes. We couldn’t find the turnoff for Ted Kipf Rd to North Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area so we stopped at the Hugh T. Osborne Lookout. There are restrooms and a large parking lot & it was busy. This is the ATVs & ORVs meet-up place with large parking spots for their support vehicles. The dunes south of highway 78 are etched with tire tracks so not the best for sand dune photographs. It’s an epic place to offroad w/ friends & carve up the dunes, or take photos of such activities. A permit is required to operate vehicles on the Imperial Sand Dunes – permit info here; area Map pdf here.
North of the 78, is the beginning of the BLM protected wilderness area where motorized vehicles are prohibited. We parked at Osborne Overlook then hiked across the road (78) where the Wilderness Area begins and no vehicles are allowed. There were some photo-worthy dunes so I made the best of the afternoon light. Hiking the dunes is challenging and be sure to bring water.
I wanted to find the road to the North Algodones Dunes which google maps outlines so clearly. It turns out Ted Kipf Rd is a barely marked, easy-to-miss dirt road that turns north off highway 78 at Glamis. After hiking the nearby dunes and the busy morning, we decided not to navigate Ted Kipf Rd. I was okay with the few images I took near the Overlook – below is a mix of north & south dunes. I will definitely be back to explore the North Algodones Dunes at sunset & Milky Way season.
We stayed at Encore Pilot RV Resort in Winterhaven, CA ~10mi from Yuma, AZ. It’s an Encore/Thousand Trails RV Resort in southeastern California on the Arizona border. When searching for places-of-interest in the area, the Center of The World Museum came up. It was right across the freeway from our RV resort. Since I wanted to photograph the Imperial Sand Dunes in the late afternoon/evening for the best light. We spent ~90mins exploring the Center of the World, early in the day when it was cooler. It’s a really interesting, unusual, unique place in the middle of nowhere. Located in Felicity, CA, this ‘History of Humanity in Granite’ outdoor museum covers several acres. It reminds me of the roadside attractions we would drive by on our family road trips when I was young. It’s hard to describe all that is notable – the Pyramid, Chapel, Maze, Eiffel Tower Stairs, and multi-subject Granite Etchings. The historical panels, laser-etched in granite, have intricate detail, and information in English, French, & Hebrew. Each array of panels cover different, eclectic subjects and records significant moments in history, art, music, and biology. The founder, Jacque-André, was French with an affiliation with the French Foreign Legion and there are sections devoted to their history. Will these be 21st century petroglyphs in 4000yrs? Time will tell. Highly recommended if you enjoy unusual roadside outdoor museums – admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 5yrs & up (as of mid-2023). Is it really the ‘Center of the World’? Probably not but there are some credentials, given to the founder, innovator & builder, that say it is recognized as such. Read more if you are curious about its creation by Jacques-André Istel.
One of most popular trails in east Tucson, according to AllTrails and other online hiking sites, is the Tanque Verde Falls Trail in the Coronado National Forest. It is rated ‘moderate’ by Alltrails and only ~2 miles out & back. We found this to be a really challenging hike. There wasn’t an obvious trail by the river, perhaps, because the water level was higher than normal due to the rainy/snowy winter. Working our way up the river required a lot of rock scrambling, which we expect, with strong current water-crossings.
The trail down to the river is an easy-to-follow dirt trail that brings you down to a flat rocky plateau next to the river. But once you reach this spot, the ‘trail’ a hundred yards upstream becomes a scramble or criss-crossing the river. You can choose to go over boulders, cross the river, or hike high along a ridge. But any path can end abruptly into brambles or a scramble up or down. We managed to make it to the very last bend before the falls but were unable to make it to the falls. The only way to continue was to climb a 10ft wall. It had decent handholds but it was already a work-out to get to this point . We had to save enough energy to make it back and hike our way up the hill. Perhaps later in the season when the water level was lower or hiking some sections in the river, like the ‘Narrows’, would have been easier. But we watched other hikers have similar problems – picking a route then back-tracking to an alternative – it wasn’t just our unfamiliarity with the trail. It was a beautiful day to hike and the area is awesome with many pools to cool off. But be aware the trail is a rock-scramble when the water level covers the shoreline and you may have to make your own route.
