In the morning, we drove to the old mansion area of Newport and visited The Breakers, a large mansion previously owned by several generations of the Vanderbilt family. The entry tickets included an self-guided audio tour that was somewhat entertaining and fairly informative. The Breakers reminded me a lot of Hearst Castle, except not quite as grandiose.

After the tour, we hiked along the Cliff Walk along the sea shore by the mansions. From the Cliff Walk, we were able to get a slightly obstructed view of many of the old and new mansions of Newport, which were quite impressive. But it was cold, so we quickly walked back to the car.

Next, we drove to the town of Sandwich on Cape Cod and visited Boardwalk Beach, which is basically a boardwalk over a inlet with a beach on one side. The boardwalk was actually pretty nice and a lot of families were walking across it when we got there. The beach was less nice and there was no one using it.

Finally, we drove to Hyannis and checked into our hotel, the Seacoast Inn, which was quite nice and affordable. I guess the tourist season for Cape Cod hasn’t started yet. Many of the restaurants weren’t open yet.

As we drove northbound yesterday, I noticed that the trees slowly changed from slightly leafy trees to mostly bare trees. I guess the weather is colder up here.

Our first touristic stop in Connecticut was the Submarine Force Museum in Groton. Located right next to a naval base, the museum lets visitors walk through a (probably decommissioned) nuclear submarine. I was surprised to learn that (even today) enlisted submariners need to sleep right next to the torpedoes. Valerie noted that this submarine is a lot more spacious and comfortable than the old German U-boat that we walked through in Chicago. After the museum, we ate some great food at Chester’s BBQ. (If you’re hungry in Groton, it’s the place to eat.)

Next, we drove to Mystic to visit the historic Mystic Seaport. The seaport has been turned into a sort of open air historical museum staffed by a ton of volunteers explaining the many facets of life in colonial Mystic. They also had a couple of restored ships that we were able to quickly walk through before they closed.

Finally, we drove to our hotel, the Howard Johnson near Newport, RI.

In the morning, we departed the Westin and headed to the Thrifty auto rental near Dulles. We rented an almost new 2015 Kia Soul for our long drive through New England. Thrifty was charging a bunch of money for a toll tag, so we decided to pick up our own on the drive. Thus, our first stop was Reston, VA, where we ate lunch at Chipotle and picked up an E-Z Pass and some snacks from Giant supermarket.

Over the next 7 or so hours, we drove northbound to the small town of Guilford, CT outside of New Haven. The traffic was worse than we expected for a Sunday, especially through Maryland and around the George Washington Bridge between New York and New Jersey. Overall, I think we paid more than $40 in tolls.

Last time we came to Washington, we did a whirlwind tour of the free museums. This time, we decided to take a look at a paid museum, the Newseum. As its name suggests, the Newseum is a museum of news, primarily historical American news. We spent several hours in this expansive museum and it is definitely worth a look for tourists who have run out Smithsonians and memorials to visit.

After the Newseum, we walked to the National Art Gallery across the street and did a whirlwind tour in the 20 minutes until they closed. Afterward, we ate a great late lunch at the vegan Native Foods Cafe. (It’s really delicious and pleasantly casual.)

Now that all the museums were closed, we headed back to the Hilton to pick up our bags and we noticed a large police presence. We also noticed a lot of very well-dressed people while walking up the hill to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, we discovered that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was taking place that evening in the hotel. (Maybe that’s why the Hilton was so cheap this weekend.) After navigating through crowds of journalists, celebrities, and security, we picked up our bags and headed to the Westin near Dulles Airport.

The Amtrak Capitol Limited takes about 17 hours to travel from Chicago to Washington. The train itself was a lot like the California Zephyr. The key difference was the scenery. Views of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains were replaced by the hills of Appalachia.

We arrived in Washington in the early afternoon and then navigated the Metro system to the Washington Hilton near Dupont Circle. Luckily for us, hotel rates were very cheap this weekend. We dropped off our bags and then took the Metro to Alexandria to meet our friend Ellen.

Alexandria seems like a pleasant suburb of Washington. Ellen, Valerie, and I took the free trolley to the waterfront and then walked down the main street in old town and then ate a nice dinner at the Majestic Cafe. Afterward, Valerie and I headed back to our hotel to prepare for another day in the nation’s capital.

Valerie and I have been to Chicago before, so we chose to skip some of the touristic hotspots (e.g. Millennium Park, Willis Tower). On our first day, we started the day by eating a delicious lunch at The Purple Pig. After finishing our meal, we did some quick shopping at Walgreens in the Wrigley Building to pick up some supplies that we had failed to pack.

This time in Chicago, we decided to see the musical The Book of Mormon. There were still a few hours until our show, so we walked along State Street for a while and eventually ended up at the Money Museum at the Chicago Fed. The museum was small, but free. They gave out small bags of shredded money as free souvenirs. Eventually, we made our way to the Bank of America theatre for the show. I really enjoyed The Book of Mormon. The songs were memorable, the plot was well-paced, and there were several good laughs. After the play, we quickly walked to Lou Malnatti’s for some deep dish pizza before retiring to our hotel for the night.

On our second day, we decided to visit the Museum of Science and Industry. After packing up our stuff and leaving our bags with the bell staff, we took a ~45 minute bus ride along the lake shore to the museum. The museum is enormous and worthwhile. Valerie was particularly impressed by their exhibit featuring a walkthrough of an actual captured German U-boat.
Eventually, we needed to head back to catch our train out of town. After getting back to the hotel, we picked up a pizza from Gino’s East next door, grabbed our bags, and took a bus to Union Station to board our train to Washington, DC.

Valerie and I are off on another travel adventure. This time, we’re headed to New England via Amtrak!

We stayed up late on Saturday night to finish packing for the trip. After all these trips we’ve gotten better at packing, but I still am pretty slow at it and usually procrastinate until just before departure.

Early Sunday morning, Belinda drove us to Emeryville Amtrak station. For the first leg of our journey, we are taking the California Zephyr to Chicago. We used Amtrak reward points to book a sleeper roomette, a small private compartment with just enough room for two medium-sized adults to sit or sleep. In retrospect, perhaps we should have booked a larger sleeper or two roomettes.

On Amtrak, the sleeper cars come with up to 3 meals a day per person. While the menu remained the same every day, for each meal we were seated with different passengers. We met travelers from South Africa, members of an America By Rail tour group, and some people who were just commuting. The tour group was finishing up a 12-day journey around the United States by train. I think most of them had become tired of train food by this point in their journey.

One disappointing aspect of traveling by rail is that the train doesn’t stop in any place for very long. Passengers rarely have an opportunity to get out and walk around the town. Our longest station break was about an hour in Grand Junction, CO. Valerie and I quickly walked around the town, but didn’t get a chance to explore anything except for the town’s main street.

We arrived in Chicago Union Station about an hour behind schedule on Tuesday evening. We took a bus to our hotel, MileNorth, near the Magnificent Mile. After checking in, we walked to nearby M Burger for dinner. After looking at Yelp, Valerie was intrigued by the reviews for the fancy nearby restaurant TRU (jackets required). We got as dressed up as we could (as neither of us had packed any dressy clothes) and went for dessert just before they closed. They were kind enough to lend me a jacket and dessert was delicious.

We are spending just under 5 days in Tokyo before heading back to the US. On the morning of the first day, we flew JAL from Taipei to Tokyo Narita. After a bit of confusion about how to get a tourist 3-day pass on the Tokyo Metro, we took the Skyliner to our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) near Sendagi station. Tired, yet hungry, we took the JR to Shinjuku for some food and sightseeing.

On the second day, we started the day with a walk along a small market street near the ryokan. We bought flavored mochi, Japanese crackers, and sushi for breakfast and went back to ryokan to eat. (I’ve been told that eating while walking is frowned upon in Japan.) Afterward, we took a self-guided walking tour of Ueno Park. After a lot of walking, we met Valerie’s cousin Wes for dinner near Yurakucho station.

On the third day, we spent the day eating Japanese street food. We started the day by taking the metro to Asakusa, which has a large temple and an even larger market area in front of that temple. We picked up some food on a stick along the market street then took metro to Shibuya. We got a lot of tasty treats at the Tokyu FoodShow and then took the metro to Harajuku. Along the way, we stopped for donburi at a small restaurant near Omotesando station. We then walked along Takeshita Street, which was much emptier than the last time we were here, and proceeded to eat some Calbee fries and a crepe.

The next day, we woke up relatively early to head to Tsukiji fish market for early lunch of sushi at Sushi Bun. The food was not as good as Sushi Dai where we ate last time, but the line was hours shorter. We spent the rest of the day on the artificial island of Odaiba. We visited Miraikan (museum of emerging science and innovation) where we saw the asimo robot perform a dance and poetry reading. Finally, we stopped by Sega Joypolis. We didn’t ride any of the attractions at Joypolis, but I was able to scan my face onto a virtual manatee in a virtual wall aquarium.

On our last day in Tokyo (and on this trip), we spent the day eating pricy Japanese food. For brunch, we had omakase at Kyubey in Ginza. The tuna was just amazing. Afterward, we took the metro to Roppongi to look at the Christmas decorations. We stumbled upon Le Atelier by Joel Robuchon. We were able to get a seat at the counter without a reservation as long as we could finish eating in 1.5 hours. The “Japanese wagyu beef” was superb.

This has been a long and exciting journey. I’ve been traveling for so long that I’m almost apprehensive about going back home. It’s the same feeling of dread that I normally get before long trips. It may take a while to get used to “home life” again.

After a fine breakfast of Taiwanese breads and pastries, we headed out for an exciting adventure with Valerie’s mom’s childhood friends. One of the friends picked us up in a van and drove to an old street in New Taipei City where we saw a 104 year-old elementary school. Afterward, we drove up a mountain to eat a large lunch with specialty tofu made from black soybeans. For dinner, we met another of Valerie’s mom’s friends at a restaurant near the top of the Taipei world trade center. The view of Taipei from the restaurant was spectacular and the dessert selection was quite enjoyable as well.

In the morning, Valerie and I took a taxi to pick up a bunch of pineapple cakes to bring back to the US. Afterward, we took the MRT to Tamsui to meet with more of Valerie’s mom’s friends who treated us to a full lunch of Taiwan-style seafood. On our way back to the MRT station, we walked along the Tamsui beachfront, which had the highest density of tourists of any place we’d been to in Taiwan so far. On our way back to downtown, we stopped by the National Palace Museum, which is famous for housing many of the national treasures of China. We saw lots of bronze-age bronze, historic pottery, old furniture, and other various treasures. Oddly, there was very little gold, which surprised me given the prevalence of the color gold in Chinese culture.

We spent the last two days visiting Taroko Gorge in eastern Taiwan. On the first day, we took the train to Hualien and then a bus up the mountain to Tienhsiang. We stayed the night at the youth activity center, which despite its name is more like a hotel than a hostel. True to its name, that night the youth activity center hosted a large collection of youth who spent the night karaokeing and dancing.

The next morning, we woke up early to hike to Baiyan Waterfall, which was sadly closed due to recent rock falls. On the way down the mountain to our next hike, we met two fellow tourists from Germany and Singapore. While our trip has been quite long, theirs are even longer. The German tourist is midway through a 9 month journey. The Singaporean tourist was just starting a 6 month journey. We all got off the bus near Swallow Grotto where we got a great view of the path the river carved through the marble walls of Taroko Gorge. Our next stop was the Changchun Shrine. We tried to hike up the mountain to the shrine, but I was too tired and gave up about halfway up. Instead, we took the bus to visitor center and took a break at the café. After a brief hike, it was time to head back, so we boarded the bus back to Hualien and a train to Taipei.