Quick Hotel for the Night

Our initial plan for Saturday night made months ago was to crash upon the hospitality of a friend of ours who lived in Texas Saturday (hey, and maybe Friday night too).  Once that proved unlikely ... we decided to grab a quick hotel outside of DFW on the cheap and drive into town early Sunday morning.  

Driving across the vast expanse of Texas left Wifey plenty of passenger seat time to google.  She ended up finding a great deal of a Super 8 in North Fort Worth, only 15 minutes from our Sunday morning destination, so we pressed forward into town.

The Super 8 is just north of DFW airport, and in a hotel row with many other hotel chains.  Overall, it was a great solution for us and provided not only a clean, safe bed but also the surprise bonus of free breakfast the following morning. 

The hotel room itself was a paradox.  Staff was excellent, our room was clean and seemingly well kept ... but the door handle had caused a hole in the wall, the desk chair showed significant signs of wear, and the toilet was a bit finicky.  For our needs and willingness to invest in our stay, it was a great fit, however. 

We keep trying to pack light and strategically ... for our one night stay at this hotel .. despite best efforts ... we still ended up with a ton of luggage.  The large suitcase we needed ... for a pair of socks.  Note for the future: pack earlier and more slowly.  

Breakfast was surprisingly enjoyable.  

Hubby made a breakfast burrito including Jalapenos ... certainly a hotel breakfast first.  

Wifey kept things a bit more traditional ... cereal, yogurt, bacon, eggs, biscuit, and gravy!  

 You know you're in Texas when ... Salsas and Jalapenos for Breakfast! 

Eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits, and gravy!

Fort Worth 2018 - The adventure begins

3 months into 2018 and we're off on our first adventure.

We began with a road trip West.  Hubby had requested we eat at a couple of specific burger joints this trip, and the timing worked out perfectly to work one in for our very first stop!

WHATABURGER!

As if a premonition of our soon to cross the state line, we spied a fellow Whataburger lover wearing a cowboy hat and boots.  Howdy! 

It was relatively dead at 11:00 am on a Saturday ... which just meant awesome parking for us.

Hubby tried their 'as advertised' special Avacado Bacon Burger ... with Jalapenos of course.  Wifey had a cheeseburger ... we ate on the road and failed to get a pic :(  But really ... its fast-food hamburgers ... y'all've all had similar.

After Whataburger, we filled our afternoon with a bit of hard work and loving a good friend before continuing our drive to Fort Worth!   The drive was dull (which by my account is the best kind) and we pulled into the DFW metroplex around 7:00 pm.  By this point, we were thirsty ... so we made a slight detour to an old haunt of Wifeys in Arlington.

Bethany Cafe is the first place Wifey ever had boba milk tea, over a decade ago!

The tea was delish, although Hubby opted for a Reeses Shake.  It was a bit icy, but good too!  With our thirst quenched, we began the final half hour drive to our hotel for the night.  Stay tuned for tomorrows post to include, Hotel, Church, and a second burger joint!

Traveling Home from Japan - December 2017

We began our 24 hours-o-travel bright-eyed and awake!  

The first task - fill up the rental car with gas before returning it ... our GPS failed us in navigating to the gas station.  Twice.  Eventually, we made it, to discover that the gas station only accepted cash ... of which we were fresh out.  

Next to the gas pump is a kiosk in which you "enter much money" then pump your gas, and any change you are owed is issued.  

In order to have the cash to put in the machine, we had to walk across a bridge to the airport, find an ATM, withdraw cash, and then walk back to fuel up.  A super helpful gas station attendant explained this to us after Hubby asked to pay with a credit card.  The Japanese seriously do not have a credit culture like we do in the states.

The small green sign in this first picture is for the ATM, we followed it and got our cash!  Airport #1.

 Having successfully fueled and returned our rental, we boarded a JAL flight from Hiroshima to Haneda in Tokyo.  The view of the Japanese countryside as our flight took off was spectacular. 

 We spent far too much of our flight finding the young girl in the next row over absolutely adorable.  Also of note, the JAL seats include small steps for use in putting your luggage in the overhead bins.

 In exiting Hiroshima, we walked behind what we assume to be a sumo wrestler and his family.  Airport #2 of the day!  

The next step in our journey was to buy a bus ticket for our transfer from Haneda to Narita. 

The bus included fold-out seats which added an extra space to each row.  Pretty efficient use of space in our humble opinion!  

 After the bus ride, we went through security at our third airport of the day and enjoyed a beautiful view taking off from Narita.  We, however, are beginning to look a bit more tired. 

The airline food was not great, and Wifey was grateful that we carried on a couple of Nijiri which saved the day.  You can probably tell from the photos below that wifey at least is so over it.  

Nijiri saving the day! 

We eventually landed at airport #4 of the day ... went through customs, immigration, security for the third time, and then caught a train transfer to our new terminal.  Our last flight was tolerable, and we happily landed at Airport #5 24 hours after we started.  Photo documentation of these last steps does not exist because ... we were tired.  Until next time!!!

Sunday - Korean BBQ

Sunday night we met up with everyone for our last dinner of the week - Korean BBQ.  Being overconfident in our translation skills we went ahead and ate at a restaurant that didn't have an English Menu.  After trying and failing to decipher the menu, we asked our waitress what her recommendation would be and then just ordered 6 of those.  It did not disappoint.  

A unique feature of Korean BBQ is that you cook your meat and veggies on a hot plate in the middle of your table!  Hubby did the cooking for us and did a fantastic job!  We've already looked for a Korean BBQ place back home unsuccessfully but will remember and visit this location again if we're back in town.  

part of our meat ... uncooked

the cooking process

inside the BBQ restaurant.  

Sunday - Miyajima

After lunch, we continued up the coast and caught a ferry to Miyajima! This was a repeat visit this trip for Hubby and Wifey and a first time ever visit for our friend, M.  

 We arrived relatively late in the day with plans of taking the cable car to the top of the mountain on site.  In the end, we would have arrived at the very very end of the open hours and likely not been able to visit that part of the island, so we chose not to go up.  Next trip ... cable-car is on the to-do list!  We did happen to be visiting this trip around low tide, allowing us to walk out to the shrine gate and take plenty of pictures! 

 In addition, we took a self-guided walking tour of the Itsukushima Shrine.  This was a first for us, and we found it interesting to see how the Shinto religion is practiced. 

Leaving the Shrine, we came across the shortest garage ever! 

Also on Miyajima, we stumbled onto our first Starbucks of the trip!  The Japanese Starbucks did not accept our Gold Card, but did accept our Credit Card in exchange for actual frappuccinos!  

We snapped a photo of the worlds largest rice scoop!  Around 1800, a Buddhist monk living near Miyajima suggested the local people make and sell rice scoops to tourists visiting the Shrine after having a dream about such a scoop.  When Miyajima's Itsukushima Shrine was declared a World Heritage Site, this extra large scoop was created as part of the commemoration. 

 After a long, exhausting day of fun, we caught the ferry back across to the mainland and our car ride back to Iwakuni!