Most Memorable Mileage Run Moments
We’re back in Seattle. Well, sort of. Some unexpected “stuff” has come up, so we’ve been spending a lot of time down in Portland. Although our heads are still spinning – and we’ve been yearning for some downtime back at home-base – we wanted to carve out some time to write a post about some of our most memorable mileage run moments.
So, here they are – both the good and the bad. These are some of the things that have really stuck with us over the last couple of months of travel.
Best view.
In Honolulu, we loved the view of the city from the top of Diamond Head. Sure, it’s a pretty popular and packed trail to the top, but there’s a reason. The picture makes that reason clear.
Worst view.
Also in Honolulu, our hotel provided the worst view of our entire journey. When you think of Hawaii, you probably envision beaches and palm trees. Our room treated us to an unobstructed, deluxe view of this parking structure. There’s a future post in this.
Best meal.
While we’re on a roll with Hawaii, we might as well get into food. Every dish we had (both times) at Side street Inn was remarkable and memorable. Check out this spicy chicken. Now wipe off your screen. There is no “worst food” in NVR land.
Best surprise.
Massachusetts has it going on. We loved the time we spent in both Provincetown and Boston. We were truly surprised by how much we liked it. Also, we’re not big fans of guest houses, but our opinion was changed by the incredible experience we had at White Porch Inn in P-town. We’ll definitely get back to that state.
Worst surprise.
The words “worst” and “surprise” are a scary combination, but we would have to say that all of our language-barrier-bloopers in Prague were a bit of a smack down for us. For instance, one time we thought we were asking for a chair, and we had a wash cloth delivered to our room. Not until mid-way through our visit did we realize that we had been ordering alcohol free beer.
Funnest adventure
Also in Prague, we loved getting up well before dawn to see the quiet city come to life. It’s something we haven’t done much of in other cities, but we may start to do it more often. It’s a great way to see how a place moves.
Worst adventure.
Shortly before our mileage run, we got an XShot (camera extender) in order to be able to take pictures of ourselves without a tripod. Well, as this picture shows, we couldn’t quite figure out how to keep the XShot itself out of our pictures. It was a frustrating “adventure” figuring it out. Bone heads.
Best overall moment.
Without a doubt, running around Washington D.C. (even in the sideways rain) was the best experience we had. Advocating with CARE International for No More Poverty was empowering and fulfilling.
Worst overall moment.
Prior to getting to Europe, we didn’t sleep for about 48 hours. Then – upon arriving in Prague – we got scammed by the police for “not using the metro system properly.” It was a messy couple of days, and there’s not a picture that properly communicates it.
Favorite picture.
No, this picture isn’t great. What it is, though, is proof that people play quidditch. Yes, quidditch, the game from Harry Potter. Those two on the ground are preparing to “take off” on their brooms. Have you heard of this?
You can check out more pictures from our mileage run here.
What’s new in your world? What memorable experiences are you creating?
Great reading this. Heading out on my own mileage run to SFO on Saturday, but only for the day….
Since writing about this, we’ve talked to a lot of travelers who are doing mileage runs – even if only for a day or two. It does feel good to rack up the miles quickly.
Non-alcoholic beer – hahaha that’s the worst! Tres embarassing.
Oh all the kids these days are playing the quidditch. I’ve heard about it on the Twitter…
Are you implying that we are old, and that we should know about people playing quidditch
Seriously, I’d love to watch it (or maybe play it) drunk. It looked completely absurd from a sober perspective. I mean, running around with a broom between your legs!?!? I like Harry Potter as well, but…
It sounds like you guys had a really amazing time on your mileage run. It certainly was an interesting itinerary (Hawaii, Massachusetts, Prague, Washington D.C.) I love your mishaps in Prague about the non-alcoholic beer! Did you feel drunk at all? Sometimes the mind can play tricks on you
No, we’re not big beer drinkers, so we didn’t know what was going on. When in Prague, you drink beer. We just kept saying “This is why we don’t drink beer.”
Ha! I love that you were drinking non-alcoholic beer!
Sounds like a lot of good memories you have created!
Sounds like a great adventure.
Interesting to hear that Boston and Providence were the best surprise.
How was the non-alcoholic beer? I’m assuming not too bad if you didn’t notice?
We had non-alcoholic beer in Egypt, but the beer was so bad we just figured it was how it was supposed to taste. After 3 of them we realized something wasn’t right…
It did taste a bit “off” and weak. After we figured out our mistake and switched over to the real stuff, we felt like fools.
Great post, but I really laughed about the non-alcoholic beer — I can imagine thinking “wow, this beer is really weak!”
Unwittingly ordering non-alcoholic beer in a foreign country isn’t such a faux pas – I once did that in a Chicago bar. My lack of beer knowledge comes back to haunt me…
I can’t stop laughing… 1st Alcohol Free Beer… WTH??? I hope that NEVER happens to me. 2nd Y’all would be a couple that buys the camera extender….LMFAO, y’all need to return that. If I saw anyone using that I would LOL. 3rd HOW THE HELL do HUMANS play QUIDDITCH… I SO WANNA PLAY!!!
P.S. Done the hike to the top of Diamond Head and fuck yes it is worth the hike… AMAZING view (I have that same picture).
Oh, laugh all you want, Jaime
Full disclosure, we didn’t buy the camera extender; it was a gift. At first we hated it, especially since 1) it’s dorky and 2) TSA peeps think it’s some kid of gun related thing. Anyhow, after you take a picture with it, you sort of get hooked. And then you get obsessed with taking the perfect picture. Sick.
Haha I loved this post. I have never heard of alcohol-free beer. Interesting.
Try to stay as far away from it as possible. Trust us.
Great post! OMG, if I ever got served non-alcoholic beer, I would just die! lol.. so far I only tried it once… and this was back in 1997… never trust non-alcoholic beers!
Hope the unexpected stuff isn’t too “headmelty”.
Funny post – I seem to recall having a near miss with the Prague metro police as well. A kindly stranger helped me out.
On a slightly sterner note – there are important differences between, say, chicken sandwiches and mushroom sandwiches, and between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer. I urge you to familiarise yourself with these differences because sitting in what may well be the beer capital of the world and sipping away on alcohol-free beer is, well, there aren’t words….
Oh, I KNEW you’d come back around and remind us of the sandwich thing. Here we are being vulnerable – putting our insecurities on front street – and you use it as the bat with which to beat us.
And scene.
Great summary, I was surprised at how much I liked Boston as well. Too funny about ordering alcoholic free beer in Prague
Very clever and enjoyable post. It is fun to laugh at the fopah’s we make during travel but sometimes they aren’t so funny while we’re doing them! Diamond Head is beautiful, can’t wait to visit Boston, non-alcoholic beer – shame it was even invented.
That’s very true Debbie. Sometimes it takes time to find the humor in something.
Some highs and lows for sure! I had a laugh about language blunder for the chair. I have certainly had a few of those in our travels. Most memorable is when we were in Cordoba, Argentina at a laundromat trying get someone to wash our clothes 2 times to combat bedbugs we had picked up in Mendoza. Instead of dos veces (two times) I was asking “se puede lavar la ropa dos meces (2 months). A blank look ensued and I was certain she knew what we meant… As we were walking back to the hostel we realized my mistake and ran back and corrected our mistake. She and Dalene (and myself) laughed hysterically at the blunder. These are always funny to look back on.
Spanish being our most attempted 2nd language, I think your example is a riot. When we meet you one day, we’ll have to tell you about how we ruined the Spanish language from coast to coast in Central and South America. At least we try to speak the language, and locals appreciate that.
One BIG error that occurred over and over in Ecuador (until we realized it) was SO bad it makes me cringe as I type this reply to you. Must be shared face to face
That was a fun post to read.
Haven’t bring to Prague but I’ll check out the word for real beer before I arrive.
My husband was working on his Spanish at one point and meant to ask the hotel checkout if he could pay – but it came out as could he hit them? Fortunately they caught on quickly but that’s what can make traveling fun.
Great memories of the trip. All trips have good and bad moments but honestly, didn’t seem like any of yours were that bad. Hopefully you got that camera thing worked out for the future though!
We got the XShot figured out pretty quickly, actually. But REALLY… how hard is it?!?! We should have not had any problem figuring out how to keep the extender out of the picture.
Can’t quite see the point of drinking non-alcoholic beer…ain’t beer somehow.
And I gotta get one of thse dorky camera extenders… not such a bad idea afterall. I’ve been browsing through a lot of our photos from way back, and I realise there are dang all of Kay and I together..and seems kind of sad. So thanks for the idea guys!
Happy travels.
Yes, that XShot really did grow on us. I wish it didn’t trigger TSA inspection when we forget to put it with checked bags. We look at all of the people behind us in those unthinkable security lines and say “sorry” as they watch TSA (inspecting the XShot) and mouth “are you ****ing kidding me!”
Oh, you’ve had so much fun, haven’t you? Apart from not sleeping and getting into trouble with the police, that is.
What is it with guys and non-alcoholic beer? I once met some friends at a vegetarian restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. I was late and when I arrived the the table was littered with empty beer cans. The guys tell me the beer is terrible. They’re slurring, they’re sweating, they’re talking loudly. I pick up a can and the beer is called 0%. I read the label – “non alcoholic beer”. I point it out to them and … they got very very shitty and seemed to sober up very quickly. I didn’t get to try the food, was forced to adjourn to a place with “real” beer.
Of all things, we really should have caught on to the fact that we were drinking that beer. We’re writing it off to multi-day exhaustion. That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.
Best overall moment was DC even after that awful hotel experience?!?! Love the recap- wish i could have tried that food in Hawaii… looks delicious!
The spicy chicken looks delicious, but how can there be no worst food, there’s always worst food!
Very true, Ayngelina. I think we try to forget about it as quickly as possible.
“Not until mid-way through our visit did we realize that we had been ordering alcohol free beer”
That is hilarious and nightmarish at the same time!!!
HAAAAA! so many great giggles here and all punctuated by your incredible cutieness! yeah, you read that right- there’s a new word for how cute you are
and then you manage to make such useful critiques of all these places. love it! 
… did you think you were getting a buzz from the non-alcoholic beer?
Quit asking the hard questions, Don!
Ok, the thing about the beer in Prague is hilarious! Seriously, non-alcoholic beer? In Prague??
I still want to hear more about what happened with the police there.
Love the post, guys! I saw a movie not long ago that was set in Prague and the character from Denmark had communications problems at the hotel and got the wrong items delivered. (I think it was intentional in that case). Bummer about the beers — can’t believe you weren’t missing the buzz sooner! You’ve had some fun and interesting adventures. Keep posting!
What?!? How do their quidditch brooms fly?? I so want to see that. No, I so want to PLAY that!
And a camera extender seems like a brilliant idea.
Nobody has to be bored these days. There is a gadget designed everyday just to keep us feeling like bone heads until we figure it out
I was going to say that my fav part of your moments was the worst overall moment, but I think the fav picture won it