Baggage Fee Pitfalls with United and ANA Long Layover Flights

If you're looking into booking a flight with a long or overnight layover and carrying more than 1 bag, think twice ...

First off, you should know that even for international flights, United Airlines and ANA (All Nippon Airways) now only allow one free check-in luggage (I'm used to 2 free luggage on Singapore Air or Cathay Pacific). The second bag is $100. So on my last trip home to Indonesia, I flew United/ANA home for the first time, because the flight was $300 cheaper than Singapore Air's. This itinerary included an 18-hour overnight layover in Tokyo on the way there and a 10-hour layover (again in Tokyo) on return flight. Usually I'm a light packer and only travel with carry-on, but my trips home are different, with my family and so many relatives wanting me to bring this and that (shoes, Disney toys, Flamin' Hot Cheetos ...) and I always end up with a check-in luggage.

So. The long layover was attractive at first, allowing me to see a bit of Tokyo, but beware before you book a flight like this next time.

Apparently when your layover is more than 12 hours, they cannot check you in for your next leg, so I had to take my luggage out and put them in storage at the airport before going to Tokyo for the night. Fast forward to the next morning when I checked in for my next leg of the itinerary to Jakarta .... guess what? They said I need to pay the extra baggage fee AGAIN. Never mind that it was on the same itinerary and that I had already paid $100 in Los Angeles, because I was only checked in to Narita before, my $100 was only valid for LA-Narita. So now they've tacked on $200 already for the flight that was only $300 than Singapore Air! Not to mention the service sucked and the food was not as good. With a 11+ hour flight from LA to Narita they managed not to have time to give me the arrival forms on the plane, despite having asked for them.

Knott's Scary Farm: Haunted Mazes for 2013

Have you started thinking about Halloween yet? Because Scary Farm has started at Knott's with their haunted mazes.

This year, they've added a secret room to each maze that you can unlock with a "skeleton key". With this you go in from a separate line in small groups (up to 6) for a short interactive experience. You can buy this as a combo with the Fright Pass (like a fast pass but only for the mazes), or book a dinner "boo-fet" that lets you into the park earlier.

Personally, though, if you have to choose where to splurge, I would opt for "Trapped", where the whole maze is interactive. The Trapped maze is $60 for up to 6 people (so if you can get a group of 6 together that's only $10 per person). I was lucky enough to be invited into this maze last year and it was quite fun (i.e. scary). You may have to do some scary things, though, like getting into a coffin ... the eating crickets part was easy.
Some of the new mazes this year is raven-filled Forevermore.

A Trek to Mendenhall Glacier (Juneau, Alaska)

One thing I wanted to do in Alaska was the glacier trek. In Juneau you can go with the tour group Above and Beyond Alaska. It's an 8 hour hike/trek for $199 per person so it's not cheap, but I think it's well worth doing. The hiking bit isn't actually that long but it takes longer because of the rock scrambling and you spend a lot of time on the glacier so the total trip is 8 hours. They'll pick you up at a hotel and provide you with rain gear, a day pack with a bottle or water and snacks, and hiking poles should you need one. Oh, and of course crampons and ice axe for walking on the glacier later. You need to come prepared with your own good hiking shoes, though.

The trek started easy with a flat trail through a temperate rainforest. 

One of the reasons you might not want to attempt this trek on your own as a tourist is because the trail changes all the time. When I did the hike the main trail was flooded so we had to do a lot of bush whacking around. This is when you need a local guide!

There was some steep descent on volcanic rock, then some rock scrambling after the forest trail ends.

 

At the top, you'll finally see Mendenhall glacier! It's about a mile in width and stops at the lake (so, another option as I've found out later is that you can kayak to the glacier via the lake, which would be a lot shorter at 45-60 minutes).

Almost there!

There's a lot of silt around the edges, but you can already see some beautiful white and blue parts. And caves! 
It's time to put on the crampons and walk on the glacier.

A Jet Ski Tour Around Key West, Florida

If you're looking for something to do in Key West, consider taking a jet ski tour. I did one through a company called Fury, which cost $129.95 per jet ski (you can go tandem for the same price) although they have a discounted price of $99.95 you manage to snag the first tour out at 8:30 am. You can also get a discount if you book online on http://www.furycat.com/mobile/jet-ski-tours.php

Too bad I didn't know beforehand!

When I rented jet skis in California they usually tell you can go around a small area of the ocean, which is fine for trying out jet skis. With this tour, though, they actually take you on a 28-mile loop around the island of Key West!

You take off along with about ten other jet skis, forming a well separated line, slow at first until you exit the marina. Then they will tell you that the minimum speed you should maintain is 30 mph and that the faster you go the easier it is to make tight turns. Those who want to go full throttle (that's 45 mph) go first behind the first guide.

For the first half of the tour you enter the Gulf of Mexico. The waves are smaller here, so the ride's not too bumpy. "This is easy", I thought! Until I entered the open ocean ...

Trying Hydrobikes in Long Beach

What's a hydrobike? Just like the name says, it's a bicycle you ride on water. Basically it's a bike propped on top of floats and instead of wheels the pedals connect to a little propeller in the back. You can rent hydrobikes in Long Beach from https://www.lbhydrobikes.com/for $20 per hour (as usual, I got a Groupon and the deal is still available for $10 an hour here) per person, and you can either get a single bike or a tandem.

It works just like a bike, except for turning on a tandem bike. To turn right on the tandem, instead of steering to the right, the one on the right stops pedaling while the one on the left pedal. 

They give you a map to tell you where to go for that one hour, which is around this inlet of Naples Island - a three-island neighborhood in Alamitos Bay. You will pass under five bridges and see some nice homes and boats, along with people kayaking, paddle boarding, and swimming.

Someone had a Bob's Big Boy statue next to his boat, nice!

It turned out to be quite a workout, though - pedaling through water wasn't all that easy! But, hey, a much better view than spin class. I even saw a seal on the way back, the little guy was playing near the beach!

Nice view, nice workout - not bad for $20.