Travel - Lili on the Loose

4 05, 2015

Travel Missteps: Yavin 4

By Lili|May 4th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: Central America, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Geek, Guatemala, Mayan Encounter 2013, Movie, Pyramid, Star Wars, Temple, Tikal, tour, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Yavin 4|0 Comments

Its not often while traveling that you can really let your Geek Self out. But at the top of Temple IV in Tikal, Guatemala I had that opportunity to Geek Out with other Star Wars fans. You see, a very short scene from the original Star Wars (A New Hope) was shot at the top of this temple in Tikal to show the Millennium Falcon landing at the rebel base on the 4th moon of Yavin. Temples I, II, and III are seen off in the distance. Yavin 4 (Tikal) in Star Wars A New Hope I had

2 05, 2015

Souvenir Saturday: A Weapon for a More Civilized Age

By Lili|May 2nd, 2015|Categories: Geek, Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2010, All Work and Some Play, Anaheim, business trip, California, Disney, Disneyland, lightsaber, Movie, North America, Star Wars, USA, work trip|0 Comments

I've written before about my dash through Disneyland, but wanted to show you the awesome lightsaber I built! This is the lightsaber when its "retracted". There is a button that activates the sound and light, and you kind of just throw it upwards to make the lightsaber come fully out. I picked purple as its my favorite color! After you select the base hilt (and if you wanted a double bladed lightsaber) you then select the color, and then select the various hilt customizers. One cool feature not many know about these custom lightsabers is that

27 04, 2015

Travel Missteps: Sigh “American Right?”

By Lili|April 27th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2005, All in the family Italy 2005/2006, chocolate, Europe, Italy, language, translation|0 Comments

Many people travel to countries where they don’t know the language. Prior to my trip to Italy I had traveled to England, France, Mexico, and Japan. In middle school and high school I had taken some Spanish, French, and Japanese classes, so I didn’t feel that lost language-wise when traveling to those countries. So Italy was a first for me, not knowing any of the language. After a long day of traveling, our group stopped into a roadside shop. It was like a mini-grocery market combined with a restaurant and a chocolate shop. I was tired and decided to buy

20 04, 2015

Museum Monday: Cartier Stomacher Brooch

By Lili|April 20th, 2015|Categories: Museums, Travel|Tags: Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century, cartier, Colorado, DAM, Denver, Denver Art Museum, diamonds, museum, North America, platinum, sapphires, USA|0 Comments

The Denver Art Museum had an exhibit called Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century which I was lucky enough to see in its last few days. I found that I loved the early styles of the 1900's. One unique piece was a Stomacher Broach made in 1907. Stomachers were worn below the breast on the stomach. It is in the Garland style and is made with platinum, diamonds, and 51 carats of sapphires. Cartier Paris 1907 Museum Monday is an every other week series about museum news, objects, and reviews.

18 04, 2015

Souvenir Saturday: Chocolate Frogs

By Lili|April 18th, 2015|Categories: Geek, Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2012, 2016, Book, Cards, chocolate, Chocolate Frog, Disney, Florida, Harry Potter, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, Honeydukes, Islands of Adventure, Keychain, Movie, North America, Orlando, Orlando Adventure 2012, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Universal Studios, USA, Walt Disney World, Witches, Wizarding World, Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Wizards|0 Comments

Which Card Will You Get? Chocolate Frogs are an iconic snack from the Harry Potter books. They also are a great souvenir from the Wizard World of Harry Potter in Orlando, FL. I was a little worried as I had two issues when purchasing these. Firstly, it was August, and hot, and I worried that the chocolate would melt. The other issue is that you don't know what card you are going to get. At the time there were just 4 cards, one for each founder. The first few boxes I got were for Salazar Slytherin. I

13 04, 2015

Travel Missteps: The Legend of the Hubcap Nachos

By Lili|April 13th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 1997, 2012, Florida, Hawaii, Margaritaville, Nachos, North America, Oahu, Orlando, Orlando Adventure 2012, Sunburn, Sunburnt 1997, USA|1 Comment

When I was in middle school we took a family vacation to Hawaii. I...didn’t enjoy it that much. The first day I got the worst sunburn I’ve ever had in my life and was miserable the entire trip. Our cheap hotel was going under major renovations...and smelled like cat pee. (I also think it was a sweatshop, as the 2nd floor was a warehouse room where many women were making cheap jewelry from beads and shells.) I didn’t know you were suppose to barter at the nearby marketplace and spent all of my spending money on a Japanese money cat

6 04, 2015

Museum Monday: Journey to the Silk Road

By Lili|April 6th, 2015|Categories: Museums, Travel|Tags: Colorado, Denver, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, DMNS, exhibit, museum, North America, silk road, USA|0 Comments

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science's Silk Road exhibit is around for just one more month! Be sure to check it out! Note that you need an additional ticket to see this one but it is well worth it. You aren't allowed to take photos, but this link has a lot of good ones. I really enjoyed the live Silk Worms and can now understand why silk is so expensive! I also loved how as you travel through the various cities on the silk road, that they have detailed sections of what they brought with them to trade, and

4 04, 2015

Souvenir Saturday: Bagpipe Practice Chanter

By Lili|April 4th, 2015|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2002, Backpacking it in England and Scotland, Bagpipe, Bagpipe Practice Chanter, castle, Chanter, clarinet, drums, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Europe, guitar, instrument, music, piano, Practice Chanter, Scotland, UK|0 Comments

I grew up learning to play many instruments from piano, drums, guitar, and the clarinet. Which is probably why this Practice Chanter to help learn how to play Bagpipes caught my eye in Scotland. Scottish Bagpipe Practice Chanter I bought it right after seeing Edinburgh Military Tattoo right outside Edinburgh Castle. It is a double reed instrument that feels like a cross between a clarinet and a recorder. But the sound is much closer to a Bagpipe/recorder hybrid. This particular Chanter...is very cheap. It is hard to play the notes, and the reed isn't the best quality. But

30 03, 2015

Travel Missteps: I Swear its Not Porn

By Lili|March 30th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2004, Akiba, Akihabara, Anime, Asia, Electric Town, exchange program, Gundam Wing, Japan, manga, Otaku, porn, Sailor Moon, Sister Cities, Sister Cities Japan 2004, Tokyo|0 Comments

I became a Japanese Anime and Manga fan in 1998 when Sailor Moon (and later Gundam Wing) were aired on Toonami. I loved the artistic style and would brave dial-up internet to research other anime, how to draw the big eye style, and start teaching myself Japanese. It was hard being a fan back then as it was so new to America that most people didn’t know what it was. The Original Anime Sailor Moon I remember that most bookstores didn’t carry manga. I once asked for the “Graphic Novel” section, and a confused shop keeper took me

26 03, 2015

Egypt Trip Itinerary

By Lili|March 26th, 2015|Categories: Itinerary, Travel, Upcoming Travel|Tags: 2015, Abu Simbel, Abu Sir, activities, Africa, Alexandria, Aswan, Cairo, Cruise, Dahshur, Dashur, Denver, Dream of Egypt, Edfu, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, Europe, Frankfurt, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Germany, Giza, itinerary, Kom Ombo, Luxor, Memphis, Middle East, Munich, museum, Nile, North America, Pyramids, Saqqara, Sharm, Sharm el Sheikh, Temple, tour, USA, Wadi Natrum|0 Comments

Within the next few months I will be embarking on my dream trip of a lifetime - EGYPT! I've been wanting to do this trip forever and actually had the money saved up to go in 2011, but the revolution put a kink in my plans. I was skittish, not wanting to go during that trouble period. But I realize now, things will never be stable...at least not for another decade or so. And so I must take a leap of faith, stop waiting, and just go! So for the last few months I've been planning this trip. Below is