San Diego & Tijuana

I spent a week in San Diego mooching off my friend Lina’s resort while she attended a conference. When she texted “I will be in San Diego for a conference join me if you can” I had my flight booked within the hour! 

We flew in at similar times, dropped our stuff at the resort, and went to La Jolla for the afternoon. It is so beautiful there.  

The next day we drove down to Tijuana, Mexico. Tijuana is a lovely city filled with delicious food, friendly locals, and yummy drinks. My favorite quote of the day, “Travel so you can connect and learn from others”. 

Did you know the Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana? We booked a walking tour off Airbnb and spent the afternoon eating and drinking our way through the city. 

I have worked hard to create a life where I can go on an adventure at a moments notice. There are pros and cons to my lifestyle but I love it! 

Vegas (for the) Baby!

My baby turned 21 on May 24 and we traveled to Vegas to celebrate! Annelies is staying with me for the summer so her and I flew in from San Jose. The Browns, Paradis and Parker, met us there. 

It was a fun long weekend. The “kids” hung out during the day while I hung at the pool, in my happy place. I had bought this shirt for Paradis when she turned 21 so I couldn’t resist adding one for Anna and I. 

We visited Mega Mart, gambled a bit, and drank alcohol at the Taco Johns. 

It was a fun weekend and great to see Paradis and Parker. It was Parker’s first “Prasnicki Adventure” and I think he tolerated my crazy pretty well. 

I have come to enjoy Vegas. Despite the heat it is a fun weekend with lots of variety for everyone. 

Los Angeles for 36 Hours

A couple of months ago Southwest Airlines had a $29 sale and I spent a couple hours determined to buy a ticket. I did not care where I went or what I did. I love flying. I love airports. And $29 is a great deal. 

That sale brought me to LAX for 36 hours. 

I packed no clothes just my Dopp kit. I did a bunch of touristy things, at a slow-pace, using public transit. The transit system in LA is amazing!

From LAX I took the bus to Venice Beach. At the bus stop I met Alex who gave me his number and told me to call him later “for a good time and some weed”. I did not call Alex. 



After walking the beach I jumped on another bus and made my way to Santa Monica pier. 

I decided to do a Hop-on-Hop off tour after talking to a friend that does them in every big city. I used it to make my way to Hollywood. It was ok. The narration was about famous people and since I know nothing about that topic it was a bit boring. It could have been because of the city I was in but I will probably stick to historical walking tours. 

I stayed in a Hostel in Hollywood ($32/night) across from the Chinese Theatre and it was a great location. I walked around for a bit soaking up the sights and doing some great people watching. 



My first visit to Hollywood was thirty years earlier when I visited a friend. It was fun to recreate the pose in front of Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe’s prints that read “Gentlemen prefer blondes”. My hair color may have changed but not my friskiness”. 

After a nap I hopped on the metro and DASH bus and visited the Griffith Observatory. I had never been but the views at sunset were spectacular! 

I grabbed some dinner and visited with a young woman from Brazil. I love meeting young adventurers. 

The next morning I grabbed breakfast and walked around the city for a bit more exploring. 

It was a nice 36 hours. Relaxing. Fun. Cheap. Everything I love in my travels. 

Total page views: 255,578

I hope you find a great travel deal that makes you happy! 

Rae Ann

Cuba: Final Post

This will be my final Cuba post. Wow, what a trip. It exceeded my expectations. I admit it was overwhelming before I departed but now that I am on American soil I realize it was fairly easy. 

A few tips for my friends asking: 

• Tourist Card. You will need one before departing on your flight to Cuba. I flew American and got mine at the gate. $100. Credit card only. 
• D-Viajeros Form. You will need to get one 72 hours before you depart. It is easy. Google it.
• Health Insurance. You will need it and it will most likely be included in your flight ticket. 
• Money. American credit cards will not work. You need to bring plenty of cash to get through your trip. Exchange with locals for a better rate. 
• Tour vs On Your Own. I went with a tour group and that was helpful to reduce the stress of not working with a government business (which is illegal). But you could easily use Airbnb as those are not government. 
• Airbnb Experiences. Cubans want USD and work hard to give you a good experience. Book them. 
• Phone. Verizon and AT&T will charge a ridiculous daily rate. Turn off your cellular connection. WiFi is not reliable. I got a SIM card (at the airport) and the data was great. Or don’t expect to use your phone. 
• Reason for Travel. It is illegal for Americans to support the government so you can only go “in support of the Cuban people”. There is talk about needing an itinerary but no one asked for it during my trip. 
• Taxis. Taxis are pretty reasonable and easy to grab. I got the number of a driver I met and contacted him for rides. 
• WhatsApp. Everyone uses it. 

In the morning of my last day I had breakfast with the ladies at the resteraunt below our casa. Three more flights (one with a surprising upgrade to first class!) returned me to California after fifteen hours of airports and planes. 

It was such a great week! 

My Polarsteps map. 



Stats:

• Flights: Six (6)
• Flight miles: 5,650
• Miles walked: 26.25 (4.06/day)
• Countries: Two (2) - one new which makes 28
• Pageviews: 255,014

If you have been thinking about going to Cuba, do it!

Safe travels, my friends. 

Rae Ann

Cuba Day Five

Today we did another Airbnb experience with Alejandro. He took us to a protected region about forty minutes east of Havana. Wow. It was beautiful. 

Along the drive we saw a community Cuba built to house and treat victims of the Chernobyl disaster. Cuba has done some really great things for others. 

We arrived near a river that flowed to the sea and we had to walk across that water to get to our hiking path. Some of us were anxious about drowning, others were anxious about making sure they had their phone for photos. I’ll let you decide who was who. 

It was a fairly easy hike to where we would snorkel. It was clear and we saw lots of sea life in the reef. 

After our return hike we walked to a home, in the country, for lunch. The food was fabulous and the hosts were so friendly. 

Our tour guide (left) was a doctor and our driver (right) was a lawyer. All Cubans make roughly the same amount of money from government jobs (pretty much all of their work because…communism) which equates to around $33 per month. They love USD since it has more value and those dollars come from tourists so many find side-gigs in the industry. 



Let’s talk about money and the Cuban peso (CUP). American credit cards do not work in Cuba so you have to bring cash. It is stressful preparing a budget when you are not sure how much things will cost. 

The CUP has very little value so Cubans want USD. You can exchange USD for CUP at the government rate of 110 ($10 = 0.09 CUP) or find someone to illegally exchange at a higher rate (from 150 to 170). CUP is accepted at government places and USD at private businesses. But how do you know which is which and how much to convert? You don’t. It is a constant game of “do I have enough money left” and “do I need to exchange more”. Thankfully we all worked together to maximize our exchange rates and make sure we didn’t leave Havana with CUP as it is useless in the US. 

When I was at the gate Paradis texted “Parker and I forgot to ask if you could get any Cuban currency but it looks like you fly out this morning!” So I “did a deal” at the airport. 

We ended the day with our tour group having dinner and going to the Buena Vista Social Club, which pays homage to the original club that was a blacks-only members-only club where Cuban music exploded. 

We returned to our casa, which had a Restaurant  below, to have pizza waiting for us thanks to the lovely Massiel who worked there. Did I say Cubans are lovely people?