travel – kristilynk

Spring for a day

My daughter, Kiah, got some news that the wildflowers at Bartlett Lake were wild flowering! We made plans to leave at 6am to start our field trip, it was Feb 28th and while the rest of the world was unburying itself from snow, we were looking at temps in mid 90’s.

The drive from the west side is about an hour and a half, we snacked on beef sticks and engird drinks along the way. Somehow we missed the store that sold the park passes but luckily there was a kiosk on the side of the road close to the entrance. The cost for a day pass at that kiosk is 12 dollars for 1 car but at a store front they are 8 dollars.

After we parked, we were on the hunt for our trail – which I found using All Trails – it is a great app but the app is only as good as the user. I am not that great with maps, I could not find it anywhere so we improvised and just picked another trail.

This was a desert stroll, not a hike. We were on a mission to find these spectacular wild flowers! The actual Bartlett Reservoir trail is 4.5 miles but we only did an easy, light trail round trip was only 2.5 miles and only a 387 foot elevation gain.

The views were amazing but notice anything? Yea, I noticed too…no wild flowers to be found. Most specifically, we were looking for the poppies.

Along the way, we passed a couple of people walking their dog and also trying to wildflower hunting. They had an extra piece of cardboard, in the shape of a flower vase, it had holes so they could poke the stems of the flowers in it – super cute and they gave one to Kiah.

Eventually, we did run in to a teensy tiny display.

Moving right along, because you know..not much to see here. The trail led us to the “beach” where we took a moment to enjoy the sound of the water moving back and forth, there was a breeze that was perfect.

It wasn’t long before we started the walk back to the car

More flowers along the way and of course some fluffy cactus. The ride home was uneventful, thought about stopping for breakfast but ended up waiting until we got home ~ Alex, Kiah’s husband (that still sounds so weird LOL, my daughter has a husband..) brought us some egg bites and iced coffees instead.

It was a great ending to a beautiful morning.

Feb 2026 NL, Part 6

In my last posting, I was having difficulties adding pictures and videos. I figured out that I had used the free 3 GB’s and if I wanted to continue this blog, I needed to upgrade.

I’m back so that mean I fell for the trap and I am now a paying member of this society. pshhttt.

So, we left off in Baarn at Kasteel Groeneveld. After wandering the grounds, we took a stroll on the inside

I read somewhere this Castle has the largest collection of copper ware in the Netherlands – I did not see it but next time I will ask because that would have been neat to see.

After a quick walkthrough, we all piled in the Countryman Mini Cooper. All five of us. Esther, Yvonne in the front, Jason, Brian and Shannon in the back seat and me…in the hatchback.

Hind sight, I should have asked someone to take my picture because you just cannot get the gist of it. It was fun and thankfully a quick ride back to Esthers house. We dropped off Oma (Yvonne) and headed back to downtown Utrecht so we could catch our tour of the DOMunder.

DOMunder is a subterranean tour that explores over 2000 year of history. From Roman times to medieval times and post. The destruction is all down there, underground. Before you get to the real cool stuff, the guide talks to us about the significance of what we are about to experience. The guide spoke in Dutch so that was fun trying to piece together what he was saying. My Dutch is extremely limited, like first grade level limited. When that is done, they give you a flashlight and some headphones so you can flash the light on the pieces and get a narrative in your ears of what you’re looking at.

That is all the photos I have and since today is March and this happened a month ago I don’t remember what we did after. Probably went to eat, packed up and then off to sleep because we had a long trip a head of us the next day!

I can’t wait to go back.

Feb 2026 NL, Part 5

We started the day at he market, one last time, Jason really loves the herring! I did not partake this go round but I did peep some pretty pretty mushrooms

After the market, we took a short walk down one of the many side streets from the market plain. It was time for a real breakfast, well that was the idea but I ended up ordering a salmon salad. Way off base but super delicious.

This was our view while we waited for foods. Sadly I do not remember the name of the place.

After brunch, I guess I’ll call it, We hoofed it back to the cave to wait for our ride. Esther came to pick us up – we all 5 piled into a Mini Cooper Countrymen – the driver was only about 40 minutes – we walked around Soest, the childhood home of Jason and Shannon. It was neat to see their faces light up and all the fun memories bubbling up.

Shit picture but this was in the right behind their old house, I thought I had a pic of them in the front of their house but I think Brian took that one and not me.

Cute little pond that in the coldest of winters will freeze up and they could ice skate, right behind their house. So cool.

We popped back into the car and headed over to the Castle! Kasteel Groeneveld is in Baarn, NL. Esther and her family lived at this castle for 6 years in while growing up. I can’t even imagine, ME: Oh yes, friends, just droppedp me off at my house. FRIEND, uhmm, yea OK. You guys, this was her literal home. Built in 1710 as an example of a typical country home.

Esther dropped us off and headed back to her house to pickup Oma (Jason & Shannons mom). We met at the cafe at the Castle and had some Frites and Coffees. Our time was pretty limited because we had to be back to Utrecht for our tour of the DOMunder. More on that later. Here are some pretty pics of the Castle outside for you to enjoy.

I wonder what the landscape looked like before 1768, did it not have water around it? or did they need a boat to get to their door

Stay tuned for part 6, I ran out of space on this post. I did not know that was a thing but here I am. No more space. booo.

Feb 26 NL part 4

Not every day can be perfect when traveling with a group.

This morning started out a little rough, some schedule confusion led to a wee bit of one or two of us melting down. The plan veered off course but it’s fine, we regrouped and will hit the Castle tomorrow.

So, we relaxed for a bit then took a walk about.

Back to the apartment for more relaxing and a little cleanup. Jason’s mom & a few long time family friends were set to meet us at the air bnb at 3pm.

They arrived on time, we sat, had coffee and talked until it was time to start walking to the rondvaart (canal cruise) launch.

Back on land, we hoofed it up the stairs to street level and went to the OUDAEN for tea, beers, wine and tapas.

The Oudaen, was built in 1280 and is now a cafe, restaurant, brewery and hall rental. 746 years old 🤯

We don’t have these options at our establishments at home. mint and hot water, ginger and hot water and earl grey.

Goodbyes were said and we headed back to the apartment.

More bread and cheese then off to sleep!

Only one more full day left. I’m so glad we decided to stick to Utrecht and not try to cram too much in to one week.

Feb 26 part 3 NL

So many hours in the bed last, my sleep score was 73 even though I woke up many times. I did feel good enough to start my day at the gym.

Sure, after a hard leg work out go ahead and try your luck with these stairs.

Not only did I survive but I didn’t even break anything.

So I headed back to the apartment to shower so we could all start our day of wandering.

First, coffee. At the bagels & beans. And while I was waiting for my coffee I ran to the media markt so I could get a new SD card, the one I brought only was 8GB

Off to the market for some fresh herring and stroopwafels!

So, the flavor was delicious but I do not like the texture of the herring. If I were to order this again I would have to asked for more pickles.

Walked over to the Dom Kerk again to try to book a tour of the tower and the basement of the tower. Sadly, they were sold out. This week is some kind of off week for the schools so they booked up quickly.

More walking around, went to some gift shops, ate some frite and krokette of course.

And that’s a wrap. Chill day.

Tot ziens! ✌️

Feb 2026 NL part 2

Another sleepless night, my watch told me my sleep score was 53 last night. Needless to say, I did not get out of bed until almost 9am.

No gym today. 😊 I thought we were going to hike up the Dom Tower but… that did not happen. We did tour through the Dom Kerk and its courtyard. It was beautiful. So crazy to think how long this has been standing.

On the way over we spotted these bikes that were just pulled out of the canal!

Apparently, they pull out about 3000 bikes from the canals in Utrecht every year. What are you doing, people lol 😂

Coming up on the Dom Tower made me audibly gasp. It’s enormous, intricate and I was in awe.

We spent about an hour in the church part. Heads up, if you have to use the restroom, it costs .70 euro so make sure you bring some coins 😅

The cost to get in to the church is a donation n a denomination of your choice.

Back outside, we took a left to check out the courtyard. Pretty sweet architecture here too.

With that we were done. I was ready but not ready to tackle the tower and all 465 steps however my traveling partners do not seem too into. So we walked back to the apartment where we brainstormed dinner ideas.

At 4pm. Like true US residents in their 50’s. 😂

We were the only ones in the restaurant, we walked in and they were cleaning. Specifically, mopping the floors. A black cat with white spots ran past us while I asked if they could seat the four of us for dinner.

He looked confused and then asked someone if it was ok. We must have passed the test because we were seated .

The… best… food I have had this trip.

The cuisine is Balkan and i am a new fan.

What I love about dining in Holland (I think it also true for other EU countries) is that they seat you, take your order, feed you, then leave you along until you ask for the check.

That said, we stayed a while to let our food settle, then you walked back to the apartment. We all just chilled for a while and then Shannon and Brian went out to a bar, Jason and I hung back not really feeling the bar scene.

I am looking forward to an early night of sleep!

February 2026 NL part 1

Friday the 13th, Thursday was galentines with the friends. There were 5 of us,

We each brought 4 gift bags of items we each like and use daily. It’s a cool theme that introduces our friends with things we love and can’t “love without”.

There was a full on delicious spread of food and drinks. Amy made a tasty and gorgeous charcuterie boards with all the meats and cheeses and grapes. Tracy brought cookies and chocolate covered strawberries, Jessica (?) brought carprese salad and toasted baguette. Amy also made a non-alcoholic sangria. So good! Cherry juice, sprite, lemon and limes, I added a splash of seltzer water and it was bomb.

We opened and shared gifts, snacked, talked and watched Pitch Perfect. I didn’t get to finish because I wanted to leave early to make sure I had all of my stuff together and ready for our flight to the Holland the next morning!!

I had packed the majority of my bags a couple of days before hand, after all, in Arizona the weather has been in the 80’s I did not need anything i was taking with me. I picked up around the house a bit then went to bed. I did not sleep much. Alarm was set for 4am, I woke up but did not get out of bed, just watched some TV for an hour.

Shannon and Brian came to our place, uber doober picked us up super early but it was fine, we had it in our heads this whole day is only for travel. 👎🏼

First flight to Salt Lake City.

The second leg of the flight, from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, was lonnnggg. 9 hours and 35 minutes. I watched 2 movies and flip flopped in my seat uncomfortably. I won’t bore you with too much detail here, most of you know how it feels to fly coach.

Passports stamped, luggage retrieved we headed to arrivals where we met our family friends, the sun and a burst of ice cold wind!! It was enough to give us the energy we needed to wake up after a long flight.

The 30 minute drive to their house went by fast enough, I wasn’t paying attention to anything outside because I can’t even tell you what I thought about the landscape.

At the house, we had coffee, pastries and caught up on the little things.

It was gezellig ☺️

After a couple of hours it was time for us to head to the train station. Just a five minute walk from the house.

Another 30 minute ride to Utrecht we go!

We hoofed it to the air bnb which was not the easiest to find for us in our current mental state of exhaustion. But we did it! side note, when I say we I meant my 3 companions, between the 3 of them, they figured it out. I’m shit with a map.

Down a steep flight of stairs to canal level we found our home for the week.

From floor to ceiling the little cave is 7 feet tall. I just measured it with my phone.

A quick walk to the grocery store and we had dinner.

Too lazy to cook, too tired to go out to eat, we had boterham, kaas and brood.

Another walk about because…. Sneeuw!!!

Back at the air bnb we hung out and tried to get sleepy… it took forever. 1130pm, and then I woke up every hour until 2am then sleep until 5am and then sleep until 745.

Coffee time! Took some me time and went to the gym next door. 15 euro for a day pass. Super cute and functional space.

The place was an amazing maze with multiple levels. Side note, their weights are in Kilos so, to me, when I was lifting them it looked like I was lifting soooo much weight 🤗

After gym.. shower time then lunch

We took a little walk around the canal and found a not so busy kitchen & bar called, Quignon. Of course I had krokette and frite .

Snarf, snarf, snarf, we ate, we paid, we left.

Stopped at some shops where I bought nothing 😌

Back to the grocery store for foods for the apartment, then a luxurious nap!

I don’t know if I slept for one hour or two but I do know I needed it and I feel like I need more. This jet lag is real.

Grand Canyon – part one

The day started at 345am. I ate a boiled egg and a banana. Built my pocket burritos out of precooked, shredded chicken and avocado smashed up. Next up, filling hydration packs. I had brought one 2 liter and one 3 liter bladder bag plus 2 12 oz collapsible water bottles for my from ouches on my day pack. The collapsible bottles I filled with water and electrolytes, I use LMNT sooooo salty.

Time to go! We left the hotel a little after 430am. I called the taxi on the way to the visitor center, packing lot 4, so they could scoop us up to take us the south Kaibab trail. The shuttle service doesn’t start until 6am at this time of year and we wanted to start the hike earlier to make sure we were out of the canyon by 2pm. Rain was predicted to roll in around that time.

When I called the taxi they actually told me the taxis were so busy they would need to call me back in an hour! This was 430 in the morning 🤯

At the parking lot we waited, got out of the car and actually were a me to sneak on to someone else’s taxi ride. Score! From the parking lot, south kaibab trail is 2 miles so we were there in no time.

My second time to the Grand Canyon. 1st time going IN the GC.

I was a little nervous going in but once we got going my confidence soared. I thought, I got this. The downhill is pretty steep, and it’s a long way down. I would recommend prepping with a LOT of front lunges.

From Kaibab, we headed west to the Tonto Trail

The farther west we went it was cool to see green lush tree lines, you know what that means! Water! 😍

This is around the time I realized… I forgot my pocket burritos!! Not good.

Super rookie move. Remember, I had only eaten one boiled egg and a banana. Luckily my hiking crew member was a hero and thoughtful and brought 2 bagels, so I gratefully scarfed it down.

Just after this rare shade finding, there was a little creek I didn’t take any pictures of because there were too many people rest here and I wanted to keep trekking. I did dip a plastic sandwich bag in the creek to fill it up with water to soak my neck cooler in for 30 minutes, it was getting hot .

There was very little shade in this trail. Having a hat is very important. Anytime I found shade it felt so great to take the hat off to let my brain breath.

I’m really not a fan of hats, glasses or things – like neck coolers – around my neck. I wore them when needed but as soon as I could those items were OFF.

Around this time we stopped and I collapsed my trekking poles. I like to have my hands free and I was tired of carrying them.

The old water line busted so they just replaced it. I think the construction is fairly new. I really hope they bury the line or cover it with something more aesthetically pleasing because this is not what I want to see.

Off to Havasupai Gardens

Another stop around here to sunblock and dip the neck cooler in the stream again.

Next up! Off to bright angel.

But first, I met Phantom, he’s a canyon mule and so sweet

Not gonna lie. I was scared. I’d never met a mule

We LUCKED out. Just before the over 3500 foot ascent, the clouds starting rolling in so the sun was GONE! I could not have been more thankful.

I ate an RX bar, 200 calories.

It didn’t last long.

This is about where I started to question my judgement. I was losing steam and fast.

Pitt stop for a peanut butter and jelly snack. Only 170 calories. Up up we go.

This was – what they said to be 1.5 miles left of the trail. It was miserable.

Wow, I made it.

The walk to the shuttle was painful. The rise in the shuttle bus was amazing. It felt great to sit after 7 hours of walking.

Back at the car, we grabbed a fresh stash of clothes, socks, shoes and some body wipes to clean up before the ride home.

Pit stop in Flagstaff for a burger and fries and Diablo Burger. I had the Blake and it was sooooo good.

In 3 weeks we plan to hike the south rim to the north rim. Lessons I learned that will be applied to the next trip.

I must drink a shit ton of water the week before and especially the day before the 25 mile hike. I will need to pack way more calories for this next trip and NOT forget the pocket burritos. I’ll need to eat more frequently. I’m positive I can do the rim to rim. I know the hike up was so hard was because I did not fuel my body enough to make it and this made the ascent more difficult than it needed to be.

Until next time! Happy trails 😁

February 2024

Feeling a little off today. Disconnected may be a good descriptive word for my head space today. I’m not going to try to analyze it or fix it. Just recognizing the feeling and sitting with it for a moment.

Sitting with it, prompted me to stop scrolling through IG and start scrolling and remembering the past 4 months. Here’s my Feb.

Lilou, the cowGIRL corgi came to meet Mork before we went away to cabin in the woods for a weekend. They did great. Lilou is only 1year old so she is pretty rambunctious. Mork tolerated her, when he was done, he put her in check and she submitted. Thankfully, they were good together.

This was a bit after Mork escaped and we had to run around the mountain for 15 minutes playing catch me if you can. I did but oh my goodness! That boy was so happy to be running free, I captured him about 25 feet down a hill, picked him up and hiked him back up the hill. I think I died.

We stopped for coffee at the strawberry inn in the way home.

The weekend was super chill, we played games, listened to music, walked the dogs and talked.

Back home and the rest of the month consisted of work, walking Mork & trying to stick to the training plan for the 1/2 marathon in May. I was in track around this time.

Stay tuned for more possible updates 😅

PNW Summer II

Hoi! I’m back, earlier than even I thought. I think I am a bit more motivated to get the Oregon trip documented because tomorrow I am headed to Denver for a short trip. I am hoping getting this in the books will help me transition into posting on the Denver trip. Any hoosier… Here are some of my favorite pieces of eye candy from a day or two along the coast of Oregon.

Thors Well just outside of Yachats is a hole in the rocks in along the shoreline. It used to be a sea cave but it collapsed and now, during high tide, the water drifts in spouts with awesome splashes and then pulls back out to sea. The walk from the parking lot along the 101 was easy until I got to the slippery volcanic rock where I had to be careful not to slip and crack my skull. Also there are tide pool creatures laying about so I had also pay mind not to squash them. Its pretty epic and I could have sat there for hours watching, it never got old and the funny thing is that every time..I mean, every time the splash came we (there was quite a crowd) all ooooooo’d and awwwwww’d like we had never seen it before.

Next up, the obligatory Mo’s stop. Not necessarily next as in after Thor’s Well we went to Mo’s because I am pretty sure it didn’t happen in this order. Next up as in this was the next photo amongst the photo dump. Fresh seafood so of course no complaints. Well, one complaint. They did not even have fresh oysters. What was going on?

This lighthouse sits high up on a headland between Florence and Yachats. It sure was windy up there. I was disappointed it was not opened for me to climb around in but still cool, I do love a lighthouse. 205 feet below was this