The sun is trying to peak out from behind the clouds but that pesky wind and rain has been persistent. Mr. Sun is not having much luck. The temperatures have warmed up a little bit but are showing no signs of creeping any higher. I know I have no room to complain about temperatures that range from the 20s to the 40s but we live on the Gulf Coast. We just are not accustomed to temperatures like that for more than a few weeks at a time. Our houses aren’t insulated for that freezing weather, our coats are not heavy enough, and we can’t find the darn mittens and scarves in the closet. Don’t even get me started on my shoes. My poor flip flops are aquiring a very tall layer of dust as I constantly rotate the only two pairs of closed toed shoes I own.
This is why I am dreaming of my spring break trip already even though it is still two months away (and may still very well be cold where we are going!). We will be packing up the car and making the eleven hour drive to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Not only will I be able to check off #3 (putting our toes back in the Atlantic Ocean) on my 33 Things to Do the Year I Turn 33 list, but I am excited to explore a part of the South that I have not been able to explore yet.
Courtesy of alan2onion at Flickr.com
South Carolina makes me think of sprawling porches, rocking chairs and all the sweet tea you can drink. It makes me think of BBQ sandwiches, boardwalks with carnival rides and ice cream shops, and collecting seashells on the beach as the sun rises.
We will be visiting Holiday Inn Vacation Club’s South Beach Resort courtesy of the Holiday Inn Vacation Club. I am looking forward to taking advantage of what the resort as to offer including their pools and that beautiful boardwalk out to the beach. I can’t wait to see my children’s reaction when they walk out on the that sand and see how different it is from our powdery white beach. I am excited for the car ride because much of the ride will be a route we have never taken before.
But most importantly? I am looking forward to the three days of family time…you know…that Forced Family Fun?!
Have you been to Myrtle Beach? Do you have any suggestions for us? We want to hear about your favorite restaurants and activities!
Stop by Mother of all Trips to see what everyone else is dreaming about today!
Spring Training is just a few weeks away. Every year we say we are going to hop in the car for the 6-8 hour drive where we will find the 15 Grapefruit League spring training spots dotted all over central and south Florida but every year something comes up and we decide to wait.
I like the idea of spring training. I imagine that it is a way to see your favorite players in a more laid back (and less expensive) atmosphere and still including hot dogs, peanuts, team colors, and competition.
Where should we go? Should we head to Orlando where we can see the Atlanta Braves, the Houston Astros and Mickey Mouse? Or should we drive down the coast and stop in the Tampa area where we can see the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and the Toronto Blue Jays? There are so many other teams in so many beautiful cities that have a lot to offer. How do we decide?
Maybe this will be the year we make it to a spring training game!
Stop by Mara’s at Mother of all Trips to see what everyone else is dreaming about!
33…this is not a grand birthday. Not like 18, 21, or 30 were! My husband is turning 35 this year. Funny thing about 35…I remember when my parents turned 35! I am not afraid of getting older or regretting not doing something in my life, but I am definitely settling in to a time in my life where I realize that I need to be living in the now and not constantly looking for the next best thing…the next best job, the next best house, the next best anything. At the same time, I still have many goals and expectations for myself and of course they include lots of travel!
I was thinking about how this year is going to be a fun year in travel. Even though we don’t have a lot of specific trips planned, we do plan to travel a lot! My youngest is reaching that age where she is beginning to remember lots of stuff that we do and is enjoying traveling and “adventures” as much as the rest of the family.
That is why I decided to start a list of things I wanted to do this year. I have a “bucket list” in my head, but this is just what I would like to accomplish this year! Who knows if I will finish everything on this list but I am going to certainly try!
1. See the Northern Lights.
2. Watch my kids learn how to ski.
3. Put our toes back in the Atlantic Ocean.
4. Visit some Florida destinations like Anna Maria Island and Sanibel that we have skipped even though we live here!
5. Put more stamps on our Florida State Park Passport.
6. Go on a Girl’s Weekend to New York City.
7. Spend more time on Pensacola Beach.
8. Head back to New Orleans for some beignets to celebrate our anniversary.
9. Take the kids to Hawaii next summer…or maybe not. Either way, Daddy J and I want to return!
10. Try five new foods that I previously was scared to try.
11. Be confident and anxiety free about roadtripping on my own with both kids, which I will be doing in June.
12. Try five new parks in Pensacola that we haven’t been to yet because they are either too far away or we just stick to the same old parks.
13. Head back to all of the amazing German Christmas Markets and visit a few new ones.
14. Renew my son’s passport!!! Ack! We let the passport expire and we need to get it taken care of soon!
15. Visit a few cities that are within a day’s drive but we always decide to go somewhere else. They include:
16. Huntsville, Alabama to see the Space Center and caves (thanks to @theqfamily!)
17. Atlanta, GA
18. Go camping at least three times at new campsites.
19. Take a day trip to Orange Beach to ride the Ferris Wheel.
20. Wander the shops and restaurants of Fairhope, Alabama.
21. See the Christmas lights at Bellingrath Gardens this year (last year I broke my foot right before we were going to go).
22. Continue to work on my book and actually get some entries finished.
23. Grow my Pensacola with Kids website and continue to find new and inexpensive activities.
24. Create an editorial calendar for Two Kids and a Map and actually stick to it.
25. Get published in a magazine (online or print) and continue to write guest posts.
26. Visit Verona, Italy.
27. Head to Denver for an extended weekend if the timing works out.
28. Take a ride on an ice breaker.
29. Take the kids to Disneyworld and visit Harry Potter at Universal Orlando for the weekend.
30. Accompany the husband on a business trip!
31. Visit Legoland Florida when it opens.
32. Ride a gondola in Venice.
33. Savor the moment but remember to take more pictures!
What are you dreaming about this week? Stop by Mara at Mother of All Trips and read about fulfilling her own dreams and see other Monday dreams!
**Funny for the day…I just wrote this post titled 32 Things…then I remembered that I was turning 33!
I have had a hard time going through my Hawaii pictures since we got home at the beginning of November. I think it is just because I miss it so much. Every time we leave a place we have visited, we always say things like “wow…we could definitely live here” or “I can’t wait to come back”. But Oahu…with its 70′s style buildings, laid back North Shore where we spent a lot of our time, hiking trails, waterfalls, island music…it got inside of us and hasn’t left. It was the first time that we really didn’t want to get on the plane to come home. I truly believe that if we had our kids with us, we would have hired someone to pack up our house, ship our stuff and we would still be sitting on that island! My husband has been listening to a local Oahu radio station on the computer, I have been comparing every meal out with the meals we had on the island and we are both trying to figure out how to get back there as soon as possible.
When a friend asked me what my favorite activity was, I told her that trip was so amazing that it was hard to pick a favorite activity. If I had to pick one, I think I would choose hiking Manoa Falls. It wasn’t just the hike, though. Sure, it was an amazing hike through a rainforest and bamboo forest ending at a pool at the bottom of a beautiful waterfall. It was the quiet moment that my husband and I stole together. It was the feeling of being completely alone in this wild part of Hawaii when, in actuality, we were minutes away from Waikiki, a university, and many neighborhoods.
We went on a very rainy day. As we entered the hike area, we watched two or three small groups come out and they looked like they had just taken a shower fully clothed. It was pouring! We decided to come back another day and did a U-turn in the parking. We drove about three minutes back into Waikiki where the weather was beautiful and my husband talked me into trying the hike.
“Don’t worry, honey. The rain will go away soon. Look how beautiful it is right now!”
HA! It is moments like these that remind me why I love traveling so much…moments where I am talked into doing something I would never do at home…like hiking a mile and a half in a torrential downpour. We would most certainly have stayed at home and scheduled the outing for another day.
And so we hiked.
It was wet and peaceful and wild and rainy. It was beautiful and muddy and romantic all at the same time. Except for one small group of tourists and a few college students, we were completely on our own. We held hands as we wandered up the slopes and climbed the rocks. We snapped a few pictures and just enjoyed the quiet, magical moments together. That was on the way up to the waterfall.
On the way down to the car, after it had rained and rained, I was hoping that we wouldn’t have a “Romancing the Stone” moment. You know, the moment when Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas get caught in a mudslide?
Go to :50 seconds to see the Romancing the Stone mudslide!
Luckily, this hike ended without any complications or mudslides. When I dream about Hawaii, I remember this moment. I remember how wonderful it was to spend time with my husband of ten years and enjoy the quiet moments without the worry of housework, bills, or kids pulling on our shirts vying for our attention.
It was just him and me. In a rainforest.
Stop by Mara’s at Mother of All Trips to see what other are dreaming about. Stay tuned tomorrow for things to know before you hike Manoa Falls.
I broke my foot. Again. Five months after I broke the right foot, I broke my left. Seriously. I can’t make this stuff up.
Today, I am dreaming of the trip that I had to cancel because I broke my foot. Next weekend, we were supposed to head down to Anna Maria Island to visit and experience what it has to offer. I was so excited because we were going to be close enough to the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park so we were going to try to make a pit-stop on our way home. Weeki Wachee Springs State Park is home to mermaids.
That’s right folks, mermaids!
I have a mermaid loving four year old and I was so excited to surprise her with a trip to the mermaid show (luckily I didn’t tell her about it!). Weeki Wachee Springs State Park is one of those fabulous kitschy roadside attractions that has been able to remain open through the years. The mermaid show opened in 1947 and has had a fascinating history.
Until we can finally make the 8 hour drive to see the Mermaid show, we will have to be happy with the videos that can be found on You Tube!
Be sure to stop by Mara’s at Mother of All Trips for more Mondays are for Dreaming!
Yesterday my family and I put up our Christmas tree. As we were hanging each Christmas ornament, we remembered where we were when we got it. I can name every occasion that occurred and trip we took when we picked up each ornament. This is such a special time for us as a family. We put a fire in the fireplace, turn on some Christmas music and decorate the tree while we remember where each ornament came from.
As I hung the six or seven ornaments (I’ll admit…it is a problem!)that I picked up at Christmas markets in Europe on our 2008 trip, it made me think about all those booths getting ready to open up right now. We had so much fun wandering Christmas Markets in Vienna, Innsbruck, Garmisch, Munich, and Salzburg. I couldn’t get enough of them: the cheery bright lights, the marzipan in beautiful shapes lined up in rows, the Christmas music in different languages, and the pretzels bigger than my son’s head!
I am so very excited because just recently we decided that our next major trip is going to be to return to those Christmas markets in Europe (I am hoping for a side trip to Italy this time!) for Christmas 2011. We are excited to spend Christmas with my dad and stepmom again, jump in the snow and learn more about Germany. It is more than a year away, but I am going to try to be patient!
Stop by Mara’s at Mother of All Trips to see what other people are dreaming about on this Monday!
We visited the Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park while we were on Oahu. The Byodo-In Temple was established to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the first Japanese immigration to Hawaii. It is a replica of a 950 year old temple in Uji, Japan.
As we walked the grounds of the temple, we felt a sense of peace and tranquility despite the fact that a tour bus had just unloaded its group. I wandered around looking at the red and yellow of the temple and the gardens with their Koi fish and was instantly transported back to a summer (or was it Christmas, mom?) around my 8th grade year when I traveled with my mom and my sister to meet my dad in Okinawa, where he was stationed for a year unaccompanied. I don’t remember too much about the trip except for the jewelry shopping (I still have several pieces still even today), the toilets that were so different from anything I had ever seen and the noodle dishes (which was about the only thing I would eat while we were there).
A friend of mine recently moved to Japan for work and following her pictures on Facebook has brought out a rather large green monster of jealousy! My husband and I have been talking about how great a trip to Japan would be but with four plane tickets to purchase and other travel plans it just isn’t in the cards for the next few years. Until then, I will look at the pictures from the Byodo-In Temple and continue to dream.
The Byodo-In Temple is open for visits from 9am to 5pm. There is a small admission fee of $3 per person or $1 per child. It is located at 47-200 Kahekili Highway in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
Stop by Mara’s at Mother of All Trips to see what other travelers are dreaming about for Monday Dreaming!
Did you know that the annual monarch migration south to Mexico is happening right now? By instinct, monarch butterflies fly south (sometimes as far as 2,500 miles) to Mexico every year reversing the path that their ancestors took the spring before. The monarchs arrive in Mexico sometime in November and then sometime in March they make their trip back up north to the United States and Canada.
Every year, usually sometime in mid October, these amazing butterflies make their way through Navarre, Florida which is neighboring city. We will see these beautiful butterflies around the city for several days. The bulk of the butterflies came through about a week or so ago but we are still seeing them around. In celebration of this journey, the Panhandle Butterfly House puts on a great festival called Monarch Madness.
The Panhandle Butterfly House is an educational outdoor science center and vivarium that is home to many beautiful butterflies. You can visit the butterfly house in the summer months or for Monarch Madness. During Monarch Madness, the Panhandle Butterfly House puts on a great festival. There was a bounce house, a craft area, and the great park it is located next to for lots of playtime. But the best part of the butterfly festival for my daughter? That was becoming a young lepidopterist or butterfly observer.
There were stations set up where the children could learn more about butterflies. They started in one area and worked their way to each station collecting stamps along the way. Each station was a stage in the butterfly’s life.
Monarch caterpillar
Once they completed their booklet and had all the stamps, the children were able to participate in a butterfly tagging. They also got to release a butterfly.
For my Monday Dream, I am dreaming about the journey that these little guys get to make. For more information, children’s activities or to find out how you can participate in the migration, visit Monarch Butterfly Journey North. You can also see a map of where the monarchs have been spotted this season.
Sometimes, the vacations that we dream of are not always the vacations we get. Things go wrong. Kids pitch fits in front of thousands of tourists in the middle of the city square. You thought that your spouse put the diapers in the diaper bag and he/she thinks you put the diapers in the diaper bag…of course, you find out at the worst time that neither of you put them in the bag! The picture on the website doesn’t look like the room you are standing in. The attraction that your kids are thrilled to see happens to be closed for remodeling but you forgot to check on the website. We have all been there.
For several weeks leading up to my trip to Asheville, North Carolina, the number one thing I was looking forward to was a visit to an apple orchard where we could pick our own apples off the tree! I hadn’t been apple picking in years (like 15 years). We tried to go last year when we were at Homestead Farm in Poolesville, MD but we got rained out. I did several web searches to find apple orchards and I sent messages out on Twitter to get reviews for the best orchard farms. This was a well-researched trip. What I didn’t expect when we arrived at the perfect apple orchard (perfect because it was right off the highway we take out of town, down the street from the Carl Sandburg home which I wanted to visit as well, and on top of a mountain so it would offer amazing views), was this:
That is an apple tree in case you couldn’t tell. That was pretty much all we could see of the apple trees. I was only about ten feet away from the tree when I took that picture. That is how close I needed to get before I could actually see the tree. Those beautiful vistas the website claims? Well, I believe they are there but we didn’t get to see them. The morning fog was so thick that we couldn’t see anything on our drive up to Sky Top Orchard.
We reached Sky Top Orchard and at first glance we thought it was closed. We got out of the car and realized that it was not closed but we were the only customers there for awhile. Even though we decided not to brave the weather and pick apples, we wandered around the orchard for awhile just enjoying the morning walk in the fog. Once we decided that the scarecrow was in fact a scarecrow and not a real person, we headed back into the store area to pick some apples…from the table. We also picked up apple cider (frozen for the long car ride home!) and a caramel apple to share during a stop.
There are tables and tables of so many different kinds of apples so you don’t have to pick your own if you don’t want. These fresh apples were so delicious. We just used the last few to make caramel apples this morning.
There are also lots of pumpkins for sale. We spent time digging through a gigantic bin of little orange pumpkins. All were one dollar and all looked exactly the same but Little S wanted to find the perfect ones. We found the perfect ones!
Today, I am dreaming about those vacation moments that don’t always go as dreamed. Just because those moments don’t go exactly like I planned doesn’t mean that there are no redeeming qualities from the vacations. Even though we were so disappointed that we didn’t pick apples, we had such a great time sharing this mother daughter moment. Okay…I am not going to lie. I am also dreaming about picking our own apples from an orchard as great as this one but I guess I will have to tuck that dream away until next apple picking season.
If you are in the area and it is a sunny day, I recommend a stop at the Sky Top Orchard. The orchard has many activities besides apple picking: ride a tractor pulled hayride, hop behind wooden cut-outs for pictures, visit the barnyard animals, see cider and donuts made, and much more.
This morning I put my Big S on the bus for his first day of first grade! Little S has been wandering around the house since he left. She sat on his bed and played with his cars for a bit. Then she watched some TV (happily holding the remote which she nevers gets!). I was able to break up her gloom with her dance class. She misses her little play buddy already. On Friday, I said goodbye to summer so today I am dreaming of the weekend where we can explore more of our own little city and, once we have gotten back into a routine, plan a few daytrips and overnighters.
Don’t forget to drop by Mother of All Trips to see what others are dreaming about today!
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