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!
Two years ago, we were celebrating Christmas in Germany and Austria. While we were in Vienna, Austria, we ate the oh so famous cakes everywhere we went. Cafe Demel was one of our favorite places to visit and was worth the wait that we had to make our purchases.
This past weekend, we had a little bonus visit with my sister, niece, and nephew. We knew they were coming in town for a wedding so my mom planned our big Thanksgiving dinner for the day we were spending together. After we were finished stuffing ourselves with turkey, sweet potatoes, and all that other Thanksgiving goodness, it was time for dessert. My sister surprised me with my very own Esterhazytorte!
When I took that first bite, I was quickly transported back to that small restaurant whose name I can’t remember now where my husband and I sat in a dark corner indulging in cakes and wines. We had left the kids with my dad and stepmom and enjoyed a few hours out on our own. After trying several slices of cake, we decided that our favorite was Esterhazytorte.
My sister has been perfecting her baking skills. I think that she has a very bright future of cake and pastry making! What do you think?
Here is my Esterhazytorte from Vienna:
Esterhazytorte is the black and white cake.
Here is the Esterhazytorte that Marissa made for me:
Pretty darn close, don’t you think? And it was delicious! She did a beautiful job replicating a cake that she has never even tasted.
I am dreaming of that trip to Vienna two years ago. I am dreaming of other moments like this…moments where we can relive trips that we take and the impact that they made on us…impacts as minor as Viennese cakes and as major as a sister who saved an email with a link to a recipe that you jokingly sent her asking if she could ever make one and that same sister that spent all day (and it actually took all day long) trying to replicate that Viennese cake that you loved so much on a trip that occurred two years ago.
Stop by Mother of All Tripsto see what everyone else is dreaming about today during Mondays are for Dreaming. Mara is dreaming about one of my favorite places-the Biltmore Estate! Also, please visit Wanderfood Wednesday over at Wanderlust and Lipstick.
If you have a moment, stop by our craft blog, Threaded Together, where Marissashares many of her cake decorating strategies. She also shares them on her Facebook Page, Decorated Decadance.
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!
If you are stopping by from the Southern Living Mama Blogger of the Week post, I appreciate your visit! Stop by my welcome message to see some of my favorite Southern posts!
I love to find television and film locations when we travel. Any film. Any television show.
There I said it.
Not only do I love to find television and film locations when we travel, but I photograph them.
And I film them.
I have stood on the hill in San Francisco where the Full House family has a picnic in the opening credits. I did a little jig and sang a little I am 16 going on 17 in front of the Von Trap Gazebo in Austria (although it was not in its original location…this did sadden me!). I have peered into Hell’s Half Acre where part of Starship Troopers was filmed. I visited the cemetary in New Orleans where Double Jeopardy was filmed and you know I totally looked for the original Real World New Orleans house! And speaking of MTV, in my younger years I even visited the Panama City Beach spring break location…during spring break (though I am a little ashamed to admit that one).
We happily took our children through each scene of Night at the Museum Smithsonian while in DC. We saw the stage on the Riverwalk in San Antonio where Miss Congeniality was filmed. After reading Banner in the Sky and watching its movie counterpart, Third Man on the Mountain, Zermatt, Switzerland went to the top of my must see list. We loved visiting the city and the Matterhorn.
My husband and I stood quietly in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock where the actual and filmed event occured in Valkyrie.
When I first found out that TBEX11 is going to be in Vancouver, my first thoughts were about how I could make it a family trip and then how to get my husband to tour all Twilight locations (hey…I am an English teacher…I am allowed to like the books with no shame!). When we head to Hawaii in October, I fully intend to locate various film locations from the Lost and Magnum PI series.
Today though, I am dreaming of heading to the sleepy town of Seaside where parts of the Truman Show with Jim Carey was filmed. We have lived an hour and a half away from Seaside for years and the most we have done is drive through it. In the next few weeks, I would love to take a little trip to Seaside and spend the day wandering in and out of the airstream food vendors, spot the Truman Show house, and sit in the snow white sand. We tried to go yesterday but the rain thwarted our plans. Hopefully we will make it before school starts back up.
Don’t worry. I will take pictures of Truman’s home for you!
Stop by Mother of All Trips to see what other travelers are dreaming of today!
Today I am dreaming about appreciating what I have in front of me in my own hometown. This post was inspired by a recent post at Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish. Lucia posted a picture of her holding some of the teeny tiny shells that she found on an Italian beach. That picture called to me.
As I looked at those beautiful shells, I thought about all the times that we decided that we were too tired, too lazy, or too preoccupied to head out to the beach. I thought about all the times we walked right over the perfect shells and sand dollars as we tried to get a good spot on the beach. We love to travel (obviously!!! and we spend lots of time planning our trips and dreaming about the far away places that we want to visit. We do a pretty good job as a family to explore our hometown and surrounding areas, but we often forget to revisit some of our favorites.
Oil is beginning to wash ashore. I am so glad that last weekend, despite the pouring rain, we decided to head to the beach. We wiggled our toes in the sand (don’t be too jealous of the Florida flip flop tan!).
We ran around the sand soaking in the snow white color.
We stared at the rows of news trucks.
And of course, we hunted for shells. And of course I had to take that picture!
We have a couple of trips planned for this summer, but for now I am appreciating what I already have right in front of me. Thanks, Lucia.
Now that my kids are old enough to enjoy swimming but are still young enough to fear nothing (well, just about!), I would like to take a long weekend trip to Homosassa Springs to camp and swim with the manatees. These gigantic sea cows lumber around the river and it is something that I would really like to see.
What better place to camp than a place called Manatee Springs State Park! The Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is another state park where you can view the manatees from their observation areas. Even if we decide to skip the swim with the manatee tours, we can still support our state parks and see the manatees.
and we spend lots of time planning our trips and dreaming about the far away places that we want to visit. We do a pretty good job as a family to explore our hometown and surrounding areas, but we often forget to revisit some of our favorites. 
